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Game Developers Explain Some Of Their Favorite Ways To Trick The Player 

Games lie to us all the time. Recently, some developers took to Twitter to share a few of their ones, revealing design tricks used in games ranging from Surgeon Simulator to Bioshock In the latter, for instance, the first bullets fired at you by enemies always missed. You might have thought you were just an…

The Good Life Shows Off Sheep And Day Drinking In New Gameplay Trailer 

Revealed earlier this month as the latest game from the creator of Deadly Premonition, The Good Life looks as weird as anything Hidetaka “SWERY” Suehiro has ever worked on. The latest trailer offers a first look at some gameplay and, yup, it’s definitely looking like a SWERY game. The Good Life is a murder mystery…

Gwent Delivers The Witcher 3‘s War-Weary Fatalism In Elegant Card Form

The Witcher 3 is one of this console generation’s best games. It might even be one of the best role-playing games ever made. Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise then that Gwent, its side-quest distraction turned standalone card game, is every bit as detailed, complex, and beautifully crafted. There’s a card in the game…

Sonic Mania Boss Pays Homage To Deceased Fan Hacker

Moto Bug is the first enemy you ever encounter in Sonic. Is the series’ Goomba, in other words, and there’s one in Sonic Mania named after a member of the Sonic hacking community who died a few years back. Named Jimmy after the late Polygon Jim, it appears in the Lava Reef Zone as part…

I’m really looking forward to Return of the Obra Dinn, the next game from Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope. The version at PAX West is much improved from the early demo you may have played, with a much more extensive “ship’s log” interface that lets you keep track of all the murder mysteries you have…

Here’s A Ton Of New Lore On Destiny 2’s Cabal

Destiny 2 doesn’t release until next week, but at least one Collector’s Edition was delivered early thanks to Amazon Canada. The $250 bundle is filled with art work and lots of different knick-knacks, including a special booklet filled with lore that Reddit user Canadian decided to upload and share with the internet. Bungie’s shooter MMO…

One day in, the SNES Classic at Nintendo’s PAX booth remains safe and secure. The controllers and information card have switched places since yesterday, however, indicating that someone opened the case and rearranged its contents. We will continue to keep you posted on this situation as it develops.

Finally, It’s A New Metroid

I got the new Metroid on Tuesday but waited two days to start it. I’d waited a long time for this, and I wanted the moment to be perfect. Metroid is my favorite video game series. Did I fall for these lonely sci-fi action-archeology games when I played the first one, as a 10-year-old boy…

Staff Writer Heather Alexandra’s never played StarCraft before but she’s starting it up live now on Kotaku’s Twitch channel. Will she construct enough pylons? Tune in to find out!

Steam’s Haphazard Sex Games Policies Hit Another Game

Strangers in a Strange Land is a point-and-click adventure game starring Billy, a college student on vacation with his step family. It’s also about watching people bone and catching peep shows when you can. These scintillating and voyeuristic themes have the game caught in the middle of the latest tussle over porn games on Steam.…

Hey PAX-goers: don’t miss Kotaku Splitscreen Live, tonight at 8pm in the Sasquatch Theater (Sheraton Hotel, second floor). We’ll be taking questions, giving away signed copies of my book, and generally having a good ol’ time. If you’re not at PAX, look for the episode on iTunes next week!

Dead Rising 4 Comes To PS4 In December With New Bits

Dead Rising 4 loses the “Xbox One console exclusive” label on December 5. The full game is coming to PlayStation 4 as Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package, including all downloadable content and a brand new “Capcom Heroes” game mode. It’s like a game of the year edition, only without being anyone’s game of the…

Here’s How Ubisoft Convinced Nintendo To Let Mario Use Guns

So much about Kingdom Battle is surprising, but the thing that I still can’t get over is that in this game, Mario shoots his enemies with a gun. This is Nintendo’s mascot we’re talking about, and the game wasn’t developed internally. How the hell did anyone get Miyamoto to sign off on that? Very carefully,…

Miiverse Posts Can Be Saved, But Users Are Still Mourning

The New Super Luigi U community has been a shitposting safe haven on the Miiverse since 2016. But soon, it, along with several other miiverse communities, will be no more. You can still save your shitposts, though. As you may know, the popular Miiverse platform will be shut down by Nintendo on November 7, 2017.…

As of this morning, no one has attempted to break the glass and make off with the SNES Classic at Nintendo’s PAX booth. We will keep you updated as the situation develops.

Ark Is Going Full-On Sci-fi In Aberration, Its Next Major Expansion [UPDATE]

Ark: Survival Evolved hasn’t even been out a week in its official Version 1.0 form but that hasn’t stopped developer Wildcard from unveiling the game’s second major expansion. Following last year’s controversial, desert-based Scorched Earth paid-DLC, which was released before the game even hit 1.0, Ark’s newest expansion is called Aberration. It’s set for release…

Why People Cheat In Games, According To The People Who Stop Them

The folks behind EasyAntiCheat, a service that stops people from cheating in video games, deal with one of the messiest issues in the medium. People often feel that anyone caught breaking the rules should be punished severely, but you don’t always know why someone cheated. That’s where things get dicey. As it turns out, not…

The Division‘s Next Patch Finally Expands The Map For PvE Players

Building off of a trailer released on Wednesday, the developers of The Division delivered an impressive livestream yesterday that shows that the game’s free 1.8 fall patch may be the best for players who are into combat in the game’s open world. Some changes to how combat unfolds were especially encouraging. The full livestream is…

Let’s Find Out If Everybody’s Golf Is Really For Everybody

There’s a new Hot Shots Golf game out for the PlayStation 4! Except now they’re calling it Everybody’s Golf. How “for everybody” is it? Watch my video to find out! Everybody’s Golf, by the way, is the title they’ve always used in Europe and Japan. Now that they’ve unified the titles in all territories, we…

Shadow Of War Producer Memorialized In DLC

On March 3rd, Monolith executive producer Michael Forgey died of cancer. The staff at Monolith announced yesterday that they will memorialize Forgey as a downloadable comrade in the upcoming Middle-earth: Shadow of War Forgey will appear in the game as Forthog Orc-Slayer, a powerful orc hunter who will randomly arrive to aid the player and…