How Video Games’ Biggest Award Show Comes Together

Veteran game journalist Geoff Keighley joins Kotaku Splitscreen this week to talk about what it’s like to produce The Game Awards, how he decides which trailer to debut, and the hilarious request he got from the people who make Doritos. First we talk about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (12:52), Skyrim’s composer’s disappearing Kickstarter, andthe Destiny…

Speedrunner Loses His Shit After Finally Breaking Legendary GoldenEye Record

Dam is the first mission in GoldenEye. For fifteen years the fastest anyone was able to complete it as 53 seconds. Bryan Bosshardt set the original record back in 2002 and people have only managed to tie it ever since. Yesterday, Karl Jobst made history by finishing the level in 52 seconds “Fuck! Fuck! Oh…

Sunday Comics: Rough Week 

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published December 2. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published November 27. Read more…

Watch The Creator Of Little King’s Story Discuss His Love Of Arcades 

In the latest installment of the toco toco TV, the beautiful and melancholy documentary series about Japanese game makers, Yoshiro Kimura talks about the experiences that have led to his small oeuvre of lovely, idiosyncratic games including the PS2’s Chulip, Little King’s Story for the Wii, and most recently Million Onion Hotel In the beginning…

Torment: Tides Of Numenera‘s Opening Accomplishes So Much With Just Words 

I’ve never been so enthralled by the opening of a game that focused almost entirely on a blank screen. Most games like to begin with a quick cutscene. It’s usually a simple and straightforward way too pull players in. High production values, beautiful looking cinematics, and a quick glimpse of the the characters, setting, or…

Zelda’s Story In Breath of the Wild Is Powerful, But Also A Bummer

Breath of the Wild makes you care about Zelda by making her pain palpable. By that measure, Zelda’s journey is a good story that accomplishes what it sets out to do. At the same time, the tale at the heart of the game compounds an ongoing frustration felt by some fans: Zelda isn’t allowed to…

Drama Around Milwaukee’s Pokémon Go Ordinance Ends In $83,000 Settlement 

A lawsuit against Milwaukee County for its ordinance requiring the creators of augmented reality games like Pokémon Go to get permits to operate in its parks will conclude with an $83,000 settlement against the municipality. This all started after Pokémon Go players trashed Lake Park last year. In response the county got Niantic to remove…

Hearthstone Game Ends In Almost Impossibly Improbable Sequence

Hearthstone is an online card game with a significant amount of randomness. Sometimes, that random generation can lead to immense failure, but it can also lead to impossibly improbable victories. At DreamHack Winter 2017 today, Esteban “AKAWonder” Serrano was staring down a very bad board state, with only a single card in his hand: Swashburglar,…

The Weekend In Esports: Gears Of War Pro Circuit And DreamHack Winter

December is off to a nice start with plenty of major tournaments throughout esports, including Dota 2, Rocket League, and Gears of War 4 In addition to the MLG Dallas Open and ELEAGUE Cup, DreamHack Winter 2017 is underway in Sweden with tournaments ranging from Smash Bros. Melee to H1Z1. Below you’ll find where and…

I’m taking over Kotaku’s Twitch channel today along with some rag-tag friends to marathon my favorite local multiplayer games! Tune in from 12:15 to 6:00 for Super Smash Bros 4, Crawl, Starwhal, Mario Kart 8, Nidhogg 2 and more.

Smash Pro Narrowly Wins After Missed Ledge Grab

Two masters of their own character met last night in the 2GG Championship, as the clash between the best Sonic and best Link came down to the last second and a single hit’s worth of damage. Kengo “Ken” Suzuki and Isami “T” Ikeda are two of Japan’s biggest representatives in these Super Smash Bros. For…

This Week In The Business: EA Tries To Explain

QUOTE | “As we kept reviewing the game, it continued to look like a style of gaming, a much more linear game, that people don’t like as much today as they did five years ago or 10 years ago.” – EA CFO Blake Jorgensen, explaining why the publisher canceled Visceral Games’ Star Wars project and…

PS2 Theme Takes Your PS4 Back To 2001

On December 6, a new theme will be made available for the PS4 that will have your modern console’s dashboard looking like something from a couple of generations back. Built by Truant Pixel, with help from PlayStation US, Japan and even Naughty Dog, it combines “multiple disparate elements into a single piece of theme software…

DayZ’s developers say that the massively influential survival game is finally leaving early access “next year.” That’ll also mean a console version sometime next year, if all goes according to plan. Personally, I’m expecting it to add a battle royale mode shortly after, which, in DayZ time, means the year 2020.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp: The Kotaku Review

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the new sequel of Nintendo’s cute neighborhood series for cellphones, is Animal Crossing but a bit more stressful. I love it and hate it at the same time. Pocket Camp takes elements from a few different Animal Crossing games and shoves them into a mobile app that’s surprisingly robust. It has…