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ReviewsSimCity Social: The Kotaku Review
Facebook has been very good to the city-building genre. Every day millions of people wake up, log in and click away the day placing buildings, upgrading facilities and incessantly bugging their friends for help in titles like Zynga’s CityVille or Game Insight’s My Country. Now the legendary franchise that inspired these games has come to…
By Mike Fahey Published July 10, 2012 -
ReviewsLondon 2012: The Kotaku Review
There are few activities in life that feel sillier than playing an Olympics video game. There are fewer activities that better illuminate how ridiculous the act of playing a video game can be. You’re not running a 100-meter dash. You’re pretending to run one. You’re pretending by waiting for the signal, then—press that A-button!—you’re off….…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 9, 2012 -
Reviews
You Don’t Need to Spend $200 on a Custom Xbox 360 Controller, But You Might Want To
Back in May I praised the looks of a custom Xbox 360 controller created especially for Kotaku by the folks at The Controller Shop, and the verdict was nearly unanimous — that’s an ugly controller. Speaking as the man that selected the color scheme, everyone was wrong. But I’m not here to review the gorgeous…
By Mike Fahey Published July 6, 2012 -
Reviews
There’s An Actual Team Fortress 2 Soldier In My House
It feels like forever since the first piece in Gaming Heads’ line of large, expensive Team Fortress 2 statues came out. Probably because it’s actually been forever. But now, after over a year, we have a second one available. And it’s just as nice as the first one. WHAT’S IN THE BOX 1x TF2 Soldier…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 4, 2012 -
ReviewsSpelunky: The Kotaku Review
Sometimes a video game is like a razor blade. Only millimeters thick, yet sharpened to a fine edge sharp enough to draw blood if you’re not paying attention. Once you learn that truth, such a game requires your total attention lest you wind up bleeding a lot. Spelunky comes to the Xbox 360, sharp enough…
By Evan Narcisse Published July 3, 2012 -
ReviewsTheatrhythm Final Fantasy: The Kotaku Review
During a recent interview, Ichiro Hazama, producer and main mind behind Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, was asked by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to sum up his game in a few words “Hmm, that’s a difficult one,” Hazama said. “I suppose I’d say it’s basically a Final Fantasy music game.” Can’t put it much better than that.…
By Jason Schreier Published July 3, 2012 -
ReviewsStrawberries: The Snacktaku Review
This past weekend Mother Nature attempted to set me on fire, scorching the entire country in a desperate attempt to stop me from turning my critical snackologist eye on what many consider one of her greatest creations. What’s the matter, Mother Nature? You nervous girl? Well you should be. Mother Nature and I have never…
By Mike Fahey Published July 2, 2012 -
ReviewsThe Amazing Spider-Man: The Kotaku Review
There probably hasn’t ever been a superhero who hasn’t gone through the cycle of losing his/her powers, getting them back and becoming more powerful than ever. It’s been the same for video game series devoted to costumed crimefighters. With Rocksteady Studios’ Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, Batman’s currently enjoying the best titles ever made in…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 29, 2012 -
Reviews
Skyrim: Dawnguard: The Kotaku Review
I had very high expectations for Skyrim: Dawnguard How could I not? Creator Bethesda touted it as the type of DLC that would feel like an expansion pack, a nice chunk of crazy new content for RPG fans to dig their dragon-weary paws into. And of course, Skyrim was one of last year’s best video…
By Jason Schreier Published June 29, 2012 -
Reviews
A Gaming Mouse and Keyboard Combo Made to Play Together
The mouse and keyboard are the sword and shield of the PC gamer, an alliance of hardware bent on game domination. They’re both integral to the PC gaming experience, but rarely are they built to play together. There are plenty of matched sets, but rarely does their synergy extend beyond outward appearances. German hardware maker…
By Mike Fahey Published June 28, 2012 -
ReviewsOn the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 3: The Kotaku Review
Have you been feeling a distinct lack of Final Fantasy IV in your life lately? Do you really miss the early 1990s? Were 32-bit games just two times too many bits for you? Have you grown weary of the third dimension? If so, congratulations: you are exactly the niche that On the Rain-Slick Precipice of…
By Kate Cox Published June 26, 2012 -
ReviewsSpec Ops: The Line: The Kotaku Review
Spec Ops: The Line takes place beneath a sea of sand, deep within the Arabian Desert. In the game’s fiction, the once-opulent city of Dubai lays in ruins, stripped and wrecked by the wrath of nature. (And I mean: The hubris of this place! Maybe Dubai kind of had it coming.) This evocative, provocative setting…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 26, 2012 -
Reviews
Check Out My 12″ Boba Fett
Um. Here he is. Part of Sideshow’s line of sixth-scale Star Wars figures, this Boba Fett piece arrived at my house this morning. He really is quite lovely. While loaded with around a billion accessories and display stands, this is a large-format (12″) “figure”, and not a “statue”. Much of his arsenal is interchangeable, and…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 26, 2012 -
ReviewsLego: Batman 2: DC Super Heroes: The Kotaku Review
Lego: Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is the best Batman-Superman team-up video game I’ve ever played, though it’s worth mentioning that it is also the only Batman-Superman team-up video game I’ve ever played. (It might be the only one that exists.) This new game is the 10th of the popular Lego action-adventure games that began…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 25, 2012 -
Reviews
The Amazing Spider-Man Film is… Well… Amazing!
Japan loves Spider-Man. I mean they LOVE him. It’s not the same with other American superheroes—Batman, Superman, and most of the recent Marvel movies tend to do poorly in at the Japanese box office. Even Avengers didn’t get a major push in the Japanese media until after it proved to be a financial success in…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published June 25, 2012 -
ReviewsQuantum Conundrum: The Kotaku Review
Let’s just get this out of the way: Yes, Quantum Conundrum is a first-person puzzler, just like Portal. Yes, it was designed by Kim Swift, the project lead on Portal. And yes, it shares some of Portal‘s core traits: there’s a physics-altering arm device, a goofy omniscient narrator, and an alarming number of buttons that…
By Jason Schreier Published June 21, 2012 -
ReviewsPokémon Conquest: The Kotaku Review
Since the release of the first Pokémon role-playing game in 1996, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have attempted to capitalize on the success of the core series by overlaying its colorful cartoon characters on other genres. Thanks in no small part to the power of the brand, Pokémon pinball, puzzle, turn-based dungeon crawlers and more…
By Mike Fahey Published June 20, 2012 -
ReviewsSteel Battalion: Heavy Armor: The Kotaku Review
I used to have one of the hugely impractical, super-expensive controllers for the original Steel Battalion. It went MIA somewhere during the various moves of my adult life, but before it did, I remember that I broke it out in all its glory maybe one or two times. I never got very far in the…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 19, 2012 -
Reviews
The Hori Fighting Edge is a Beast of a Stick
Lots of people play fighting games. Many are happy to use their standard control pads. But real fighting game enthusiasts insist on playing fighting games the way they were meant to be played: on an arcade-style joystick. And no stick I’ve ever played with has felt more like sitting at an actual arcade cabinet than…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published June 19, 2012 -
Reviews
Golden Oreos: The Snacktaku Review
Oreo. In the snacking world there are few words more powerful than that glorious combination of three vowels and a consonant. Since 1912 Nabisco has dominated the cookie market with this marriage of chocolate and cream, the unassailable king of its domain. As recently as 2003 no serious snackologist would have dreamt of attempting to…
By Mike Fahey Published June 18, 2012