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Dead Island 2 Publisher Drops Developer

We haven’t heard much about Dead Island 2 since it was announced at E3 2014. Get ready to not hear much about it for quite some time to come—publisher Deep Silver just announced that they’re dropping the developer, Yager (best known for Spec Ops: The Line). Says the publisher: With Dead Island 2, Deep Silver…

Why People Are Freaking Out Over Zero Escape 3

In 2012, I wrote that Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward should be Kotaku’s Game of the Year. Three years later, it’s safe to say that… Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward should have been Kotaku’s Game of the Year. I started replaying Virtue’s Last Reward following recent news that Zero Escape 3 is a real thing…

I Met The Best Kind Of Heroes Of The Storm Teammate Last Night

When talking about MOBAs, gamers often focus on the toxic elements of their culture. Too rarely do we look at their opposite: the people who are just plain nice. I met one such player last night in Heroes of the Storm, and was so taken aback by his good manners and civility that I feel…

Podcast: Lifeline, Fallout Shelter, and Learning to Love Waiting

On the most recent episode of Shall We Play a Game?, my podcast with former NPR producer and correspondent JJ Sutherland, we review Lifeline, a game designed for the Apple Watch, and Fallout Shelter. I also talk to Cara Ellison, a game designer and critic, about working on Grand Theft Auto IV and Dishonored 2…

Tiny Michael Douglas Is The Real Star Of Ant-Man Pinball

This week Zen Studios releases the Ant-Man table for Pinball FX 2 and Zen Pinball 2, the first pinball table starring an old man in a tan suit. Sure, Scott Lang is on the table as well, decked out in his crime-fighting duds. His daughter, Cassie the ever-dying, makes an adorable appearance complete with cuddled…

Ancient Atari 2600 Arcade Port Pops Up, And It’s So Bad

Santa Clara’s Digital Game Museum came across a near-complete version of the cancelled Atari 2600 version of arcade classic Xevious. Behold the primitive glory of what passed for a console port in the early ‘80s. For those of you that haven’t been alive and gaming for as long as I have, Xevious was a scrolling…

God of War III Reveals Kratos For What He Is

Midway through God of War III, the buff and surly protagonist Kratos is scaling along the outside face of a building when he happens upon a man. He’s perched precariously next to a window, crying out for help. Saying nothing more than a grunt, Kratos bashes his head against the wall and pitches him off…

Developers, Please Copy These Player-Friendly Ideas From Arkham Knight

You might celebrate a video game for its gameplay, graphics, or its story, but let’s briefly celebrate the excellent little things Batman: Arkham Knight does to respect the time of its players. Oh, if only more modern games did these things. These ideas aren’t all brand-new, but they’ve been implemented in Arkham Knight with a…

I Snagged Five Minutes With Trove Before The Servers Went Down

After waiting to log in for the better part of an hour I finally got five minutes with free-to-play voxel building MMO, Trove. On the sixth minute the servers were brought down. Update: Now with the damn video. In some form of beta or another for quite some time, Trion Worlds’ massively multiplayer take on…

Some promising PS4 indie games now have release dates: Journey (July 21), N++ (July 28), Galak-Z (August 4), and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (August 11). Suddenly, August isn’t looking so empty! You also get a 10% coupon off later purchases if you buy two or more games. You can reach the author of this…

It’s Official: No Kojima On Metal Gear Solid V‘s Box

Konami, a well-known Japanese spa manufacturer, yesterday uploaded final versions of Metal Gear Solid V’s box art. As you might expect, there’s no “Hideo Kojima” in sight. Previous versions of the cover of MGSV, which comes out September 1, featured both the Kojima Productions logo on the bottom left and the words “A Hideo Kojima…

Custom LEGO Optimus Prime Is Huge And Fully Transformable

Must have been a hell of a challenge to build this custom Optimus Prime with LEGO bricks on a scale like this. It’s the movie version of the leader of the Autobots, but that’s excusable, since it’s not just a huge truck, but a fully transformable model. Here’s Optimus Prime below in its full glory.…

World of Warcraft-Themed PS4 Is All About The Spikes

Even though you can’t play World of Warcraft on consoles, this custom PS4 with Horde chains and spikes is pretty damn cool. The result is a model that looks like a Horde treasure chest, shield or some sort of banner. I’m not sure about heat issues, but fire would just make it even more Horde-like.…

Consoles As Sneaker Boxes. Awesome.

I’m not normally a fan of “skinning” my consoles. That stance may, however, be about to change. Via Kicks On Fire, Artist Dominic Low has designed a series of skins for the PS4 and Xbox One that turn them into famous sneaker boxes. The effect isn’t quite as successful on Microsoft’s console as it is…

If you like your fighting games traditional, you should check out Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm, which came out on Steam last week. It’s made by former King of Fighters devs and artists, having been successfully crowd-funded back in 2013.

Street Fighter II’s Soundtrack Is Getting A Very Fancy Re-Release

Via Tiny Cartridge, Brave Wave Productions have started work on a collection of game soundtracks called the Generation Series. The idea is to take the original soundtracks to classic games, work with experts and the musicians who composed them, remaster them and sell them in sweet new packaging. The first soundtrack to be released in…

Five Nights At Freddy’s 4, The First Trailer

Following the game’s release date change earlier today, here’s the first trailer for Five Nights At Freddy’s 4, now due in August.

The 1938 Aircraft That Came From The Future

In 1938, with dreams of taking out one of Europe’s most prestigious air races, Ettore Bugatti—yes, the car guy—and Belgian engineer Louis de Monge got to work designing an aircraft like nothing the world had ever seen before. With one eye on using the aircraft’s engines as marketing for Bugatti’s automobile business (much like modern…

GTAV On PC Gets Slower, Mod Protection Blamed

Ever since the release of Grand Theft Auto V’s latest update, Ill Gotten Gains Part 2, users on PC have found that the game’s performance has taken a hit. There may be a reason for that. The creators of the LSPDFR (Los Santos Police Department First Response) mods for the game claimthat the performance issues…

Player Teaches AI To Create Hearthstone Cards

Creating Hearthstone cards isn’t easy—unless you’re a robot. Scfdivine created a neural network that spits out new Hearthstone cards by analyzing all pre-existing cards. It’s hardly flawless, but it’s actually kinda shocking how often it’s on the money given the way it works. Scfdivine explained: “The way it works is the network is trained on…