Work from Home, Earn Cash

To: Ash
From: Owen
Re: Poker, The Redemption

So the realboss at the realjob is in Hawaii all week which means, woohoo, work-from-home with impunity! Oh shit, do they have the Internets in Hawaii? Did they stretch ethernet across the Pacific? Oh dammit!. Hi Steve. I hope you are having fun, sir. I will be productive all week, I promise, sir. Seriously, work's a 15-minute bike ride away. And plus I'll be going that way to grab some Okami sushi for lunch.

Anyway, here some highlights from the weekend report.

Kids Won't Listen? Sic BOB on 'Em
Academics vs. 'Gaming' Academics: Let the Snark Begin
If Nintendo Made Halo 3
The Tactile Side of Games
Gametrailers Blows It with PS3/360 Footage
Two More Gears 2 Videos Out

An Ograbme on Employment

To: Ashcraft:
From: Owen
Re: The Weekends are Made for GTA

Well, the weekend was mostly Crecente and McWhertor's show after the 10 am embargo ("OGrabMe" spelled backwards) broke. I think our servers held up under the GTA IV traffic better than Xbox Live did for the Halo 3 release. Needless to say a lot of stuff gets plowed under when a mega-game hits the set.

But I'd like to throw a word for my brother, Fletch, whom a lot of the readers have gotten to know in the past week. First he illustrated the Pac-Man crapping post, which is a story that just won't quit. And drafting last in our inaugural Video Game draft, he shrewdly took Asshole Dog from Duck Hunt and walked away with best draft honors in the subsequent poll. Fletch is full of win.

Except for Monday. He got laid off from work, down in Austin, and of course the fams is worried bad. Fletch is keeping busy as best he can, however. Seeing some of the readers turn "THEY GHOSTS" into a catchphrase, he's whomped up a T-shirt for it. Obviously, he's selling the t-shirt. And if, on the outside chance anyone knows of any graphic design work in Austin, Texas, he can stop making them.

Here's what we did this weekend:

Grand Theft Auto IV Review: Life, Liberty City And The Pursuit Of Happiness
Mario Kart Wii Friend Code Dump
One Kotaku Editor's Introduction to Gaming
Ken Levine on "Narrative Drive"
The Inaugural All-Time Video Game Character Draft
GTA IV: Best Game Since ... Well, When?

"Little Shits Grow Up to Be Big Shits"

To: Ashcraft
From: Owen
Re: Driving Myself Crazy

You need to know something about my brother, Fletch: He doesn't usually get standing ovations. He's a mild-mannered, happily married man who's content to live his life as a graphic artist, vegetarian, University of North Carolina Tar Heels fan, outside the public eye, down in Texas. But when he does something that deserves a curtain call, I mean, it is epic. As it was on Saturday, with the Pac-Man crapping post.

For example, I am thinking of 1984. A neighborhood bully had beaten up the youngest brother of one of our friends (now a state representative in North Carolina.) Fletch, the oldest of us all, wiped the chain grease from his hands and set out to do what had to be done. He roared off in his go-kart, the only one on the block, and tore doughnuts in the offending bully's lush front yard grass while we cheered like a NASCAR crowd. I mean airs-above-ground jumps and skids — I realize that's a dressage term, but my brother, in a go-kart, this day was dressage. He shredded the poster yard for Scott's Turf Builder. My mother's reaction? So what. "Little shits grow up to be big shits," she said of the deserving SOB across the street. Fletch and I quote that to this day.

Somehow that seems a fitting memory.

Highlights of the report:
Two Brothers Meditating Upon Questions of Pac-Man
Interview With Kian Bashiri (You Have To Burn The Rope)
IGN Watermark in Okami Cover Art
Putting Together the 'History of RPGs' Class
Games With the Best Stories Ever
Top 10 Games For $10 or Under

Sophomore Slump

To: Luke
From: Owen
Re: Commenting

A pretty rocky follow-up to a first week filled with commenter love and kudos. Thought we put out a lot of good stuff, but my execution was off. You know how a couple screwups create a rolling-thunder effect? Well, we had the problem with the modded Xbox controller publishing too early. Then I duped your Atari Catalog post and it stayed up. Then I boned it on the PS Store power outrage, gaffed the wording of a GTA IV poll and called it a day. Brian mentioned he gave me this job because he hates firing people. I hope he still feels that way.

