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The Tech Behind A PS4 Game’s Realistic Facial Expressions

Ninja Theory’s upcoming action game, Hellblade, has a protagonist with expressions that actually look, well, human. Here’s how they did it. Through the use of the Unreal Engine and a few other things, Ninja Theory can take the live performance of an actress and render it directly into the game, as it happens. “We could…

Steam’s Hardest Achievements, As Told By A Top Achievement Hunter

Meet Xeinok. With 9,400 Steam achievements under his belt, Xeinok is one of the best achievement hunters in the entire world, ranking at number one in the U.S. “I’ve been doing it for about four years,” Xeinok says. At least, that’s how long he’s been doing it officially. Xeinok says that growing up he was…

Xbox One Gets Another ‘Limited’ Price Drop

The Xbox One will drop to $300 for a “limited time” next week, Microsoft said today. In other words, don’t ever plan to spend more than that on the console. See, Microsoft has a habit of announcing “limited” hardware discounts that transform into permanent ones, which is bad news for anyone who buys at the…

Secret Wars’ Finale Says Goodbye to the Marvel Comics of Old

The final issue of Marvel’s everything-changing event series bids farewell to the fictional father figure of its superhero reality. Reed Richards doesn’t exit the stage quite the way we’ve been led to believe, either. (This piece originally ran on January 13, 2016. I’m bumping it up because the collected edition of Secret Wars is out…

Seems Like Destiny Is Revitalizing The Prison Of Elders

Since September, Destiny’s Prison Of Elders has laid dormant and useless, filled with encounters and gear that were rendered obsolete by The Taken King. Next month, that could change. Last night, when Bungie announced the release date for Destiny’s big spring update—which is April 12!—they topped it with the above picture. Hardcore fans immediately noticed…

The PlayStation VR Bundle Is A Pretty Good Deal

It was a little disconcerting earlier this week when Sony announced PlayStation VR at $400 without mentioning that you also need to buy the peripheral camera, which is sold separately, to use the machine. Fortunately, they just announced a bundle that seems like the best way to buy this thing. For $500, you can get…

Salt And Sanctuary Is An Excellent 2D Dark Souls

Lots of games have pitched themselves as Dark Souls in 2D, but Salt and Sanctuary is the first game to make a legitimate claim. It’s also excellent. It’s been a few years since we’ve heard from Dishwasher creator Ska Studios, the tiny development studio primarily made up of designer James Silva and art lead Michelle…

Brutal Doom Creator Shows Early Footage of his New Doom 64 Mod

SGtMarkIV, the modder behind Brutal Doom, is working on enhancing Doom’s Nintendo 64 version in the same way he did the original. In a video, released earlier this week, he shows us where the project stands now. Here’s the footage below. According to SGtMarkIV, it demonstrates “some basic stuff such as gibs, lightning effects, and…

Norwegian Dudes Freeze For Counter-Strike Stunt

Take Counter-Strike. Some Norwegian YouTubers and pro-gamers. Stick them outside in the freezing snow. And then? Watch them shiver. This is a stunt for Telenor Norge, the country’s telecom giant, to show off its 4G coverage and to remind people to never go outside in Norway during the winter. Never. Thanks, Atozy for the tip!

XCOM 2’s DLC Goes Full Borderlands

Given the tone of the game, when I played through XCOM 2 I customised my soldiers with “grim realism” in mind. Those who prefer to get a little silly with their cannon fodder, though, might enjoy the game’s new Anarchy’s Children DLC, which introduces new customisation options for your troops. As you might have guessed…

British Game Developer Says He Was Denied US Entry Over Iraq Visit [Update]

Indie developer Malath Abbas should be settling in for this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Instead, he’s stuck at Vancouver airport, after U.S. Customs and Border Protection blocked his entry into the country [Update: he’s since been allowed in]. Abbas, who holds a British passport, tells Kotaku that prior to leaving the UK…

Nice New Controllers, Microsoft

Microsoft has been on a roll lately with its special edition Xbox One controllers. The Elite is almost perfect, the Lunar White is gorgeous…and now there are these guys. They’re called Dusk Shadow (the blue one) and Copper Shadow (the…copper one). They’re regular controllers at a regular price, just with that nice gradient effect down…

Fallout 4’s Impression Of The Captain America: Civil War Trailer

Iron Man? Check. Captain America? Check. Spider-Man? Yup, he’s there too. Made by UpIsNotJump, it’s not a perfect recreation; the environments and outfits are cobbled together from those already found in Fallout 4, not brand new assets that exactly match those in the movie, but then, that just adds to the post-apocalyptic scavenger charm of…

Destiny’s April update, whichincludes a bunch of new stuff, will drop on April 12, Bungie just announced

An Indie Game With Some Very Cool Scene Transitions

I found this game Anamorphine at a Microsoft press event on Tuesday during GDC. It’s trippy, pretty, and it’s got some very cool scene transitions. We all know how much I love cool scene transitions The part I played had me walking through abstract dreamscapes that reflected the emotional fallout from my character’s relationship with…

‘Dickbutt’, ‘Shitlord’ and Other Naughty Words Your Character Can Say in Nintendo’s First Mobile Game

Miitomo is brand new, marking the first time that the House of Mario is entering the brave new world of mobile gaming. The game currently has a big rookie mistake: you can swear like the rudest teenager ever in it. Let’s hear how my Mii sounds with a mouth full of filth. Nintendo has a…

What Destiny’s Menus Could Have Looked Like

Destiny has a hell of a user interface. It’s nice to look at, but like many things in Destiny it’s also nice to use. Just like any part of any finished video game, it went through a lot of rough drafts to get to where it is now. Yesterday at the Game Developers Conference in…

Blogging For Final Fantasy XV Sounds Really Tough

Today on the Square Enix blog, Final Fantasy XV community manager Taji tells the story of his adventures to write an article on the Internet, which is something we here at Kotaku are intimately familiar with. As Taji explains, he was sneaking around the FFXV office when he found an interesting-looking creature on one of…

Man Makes Up For Never Collecting A Charizard Pokémon Card As A Kid

Back in the good old days, everybody knew that Charizard was the only Pokémon card that really mattered. The unspoken understanding among Pokémon fans was that if you didn’t have a holographic Charizard, your card collection was shit. Sorry, it’s true! Not everyone was lucky enough to actually have a holographic Charizard, however. In the…

Here’s your first look at gameplay footage from Star Wars Battlefront’s upcoming Outer Rim expansion, including a cute nod to Han and Greedo’s preference for shooting each other first.