Kotaku
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Kotaku Originals: Real Men Blog in Aprons
Ah, Thanksgiving week, when America does what it does best — chow down and then go to the mall to spend dough it doesn't have.
Yes, Black Friday, another back alley craps game Wall Street can't wait to rob. We still cooked up the USRDA of original reporting, despite the fact this is a shortened week for the U.S. based writers (those un-Americans Bash, Luke and Stuart were still clocking in.) We rounded out our gaming guides, doled out the bargain hunting advice, served up a podcast and cooking show with Crecente, and still had room for the corporate WTFery you see all year — such as Ninty's new/not-new logo and Eidos' Category 5 facepalm over the Wii Tomb Raider bug.
I'm your host as usual for the weekend report, but seeing as how I fart giblets every time I shift my weight, I'm going to spend half of it in tryptophan recovery and half of it with you. Good thing we don't blog in Smell-o-Vision. Here's some highlights of the past week, with the full list on the jump.
Capcom Cautious On DSi Development
Kotaku Helps You Spend Money on the Right Games
The PC Gift Guide
The iPhone Gaming Gift Guide
The Import Gaming Gift Guide
Eidos Sorry About that Whole Fun-Killing Wii Tomb Raider Glitch
Nintendo: "We've Had A New Logo For Two Years"
Kotaku Video Podcast (Now With Zombies)
What Game Developers Do When Their Games Launch
The Last Remnant Review: Strategically Sound, Technically Flawed More » -
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Kotaku Originals: Upon Further Review
With everything lurching forward to Black Friday, Kotaku turned its mission of public service toward assisting you with your holiday purchases, be they for yourself or others. Gift guides for all the consoles went out, supplemented by reviews of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, Need for Speed: Undercover, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm and, of course, Left 4 Dead. We didn't forget the news, either. The launch of the New Xbox Experience certainly provided its share. Here's our highlights.
The PlayStation 3 Gift Guide
The Wii Holiday Gift Guide
The Portable Holiday Gift Guide
The Xbox 360 Gift Guide
Holiday Game Review Madness
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Review: A Pretty Good Start
Animal Crossing: City Folk Review: Crossing Over Again
Need for Speed: Undercover Review: You're Not Good, and You're Not Bad
Left 4 Dead Review: 2 Good 2 B 4gotten
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Review: Finish Him
Talking About Super Columbine Massacre RPG (Exclamation Point)
Vexed by Online Bigots' Language? Psychologists Say They Want You to Be
NXE Experiencing New Errors More » -
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Kotaku Originals: Buried Alive ...
This week we got snowed under with financial news, as the NPD numbers went public, and everyone who is anyone had a presentation at the BMO Capital Markets Conference on Thursday. Also, despite (or in defiance of) the craptacular economy the fall/winter glut of releases charges on, and Kotaku reviewed a ton of copies to help you make or not make those purchases, assuming you still have disposable income. Is this business recession proof? I don't know. This economy can still do far worse than kill you ... it can hurt you ... and it wishes to go on ... hurting you ... (cue galactic scream)
Gears of War 2 Review: Bigger, Better and More... Poignant
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Call of Duty: World at War Review: The Modern Warfare Effect
Mirror’s Edge Review: Leaps of Faith End in Splat
Tom Clancy's EndWar Review: Vocal Annihilation
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Review: Aw, Nuts
Composing The Soundtrack To Blizzard's World
Is Take-Two Thinking of Subscription-Based GTA and BioShock?
Nintendo Eyes User Generated Content, Says "Entertainment Is A Two-Way Street"
San Francisco Lich King Launch Gets Ugly -
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Kotaku Originals: Out of Nothing at All
Well awright. First Luke decided to be cute with the Far Cry 2 review and lay down some massive Toto beats in his loved/hated for that game. Then on Friday, McMike came right back and titled his Resistance 2 review after REO Speedwagon's cut-off-your-nuts romance ballad, the go-to mixtape track timed perfectly for pulling off under the overpass with your date to the Winter Sports Dance. Well boom, bitches, I see your overproduced vocals and raise you a manperm with friggin' Air Supply in the headline, apropos of nothing at all. Be glad I didn't go all Chicago on your asses in my MotorStorm review, or else Kotaku would be overrun by commenters swooning like loveless dental assistants caught up listening to the lite rock during a teeth cleaning.
