-
PSA: Don’t Take This Guy’s Van in Battlefield 3. He is Chasing a Helicopter.
Audio is NSFW. Reader Mike C. works in a veterinarian’s office. It’s nice helping small animals, but the job does have its sad days. Video gaming is necessary to his decompression routine after work. Playing Battlefield 3 yesterday, Mike (GamerTag Kiaza, he’s asked us to include it) happened upon another lonely soul who appeared to…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Power-Ups in Real Life
I’ve been holding on to this idea for a week when we couldn’t get the rights to something, and lo that time has come. The thought occurred to me that, in games like Final Fight and Streets of Rage, why does eating a giant ham hock out of the bottom of a trash can improve…
By Owen Good -
ChrisWarcraft’s Weekly NFL Quest, Level Four: Retrieve the Pelt of a Blue Lion
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. Now that…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Teacher’s Pet
Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Sept. 24.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Sept. 27.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Brief Boxes: The Winners
A couple Tokyo Game Show cosplayers devoted to the Sega Saturn provided the grist for this week’s ‘Shop Contest, which we’re certain has already gotten a song stuck in your head. Step one, make her open the ‘Shops. Step two, then you look at the ‘Shops. We’ve got this week’s best inside, plus overall winner…
By Owen Good -
Is It Possible to be Addicted to Games and Yet Not Play Them?
Reader Josh H., a college sophomore, says he’s been gaming and making videos for years, so he sent us this one. It’s alright—I’m not sure it says anything we didn’t know already, as the Pile of Shame is a commonly understood concept for most any serious video gamer. What struck a nerve with me, though,…
By Owen Good -
University Researchers Discover Cure for FarmVille Bots
If you are a company who rakes in millions making social games for Facebook, I have good news for you. Researchers at N.C. State University have developed the means of more accurately detecting bot accounts without alerting their owners, so the game’s developers can shut them down and kick those freeloading sons of bots out…
By Owen Good -
Eleven Years Later, at Long Last, Cortex Command has Launched
Cortex Command began life as the project of a Swedish high school student. That high schooler has now turned 30, gotten married, moved to the United States and become a citizen. And, at long last, he’s launched his game. Everything about Cortex Command, by Data Realms, shrieks of a labor of love, from the fact…
By Owen Good -
Xbox Live Wants You to Be a Better Citizen So It’s Giving You an Avatar Costume if You Watch the Presidential Debates
As someone who gets hit all the time with the “HEY I COME HERE FOR GAMES NOT POLITICS SO KEEP THAT TO YOURSELF,” comments, I’m going to straight-up be a hypocrite and say to Xbox Live that, hey, I come here for games and not politics and so keep all this presidential election coverage off…
By Owen Good -
Don’t Blame Us for the Boobies, Dead or Alive Director Says, We’re Just Doing What Fans Want
Despite feedback from Tecmo’s overseas offices to “tone down the sexuality” of Dead or Alive 5‘s female fighters, the game’s developers bravely pressed ahead in the name of fan service. “We actually got a lot of feedback from people who were playing it, saying, ‘We want bigger breasts. Make the characters more like that.'” director…
By Owen Good -
Xbox Live Now Offering Rewards Worth 25 Cents
Are you an Xbox Live Gold subscriber with a Gamerscore of more than 3,000 but not more than 10,000? Well, good news for you! You’ll now get a “Special Gift*” during your birthday month! * Actual value of gift is not more than 25 cents. If you have a Gamerscore over 10,000, you get a…
By Owen Good -
Kobe and LeBron’s Olympic Squad Lose to 1992’s Dream Team, Says NBA 2K13
If you got in on this summer’s bar argument over which U.S. Olympic basketball team was better, and were convinced that the Dream Team could beat anything that walked the earth, including a team of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, then NBA 2K13 has good news for you. The United States’ 1992 Olympic basketball team…
By Owen Good -
Midweek Moneysaver: Getting Close to a New Creed
For those with their eyes on Assassin’s Creed 3—well, its console release anyway—NewEgg has a discount on its preorder. Otherwise we are fully in the fall release window and few publishers are offering discounts on new titles, although savings can be found on Guild Wars 2, Mists of Pandaria, and Sleeping Dogs. These values plus…
By Owen Good -
Seeking Credit—Where It is Due—as Two Blockbuster Games Launch
You probably don’t know Elizabeth Tobey. She didn’t voice an outrageous character or design an outlandish weapon in any video game you’re currently enjoying. But she did, legitimately, have a hand in the creation of —or at least stirring up the desire for—two big 2K Games hitting shelves right now. And she didn’t get the…
By Owen Good -
The Week in Anger
Or outrage, or scorn. Video games are just one pushcart in the vast marketplace of ideas, where everyone shouts down the quality of the goods. Then again, sometimes the merchants deserve the berating. So let’s recap the week’s most noteworthy reactionary topics, scoring them for the outrage they summon and the skepticism they invite. Or…
By Owen Good -
Truck Yeah, Let’s See All the Vehicles of Farming Simulator 2013
You city slicker video gamers think farming simulation video games is nothing but updating the roster with the latest GMO corn from Monsanto and slapping the Indiana State Fair champion cow on the cover. Well, there’s a lot more to it than that. Equipment changes every year, the same as in any sports league. And…
By Owen Good -
Like the Saints’ Bounty System, NFL Pro 2013 is Also a Pay-for-Performance Scandal
Unfortunately, this is not one of those App of the Day writeups where the selection is meritorious and the title is an honor. I’m here to dispense consumer advice about NFL Pro 2013, which provides a lot of enticement given the fact it’s free and it has NFL licensing. My advice is to walk around…
By Owen Good -
OK, OK, This is What You’d Call a ‘Roster Update’
The Wii may have been the worst console for sports video games ever—not “worst major,” not “worst of its generation,” flat out the worst console for sports video games. I know it had Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and that version often outperformed the high-definition consoles in reviewer scores. But the prototypical Wii sports video games…
By Owen Good -
NBA 2K13 Outs the Brooklyn Nets’ New Uniforms
The new-look Brooklyn Nets are set to unveil their new uniforms sometime tomorrow, but the look already has been outed. The road uniform designs were leaked earlier this week and now, at NBA 2K13‘s star-studded launch party in New York last night, we can see the home threads. I mean, we should have expected this,…
By Owen Good -
EA Sports Cancels NBA Live 13
EA Sports today canceled its troubled NBA Live 13 project. It is the second time in three years that sports video gaming’s dominant publisher has pulled the plug on its NBA simulation at the last minute. Andrew Wilson, the executive vice president in charge of the label, announced the decision in a statement posted to…
By Owen Good
Owen Good
Owen Good's posts