Stephen Totilo

The Best Games of 2013’s Amazing First Six Months

The year could end right now and we could already declare 2013 one of gaming’s greatest years. Have we ever had a first half as stacked as this? Let’s celebrate by having some friendly debates about which games were the best. First, to remind you of how good it’s been, lets marvel at this horn…

No news yet on an Xbox One indie developer program, but Microsoft did say today that the indie-centric game-building engine Unity will work with Xbox One. (Unity can also be used to build games on PS4 and just about any other platform you can think of.)

A Brief Encounter With Destiny, Bungie’s Gorgeous MMOish Sci-Fi Shooter

We started in Old Russia, “many years from now.” A dramatic score swelled in the background. That was from the game. In real life, the bass from a Call of Duty trailer thundered from the other side of the wall. I was seeing Destiny, one of the next Next Big Things. Chris Butcher, a lead…

A Note About ‘Brutal’ Comments and a Kotaku For Everyone

I was recently asked to be more clear with readers about who Kotaku is and isn’t for. Let me be clear here about what I believe the mix of content we run on the site already attests. Kotaku is a site for any and all gamers and even people who don’t play games but are…

The New Mad Max Game Will Be Vast, Violent and Not Sound Australian

I detected nary an Australian accent from the characters in the new Mad Max game that made its surprise debut at E3 earlier this week. There will be no Australian voices, one of the game’s creators told me. OK. At least Max’s steering wheel’s on the right. What else have they got here? The new…

What Made Titanfall So Impressive at E3

In the middle of E3 earlier this month, the creators of the new game Titanfall posed for a photo in front of a massive statue of one of the giant exo-skeletons—don’t call them mechs—featured in their game. “For me, that was the moment,” the team’s boss, Respawn Entertainment’s Vince Zampella, recently told Kotaku. He sounded…

Find Out How Many Creators of this Game Are Female Or Hate Peas

The credits in the new Nintendo game Game & Wario are as weird as the rest of the game, but they’re also possibly the best credits ever. They serve a serious, modern purpose. And they make some good jokes. The serious purpose: they break the team down by job focus (directors, programmers, producers, etc.) and…

Game & Wario: The Kotaku Review

Are there insane people working at Nintendo HQ? Game & Wario suggests there are. Behold, one of the weirdest pieces of software ever made by the House of Mario, a game that is not a WarioWare game, is not a great game, but is a comedic must-play triumph. If you were a person to have…

Nintendo’s Turn For a 180? ‘Let’s Play’ Drama Might Have Happy Ending

A month ago, Nintendo played the unfeeling corporate villain in an online spat about popular Let’s Play videos and the gamers who make them. A month later, there is evidence of a possible resolution. The most positive sign is that Zack Scott, the popular YouTuber who first raised the alarm about Nintendo cracking down on…

How Top People at PlayStation and Ubisoft See Their Own Games

Leaving no part of the E3 reporter’s notebook unused, I’ve come upon some slightly old (two weeks!), slightly illuminating thoughts from top people at Ubisoft and Sony about their company’s games. These are thoughts worth sharing with you. The first is from Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, at the start of an eight minute interview…

Rumor About Xbox One Family-Sharing’s Downsides Has Flaws of Its Own [UPDATE: Microsoft Debunks]

We prefer to report on rumors that we can prove are true or outright debunk, but sometimes we get the ones we have to address without being able to say with certainty one way or the other. Enough of you ask about it; we need to tell you what’s up, as best we can. The…

Sony Releasing 4.45 PlayStation Firmware Fix Next Week

Gamers whose PS3s were rendered unusable by last Tuesday’s 4.45 PS3 firmware update will find relief on Thursday, June 27, with the release of a new system update that Sony believes will fix things. “We have identified the issue related to the PlayStation 3 software update (version 4.45) that impacted a small number of PS3…

Instant Xbox One Nostalgia

No sooner did Microsoft announce its DRM 180 yesterday than some gamers commenting here on Kotaku and elsewhere on the web began wishing Microsoft would do another 180 and go back. The gamers for whom yesterday was bad news appear to be a minority. Few as their numbers may be, I could see them and…

Shigeru Miyamoto and the Damsel In Distress

Shigeru Miyamoto made Donkey Kong, and, in the process, put a woman on top of some girders for Mario to rescue. His Super Mario and Zelda series perpetually involve saving a princess. If we’re going to talk about women in games, we should talk to him about it, right? Last week, I did. I need…

Nintendo just eliminated the best reason to not buy their newest games digitally. The company’s newest firmware, 6.0.0-11U, now lets you back up game saves for most downloaded games (not Animal Crossing), so you can now delete games to save space without losing your saves. Download away!

Xbox One DRM Reversal Cuts Features, Requires One-Time Connection

You win some, you lose some. In changing its drastic Xbox One DRM policies today, Microsoft will actually be cutting some of the cooler features announced from the console. Everything’s got a price, folks. “There’s a few things we won’t be able to deliver as a result of this change,” Marc Whitten, Microsoft’s Xbox One…

Sony Apologizes For Faulty PS3 Firmware, ‘Investigating’ Problem

Sony is trying to figure out what went wrong with PlayStation 3 firmware update 4.45, which was offered to PS3 users last night but then pulled when it appeared to start breaking consoles. “We are aware of reports that the recent PlayStation 3 system software update (version 4.45) has caused the XMB to not display…

The Vaguest Hints About The Wii U’s First Original Zelda

After the fall 3DS sequel to the classic Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, after the fall Wii U release of a Wind Waker remake, we will eventually get an original Zelda game on Wii U. It’s being made now. Nintendo’s barely talking about it. Eiji Aonuma, the man who oversees all Zelda projects…

Nintendo: All These Sequels Don’t Mean We’re ‘Playing It Safe’

In a season of new Mario Karts and Donkey Kong Country games Nintendo hears the calls from supporters and critics to make something new. Their answer: we’re already doing it. I don’t believe in writing things I wouldn’t say to the faces of the people I’m writing about, so after writing on Kotaku last week…

Sony Actually Has A Very Different Future In Mind For PlayStation 4

Sony’s successful, if counter-intuitive next-gen message for the PlayStation 4 at last week’s E3 is that things won’t change. No disc DRM changes. No new online checks for PS4. You might think Sony doesn’t want gaming to change in the PS4 era. Oh, but they do. In fact, if you listen closely, they’re veering closer…