Assassin’s Creed III: The Kotaku Review

It is one of the best video games of the year, one of the most daring developed by a major studio this generation, and one of the most beautiful to ever run on any machine. It stumbles from some awkward glitches and some game design over-reach, but it is superb in a surprising number of…

If you can’t slam with the best, would you kindly jam with the rest?

This Is What Clans Will Look Like In StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

Launching this week as part of a patch for the Heart of the Swarm beta, the new StarCraft II clan system supports group chat, news/announcement sections, officer promotions, and all the other things you might expect a clan system to have. Anyone can make a clan, Blizzard says, and fill it out however he/she would…

Okami Looks Better Than Ever

Via Capcom, here’s the launch trailer for Okami HD, which is out today on PSN for $20. Not gonna lie: it’s pretty gorgeous. Okami was already a pretty game when it was released for PlayStation 2 in 2006, and it looks even cooler in high definition. I dig!

Dead Island Riptide Will Be Released April 23, Special Edition Announced

Dead Island Riptide will be released on April 23, developer Deep Silver announced in a press release today. They also announced a special edition of the game, which includes “a pack of exclusive weapon mods (for more creative undead destruction!), a digital strategy map (for the best expert advice on how to own the approaching…

Amazon Is Running An All-Day Video Game Sale

Just a heads up: Amazon is running Lightning Deals on games all day today. Looks like Sleeping Dogs, Skyrim, and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy are just some of the titles on sale.

2K Sports Loads the Wrong Roster into NBA 2K13’s Update

After James Harden (pictured via Operation Sports, above) was traded to the Houston Rockets in a weekend blockbuster deal, NBA fans were keen to see how he’d play with his new team in NBA 2K13. Trouble is, this morning’s regular roster update didn’t have Harden on the Rockets. Nor did it look a thing like…

Need For Speed: Most Wanted: The Kotaku Review

Need For Speed: Most Wanted is a video game shot out of a cannon. It starts at a sprint and never stops for breath, hurtling forward with such momentum that it feels like it may rattle apart at any moment. Most Wanted is exhilarating, disorienting, maddening, cathartic, and hilarious, all in equal measure. It’s the…

Stand by… we’ll have our review ready shortly…

It’s Official: Grand Theft Auto V Is Coming This Spring

Following a whole bunch of rumors and reports, Rockstar has officially confirmed that Grand Theft Auto V will hit store shelves this spring. “Grand Theft Auto V builds on everything we’ve learned about open world game design,” Rockstar’s Sam Houser said in a press release this afternoon. “We can’t wait to share it with fans.”…

Let’s Not Forget About Transformers Prime

Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Assassin’s Creed III are nice and all, but where are the giant animated robots? Right here, babycakes. The Wii U version of Transformers Prime hits November 18. It looks much prettier.

Welcome to back-up Kotaku!

We’ll be posting here until our site is back online. Kotaku and the rest of Gawker Media’s sites were knocked offline yesterday as our main data center lost power due to flooding. We’re awaiting word on when it will be up and running again, but with so many people out of power in Manhattan and…

This Is What Hurricane Sandy Did To My Neighborhood

I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve still got power, and despite some flickering, I never lost electricity when the hurricane hit New York City last night. But there’s still some serious damage here on the Upper East Side. Broken trees, destroyed scaffolding, flooded streets. Empty highways: Trees blocking the streets: People WALKING on the…

Activision’s Activate Social Mobile Platform Begins with Skylanders

As mentioned in yesterday morning’s Skylanders mobile game story, which can’t be accessed currently for various storm-related reasons, Activision is debuting it’s social mobile platform Activate in Skylanders Battlegrounds, Lost Islands and an update to last year’s Skylanders Cloud Patrol The service, tied to Facebook for login purposes, adds multiplayer challenges, leaderboards and cloud saving…

My Insane Hurricane Sandy Video, As Seen on The Weather Channel

What you see above is an electrical fire in Queens, NY that I took last night at around 8pm. My dad and I walked outside to check the damage Hurricane Sandy had done to our neighborhood in Douglaston. Winds were very powerful, but nothing seemed too crazy. Not just yet. Then we saw a transformer…

The New Dragon Quest Will Use 3DS Street Pass

Next February in Japan, Dragon Quest VII is headed to the 3DS. The remake will take advantage of the 3DS Street Pass feature to exchange shards and feature new additional characters. Here’s a first look.

The Xbox 360’s First Major Second-Screen Game Is Live

How good is the Xbox 360’s impersonation of the Wii U? If you have Forza Horizon, a Windows Tablet, an Xbox 360 and-oh yeah, power in your home and Internet (not guaranteed in times like these!)-you can find out. The game’s SmartGlass support just went live. Full press release below. And note how this works:…

The iPhone Game Charts for 10/30 2012

Lacking access to this previous week’s charts keeps the comparison to a minimum in this week’s iPhone game charts. New games on the paid list include Arms Cartel Global and Grand Theft Auto III On the free side, Slendr is all the rage, with the excellent Punch Quest, the charitable Bubble Galaxy with Buddies and…

GTA V Spring Release Date Confirmed by European Mega-Chain

The “Spring 2013” posters for Grand Theft Auto V that leaked this weekend were definitely real, as the European retailer GAME went and Tweeted images of the same thing. IGN screencapped a Tweet sent by the retailer. The Tweet has since been taken offline. Platforms for the game are Xbox 360 and PS3. No sign…

This is Kotaku, Reporting In

Among other things, today is the day that the new Assassin’s Creeds are out (III and Liberation) as well as the new Need For Speed. We have reviews in the works for all of them and will share at least some of the review material here. There will be some news stories spinning out of…