Podcast: Playing All The ‘Wrong’ Games

There are a ton of games to choose from at any given moment. So why does Kotaku Editor-in-Chief Stephen Totilo play all the wrong ones? That question and many more on today’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen Jason’s out this week so I take over hosting duties, joined by our esteemed boss Mr. Totilo. We try…

Watch Fallout 4 Director Todd Howard Talk Video Games

Today at the DICE convention in Las Vegas, Bethesda’s Todd Howard (Skyrim, Fallout 4) joins comedian Pete Holmes to talk game design, story-telling, and open-world RPGs. Should be a fun one. The talk starts at 2:35pm ET. You can watch the stream right here: Photo via Bethesda

A Few Hours With Paragon, Epic’s Crack At Making A MOBA

Paragon is a game that’s had an eventful pre-life. Its first stabs at marketing were remarkably unclear, and it has the dubious honor of blocking a guy named Muhammad Khan because of a government block list mix-up. The game itself? Less remarkable, so far. Paragon is, to put it simply, a big ol’ MOBA stew.…

Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman And Portal’s Chell Do Battle

If Valve’s two most famous silent protagonists had a fight, who would win? Chell or Freeman? Portal Gun or Gravity Gun? Long Fall Boots or HEV Suit? This short film from Andrew McMurry imagines just that scenario, as the goateed geeklord throws down with the Portal lady over, what else, some cake. We’ve featured McMurry’s…

Dark Souls Mod Makes It Way Easier To Play With Friends

There’s no way to simply join a specific game in Dark Souls—it’s all random matchmaking. The randomization is part of the charm, but for fans still playing the game more than five years after its release, it’s a little wonky. Fortunately, modders on the PC have come up with a pretty clever solution. Dark Souls…

This X-Men Comic Might Be the Bleakest Dark Phoenix Story Ever

Unless some other series winds up pulling off something unexpected, E Is for Extinction is going to wind up my favorite Secret Wars tie-in book. And that’s because the X-Men-in- twilight story has nothing to do with Dr. Doom or any crossover nonsense. It’s all about the right way for old superheroes to die. (This…

Capcom Says It’s Fixing Street Fighter V’s Rage Quitting Problem

There’s no punishment for being a rage quitter in Street Fighter V right now. The game doesn’t interpret leaving mid-match as a win or a loss for either side, and it’s made a bunch of players furious. Capcom has told Eurogamer it’ll be fixed, though it’s unclear how or when. “I can confirm that it…

Pokémon’s Creators Pick The Best Starters

The age-old question for many Pokémon fans has always been: Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle? Everyone has an opinion on this, and we’ve even used science to answer the question of who the best starter is. Still, the debate is far from settled. [This post originally appeared on October 14th, 2014.] For the longest time, I…

The Division’s open beta is now live on Xbox One, a day before PC and PS4 Several of you had asked if your progress from the closed beta carried over. Not for me. The game had me start a new character. The beta adds a new mission involving flamethrower enemies and makes several other tweaks

Hearthstone As Classic Handheld Game

Porting a fan-made version of Hearthstone, such as Roflstone’s, to phones and tablets would be quite difficult. It’s a demake of Blizzard’s trading card game, mostly inspired by the classic Pokémon TCG on the Game Boy Color. So no touchscreen or drag & drop gameplay, but hey, there are a few more emotes. To contact…

Two Players Unlocked All 2,511 of World of Warcraft‘s Achievements

Two Alliance players, a human priest from Russia and a night elf druid from the U.S., have already unlocked every achievement currently in the game, 2,511 of them. A lot of them are incredibly hard to get, but unlocking all is pretty insane. And, according to Wowprogress, a few others are close to catching up…

People Used To Tease Pikachu’s Voice Actress

Ikue Otani has voiced Pikachu since 1997. Since Ash’s Pikachu can only say variations of “pika” or “pikachu,” she was often teased for having what some saw as an easy gig. In in Yomiuri Shimbun (via Twitter user Karubiimunomono), Otani talked about her experiences. “In the beginning, I was often ridiculed with people saying, “It’s…

Trying to Explain an Awkward Anime Image

This is a still from the Togainu no Chi anime. At first glance, it doesn’t appear odd. But look closer. For some, it’s hard to explain what’s going on. The image itself dates from years back, but recently, Twitter user Chronos_sdvxtweeted out some explanations, which also date from a while back. That tweet has racked…

The Up-All-Night Stream Plays Attack on Titan [Stream Finished]

The new game based on hit anime Attack on Titan hit Japanese shelves today. So join me and let’s see how it plays. Update: The stream is now over, you can see the full five hours here: Part 1 (3 minutes) Part 2 (4 hours 40 min) Attack on Titan was released in Japan for…

The Man with the Iron Crotch

Recently in the city of Luoyang in China’s Henan province, a martial arts gathering was held. Amid the tai chi and brick breaking demonstrations, one individual stood out: the guy getting hit in the nards. [GIF: Y娛樂速递 娛樂速递] Let’s see that from another angle. According to Record China (via Livedoor), this gentleman with the “iron…