PlayStation

Hands-On With Days Gone: Fun, But Kind Of Generic

Yesterday, I checked out a handful of upcoming PlayStation games and finally got to play Days Gone. Zombie apocalypses seem a dime a dozen these days, and while the setting and characters felt generic, the teeming zombie hordes are some of the most terrifying I’ve ever faced. Days Gone is an upcoming action-survival game by…

PSN is experiencing outages related to online gaming and social features. A notice on the official status page reads “You may have some difficulty launching games, applications, or online features.” According to some, games affected include Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, and others. [Update – 10:44pm]: It’s working.

Did You Know That Uncharted’s Damage Meter Is Actually ‘Luck’?

A tweet from a Naughty Dog animator helps explain how the heck Uncharted’s Nathan Drake can survive getting shot at so much. Pointing back to a little-known design factoid reminds players that Drake isn’t a massive bullet sponge—he’s just really lucky. Naughty Dog animator Jonathan Cooper brought up this piece of gaming trivia on Twitter…

Heavy Rain Headlines July’s PlayStation Plus Lineup

I’ve never actually played a David Cage game; I end up watching them on YouTube since they’re already so cinematic. Could Heavy Rain’s inclusion in July’s PS Plus lineup change my trend? (Probably not.) As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active PlayStation Plus subscription. July’s PlayStation Plus lineup is: PlayStation 4…

The Upcoming Painting Platformer Concrete Genie Comes From A Different Kind Of PlayStation Studio

As with most games shown at E3 a couple of weeks ago, it’s too soon to say if Concrete Genie will be what its demo hints that it can be. But it’s clear that it’ll be an easy game to root for. There’s the good: It’s a magical-looking game featuring a boy named Ash who…

This PlayStation-Inspired Arcade Game Is Scarier Than It Looks

OK/NORMAL is an experimental arcade game by Toni Kortelahti that embraces the visuals of early PlayStation games. The game, which captures the strange and abstract worlds of mid-90s 3D, is one of several new indie titles that embrace a new form of “retro” aesthetics. It’s an oppressive, bizarre, and overwhelming game whose glitch spaces are…

Skull & Bones Is More Of A Pirate Version Of Destiny Than It Initially Appeared

For the last year, I’ve been confused about Ubisoft’s upcoming pirate game. Perhaps you have been as well. Skull & Bones, to be released in 2019 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, debuted at last year’s E3 as an apparent offshoot of the pirate adventures in 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, except without the…

Ghost Of Tsushima‘s Director On The Risks Of Making Something New

In an room in need of air conditioning in the Los Angeles Convention Center last week, game developer Nate Fox held out his left hand, palm down, paused and then slapped the top of it with his right. “Do you know—[slap]—that?” he asked. He wasn’t sure the name of the playground game he was referencing,…

Seeing The Resident Evil 2 Remake In Action Soothes My Skeptical Heart

When Resident Evil 2 released in 1998, it had to follow up on a game that defined a new genre of horror. Not only did it manage to improve the formula, it went on to be what many people consider the best game in the series. After a long stretch with no new information besides…

Ubisoft’s Starlink Is Surprisingly Cool, With Or Without Star Fox

Starlink: Battle For Atlas isn’t a Star Fox game. Nintendo’s furry pilot and his famous Arwing fighter are in the Switch version and—I hope you’re sitting down—not in the Xbox One and PS4 versions. It’s not even fully a toys game, a la Skylanders or Disney Infinity, because it turns out you don’t even need…

Overcooked 2 Lets You Crash A Restaurant Into Another Restaurant

The co-op cooking game Overcooked 2 was one of the featured third-party announcements during Nintendo’s E3 presentation this year. After playing it, I understand why. While others on the Kotaku team have been praising the first Overcooked for a while, I hadn’t had the time (or, sniff, the friends) to play it. At E3, after…

Nike’s PlayStation Sneakers Are Back [Update]

Nike’s original and super-limited 2006 release of some PlayStation-branded AF1s became something of a cult classic, so this week they’re bringing them back. Update June 12 – Added official images from Nike. I always thought they looked like clown shoes myself, and they’re not a patch on Nike’s other PlayStation effort for 2018, the light-up…

Podcast: We React To Sony And Nintendo At E3 2018

The E3 press conferences are over, and there’s a lot to talk about. Maybe not as much as we were hoping for, but still a lot. On this third episode of Kotaku Splitscreen’s E3 coverage, Jason and I talk through our feelings on Sony’s big show last night and Nintendo’s Smashstravaganza this morning. We also…

Swinging Through New York City As Spidey Feels Effortless

The New York Insomniac created for Spider-Man is just about everything I’ve hoped for since the 2001 Sam Raimi movie with Tobey Maguire. The buildings are all very tall, divided between glass skyscrapers and old brick high rises. In between, there are alleyways bathed in the warm glow of a setting sun that never seems…

Everything Sony Showed At E3 2018

Tonight at Sony’s PlayStation E3 press conference, they showed off a handful of games including The Last of Us Part II, some more Spider-Man, and the gorgeous-looking Ghost of Tsushima. They also announced Nioh 2. Good night for samurai games! The show was logistically odd, as attendees were herded through a couple of different locations…

Samurai Game Ghost of Tsushima Is Gorgeous

Sony showed the first gameplay of the upcoming samurai action game Ghost of Tsushima at their E3 2018 press conference this evening. It was a beautiful ballet of swords and arrows. First announced at last year’s Paris Games Week, Ghost of Tsushima is the next game from Infamous studio Sucker Punch Productions, and it’s looking…

Watch Sony’s E3 2018 Press Conference Here, Live [Update: Over]

We’ve got more E3 with Sony’s press conference at 6pm PT/9pm ET. We’re looking forward to more Spider-Man, The Last of Us Part 2, and maybe some Death Stranding You can watch at YouTube, below, or on Twitch

Everything We Learned About Assassin’s Creed Odyssey After Playing It

The next Assassin’s Creed is going to turn heads. That won’t just be because it’s set in ancient Greece, nor simply because it lets you play as a man or a woman. It’s also changing the series’ combat yet again, offering more options for stealth, and even fleshing out the modern-day stuff that’s been lacking…

There Are Finally New PixelJunk Games, And They’re Both Terrific

For a lovely few years during the heyday of the Playstation 3 we got a steady drip of new PixelJunk games. They were usually really good. Now, after a seven-year (mostly) dry spell, we’ve got two more. In the last couple of weeks, the Kyoto-based Q-Games has released PixelJunk Eden Obscura for cell phones and…

Whoops, I Started Playing Bloodborne Again

You know how you tell yourself you’re gonna finally try some new restaurants, then a week later you’re back at the same pizza place you always go to? I’ve been doing that same thing, except with Bloodborne Over the last two days, I’ve spent a good dozen hours replaying FromSoftware’s 2015 PlayStation 4 monster-slicer. I…