Stephen Totilo

2013’s Best, Worst Store-Bought Halloween Costumes

Our friends at io9 have concluded their annual quest to find the “best, sluttiest and weirdest store-bought Halloween costumes” of the year. Naturally, their discoveries included Chun-Li, Sonic and an oh-so-sexy Pac-Man ghost.

Finally, A Super Mario Game We Can All Be Excited About

It’s been a while since a new Super Mario Bros. game looked amazing. Agree? We all respect the New Super Mario Bros. games, right? They’re classic… like Nintendo just baked a great new loaf of bread. Refined… like Nintendo just wrote a new sonnet. But exciting? Not really. That’s where November’s new Mario comes in.…

Sega: Paying For Extra Lives ‘Will never be a thing in a Sonic game.’

Sega would like you to know that they do not plan to nickel-and-dime you and start charging for free lives in Sonic games. Nor do they have plans to imbalance their Sonic games by letting you buy free lives. Why is this is a thing? Well, our very own Jason Schreier sounded an alarm earlier…

Kotaku Editor-in-Chief Here. Got Any Questions? [Q&A’s over]

We haven’t done this in a while, so let’s do it now. For the next 90 minutes or so, I’ll be answering reader questions. Want to know stuff about Kotaku, about what we’re covering, what we’re hearing, which Zelda is the best and so on? Want to complain about stuff you don’t like and ask…

Grand Theft Auto V Almost Killed My Watch Dogs Buzz…But It’s Back

Grand Theft Auto V is so well-made, so visually impressive—even on my creaky old Xbox 360—that it could crush any excitement I might have for any other 2013 open-world action games that are set in big cities and let you steal cars and cause mayhem. There is that risk. And there I was, yesterday, with…

Grand Theft Auto Online Makes A Superb Second Impression

I gave Grand Theft Auto Online a chance to make a second impression this morning by spamming on the “retry” button. I had to. The first impression at 7am wasn’t so hot. Server woes and all that. But I wasn’t going to let Rockstar Games’ overburdened online infrastructure keep me from trying this game out.…

Spin a 3D Render of the New Steam Controller

We don’t have a Steam Controller to put in your hands, but we do have this to share, via Sketchfab user Mestaty. Take it for a whirl. Steam Controller from Mestaty on Sketchfab

More Hands-On Impressions of Valve’s Odd New Game Controller

We’ve updated our story from last week regarding game creators’ hands-on impressions of Valve’s new game controller with new input from Fred Wester, chief of Paradox Interactive. He liked it, but he also has some questions about how mouse-and-keyboard games will work with it…

Valve’s Controller Has Been Tested. Here Are Some Impressions. [UPDATE]

Game creators who have tried Valve’s unusual new game controller tell Kotaku that the device holds a lot of promise. But make no mistake, they also say it feels pretty different from what we’re used to. “We’ve been at Valve this week and only used it briefly, however, you immediately notice its increased responsiveness.,” Sega’s…

U.S. President Barack Obama pressed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani today over the detention of three Americans in Iran, including one-time game developer Amir Hekmati, who has been jailed on espionage charges since late 2011. The discussion occurred over the phone during a conversation that largely focused on the status of Iran’s nuclear program. It was…

Multiplayer-Free Wii U Version of Batman: Arkham Origins Will Cost Less

The Wii U version of October 25’s Batman Arkham Origins will sell for $50, compared to $60 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a rep for the game’s publisher has confirmed to Kotaku. The Wii U version of the game will include the same open-world single-player campaign made by Warner Brothers Montreal as the…

If you’re into GTA V and live near New York City, you might be interested in Rockstar’s presentation of the game on Sunday at the New York Film Festival and in a concert of the game’s score on Monday. Details at Rockstar’s site

TV’s Ned Stark Is Now Making Train Simulator 2014 Sound Cool

Previously, Sean Bean told you winter was coming. Now, Train Simulator 2014 is and Bean’s here to hype it by waxing poetic about rail fans’ love of trains. The new Train Simulator will be out for PC this week. And, hey, if FIFA can have Patrick Stewart thundering through one of their trailers, Train Simulator…

You Can Upgrade Some Big Fall Games To Next-Gen, But There’s A Catch

If you buy a major fall release such as Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4 or Call of Duty Ghosts for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 with the intention of upgrading to a next-gen version, buyer beware: you won’t be able to take some of your in-game progress with you. While Sony, Microsoft,…

Marketing hype? Brutal truths? A combo of both? On FIFA 14‘s release day, let’s take another look at how EA Sports promotes this year’s sports games by being awfully blunt about the shortcoming’s of last year’s.

Myst Is 20 Years Old Today. Go Turn a Crank To Celebrate.

Twenty years ago, if you were getting a computer, you were getting one with a newfangled CD-ROM drive. And you were getting a game to justify it. That game was probably Myst. And if that wasn’t the case for you, it was for your mom or grandfather or cousin. Like few games before or since,…

Adam West Never Looked This Tough In His Batman Costume

We’ve known since June that PlayStation 3 owners will get the “exclusive” opportunity to play the next Dark Knight game, Batman: Arkham Origins, with a Batman wearing either his Knightfall-era costume or the old 1960s TV costume. Today, you can see those costumes in the game, in motion. Imagine if Adam West lifted weights! You…

The Relentless Improvement of Video Game Graphics

What good are realistic graphics? What good are next year’s even more realistic graphics? Cara Ellison and Elizabeth Simins return for their latest Kotaku comic strip, and they’ve brought an answer that’s five panels long. Follow Ellison’s writing on her blog Hard Consonant. She’s on Twitter, too,@carachan1. You can find more of Simins’ art, much…

IGN shares the great little story about why a former Sonic the Hedgehog developer kept a short poem near his desk. The poem read: “Shigeru Miyamoto is a fart.” It wasn’t an insult; it was a motivational tool!

Let’s Analyze This Week’s Weirdest Nintendo News In a Positive Way

Two days ago, Nintendo revealed how two of their biggest Wii franchises, Wii Fit U and Wii Sports, would be returning on Wii U. They are both arriving on the Wii U in very unusual ways. And there’s one very telling catch. Let’s go glass half-full on this one, shall we? Wii Sports is coming…