Brian Crecente

ZQ Fall Issue

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Dead Rising 2 High Stakes Edition Unboxing

The Dead Rising 2 High Stakes Edition showed up on the doorstep of Kotaku tower last night, like some unwanted waif. Of course our first thought was to tear apart the $90 bundle for Capcom’s zombie game and show everyone what was inside. Here’s hoping no children in baskets ever show up on our doorstep.…

MAG, Demon’s Souls and Others Get PS3 Price Cuts

Well, well, well, what do we have here? Some price drops on a few of our favorite PS3 games is what. Sony Computer Entertainment America added seven more games to their price-reduced Greatest Hits library today. And among the list is one of last year’s best games: Demon’s Souls. Not surprising news, but still fantastic.…

Fall’s Here, Summer’s Dead

The corn mazes are open, the pumpkins on sale, the leaves are turning brown and, if Mother Nature didn’t hate us, it would be getting cooler here in the Northern Hemisphere. That’s right it’s fall, time not only to prepare for the coming of winter, but also the spending of money. While the glory days…

Played: Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the first Metal Gear game I’ve played to completion in nearly 15 years. It also almost became the last. Style: Despite being packed with a vast array of upgradeable guns, gear, armored vehicles and walking tanks, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is all about not using them. Stealth is…

Funny Story

To: Bash From: Crecente Re: Passport All Systems Go! Next Up, Ring-A-Ding-Dong A guy walks into Double Fine with a shit-ton of game development experience under his arm looking for a studio to work in… stop me if you’ve heard this one before… What you missed: Flow Recreated In LittleBigPlanet 2 Tim Schafer Hires Ron…

Fingers On With Target’s Giant In-Store Touch Screen Game Advisor

Target talked about sprucing up the video game section of their stores way back in May, but I haven’t seen any sign of that at my local brand-spanking-new, Super Target until this weekend, when this video panel popped up. It looks like these giant vertical touch displays have started popping up all over the country…

Nintendo Asks Players Trapped in Metroid: Other M Bug To Mail Them Their Save Files

Nintendo is warning players away from Metroid: Other M’s potentially game-breaking locked door bug in Sector 3, but if it’s too late for you and your save file, you’re going to have to mail away for a fix. Responding to Kotaku this morning about the bug, Nintendo of America says they have identified a door…

iTunes Chart Toppers: iPad Owners Love Those Freemium Games

The iPad really saw a takeover of free-to-play, but pay-to-win games this week. Famrville, We City, City Story, Farm Story. iPad owners are crazy about em’. Here’s the full list of games for both platforms: iPhone Position Title Price Weeks Last Week 1 Angry Birds (Clickgamer.com) $0.99 20 3 2 Gangstar: Miami Vindication (Gameloft) $6.99…

Humor Finds Hope in Indie Game Development

Humor in video games can be a brutally serious thing. The very nature of creating something funny makes finding a publisher for a big-budget funny game nearly impossible. “The process of getting a $30 million game signed with a publisher is the process of removing risk,” said Tim Schafer, one of Double Fine Productions’ resident…

Tim Schafer Hires Ron Gilbert, Gets Funnier

Video gaming’s best known funny men are back together again under one roof, having a “hell of a lot of fun,” making jokes and, perhaps, even developing a game or two. Ron Gilbert, known best for his work on the first two Monkey Island games, Maniac Mansion and this summer’s DeathSpank, officially started work at…

Operation Angry Birds

To: Bash From: Crecente Trish is not a gamer. Not really. She doesn’t like to play typical video games, doesn’t like to hear about them, doesn’t like to watch them. But occasionally I trick her into trying one out. A decade ago it was Sims, which she loved for all of a week before starting…

An Atari Collection As Permanent Marker Art

Artist Hollis Brown Thornton is selling this amazingly detailed permanent marker drawing for $600 in his online store. If you’re a fan of “Atari” you should check out some of Brown’s other game-themed artwork, like Mario-inspired Clouds in the Sky at Sunset or, my favorite, Space Invaders moment “Closing Credits at the End of The…

Team Ico Tells Us A Bit More About The Last Guardian

A few more tantalizing tidbits of information about upcoming PS3 exclusive The Last Guardian popped up in a recent interview between the Playstation Blog and the game’s developer. Developer Fumito Ueda told the blog during the Tokyo Game Show earlier this month, that The Last Guardian is not a “pet game”, but rather an adventure…

What if Civilization’s Catchy Theme Music Had Its Own Lyrics?

It would most definitely not sound like this. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be listening to Brentalfloss’ attempt at adding them, just in time for the release of Civ V this month. He says that the lyrics were “officially endorsed” by Christopher Tin, the original composer of Civilization’s Baba Yetu. It’s catchy! [Thanks Brent]

Turn Your iPod Nano, iPhone 4, iPad Into Walking Robots

While you and I were busy trying to figure out how to talk on the original iPhone in LA and Vegas without dropping the call two seconds later, PachimonDotCom was using his giant brain to transform the smart phones into robots! Now he’s at it again, turning the diminutive iPod Nano 6G into a big-eyed…

Stars

To: Luke From: Crecente Stars! You love em, I love em. Soon we may have more of them. Mysterious! What you missed: Peter Molyneux’s Son Calls Out Valve On Half-Life 3 Delay Taking a Hockey Stick to Wii Party Swords Review: It Slices, It Dices, It Sucks Facebook Malfunction Spawns FarmVille Panic, Schadenfreude Teaching Our…

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Swords Review: It Slices, It Dices, It Sucks

Of all the ways to play using motion-detecting video games, swordplay seems to offer the most potential for fun. The give and take of fencing and Kendo seem like easy rules to mimic in a video game and the slashing motion of using your sword to attack and block seem like the sort of big…

Taking a Hockey Stick to Wii Party

Earlier this week I received a Wii Party pinata in the mail, it was pretty clear what had to be done. Good thing Ash is reviewing this particular game.