Kotaku is one of the big dogs. It is the one of the largest gaming blogs in the world, if not the the biggest. It and Joystiq dominate the gaming blogging scenes. Kotaku posts multiple articles a day. It's an absolute machine for churning out content. They have multiple authors who post blogs in their own spheres of expertise, but they often overlap in opinion or even the stories that they are covering.
Kotaku does a lot of things well. Their reviews are usually pretty good a covering the game, and giving us a useful rating (instead of just a stupid number). Since their website is made up of so many different people, you end up getting a plethora of different voices, Some people might consider this sort of disjointed, however I like seeing different opinions, as it let's topics and viewpoints come up that wouldn't normally. It leads to usually pretty healthy discussions. That's another thing that Kotaku usually does well, their authors are always commenting and talking with readers. Unless the comment section devolves into trolling and name calling, they are their defending their work, generating discussion, and having a good time with their audiences.
However, they were the start of the #gamergate controversy over how females are treated in the game industry, how feminism is perceived in gaming, how blogs and other websites that deal with gaming should handle journalistic integrity. I don't think they handled the situation particularity well. It's actually one of reasons I chose this model for my blog. I don't want outside factors to influence my reviews. Since there are multiple authors each one handles these sort of controversies differently. Some handle it with grace, others by falling into name calling of their readers, others by ignoring all of it. One of biggest complaints with Kotaku is that some of their posts are just pointless. They will post "news" articles that have in no way actual information in them. Often time just reporting unsubstantiated rumors as fact, and then not even bothering to retract the information. Kotaku also writes dumb fluff pieces that I don't think are worth the effort of hitting publish. Now I understand that all blogs do this, but I would hope that the top blog in this niche wouldn't have to resort to writing articles about nothing.
Kotaku's design is amazing. I love how it is laid out. Their home page is filled with the latest blogs they have published, and their sidebar is filled with older posts that a reader might be interested in based on past reading. It's minimal and efficient. You can subscribe to individual authors by getting a an online newsletter. You can create an account and comment to your heart's content.
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