PlayStation

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…

David Cage Games Keep Treating Women Like Shit

David Cage’s Detroit: Become Human wants to talk about difficult questions. The game from Cage’s studio Quantic Dream, is a story of android prejudice and rebellion touches upon questions of the soul and the nature of being. But Detroit is also a bloated action movie romp. One sequence, a series in a pattern for Cage,…

Red Dead Redemption 2 Will Have Some Sort Of Timed PlayStation Exclusivity

One of the video game industry’s most grating trends is timed exclusivity, when a console manufacturer like Sony or Microsoft pays a publisher money in order to deprive content from other platforms for a certain timeframe. It looks like Red Dead Redemption 2 will be following suit. Today, developer Rockstar announced a bunch of bundles…

Detroit: Become Human: The Kotaku Review

The PS4’s latest blockbuster moviegame Detroit: Become Human is like something my Alexa would come up with, were I to ask her to write a story about androids with feelings. As I imagine it, the vaguely sinister, sporadically helpful digital assistant that currently resides on my desk would quickly synthesize a bunch of pop sci-fi…

The next PlayStation is three years away, Sony boss Tsuyoshi “John” Kodera told reporters in Japan last night, confirming Kotaku’s reporting from last month that we won’t see the PS5 for a long time. Despite rumors floating around earlier this year, the PS4 is going to stick around for a while.

God Of War, One Month Later

The new God of War didn’t need downloadable content or multiplayer to remain interesting throughout its first month. It had patches, easter eggs and even a big social media controversy. God of War came out on Friday, April 20, same day as Nintendo Labo, but reviews started running a week earlier. Many, including ours, were…