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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…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 9, 2017 -
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…
By Heather Alexandra Published August 9, 2017 -
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…
By Heather Alexandra Published August 7, 2017 -
Kotaku East
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…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 31, 2017 -
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”…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 28, 2017 -
Raiden Was The Best Thing To Happen To Metal Gear
In 2001, Hideo Kojima pissed off countless fans with a simple twist. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty did not star everyone’s favorite rugged action hero Solid Snake. Instead, players spent most of their time playing as Raiden, a whiny rookie who didn’t know his ass from his head. It was perfect and still…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 21, 2017 -
Heavy Rain Ended Badly
This week, we finished streaming David Cage’s crime thriller Heavy Rain on Kotaku’s Twitch channel. It’s a game of astounding highs and disappointing lows, with intense action and awful writing. It’s not as bad as everyone says, but it’s still not very good. Heavy Rain’s core concept of a father trying to save his son…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 21, 2017 -
I presented a panel on the history of the Super NES CD-ROM at the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo, and now you can watch the video! Digging for information on this unreleased add-on (and the “Nintendo PlayStation” as well) turned up a lot of surprising facts and crazy stories.
By Chris Kohler Published July 10, 2017 -
Kotaku East
The Year’s Biggest-Selling Games And Hardware In Japan So Far
It’s July. We’re past the year’s halfway point, so now is a good time to take stock and see how things are doing in the Japanese game industry. Famitsu is reporting game and hardware sales data from December 26, 2016 to June 25, 2016. Here are the ten top-selling games for that period: 10. 1-2…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 5, 2017 -
Sony Pulls ‘Easiest PS4 Platinum Trophy’ Game From Store
Sony today pulled a game from the PlayStation Network that claimed to be the “easiest PS4 Platinum trophy,” allowing a player to earn one of the prized achievements by playing for just a few minutes. The game, called 1000 Top Rated, was online for two days before Sony yanked it. 1000 Top Rated tasked players…
By Heather Alexandra Published June 29, 2017 -
Assassin’s Creed Origins’ New Mission System Sounds Like A Much-Needed Change
At E3 in Los Angeles last month, there were several obvious points of distinction between Assassin’s Creed Origins and the 10 or so major Assassin’s Creed games before it. It’ll be the first AC in ancient Egypt. The first with stargazing puzzles and swimming hippos. One thing I heard about but didn’t see, however, seems…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2017 -
The Six Biggest Announcements Of E3 2017
E3 is drawing to a close, and the rain of game announcements has abated. EA, Microsoft, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo all did their thing. It’s up to us to sort through the rubble. Among the dozens of hype reels, hardware breakdowns, marketing buzzwords and game announcements, a few things stood out. If you don’t…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 16, 2017 -
We got a hands-off demonstration of this August’s standalone $40 PS4 adventure Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Quick impressions: Beautiful location? Check (India). Fun character banter? Yep (Nadine’s a bad-ass. Chloe’s wry). Dynamic firefights? Of course (looked like the best of Uncharted 4‘s).
By Stephen Totilo Published June 15, 2017 -
The New God of War Might Finally Make Kratos Interesting
Sony may have shown more of the new God Of War at their press conference Monday, but there’s still a lot they haven’t explained about the game. A few things are clear: Kratos is a dad, and the focus had shifted from Greek mythology to Norse myth. I sat down with the game’s director Cory…
By Heather Alexandra Published June 14, 2017 -
E3 Day Two Podcast: Sony, Ubisoft, Bethesda
Jason and I continue our Kotaku Splitscreen E3 2017 coverage discussing press conferences from Sony, Bethesda, and Ubisoft. Which company had the best show? Or rather, which was the least disappointing? Listen to find out. (Actually, I’ll just tell you. It’s Ubisoft.) We kick off the chat with Bethesda, then hit Ubisoft at 7:36 and…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 13, 2017
