At the ripe age of 65, he bought his first shooter: DOOM II. It took him months to complete the game, and he had problems avoiding the fireballs. It was, after all, only his first FPS! Known online as aki_tan, he's gotten quite adept.

"I don’t do multi, nor co-op. I want to enjoy the game I’m into when I want, that’s how I feel," he says. "Aside from playing, I like to write walkthroughs, so you could say the way I enjoy them is a little different to most." His website has walkthroughs for shooters that range from Crysis to Quake. (It's even got a section on cheats!) His friends and family are happy he's found something too keep him from going senile, Kitajima reckons.

While he's head over heels for FPS titles, Kitajima doesn't expect the genre to catch on with the country's silver set — or the country, for that matter. "In Japan, I think there’s something of an emotional distance kept from shooting games," he adds. "I get the impression the market isn’t set to grow very large. I also worry that with the increasingly high spec machines required, the playing population will further decrease."

Meanwhile, Kitajima keeps gaming and updating his website regularly with walkthroughs. Anything he's looking forward to? "I’m wondering if a Japanese version of Far Cry 2 is ever coming out..."

78歳、現役FPSプレイヤー「北島さん」にお話を伺ってみました。 [DHARMA POINT via Sankaku Complex]

The Intel QUAKE LIVE Championships

QuakeCon 2008 will mark the debut of the first-ever Intel QUAKE LIVE Championships pro tournament. QUAKE LIVE is id Software’s new game created to deliver the excitement and energy of a first-person multiplayer game to a broader audience through a free and easily accessible browser-based experience. The Intel QUAKE LIVE Championships will feature a classic $12,500 One Versus One tournament along with a $12,500 Capture the Flag Team Tournament.

The Activision Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Team Championships

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars™ makes its second annual tournament appearance with the Activision Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Team Championships. Featuring competitions on both PC and for the first time on Xbox 360, the tournament contests will enlist six-person teams to battle it out in double-elimination bracket-style competitive play, in which each squad will have the chance to attack and defend. On the Windows PC side, 16 teams will compete for $15,000 in prize money and in the Xbox 360 competition, eight teams will vie for $10,000 in prizes.

The Alienware Quick-Draw Challenge

For anyone who’s dreamed of competing for prize money on the QuakeCon main stage, the Alienware Quick-Draw Challenge offers $10,000 in prize money to randomly selected attendees competing in special QUAKE LIVE competitions throughout the course of the event.

In addition to their prize money, the top 2 finalists and teams in each of the above competitive tournament events will also be given tickets to the previously announced “QuakeCon Ultimate Power Up” raffle contest, sponsored by Ventrilo, for the brand new 2008 Corvette. Additional raffle tickets and eligibility will be subject to contest rules.

“QuakeCon 2008 will be the grand slam of competitive gaming with the best games and an amazing prize list,” said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. “We’ve partnered with our sponsors this year to bring the top competitive players what they want most: skill based games, top money prizes, the most enthusiastic fans and audience and the world’s best Finals party!”

More information, including map names, prize money distribution, detailed format and rules, and sign-ups for both tournaments will be available soon at www.quakecon.org.

QuakeCon Ultimate Power Up Rules:

QuakeCon 2008 registered attendees who are 18 years of age and older AND are legal residents of the United States, its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia are eligible to participate. No purchase necessary. 250 raffle tickets will be distributed throughout the event. Additional information about contest rules, eligibility and requirements will be available at www.quakecon.org.

[Pic]

[via College Humor]

He covers the widespread competitive game scene in Korea, looks into Quake's evolving role in the London game scene, and visits Iceland to see the birthplace of EVE Online, to develop what he says is a story of "how games change the lives of gamers."

I thought the idea of a "travelogue" of game culture was interesting, so I asked Jim a few questions about the book, and his experiences.

How did the book come to be, and why did you want to write it?

Jim Rossignol: It started because of some interest around a feature I wrote on the gaming culture in Korea. PC Gamer UK was commissioning some pretty interesting and aggressive material in 2006, and it came out of that.

