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Reviews
Spending Quality Time With Two Metal Gear Solid Action Figures
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Metal Gear franchise, Square Enix and Konami have teamed up to release a bunch of figures based on the venerable stealth series. Today, we’re taking a look at two of them. I’ve got two figures on my kitchen bench with a camera in their face: Solid Snake and…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 3, 2012 -
ReviewsFable Heroes: The Kotaku Review
Fable video games are supposed to operate around a promise. The three role-playing games spearheaded by former Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux dangled themes of changeable appearance, persistent consequence and pledge-keeping to pique players’ interest. And, yeah, the knock on the Fable games is that they tend to overpromise and under-deliver. However, to my mind, it’s…
By Evan Narcisse Published May 2, 2012 -
ReviewsPrototype 2: The Kotaku Review
In very few games have I truly inhabited the persona of a goddam-right-I-am badass, whose demonstrations of power were as personal as Prototype 2‘s. And it’s not because I’ve imagined any of the superpowers you wield in this game, or how I’d perform with them. It’s because of the very normal, very pissed-off man in…
By Owen Good Published April 25, 2012 -
ReviewsTrials Evolution: The Kotaku review
My time with Trials Evolution got me thinking a lot about human perfectibility. It’s essentially the principle that no matter how good a person is at something, given enough will and effort, there’s still ostensibly room for them to get even better. That idea seems to be one that developer RedLynx banks on. “Yeah, you…
By Evan Narcisse Published April 19, 2012 -
ReviewsMcGangBang: The Snacktaku Review
You think you know the McDonald’s menu? You keep abreast of the changes, the limited-edition items, the seasonal fare. You’re pretty well-informed, sure, but did you know about McDonald’s secret menu, on which the dreaded McGangBang lives? Open your eyes, snackster! There is more to eating complete crap than lining up in a queue and…
By Mike Fahey Published April 16, 2012 -
Reviews
This is a Real Man’s PlayStation Vita Case
If you had to describe most video game carrying accessories in one word, it would probably be something like minimal. Boring. Tacky. Cheap. Puffy. And it would usually look like something you’d buy for $10 that looks like it cost $0.50 to make. Which is why I like Waterfield’s new PlayStation Vita case so much.…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 16, 2012 -
ReviewsFez: The Kotaku Review
The first thing that appealed to me about Fez, an independent puzzle platforming game developed by Polytron, was how adorable it was. If my childhood proved anything, it was that eight bits of detail can still make me squee with delight. I instantly knew that I would need a plushie version of Gomez, the main…
By Tina Amini Published April 11, 2012 -
ReviewsXenoblade Chronicles: The Kotaku Review
Xenoblade Chronicles taught me an important lesson: Never trust the Internet. You see, for the past few months, everybody everywhere on the web has been hyping the hell out of Monolith Soft’s new Wii role-playing game, which publisher Nintendo will release in the United States this Friday (though it’s been out in Europe for almost…
By Jason Schreier Published April 5, 2012 -
ReviewsTiger Woods PGA Tour 13: The Kotaku Review
Last year’s sports video game of the year, the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series this year faces what NBA 2K12 did in October—a nearly impossible encore. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 at last delivered The Masters, reviving a series that had plateaued and giving longtime golf fans moments and memories that were legitimately emotional. How…
By Owen Good Published April 4, 2012 -
Reviews
The First True 7.1 Surround Sound Headset Makes Me Want to Buy a Better Sound Card
Back in 2002 I dropped a large chunk of change on a pair of “true” 6.1 surround sound headphones. They were essentially a pair of normal headphones with extra speakers extending out to either side of each ear cup. They looked ridiculous. I loved them. After spending three weeks with Razer’s Tiamat 7.1, the world’s…
By Mike Fahey Published April 4, 2012 -
ReviewsKinect Star Wars: The Kotaku Review
If you know how to use the Internet, you will have little trouble finding people who will tell you that Kinect Star Wars is a bad video game. These people are correct. The combination of one popular thing (Star Wars!) with another popular thing (the magical hands-free Xbox 360 Kinect sensor!) has resulted in one…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 3, 2012 -
ReviewsTotal War: Shogun 2: The Fall of the Samurai: The Kotaku Review
Or, as I should have called it, my review of the Great Colon War of 1864 In 2009, Creative Assembly released one of the greatest strategy games ever made. A year later, they had the cheek to release an expansion pack and try and pass it off as an all-new title. Skip ahead to 2011,…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2012 -
ReviewsKid Icarus: Uprising: The Kotaku Review
How much to we value weirdness? How much weight do we place on eccentricity? There are so many video games that are essentially retreads of the same old tired space; it can feel so nice to see a game that, even while following the same basic formulas as its brethren, does so with enthusiastic weirdness.…
By Kirk Hamilton Published March 23, 2012 -
ReviewsNinja Gaiden 3: The Kotaku Review
I admit it: I may well be the world’s worst ninja. My sense of timing is less than exemplary, my coordination is not always great, and sometimes I just plain lose track of what’s going on. If Ninja Gaiden 3 had needed me to learn any actual skills or to provide any creative input into…
By Kate Cox Published March 22, 2012 -
Reviews
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City: The Kotaku Review
Last week, I spoke to a room full of teenagers at the Brooklyn Public Library about video games and technology. When they asked me what unreleased games I was playing as a perk of my job, I answered that I was getting up to my elbows in an upcoming Resident Evil game. “Resident Evil 6?!,”…
By Evan Narcisse Published March 20, 2012 -
ReviewsThe FP: The Kotaku Movie Review
Gamers have yet to have our own equivalent to Bull Durham, which is one of the most celebrated sports movies of all time, due to its portrayal of baseball, its players, and its fans, for those not familiar. And while The FP, the debut new film by the Trost Bros, is hardly perfect, it’s the…
Matt Hawkins Published March 19, 2012 -
ReviewsNaruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations: The Kotaku Review
It’s been nearly ten years since Naruto made its animated debut in Japan. Over the past decade Studio Pierrot has told countless stories of the young ninja and his friends, introducing dozens of characters into the ever-expanding sage. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations attempts to cram all of that into a single fighting game.…
By Mike Fahey Published March 14, 2012 -
ReviewsA 14-Button Motion-Sensing Steering Wheel Only a PC Gamer Could Love (Or Use)
For any PC racing enthusiast that’s ever craved a high-end steering wheel setup but lacked the money / motivation / room to set one up, SteelSeries’ Simraceway SRW-S1 Steering Wheel is the answer to all of your problems, and the cause of a couple new ones. Traditional PC steering wheel setups require, at the very…
By Mike Fahey Published March 14, 2012 -
Reviews
Can this Metal Arcade Stick Breathe Fire into Your Gaming?
Fighting game players are particular about their sticks. They have every right to be considering how important it is to play with a sturdy stick and tough casing. That’s what the Drop FireDragon stick aims to deliver—something tough, sturdy, and metal. But does it? Right out of the box, so much of the FireDragon hits…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
ReviewsMLB 12: The Show: The Kotaku Review
When you have done so much right for so long, to the point that very little needs to be changed, the paradox of your success is that what you offer risks becoming stale. For years, MLB The Show has been one of the most universally acclaimed video games, regardless of genre, and its improvements—while observable—sometimes…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012