Kotaku: Bad Idea

Ed Boon On MK Vs. DC Making Sense

Mike Fahey — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:00:00 EDT

Witness Mortal Kombat kreator Ed Boon trying to explain how the whole Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe things is supposed to make sense. Apparently it is all about magic! Every thing will make sense when you play the story mode! No. There is no way in hell you can make this pairing make sense. Maybe, just maybe if DC runs a mini-series before the game comes out they could make the concept slightly less than laughable. My hopes got up when Boon said the words shattering...I thought he was going to say jaws, but no. Shattering masks. Woot. I think he neatly sums things up at the end of the interview. It's all about the novelty. More »

Gizmondo Rising Again In 2008? Yes, Says Plextek

Mike Fahey — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:20:58 EST

Despite yesterdays excellent rumor smash performed by our sister site Gizmodo, it seems like the doomed Gizmondo handheld is destined to return to the market, thanks to the efforts of UK electronics design firm Plextek. Eurogamer spoke this morning with Plextek's technical director Ian Murphy, who confirmed the rumored resurrection.

"There are a few things to do, and it will be a while before that happens," Murphy continued. "But yes, the product has been recovered from the liquidators and we are bringing it back to market."

Murphy contends that the only reason the Gizmondo failed in the first place was an overall failure to get the product to market - a failure they plan to rectify later this year. While most of the Gizmondo folks - including convicted criminal and car abuser Stefan Eriksson - will not be attached to the project, former Gizmondo Europe chairman Carl Freer is fully on board. All I can say is that now is the perfect time to reintroduce another handheld to the market, what with how much the PSP and DS are struggling...oh wait. More »

Colossus Tattoo - Very Bad Idea

Mike Fahey — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:00:42 EDT

Kotakuite Jason sends in this picture of his friend, who is just begging to have a tiny guy shimmy his way up his body to plunge a sword into his abdomen. The gods of irony are watching your friend's weak point tattoo very closely Jason. More »

Rockstar's Secret Bully

lsmith — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:40:25 EST

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The much too talked about, consistently delayed, Bully is finding its way into the media yet again, this time via the Miami Herald. An article in this morning's Herald titled "Secretive New Video Game Might Inspire Bullies" consists of some interviews Miami-Dade school board members and the illustrious Jack Thompson. One school board member, Frank Bola os, has introduced a "resolution" to have local merchants refuse to sell the game and is urging families not to purchase it. In news from the future, Miami-Dade is not letting residents use the Internet for fear that someone might purchase Bully online. More »

Tennessee Busts Out the Violent Games Ban Stick

lsmith — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 15:42:33 EST

GameSpot reports that Tennessee Senator Tommy Kilby is trying to shoehorn a bill through legislation that will make it illegal to sell or rent a violent game in Tennessee. This is a whole new level of legislation as previous bills attempted by other states have focused on keeping these games out of the hands of minors. If the law takes effect, Tennessee would become a dry state in terms of "extremely violent video games." However, the size of that "If" is pretty huge. More »

Center for Disease Control and Prevention to Investigate Video Games?

lsmith — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 17:00:53 EST

Apparently so. GameSpot reports that senators Joseph Liberman, Hilary Clinton and Dick Durbin have teamed up to ask the Center for Diseas Control and Prevention to study the "impact of electronic media use." So what? More »

Counter-Strike Clan Leader Allegedly a Pedophile

lsmith — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 17:00:35 EST

GamePolitics retells the sad, disturbing tale from GotFrag concerning 52-year-old George Finley's recruitment policies for the Green Berets, a competitive Counter-Strike clan. Finley was arrested in London, Ontario on the heels of accusations that he "solicited obscene pictures of young boys" he recruited for the Counter-Strike clan. Allegations against Finley have him using Ventrilo voice chat to solicit the pictures. Supposedly, Finley promised the boys PC hardware if they complied. More »