I was keen to lay out some of the ideas I'd been collecting in longform - there's only so much you can do when writing disconnected reviews and features. To come up with a wider perspective, and a wider take, on any given subject still requires a book.

What are the ideas that the book deals with, primarily?

JR: It's a book about how games change the lives of gamers. It starts out with a couple of specific cases - my own life and that of some people I know - and moves on to more general instances. The themes the book deal with are pretty diverse - boredom, propaganda, human computation, the nature of games as a medium - but they all tie into the idea that people are changed by gaming, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

Can you give a brief example of one of the instances in the story?

JR: Well, one of the more specific instances is the story of a friend of mine who now works in the games industry, but grew up escaping into games as a fairly unhappy child. He's a living instance of the kinds of traits and trends I want to talk about, because he's a person for whom some of the greatest moments in life have been to do with gaming.

Games were a way of escaping boredom and domestic discomfort, but ended up being an incredible life-defining force. He ended up playing Guitar Hero in front of thousands of rock fans at the Donnington Rock Festival in the UK, effectively opening the show for Guns & Roses. (Or so he likes to tell the tale.)

For whom is this book intended, and what kinds of readers do you hope will pick it up?

JR: Well everyone can read it, and will love it, obviously... but in all seriousness, it's an approachable book. Pop documentary, if that's a genre. I suspect there's a way to present any niche subject so that everyone finds it digestible and interesting, and I hope I've done that. It's more like chatty travel literature than dry academia, I feel.

What do you hope people will learn or take away from it?

I hope it helps people to figure out what they really think about video games. I don't want to lecture anyone, just offer some descriptions and examples that might be useful in making up your mind. One of the key tensions in the book is whether video games are fundamentally a waste of time, and what that even means. I'd like to think that both people who don't play games, and the gamers themselves, will find that they're able to discuss the pros and cons of being a habitual gamer a little more fluently once they've read it.

MESQUITE, Texas - April 22, 2008 - As temperatures begin to rise it's time to start planning the ultimate summer vacation to THE must-attend gaming event of the year - QuakeCon 2008. That's right! The world's greatest gaming festival and party will take place July 31 - August 3, 2008 in Dallas, TX at the Hilton Anatole Hotel. As always, this event is FREE to all attendees thanks to the support of the QuakeCon volunteer staff, id Software, the event sponsors and exhibitors.

QuakeCon will once again host North America's largest BYOC
(Bring-Your-Own-Computer) LAN party, as well as an expanded exhibit area
with nearly 60 companies demonstrating their latest products. Of course, it
wouldn't be QuakeCon without highly competitive tournaments for serious cash
and bragging rights, parties, contests, entertainment and announcements.

Registration for the BYOC area will kick off at 9 p.m. ET on April 30, 2008
at HYPERLINK
"file:///C:\\Documents%20and%20Settings\\natalie.edwards\\Local%20Settings\\
Temporary%20Internet%20Files\\OLK79D\\www.quakecon.org"www.quakecon.org.

The Hilton Anatole is now taking room reservations for QuakeCon 2008 through
their custom QuakeCon reservation page at HYPERLINK
"http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/personalized/DFWANHH-QUA-20080726/index.
jhtml"http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/personalized/DFWANHH-QUA-20080726/i
ndex.jhtml or through their toll-free reservations number, 1-800-HILTONS.
To receive the specially negotiated room rate of $137 (single, double,
triple or quad occupancy) and the special daily self-park rate of $5
(regularly $15 per day), you must request the group rate for "QuakeCon 2008"
or book through the link above when making your reservation. The hotel
requires a $50 non-refundable deposit on group reservations, which will be
credited to your final room bill upon check-out. Rooms at this special rate
are limited.

Companies interested in receiving information on sponsorship and exhibitor
opportunities should email HYPERLINK
"mailto:sponsors@quakecon.org"sponsors@quakecon.org.