Oh yeah, there was some original news this week. Highlights here, full accounting of our work product in the jump:
Resistance 2 Review: Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore
Far Cry 2 Review: Hurry Boy, It's Waiting There For You
Fable II Review: A Feast Of Burden
Which Drums Are Louder: Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero World Tour
Activision Eyes Subscription Fees For Guitar Hero World Tour User-Created Songs
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Review: A Festival of Mayhem
The Ballad of "Robert Jones": Arcade Tickets Were His Currency More » -
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Kotaku Originals: Noble Six Hundred!
All in the valley of death rode 600 Electronic Arts employees this week, one
highlowlight in our report of the past week. Speaking of suicidal courage Tennyson would admire, McWhertor tackled the Guitar Hero World Tour KFC Fully Loaded Box Meal Gary Busey Outer Helmet Protector Protector and came away feeling like he had consumed a cannonball (the Light Brigade ate a few of them, too). Be glad that one didn't get the [UPDATED] flag an hour later. Brian ranted about half-assed reviews; we in turn provided three whole-assed ones, of LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. Half a league onward with the week in Originals, on the jump.Electronic Arts Lays Off Six Hundred
One of You Will Get This Nintendo DSi
LittleBigPlanet Review: Play, Create... Share?
Fallout 3 Review: Wasting Away Again In Radiationville
Welcome Home: Hanging Out PlayStation Style
NXE Impressions: Netflix Set Up & Streaming
NXE Impressions: Creating An Avatar, Playing With My Xbox
The Rush To Review
Guitar Hero: World Tour KFC Fully Loaded Box Meal Unboxing, Impressions
Electronic Arts Set to Distribute Harmonix' Beatles Game [UPDATE] More » -
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Kotaku Originals: Shorn Free
Hope everyone's had a good chance to fan themselves and hose off following Thursday's introduction to Grace Kim, the former Activision PR rep turned
Guitar HeroRock Band vixen in this month's Playboy. Remember a while back, the survey that asked if anybody's played video games in the nude? Apparently Grace does.So, my hair — sacrificed in my vain attempt to arouse Grace's shaved-head fetish — is growing back, and we're getting on with life here in Kotakopolis. Well, at least, once Fahey gets back from therapy after finishing Dead Space for his powerhouse review. Also, for those who remember the great Kezins stampede last Saturday, I'm happy to report Mr. Juandrful and company are back online. Here's a look back at the week in original reporting, highlights here, more on the jump.
Dead Space Review: True Stories Of Space Horror
Activison's Ex is Now Playboy's Miss November (And She Prefers Rock Band!)
Wii Music Review: Jam With The Bland
Midnight Club Los Angeles Review: The Fast And The Infuriating
Frankenreview: Fable II
Frankenreview: Far Cry 2 (Xbox 360) More » -
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Kotaku Originals: Holy Sh--
There is a big bastard of an elephant in the room this week, and there is probably no flip way I can put this. Let's just get it out of the way. Everyone is furious at the LittleBigPlanet situation. The good news is the game's only delayed a week. But as of writing we have more than a thousand comments spread across three stories, so this absolutely hit a nerve. You want my two cents? You're damn right it's double standard. But they exist all over the world, and there is just no percentage in it for Sony to argue the ways in which it's entitled to use another culture's symbols or scripture.
I'll put it in standup comedy terms; if you walk the crowd, it doesn't matter what you said, doesn't matter if it was cool in another city, you fucked up. You didn't read the audience. Sony risked walking the Muslim crowd, and a global company with lines of business far more diverse than video games just can't do that. Commenter HamThePharoah pointed out Sony has huge sales in Middle Eastern nations. "Sony is one of a few VERY highly respected brands here, and most Arabs are Sony fanboys." Sorry, but in addition to freedom of expression, another Western value is "the customer is always right."
