PlayStation

Ubisoft’s new Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag story trailer shows a colorful Caribbean setting, the game’s young captain’s fight for glory and how he got drawn into the war between the Assassins and Templars. An action packed trailer, so what better song than “Two Steps From Hell?” Edward Kenway story trailer | Assassin’s Creed IV…

The New PS Vita Torn Apart

The new PS Vita was recently released in Japan. You probably know it has a new LCD screen. But what do the rest of its innards look like? Blue, orange, black, and gray, it seems! Japanese site 4Gamer took apart the new Vita for your viewing pleasure. In case you missed it, here are Kotaku‘s…

The Latest PS4 Commercial Is Also A Musical

This PS4 commercial debuted on Monday Night Football roughly 60 seconds ago. Not bad, huh? Makes me want to sing more than it makes me want a PS4, but hey. The next PlayStation is out November 15. Just a month away. Tick tock.

We Tried The Dark Souls 2 Beta. Brutal, But Fun.

I’m going to drop some big news here, are you ready? Dark Souls 2 is really difficult. There, I said it. Of course it’s also fun, if you’re into the particular brand of masochistic fun that From Software provides. I spent two hours playing the beta and trying to get a handle on the changes,…

The North American Tales of Symphonia Chronicles $100 Collector’s Edition for the PS3 is epic. If four Chibi Kyun Chara figures, a novel detailing what happened between Tales of Symphonia and Dawn of the New World, a multi-disc soundtrack and special collector’s packaging isn’t enough to get you to re-buy two games you’ve already played,…

The Best And Worst of the Last Generation of Gaming

PlayStation 3. Xbox 360. Wii. Over the past eight years, electronic boxes wearing one of those three brands came to occupy space in the entertainment centers of millions of people around the world. They were the heralds of the most innovative, occasionally uncomfortable, undeniably exciting era in video game history. That era is finally nearing…

With Any Luck, Call of Duty Just Made Tea-Bagging Uncool

Nothing against tea-bagging in first-person shooters other than it being played out, stupid-looking and annoying. But I guess it’s also super-hilarious, hence this immortal awards show moment a couple of years ago. Uproarious! Now. Despite the good people at Microsoft’s Halo development team trying to re-dub “tea-bagging” as “victory-crouching“, the former is still a thing.…

One of the villains hunting the Dark Knight in Batman: Arkham Origins must hate water. Revealed during the game’s spotlight panel during this past weekend’s New York Comic-Con, the Electrocutioner is one of the super-assassins looking to collect a bounty on Batman’s head. It’s a safe bet that some of that electrified villain tech will…

Pissed-Off Customer Gets Free PS4 After Cursing Retailer on Twitter

Badmouthing the British video games retailer ShopTo on Twitter might just get your order canceled. The company today apologized for canceling the order of a customer who used profanity in complaining to a friend—not to ShopTo—about the pricing of a PlayStation 4 bundle. Still, ShopTo’s apology seems to leave open the possibility that if you…

To celebrate the PlayStation Plus release (in Japan) of Gravity Rush, sand artist Kisato drew Kat in three different outfits. From what I can tell of this entrancing video, if you’re an artist working with sand, it pays to have really well groomed fingernails. [via NeoGAF]

The New Voice Of The Joker Killed It At Comic Con

Troy Baker, who has replaced Mark Hamill as the Joker in the next big Batman Arkham video game, and who has replaced Nolan North as the ubiquitous voice-actor who seems to star in every other major game, read some lines at New York Comic Con yesterday. And not just any lines. Some lines the great…

Skylanders: Swap Force: The Kotaku Review

It’s taken 40 long years, but it’s finally happened. I’ve finally become an adult, and it’s all thanks to the latest Skylanders game. I just don’t understand the Swap Force The first Skylanders game gave us a batch of toys we could place on a portal to use as characters in a well-crafted action role-playing…

Skylanders: Swap Force Buyers’ Guide: What You Need, What You Don’t

You would think that on the third installment of Activision’s highly-successful toys-meets-games series they’d give folks the option to just buy the game by itself. Ha ha! We’re not getting off that easy. Every Skylander figure released thus far will work on Skylanders: Swap Force. You could play through the entire game using only first…

One Of The Weirdest JRPGs We’ll See Next Year

Note: Today on Random Encounters, we’ve got a very special treat for you: a guest column by Kotaku bossman Stephen “JRPG Lover” Totilo. Be nice! —Jason. Thanks, Jason… can I start my column now? —Stephen. Some of us like video games that we might call “insane.” We mean this in the best of possible ways.…

GTA Online, Week Two: All People Want To Do Is Kill Each Other

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNfhcD… I’m a week into playing GTA Online. My character mysteriously had a sex change during one of the Social Club outages. She still never has arms when I log in, and changes clothes every time I look away. Somehow I ended up in a dogfight with a fighter jet and, some time before that,…

A Horror Game From 2001 Still Has The Best Ending In Gaming History

It’s not enough to have multiple endings in a video game to make it feel like a satisfying conclusion to the hours you’d just spent making your way there. There’s a real art to constructing an ending, and throwing three options you can click your way to with one button doesn’t suffice. Of course, you…

GTA Online Players Get $500,000 In-Game Make-Good for Unstable Launch

If you’ve played GTA Online over the last few days, you might have noticed that things feel a bit better than when the multiplayer portion of GTA V first opened its doors. It takes patience to stick around during a launch as creaky as the one GTA Online had. So Rockstar wants to say thank…

Rapper Says GTA V Stole His Music

Grand Theft Auto V is packed with tunes. But according to rapper and music producer Daz Dillinger, the game uses two of his without permission. Now, he wants Rockstar to pay up or to destroy all unsold copies of the game. Dillinger’s tracks “C-Walk” and “Nothin’ But the Cavi Hit” appear in the game. But…

Watch Us Play the Visually Stunning Arcadias no Ikusahime

Going into Arcadias no Ikusahime (The Warrior Princess of Arcadias) I expected two things: 1) A beautiful-looking game and 2) gameplay like that of an old school side-scrolling brawler. What I didn’t expect was having to control an army in real time while I did it. While there are many levels that are typical of…

A Great-Looking Game with a Beautiful Soundtrack to Match

Earlier this week we took a look at the stunning visual beauty of the backgrounds and enemy sprites of Arcadias no Ikusahime (The Warrior Princess of Arcadias). Of course, visuals are only half of the presentation package. Thankfully, Arcadias no Ikusahime has a quality soundtrack to match. Honestly, the soundtrack of Arcadias no Ikusahime seems…