Kotaku: England

A Cardboard Marcus Fenix Must Pay for a Seat on the Bus

Owen Good — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:20:00 EST

A student in Milton Keynes, England paid a full bus fare for Marcus Fenix. No, really. Carrying home a life-size cardboard display of the Gears of War protagonist, Liam Sheridan was told by the driver his monthly bus pass didn't cover his companion. More »

Sitting on Your Ass Playing Halo for 12 Hours: The Silent Killer

Owen Good — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 11:00:00 EDT

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Chris Staniforth was standing outside of a jobs center, awaiting an interview, when he dropped a pack of chewing gum. When he reached to pick it up, he began to spasm. In moments, he was dead. More »

Is Let Them Eat Cake the Most Authentic Royalty Simulator of All Time?

Joel Johnson — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:20:00 EDT

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Oh, perchance for but a moment to be an inbred simp amidst a pageant to celebrate the sublimation of fresh genetic material into our state-supported carnival sideshow. I would look out from Buckingham Palace and I would think Wot I think is that I'm quite a proper fellar and...ooh thar's cake I'm'a gonna throw it at the peasants! More »

Cave Maps Turn Into Dungeon Crawls

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 05:00:00 EST

The sandstone caves of Nottingham are a network of caverns and tunnels deep beneath the English city. There's currently a project underway to "map" these caves, and the results look more than a little familiar. More »

Man Jailed For Life Over Murder Of Xbox-Interrupting Child

Mike Fahey — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:20:00 EST

Gary Alcock was playing video games in his girlfriend's flat in Oldham, England in January when the woman's 15-month-old daughter interrupted him with her crying. His reaction was swift, brutal, and ultimately deadly. More »

Leona Lewis Launches Kinect With Her Voice

Mike Fahey — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:20:00 EST

The UK pop singer responsible for the English theme song to Final Fantasy XIII, Leona Lewis helped launch Kinect in England yesterday during an event at the Natural History Museum. More »

UK Prisoners Snuggle Up With Game Consoles

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 06:00:00 EST

Thirty hour games? Forty, fifty, seventy hour games? No bother, some of the UK's biggest gamers have all the time in the world. More »

Kotaku Off-Topic: To Our Allies in England

Owen Good — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:00:00 EDT

I've invoked plenty of martial themes for the World Cup, not least being France's characteristic surrender. Regardless of our defeat yesterday, I won't stop now. Today, England must go it alone versus Germany, amidst the V-1 chorus of the vuvuzela. More »

Brutal Legend Fans Set Air Guitar World Record

Mike Fahey — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Fans of Brutal Legend gathered in England over the weekend to rock out with EA, shattering the world record for the most people simultaneously performing air guitar. Such is the power of the gamer. More »

Man Finds Ecstasy In Used Copy Of Grand Theft Auto

Mike Fahey — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:40:00 EDT

A man purchasing two used Grand Theft Auto titles from a store in Gloucestershire, England, over the weekend got more than he bargained for, to the tune of four tablets worth of the drug ecstasy. More »

F.E.A.R. 2 Takes The Show To London

Mike Fahey — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is packing up their dramatic F.E.A.R. 2 marketing efforts and shipping them across the ocean for a Project Origin Live event, taking place in London on February 12th. More »

ELSPA Celebrates First Anti-Piracy Raid Of 2009

Mike Fahey — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:20:00 EST

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association rings in the new year with news of their first anti-piracy raid of 2009, in which they seized computers and more than 1,000 illegally copied games. More »

EA Brings Need For Speed To Life

Mike Fahey — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:20:00 EST

The Need for Speed series has been slinging cars around tracks for nearly 15 years, and now EA is finally bringing the experience into the real world with Need for Speed Live. Announced today at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas, Need for Speed Live is a celebration of car culture designed for fans of exotic cars and drift racing. The event will serve as a showcase for video games, exotic cars, music, and if I know anything about car shows, women in skimpy clothing laying across hoods. More »