That said, it's a shame LBP is taking it in the shorts like this, and it'll have a chilling effect on games' efforts to engage or include Middle East culture going forward. Anything said in Arabic won't be bothered to be translated for vetting or approval. It'll just be removed, with LBP and Media Molecule cited as the reason.
Now, with that outta the way, we did have some original reporting this week. Major carryover from TGS, so you should hit that roundup, as well as Blizzcon's, for news out of those shows. We also had some sales result, a look at campaign giving in the game industry, and a tour of NetDevil's studio. The list is on the jump. More »
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Kotaku Originals: Designated Survivor
So we have four guys in Japan and Fahey's at BlizzCon. I walk into the Kotaku Tower today to find two things I absolutely hate. Cold, sludgy office coffee, and disabled perimeter defenses. Whatever, this is where I gotta be right now. Because if there was a global war on expos carried out terrists who hate our vidja-game freedoms, yours truly would be the Kotaku equivalent of the Secretary of HUD — the designated survivor, as they say. The downside, when all the action's going on, you're off cooling your heels in some nuke-proof bunker eating freeze dried ice cream and wondering if you could, in fact, repopulate the earth with the Secretary of Labor if it came down to it. The upside: if all hell breaks loose, you're leader of the free world. And that's cool. Just doin' my job.
For this week's originals roundup, I encourage you to take a look at our running Super Big Let’s TGS Round-Up as well as our BlizzCon 2008 coverage. Below are some highlights that are non-TGS, non-BlizzCon or at least not-100-percent-attached-to-either-event.
Xbox 360: Official Console of 2008 Recession
Halo 3: Recon, The Trailer
Banjo Kazooie's Japan Inspired Backpack
Molyneux Begs For Non-Gamer Game Review
Wii Ski and Snowboard: EXCITING
Afro Samurai Dinner Theater, Minus Dinner... and Theater
Fracture Review: Breaking New Ground
Gears of War 2 - The Non-Review Review
Mappy The Robot Runs a Maze
Suck it Down: Street Fighter IV Makes Kotaku its Bitch
Rambo The Arcade Game: Hands On
Three Developers Explain LittleBigPlanet Level Design to a 7-Year-Old
Stan Bush Wants "The Touch" In Guitar Hero, Rock Band
Fighting to Play: The History of the Longest Lived Fighting Game Tournament in the World -
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Kotaku Originals — DSi: Tokyo
Busy week in Kotakopolis, which began with the run-up and expectations-setting for the Tokyo Game Show, and Ninty's palms-up, who-us denial of the DSi. That of course was followed by, sooprise, the official announcement of the DSi, which allows you to double your cretinous antisocial behavior by pirating games via its SD slot while you snap upskirt subway pics with its 0.3 megapixel camera. Swrrt. Highlights here, more on the jump:
Get A Good, Close Look At The DSi
AC/DC Rock Band is Wal-Mart Exclusive Afterall
Thompson Won't Fight Disbarment in Florida
Real Naked Lady Invades Rise of the Argonauts
Sony Booth Will Have 14 Unannounced Titles Playable At TGS
Does Survival Horror Really Still Exist? More » -
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Kotaku Originals: Jack Offed
The demise of Jack Thompson's legal career eclipsed just about everything else that happened this week, and with good reason. The guy just had it coming. I'm not sure there's any downfall more American than that of the self-appointed moral better. At least in the end, Thompson wasn't caught smoking rock and playing Mortal Kombat with a toothless crack whore, so he didn't go down a hypocrite. But he did go down. Sic semper dickclowns.
The week in originals, highlights here, more on the jump.
Jack Thompson Disbarred
Thompson Responds To Disbarment
EA Responds To Spore Forum Banning Concerns
Ghostbusters' Future Not So Ethereal
Let's Analyze The Bungie Keep It Clean Trailer Together!
Activision Trademarks 'Dance Hero'
Best Buy Getting Gears 2 Pre-order RC Tank
Sony Price Dropping 40GB PS3 Model This Weekend
In Loving Memory Of The Intro & Cutscene
Saints Row 2 Multiplayer – The Perfect Girlfriend Game? More »
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