Right now, I am going to go for a run and try to get my head on straight. All is not melancholy however. When I get back I'll be playing Bully and Ikaruga. And doing my taxes.

Here's some highlights from the weekend report:

NCSoft Shuts Down Illegal Servers
Live Gameplay Footage: Rufus, Street Fighter IV
How Are You Preparing for GTA IV's Arrival?
Understanding Free to Play
Super Smashing Proposal

Back in the Saddle

To: Crecente
From: Owen
Re: The New Guy

Good first weekend I think. Didn't miss with too many of the jokes (well, maybe, "white approved" in describing SF's gentrified districts. Honestly, that's what I meant to poke fun at.) Writing for this site is a huge ego trip, but of course, you knew that (wait, that came out wrong.) Seriously, it's a lot better than our days on the night shift, when the only feedback we got was from a managing editor who saw some car wreck in her neighborhood, or Dan-the-AK-47-Man phoning in his latest conspiracy theory. I never knew why you indulged his yammering.

No, here, the commenters treated me very well, and I gotta give them a hat tip for making the debut so enjoyable. It chased away the dread I felt when I read the New York Times and saw that, by blogging, I'll likely die. Or at least gain 30 pounds. Not of solid muscle, either. Despite not knowing what the hell I was getting into, and still feeling a little over my head, I like what's going on here, and I'm looking forward to next week. You guys can catch me on the comment boards occassionally until then.

Here's some of what we had. I'm gonna log it like we did stories in the old news budget system.

The weekend report:
C7LO_KING: Stephen King Weighs in on Video Game Violence: Horror writer speaks out on violence. Tell his story. Get a pic. lc
C7LO_GAMER: 'The Church of Gamers': Why the Term 'Gamer' Needs to Go: Gamers feel belittled that they're called gamers. Tell the gamers' stories. Get pictures. lc
C7LO_PORTAL: Portal's Power: A Narrative Critique: Interactive fiction writer Emily Short examines Portal. See if she'll leak us her thoughts off the record. And get a pic. And tell her story. lc
C7LO_NUTS: Are You a Neurotic Gamer? Thousands of gamers out there deal with insecurities, strange behavior and facial tics. Tell their story. Get a pic of their suffering. lc
C7LO_MERGER: Because Everything on Craigslist is for Real: Got a tip that secret docs point to Apple-Nintendo merger. Get Apple or Nintendo to leak us the docs. Get a picture of the docs. Tell their story. lc

I Wonder What Will Break Next

To: Ash & Luke
From: Maggie
Subject: Cooking without a sink is hard to do.

So yesterday afternoon, I broke out the Cuisinart, the KitchenAid, and supplies for making gratin dauphinois and kolach. We had a potluck lunch for our research seminar today and I'd promised to bring two food items. The gratin went swimmingly, and I was all prepped to commence with making bread when I noticed that my sink was backed up. Really, really backed up. And the garbage disposal sounded distinctly unhappy. When my landlord's handyman showed up this morning, I was lectured for five minutes on why I shouldn't put anything down the garbage disposal. 'But it's a garbage disposal! I just put potato peelings down it, not wood chips!' I said. I was then lectured for a few more minutes on how the garbage disposals don't work and I shouldn't be using it for its intended purpose. Wouldn't it be smart to tell people this when they move in instead of chastising them months down the line? It's just one of a multitude of problems I've had in this apartment. Here's hoping the next place we rent is a little better on the maintenance side of things.

Things you might have missed this weekend:

Blizzard vs. Glider is really heating up;
The Video Game Name Generator Competition entries are silly and kinda fun;
In unsubstantiated reports, the GTA IV achievements may have been leaked;
Puma has created some really hideous Tetris sneakers.

