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Earlier this year, we all had a laugh along with/at the expense of a handful of video game industry hopefuls competing in the PlayStation Network reality show The Tester. Sadly, I won't be liveblogging the series' next season. More »
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Instead of just coughing up an MSRP for Kinect, Microsoft's doing the announcement-of-an-announcement thing. But you can join up a Facebook page or text an SMS code to make sure you get immediate notification the sucker's $149. Or whatever. More »
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Today's the day, party hounds. Kotaku is throwing its annual pre-E3 shindig in downtown LA and here are the details on the when, the where and the how old you have to be. More »
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Because Kotaku parties tend to go on and on. More »
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Aperture Science may have canceled its E3 party plans, but Kotaku's are officially locked in. As we tend to do the Sunday before E3, Kotaku is having a party. This one will be bigger than ever... and you're invited. More »
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Readers, I'm sorry to report that Activision Blizzard's investment in Kotaku is not paying the dividends that we'd originally hoped and that Koticku will be ending its brief run, effectively immediately. All remaining Koticku staff has been let go. More »
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Today, I'm excited to announce that Activision Blizzard is making a strategic investment into a new and exciting space, video game enthusiast press blogging, with the acquisition of Kotaku, formerly a Gawker Media property, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Publishing. More »
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It's been a long time since we've had Kotaku tees for sale... More »
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Now that Sega has shipped Platinum Games' infinite climax action game Bayonetta to stores, the third release from the developer after Madworld and Infinite Space, what's next for the developer? Countdown clock teasers! More »
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Just a reminder that come Monday, Live goes dead for 24 hours. Meantime Microsoft is larding up the weekend with a bunch of Play & Win sweepstakes. We've already mentioned the GTA IV Live Weekend, but there's also a raft of prizes being offered for Madden 09, NCAA 09, and NASCAR 09 — and, if I'm reading it right — if you go put some T-Mobile advertisement on your gamer picture and play Lego Batman, you can be entered to win some shit there, too. Then the power outrage strikes at 12:01 AM PDT Monday. This won't deliver the new Xbox Live dashboard, it's just "in preparation" for its arrival. More »
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UK-based Rare, along with the University of Warwick's computer science department, are co-organizing a September 2008 Women in Games conference aimed at promoting careers for women in the game industry, and have just announced the ladies who'll be delivering keynote speeches. More »
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All of you have awesome powers of deductive reasoning, so once you saw that you could neither comment nor read stories around 3pm Crecente Time today, you probably knew this was a major site problem and not some passive-aggressive ploy to see if you still cared about us. More »
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Konami hosted their Gamer's Night last evening in San Francisco, hot on the heels of Sega's Gamer's Morning and Ubisoft's Gamer's Afternoon. It had already been a long day by the time I arrived and my brain was already ful of tons of other games. This didn't stop Konami from making quite an impression with a few key announcements. Be sure to check back shortly for all the news including an MGS 4 secret weapon, a new Castlevania game for the DS, my Silent Hill V hands on, the Rock Revolution announcement and more! More »
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Criterion has just announced a major addition to Burnout Paradise. Planned for their "Davis" update this August, the download will include motorcycles (a first for Burnout) along with "their own game modes, challenges and even some new locations tailored to fit their unique performance and handing characteristics." From that statement we're assuming that cars and bikes will not race side-by-side, but you can take it as you will. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=383194&view=rss&microfeed=true We had the commenter derby, and here are the eight selected: More »
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We need some Kotaku commenters to participate in a weekend post that I'd like to explain more about in an e-mail offline, so as not to spoil the surprise. It'll be a lot of fun, I promise. More »
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Bethesda has gone ahead and officially confirmed the Collector's Edition of Fallout 3 that leaked last week. But they added a good-news-cherry-on-top to fans. The Collector's Edition will be available for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, and it will be available worldwide without retailer restrictions. While Bethesda still hasn't announced a price, GameStop reckons it'll run you $80 on the consoles and $70 on PCs. Will GamStop be right? Will the Dynamic Duo escape the treacherous tank filled with half-opened, M-rated games? Tune-in soon to find out! Same Kotaku time. Same Kotaku channel. More »