Capcom Knows Importance of Foreign Business, Opens New French Subsidiary

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:00:00 EDT

Europe, Capcom's looking at you. That's right, you. The company announced that it established a new local French subsidiary called "Capcom Entertainment France, S.A.S." and has funded it 100 percent through it's continental subsidiary company CE Europe, Ltd. Established with €37,000 in capital, the focus of this new subsidiary is improving local marketing and direct game software sales. Besides France, Capcom also has subsidiaries in England and Germany. According to Capcom: "From now, the foreign home console market is anticipated to expand, and to accomplish future business growth, it's extremely important to strengthen our overseas sales network." With all the cold shoulders and looks of indifference Europe gets from most Japanese companies, sure nice to see someone is serious about the European (and international) market. More »

GameCity 3 - This Time It's The Third

Mike Fahey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:20:00 EDT

Nottingham England's second annual gaming celebration and tea party was a huge success, and since no one anyone really knew all that well died during the preceedings, GameCity is returning for a 3rd round this October! Bringing together industry veterans, students, developers, fans, and possibly a few enterprising beggars across a wide variety of venues spanning an entire city, from lecture halls to movie theatres, classrooms to Indian restaurants. It all sounds quite lovely. Just ask Lorne Lanning, who used to make video games:

"It looks like our industry might have found its first Sundance. GameCity is a unique approach to a videogame festival that seems long overdue," Lorne Lanning.

This year's event will run October 30th through November 31st, meaning they could very well slip in a spooktacular or two before the weekend is out. Perhaps it is time I finally secure myself a passport and take my first tentative steps off U.S. soil. More »

Teen Mugs 9yo For PSP

Brian Crecente — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:01:20 EDT

A teenage boy kicked a nine-year-old English girl and then swiped her Playstation Portable in Great Hollands, Bracknell Monday. More »

British Gov Doesn't Want Fat Kids Anymore

torif — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:00:05 EST

Sick of being fat? Well, the British government is sick of you being fat too, and they're not gonna take it anymore! British citizens could soon see incentives for putting down the controller and getting fit. In a report made by the Department of Health called Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives, the government makes recommendations to try and help Britain get fit, including getting the number of obese kids down by 2020 to the levels seen in 2000. More »

Even The Queen Plays the Wii

fdemarco — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:00:00 EST

No, I'm not talking about Tom Cruise. I mean THE Queen as in "The Queen of England." According to UK online gossip rag The People, Prince William was given a Wii for Christmas by his girlfriend, Kate Middleton. Once it was all set up and playable, the Queen decided she wanted to have a go at bowling and apparently quite enjoyed it. If The People is to be believed (and really, the way the article is written gives them the credibility level of The National Inquirer) the Queen is quite a gadgeteer owning a cell phone, Blackberry and even an iPod that holds 100,000 songs. Now, the real question here isn't whether or not the story is 100% true (which, if you ask me, is up for debate) but more interestingly, what exactly does the Queen have on her iPod? More »

England's Reading Problems Tied To Gaming

Mike Fahey — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:00:12 EST

You know you're in trouble when you're below the United States on the International Reading Literacy Study league table. England has plummeted from the number three spot in 2001 all the way down to nineteenth in 2006. Why the sudden drop? Ask England's Schools Minister Ed Balls, whose name must be a constant source of amusement for school children across the country.

'Most of them have their own TVS and mobiles and 37 per cent are playing computer games for three hours or more a day - more than in most countries in the study.'

Could Mr. Balls be correct? Could playing video games keep children from learning proper reading skills? I for one think we need to curtail this trend immediately, dropping crates full of wordy Japanese RPGs on the country as soon as we can get our forces mobilized. Parents are urged to turn the sound down and the 'Subtitles' option to 'On'. Now would we actually call him Minister Balls, or what? More »

NCSoft's UK Expansion

Maggie Greene — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:00:00 EDT

Despite some gloom and doom predictions from Korean media, NCSoft's European arm got a nice boost thanks to a £950,000 grant from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) to expand their Brighton, UK branch. Looks like a deal everyone will be happy with; I only wonder what impact this will have on the currently rather lackluster reports on NCSoft in South Korea. Full release after the jump. More »

KotakuStalku: Peter Moore Hates England

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:22:12 EDT

Even though England was knocked out by Portugal in the 2006 World Cup, Liverpool-born Peter Moore proudly draped a Portugal towel around his neck and wraped his 24-inch gun around a Portuguese fan. Drunk on cheap beer or just out of his mind? Until Queen Elizabeth makes a permanent appearance on Moore's bicep, he's getting only suspicious glances from me. Brian Ashcraft More »