Family Guy Game Equals Suck

Brian Crecente — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 09:12:34 EST

The Family Guy is hitting current gen consoles this autumn. I expect a high degree of sucktitude, though the Simpson franchise finally pulled off a winner with their last title, so you never know. More »

Utah Senate Knocks Games-as-Porn Bill Out

lsmith — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:40:12 EST

In Utah, video games aren't porn after all. More »

Utah Game Law Examined by Experts

lsmith — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 13:40:16 EST

It wouldn't be President's Day without some politically flavored news, right? For that we thumb to GamePolitics who directs readers to an op-ed piece in the Salt Lake Tribune on the First Ammendment ramifcations of Utah's Violent Games Equal Porn bill. The op-ed, penned by First Ammendment experts Clay Calvert and Robert D. Richards admits that the concerns of Utah Rep. David Hogue are valid, but that his methodology isn't. The two experts pin the responsibility for what media children consume firmly where it belongs - back on the parents. More »

Violent Games Equal Porn?

lsmith — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:40:19 EST

GamePolitics reports that Utah representative David Hogue has slipped launguage into a bill that equates violent games and pornography as media that needs to be kept out of the hands of minors. The law would make it a felony to "exhibit or sell violent video games to minors." Everyone's heard of "gun porn," but this is taking the games and porn thing way too far. More »

Best Buy Purges Managers for 360 Shenanigans

lsmith — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 18:00:33 EST

An IGN link refers to Best Buy cleaning up some of the mess surrounding the Xbox 360 launch. The word via The Inquirer reports that a bunch of Best Buy employees (sounds like managers and white collar, primarily) were shown the door after an internal investigation. It all sounds so formal and intense, considering this is over a (still extremely) hard-to-find game console. More »

Thief Jacks Game Systems from Hospital

lsmith — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 14:40:56 EST

The Evening Times reports that PlayStation and PlayStation 2 units in the Children's Ward of Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland were ganked. The report says there is only one game console left in the children's ward now. The Yorkhill Hospital hopes to raise enough money to have a PlayStation 2 beside each patient's bed in the Ward. They are holding a Go-Kart night to raise money for the PlayStation 2's sometime in March. More »

Still Battling the Toronto Sun

lsmith — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 13:40:10 EST

The newspaper that asked "Did Need for Speed Kill?" drew the ire of Kotaku reader Skitzo and he updated a message board with where things have gone since the email exchange. The short story is that the Editor-in-Chief was less than sympathetic to Skitzo's complaints, but he did get the EIC to admit that the cover was done the way it was (see image for idiocy) simply to sell newspapers. More »

One Reader's Battle with the Toronto Sun

lsmith — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 16:43:44 EST

Reader "Skitzo" emailed the editor of the Toronto Sun after the paper's cover story pinned a car accident that killed a taxi cab driver on Need for Speed. I yanked Skitzo's name from the exchange and pasted the text, after the jump. More »

More Need for Speed Blame on Accident

lsmith — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 14:30:21 EST

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With absolutely zero disrespect to the family of the driver who was killed, the image above - the cover of the Toronto Sun couldn't possibly be more repulsive. Video games can kill now? They can perform actions? To my knowledge they are inanimate objects incapable of killing anyone on their own. The type of language that's being used surrounding this horrible incident is extremely frustrating. Where are the parents of these two youngsters? We can't actually be trying to hold video games accountable for this, can we? More »

Car Accident Fingers Need for Speed

lsmith — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:30:11 EST

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Toronto's news, Pulse 24 reports on a car wreck that claimed the life of a cab driver. One of two Mercedes Benz automobiles, allegedly locked in a street race, hit the taxi cab and caused the accident. In the passenger seat of one of the Mercedes involved in the wreck? A copy of Need for Speed Underground. The story's lede: "It appears to be a tragic case of life imitating art—or in this case, a video game." Sounds like more finger pointing at the video game industry is incoming. More »