Since my sink's back in commission, I'm off to make some bread, smush in some Crisis Core, and get some work done. It's back to school tomorrow (boo). Hope y'all have a good week.

Speak Softly And Carry A Big Stick

To: Ash & Luke
From: Maggie
Subject: Like dogs, they can smell fear

So part of the "fun" part of being a grad student is that we wear two hats. We're still students (with all the paper writing fun that implies), but we also have to muddle our way to teaching competence. I found out yesterday that I'll be making my kinda-sorta teaching debut this spring, being left in charge of a class twice during the quarter. Up until this point, I've just wielded the red grading pen of doom, no lecturing or question answering required. I always imagine undergrads to be much like the Kotaku comments section: they can smell fear and will pounce at the first sign of weakness. I've managed to stick around Kotaku for a year (more or less), so surely showing films and leading the discussion of 60 enthusiastic undergrads won't make me tuck tail and run.

We had a lot of chefs in the Kotaku kitchen this weekend, so here's what you might have missed:

It being Easter and all, we offer up some of the best video game Easter eggs;
An impostor Crecente reviews SSBB;
Ian Bogost thinks Bash and Crecente = Hall & Oates;
What classic literary works would you like to see in game form?

I'm finally on spring break, but my mom is here visiting, so I'll be busy all week seeing a bunch of San Diego I haven't seen yet. Hope y'all have a good week & thanks for helping out this weekend!

Wake Me When It's Over

To: Ash & Luke
From: Maggie
Subject: Finals week is here again

One of my favorite descriptions of the discipline of history comes by way of E.H. Norman, who spoke of "that peculiar pleasure of reading in the calm of one's study of turbulent events, of great triumphs and failures or simply of the everyday life of people in bygone ages." He goes on to say that writing history is "to feel an intimation of man's immortal spirit." I think someday I'll feel like that ... in five decades or so, if I'm lucky and survive grad school and ensuing career. Currently, however, my life is a whirlwind of academic chaos and while I'd like to be able to enjoy the particular charm of history in 'the calm of [my] study,' duty calls and I'm up to my neck in papers, PDFs, books, and other tools of the trade.

It was a slow weekend around here, but here's what you may have missed:

Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack details due out Tuesday;
If you've ever wanted a Swarovski-encrusted Wii, you can get one for a mere $4,000;
Amanita's made a game for 11 year olds, but even us grownups are digging it;
One of the guys behind the Bourne game talks about designing filmic games.

I'm now off to whip up a final paper for my Japanese historiography seminar and then hit the library to get some microfilm viewing in. Outside of that, I have parts of 140 exams to grade on Tuesday and then I'm done for two weeks (minus all the other work still hanging over my head). Hope y'all have a good week.

Weekend Note: Streamlining

To: Ash & Luke
From: Maggie
Subject: Wacom tablets are kinda sexy as far as peripherals go

So I've got one of those tightly-wound, high-stress personalites, the kind that's constantly worried and/or in a state of panic about something. One of the upsides of this is that I find repetitive, low-stress tasks (writing footnotes, cross-stitching, Harvest Moon) really soothing, which means I also think organizing things is great fun (a bonus in a field where you acquire astonishing amounts of paper, books, and notes on a near-daily basis). This year, I've been trying to organize my academic life: I've finally started taking class notes on my laptop, use a nifty program called DEVONthink that organizes everything without me having to do much, and my boyfriend just got me a little Wacom tablet so I can take notes on books while reading without having to transfer them to digital versions later. It's currently sitting on my coffee table, practically begging me to take notes on it. I just want to pet it — it's so cute and wee and slim! Now I have to get started making a padded case for it, since it'll be traveling to archives and libraries with me.

It was a slow weekend around here, but here's some stuff you might have missed:

Blueberry Garden looks like a bizarre, yet intriguing, upcoming indie release;
SSBB isn't playing nicely with some Wiis;
The crocheted version of our own Witzbold is available on eBay;
In more shocking news, 'X-Box Live' lies to parents about nude pictures.

