Michael McWhertor

Q-Games Teases PixelJunk 1-4 With First Images

The fourth PixelJunk title from developer Q-Games, currently known as PixelJunk 1-4 and officially due to be revealed next week, has entered the teasing phase today, courtesy of Facebook. Q-Games follow-up to PixelJunk Eden is being socially promoted via Facebook with a “PixelJunk 1-4 sells one million units at launch!” event. Clearly pandering for sales!…

Retail Listings Confirm The Beatles: Rock Band 3-Part Harmonies

Looks like the “loose talk” surrounding vocal harmonizing in The Beatles: Rock Band is spot on, according to retailer listings forwarded to Kotaku. According to retail game descriptions, the game supports three part harmonies. That means support for three microphones at once, a new addition to the established Rock Band vocal gameplay style. Good thing…

Muramasa: The Demon Blade Lands New Publisher, Launch Date

Vanillaware’s lovely looking Wii game Muramasa: The Demon Blade (née Oboro Muramasa) is no longer coming to North America by way of publisher XSEED. Instead, publisher Ignition Entertainment will bring it to these shores. The publisher announced today that it had acquired the North American publishing rights to the title, planning for a September 2009…

Team Fortress 2 Patch Hints At New Headgear, Huge Gameplay Changes

The most recent Team Fortress 2 update brings with it updates that may radically change the way we play the game, including the fascinating—but still unannounced—addition of headgear to classes. Oh, it gets much better. While the official Valve change log rather mundanely notes that the Team Fortress 2 team has “reworked the character loadout…

PlayStation Gamers’ Day: Why I Was Absent From Kotaku Today

Sony held day one of its pre-E3 PlayStation Preview days today, an event that consumed a day’s worth of posting for this Kotaku editor. Honestly, though, playing new games all day was better than posting. Unfortunately, we can’t really discuss much of what I got to go hands-on with today, as all of the preview…

Wii Rock Band Gets A Little Toby & Yngwie

Wii owners get a dragon-slaying trio of Yngwie Malmsteen this week, which joins the Rock Band 2 downloadable music library on Tuesday, as well as a double-wide dose of Toby Keith. It’s a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll, obviously, as well as a little bit… whatever The Shins, Black Tide…

Hangin’ In PlayStation Home With The Star Trek Crew

We’ve fired up the old PlayStation Home account to spend a few minutes with the cast and crew from the upcoming Star Trek movie, including J.J. Abrams, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. You can watch! So far, it’s been described as “the most surreal event in the world” by Quinto. It’s also fairly well organized…

Here’s What Comes In Your Patapon 2 Box

We don’t expect you to be surprised by the contents of your Patapon 2 box, should you choose to pick it up, but let’s be very clear about what’s in that PSP game case. The official PlayStation blog lays it out for potential Patapon 2 customers, displaying the contents—box, instruction manual and download voucher—and clearly…

Muramasa: The Demon Blade Is Clearly Pandering

We have little doubt that Vanillaware and Marvelous Entertainment are targeting the tinglier areas of otaku with Muramasa: The Demon Blade, what with all the sexy bath time and fetishistic character designs. But the game is gorgeous, one of the more interesting third-party titles coming for the Wii this year. And one that’s managing to…

Nintendo Stock Takes A Hit

The market didn’t take the news of Nintendo’s year-over-year drop in Wii sales well. Despite having the bestselling hardware in the United States, that 17% drop in sales did some damage to Nintendo’s stock price. While the week was mostly positive for Nintendo—it had announced sales of 435,000 Nintendo DSi handhelds in its first week—it…

New Virtual On Figures Appeal To Sexy Maid Mech Fetishist(s)

While dedicated Twin Stick controllers for the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade re-release of Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram may be nothing more than a pipe dream, we can definitely count on new mech action figures! *snort* Sega’s already got a pair in the works—the RVR-H8 Raiden II RNA and RVR-87 Specineff—but have added two more. Well,…

What Does Peter Moore Know About The Xbox’s Motion Control Plans?

Now that former Xbox exec Peter Moore is well established at EA Sports, he’s probably going to be willing to spill the beans on the oft-rumored motion controller planned for the Xbox 360. Right? Well… Moore, when asked by GameTrailers TV‘s Geoff Keighley about his knowledge of Microsoft’s plans—plans that may have formed during Moore’s…

Japanese Hardware Sales In A Funk

This week’s hardware report from Media Create isn’t a positive one. Similar to the industry’s performance in the U.S., Japanese weekly hardware sales are down across the board—with the exception of the Xbox 360. That’s somewhat curious, as the Xbox 360’s rise over the previous week is substantial, enough to put it within spitting distance…

Could Matthew Perry *Play* Any More Fallout 3?

Celebrities—they’re just like us! They shop for mundane things. They do movie promotion interviews on The View. They obsessively play video games like Fallout 3 to the point that they require medical attention. Or maybe that’s just former Friends star Matthew Perry, who tells the ladies of the view that he’s been playing Bethesda Softworks’…

Guitar Hero: Van Halen Confirmed By Ratings Board?

While Activision’s plans for a Guitar Hero game highlighting the music and career of Van Halen is a poorly kept secret, the publisher hasn’t yet officially announced it. But the German game ratings board has. The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) has rated Guitar Hero headlining Van Halen for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a fairly…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Me? I’ll be playing OutRun Online Arcade, so far a brilliant Xbox Live Arcade game that’s deceptively simple at first, but incredibly addictive. I’ll be wailing on some “Heart Attack Mode” when I can. But I’m also going to be playing a little Guitar Hero: Smash Hits and Punch-Out!! for the Wii. Maybe even a…

Sony Comments On PS2 God Of War Games Coming To Blu-ray

Sony surveyed potential God of War III fans this week about what they’d like to see in a collector’s edition for the PlayStation 3 sequel, including repackaging the first two games on Blu-ray. That would almost certainly indicate that PlayStation 2 games would be playable on the PlayStation 3, a backwards compatibility option that the…

Report: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Sales Are Awful

Fans of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars might want to set aside hopes for a sequel. It appears that Rockstar Games’ gamble on the Nintendo DS didn’t equate to blockbuster success, as initial sales… suck. According to a report from Silicon Alley Insider, there’s a very good reason that Chinatown Wars didn’t crack the top…

Valve Details Next Week’s Left 4 Dead Survival Pack

The free Left 4 Dead “Survival Pack” expansion is slated to hit next week. The Xbox 360 and PC add-on officially makes two more campaigns playable in Versus mode, adding another all-new gameplay mode, Survival. Frankly, I’m a little vague on what Survival mode brings to the table, but Valve does its best to explain…

Time Warner Cable Drops Bandwidth Cap Plans

Internet service provider Time Warner Cable has backed away from plans to offer tiered pricing on broadband internet, based on public response to bandwidth caps being tested in four of the company’s markets. The Associated Press reports that Time Warner Cable has shelved plans to test a tiered pricing structure based on consumption in three…