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MAG Goes To Vegas, Won’t Stay In Vegas
Super Street Fighter IV won’t be the only game in town during next week’s CES convention in Las Vegas. Sony’s bringing Zipper Interactive‘s PlayStation 3 shooter MAG to the show, giving fans a chance to rub elbows and shoot bullets. It’s a pretty straightforward affair. You show up, you’re of age, you play some MAG…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 30, 2009 -
What Budget Games Did Japan Flock To In 2009?
There comes a time when even underappreciated PlayStation 3 games like Valkyria Chronicles can outsell the Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Autos of the world. And, at least in Japan, it’s when those games reach “greatest hits” budget prices. Famitsu—and we’re guessing parent company Enterbrain—have tracked some of 2009’s bestselling games that bear the…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 30, 2009 -
Major Nelson Talks About Xbox Live, Natal, Bannings & More On Kotaku Talk Radio
This morning, the Xbox Live‘s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb took a few moments from his busy podcasting and Gamerscore inflating duties to chat with Kotaku readers, a very special episode of Kotaku Talk Radio that’s now available for download. Major Nelson bravely faced a flood of Kotaku readers and what seemed to be recently banned…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 30, 2009 -
Shigeru Miyamoto Wishes You A Happy New Year, Nintendo Style
The newest issue of Japanese Nintendo magazine Nintendo Dream—the one with Link and Zelda on the cover, Spirit Tracks style—features a big batch of New Years wishes from Nintendo’s developers, including the Shigeru Miyamoto well-wisher seen above. And there’s a lot more where that came from, courtesy of the scanning prowess of Zelda Power, which…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 30, 2009 -
PETA Deems The Sims 3 Most Animal-Friendly Game of ’09
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals don’t hand out many video game awards, but when they do, they’re generally about games that favor eating vegetables and tofu over meat. PETA’s choice game of 2009? The Sims 3. The organization has lauded EA’s life simulator as the “most animal-friendly game” of the year, otherwise…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 30, 2009 -
It’s The Little Touches That Make A Legend Of Zelda Themed Wedding This Great
Jaded as we are, we’re still thrilled to see a couple of Nintendo loving nerds like Kotaku reader Kyle and his recently wedded wife Ashley take The Legend of Zelda wedding theme to the next level. The classy level. Of course, Kyle and Mrs. Kyle had a custom made Triforce cake—obligatorily pictured below—but it’s the…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 30, 2009 -
What Were Amazon’s Video Game Bestsellers Of 2009?
The answer to that question can be mostly summed up with three letters: Wii. Nintendo’s console dominated online retailer Amazon.com’s video game department in 2009, securing nine of the top ten spots on this year’s bestsellers list. Only one game stood between Nintendo and perfect top ten ownership, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 30, 2009 -
Gears Of War Buffs Up Games On Demand
Epic Games‘ huge dude shooter Gears of War has been added to the list of Xbox 360 games available “on demand,” in the unlikely event that you don’t already have the seminal third-person chainsaw and shoot ’em up. The damage is $19.99 USD, more or less in your currency, and takes an impressive 6 GB…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 29, 2009 -
Picross 3D Finally Dated! For Europe!
Good news! While the Japanese have been enjoying three-dimensional nonogram bliss for the better part of the year with Rittai Picross, the localized, announced, but not dated Picross 3D has been pegged for a February 2010 release date! In Europe! That’s according to a report on the Nintendo DS follow up to Picross DS from…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 29, 2009 -
Unreal Tournament 3 Players, Download DM Spectrum Now
The previously featured DM_Spectrum, the lovely looking, brightly color coded mod for Unreal Tournament 3 that lets you make a killing on the dance floor, is now available for download, developer Matt Bradley tells us today. Now we’re telling you. In the unfortunate case that you missed the original post on DM_Spectrum, Bradley describes the…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 29, 2009 -
EA Sports MMA Adds Two More Fighters Big In Japan
The EA Sports MMA roster has grown by two, officially, as of today. Electronic Arts announced a press conference in Tokyo earlier today that Hidehiko Yoshida and Shinya Aoki will virtually beat the shit out of each other in 2010. If the names Yoshida and Aoki aren’t what you’d consider household names, the former is…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 29, 2009 -
CES 2010: A Special Programming Note
You may think that we’ve entered the annual Slow News Day season, but you’d be wrong. Because next week, CES 2010 convenes in lovely Las Vegas, Nevada and Kotaku will be there, pounding the carpet and gawking at fancy electronics. And expect twice the coverage of next year’s show, as we’ll be double teaming the…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 29, 2009 -
Finally, Slime Curling Comes To Dragon Quest
Someone at Square Enix must have been hit hard by an early infection of (Winter) Olympic Fever, as clearly evidence by the addition of Slime Curling mini-gaming to the Dragon Quest VI remake for the Nintendo DS. Yes, Dragon Quest VI is now on every winter sports enthusiast’s radar, also adding what appears to be…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 29, 2009 -
Painkiller Developers Predicting A Bulletstorm
People Can Fly, most famous for its work on the Painkiller franchise, is working on an all-new intellectual property with Epic Games, a game that may be known as Bulletstorm when ultimately revealed. Or so a newly filed trademark implies. The Warsaw-based developer filed that trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week,…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 29, 2009 -
Tuper Tario Tros. Puts A Little Tetris In Your Mushroom Kingdom
A mash-up of Super Mario Bros. and Tetris should—or at least could—be the best video game of all time, given how strong each title is independently. But is that marriage of gameplay styles enjoyable in practice? It certainly doesn’t make for a good name, but Tuper Tario Tros.—seriously!—at least makes for an interesting concept. The…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 29, 2009 -
Borderlands’ Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot Now Open For Business
The second expansion for Gearbox Software’s Borderlands is now accepting contestants and Microsoft Points. Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot is now available for the Xbox 360 version of the game, giving Borderlands loot hounds new areas in which to grind. What does one get for the 800 Microsoft Points investment? The all-new Riot Mode challenges, offering…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 29, 2009 -
Study: Female Everquest II Players Still Logging More Hours, Still Not Honest About It
Men may be the more stereotyped hardcore gaming gender, but a study of Everquest II players published in the Journal of Communication says that women regularly out-MMO men—but that women aren’t as honest about the hours logged gaming. Those findings back up a study from the University of Southern California published last year, which said…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 28, 2009 -
Prince of Persia: The Movie: The LEGO Playsets
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is getting more than just a big budget film adaptation next year. It’s also getting a LEGO brick adaptation of that very same movie. You know what that means? Chesty Jake LEGO! According to the LEGO obsessed crew at Brickset, there will be at least five set pieces…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 25, 2009 -
Left 4 Dead 2’s Midnight Riders Wish You Warm Christmas Beatings
They may not be getting a starring role in Left 4 Dead 2 downloadable content as we’d hoped, but the self-proclaimed Greatest Southern Rock Supergroup of All Time is providing more musical back up than we were expecting. The Midnight Riders—or their management, we presume, since the band has been missing in action since October—have…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 24, 2009 -
Big Final Fantasy XIII Sales Mean Big PS3 Sales In Japan
When you’re selling over 1.5 million copies of Final Fantasy XIII to the Japanese game buying public, you’re gonna sell some PlayStation 3s to go along with it. How many? More than triple what Sony sold the week before. That big red slice in the Japanese hardware pie represents the 237,000-plus PS3s snapped up by…
By Michael McWhertor Published December 24, 2009
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