I'm off to pon-pon-pata-pon my way through some more of Patapon (See? There I go with the low-stress repetitive tasks again) and get some reading done. Hope y'all have a good week.

Calgon... ?

The weekend-without-end has surprisingly come to... um, an end. As I'm somebody that sees two emails a day as "a lot to write," this weekend and the hourly posts has been somewhat of a challenge. Countless hours and countless aspirin later it's time for my final post.

Here's what you missed if you were out enjoying the beautiful Spring-is-around-the-corner weather we had here in Atlanta, or just doing something other than sitting at a PC.

HD DVD, redux

LEGO Batman: The Videogame

Weird Artistic Timewaster of the Day: Gravitation

Video Games & Violence

Hot girls and plenty of brew

On the Future of Racing Games

Piracy and Casual Games

pwnage (TM)?

Preserving Our History: Preservation for Gamers

Rule the World with your Mind!

Weekend Note: Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon!

To: Ash and Luke
From: Flynn
Subject: GDC Hangover

Ahoy gents! I hope you've had a great week. Mine was rather grueling what with GDC and all. I wish I could say my GDC hangover was from going to parties but it was really more from exhaustion coming right on the heels of last week's flu. Still, GDC was a blast and I got to see some pretty cool stuff including Lucas Arts Studio which was somewhere I've always wanted to visit.

Some things you might have missed this weekend:

Microsoft announced that they will no longer be making Xbox 360 HD-DVD players.

EA wants to buy Take-2. Take-2 doesn't want to be bought.

If you steal someones virtual gold, is it a real theft?

And now I am off to play some more Patapon. Those little singing guys sure are addictive. I'm also going to finally see what all the hub-bub is about this Portal thing that all the kids are always talking about. Hope you have a great week and we'll see you next time. Goodnight!

Weekend Note: Sick

To: Ash and Luke
From: Flynn
Subject: GDC looms large

Ahoy gents. It's been an interesting week on my end culminating in my catching some sort of hideous flu virus. I'm mostly over it but still feeling pretty under the weather. Which sucks since GDC starts tomorrow and I have to be up early. Ah well, no rest for the wicked or ill.

Some things you may have missed this weekend:

Ole' Jacky Boy is at it again. Big surprise.

WOW causes yet another relationship breakdown

How did this one slip by the big bosses?

And now I am off to down some Thera-flu and get some rest so I can try and be on top of it for tomorrow. Have a good one guys. Goodnight!

Weekend Note: Red Eye

To: Ash and Luke
From: Flynn
Subject: I am like a writing zombie

Ahoy gents! I hope this letter finds you well. As for me, I took a Red Eye out of SF last night and ended up getting two hours of sleep. The plane was late and I arrived just in time to put heads down and start writing. Needless to say I am absolutely brain fried and exhausted. So in the interest of getting some sleep I'm going to get right to the goods. Some things you might have missed this weekend...

A former Marine goes missing, Call of Duty may have been a factor.

Apple puts out a trademark for handheld games.

A kid burns down a church/school and then brags about it on GameFaqs.

And now I must beg off. My pillow is calling and Professor Layton is compelling me to help him solve some puzzles. Hopefully I can help before I pass out. Goodnight!

Weekend Note: These are the Things in Your Neighborhood

To: Ash & Luke
From: Flynn
Subject: Old Arcade Machines Need Love Too

Ahoy gents. I trust the weekend treated you well? As I was walking around near my house today I passed by an old, dusty repair shop. It was closed but I could see some old arcade machines inside including a defunct Paperboy machine and an original Ninja Gaiden machine. I'm told that they repair arcade machines exclusively at this place although no one seemed to be sure if they actually sell them or just do the repairs. I'll check in with them on Tuesday when they open, not that I could ever afford a stand up machine, but curiosity compels me. I'm actually rather surprised at all the gaming related things I've been finding around my new place: the ugly Dreamcast, the 8-bit rainbow unicorn mural, the creepy Tails statue and now these old arcade machines. Who knew the Mission was so steeped in video game stuff?

