Wii U Owners Bummed Out By Huge Firmware Update

That’s a progress bar 1/8th full after 30 minutes—a four-hour process at this rate—for the Wii U’s infamous firmware update, said to be 5 gigabytes (according to Geoff Keighley of GameTrailers TV, and repeated by numerous others). Sony, you are officially off the hook with the PS3’s interminable, poorly timed and mandatory system updates. It’s…

Sunday Comics: A Lot Harder Than It Looks

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Nov. 12.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Nov. 16.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…

Hitman: Absolution: The Kotaku Review

Hitman: Absolution is a wickedly smart, darkly enjoyable video game, one that’s as generous to players as its protagonist is merciless to his victims. You’ll stab, strangle and shoot your way through level after level, sometimes grimacing, sometimes scowling, sometimes laughing. When all is said and done, you’ll probably need a shower. To play Absolution…

Report: Wii U Cracked Open, System Memory and Speed Revealed

Nintendo, like many hardware manufacturers, was cagey about the final specs for the Wii U, choosing not to reveal the system’s overall memory prior to release. Now that the Wii U is out, though, it hasn’t taken long for someone to tear one apart and do the detective work themselves. The crew at PC Perspective…

How To Transfer Wii Data to a Wii U (And Witness The World’s Cutest Progress Bar Ever)

You can transfer most Wii data to a new Wii U. This is a good thing, but nearly as good a thing as the animation that plays when you do this. As soon as it started, I had to grab my camera and start shooting this. The first video shows what you see from the…

Was the Wii U’s first censored Miiverse message this cheeky description of Arkham City?

Wii U: The Kotaku Review [UPDATE]

The Wii U is the first new video game console in six years and the sixth console Nintendo has ever made. It comes freighted with heavy expectations. It more or less starts the next generation of consoles, one that will see a new Xbox and PlayStation late next year, and therefore it needs to seem…

Nintendo’s Miiverse Dreams of a Civilized, Spoiler-Free Online Community

Welcome to the Miiverse, the online community launching today with the midnight release of Nintendo’s Wii U, but before you can access it, you must read through the Miiverse Code of Conduct, portions of which may have been paraphrased from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Let’s stroll through it, shall we? Welcome to the Miiverse,…

The Wii U eShop Is Live and Stuffed With Games

The Wii U’s eShop for downloading games just went live. This thing has a lot more games in it than I’d expected. You’ve got full-sized launch games, from New Super Mario Bros. Wii U to Assassin’s Creed III, several indies, including Little Inferno, Mighty Switch Force: Hyper Drive Edition, Nano Assault Neo and Chasing Aurora…

I’m Adding Friends To My Wii U, And I’m Not Even Using Friend Codes!

The Wii U firmware update that just went live and will be mandatory for any of the system’s online features has enabled me to start adding friends to my system. The system is pretty easy. You press the Home menu on the GamePad controller, tap the Friends List option, and then start typing in the…

Ninja Gaiden III on Wii U: Well, It Sucks Less.

When Ninja Gaiden III came out, I was none too kind to it. As a long standing fan of the franchise, it just did too many questionable things: QTE’s in combat, Long-winded villains, and an uncomfortable scene in which you’re forced to murder somebody while he pleads for his life and the welfare of his…

Wii U’s Firmware Update Hitting Right Now [UPDATE]

A firmware update appears to have finally become available for the Wii U, a little later than Nintendo personnel had predicted. Pre-release Wii U systems are now able to at least begin downloading the update. I’m trying to download it right now and will let you all know how it goes and what features become…

With one day to go, Star Citizen became the most crowd-funded video game project ever, $4.2 million and counting.

Programming note: Our Wii U review will hit at midnight, ET. You can read our Mario and Nintendo Land reviews right now.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Icing on the Chief: The Winners

Master Chief said it with cake when Halo 4 launched, though what exactly it says when he’s carving into his own noggin, I have no idea. That’s where our ‘Shop artists were supposed to supply a translation. We’ve got all the finalists above, plus overall No. 1 sciteach. GiantBoyDetective (3) had the best of the…

More Than a Million People Beat Halo 4‘s Campaign in the First Five Days of Its Release

In the first five days since Halo 4‘s release on Nov. 6, 1,116,882 people completed the game’s campaign, or roughly one out of every four persons who played campaign at some point in that span. Some 4.5 billion kills were recorded by all these players, roughly two-thirds of the projected population of Earth. About 13.5…

THQ Gets Tattooed by Lawsuit

If you think you’ve had a rough couple of weeks, pour one out for THQ. Its stock price did a swan dive on Nov. 5, the same day of a disastrous earnings call that sent up rumors the publisher is trying to sell itself off. Then word passed it was in default on a $50…

Sony and Microsoft Could Have Killed the Wii Long Before It Would Save Nintendo

The midnight launch of the Wii U is a perfect time to reflect on the craze, six years ago, surrounding its predecessor, and the industry-transforming success of the Wii. And there really is no finer story you could read about that than what Rob Crossley has written for CVG. Microsoft and Sony both had their…

Bad Port or Bad Hardware? We’re Already Hearing Complaints About Wii U Visuals.

As Nintendo’s first high definition console, Wii U will join the neverending, nothing-really-proven debate between the PS3 and the Xbox 360 over which console’s visuals for whatever multiplatform game are superior. Some people are convinced it’s a bad port, others are convinced it proves inferior hardware. It doesn’t sound like Mass Effect 3 or Ninja…

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Removed from Steam Over Music Licensing

When Grand Theft Auto: Vice City disappeared from Steam’s marketplace a few days ago, some suspected it was because of the game’s upcoming release for iOS devices. Instead, what appears to be a lapsed license for one of the songs appearing in the game has forced the takedown, until the matter is resolved. Gaming Blend…