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When the S.W.A.T. arrived at a North Texas home in Lewisville, there were told a shooter was in the house. There was, but it wasn't the shooter the police expected. It was a kid playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. More »
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You won't be seeing much in the way of trees in the upcoming Alan Wake game. Where Remedy's first outing with the writer-turned-hero took place in the creepy forests of the Pacific Northwest, American Nightmare puts players in a haunted desert. New weapons—including what looks like a nail gun—and new enemies shop up in these shots. Some of the giant-sized antagonists, like those spiders, show signs of being irradiated or it might just be more nightmares-made-real weirdness breaking through to the real world. More »
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Skullgirls, Revenge Labs downloadable game coming sometime soon ("early 2012" is the latest word) on PSN and Xbox Live, is a 2D fighter with a heavy multiplayer component. That doesn't mean it doesn't have a story explaining who its characters are, how they acquired their skills and powers, and just what the heck "Skullgirl" means, anyway. More »
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Stephen Toulouse—known as StepTo to those listening to Major Nelson's podcast, or unfortunate enough to feel the cold kiss of the Xbox Live banhammer—has given his two weeks notice to Microsoft. The director of Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement will leave Feb. 16, after 18 years with the company. More »
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Every few weeks we here at Kotaku make a selection of some of the best Indie games that Xbox Live has to offer. These are our latest favorites. More »
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Konami has confirmed that the beloved beat-em-up The Simpsons Arcade is coming to consoles, and sooner than you expected. Not only does it get here, like, Friday (on Xbox Live), it'll be available free to PlayStation Plus subscribers when PSN gets it on Tuesday Feb. 7. More »
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Reclaiming a hacked account is always a nuisance, but Josh Hinkle's nightmarish story of losing, reclaiming, re-losing, and then re-reclaiming his Xbox Live account takes the cake. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5881425&view=rss&microfeed=true There've been betas and release date push-backs but the game that lets you be a violent devotee of Batman or his crazy archenemy will finally hit platforms next week. The downloadable FPS will be available on February 7 for PlayStation Network and Windows PC users in the Americas and on February 8 for PSN users outside of the the Americas. The Xbox Live version comes out on February 8th as well. Gotham City Impostors. More »
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Famous people are just like you and me. They put on pants one leg at a time. Some of them love video games and enjoy mixing it up on Xbox Live. But the vast majority of them don't advertise their superstar online. More »
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Dark Reign Redux, a remake of 1997's Dark Reign: The Future of War, a real-time strategy game for PC, just published on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel yesterday, without Activision so much as stapling a flyer to a telephone pole or putting up a card on a café barter board for its marketing. More »
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Well, that didn't take long. The foaming outrage over the arrest of Kim Dotcom and the shutdown of his MegaUpload empire needed all of five days to result in this, MegaUP: Upload If You Can, a protest title released Wednesday on Xbox Live's Indie Games service. Proceeds from the sale of the game (after Microsoft takes its cut) benefit its maker. Kim would be so proud. More »
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At first blush it doesn't seem to stand out: NBA 2K11 cracked the top 20 of most played titles on the Xbox 360 for the week of Jan. 16. But when you peel it back, that's actually quite astonishing, to see an old version of a sports video game resurface more than 15 months after its release. More »
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What's your Xbox Avatar's current look? A generic t-shirt with a lightsaber and cat? Come on, you can do better than that. To celebrate the slightly delayed release of Max Payne 3, Microsoft's rolling out virtual threads and accessories that pay homage to Rockstar's modern noir franchise. Among the highlights, guy gamers can suit up with the titular hero's suit from Max Payne 2 and female Xbox users have a choice of clothes from hired killer Mona Sax. There's also t-shirts with box art from the first Max Payne and other goodies that you can view on the Xbox Live Marketplace. More »
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Anonymous continues to lash out following the seizure of Megaupload and the jailing of its founder, having momentarily deleted both CBS.com and UniversalMusic.com. Xbox Live has been threatened, but is that credible? More »
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Doom, one of the progenitors of the first-person shooter genre, has returned to the Xbox Live Marketplace after a mysterious three-month hiatus. The classic PC title is available for 400 Microsoft Points ($5). More »
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Commenter Firescorpio takes us on a (somewhat misspelled) journey through the nine circles of Xbox Live hell, a path that transforms an innocent online gamer into a foaming, frothing, enjoyment-destroying fuckwit in today's infographic-tastic edition of Speak-Up on Kotaku. More »
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Yes, you read that right. Alan Wake now has a horde mode, and a rather good one at that. It seems that every game has one these days. However, is this something that Alan Wake fans want? More »
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What if I told you Square Enix and Tik games were coming out with a game based on the celebrated and psychedelic characters of Nathan Jurevicious next week? What if I told you I've played it and it was a ton of fun? What if I told you it reminded me of one of my favorite PS1 platformers of all time? Would you be as curious as I am as to why nobody has been talking about this game? Of course you possibly might! More »
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Jan. 1 happened exactly six days ago, and as of then, gun props for Xbox Live avatars were prohibited for sale. Problem is, plenty of people either already bought or acquired those items (by, like a code in a special edition or something) well before that policy went into place. More »
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The three most recent editions of Call of Duty went one-two-three in the top 20 of Xbox Live's most-played titles, as measured by unique users connected to the service, reports Major Nelson. The only thing in the top 10 that wasn't a shooter or sports title was Skyrim, at No. 6. More »
