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Next-Gen Games Will Fill Our New Consoles’ Hard Drives In No Time
The PlayStation 4’s internal hard drive is 500GB, and if you buy and start playing just two of its launch day first-person shooters this month, you may already be using more than a 10th of the drive. Welcome to a somewhat different era of console gaming. Above you’ll the see part of the back of…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 3, 2013 -
EA Wants You To Feel Like Their Games Are a Steal
Many years ago, Andrew Wilson, the new boss of Electronic Arts, met rap impresario Russell Simmons. The man behind Run DMC, LL Cool J and other classic hip-hop artists said something that stuck with Wilson. “[Simmons] said, listen, human beings have an inherent need to steal, built into our DNA,” Wilson told me. “I thought,…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 1, 2013 -
The Toughest Life Or Death Choice In The Gaming Universe
Many games in the previous generation gave us choices about who would live or who would die. This was, I dare say, the best one. In some games, like BioShock, we could do the math on a life or death choice and strip emotion out of it. Go with the most beneficial option for leveling…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 1, 2013 -
Nintendo Pulls 3DS Feature, Says Kids Were Sharing ‘Offensive Material’
Nintendo just turned off one of the online features of the 3DS, seemingly forever, deactivating the online support for its note-sharing SwapNote service on systems worldwide. The company did this, effective 10pm ET today, after saying SwapNote was “actively misused” to transmit “offensive material” among system users, including minors. SwapNote is a cute, free Nintendo-made…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 31, 2013 -
Ubisoft Kills Online Pass Program
Ubisoft is dropping its Uplay Passport online pass program for all future games. And it will effectively remove it from the just-released Assassin’s Creed IV by providing the passes for free to all ACIV gamers, whether they get the game new or used. The online pass program had required users of ACIV to input a…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 31, 2013 -
This Week In Video Game Hyper-Violence
Ever notice how violent video games are? Wonderful! Terrible! Your call, but hey, it’s a thing. So here at Kotaku, I figure, why not show just how extreme games get? Better than pretending it doesn’t exist or keeping it all hidden like we’re embarrassed, I say. Often violence in games is pretty fun. Not that…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 31, 2013 -
Do You Have What It Takes To Work For The Umbrella Corporation?
They just might be hiring over at the evil corporation featured in Resident Evil games. The comic strip writing/drawing duo of Cara Ellison and Elizabeth Simins thought you might like to apply. Follow Ellison’s writing on her blog Hard Consonant. She’s on Twitter, too,@carachan1. You can find more of Simins’ art, much of it about…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 31, 2013 -
A year ago, Superstorm Sandy ravaged the East Coast. It also knocked Kotaku offline, forcing us to publish exclusively on Tumblr for a while. Our hardships were nothing compared to what millions of others had to put up with. To those affected, we praise you for your strength. And to those who stuck with us…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 30, 2013 -
You’re Gonna Be Stuck With Your Old PSN Name On The PS4
You will not be able to change your PSN username on the PS4. Hopefully you like the one you have already on your PS3 or Vita. You’ve asked us this before. And we’ve asked them. Sorry. Ain’t happening. Sony confirmed this today in their massive PS4 FAQ. Is there a way to rename my Online…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 30, 2013 -
Confirmed: Call of Duty Ghosts at Lower Resolution on Xbox One
After a week of rumors and a day after we cited our own sources’ assertions, Activision is now confirming that, yes, indeed, Call of Duty: Ghosts will run in 720p resolution on Xbox One, 1080p on PlayStation 4. Sixty frames per second on both. Technically, the Xbox One will bump Ghosts up to 1080p. On…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 30, 2013 -
AC IV‘s Controversial, Online Singleplayer Features Make Game Easier
The fun, rich single-player campaignof Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is more enjoyable and less tedious if you play the game with an active online connection. Without a connection, multiple valuable features are not available. Curiously, the game’s publisher Ubisoft seems to be walling its online features off unless users activate an online pass, dubbed…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 30, 2013 -
About Those Xbox One Vs. PS4 Graphics Rumors…
For the last few weeks, with little hesitation, game development sources have been telling Kotaku that the PlayStation 4 is more powerful and easier to develop for than the Xbox One. You may have heard this before. But our best sources don’t expect that to have a huge impact on the graphics of games on…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 29, 2013 -
Next Month’s Call of Duty Adds… Aliens
A rumor yesterday, an official trailer today: it’s the new co-op mode for Call of Duty: Ghosts. We’ll be shooting aliens. Activision says: “Call of Duty: Ghosts introduces Extinction – an all-new 1-4 player cooperative game mode featuring a unique blend of fast-paced survival action, FPS base defense, scavenging and class leveling…” To contact the…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 28, 2013 -
Today’s New Batman Games Tease A Very Cool Possible Sequel
We don’t want to ruin any of the surprises in the new Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Origins: Blackgate games today—not if you don’t want to be spoiled. But if you do want to know about the very exciting future of the franchise that both games are teasing, keep reading. That was a spoiler…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 25, 2013 -
ReviewsBatman: Arkham Origins: Blackgate: The Kotaku Review
The worst thing Batman: Arkham Origins: Blackgate has going for it is its mouthful of a title. The second worst thing is its plot and setting, a less interesting retread of the first great Batman game, 2009’s Arkham Asylum But past those two flaws, we gamers are getting a gift with this game: a Metroid-style…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 25, 2013 -
Tearaway Is The Best Thing I’ve Played On the Vita
It’s happening, everyone. I think there’s finally a game you really do need a PlayStation Vita to play and a Vita game you’re really going to need to play—at least judging by the first couple of hours I’ve played of this stunning game. How did this happen? Credit the LittleBigPlanet people, Media Molecule, I guess.…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 25, 2013 -
PS4 Will Let You Use Your Real Name Online At Launch
Sony will let users of their new console use their real names on the PlayStation 4’s online service when the system launches on November 15, the company has confirmed to Kotaku. This is an option, not a mandate. It’s also a point of distinction between PS4 and Xbox One. Microsoft, which also wants to allow…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 23, 2013 -
CultureQuietly, Nintendo Perfected A Whole New Type of Video Game This Year
You may have missed it this year amid all the arguing about whether Nintendo should bail out of making gaming hardware and just stick to making games. You may have missed it if the only Nintendo headlines that made an impression on you in 2013 were the ones about Wii U struggles or the company’s…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 21, 2013
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