The Real Story Behind Xenogears‘ ‘Unfinished’ Disc 2

Xenogears, widely considered one of the greatest role-playing games ever made, has long felt to fans like an unfinished product thanks to its controversial, seemingly unfinished second disc. Although western gamers have assumed that the team simply ran out of money, the real story—as revealed by director Tetsuya Takahashi to Kotaku today—is a little more…

Nintendo Fans Need A New Series To Complain About

Nintendo fans have spent years frustrated that the Metroid series, once a pillar of the company’s console lineup, had been left to rot. Now that not one but two new Metroid games are coming, it leaves them/us with an important decision to make: what to complain about next The obvious culprits are out. There’s a…

E3 Day Five Podcast: The Director Of South Park: The Fractured But Whole

We’ve almost survived E3 2017! Just a couple more weeks to go. Today on Kotaku Splitscreen, Jason sits down with two more game developers: the director of South Park: The Fractured But Whole and the executive producer/lead programmer of Pillars of Eternity 2 Listen here: Jason and I start out by catching up on how…

“Yes, they do make me feel like a walking billboard, but I think about how easy it will be to carry my laundry later,” an E3 attendee told of the body-length bags companies hand out at conventions. She also offered a convention bag pro strat: hide them in bushes outside instead of lugging them around.…

Magic Champion Sells His Trophy To Benefit Planned Parenthood

On May 14, Magic: The Gathering pro Gerry Thompson won Pro Tour Amonkhet, securing one of the most coveted trophies in competitive magic play. Five days later, he put that trophy on eBay, along with some other event swag, with all the proceeds going to benefit Planned Parenthood. “I strongly believe in what they do…

We got a hands-off demonstration of this August’s standalone $40 PS4 adventure Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Quick impressions: Beautiful location? Check (India). Fun character banter? Yep (Nadine’s a bad-ass. Chloe’s wry). Dynamic firefights? Of course (looked like the best of Uncharted 4‘s).

Today, Tim Rogers takes us on a tour of Bethesda’s booth (they gave him a milkshake!), Indiecade’s booth, and a closer look at Nidhogg 2. That’s it for the tours this year, but stay tuned for more Tim at E3 videos.

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime On Switch Voice Chat, Lack Of Back-Ups Saves And ‘Virtual Console’

Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, is at E3 in Los Angeles this week to promote Nintendo’s latest resurgence and hype people up on the coming year of Switch and 3DS games. But he’s also ready to field questions, and we had a bunch. After grilling the man, here are some of our key…

No wonder E3 seemed extra-crowded this year. It was extra-crowded! The ESA, which runs the event, just announced that 2017 E3 attendance was 68,400, including, for the first time, 15,000 members of the public. Up from the ESA’s count of 50,300 total attendance at E3 2016.

At E3 2017, Black Characters’ Hair Looks Better Than Ever

Games tend to have trouble depicting black hair, but this year’s E3 displayed refreshing palette of kinky, coily, textured hair. Here’s a breakdown. In his essay for anthology State of Play, io9‘s Evan Narcisse says that, for video games, “when it comes to head hair—specifically locks that look like what grows from my scalp—I’m generally…

Destiny 2 Director Answers Our Questions About The Open World, The Darkness, And Titan Bubbles

Yesterday at E3, my Kotaku Splitscreen co-host Jason Schreier sat down with Bungie’s Luke Smith, game director on Destiny 2. They hit a wide variety of topics including what The Darkness is, how the game’s open world levels will work, and why they’re taking away Jason’s Sunsinger res. If you’re into Destiny, you should really…

Despite Political Overtones, David Cage Says Detroit Is Mostly About Androids

Near the end of the Detroit: Become Human demo I saw during E3, renegade android Markus and his partner North incite a riot among recently freed androids. If you choose to set things on fire, North triumphantly declares, “Now the humans will have no choice but to listen to us.” Main character Markus, staring into…

Angry Birds Evolution Takes The Birds Vs. Pigs Battle To A Weird Place

Angry Birds Evolution, out today oniOS and Android, is a flick-and-spin style mobile game in which players collect and evolve characters like Dolores, the avian doctor with a penchant for vicious rectal exams. Something is causing the pigs to flock to Bird Island in droves, and it’s up to the player to form teams of…

Arms Player Tears Through E3 Tournament, Only To Get Wrecked By Game Producer

After winning yesterday’s E3 Arms Invitational, the people’s champ Zerk had the chance to play the game’s producer, Kosuke Yabuki, in an exhibition. Mr. Yabuki showed no mercy. At the end of the first match, Yabuki (on Min Min, the right-hand side character) executed a combo that had been tossed around in testing during the…

VR Game Moss Wants To Make This Tiny Mouse Your Best Friend

Announced during the PlayStation press conference at E3 2017, Moss is a virtual reality action-adventure puzzle game starring a brave mouse named Quill. The player acts as the game’s camera, but they’re also a character in the world. A character with an adorable little rodent friend. When people who haven’t had any experience think of…

Dishonored Creators Responded To Criticism Of Game’s Women By Making Emily A Badass

In Dishonored 2, people panic when Emily Kaldwin enters a room. When she’s caught sneaking around the docks, NPCs yell out in terror. It’s a special feeling to play a fear-inducing women in a game, and yesterday at E3, Arkane Studios’ co-creative director explained to Engadet that, if it wasn’t for criticism of Dishonored 1’s…

Monster Hunter World’s Real Star Is Nature Itself

The only thing more satisfying than a successful Monster Hunter hunt is wearing the armor you made out of the beast you took down. I watched as Monster Hunter World director Yuya Tokuda hunted down a giant beast during a demonstration at E3, and while the weapons and monsters were great, the game’s world was…