More exciting details about QuakeCon 2008 will follow. Visit HYPERLINK
"http://www.quakecon.org/"www.quakecon.org to stay on top of the latest
information. Plan your travel, reserve your hotel room and BYOC spot,
practice those gaming skills and prepare to be blown away by another awesome
QuakeCon.

The seven titles we owe it to: Doom, Quake, Tribes, Battlezone, Unreal Tournament, Counterstrike and Battlefield.

If nothing else, at least the past two or three years of FPSes, multi- and single-player, have combined to give us standardized controls, which makes picking up a new title infinitely easier to play — especially when it comes to free looking. It's now pretty much left stick = movement, right stick = head, with no fruity switching of camera angles or other unnecessary twists. Also, Y or triangle is use, B or circle is jump, etc. If you think that's a minor gamer assist, ask yourself the last time you used two different copiers or fax machines with the same set of commands.

Ed also argues that single-player FPSes are constantly delivering great new titles, but multiplayers have been "the same old for quite a few years now." I just can't see it that way. Maybe structurally they are the same, but characters, missions, game story, that's what gets me into an FPS now. True, a new gameplay innovation that's widely adopted will beat the best written game for sales, but I ask you, what else could a multiplayer FPS be doing right now?

How 7 Games Created the Modern Team Multiplayer FPS

Since Steam now supports gift giving, it's going to be the easiest way to add a last minute Christmas gift that's guaranteed to ship on time. You have until January 1st to enjoy the value added fun.

Steam Storewide Sale - All Games 10-50% Off! [Steam]

Don't worry, no one was hurt, including Carmack. He'll still be able to put his typing skills to good use for id's upcoming Rage. You can read all about the harrowing, explosive experience at the official X PRIZE site.

Armadillo Aerospace Nearly Wins Northrop Grumman [X-Prize Foundation]

First Person 3D Engine [ActionScript Architect via The In-Between]

Anyone who completes the download, hit the comments and let us know the size, experience, etc. Because we want details. And we want you to do our job for us. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Download it here

The Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars PC demo is now available from the game's official site: http://www.enemyterritory.com/. Head to the "download demo" tab for a list of local mirrors. You can also view a list of available mirrors at this site:http://community.enemyterritory.com/index.php?q=node/130.

The Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars PC Demo (Multiplayer & Single-Player) comes with the final version of Valley, one of the larger battlegrounds in the game. Set in Yosemite, California, Valley has the Global Defense Force on the attack, as they attempt to foil a Strogg contamination plot centering on a water treatment facility. Valley features a great blend of close quarters infantry action, vehicle battles and aircraft dogfights, and the varied terrain combining mountains, waterways, tunnels and industrial structures allows for many different playing styles. To top it all off, there's a multitude of optional side missions and plenty of opportunities to try out the various defense turrets, artillery and radar deployables - Valley is a prime example of the frantic and diverse action you'll find in Enemy
Territory: QUAKE Wars.

If you want to learn more about Valley, read our Valley Map Guide
(http://community.enemyterritory.com/index.php?q=node/91) for a full run-down of the team objectives, secondary missions and a host of tactical tips for getting the most out of the various GDF and Strogg weapons, items, deployables and vehicles.

The Demo also features ETQW's bots, so you can explore the map and gameplay in single-player mode with computer-controlled opponents...

AMBX FRAGS QUAKECON 2007

Dallas, TX, USA - Philips amBX today unveiled an amBX-enabled multiplayer demonstration of id Software's QUAKE 4, which will be available for both the press and public to play on a dedicated amBX booth at QuakeCon, Dallas, USA, from 2nd to 4th August 2007.

QuakeCon is a free convention held every year in the Dallas area where PC gamers from all over the world make the pilgrimage to play on a giant gaming network in one room together, see the latest technology and compete in world-class tournaments. Volunteer run, QuakeCon is sponsored by id Software, makers of the hugely popular and successful DOOM, QUAKE and Wolfenstein series of games.

