• breaking

    A Next Metal Gear Is... Green?

    A new flash site has just gone live on Konami's Kojima Productions website. The flash site is barebones, showing them Konami logo and the above image with text that reads "A Next Metal Gear Is..." More »

    1:20 AM on Fri Dec 5 2008
    By Brian Ashcraft
    5,499 views, 93 comments

    Most discussed DJNX: Next Metal Gear is for Xbox 360, that's definitely the power up button. more »

  • arcade mania

    Interested In Microchip Implants For Gaming? SEGA's Yu Suzuki Is...

    Venerated SEGA developer Yu Suzuki (Hang-On, Virtua Cop) changed the way people played. His titles have been revolutionary regarding how players interact with arcade games and arcade game cabinets. But Suzuki thinks there's more than can be done. Like?

    Like arcade game players getting chipped — as in getting some sort of motion controlled implant. While interviewing Suzuki for Arcade Mania, he told us about his interest in new ways of interacting with games: More »

    12:00 AM on Fri Dec 5 2008
    By Brian Ashcraft
    1,180 views, 26 comments

  • playstation 3

    Killzone 2 Officially Dated For February

    The next big PlayStation 3 exclusive will be hitting North America early next year, as Killzone 2 has been officially dated for February 27, 2009. Sony announced the launch date on today's episode of X-Play.

    The sequel was infamously confirmed at E3 2005 with a pre-rendered teaser trailer, making the wait almost four years long for Guerrilla Games' futuristic first-person shooter. The game has not yet been dated for other territories, but has been privately beta testing over the past quarter.

    SCEA managing producer Kyle Shubel revealed the date along with two new weapons during a Killzone 2 preview on G4 earlier today. A clip from that episode can be seen after the break. More »

    7:00 PM on Thu Dec 4 2008
    By Michael McWhertor
    5,655 views, 147 comments

    Most discussed Str8_Jihadin: Microsoft, you better have something under wraps... more »

  • rip-offs: the midway conspiracy

    Midway Cleared Of Psi-Ops Copyright Infringement

    A federal judge has ruled in favor of Midway in a copyright infringement case over its 2004 game Psi-Ops. A California screenwriter sued the publisher last year, claiming Midway swiped elements from his movie script, also titled Psi-Ops.

    William L. Crawford II filed suit against Midway in March of 2007, pointing out similarities between the the 1998 screenplay for Psi-Ops and the video game Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, both of which feature similar plot devices, characters and naming. Both projects featured similarly named Psi-Agents with telekinetic or pyrokinetic powers and a terrorist organization comprised of psionic soldiers.

    Judge Florence-Marie Cooper didn't find the similarities "protectable" under the Copyright Act. More »

    3:40 PM on Thu Dec 4 2008
    By Michael McWhertor
    4,118 views, 54 comments

  • death of criticism

    The Death of (Video Game) Criticism

    Famed movie critic Roger Ebert has a fascinating piece up on his Sun-Times website about the death of film criticism and rise of the “CelebCult”.

    In it he blames America’s (in particular America’s newspapers') fascination in the trivial and trite when it comes to pop culture and celebrity, for the death of more thoughtful analysis and prose in newspapers.

    Film critics, he says, are the canaries in the coal mine of America’s newspapers. Having worked in newspapers for a fraction of Ebert’s career in print, both as a news writer and a feature writer, I was both deeply touched by his analysis and a little put off. More »

    12:00 PM on Thu Dec 4 2008
    By Brian Crecente
    16,097 views, 197 comments

  • rumor

    Rock Band Going Country? [Update]

    If Country Music Television can be believed Rock Band is about to add a little bit country to its rock and roll.

    CMT blogger Alison Bonaguro writes that on December 16 Rock Band will be adding five country songs to its 400-plus repertoire of mostly rock. The songs will only be added via the online store, so none of them make it to the PS2.

    The set will include songs by Bentley, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert and the Dixie Chicks. Apparently the news comes straight from Bentley, a fan of the game, who will be talking about it during Friday's episode of Top 20 Countdown with Lance Smith this Friday.

    Dixie Chicks? Seriously? If you had to go country why couldn't you go Johnny Cash or maybe a little Texas rock, like the Old 97s.

    Rock Band Purists Not So Sure About Country [CMT, Thanks Steve]

    UPDATE:     MTV Games confirms that it is indeed true, with the music set for Dec. 16.

    8:20 AM on Thu Dec 4 2008
    By Brian Crecente
    6,068 views, 227 comments

  • ea

    What Do Some Japanese Commenters Think Of Faith From Mirror's Edge?

    Yes. This. Again. We posted a fan-made reworking of Mirror's Edge protagonist, Faith. The character was designed by Westerners, and the fan-made image was not. There were obvious differences in aesthetics.

    Japanese game site Game*Spark has covered the controversy, pointing out that the Kotaku comment thread was 500 plus comments strong and even going as far to translate some of YOUR comments. (Before shooting one's mouth off in the comments section, remember that lots of people read Kotaku!) More »

    9:00 PM on Wed Dec 3 2008
    By Brian Ashcraft
    43,876 views, 470 comments

  • Boundary Crossing

    Nintendo Responds To Animal Crossing Racial Epithet Issue, Blames Internet

    Earlier we reported on a copy of Animal Crossing: Wild World that was shipped to game journalists with a racial epithet programmed in the speech patterns of one of the game's NPCs. Now Nintendo responds.

    A copy of DS title Animal Crossing Wild World sent out to media yesterday by Nintendo came loaded with most of the game's secrets unlocked, it also included a nasty surprise. When you come upon Baabara, the town's resident sheep, you're greeted with a racial epithet. The word is used repeatedly in your conversation with the sheep. Here's the official statement on the issue from Nintendo: More »

    3:55 PM on Wed Dec 3 2008
    By Mike Fahey
    36,715 views, 169 comments

  • massive

    Activision: Next Tony Hawk Is Hands-Free, New Bond, Call of Duty Due 2009

    Executives from Activision are dishing dirt on the company's upcoming releases at an in-game advertising summit hosted by Massive. That means more Call of Duty, more James Bond and confirmation on Tony Hawk's reinvented controls.

    And while new entries in the Call of Duty series is a given, as is further exploitation of the Bond license — this time, by Bizarre Creations — the fact that you're "not going to be playing Tony Hawk [with] a controller in your hands" will probably come as a surprise to some gamers who haven't been keeping up. Let's just hope whoever is at the helm improves upon what Skate It did. More »

    3:40 PM on Wed Dec 3 2008
    By Michael McWhertor
    9,639 views, 129 comments

    Most discussed HueyFreeman: What the f*ck is Activision thinking? Skate 2>any tony hawk in the next 5 years. more »

  • review

    LocoRoco 2 Review: Arming The Mui Mui

    The original LocoRoco was probably as close as to a killer app the PSP has come; exclusive, unique, reasonably innovative — a great game. Wasn’t a perfect game, however, as it had a few problems.

    Chief among them was the fact it played like a glorified tech demo, with very little to offer outside of a joyous control mechanism and a catchy theme song. Fast forward to 2008, and we’re presented with LocoRoco 2, the game’s long-awaited sequel, which has things a little harder than you’d think. Tinker with the perfect control scheme and you'd ruin the whole thing. Add too much to the bare-bones original and you'd ruin the game’s charming simplicity.

    It's a knife's edge! Let’s hum a tune while skipping through to the review, see how LocoRoco 2 shapes up. More »

    12:30 PM on Wed Dec 3 2008
    By Luke Plunkett
    10,415 views, 77 comments

    Most discussed Mister_G: WT Frst! :) more »