PlayStation

L.A. Noire‘s Ending, Revisited

I’ve been playing through L.A. Noire for the last month and a half on Kotaku’s Twitch channel. This weekend we finished the game. The conclusion is bittersweet but there was no other way for a tale of crime and corruption to end. Controversial in its day, L.A Noire’s ending is perfect when viewed in retrospect.…

Watch PlayStation’s TGS 2017 Press Conference Right Here [Update: It’s Over]

Today in Tokyo, Sony is holding its annual pre-Tokyo Game Show press conference. What announcements will Sony make? What surprises will there be? Watch here and find out. 9/19 – 4:20am Update: The press conference is over, but you can still watch it in the YouTube clip below. The press conference is slated to start…

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite‘s Collector’s Edition Is Disappointing

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite releases tomorrow and has a sizable collector’s edition. The package includes a number of goodies, including statues and replicas, but some fans are rethinking the $200 price point after seeing early images of its questionable Infinity Stones. In addition to a copy of the game, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s Collector Edition…

Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Could Do Without Story Mode

Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite arrives this week, bringing a revamped two-character tag-team battle system and cinematic storytelling to the long-running crossover series. The fighting is a blast. The storytelling could use some work. Since X-Men Vs. Street Fighter back in 1996, Capcom’s been pitting heroes and villains from Marvel Comics with its own character creations…

Meanwhile, In Destiny 1…

The video game industrial complex wants you to play Destiny 2 right now, but spare a moment for the first Destiny. It’s on its way to becoming a ghost town. I got into the first game 11 months late in the summer of 2015. It was lively then, and my timing was good. Myriad patches…

New South Park Game Gets Harder If You Play A Black Character

South Park: The Fractured But Wholes’ difficulty slider will change players’ skin color. As reported by Eurogamer, the game’s character creator will have an effect on gameplay, altering how NPCs respond and affecting how much money characters will make. Gameplay captured at a preview event shows that creating a South Park character with lighter skin…

Hellblade’s Design Captures The Trauma Of Loss

Focusing on themes of grief and trauma, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice employs a number of level design and mechanical tricks to help players empathize with the main character’s struggle. We take a closer look in this critical video. SPOILERS AHEAD Transcript: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice tells the story of a warrior on a quest to revive her dead…

Nioh’s final DLC Bloodshed’s End releases on September 26th Among the additions will be a perpetual battle mode called ‘The Abyss,” which I guess means the bloodshed isn’t really ending at all.

Ark Is Going Full-On Sci-fi In Aberration, Its Next Major Expansion [UPDATE]

Ark: Survival Evolved hasn’t even been out a week in its official Version 1.0 form but that hasn’t stopped developer Wildcard from unveiling the game’s second major expansion. Following last year’s controversial, desert-based Scorched Earth paid-DLC, which was released before the game even hit 1.0, Ark’s newest expansion is called Aberration. It’s set for release…

A Ridiculous Little Detail In Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Maybe a video game can have too much detail? The new PS4 Uncharted game Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is plenty likable, with lots of scenic vistas, exciting car chases, and all the other expected Uncharted trimmings. It’s also extremely good-looking, especially if you pay close attention. Early in the game, protagonist Chloe Frazer and her…

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy: The Kotaku Review

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is an easy video game to like in spite of its flaws. It’s buoyed by a winning cast of characters and has some of the prettiest vistas this side of an actual trip to India. It also includes one of the most entertaining hidden features I’ve ever encountered in a video…

PlayStation’s Twitter, Facebook Accounts Briefly Hacked [Update]

PlayStation had its Twitter and Facebook accounts compromised earlier today. The group OurMine appears to have been behind it, the same team that gained access to HBO and Game of Thrones’ social media accounts a few days ago. They had enough time to send out a few tweets and Facebook messages before being locked out.…

The Division’s Latest Updates Hint At How Interesting The Sequel Might Be

“More is more” must be the mantra of the makers of The Division, Ubisoft’s fun but flawed post-disaster shooter that has somehow not collapsed beneath the weight of the latest mound of content added to it. Less really would be more, and probably will be when Ubisoft gets around to releasing a sequel that starts…

Growing Up, I Bonded With My Older Brothers Through Games

As a kid, when I told people that I was the youngest in my family and had three older brothers, they would often say, “Three older brothers? Oh, you poor thing!” My brothers Bob, Mike, and Joe are 11, 10, and 7 years older than me, respectively. At first, I didn’t understand why adults thought…

The Best Start To An Assassin’s Creed Game

If I have one guilty pleasure series, it’s Assassin’s Creed. Normally, I’m not one to get excited about yearly releases, let alone broken games. But I’ve played and mostly enjoyed every game in the series. Recently, I returned to Assassin’s Creed II, and, much to my surprise, I realized just how much I’ve lowered my…

The Best Audio Logs In Horizon Zero Dawn

You’ll spend most of your time in Horizon Zero Dawn fighting giant mechanical dinosaurs. It’s the game’s most obvious strength, and it’s a fun, exciting thing to do. But I want to praise one of the game’s subtler successes: a remarkable set of audio logs that stand as some of the best background storytelling of…

No Man’s Sky Creators Say The Game Will Receive A Big Update This Week

No Man’s Sky will be getting an update this week to improve the story and add quick travel using portals. The announcement came at the end of an ongoing ARG that has been teasing changes to the game. A new memo sent by game designer Sean Murray revealed that the new update, called Atlas Rises…

Battlefield 1 Is Bringing Back Specializations

Battlefield 1 will add a new feature to the game that grants characters perks and special abilities. These specializations are live for testing and look to change the game in a big way. ‘Specializations’ have been a long-standing tradition of the Battlefield games ever since 2006’s Battlefield 2142. In games like Battlefield 4, selecting certain…

Long Lines And Sell-Outs For Dragon Quest XI In Japan 

Water is wet. Sugar is sweet. And Japan loves Dragon Quest. In the least surprising news of the weekend, the latest DQ release drew long lines. At some locations, the game sold out. Website Inside Games covered the Tokyo launch, reporting how over 200 people lined up at the Bic Camera in Ikebukuro. Another 200…

Nioh Just Added A Feature That Should Be In All Loot Games

The excellent PS4 samurai action game Nioh is overloaded with loot, but its developers may have solved one of their game’s few problems with a clever tweak in the game’s new 1.14 patch. Like many things in Nioh, the tweak is initially inscrutable. The patch notes describe it this way: -Added the option “display take”…