Brian Crecente

GameStop Reviewing Their Sales Policy in Light of Kotaku Story

GameStop today confirmed that they are reviewing their lending and sales policy to see if it may be a violation of trade practices, GameStop officials told Kotaku today. “We are looking at a series of things,” said said Chris Olivera, vice president of corporate communications for GameStop. “We want to understand the assertions that were…

Terminator Salvation Clip Still Isn’t Convincing Me

This video gives us a glimpse of upcoming Terminator Salvation – The Videogame. It doesn’t, however, change my mind about the game.

A Glimpse at Excitebots Multiplayer Online

I spent a little time with Excitebots: Trick Racing at GDC. It was fairly fun, but also fairly familiar. Now we get a glimpse of the game’s online mulitplayer. Yes, online. Fortunately.

Video Games Live To Perform On Last Day of E3

As E3 continues to reinvent itself, trying to dig its way out of a self-created publicity hole, the show’s importance this year continues to grow. We’ve already heard from a number of developers are holding off on announcements this year until E3 so they can make a big splash. All of that potential attention has…

Update: EA Ships Illegal Weapons To Press, Wants Them Back

Electronic Arts today contacted game writers around the country asking them to return the brass knuckles they were sent as part of a promotion for Godfather II. The representative that contacted me said that the company wanted to make sure that the brass knuckles were “properly disposed of.” He declined to comment any further. Contacted…

Dr. Who

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: DON’T LEAVE BABIES IN CARS!!! You know, I used to watch Dr. Who when I was a kid. I remember one of babysitter’s, when I was in elementary school, would always watch it when I was at her house. I ended up watching it with her. As I grew up…

Spore Creator Wants to Make Toys Fun Again

Will Wright, the man who launched a million sims, is broadening his horizons. The famed digital toy maker responsible for SimCity, The Sims and Spore, is leaving video game publishing behemoth Electronic Arts to dabble in every form of entertainment from robots and toys to television shows, movies and, yes, even more video games. Wright…

Law of the Game: GameStop Practice Appears Deceptive

Legal game site, Law of the Game, has weighed in on GameStop’s policy of selling games they let their employees play as new, unplayed, titles. Mark Methenitis, an attorney at Dallas-based The Vernon Law Group, says that there is both a legal and pragmatic approach to the answer of whether the practice is illegal. “From…

Grudge Director Working on Game

Takahashi Shimizu, famed Japanese horror film director best known of his work on The Grudge, is working on a Wii horror game called Feel, according to the latest issue of Famitsu. According to the gang at Neo-Gaf, the game will be based on the original Grudge movie, known as Ju-on (or The Curse) in Japan…

Rhythm Heaven Scratch Academy

Yesterday, Nintendo held a Rhythm Heaven Scratch DJ Academy event in New York to promote the release of the DS title. Gamers who showed up were able to check out the rhythm game and then received free DJ lessons from professional DJs. Did anyone here go? Looking at the photos it looks like attendance may…

Time Warner Revises Plans to Charge for Internet Bandwith Usage

Broadband internet provider Time Warner Cable seems to have caved slightly to the rising public sentiment against their plans to charge its subscribers for the amount of bandwidth they use. Yesterday, the company announced a revised pricing structure. While the new structure still charges for usage, it does seem a bit more accommodating. “Some recent…

World of Warcraft Latex Masks

World of Warcraft is likely one of the most pervasive video games in the mainstream. There was that whole South Park episode. There’s the World of Warcraft-themed porn. And now, it seems, there are World of Warcraft latex masks. They’re pretty neat looking too. Probably look like crap on, but who cares? You can stuff…

Lidell Gets Funky On A DSi

I can’t imagine using my DSi to listen to music and this goofy music video featuring Jamie Lidell‘s song "Figured Me Out" doesn’t really change my mind. Maybe Tristan will use it that way now that his iPod has disappeared.

Busy Day

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: People’s Dork Pictures Are So Very Funny Well that was pretty much an entire day’s work. What you missed: D&D Co-Creator Dead At 61 Nielsen Drops the Ball on Console Usage Numbers Frankenreview: Nintendo DSi Metal Gear Solid Touch Micro-Review Sony: Killzone 2 Sales Have “Exceeded Our Expectations” Confused about…

GameStop Sells Played Games As New, Sources Say, Practice Could Be Illegal

The alleged practice of GameStop lending new copies of games to employees at their stores and then later selling those games as new, unused copies, may be a violation of federal law. GameStop’s “check-out” policy, confirmed to Kotaku by a number of the chain’s managers and employees, could fall under scrutiny of the Federal Trade…

Blue Öyster Cult Teams With Warhammer Online On Rock Song

Members of Blue Öyster Cult teamed with Warhammer Online devs to cut a Dwarf rock song to celebrate the recent launch of the WAR Dwarf Slayer career. “We thought long and hard about how to properly tell gamers what the Dwarf Slayer is all about,” said Paul Barnett, Senior Creative Director for WAR and the…

Nielsen Drops the Ball on Console Usage Numbers

Remember that study of video gamer habits Nielsen released earlier this week showing the Wii in third place and the Playstation 3 in seventh, last even after the GameCube and original Xbox? It was wrong. Fast Company reports that they’ve been told that the graph was mislabeled. The real graph, which now appears in the…

Play Crysis Wars For Free Starting Today

Starting today players can play all of Crysis Wars online for free, including each of the game’s three multiplayer modes and all 23 maps. The free trial runs until April 17. EA and Crytek plan to release Crysis Maximum Edition, a compilation of all three Crysis games, on May 5 for $40. “When Crysis Wars…

How Fighting Robots Helped Wright Quit EA

Will Wright may be leaving Maxis and Electronic Arts, but that doesn’t mean he’s leaving gaming. In fact some of his biggest ideas are for future games, he told us today. When asked if he felt like he was leaving his gaming fanbase behind, he said no. “That’s definitely not the case, some of the…

The World is Shrinking

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Soup? That’s No Lunch. Forget It. Isn’t it amazing that Kotaku can be written by writers on three continents and that we can work together and share ideas all without delay or the cost of high phone bills? I remember when I was a kid living in Thailand, the only…