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The Reasons Behind God of War‘s Bold New Direction

Sony Santa Monica has big plans to shake up God of War. “We looked at every aspect of this game differently,” creative director Cory Barlog told me at E3, “all centered around the concept of ‘Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I here? Why am I making these decisions?’” Barlog was the lead…

Game of Thrones’ Battle of The Bastards, As Told By Overwatch And World of Warcraft

After Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones, I think it is safe to say that Jon Snow got the play of the game, eh? (Spoilers ahead.) Or at least, YouTuber Node points to Jon as the match highlight: Arguably, Jon might have gotten the glory, but it was Littlefinger who truly saved the day, as…

Bungie Answers (And Dodges) Our Destiny: Rise of Iron Questions

As has become annual tradition, I sat down with Bungie at E3 last week for a frank discussion about the state of Destiny, a video game in which players travel through space trying to convince internet commenters that yes, people still play Destiny As has also become annual tradition, the folks behind Destiny didn’t want…

Paragon Introduces Its Latest Hero, Skull-Face McMoonhead

Epic Games probably wants you to call him Khaimera. That’s fine. Skull-Face McMoonhead launches today in Paragon’s paid-beta, dual-wielding axes and rocking that hoodie-covered skinless monster head look all the kids are into these days. A cursory viewing of Skull-Face’s introduction video indicates that I am going get very annoyed with him. The game’s first…

LEGO Kylo Ren’s Bedroom Is Perfect

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ version of Kylo Ren can be a bit intimidating, but deep down inside he’s just a fan like everybody else. The game comes out next week. He’ll be in his room sulking until then.

The Unity Engine Sure Has Come A Long Way

Once was a time people would make fun of the crummy little web games that were made using the Unity Engine. That time is long gone. The multi-platform engine is now used on a ton of big games (the gorgeous Deserts of Kharak and Satellite Reign are recent examples), but not even they look as…

Overwatch And League of Legends Battle It Out In South Korea

Overwatch and League of Legends are running neck and neck in the rankings for the most played game at South Korea’s internet cafes. Last week, Overwatch starting making a move to overtake League of Legends, the reigning PC bang (net cafe) king. As tipster Sang points out, Overwatch edged out LoL late last week by…

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi recently revealed that he’s creating a new studio. It’ll be located in Tokyo and will apparently begin recruiting. Sakaguchi, who already runs Mistwalker, is considering naming the studio “Dawnwalker,” which isn’t nearly as good as calling it “Stache.”

The Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter Release Got Messy

Mighty No. 9 is finally out. Yet, it looks like some of the people who made it all happen are having difficulty getting their download codes or simply figuring out what exactly is going on. Over 67,000 backers contributed a total of $3.8 million to fund this project. After numerous delays, as the clock rolled…

Civilization VI Makes America Great Again

As America faces an uncertain future, there’s comfort to be found in looking to the past with Civ VI’s choice for the game’s US leader: Teddy Roosevelt. America has long been a Civ mainstay, but its leaders have always been drawn from a small pool: Lincoln and Washington for the most part, with one-off appearances…

Game That Promised To Map The World With Drones Has Been Cancelled

ReRoll, an open world survival RPG from ex-Ubisoft devs, had a lofty pitch: they were going to map the entire planet with drones to generate its world. Sound too good to be true? It was! The project has been cancelled. “We had high hopes to secure the necessary funds to achieve our final goal,” the…

Watch The Evolution Of Destiny’s User Interface

At the Game Developers Conference in March, Bungie’s David Candland gave a really cool talk about the evolution of Destiny’s UI. Among other things, he showed a bunch of prototype menu screens, and also explained the complicated process of fine-tuning a video game interface. GDC has posted a full video of Candland’s talk to YouTube.…

The Games Stephen Played At E3

Between interviews, video shoots and encounters with mascots, I played a bunch of games at and around E3 last week. Let me tell you about them. At EA Play Titanfall 2 (Xbox One, PS4, PC, October 28 2016) – I had no luck getting hands on time with Battlefield 1, but I did manage to…

Today’s episode of Highlight Reel is going up tomorrow! Sorry about that, we’re still feeling the emotional hangover from E3. Watch the most recent episodes here. As always, you can submit your amazing or funny clips if you have them [email protected]

Overwatch Fans Have Turned Tracer Into A Completely Different Character

A major part of Overwatch’s appeal is character personality, but not because they’re overflowing with it, per se. Overwatch’s characters are colorful vessels for players to inhabit, foundations on which to build. Blizzard gives us their motivation, a bit of backstory, and some banter, but players’ imaginations are meant to do the heavy lifting. Unsurprisingly,…

South Park: The Fractured But Whole Will Let You Play As A Girl

One of my E3 highlights was when Ubisoft showed more of South Park: The Fractured But Whole, the ridiculously titled sequel to Stick of Truth. Everything they’ve said since then has been just as exciting. For example, South Park maestros Trey Parker and Matt Stone confirmed later last week that unlike the first game, you…

The Rumor That Someone Tried To Steal The Zelda: Breath of the Wild E3 Demo

Not long after this year’s E3 showfloor opened up for exhibitors, the internet started gossiping about a hacker who was supposedly trying to pilfer the impressive Zelda: Breath of the Wild demo from right under Nintendo’s nose. For some skeptics, it sounded too incredible to be true. How could someone possibly steal a demo from…

Chat With The Kotaku Staff About E3 [Update: Over]

The carpets have been rolled up, the speakers torn down. The bathrooms have gotten a vigorous cleaning. E3 is over, but our memories linger. Let’s chat. This year we sent Stephen Totilo, Jason Schreier and Patrick Klepek to Los Angeles to cover E3. The rest of us covered remotely, which as it turns out is…

A List Of Times Ubisoft Has Said Beyond Good & Evil 2 Is Still Happening

Last week at E3, Beyond Good & Evil 2 once again made headlines thanks to a comment by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. “Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still happening,” gaming sites declared As Guillemot explained to Geoff Keighley on YouTube’s E3 show: “It’s still on the way. It’s something at one point you will…

Warcraft Is The Top-Grossing Video Game Movie Ever And Doesn’t Care What You Think

With the worldwide box office topping $370 million, Duncan Jones’ Warcraft has stolen the title of top-grossing video game movie from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Didn’t we hate both of those? I didn’t hate Warcraft. I thought it was a fun movie for what it was, an entertaining two-hour exploration of the…