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Microsoft said it has intervened to restore the Xbox Live account of a customer hit by an overseas phishing scam, and refunded all unauthorized charges the scammers were able to make as her complaint got lost in customer support and was never properly locked down. More »
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Borne out of mishmash of Eastern European fairytales, pop art and fatherhood, Nathan Jurevicius' Scarygirl's one of those indie art success stories that manages to warm the coldest of hearts. Scarygirl started off as cartoon strips chronicling the the adventures of a monstrously adorable girl who washes up on a remote peninsula as she tries to hunt down the man who haunts her dreams. It's since become a graphic novel, a series of collectible vinyl toys and a Flash game (which Luke Plunkett loved when he played it a while back). There's a feature film reportedly in the works, too. More »
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To ring in the new year, the folks behind the Xbox Live Indie Channel has announced a few changes. The changes will allow for submission of larger games, new price points, and a new maximum number of titles per developer. More »
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The Xbox 360 getting UFC matches seemed like a good idea at the time. Pity Xbox Live couldn't actually cope with all the people trying to watch one. More »
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This announcement oughta go over like a turd in a punchbowl. Seems that on Jan. 1, Xbox Live is taking guns away from all avatars. That is according to Epic Games' community manager, who in a reminder to Gears of War fans said that if they don't have the Lancer or Hammerburst avatar props, they better run go get strapped because all guns are verboten after the new year. More »
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They crank out a lot of Street Fighter and Resident Evil but Capcom also has a history of putting out weird, unique games like Okami, God Hand and Viewtiful Joe. Rageaholic adventure Asura's Wrath seems to follow in the legacy of such idiosyncratic games. We've written a bit about the mythological sci-fi action brawler, but those of you curious about what it plays like only have to wait a little longer to sample it. More »
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If you count the directions keyed on the D-pad (or the left stick) it takes 17 button presses to reach the Indie Games section of the Xbox Live Marketplace under the new Xbox dashboard, which released this week. It takes only eight buttons to get to the Xbox Live Arcade and Games on Demand catalogs. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5866930&view=rss&microfeed=true On the heels of the new dashboard rollout this week, Xbox Live's Gold level services are free to all this weekend. In addition to multiplayer gaming, features like Video Kinect are also available to Silver (free) subscribers. The weekend includes free previews and discounts on downloadable films (like The Hangover) as well. Enjoy. More »
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Can't get enough Duke Nukem? (That's—I say, that's a rhetorical question, son, you're not supposed to answer it.) Well, good. Gearbox done whomped up even more DLC for the game. More »
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He gets OK grades in school. He has a few friends. They seem passable. He eats at the table every night and sits in the back seat of the car every weekend, but really, he's a teenage boy. You don't know him. More »
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Every few weeks we here at Kotaku make a selection of some of the best Indie games that Xbox Live has to offer. These are our latest favorites. More »
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A surprise, official Xbox LIVE app just hit Apple's iTunes. More »
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You'll finally be able to get your hands on the medieval, character-switching action of Trine 2 today, if you're getting it on Steam. The game's gorgeous art style and beautiful color palette manifests into gorgeous vistas and sharp character animations. As previously mentioned, console versions release a little later. Either way, consider this sequel an anecdote to the grit and brown of the last few months' AAA games. More »
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Do it yourself clothing and crap company CafePress has teamed up with Microsoft to give Xbox Live users the ability to print and purchase stuff starring their own personalized avatar. Let's go Voltron force! More »
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At 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, two criminals kicked in the door of an unidentified Pittsburgh man's home while he was playing an Xbox 360 game online. They then pistol-whipped the homeowner and threatened a woman who was also in the house at gunpoint. However, the victim was able to alert the person he was playing online with as to what was happening and the other gamer was able to call 911. Cops got to the house after the criminals fled with $100 and are investigating the case. Anyone with information is being encouraged to contact the police. More »
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The new dashboard update hitting Xbox 360s this week represents yet another salvo in Microsoft's bid to transform their gaming console into a powerhouse home entertainment hub. Of course, such an effort needs lots of ammunition and the Xbox folks have pacted with content partners all over the globe to enable TV viewing through Xbox Live. The list below details the networks coming to various regions over the next few months. Microsoft also says that they're aggressively talking to other content providers, too, so the 40 names below may just be the tip of the iceberg. More »
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The number-crunchers at Microsoft know the reasons you turn off your Xbox 360. It's to surf videos on YouTube, to tune in a pay-per-view fight or to catch the new episode of a TV show you want to watch as soon as it airs. Being Microsoft, they don't want you turning off their console. The new dashboard update being pushed out to all 360s this week is their bet to keep you plugged into Xbox Live for as long as possible. More »
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Since October, we've heard anecdotal accounts of Xbox Live members finding suspicious purchases on their credit cards and learning their accounts had been recovered to another machine. Now it's happened to a games writer—just this past week. Dan Crawley of VentureBeat provides a detailed rundown of exactly what happened, and in the process asks some detailed questions of Microsoft. More »
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Announced back in September, pay-per-view fights in the mixed martial arts UFC series will be available Dec, 20 via Xbox Live, Microsoft said today. More »
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Fez, which is going on four years in development, was delayed to "early 2012" way back in September, so at least this luxurious long shot of the perspective-switching indie platformer isn't some oblique way of saying "BTW, it's been pushed back again." That we know of. More »
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