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Hard-Hearted Harbinger of Haggis
Greetings, Kotaku! Welcome to the Tuesday open-thread. It’s been a busy day ’round Kotaku way, and I’ve been unable to amass the requisite amount of off-topic links for you to read and gab about. So instead, I thought I’d improvise and share my favorite poem from a movie maybe ever. I’m referring, of course, to…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 1, 2012 -
Mortal Kombat Comes to the Vita in Fine Form
It has occasionally felt like a dirty secret that Mortal Kombat 9 was one of my favorite games of last year. But there it is. It hit just the right blend of punchy violence, imaginative special moves and accessibility, and it got me invested in the (silly) Mortal Kombat universe and its (ridiculous) characters all…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 1, 2012 -
Watch the First Trailer For Black Ops II Right Now
Here it is, folks—the first trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II As you can see, the game will take place in the future. And in the past! The military has come to rely on a huge force of unarmed drones and tanks, and some nefarious so-and-so has hacked them and turned them against…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 1, 2012 -
These Girls Sing a Darned Lovely Song About Hobbits
Well, aw. I have to admit a fondness for Leonard Nimoy’s Hobbit Song, but this is on a whole new level. For starters, it’s actually good Songwriter Allie Goertz and vocalist Megan Barrett perform this heartwarming duet about Bilbo Baggins, the shire, and the quest that lies before him. It’s great stuff. Take a little…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 1, 2012 -
You’re Through, Soup Nazi. Pack It Up.
Hi there Kotaku. It’s Monday, and so here we are doing another open thread. Here are a few things from around the ‘nets for you guys to read and talk about. HBO renews ‘Girls’ and ‘Veep’ for second seasons – I just watched Veep and it’s funny! Recommended. Dentist gets revenge by pulling ex’s teeth…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 30, 2012 -
Let’s Be Careful With The Child-Murder, Ok?
Is there anything worse than killing a child? It’s one of the most reprehensible things a person can do. Not just in real life: Along with Golden Retrievericide, child-murder is one of the most double-secret-ultrabad things a character can do in a movie, book or video game. The murder of a child can be an…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 30, 2012 -
Fake Gamer of the Week: Little Girl Who Just Found Porn On Her Brother’s DS
Oh, Little Girl Who Just Found Porn On Her Brother’s DS. I’m so sorry this happened to you. On behalf of brothers everywhere, I apologize. When your big brother got a 3DS, you were so excited to inherit his old DS that you didn’t even think about clearing out the internal memory. Why would you?…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 30, 2012 -
Total War Developer’s Approach to Metacritic May Be ‘Brutal’ But It Works
In an interview with Gamasutra, Tim Heaton, the studio director of Total War developer Creative Assembly, described their development process as Metacritic-focused and “brutal.” As Creative Assembly works on a game, they’ll do what Heaton refers to as “Metacritic analysis,” breaking every feature down and looking at it from both the player’s and reviewer’s points…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 30, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Classic VHS Horror Game That Was So Funny It Was Scary
Yes my gatekeeper!! Last weekend, I was hanging out at a friend’s board game night. There were some dice on one table, and a deck of cards on the other. Then, over in the corner, some people started fiddling with a VHS player. “Oh,” I thought. “Um.” Before I knew what was happening, we had…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 28, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Quality Time With The Classic Video Game Characters You’d Switch Teams For
Yesterday on #Speakup, commenter chadoban asked which video game characters we’d all go gay (or straight) for. Your answers were as varied as they were enjoyable, so Chris Person thought he’d grab some of the most popular ones and render them into gifs. Check out the gifs below. Enjoy them. Place them on your desktop,…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 27, 2012 -
Gameloft’s Newest Mobile Game Looks A Lot Like… Crysis 2?
People give the mobile-game developer Gameloft guff for making games that are perhaps overly-“inspired” by other popular games. But it’s interesting to look at them as a reflection of the increasing horsepower and ambition of mobile games—they’ve certainly come a long way since Hero of Sparta, anyway. This exclusive trailer for their newest game, Nova…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 27, 2012 -
Does This Mean Metal Gear Rising is Coming to Vita? [Update]
We’ve heard rumors before that Konami would be releasing Metal Gear: Rising on the PlayStation Vita handheld in addition to home consoles. This page from the Vita presentation during the AT&T Developer Summit appears to reveal that in addition to the other franchises we already knew about (including Bioshock and Call of Duty), Metal Gear…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 27, 2012 -
5 Reasons The Walking Dead Game Is Better Than The TV Show
I wanted to like the television adaptation of The Walking Dead when it premiered on AMC back in 2010. I like zombies; I like Frank Darabont. I’d heard nothing but good things about the comics the show was based on. And I liked the pilot; I really did. But immediately after that… they lost me.…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 27, 2012 -
Zynga Posts $85 Million Loss
Love-to-hate-em social game developer Zynga has posted a loss of $85.4 million during the period of January-March 2012. Recent months have proven to be a rough patch for the company, with strife breaking out after their acquisition of Draw Something developer OMGPOP and insiders, including the company’s founder, looking to unload their stock Zynga spent…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 27, 2012 -
“Blurry Photo of Three Hot Chicks You’ll Never Date”
Hello there, Kotaku. I’m glad to see you’re still alive yet another day after surviving our botched planned hump day processing festivities. And here we are at the end of another day, with nothing left to do but talk amongst ourselves. Before you get to chatting, here are some things from the internet: Magazine photographer…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 26, 2012 -
Morrowind Really Did Have The Best Elder Scrolls Music, Didn’t It
Aah, just listen to it. It’s a theme we’ve heard many times, in many different games. These days, when I hear it, it’s chanted by a choir of (I’m assuming here) girthy Nords in horned helmets. But there was a time, back when I had my first bona fide Elder Scrolls obsession, when the theme…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 26, 2012 -
Michel Camilo’s Big Band Was So Caliente It Nearly Caught Fire
Here’s one for all the fans of latin music—pianist Michel Camilo is a far cry from the mellow melodies of Antonio Carlos Jobim… but that’s okay. Sometimes music just has to kick ungodly amounts of ass. Check out the above track from his album One More Once, which features a big band that was so…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 26, 2012 -
Are Sexy Musicians a Product of Evolution?
Music is one of those things that feels truly universal—it’s in every culture, and it has existed in some form or other for thousands upon thousands of years. And yet it was something that evolved, just as surely as the humans who make it did. In a very cool article at The Atlantic, scientists Geoffrey…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 26, 2012 -
The Melodic Mailbag: Missing Hip-Hop, Musical Promotion, and Mega Man
Last week, I asked you guys to submit your questions and suggestions to the Melodic Mailbag, and you came through in force. I got some great questions, and a ton of suggestions for music to write about and listen to. I checked out everything you guys sent in, and while I won’t have time to…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 26, 2012
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