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Watch Kotaku’s Boss Play Destiny‘s Raid For The First Time [UPDATE: Stream Over]
Two of Kotaku’s editors—me and Kirk Hamilton—have played Destiny’s Vault of Glass raid dozens of times. But our boss, Stephen Totilo, has not. Neither has weekend editor Mike Fahey. Join the four of us—plus Kotaku deputy editor Tina Amini and our friend from Mashable, Adam Rosenberg—as we take on the Vault and get as many…
By Jason Schreier Published September 5, 2015 - Uncategorized
How Halo And Destiny’s Composer Got Fired From Bungie
In April of 2014 Martin “Marty” O’Donnell, then Bungie’s audio director, was fired from the company “without cause.” A court ruling issued last week in a case between the composer and his former employer sheds light on the events leading up to his termination and the hand Activision played in souring their relationship. What seemed…
By Mike Fahey Published September 5, 2015 - Uncategorized
The Phantom Pain PC Benchmarks Are Relatively Painless
We’re always on the lookout for games that take advantage of the latest PC hardware and although our game performance reviews have included major series such as Battlefield, BioShock, Crysis and Far Cry, we haven’t tested any Metal Gear games despite the franchise’s age and the number of titles it encompasses. I must embarrassingly admit…
By Steven Walton Published September 5, 2015 - Uncategorized
PC Gaming Looked A Lot Different In The Late ’90s
Flat widescreen monitors? Glowing keyboards and mice? Controllers with analog thumbsticks? The late ‘90s PC gamer needed not such things. Or at least we didn’t know we needed them, as they either didn’t exist or weren’t widely available yet. No, as Redditor SuperBabyHix’s retro setup demonstrates, all we needed was a keyboard that worked, a…
By Mike Fahey Published September 5, 2015 - Culture
This Week in Business: Hardcore PC Gamers Don’t Care About Fashion
QUOTE | “If you’re a gamer and you have high end graphics cards – I don’t want to stereotype – but you’re probably not the kind of person who cares about fashion.” – Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, talking about why VR is not a fad like 3D TV Elsewhere in the business of gaming this…
By Steve Peterson Published September 5, 2015 -
UncategorizedThe Most Powerful Hit In Smash Bros. Requires Four People
Have you ever wondered how hard you can hit a character in Smash Bros. in a single go, without actually using an item? Science can answer that question. It’s unlikely anyone would pull the ridiculous stunt shown off by Beefy Smash Doods off in a normal Smash Bros. game, given how chaotic it is—but damn…
By Patricia Hernandez Published September 4, 2015 - Culture
What Are You Playing This September?
What once was hot is cooling; what days were long, have shortened. It’s September, and fall is upon us. I was going to begin this month’s post with an Earth, Wind & Fire quote, but then had this niggling feeling in the back of my brain… I Googled and sure enough, I did that last…
By Kirk Hamilton Published September 4, 2015 - Culture
Some Advice From Our Advice Columnist, Who Loves Giving Advice
By Kirk Hamilton Published September 4, 2015 - Esports
The Best Smash Bros. Player In The World Is Feeling Burnt Out
Playing video games professionally is such a strenuous and time-consuming job that pro gamers regularly run into the problem of burnout. The latest person to succumb to this unfortunate trend is Gonzalo “Zero” Barrios, the reigning champion of the Smash Bros.’ eSports scene. Ever since the Wii U version of Smash came out and tournaments…
By Yannick LeJacq Published September 4, 2015 -
UncategorizedYears Later, Players Haven’t Really Solved Fez‘s Biggest Mystery
Some light reading never hurt everyone, especially on a holiday weekend. As labor day grows near, it’s time for Worth Reading, our (mostly) weekly roundup of the best in games writing. Hey, You Should Read These “The Immortal Mystery of Fez’s Black Monolith” by Devin Raposo I went deep down the Fez hole when it…
By Patrick Klepek Published September 4, 2015 -
UncategorizedCounter-Strike Champ Makes Cheating Teammate’s Life A Living Hell
Lets say you’re playing a video game and you encounter a teammate who is very obviously cheating—we’re talking, impossible headshots, the ability to see through walls, the works. What do you do? Do you A) report the player? Do you B) leave the match? Or do you C) continue the match as you would normally,…
By Patricia Hernandez Published September 4, 2015 -
UncategorizedHeroes of the Storm just put out a spotlight for the upcoming Warcraft character Manbearpig Rexxar. I love the idea of adding a beastmaster—I mean, there’s already onein Dota 2. Allowing you to manage a bunch of different animals seems like a logical next step from all the summoning-heavy specialists already in HOTS.
By Yannick LeJacq Published September 4, 2015 -
UncategorizedTake A Break From Metal Gear And Play Nova-111
Have you heard of Nova-111? I barely had, but now I must show it to you. It’s a wonderful surprise of a video game. It’s partially turn-based, partially real-time. It’s action mixed with puzzles. Its on Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Vita, PC and Mac and is coming to Wii U. It just came out. It’s…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 4, 2015 - Uncategorized
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio recently praised Minecraft. “If you play Minecraft, you’re basically writing code when you’re converting a hammer into a pickax,” said Rubio, according to the AP. “Kids might not realize they’re coding, but that’s going to be almost a basic proficiency just because of the way they grew up.”
By Patrick Klepek Published September 4, 2015 - Uncategorized
Pokémon Look Really Cool As Giant Mechs
Japanese artist 太斗· converts Pokémon into giant Japanese robots. And not just random ones, either, but characters from the Zoids universe. It’s a franchise that’s really popular in Japan in the form of model-kits. And indeed, they all look like images of an assembled mecha from a model-kit’s instruction manual. To contact the author of…
By Gergo Vas Published September 4, 2015 - Uncategorized
I Can’t Stop Collecting Stuff in Video Games
Here’s something I wish more game designers understood: If you put an interaction in your game, I am going to interact with it. Anytime a game responds to its players, the rats—or at least this rat—are going to press the lever for more cocaine pellets. Jenova Chen, during a talk about the design of Journey…
By Chris Suellentrop Published September 4, 2015 -
Culture‘Only Lesbians Play Pokémon,’ And Other Video Game Store Horror Stories
After roughly 1,200 comments and dozens of emails, I have assembled the first round of your horrible video game store experiences. It’s disconcerting how many of you seem to have been conned out of your money due to bullshit policies on returns and generally grouchy employees. Fortunately, sharing the misery helps lighten the load (I…
By Tina Amini Published September 4, 2015 - Uncategorized
Holy Crap, Monkey Island Is 25 Years Old
Monkey Island turned 25 years old earlier this week, and designer Ron Gilbert used his blog to share some truly interesting (and bizarre!) stories about the game’s development. In 2015, releasing a game to the world is pretty simple, especially digitally. It’s not quite click-one-button-and-it-appears-on-the-Internet, but it’s close. It was much different in 1990, though.…
By Patrick Klepek Published September 4, 2015 - Uncategorized
Fan Version Of League Of Legends’ Bard Is Really Spoooooooky
League of Legends fan art is so fucking good. The latest amazing skin concept for the rotund and mostly adorable support champion Bard comes from League of Legends player and forum-goer Glow: He even made the little “meep” minions that travel around with Bard into ghosts that remind me of the halloween costumes from Peanuts.…
By Yannick LeJacq Published September 4, 2015
