Stephen Totilo

3DS Update Adds Rabbit Who Sells You Stuff In the Most Nintendo Way [UPDATE]

A new 3DS update in America (the rest of North America, too?) is triggering a major overhaul to the system’s Mii StreetPass Plaza. And, in the process, Nintendo adds a rabbit to the system who wants to sell you stuff. The video above shows you this rabbit salesman (salesrabbit) in action. It’s quite a sight…

‘It’s basically the Dark Souls of heist games.’

This has got to be the year of the heist video game. See Monaco. See the new Sly Cooper. See the Big New Focus of Grand Theft Auto V. See the fascinating, upcoming Payday 2. Yes, fascinating. I saw Payday 2 nearly a month ago, back at E3. It probably shouldn’t have taken me a…

Big Microsoft Vision Statement Mentions Gaming (Phew!), ‘Serious Fun’

The Xbox officially has a new boss today—former Windows boss and long-time Microsoft veteran Julie Larson-Green. No big gaming experience, unlike former game developer Don Mattrick, who last held the job. But, Microsoft did have stuff to say about gaming when announcing today’s big reorganization of company management. What Microsoft had to say about gaming…

Marvelous, Meditative Space RTS Rymdkapsel Hits iOS, Android On 7/25

I raved about the game when it launched on PlayStation Mobile, so I recommend any non-PSM gamers who are equipped with iOS or other Android devices set aside $4 for July 25. That’s when you can buy and enjoy the minimalist real-time strategy game Rymdkapsel on those other mobile platforms. For now, study up on…

In case you didn’t know… you can read condensed Kotaku reviews of new games in the New York Times every month. The Arts section in today’s paper includes short versions of our reviews of Game & Wario, Deadpool, Color Zen, The Swapper and Company of Heroes 2. New round-ups monthly. Viva print! (And the Internet,…

Friends and colleagues of Giant Bomb‘s Ryan Davis remember the man in this week’s new episode of the podcast that Davis so capably hosted for years, the Giant Bombcast. For those hoping to do something in Davis’ memory, the GB crew plans to release a memorial T-shirt, with the profits from the sale of those…

One of our pals at Gizmodo believes he knows why people still pirate games, movies, music—you name it. Read his argument. And/or tell us here why you think people pirate. Other than for the peglegs, of course.

Fighting Game Scene Rallies To Get Stranded Gamers to Huge Tournament

The road to EVO, this weekend’s massive fighting game tournament, appears to be paved with the good intentions of others. Three different cases have popped up of strangers and/or surprise sponsors swooping in to ensure that some desperate gamers can attend the Las Vegas event. One case, covered by the Penny Arcade Report‘s Andrew Groen,…

Nintendo Won’t Let Top Fighting Game Tournament Stream Smash Bros

UPDATE – Nintendo has reversed its initial decision, allowing the streaming to take place. In a move that’s already ticking off a lot of fans, Nintendo is denying the world’s biggest fighting game tournament, Evo, from streaming footage of Nintendo’s top fighting game, the GameCube’s Super Smash Bros. Melee The news hit today via an…

Josiah Renaudin writes poignantly for GameRanx about how gamers mourn the passing of people they care about. An unintentionally apt piece for today.

Ryan Davis, RIP

The news is sad and brutal. Ryan Davis, 34, longtime Senior Editor at Giant Bomb passed away last week just a few days after getting married. Davis’ passing was announced today by his heartbroken colleagues at Giant Bomb. No cause of death was given. Goddamnit. It’s always too soon. It’s always so painful. We always…

Hideo Kojima Reviews Pacific Rim In Eight Tweets

It’s no surprise that Hideo Kojima, maker of games about people, giant robots and war would like a new summer blockbuster about people, giant robots and monsters. (Hey, two out of three…) It is nevertheless refreshing to see how gleeful the Metal Gear mastermind is about next week’s Guillermo Del Toro action flick, Pacific Rim.…

Indian gamers are waging a Twitter campaign against EA with the hashtag #EAPCIndia. Their beef? EA has jacked up the price of PC games this year. Last year’s Battlefield 3 had cost roughly the equivalent of $20 in India. Battlefield 4 will be close to $60, or 3,499 rupees. IndianVideoGamer.com has the story and the…

A Day Before Egyptian Coup, Protestors Flashed Giant ‘Game Over’ Sign

Pinball machines and video games (oh, and the movie Aliens) popularized the phrase “Game Over.” Those two words are also used at times of political unrest. Google Images turns upplenty of examples. And here’s a new one, via Facebook, photographed on July 2 during a laser light show on the side of a government building…

Ouya: The Kotaku Review

If I was writing a book of personal gaming records, I’d mark up a page for the Ouya: New console that stayed in the box, unplayed, longer than any other one I’ve ever had. Three days. Sealed. No urgency to play the tiniest console I’ve ever seen. It’s so tiny, yet I still wasn’t sure…

Yes, Fighting Game Fans, Please Call Kotaku

Yesterday’s Kotaku article about the arrest of a fighting game competitor for allegedly striking his ex-girlfriend after-hours at the CEO gaming tournament has provoked heated response, much of it from members of the fighting game community who feel their scene is treated unfairly by this site. Sadly, we’ve been here before, after covering a prominent…

The New Xbox Boss Is… Steve Ballmer?

Former Xbox boss and incoming CEO of Zynga Don Mattrick will not be replaced immediately at Microsoft, according to a memo issued to Microsoft employees from company CEO Steve Ballmer. The Microsoft chief says that Mattrick’s top lieutenants—those in charge of games, the hardware, etc.—will be reporting directly to Ballmer himself. Here’s the e-mail: From:…

Neil Gaiman (and Dave McKean) Return to Sandman This October

Writer Neil Gaiman’s first new Sandman comic in a decade will be out on October 30 from Vertigo/DC and will be shipping—sigh—every other month. The prequel series, Sandman Overture, will be drawn by J.H. Williams (Promethea) with covers by Williams and original Sandman cover maestro Dave McKean. Gaiman’s Sandman series, which chronicles the exploits of…

30000×4087 Video Game ‘Screenshot’ Is a Whole Lot to Take In

The people in charge of hyping the new PC game Total War: Rome II keep exploiting our weakness for absurdly large, detailed screenshots—screenshots that could get their game mistaken for the most violent Where’s Waldo ever. Their new shot today is 30000×4087 and weighs in at a mere 80MB. It’s not quite as gargantuan as…

Prison Architect continues to have the best alpha updates: “Alpha 11 brings a host of new features, bug fixes and improvements, not least of which is hearses to take away the unfortunately deceased.” Details here. Reasons to play it here. (Warning: Presumably-NSFW cursing at the start of the video.)