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Microsoft: ‘You Do Not Want’ an Xbox Smash Bros. Clone
Sony PlayStation will soon have a Smash Bros. clone, a game called PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale that lets its most famous characters beat each other up. Why? Because it was a great idea when Nintendo first let Mario, Link, Samus and the rest of its best heroes beat each other up. Surely, Microsoft should join…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 8, 2012 -
Rest in Peace, Rande, the Best Friend a Game Journalist Could Ever Have
In May of 2006, months before I started writing for Kotaku, my then girlfriend and I went to the pet store to buy her a kitten. There were cages filled with various mewling beasts, fluffy, bright-eyed animals eager to find a good home. And then there was Rande. I didn’t like him at all. A…
By Mike Fahey Published June 8, 2012 -
Wario Shows Us Some Creative Things The Wii U Controller Can Do
Leave it to Mario’s evil doppelganger to demonstrate the innovative potential of a new piece of hardware. As you can see from this video we shot of Game & Wario at E3 this week, Wario and his friends do a nice job showing off some of the unique ways you can use the Wii U’s…
By Jason Schreier Published June 8, 2012 -
Kingdom Hearts Director Wants To Add Pixar
Buzz Lightyear as a Kingdom Hearts character? Could happen. Longtime Kingdom Hearts veteran and co-director of the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance Tai Yasue told me at E3 this week that he’d love to take Sora and Riku through the wonderful worlds of Pixar’s films. As a collaborative project between Square Enix and…
By Jason Schreier Published June 8, 2012 -
Guess Which Hotly Anticipated Games This Fancy Art Belongs To
Long before the artwork in big-deal blockbuster games get turned into polygons or texture maps, it can start as pencil drawings or oil paintings. Dev studios use these pieces as inspiration to help them focus on the worlds they’re trying to craft or look at them after the fact to remember where their creative journey…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 8, 2012 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves
E3’s over. And yet it lingers! You probably want to talk about all the new hotness on display over the last week. Who can blame you? Well, this is the place. Welcome to Kotaku’s official forum, known affectionately as Talk Amongst Yourselves. This is the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 8, 2012 -
When Super Smash Bros. Meets Soccer, Barabariball Happens
E3’s said and done and Nintendo didn’t even offer up so much as a teaser for a new Smash Bros. game. And, Sony, well, they’ve got their All-Stars Battle Royale thing coming soon. But one indie creator’s taking the multi-tiered madness of the mash-up fighting series into an intriguing sports-tinged direction. A steady queue of…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 8, 2012 -
How Unreal Engine 4 Will Change The Next Games You Play
A couple of months ago a game developer who works on a very well-known video game walked out of a secret demonstration of Epic Games’ new Unreal Engine 4 and told me it was the most impressive thing he’d ever seen in his gaming career. The Unreal Engine tech doesn’t just run games made by…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 8, 2012 -
Press Your Face Up to These Unreal Engine 4 Images
You gotta stop and smell the roses. In video games, that means taking a break and noticing walls, dirt, doors, and vegetation—you know, the inconsequential things. It’s in these things that you can see how realistic a game’s graphics are. Epic Games released showed up a tech demo for its new tech, the Unreal Engine…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 8, 2012 -
Meet the Next Generation of Graphics: Unreal Engine 4
Epic tonight gave the world its first look at Unreal Engine 4, the skeleton that – if this generation of hardware is anything to go by – a lot of your next-gen games are going to be built around. Company president Mike Capps has told Spike that Epic has a “couple” of next gen games…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 8, 2012 -
In-Game Floating Glitches Made “Real”
You’ve seen it: game character driving around in invisible cars or riding invisible horses. They’re glitches, and before they’re patched, they’re funny. While not necessarily the intent, a playful series of photos by Chinese artist Zhao Huasen look like real world glitches. Commuters float on invisible bikes through the streets. The pictures are from a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 8, 2012 -
Future Graphics Face Off in this Next Gen DEATHMATCH
These aren’t just future graphics. These are future graphics going head-to-head, mano-a-mano. This is next gen graphics death match. Welcome to another edition of Kotaku Thunderdome: Here, two realtime tech demos enter, one leaves. Earlier this week, Square Enix showed off its graphics created by its brand new game engine tech, the Luminous Engine. Tonight,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 8, 2012 -
Next-Gen Water is Already Here (On PC)
Sorry if that sounds a little “glorious master race”, but hey, when you look at what Crytek are able to do with the wet stuff in this DirectX 11 tech video, there’s really no other way to describe it. One thing though: that sort of chop would look at home somewhere in the North Atlantic.…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 8, 2012 -
It Doesn’t Sound THAT Hard to Fix a Broken Xbox 360
Those with older Xbox 360 consoles know it’s just a matter of when, not if, their machines give up the ghost and display three red rings. What’s worse is that, if you’ve got an old console, chances are it’s out of warranty as well. Fixing one isn’t as hard as you might think, though, as…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 8, 2012 -
Your Ass-Kicking Guide to Getting a Job in the Video Game Business
Indie dev Martin Nerurkar wants to help you get your dream job in the video games business. And he’s helping by giving you a brutal dose of reality. Not everybody can, or should, be a producer, concept artist, creative designer or lead programmer. Sometimes, you just need to settle for what’s most suitable for you.…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 8, 2012 -
Either Fix E3, or Kill E3
You hear it every year. OH THIS IS THE WORST E3 EVER. I usually have a little laugh to myself whenever I hear it because it’s usually said by people who can’t remember the last five minutes, let alone the last five years. But this year it’s being said a little more often, and a…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 7, 2012 -
Hitman Devs Sorry About Stupid Hitman Trailer
Hitman’s E3 trailer, which showed a squad of sexy ladies dressed as nuns being slowly and methodically beaten to a pulp, created a bit of stir. So much so that the developers of the game, IO Interactive, have apologised for its content. “We’re sorry that we offended people – that was truly not the intention…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 7, 2012 -
E3 is About Interesting Little PC Games Too, You Know
A Game of Dwarves is one of the more interesting PC games on my radar at the moment, mostly because it promises to be a little bit Majesty and a little bit Dwarf Fortress. Only a lot easier to play. The game’s E3 trailer is a little light on gameplay, but there’s enough of it…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 7, 2012 -
Can a Video Game Accessory Teach You Not to Bite Your Friends?
As a father of a pair of twin boys addicted to musical television shows, I’m not sure the prospect of a Nintendo DS / iPhone dock alarm clock containing 30 songs from the hit children’s show Yo Gabba Gabba is a blessing or a curse. Nyko was showing off this colorful machine at their E3…
By Mike Fahey Published June 7, 2012