Shorthand for 'ambient experiences', amBX revolutionises the gameplay experience by extending the gaming world out of the screen and into the real world. amBX delivers a full 'sensory surround experience' by equipping game developers with a tool box to use light, colour, sound and even air flow through enabled devices, including the Philips amBX PC Gaming Peripherals range of LED colour-controlled lighting capable of representing 16 million different colours, rumble peripherals and variable speed desktop fans.

The Philips amBX team has crafted a mod for QUAKE 4 which, when played with amBX peripherals, will see fans, lights and rumble effects, including 360 degree environmental lighting, form an integral part of the gameplay. Players running and jumping in the game will actually feel the air move around them and the effect of landing and impacts. Weapons will generate custom effects, including surrounding light, rumble shudder and fan blast effects from the rocket launcher. On a more subtle level, rear view lighting is darkened when players use a weapon scope mode, to draw players into the sniper frame of mind. On the receiving end, damage feedback is displayed through a multi directional red light blood splatter and bullet impact vibration. Finally, power and pick ups are represented through different light effects, including a light blue aura for Quad Damage, pulsing red for Regeneration, a fast yellow pulse for Haste, green light for Health and blue light for Mega Health.

"Multiplayer gaming doesn't come any bigger than QUAKE and QuakeCon is our chance to show the world just how awesome FPS multiplayer gaming can really be with amBX," commented Jo Cooke, Chief Marketing Officer, Philips amBX. "Fragging will reach a whole new dimension with light, wind and rumble effects taking in-your-face explosions right out of the gaming screen and into the hall at QuakeCon."

"With thousands of the most enthusiastic gamers from all around the world attending, QuakeCon is a fantastic venue to introduce new game technology, " said Todd Hollenshead, id Software's CEO. "We are excited about having Philips as a new QuakeCon partner this year and seeing attendees duel it out in heads up QUAKE 4 matches enhanced by Philips' exciting new amBX technology. "

The amBX-enabled QUAKE 4 will be in good company as QuakeCon 2007 will be ground zero for never-before-seen gaming competitions, with the first official tournament using id Software's new landmark game, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars and the first ever "Quad Damage" tournament spanning all four QUAKE games.

Philips is setting a global standard by licensing the amBX technology to computer game developers, publishers and peripherals manufacturers including Codemasters, THQ, Introversion, Gearbox Software, Zombie, Riot Games, Brain in a Jar, Invictus Games, Instinct Technology, Kuju, Revolution, Sumo Digital, Rivers Run Red, Philips Peripherals & Accessories and SpectraVideo.

Philips is currently in the closing stages of agreements with a number of other high profile companies regarding amBX-enabling all kinds of games.

Kotaku reader A_Zombie contacted us about an email to industry trade association Entertainment Software Association (ESA). He contacted them regarding the lack of subtitles in gaming. Not sure if ESA is the place to go with this concern as the ESA is the industry's "voice." Regardless, here's the letter:

Dear Sir or Ma'aam,

I am a deaf 20 year old that loves to play videogames. I've been playing videogames ever since I first played the Atari 2600 with my father as a young child. Back then, games were not as complex as they are today. Sometimes, as a deaf gamer, I struggle with many mission based games such as Quake 4, Star Wars: Rouge Squadron Rouge Leader, Perfect Dark 0, Need for Speed: Carbon, X2: Wolverine's Revenge and many others. The reason for the frustration is for the lack of subtitles in the above mentioned titles. Quake 4 is a perfect example of my frustrations of what I am supposed to do next because the mission objectives and ways to beat certain bosses were given over the intercom and it was mostly garbled. Perfect Dark 0 was frustrating for me because I had no idea what was going on with the story. At one point I was fighting in buildings shooting at mobsters and all of a sudden I'm fighting a midget skinless Chinese dude with a sword in some alternate dimension. That did not make sense for me at all because... who was that Chinese dude?