No Taxation Without Retardation

lsmith — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:42:15 EST

Texas gubernatorial candidate Star Locke thinks a 50% tax on violent video games, abortion and soft drinks is the way forward for the "everything's bigger here" state. This tax, in Locke's eyes, would replace property tax as the big breadwinner of taxation. Whatever happened to just taxing the absolute shit out of cigarettes and alcohol to make more money for the state? The times they are a-changin'. More »

Maryland Introducing Violent Games Legislation

lsmith — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 12:42:23 EST

It'd be otherwise hard to tell, since the The Daily Record is a website you have either pay to see online or be a subscriber to read (seriously, be more regressive), but the main story on the front page right now is on two new bills that were introduced to keep kids under the age of 18 from buying video games. Despite the fact that every time a law like this has popped up, it's been swatted away - they just keep coming. More »

The IRS May Be Coming for Your Virtual Wares

lsmith — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:39:39 EST

Over at Terra Nova they link to a piece in Legal Affairs that says the IRS is considering trying to find a way to charge people for virtual commerce. No, I don't mean using IGE, I mean taxing you on that gold you made for selling an Arcanite Reaper. Because the real world value of gold can be quantified, selling an item for 1000 gold, which has a value of (for the sake of argument only) $60. The IRS' thinking is this: "Goods taken in trade or won at play are taxable the moment they fall into somebody's hands, even if they are not sold for money." More »

Hey Guess What? Utah Hates Video Games, Too

lsmith — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 11:40:37 EST

In a move that surprises exactly no one, GamePolitics reports that Democratic Utah Representative Jim Matheson intends to bring legislation that would make selling M-rated games to minors an offense. The Desert News spoke with Matheson about the bill and GamePolitics latched on to the same quote I did when I scanned the piece: "You know darn well the 13-year-old is not being carded when he buys Grand Theft Auto 2. You get points (in that game) for having sex with a prostitute; you get points for killing the prostitute." More »

Hoosier State Getting Game Legislation

lsmith — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 11:00:49 EST

Ugh. Game Politics posts about an overzealous Indiana senator who is seeking to pass video game legislation based off of an Illinois bill that was overturned by the courts. Dennis Kruse is the Republican senator pushing the button for this latest bit of legislation. The bill's digest is after the jump or you can read more here. More »

Galaxies' Gamers Vent

lsmith — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 17:20:20 EST

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Gamecore, CBSNews.com's video game section devoted their mailbag this week to the plight of the Star Wars Galaxies' gamer. The death of the old Galaxies community is being covered pretty heavily as are the changes being made to Galaxies. More »

A Galaxy Far, Far, Away from Full

lsmith — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 16:02:12 EST

The second saddest Star Wars news of 2005, behind the passing of Star Wars: A New Hope pilot, Porkins (played by William Hootkins), might be the stories that Chris Kohler gleaned from the Star Wars Galaxies' community in a piece over at Wired. See, Hootkins actually lived for awhile (he was 58 at the time of his death), Galaxies wasn't afforded the same luxury. More »

No Surprises: Illinois Gov. to Fight Ruling

lsmith — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 15:30:14 EST

The Chicago Tribune reports that Illinois Governor and temporarily defeated moralist Rod Blagojevich planned to launch a "multi-pronged effort" in his continued quest to protect the youth of America from the evil video game industry. Blagojevich also plans to work with Senator Hillary Clinton on passing a similar law on a Federal level. Maybe a Federal court can strike these moronic attempts at law making down once and for all? Is that asking too much, dear judicial system of America? More »

Uwe Boll's Next Emerges

lsmith — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:43:47 EST

The first trailer from Uwe Boll's Dungeon Siege (the latest video game he's murdering into a movie) has popped up at the distributor's website according to Gamespot. The trailers takes a long time to open and it's actually just sitting at the website link, so when you click it, it'll be a few minutes before anything happens. But it's Uwe Boll, he's worth the wait, right? More »