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Today, Harmonix has officially announced the first album that will hit the Rock Band store: Judas Priest's Screaming For Vengeance. Arriving April 22/24 on Xbox 360/PS3, this10-track album will cost $14.99 with individual tracks being offered for $1.99 apiece. Then in May, The Cars' self-titled record will become the second full-album release from Rock Band. The Pixies' Doolittle will follow in June. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=381271&view=rss&microfeed=true Do you have 30 Tom Clancy novels sitting on your shelf above your 30 Tom Clancy games sitting aside your 30 Tom Clancy movies? Then boy do we have great news for you! IGN has scored some intel on Ubisoft's/Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., a sort of jet fighting sim-light that will hit PC, 360 and PS3 this fall. The most promising feature is its 4-person co-op play. That'll mean you'll actually need to find 4 friends in case Goose bites it again and you're left sulking alone on a motorcycle. Enjoy the trailer that, unfortunately, shows no in-game footage. We're still sure that the game absolutely RAWX. More »
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Not so long ago, Kotaku broke that then LucasArts President Jim Ward was leaving the company. Now LucasArts has announced Ward's replacement, Darrell Rodriguez. Most recently a COO at EA LA, Rodriguez has also worked at Earthlink and Walt Disney. We wish Rodriguez the best of luck in his new position. If we were lesser dorks, we might wish that "The Force be with him at LucasArts." Luckily, we would never do that. Hit the jump for the full, glorious historical detail of the announcement. More »
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Today Ubisoft has announced Emergency Heroes, an arcade-style, Crazy Taxi-esque driving game that will be released on the Nintendo Wii this May. Featuring 16 "next-generation" rescue vehicles, 1 or 2 players can race through an open city, causing whatever carnage necessary to save someone's life. It could be fun. Enjoy the small gallery, then hit the jump to learn how you can be an EMT hero. More »
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THQ and 2XL Games have just announced the "most realistic off-road racing experience to date," called BAJA. Slated for this August on the Xbox 360 and PS3, it sounds like a response to Motorstorm, featuring 40 vehicles in eight classes driving 100 square miles of terrain in a cross between off-road simulation and arcade racer. But unlike Motorstorm, there will be a focus on car upgrades and accessories, plus BAJA will feature 4-player split-screen gameplay. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=368686&view=rss&microfeed=true Like that, another week has come to an end. We are so sad we are going to cry. Right now? We are weeping. If only we had tissues or a dry hanky. We don't! But we have Sponsors and Sponsors have shirts with sleeves that we can use to wipe our puffy eyes. For that, we thank them! This week, Kotaku's salty tears were dried by American Apparel, CDC Games, SciFi Channel's Battlestar Galactica, Insecticide, Rockstar Games, Turning Point and Unscrew America. More »
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While it's been rumored for a US release next month, SouthPeak Games' Mr. Slime has been officially announced to hit Nintendo DSs all over America in April. A rehash of the 2D sidescroller, players use the stylus to pull a very elastic Mr. Slime around levels. While it's not the most monstrous, AAA release to hit the platform to date, the game seems to take advantage of some of the DS's more trademarked moves. Looks like fun despite its distinct lack of headshots or pantsu. More »
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We have more word from retailer conference Destination PlayStation: the DualShock 3—you know, that DualShock we've been waiting for since the PS3's launch—has gotten a US release date. More »
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Good news, console RTSers! Sierra/Massive Entertainment's acclaimed post-Cold War real-time strategy title World in Conflict is spreading from the PC to the Xbox 360 and PS3. Expected to launch fall 2008, these console versions won't just be a port of the original World in Conflict, instead including extra "new content" planned for both the singleplayer campaign and online multiplayer. More »
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According to several steps of online translation, Microsoft is teasing an announcement happening next week in Japan on an Inside Xbox Japan video. We know nothing of what could be coming, maybe a game, accessory, or a giant robot to defend against lizard attacks. And with Ash fast asleep, we haven't been able to properly poke around for the video in question. All we really do know is that the original Xbox launched on Feb 22 in the country, meaning the time line almost works out to an anniversary type of celebration. And, of course, GDC is next week. More »
