9 Minutes of Us *Trying* To Play The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

On the final day of E3, Kotaku intern Michael Epstein and I were running on fumes. I couldn’t hold a camera still and he couldn’t z-target. Nevertheless, we endeavored to play all three parts of the E3 2011 demo for this year’s big Wii game, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Please forgive the shakes;…

EA Sports Is Opening Up Its Own Retail Stores

Publisher Electronic Arts is making a big move in the online retail space, revealing its new digital distribution effort and Steam competitor Origin earlier this month. But the company still believes in brick and mortar—enough to open up its own retail stores, one of which will launch later this year. Chris Erb, VP of brand…

Steam Goes Free to Play

Starting today, Valve’s digital distribution service, Steam, supports Free to Play games (Spiral Knights, Forsaken Worlds, Champions Online, etc.) with in-game purchases through Steam’s microtransaction system. Players who download the games through Steam will receive exclusive content this week. [Valve]

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations‘ Altered Multiplayer Mode Rewards Better Killers—and Swifter Victims

The unusual competitive multiplayer mode that was introduced in last year’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will be changed for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations They’re not turning it into Call of Duty or like anything in any other major multiplayer game. It wil still be an assassination game that rewards stealthy players. But the there will be tweaks.…

Disney’s Making Another Video Game Movie, This Time with Some Simpsons and Futurama Talent

Somewhat thankfully, it is not another Super Mario Bros. movie. Instead, Disney’s upcoming Wreck-It Ralph is “the story of an arcade game Bad Guy determined to prove he can be a Good Guy.” Better still, it has some promising talent lined up. The 8-bit video game-inspired Wreck-It Ralph, a movie formerly known as Reboot Ralph,…

These Military Computer Games Are Ridiculously Ambitious

Last week I had a chance to talk to the Bohemia Interactive bossman, Marek Spanel. As one of the brains behind the original Operation Flashpoint, and then the three Arma games that followed, he is one PC gaming’s most ambitious developers. He’s now embarking on a huge project of developing three games across three studios…

Put Your Detective Skills to Work to Discover Minecraft‘s Next Features

Minecraft creator Notch announced via Twitter that the new screenshots from Minecraft beta 1.7 contain hidden information about the upcoming update. While Notch referenced only two screen shots and the changelog, Notch posted five pictures total. One picture was said to be a correction of a previously posted image, one a screenshot taken during daytime…

Roving Hackers “LulzSec” Take Down Minecraft, Escapist Magaine, and EVE Online

According to their Twitter updates, LulzSec has launched DDoS attacks—either on purpose or as a side effect of a mass hack attempt—that has taken down EVE Online, Escapist magazine, and Minecraft, proving conclusively that they hate everyone equally.

Spider-Man, Mega Man X2, Mad Dog McCree… Nintendo Download, are You Trying to Seduce Me?

Your lackluster performance at E3 2012 is complete forgotten, Nintendo, for you have brought the glory of Mad Dog McCree upon the 3DS, given Wii owners Mega Man X2 , and given portable players an early taste of The Amazing Spider-Man Yes, I realize Nintendo has nothing to do with the creation or development of…

Kinect Star Wars Adds a Sense of Misplaced Gravitas To Jedi Fights

I didn’t give Brooks Brown, Lucast Arts community manager, much time to dig into the Kinect-enabled Star Wars game before I began peppering him with questions. “Is this the entire game?” I asked. Turns out what we saw on stage, two guys controlling (or trying to control) jedi as they work their way through a…

Nintendo’s Two Reasons For Making a New Wii Now

We’ve been playing the same old Wii since 2006, which makes the calls for Nintendo to create a new Wii—Wii HD! Wii 2? Wii-As-Powerful-As-The-Xbox-360!?!—about… four years old. As recently as last November, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was telling Kotaku that it wasn’t time to talk about a new Wii yet. Now, it is…

Angry Birds Comes to the One Platform it was Missing: The Physical World

Initially only available on Nokia phones, new levels and birds will be unlocked for Angry Birds through NFC tags contained in Angry Birds merchandise, as well as special features when played in “magic” places. [ReadWriteWeb]

Crowd Jeers News that AT&T Is Exclusive 3G Provider for New PlayStation

The announcement last week that AT&T will be the exclusive 3G provider for the hot new PlayStation Vita did not go down well. The scene is Sony’s big PlayStation showcase in Los Angeles last week, an event that helped kick off the annual E3 promotional circus of upcoming video games. We’ve got several thousand video…

Duke Nukem Final Boss an Anti-Climax?

Unsurprisingly, Gearbox forum posters are talking about Duke Nukem Forever, and while they can’t seem to decide what was offensive and what was just par for the course, almost everyone agrees: the final boss pissed them off. SPOILERS AHEAD: [Gearbox]

New Gears of War 3 Horde Mode 2.0 Screen Shots

The Beauty of E3 2011

E3 2011 is over. Kotaku already showed 3,444 blinks from Kotaku‘s E3 2011 photographer, Isaac Viel. Here is a longer look (but with fewer photos) at E3 2011. This isn’t a recap of hardware you’ve already seen, but rather, a window in to what it’s like to actually be there—minus the exhaustion and fatigue. These…

Multi-City Zelda Concert Tour May Dip Into Canada, Ocarina Unconfirmed

Announced at E3, there will be a Legend of Zelda concert series this fall, commemorating the 25th anniversary of Link and Zelda’s first adventure. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime tells Kotaku that there will be tours in Japan, Europe and North America. He is hoping that the multi-city North American one, which is the…

End the Slander Against On-Rail Games. End it Now.

Did you think there were too many on-rail games at E3 this year? Kotaku reader Ivan Lopez remembers the good ol’ days of Time Crisis and House of the Dead. He’s staying loyal to the genre and wants to know if on-rail games were always treated this badly or if fans have just moved on…

Hitman Absolution Promises an Evolution in Agent 47 Kills, Skills and Personality

The most interesting thing about Hitman Absolution isn’t its new disguises or ways of killing people with a bit of cord. It’s not the decision to open the historically stealthy game up to a bit of action gameplay. It’s the insight the game’s mechanics are meant to give us into a character we’ve long controlled…

Does the Supporting Cast of L.A. Noire Look Familiar?

Those actors should! Many of them have appeared in big name TV programs and feature films. You might not know their names, but maybe you’ve seen their faces. They are character actors. Take Keith Szarabajka, who plays Arson Detective Herscel Biggs. The actor played Detective Stephens in The Dark Knight and appeared in Season 4…