Kotaku

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Company Of Heroes: Tales Of Valor Trailer

Not much here in this trailer for the upcoming expansion that'll look any different to Company of Heroes fans, but the emphasis on driving right up to buildings then shooting them must be indicative of something. Maybe the Krauts liked to see the whites in the building's eyes before they blew 'em up, who knows.

Final Fantasy

1UP Editor In Final Fantasy Nerd Engagement Extravaganza

If you've ever read a copy of EGM or popped over to 1UP, you'll know the name James Mielke. Guy's been with Ziff Davis for a while now, and is currently Editor-in-Chief over at 1UP.com. Anyway, he recently proposed to his girlfriend. But didn't just do the bended-knee thing. He went all video game nerd, roping in a couple of "friends" to help him make things special. Those friends? None other than composer Nobuo Uematsu and designer Yoshitaka Amano, both most famous for their work on the Final Fantasy series. Amano designed the ring (pictured), Uematsu a melody that Mielke had playing when he proposed. Girlfriend said yes, mission accomplished, thousands of FInal Fantasy nerds the world over find themselves getting all misty-eyed.

1UP EIC Proposes With The Help of Final Fantasy Creators [1UP]

Clips

Atari 2600 Devs Talk About Pot Smoking, Whips and Flying Frogs

Howard Scott Warshaw, creator of Yars' Revenge, has been tracking down the former game developers for the original Atari, the 70s company that gave us all of those great (and not so great) 2600 games. The resulting video interviews, Once Upon Atari, give us a glimpse into the chaotic, bizarre and drug-filled world of game development in the decade of sex, drugs and game development.

Hit up the link to check out the other six chapters.

Once Upon an Atari [IGN]

Thq

Fighter Dropped From UFC For Refusing To Sign Game Deal

A fighter competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship - guy by the name of Jon Fitch - has been booted off the circuit by the sport's organisers, along with a bunch of his American Kickboxing Academy team-mates. Reason? They refused to sign a video game deal. See, the UFC have a licensing agreement in place with THQ. THQ publishes the UFC games, and UFC fighters...have to put their names to a contract singing away their name and likeness forever. Not one year, not five years, for their entire lives. Fitch, who says he was trying ot be reasonable about the whole thing, is obviously a little upset:

I'm more than willing to work with them, but I don't see why we have to give up our whole lives for this. Why not a time limit? If we did a 10-year deal with them, is that that unreasonable? I don't understand how this happened, honestly. It's tough.

Guy's got a point. If anything, a lifetime deal on the part of the UFC and HQ is being optimistic, about the future of either organisation.

No signature, no fighting [Sports Illustrated, via GameSpot]

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 Patches Coming For All Three Platforms

Like Oblivion before it, Fallout 3 is a great game. And like Oblivion before it, Fallout 3 launched fundamentally broken. And broken across all three of the game's platforms. If you're lucky, all you've had to contend with are crashes, lock-ups and graphical glitches. If you're unlucky, like me, you've been unable to even play the game. Well, a few weeks of silence on Bethesda's part has been broken, with a comment on the game's support forums revealing that the company "are currently working on a patch for all three platforms". With the amount of problems in the game that was bound to happen eventually, of course, but it's nice to hear something from the guys on the subject. We were starting to think you didn't care!

[Bethesda Forums, via Bluesnews]

Black Friday

Toys 'R' Us Black Friday Deals

Yup. More Black Friday deals. This time from Toys 'R' Us. Sure, they're not a blue chip games retailer, but if you're in the market for Guitar Hero or a PlayStation 2, they might be worth a look. Particularly for the PS2 deal, since every purchase nets you a DVD remote, a copy of...21 on DVD (OK, not so hot) and six free games. Those six are probably from a list, but hey, free is free. More »

Playstation 3

PS3 Trophies Are Now MANDATORY

That's right. MANDATORY. Refuse to put trophies in your game and you, developers, will be SHOT. Your families, BILLED for the expense. Or...at least, Sony will be very cranky with you. Because, come January, all new PS3 games must have trophy support. No ifs or buts. So no more patching, no more developer ambivalence, no more inconsistencies. Not sure why Sony didn't do this from the start, but doing it now, at the middle, is better than never doing it at all.

PS3 Trophies to be mandatory from January 2009 [Videogamer]

new Xbox experience

Here's What The NXE "Premium Themes" Look Like

To go along with the launch of the New Xbox Experience, Microsoft and their valued publishing partners have released a range of premium themes. The word "premium" comes in when you consider they cost 250 MS points each. Anyway, in typical Xbox Live style, when Microsoft's Larry Hryb pointed the themes out earlier today on his blog, there was no way to actually preview what they looked like. Gah. Not to worry - some kids over on GAF have done the next best thing, and are taking screengrabs like it's going out of style, snapping pics of almost every theme.

The Official NXE PREMIUM THEME SHOWCASE [NeoGAF]

Ubisoft today took the wraps off two alternate player skins you can use when playing the new Prince of Persia. One is Altair, of Assassin's Creed fame, making his second guest appearance for the year, albeit this time in a setting that's a little more appropriate. The second is the Prince from Sands of Time. To get Altair, all you need to do is register on Ubisoft's site, and you'll get him for free. For the Sands of Time Prince, you need to preorder the game from GameStop. For a secret, Kotaku-exclusive third skin, click through... More »