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Can you just not wait to play Grand Theft Auto IV? Well then we have just the thing for you. The game? No, no. Even better. The website about the game. Oh yes, my friends. The GTAIV website is up and running. The interactive Flash map of Liberty City looks like an interesting interface, but from my 3 minutes of hands-on, I'm not so sure all the bugs have been ironed out just yet. I tried slapping that bitch around but it didn't help...and now our monitor is all flickery. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=354349&view=rss&microfeed=true There is a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. Bummer that Kotaku Tower doesn't have a dish washer. We better get scrubbing! If only we had someone to roll up their sleeves and get dishpan hands with us. We do: Our Sponsors. For that, we thank them. This week, our dishware was kept clean by In Bruges, King of Kong, TiVo and Toshiba. Next week, paper plates! More »
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File this whole post under "kinda neat." Futuremark is a company that creates benchmarking software you see challenging video cards in all those hardware benchmark shootouts. And you've probably even heard of their famous testing program, 3DMark. More »
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For stat junkies, a new site is launching that will track your every move during online gaming sessions. Called GameStrata, the free site will follow your progress in console and PC games by the currently partnered companies Capcom, EA and Sega. What seems so promising is that the service doesn't just track simple kills or wins and losses. Instead, the site aggregates tons of detailed information, like shots fired per match, total amount of damage dealt or frags per minute. More »
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THQ is teaming up with Playboy for a series of new mobile games, and their first en devour will be Playboy Games: Pool Party. While many would think that a system like the Nintendo DS could better capture both of a Playmates' best features, hardcore cellphone gamers across the world will get to play non-nude "pool party sports"—hosted by Love Connection alum Chuck Woolery—including water balloon fights, waterslide slaloms and aquatic mechanical bull riding. More »
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Around 26 months ago, Guitar Hero was an instant cult classic. Today, it's officially a $1 billion franchise. Apparently this milestone comes in video game record time (not partially fueled by the ease with which developers can churn out new versions of the game). In addition, since the launch of Guitar Hero III, users have downloaded five million songs (we're guessing they mean just for GHIII, but the press release is a bit unclear). If so, that total is double the figure that Rock Band has released (granted, GHIII has been out longer). More »
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Blizzard fanboys will rejoice today as the studio has announced a new developer video podcast that will start the first week of January. Concerning Starcraft 2 and Wrath of the Lich King, the podcast will include lots of dev interviews, fansite interaction and Q&A. We know, we know. It's another podcast on a mountain of podcasts. But the news is exciting because Blizzard is traditionally extremely tight-lipped about their project development, offering us little more than beautiful CGI movies that even the Rosetta Stone, a case of beer and a weekend can't decipher to those specific details we crave. More »
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Tonight's episode of Game Head features, according to the show's producers, "the best cast in the Universe." A bold claim, indeed, but when that group includes Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, ESPN's Aaron Boulding, the Mega 64 gang, Gizmodo's Adam Frucci, MTV's Stephen Totilo, Michael Pachter and I am 8-Bit Founder Jon Gibson, I find it hard to disagree. Unfortunately, the list also includes me, a weighty anchor who will drag the whole production down. If my performance on the episode requires defending, as I haven't seen it, I was drunk during the taping. More »
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This isn't news. This isn't about gaming... not really. More »
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Bourne Identity director Doug Liman's latest film, Jumper, is due out in February of 2008, and Brash Entertainment plans to have the movie game arriving by its side. Based off of the 1992 science fiction novel by Steven Gould, the movie tells the story of David Rice, a young man who discovers that he is a 'Jumper', a person with the ability to instantaneously teleport anywhere on Earth. Starring Hayden Christensen (oh boy) as David and featuring Samuel L. Jackson as the leader of the Paladin organization that has warred with the Jumpers for thousands of years, it certainly has the makings of a blockbuster action flick. As for the game itself? We'll wait and see how Brash does with that one when it comes out next year for the PS2, Wii, and Xbox 360. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=322146&view=rss&microfeed=true This Week on Epic v SK... More »
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Names like Gran Turismo and Forza make for some great racing simulations, but many of us are just plain bad people who have no interest in racing in the real world and its subsequent simulations. Many of us just want to go fast, and maybe kill some other drivers in the process. Well our day is coming on January 22nd, when Burnout Paradise will be released for PS3 and Xbox 360. And until then, I'd appreciate anyone who sympathized with this post to drop your keys off at Kotaku HQ. More »
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