I may be deaf but I do have most of my hearing left over. I depend mostly on my eyesight to give me information while playing games. Mostly, depending on eyesights make my job for completing games a much more daunting task than they should be.

Another game I would like to bring up is Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Both of these games rely on hearing much like in MGS2:SoL bomb searching which you use a device that beeps in a high tone if your near a bomb so you can disable them. I had a tough time searching for the bombs in the game since I cannot hear high pitch tones that well.

Maybe in the future, if you can start putting subtitles in the games, especially Halo 3 since I am a huge Halo addict. Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 did not have subtitles though Halo 2 had subtitles but only in the cutscenes as 70% of the game did not.

I hope I can hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

So, if the ESA is not actually the place to go, where is? Ratings board ESRB? Individual companies? Ideas welcomed. Brian Ashcraft

An Activision spokesperson recently told Eurogamer to expect the game before Christmas, and that "it's an id Software title so it's done when it's done." Michael Fahey

Quake Wars in fiscal 2008 [Eurogamer]

This week's quote-machine John Carmack has already voiced his opinion on the PS3 and Nintendo. And he doesn't stop there. Oh, no, in that long Game Informer sitdown, Carmack dishes up his feelings on Microsoft's Vista, saying:

Nothing is going to help a new game by going to a new operating system. There were some clear wins going from Windows 95 to Windows XP for games, but there really aren't any for Vista... They're really grasping at straws for reasons to upgrade the operating system. I suspect I could run XP for a great many more years without having a problem with it.

That sure's blunt. Can't wait for Carmack impressions on the iPhone, cold feet and moldy oranges! Brian Ashcraft

Vista... Meh [Games Industry]

PS3 or Xbox 360? Quickly, which do you like? John Carmack (creator of Doom, Quake ) has been "pulling" for Microsoft. While he likes the PS3 better than the PS2 and doesn't think the new console is ugly, Carmack just isn't crazy about the PS3 dev tools. He says:

But the honest truth is that Microsoft dev tools are so much better than Sony's. We expect to keep in mind the issues of bringing this up on the PlayStation 3... they're not helpful to the developers... I suspect they're not going to overwhelmingly crush the marketplace this time, which wasn't clear a year ago. A lot of people were thinking it's going to be a rerun of the last generation, and it's now looking like it might not be. I've been pulling for Microsoft, because I think they've done a better job for development support, and I think they have made somewhat smarter decisions on the platform. It's not like the PlayStation 3 is a piece of junk or anything. I was not a fan of the PlayStation 2 and the way its architecture was set up. With the PlayStation 3, it's not even that it's ugly—they just took a design decision that wasn't the best from a development standpoint.

And just look at that pooh face he makes while talking about the PS3! Brian Ashcraft

Carmack On PS3 Dev [Game Informer via 1Up]

The best part? It's FREE! It's always free—minus travel expenses, hotel room, parking, food and requisite PC upgrades, that is. Check out the official site for more info and get your room reservations in early.

Hopefully, we'll be in attendance, as we're suckers for those John Carmack keynotes. They're riveting! Michael McWhertor

It's beginning to look a lot like...QUAKECON 2007!

I loved Quake, but let's face facts: my excrement is more chromatic, a bright rainbow that flies out of my bottom in a TubGirl-style arc (if you don't get the reference, for god's sakes, don't Google) compared to the palette of that classic. Quake's color scheme is brown, rust, mustard and maroon. And ten year's later? FPS game designers are still doing everything in grays and browns. Consider this image from Aeropause as proof: it's like every game out there is being designed by the color-blind. Meanwhile, companies like Nintendo cram so much color into their games that they trigger epileptic seizures. What's up with that? Florian Eckhardt

The Colour Of Next-Gen Gaming? [Aeropause]

Hey, alright! id software CEO's Todd Hollenshead:

We're looking at bringing some of the other games to XLA, but a lot is going to depend on the response to DOOM. From what MS tells us, its been fantastic so far, which bodes well for other id "classics" to be released there. But there's nothing concrete. Making the surprise announcement at X06 for DOOM worked out great, so I'll be tight lipped about anything specific for now :)

Well, Doom's obviously a smash hit. The obvious contender for next XBLA title, now that they've got the engine ported, is Doom 2. But personally? Give me an XBLA port of Quake with Threewave CTF. Florian Eckhardt

More Older id Games Coming To Xbox Live Arcade? [Firing Squad]

Legendary Doom and Quake programmer John Carmack gave the keynote speech at this year's QuakeCon 2006.