Some things you might have missed this weekend:

This guy has an incredible personal arcade machine collection

I'm looking forward to checking out Eternity's Child on WiiWare

Love your Xbox? Win another one!

I'm heading out now for some dinner and maybe a movie. Who knows, I'm feeling a little aimless tonight. Hope you guys have a great week. Goodnight.

Weekend Note: Rainy Days and Mondays

To: Ash and Luke
From: Flynn
Subject: I hate wet socks

Ahoy gents! It has been a rainy weekend here in San Francisco. Every time I've gone out I've come home with my pants soaked to the knee and I think I've gone through about six pairs of socks. Something about wearing wet socks and shoes just sucks my soul. Most of the rest of my weekend has consisted of watching episodes of Trailer Park Boys and more tedious unpacking of boxes. There were however some interesting things going on this weekend. For instance:

I got a triple vibrating hands-on with Rez HD
Cooper Lawrence took back what she said about Mass Effect on Fox News
A Metal Gear Solid Collection for PS2 has appeared for pre-order.

Now I am off to have some dinner and play No More Heroes which has been sitting unopened on the plastic box that is serving as my desk for the last four days. Hope you guys have a great week. Goodnight!

Weekend Note: Setting Up House

To: Ash & Luke
From: Flynn
Subject:

Ahoy, gents! The first few weeks of 2008 seem to have been pretty tame. Not a whole lot going on in my world except unpacking lots of boxes. So, in attempt to keep from boring you to tears I'll just move on to the news from this weekend.

Apparently Xbox is crack... for kids!!

We get to see some of the first gameplay vids of the Penny Arcade Game

This Nerf Lancer is really well done

The Chinese are cracking down on online gaming

Well, that about wraps it up for this weekend. Hope you guys have a great week and I'll see you next time. Goodnight!

Weekend Note: That New City Smell

To: Ash & Luke
From: Flynn
Subject: Weird weekend

Ahoy, gents! I hope this first weekend of the new year finds you well. The weather her in SF has been really bad over the past few days so I haven't been going out much. However, I did go to this bar last night where they had some game stations set up so that was a good time. Other than that there's not too much to report from my end. Still plugging away looking for an apartment and settling into the city. So, on to far more interesting things.

Sony officially announced that Skype is coming to the PSP

I hate the Family Circus. Apparently, so do a lot of people.

New Line Cinema went Blu-ray and the HD DVD Group canceled their CES press conference

No More Heroes gets its launch date moved up! Imagine that.

A kid asked his dad to shoot him and he did. An Xbox was involved. Kind of.

It was definitely an interesting mix of information and oddities. A bizarre weekend of news to be sure. Fortunately for you, the news from CES should be pouring in any time now and you'll have loads to write about. Well, I'm off to dinner. Hope you guys have a great week. Goodnight!

Weekend Note: The End of (Holi)Days

To: Luke & Ash
From: Flynn
Subject: Game journalist seeks 2 BR apartment in SF

Ahoy, gents! I trust that your holidays have gone well? I have been searching for an apartment in what is probably the worst time of the year to be doing such a thing. The housing market in SF right now is bordering on insane. Each apartment has a half hour open house and is converged on by 20-30 people all desperate for a place to reside. The landlords have become extremely anal and the pile of stuff you have to bring with you (proof of income, proof of employment, credit report, references and in some cases info on your bank account) is staggering. What's next? A blood test? My first born? (well, THAT one's not going to happen for obvious reasons) But, I have faith that something will break and I will find myself ensconced in a place in the next few weeks.

Some things you might have missed this weekend:

Ole' Jacky Boy is up to his old tricks

These new FF: Dissidia and KH: Birth by Sleep screens have everyone atwitter

I round up a year and half of Arcade Flyer Art Saturday in one handy dandy post

And now, I bid you adieu. I am off to look at some more ridiculously overpriced crackerbox apartments. Hope you have a great New Years and I'll see you in 2008! Sayanora, schweethearts!