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Backhanded Box Quotes: We Found Someone Who Doesn’t Like Dishonored!
Welcome back to “Backhanded Box Quotes,” a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic and elsewhere. The Metacritic 90. Rare upland territory. Dishonored hit it (on PC) and XCOM: Enemy Unknown fell tantalizingly short, 89 (same platform). You’d think that no one has anything substantially bad to say about either. You’d…
By Owen Good -
Get All the Fallout 3 Terminal Hacking Action You Want, When You Want It
If your Science skill was too low, or if you just enjoyed the LSAT problem of trying to figure out how to brute force hack your way into a terminal in Fallout 3 then this flash game is for you. And look, no need to back out of the terminal before making your final attempt!…
By Owen Good -
A Silent Service Delivers the Sound of Saturday to NCAA Football
“Never pass up the opportunity to sit,” Ben Haumiller (above) told me, as we slumped back on Virginia’s vacated sideline bench at Wallace Wade Stadium, the Cavaliers in the locker room leading Duke 17-14 at the half this past Saturday. Pondering the long walk to the free concessions in the press box, I half considered…
By Owen Good -
Zaxxon Returns with an Ordinary Escape
There had never been anything like Zaxxon when it released. At the time, kids considered it the first 3D game, even if it achieved that look through isometric projection. Still, it communicated sophistication, technology and, to an 8-year-old, difficulty. Sega resurrects its space shooter franchise with Zaxxon Escape but, unfortunately, it’s neither a return to…
By Owen Good -
Nothing Brings a Family Together Like NBA 2K13
On his ass is Doc Rivers, of the 1986 Atlanta Hawks. Putting him there is his son, first-round draft pick Austin Rivers (25) of the New Orleans Hornets. And at the sticks for this wonderful family get together is Austin’s little brother, Spencer. “My little bro just crossed my dad in 2K13 with me,” said…
By Owen Good -
ESPN Gives More Attention to the NHL in a Video Game Than It Does in Real Life
The National Hockey League is frozen in a labor impasse that so far has canceled opening night festivities scheduled for today, and shows no sign of ending any time soon. So, in steps EA Sports, using NHL 13, to provide a simulation and highlights for how the season would play out. Here are highlights from…
By Owen Good -
Which One of These Things Is Not Like the Other? NCAA 14 Must Supply an Answer
The development team didn’t need to read a dozen reviews, all saying the same thing, to know where NCAA Football stood. A single presentation, in a creative debriefing shortly after the game’s July release, said enough. Four screenshots were shown, from NCAA 10 in 2009 to NCAA 13 this year. Guess which one comes from…
By Owen Good -
A Hacked Portal Gun Replica ‘Levitates’ a Companion Cube
Hack A Day is a fount of awesome mods and game themed creations, featured here frequently, and this portal gun which “levitates” a companion cube is one of the best conversation pieces they’ve come up with yet. The construction is simple, really. They took a commercially-available portal gun replica and fitted it with the coil…
By Owen Good -
Electronic Arts Asked Everyone What Movie They Would Make Into a Video Game. Here’s What They Said.
Earlier this afternoon, Electronic Arts’ official Twitter feed posed a question tailor-made for the post-lunch doldrums of a hump day in a four-day work week. If you could turn one movie into a video game, what would you choose? The question gathered more than 600 responses. Curiously, none of them mentioned Road House. None mentioned…
By Owen Good -
Here are the Christmas Day Uniforms the NBA Doesn’t Want You to Open Early
Some hacker cracked open NBA 2K13‘s files with a hex editor, found 17 uniforms on the disc that aren’t yet exposed in the game, and created a roster file with all of the jerseys available. One is the notorious “THUDNER” alternate uniform for Oklahoma City, which will almost certainly require a patch to correct—if that…
By Owen Good -
NBA 2K13 Misspells Oklahoma City’s New Uniform [Update]
Multiple images leaking out last night show NBA 2K13 featuring Oklahoma City’s new alternate jerseys—with the team nickname misspelled as THUDNER. What’s crazy is that everyone seemed to miss the misspelling the first time it was posted. That image above comes from Operation Sports’ Steve Noah on his Twitter account. Daily Thunder, a fan site…
By Owen Good -
Culture
The Week in Games: Unknown and Dishonored
We use the phrase “highly anticipated” a lot, but it plainly defines both Dishonored, from Arkane Studios, and Firaxis’ treatment of beloved strategy title XCOM: Enemy Unknown, both of which arrive on Tuesday. Today • Pokemon White Version 2 (DS) • Pokemon Black Version 2 (DS) • Pokemon Dream Radar (3DS) Monday • Naughty Bear:…
By Owen Good -
Hacker Sows Death Throughout World of Warcraft with Just a Level 1 Character
From the sound of it, this level 1 character is one of a few hackers who discovered a bug or an exploit that allowed them to fly about World of Warcraft, insta-killing everyone. The plague broke out this weekend on multiple servers, and was seen in Stormwind, the Alliance capitol. It may not be immediately…
By Owen Good -
You Can’t Say That in a Video Game—Why, Someone Might Think You’ve Been Drinking
Even for an NBA 2K13 soundtrack curated by Jay-Z himself, the butchery of Puff Daddy’s “Victory,” was to be expected. That track contains four N-words, eight F-words and nine S-words, and this is a game played by 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds. But U2’s “Elevation” is about as safe a piece of stadium rock as has…
By Owen Good -
Esports
Cheating Allegations Surface in League of Legends Playoffs
When it was shut down and moved to a “secure location,” the $2 million League of Legends world playoffs was thought to be plagued only by technical issues, possibly a denial-of-service attack to cripple the event. Now, however, come accusations of cheating, in this thread on the game’s official forums. As Massively explains it, at…
By Owen Good -
ChrisWarcraft’s Weekly NFL Quest, Level Five: Fell the Giant of the City of Music
Football is a role-playing game. That’s how Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings punter and noted World of Warcraft and RPG fan, is approaching it. Each week in the NFL, ChrisWarcraft characterizes his upcoming game in terms of an MMO quest. We’re going to chart his progress and see how fast he levels up. ChrisWarcraft is…
By Owen Good -
All of Azeroth has been Created Inside of Minecraft
The conversion of nearly every video game landscape into Minecraft continues steadily. This week already saw the birth of a project to create Mass Effect‘s gargantuan Citadel within the game. Now comes word that, after eight months, a full representation of World of Warcraft‘s lands in Minecraft has released a beta. “Crafting Azeroth” checks in…
By Owen Good -
Smash an AT-AT Full of Pigs in the Angry Birds/Star Wars Toy Line
Teased on Friday, we knew that some kind of a crossover between Rovio’s Angry Birds franchise and Star Wars was coming. It’s a natural pairing, given the enormous mainstream reach of those names and their owners’ willingness to license it in the toy space. Well that’s exactly what’s coming. It’s a toy line set to…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Vice President of Legal Affairs
For timeliness sake and humor value, nothing beats Sony suing its own fake vice president of smarm, Kevin Butler. Details are somewhat sparse and it sounds like the two did try to resolve their differences, but now this sucker appears to be headed for a courtroom. Let’s provide a sneak preview. There are tons of…
By Owen Good -
Sonya Blade is Running for the County Board
In addition to being a cheerleader in the attract mode for the original NBA Jam, former Playboy model Kerri Hoskins Branson also portrayed Sonya Blade in several Mortal Kombat games, beginning with Mortal Kombat 3 in 1995. Not surprisingly, her Playboy and video game gigs are not mentioned in this biography and Q&A for candidates…
By Owen Good
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