• id's next title will be a 3D action title that will be their biggest diversion since Wolfenstein.
• While they will be developing their next game simultaneously on the XBOX 360, their primary development platform is still the PC.
• Has thought about porting cell phone games over to the Nintendo DS.

Carmack's long-winded talk clocked in at well over an hour. What can we say, Carmack's a talker. Brian Ashcraft

Watch Here [Planet Quake 4] via Fragland

Outside of which Ukrainian child bride he's married this week and updates to his blog detailing the best method of applying egg whites to a lionesque mane, it seems the only publicity John Romero gets these days is giving interviews about his halcyon days with Quake and Doom.

And he's given another one, this time to Quakeexpo.com... as usual, it covers a lot well-trodden ground, but still manages to be surprisingly entertaining. Here's Romero making the observation that the Quake soundtrack sucked.

Trent didn't spend much time on it and the only real standout track was the title song. If we had played the music as MP3's instead of CD Audio i believe people would have really identified with it more - 99% of people who play Quake don't play it with the CD in the drive. During Quake's development we were playing MP3s in the game that were created by a friend of Trent's that were really really great - I wish we would have kept those songs and played them as MP3s.

He also comments on how the direction of the game changed 7 months from ship, which explains why American McGee (in a long lost .plan update) claimed that one of the things you could do in Quake deathmatch was rip off an opponent's head and sodomize the gurgling esophagus. I'm totally not kidding; he actually said that. Florian Eckhardt

Interview with John Romero [Quake Expo]

I'm an Unreal Tournament man. I like the speed, I like the weapons, I like playing an extraterrestrial bovine with a bazooka on my back. I haven't like Quake style deathmatch since Quake 2 ruined it and never looked back.

Still, early impressions of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars have been very positive, so I've been looking forward to giving it a spin later this year. Alas, Babylon. It is not to be, says Lead Game Designer Paul Wedgwood. The title has been pushed back to 2007, giving Unreal Tournament 2007 a bit of a leg-up on its most obvious competitor. Florian Eckhardt

Paul Wedgwood's Developer Diary [Gamespy]

Are you interested in joining our amazingly talented and highly motivated superstar game development team? Are you supercore enough to survive our hyperdimensional environment???!!

Supercore! He's so subtle. If you like wide-eyed, unchecked hyperbole, live near the Redwood City, California area, and think you might be qualified, visit the official Slipgate Ironworks site to learn more. Based on John's development history, I think it's fairly safe to say your job will be exciting and storied if nothing else. Michael McWhertor

Slipgate Jobs! [Planet Rome.ro]
Slipgate Ironworks Official Site

With an opened shirt and hair-band locks, John Romero looks back on Doom. And what's his 20-20 hindsight? He wishes he'd hired a better level designer, seemed happy with the original title and knew it was a hit when he saw the sales figures. When asked about his new company, Romero was tight-lipped and "crazy stealth" about his MMO. He claims that nobody is currently doing what he's working on, which probably means the game involves something about him making us his bitch. Or at least fail trying. Brian Ashcraft

Watch Here [Games.net]

Along with every other gaming site on the net, we were sent this new screenshot by Activision for the upcoming Quake Wars: Enemy Territory. Look at that vibrant use of color, splendidly wrought in almost synesthete bursts! Wassily Kadinsky, move over! Florian Eckhardt

Via Cathode Tan, we discovered this currently in alpha tango zeta port of Quake to the DS. There's no sound or textures yet, but it's working at 20-30fps, which is plenty playable enough to get us excited about the prospect of spraying a DS WiFi Quake ranger into chunky polygonal gibs. Florian Eckhardt

DS Quake (via Cathode Tan)

Quake is the new HELLO WORLD, and leet coder John is rocking a Quake port for the DS:

So what is working? Well it's playable like I said with decent frame rates 20-30fps. No sound and no net code yet. No textures yet either but I did manage to color the triangles appropriately by peeking into the textures and using that for a temporary basis. Also the controls are basically the same as the Metroid Prime Hunters game for the DS.

