Reviews

All’s Well That’s Haswell In Origin PC’s Millennium Gaming PC

Origin PC makes a damn fine $3,500 gaming system, even when the CPU isn’t exactly geared towards the high-end PC gamer. Well, that was an easy review. Who’s for dessert? It happens every time Intel introduces a new processor line — a barrage of announcements from the boutique PC industry mainstays, announcing that they’ve got…

Grand Theft Auto V: The Kotaku Review

Rockstar Games has scaled a mountain with Grand Theft Auto V, creating the best-looking, best-sounding and, most importantly, best-playing version of gaming’s most notorious franchise. Scaling one peak, however, reveals another—their cloud-piercing ambition to create a great ensemble video game drama, an epic of intersecting, interactive lives. Rockstar doesn’t summit that new peak as impressively…

The Wonderful 101: The Kotaku Review

The Wonderful 101 is a frustrating game, a confusing maelstrom of aliens and superheroes that seems to punish players for all the wrong reasons. The controls make no sense, the action is disorienting, and the camera is a mess. And then… Then… Somewhere during the first two hours, something clicks. Everything changes. Control schemes that…

The Clown Prince Of Crime Is Positively Petrifying In Plastic

I don’t know what’s worse. Having this Sideshow Collectibles Sixth-Scale Joker figure standing on my desk, or knowing he’s on a shelf or in a closet in his box, biding his time, chuckling under his breath. Give me the Batman: The Animated Series Joker any day. At least I know my demise will be quick…

Our Grand Theft Auto V review will run on Monday at 10am ET. Sorry, we can’t tell you more about the game right now, but the review, as they say, is in progress. GTA V will be released the following day, on September 17, for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Killzone: Mercenary: The Kotaku Review

Portable first-person shooters generally suck. The controls are too limited, the screens too small for fine detail, or the stories aren’t more than simple set dressing for an egregious bullet and blood ballet. Killzone: Mercenary does not feel like a portable first-person shooter. I was honestly expecting the worst when I discovered I’d been assigned…

Your Vast Knowledge of Trivia Is Your Greatest Weapon In Quiz RPG

What RPG-based genere mash-up could be more satusfying than GungHo Entertainment’s wildly popular Puzzle & Dragons‘ combination of collectible creatures and match-puzzle dungeoneering? The answer is Quiz RPG: The World of Mystic Wiz. Quiz RPG is almost exactly the same game as Puzzle & Dragons. Players collect, combine and evolve elemental-based spirits, forming a team…

Holy Walking Dead, Batman! That’s One Massively Ugly Action Figure

Standing 13 inches tall and sporting a removable chest piece that reveals his internal organs, DC Collectibles’ $90 Arkham City Solomon Grundy figure is the most hideous rendition of the character yet. With DC’s resident mutant zombie set tomake a return in the portable installment of Batman: Arkham Origins, now is the perfect time for…

The Uncomfortable Line Between Free-To-Play And Premium

When one downloads a free game for their phone or tablet, there’s a fair chance they’ll be getting an experience that isn’t all it can be without additional purchases. That shouldn’t be the case with $7 premium title like 2K Drive, yet here we are. To be clear, not a single additional penny is required…

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs: The Kotaku Review

Some games are defined by a single place; others by a single character. Still other games are defined by action, by something you can do in the game itself. In its early goings, the horror game Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is defined by a single word: Nope. Near to the start of the game,…

McDonald’s Mighty Wings: The Snacktaku Review

As you watch this video Snacktaku review for McDonald’s new Mighty Wings, try not to think about how horribly sick I feel the day after recording it. I sure am. I am not saying that McDonald’s take on America’s favorite way to consume birds is directly responsible for me running to the restroom every fifteen…

This Is Probably Not The Star Wars Game You Were Looking For

Star Wars: Force Collection is pretty sad. It’s not because it’s a collectible card game — well, not completely because it’s a collectible card game. Over the past year I’ve come to terms with the genre. If players are willing to spend ridiculous amounts of money on cards that don’t technically exist with arbitrary attack…

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Looks Great Even 20 Years Later

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a franchise that has spanned 25 years. Earlier this year, the first two story arcs were made into an anime; and two weeks back, the series’ newest game was released in Japan. So now is the perfect time to look back at the two Jojo OVAs. Surprisingly, they’ve aged quite well.…

Rayman Legends: The Kotaku Review

The mark of a better video game, for me, is that it lingers in my mind. I think about it after I’m done playing with it. It adds something enriching to my life, to my mental catalogue of experiences. The bad games don’t stick with me. I mostly forget them. I don’t think about them.…

There’s Only One Really Good Reason To Buy Nvidia’s Shield

Last month Nvidia unleashed the Shield portable gaming system, a $299 Tegra 4-powered combination dual-analog game pad and touchscreen Android tablet with the ability to stream gameplay directly from a gaming PC. One of those selling points is not like the others. When Nvidia announced its intention to make the leap from making video cards…

Ben’s Chili Bowl Half-Smokes and Chili Sauce: The Snacktaku Review

There’s a place called Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street in Washington D.C. that’s been the talk of the town since 1958. Ben’s half-smokes and chili sauce — a riff on the traditional chili dog — has been raved over by the rich and famous and showcased on any number of popular cable food programs.…

Lost Planet 3: The Kotaku Review

Early on in Lost Planet 3, main character Jim Peyton says “I’m here to work.” The 32-year-old isn’t a prophesied savior or a man of action who’s sworn vengeance for fallen comrades. He’s a dad who taken on grueling work so that his family can survive in a future where Earth’s energy woes have led…

Madden NFL 25: The Kotaku Review

The history of Madden NFL in the age of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is a history of inconsistent execution, of hit-and-miss features, some more easily marketed than implemented or understood. Of all the memories Madden NFL 25 could evoke in the series’ silver anniversary year, the strongest are of the gimmick Maddens, thanks…

Gatchaman Is So Full of Action Movie Clichés It Hurts

Gatchaman (i.e., Battle of the Planets) was one of the most popular anime of the 1970s. Now, 40 years later, this franchise is getting a new anime and a live-action film—which debuted in Japan this past weekend. Sadly, this attempt to reinvent Gatchaman has created nothing but a painfully clichéd action movie. Good – A…

Final Fantasy XIV (2010 Release): The Kotaku Review

On this, the eve of the official launch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, let’s take a look back at the original release of Square Enix’s second Final Fantasy MMO, and reflect on the wrongs the new version is trying to right. — Originally posted 10/21/2010 — Forget Cloud, Squall, Tidus, and Lightning; in…