Luke Plunkett

The Physics Of The Mushroom Kingdom Are Worthy Of Research

Glenn Elert is a physics teacher from Brooklyn. He and his students did a little research recently, and published a serious paper reporting their findings. How serious? Mushroom Kingdom serious. Yes, Ebert has wisely forgone teaching his kids about gravity the boring/realistic way, and instead decided to chart the gravity in the Mushroom Kingdom. So…

Child’s Play Done For The Year, Final Amount Tallied

Another year passes, another Child’s Play charity drive winds up. Each year it seems to be getting bigger, grander, more charitable, so let’s take a look and see how much you lot managed to raise. This time around? Records were broken. No, broken and then broken again. Over the course of the 08/09 campaign, an…

Homebrew Wii HDD Workaround Succeeds Where Nintendo Does Not

No HDD on the Wii eh, Nintendo? Big mistake. Makes Wii owners sad. Never mind, while Nintendo may be lacking the will to make a storage device for the Wii, others are more adventurous. Matrix have parted the curtains on the WiiZii, a plugn-play mod (mod! avert your eyes!) that allows you the user to…

NPD Say PC Sales Are Down, Down, Down

2008’s NPD numbers are now out there for analysis. So let the analysis commence! Up for discussion tonight are PC sales numbers, and how the NPD Group tell us they’re down 14% from 2007. Which, according to the way the NPD Group collect their sales data, is correct! Bad bad news, right? No, no, no.…

Now Everyone Can Shoot Nazi Zombies In Call Of Duty

Didn’t much care for World at War. Seemed a bit…trashy. But the bit at the end, where you can kill Nazi zombies? Loved that bit. And as of today, everyone can love it. Treyarch have “unlocked” the previously endgame-only mode – called Nacht der Untoten – so that everyone can play it, regardless of whether…

Europe’s Resident Evil 5 Collector’s Edition: Kijuju, Yo

We’ve seen North America’s Resident Evil 5 box art. Japan’s, too. They’re…OK, but not as nice as these puppies. Pictured is the box art for Europe’s collector’s edition of the game, and it looks nice. Otherwise known as the “Steelbook” edition, as you can see, Capcom’s art team has taken the bonkers-mad “Kijuju” motif and…

Samba De Amigo: The iPod

Don’t you just love it when outdated consumer electronics and semi-obscure game characters meet? Hope you do. Because they sure as shit meet in this rare Samba De Amigo iPod. A 3rd Gen iPod, only a handful were ever made, and were handed out last year at the Nintendo World Store in NYC to winners…

You Won’t Play Final Fantasy XIII Until 2010

Waiting for the latest instalment in the Final Fantasy series? Great! You just keep on waiting, because Square Enix boss Yoichi “Imperial Hot” Wada has said it won’t be out in the West until 2010. Speaking with Reuters, Wada confirms that while the Japanese release of Final Fantasy XIII (which is exclusive to the PS3)…

Quaint Arcade Being Taxed Out Of Existence

Name Your Game is a cute little store in the village of Hampshire, Illinois. It sells some clothes, it sells some candy, and most importantly, until this year it had ten old arcade machines. Ms. Pac-Man & NASCAR Racing were among the titles, whose retro appeal was a big hit with the local kids. But…

PAL PlayStation Store Update

No GTA Club + for you, Europe, because…well, because you got it in December. No Ultimate Ghosts’ n’ Goblins, either, and still no SFIIHD. So what did you get? You caught up on some Force Unleashed DLC, got a Dead Space demo, a Skate 2 demo and the current Rock Band updates. Everything else, below.…

Kid Played Too Much Age Of Empires, So Took Up Archery

Yesterday, the Australian Youth Olympic Festival kicked off in Sydney. Mostly boring. Less boring, though, is the story of the flag-bearer for the ceremony, who only took up sport after being kicked off his computer. Ryan Tyack, 17, is competing at the festival as an archer, having taken up the sport in 2001. Why’d he…

You Are Standing In Front Of Guitar Hero West Of A White House…

Guitar Hero’s been played out. Colours pass in front of you, you mash a button, music plays, life goes on. If only there was a way to take the core mechanics and make them fresh. Oh! Looks like there is. Here’s ianwarren’s “port” of the series, enabling you to play Guitar Hero as a classic…

Treyarch Explain Why It Takes So Damn Long For A PC Patch To Be Released

Here’s how it goes: PC game is released, doesn’t work for a bunch of people, people start screaming for a patch. But just what’s required in releasing a patch? Allow Treyarch to explain. Posting on the official Call of Duty forums, Treyarch Community Manager Josh Olin goes into great detail on just what a PC…

Why Pandemic’s Batman Game Was Canned, And How It Killed Pandemic AU

We know Pandemic Brisbane is, for all intents and purposes, no more. We also know they were working on a Batman game that was canned late last year. Now, though, we know a lot more. New Kotaku AU editor David Wildgoose brings us the story of how the Batman game Pandemic Brisbane were working on…

Dell Go Mad, Offering Dirt-Cheap PS3s & 360s

Sure, 360 consoles are getting cheaper, but they’re still not cheap. And the PS3? Yeah, nowhere near cheap. So it’s nice to see, of all people, Dell come to the rescue. They’re currently offering crazy prices on both 360 and PS3 consoles, slashing $60 off the price of an Elite 360, $90 off a Pro…

Killzone 2 Demo Isn’t *Quite* Exclusive To GameStop

You may have heard. The Killzone 2 demo is exclusive to GameStop. Meaning you have to part with money to play it. Savvy! But here comes the fine print: the demo’s not quite exclusive. Sony’s Scott Steinberg has told MTV that the demo will eventually be released to the American public. And released to the…

Gears Of War: Nine Million Served

You may hate its multiplayer modes. You may abhor the fact it’s characters are so testosterone-fuelled they border on self parody. That doesn’t matter. The Gears of War series has sold nine million copies. Speaking with GameDaily, Microsoft’s Guy Welch has revealed that since Gears of War 2 was released in November, it’s sold four…

Some Moody, Moody Heavy Rain Concept Art [Update]

People are really looking forward to Heavy Rain. And with good cause! Problem is, developers Quantic Dream aren’t exactly big on releasing assets for the game. So we’ll settle for concept art! These pics (via Superannuation) come from the portfolio of Morgan Yon, a concept artist who used to work for Quantic Dream between 2006-2008.…

Dr McNinja’s Super Mario Bros. T-Shirt

Chris Hastings is the man behind the internet’s premier medical/ninjitsu soap opera, Dr McNinja. And you know what? He’s also the man behind this reasonably badass Mario Bros. shirt. It’s called Warrior Plumbers, and…well…you see what it does. It’s $19.75 plus shipping, but by the time you read this, they’ll probably all be gone. Sorry!…

Guitar Hero Metallica Sort Of Dated For Europe

Guitar Hero Metallica still doesn’t have a firm release date in the US (though rumours suggest March). Doesn’t have one in Europe, either, but it does have a firm release month. And that month is May, Activision confirmed to Eurogamer yesterday. A two-month wait for PAL users seems a bit much, but then, with Kyuss,…