The project is still a tiny, soft, peeping infant with downy fluff and adorable shiny eyes, and John is looking for more coders to push this thing to the limit. If I posted his e-mail address here, I would doom him to a lifetime of Nigerian scams and mysterious offers of Chinese t-shirt embroidery.

What little humanity I have left makes me direct your eyes and tentacles to his blog, where you can sign up for various Quake-related tasks and rigorous, nigh-daily beatings. Eliza Gauger

DSQuake [via Digg]

Not John Carmack's art, but John Carmack art? The Doom/Quake creator gets a send-up in textured polyurethane. Game artist Brody Condon produced this 650 Polygon Quake Carmack in jeans and a t-shirt. 'Cos even if Carmack were blastin' monsters in-game, he likes to be comfortable. Brian Ashcraft

Watch It Here [TMPSpace] via Aeropause

Captin Nod's put together some quite cool looking Quake paper models. The marine's cool, but the Shambler's amazing. It'd be kinda cool to build a paper marine and then tape your own face over it... because then you could pretend you were a marine... and that would be... you know... cool. —Brian Crecente

Cow Mooh

We don't know where this came from, but it's pretty funny. A small group of stones as they might theoretically be rendered in videogames from Asteroids to Zelda. And there's space for you to provide your own! Seriously, if you have any idea where these came from, let us know. We like to give credit where it's due.

Update: The folks at http://www.4chan.org lovingly crafted these pebbles. Bravo!

We don't really have any words of comfort. We hope you won't start slaloming down the slippery slope of saccharine idiocy by calling it the Wii, but instead continue to proudly call Nintendo's new console the Revolution, which evokes Marxism and a defiant fist stabbing at the sky, not the sound of a small child being pushed down a two foot slide.

In the meantime, we could all use a visceral infusion of manly machoistic mayhem. So here's a blast from a past of more masculine gaming times, steeling us against the horror to come like a double belt of scotch. The brilliant 17 minute speed run through Quake by those maniacal bunnyhoppers, the Quake Done Quick guys:

Luscious sometimes Kotaku lass Alice pointed our attention to this amazing Quake paper doll. Don't bother trying to buy it: old as the hills, me bonny lads. But we desperately want one anyway.

Papercraft Quake Marine (Thanks, Alice!)

Todd also talks about his feelings on the $60 price point, movie directors moving into games, and the future (and future location) of QuakeCon.

Todd Hollenshead Q&A [WorthPlaying]

According to legendary id Software co-founder John Carmack, "It will be easier to exploit the available power on the 360." In a recent interview with Buzzscope, the programmer says he has a "preference" for the 360's CPU design and development tools, but admits that the PS3 "will have a bit more peak power." Carmack goes on to confirm that id's next title will launch on the 360, PS3 and the PC. So a bit more peak power, huh? I'm all ears, John. Tell me more.

Full Story Here [GamePro]

Aw. Some enterprising Scandies have launched a site dedicated to listing all the active QuakeWorld servers out there. So, if you're hankering for some hot 1995-style FPS action, and you have a decent Pentium 1 machine running at 180hz with 4MB RAM or so, you're in luck!

Three thousand quid that machine cost me in 1995. Imagine.

John Carmack announced at this year's QuakeCon that the source code for Quake 3 Arena will be hitting the net soon. Carmack went on to sing the praises of the Xbox 360, calling it the best development environment he's seen in a console.

All Hail [Wonderland]