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God Of War Director, On Kratos’ Beard: ‘It Smells Of Pine And Dead Trolls’

The newest God of War hopes to give Kratos some much-needed depth by focusing on character dynamics and new mechanics. Also new: Kratos’ massive, manly beard. I sat down with game director Cory Barlog to ask some hard-hitting questions about Kratos’ new look. Heather Alexandra, Kotaku: Let’s talk initial design : what made you decide to…

Thirty Minutes Of Splatoon 2 Single Player

We’ve seen Splatoon 2‘s competitive game andco-op Salmon Run mode, but what about those of us who’d rather go it alone? Here’s 30 minutes of Splatoon 2‘s story mode, direct from the Nintendo E3 2017 Treehouse stream. There’s a ton of rail grinding, tentacle shooting and boss fighting in Splatoon 2‘s single-player story mode, which…

IO Interactive Goes Independent And Keeps Hitman Franchise

This past May, Square Enix announced it was parting ways with IO Interactive. Today, that studio says it’s now officially independent and will keep the rights to the Hitman series. Below is a statementfrom IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak: In its 19 years of history, Io-Interactive has brought you original and exciting entertainment; from Mini…

Rockstar Games responds to the shuttering of popular GTA V modding tool, says Take-Two “were not specifically targeting single player mods.” Read the full statement here. 

An Indie Shooter Where One Team’s Invincible, The Other’s Invisible

Competitive first-person shooters operate on all sorts of sets of unspoken rules. Teams should be, more or less, evenly powered. Opponents should die occasionally. Everyone should be visible—at least, most of the time. Aftercharge aims to break those rules. I got to play a few rounds of an early PC build of Aftercharge during “The…

The Real Story Behind Xenogears‘ ‘Unfinished’ Disc 2

Xenogears, widely considered one of the greatest role-playing games ever made, has long felt to fans like an unfinished product thanks to its controversial, seemingly unfinished second disc. Although western gamers have assumed that the team simply ran out of money, the real story—as revealed by director Tetsuya Takahashi to Kotaku today—is a little more…

Another prototype of EarthBound for the NES has been discovered, this time at a garage sale in Portland, Oregon. It seems identical to the prototype found back in the 1990s. Nintendo has since released the game officially on Wii U as EarthBound Beginnings. Just goes to show you what might still be out there at…

Nintendo Fans Need A New Series To Complain About

Nintendo fans have spent years frustrated that the Metroid series, once a pillar of the company’s console lineup, had been left to rot. Now that not one but two new Metroid games are coming, it leaves them/us with an important decision to make: what to complain about next The obvious culprits are out. There’s a…

“Yes, they do make me feel like a walking billboard, but I think about how easy it will be to carry my laundry later,” an E3 attendee told of the body-length bags companies hand out at conventions. She also offered a convention bag pro strat: hide them in bushes outside instead of lugging them around.…

Magic Champion Sells His Trophy To Benefit Planned Parenthood

On May 14, Magic: The Gathering pro Gerry Thompson won Pro Tour Amonkhet, securing one of the most coveted trophies in competitive magic play. Five days later, he put that trophy on eBay, along with some other event swag, with all the proceeds going to benefit Planned Parenthood. “I strongly believe in what they do…

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).

Today, Tim Rogers takes us on a tour of Bethesda’s booth (they gave him a milkshake!), Indiecade’s booth, and a closer look at Nidhogg 2. That’s it for the tours this year, but stay tuned for more Tim at E3 videos.

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime On Switch Voice Chat, Lack Of Back-Ups Saves And ‘Virtual Console’

Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, is at E3 in Los Angeles this week to promote Nintendo’s latest resurgence and hype people up on the coming year of Switch and 3DS games. But he’s also ready to field questions, and we had a bunch. After grilling the man, here are some of our key…

No wonder E3 seemed extra-crowded this year. It was extra-crowded! The ESA, which runs the event, just announced that 2017 E3 attendance was 68,400, including, for the first time, 15,000 members of the public. Up from the ESA’s count of 50,300 total attendance at E3 2016.

At E3 2017, Black Characters’ Hair Looks Better Than Ever

Games tend to have trouble depicting black hair, but this year’s E3 displayed refreshing palette of kinky, coily, textured hair. Here’s a breakdown. In his essay for anthology State of Play, io9‘s Evan Narcisse says that, for video games, “when it comes to head hair—specifically locks that look like what grows from my scalp—I’m generally…

A new story on Anime Feminist tackles the notion of “volunteer interpreters” after Anime Expo, America’s biggest anime convention, put out a call for passionate, Japanese-speaking fans to interpret for free.

Destiny 2 Director Answers Our Questions About The Open World, The Darkness, And Titan Bubbles

Yesterday at E3, my Kotaku Splitscreen co-host Jason Schreier sat down with Bungie’s Luke Smith, game director on Destiny 2. They hit a wide variety of topics including what The Darkness is, how the game’s open world levels will work, and why they’re taking away Jason’s Sunsinger res. If you’re into Destiny, you should really…

Despite Political Overtones, David Cage Says Detroit Is Mostly About Androids

Near the end of the Detroit: Become Human demo I saw during E3, renegade android Markus and his partner North incite a riot among recently freed androids. If you choose to set things on fire, North triumphantly declares, “Now the humans will have no choice but to listen to us.” Main character Markus, staring into…

Keith Robinson, the godfather of the Intellivision, passed away Wednesday at 61. Robinson designed games for the pioneering Mattel console, but that was just the beginning: He bought the rights to Intellivision in the 1990s and kept the games in print via the Intellivision Lives! collections, while documenting the history of the console and the…

Angry Birds Evolution Takes The Birds Vs. Pigs Battle To A Weird Place

Angry Birds Evolution, out today oniOS and Android, is a flick-and-spin style mobile game in which players collect and evolve characters like Dolores, the avian doctor with a penchant for vicious rectal exams. Something is causing the pigs to flock to Bird Island in droves, and it’s up to the player to form teams of…