by Kirk Hamilton
So many games have other, smaller games within them that sometimes it feels like video game characters spend as much time playing games as we do.
In the spirit of Kotaku’s made-to-order box quotes, we thought we’d ask some of our favorite video game characters what they think of the games they play.
Just when you think no one could really move through the forest as gracefully as Connor from Assassin’s Creed III, someone does. Free-runner Ronnie Shalvis, specifically.
You can find more on Shalvis at his Facebook page, and see a behind the scenes video here.
Man, this really makes me wish Jesper Kyd had done music for Assassin’s Creed III.
- Kirk Hamilton
We love all of our readers and thank you for following us to our Emergency Broadcast Tumblr, but I want to offer a special thank you to Pavol Buday. He is a loyal reader from Slovakia, and he answered my call last night for screencaps of any readers that were so dedicated to Kotaku that they still had our home site open on their computers days after it went offline.
Pavol sent me these two shots, showing that he’d kept Kotaku.com alive on his computer for at least 48 hours after it had technically gone kaput. I checked back with him today. Still there? No, he apologized. He had to reboot his computer to install some updates. No worries, Pavol. You’re still pretty awesome. - Stephen Totilo
I’ve never seen Halo like this before. Halo 4 is emotional, something I’ve never felt from the franchise quite like this. Sure, invested fans will protest and say that the lore is fascinating and the war struggles moving, but I can safely say I’ve never sat through a Halo campaign quite at the edge of my seat like I have in the first title by 343 Industries.
Madden NFL Social launched two weeks ago on Facebook with almost no announcement from EA Sports. They were waiting for today, when the game’s mobile application hit iTunes.
Social combines aspects of the player management and collection seen in modes like Ultimate Team and the Facebook game Madden NFL Superstars, with a bite-sized gameplay experience that wisely avoids the trap of trying to deliver every component of a console sports simulation to a mobile port.
Razer is holding a sweepstakes to give away a limited edition Star Wars edition of their $2500 Blade laptop. I was going to wait until after sign-ups were closed to tell you folks, but figure if I win I’d just have to give it away all over again anyway, so have at it.
- Mike Fahey
I like the portable Assassin’s Creed game a lot. But it clearly could have spent more time in development. One bug I encountered had an alligator spawn about five feet in the air. That didn’t stop me from killing it, though, which left its sad carcass floating aloft as a warning to those would mess with Aveline. Or not apply more QA polish.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver brings his real, fresh and simple ingredients to Zynga’s ChefVille this month. It’s a food revolution, or something!
- Mike Fahey
by Tina Amini
When I’ve got a game to review, you’ll often find me in my tiny studio apartment, sprawled out on my bed with controller in hand and laptop to my side for note-taking. I’ll take breaks here and there to flesh out thoughts or grab some food.
The most recent game I reviewed was Halo 4. I didn’t play it in my tiny apartment. I played it on the 24th floor of a meeting room in one of NYC’s conference centers where Microsoft was hosting a review event for two long days. It was there in the dimly-lit, curtain-drawn room full of TVs, consoles and comfy white chairs that I’d play Halo 4 to write you the review that went up early this morning.
There are several types of weird interactive fiction. For example: The type that’s just plain weird, and the type that’s delightfully weird. Walking Story by Michael Brough is most certainly that second type.
Swinging through the treetops certainly doesn’t seem like a particularly colonial pastime. And yet reviewers seem to love it.
Released today by Linden Labs, Creatorverse is a playground for the inventive mind. Connect simple shapes, assigns colors, behaviors and physical properties, and then combine them into wonderful complex machines you can share with the world.
I’ll never forget playing Descent back when it first came out. More specifically, playing the demo, which I think came with PC Gamer magazine. I played the demo over, and over. Eventually I stopped spinning around in place and actually completed the demo mission, too.
By Jason Schreier
Matt Hughes, a freelancer who wrote about gaming for outlets like GamesRadar, Joystiq, and Mac|Life, passed away Tuesday in Commerce, Michigan.
