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If You’re Mexican, You Can’t Speak Spanish to FIFA 13. But You Can Speak French.
Mexicans cannot speak commands in their native tongue to their team in FIFA 13—but French-speaking Canadians can—in the version of the game now being sold to the three nations of North America. EA Sports’ FIFA, the highest selling and most popular sports video game in the entire world, this year enabled voice support through the…
By Owen Good -
Rumor: Next Year’s Madden Will Include Actual NFL Referees
EA Sports plans to include real-life NFL referees in Madden NFL 14, according to two different sources close to the NFL Referees Association. One of them said the officials’ facial features have been scanned into the game, with an eye toward making their calls and explanations a part of the broadcast presentation for next year’s…
By Owen Good -
Season or No Season, NHL 13‘s ‘Hercules Check’ is Hockey’s Greatest Hit Ever
This is a glitch video to end all glitch videos, and not just because that’s a player getting checked over the glass and into the fourth row of a hockey arena. It’s also Sidney Freaking Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar who has lost, like, an entire season’s worth of games due to concussions, going back…
By Owen Good -
Sports Video Games Try to Hold On, with Infinite Diversity in Finite Releases
The question was put forth this past week, in a podcast where I was a panelist: Are sports video games in a golden age? “No,” seems to be the most obvious answer. Ten years ago, we had competing simulation titles in college football, college basketball and in professional hockey at least, to say nothing of…
By Owen Good -
Culture
The Week in Game: Kick a Panda
Only Warcraft could survive a matchup with both FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer, and that’s what you get this week, along with Dead Or Alive 5 Tuesday • World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (PC) • FIFA 13 (PS3, PC, Xbox 360, Vita, 3DS, PSP, Wii) • Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 (360, PS3, PC) •…
By Owen Good -
Esports
Free-to-Play Considered for Multiplayer StarCraft, Says Designer
At the inaugural eSports Congress in Valencia, StarCraft II‘s lead designer was asked of the possibility his game would go free-to-play, considering the potential that has to grow a game’s user base and competitive population. According to PCGamesN, that concept has been discussed. Blizzard, the game’s publisher is “looking at free-to-play as an option for…
By Owen Good -
What Really Happened to Abe Lincoln? Skyrim has the Answer.
Two mods, the “Now you F**ked Up Mudcrab” mod, and the “Posh mudcrabs” mod combine for a near virtuoso reenactment of the climactic dialogue in The Whitest Kids You Know’s “What Really Happened to Abraham Lincoln.” [NSFW, language] I’m a little unclear, however. Despite the mudcrabs’ remonstrations, has the player in fact fucked up? YouTube…
By Owen Good -
For a Change, Here’s a Borderlands 2 Easter Egg in Another Game
Barely a week into its release, Borderlands 2 is sprouting Easter eggs like—OK, the hell with it, it’s already a mixed metaphor—mushrooms after rain. Fine. Borderlands 2 is paying homage to so many other great games, here’s Torchlight II paying tribute to its fellow alumnus of the Class of Sept 17, 2012. Image uploaded by…
By Owen Good -
Strange Xbox Live/Time-Warner Outage Now In Its Second Day
This is the best part of Internet outages—when the Internet service provider blames the hardware, and vice versa. The customers really don’t care what the problem is. But a “a subset of Time/Warner ISP users” that haven’t been able to connect to Xbox Live since noon yesterday still can’t get into the system today. The…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Brief Boxes
The Sega Saturn lasted about three years in North America. It hung on twice as long in Japan. These two cosplayers paid tribute to it (more specifically, to the console’s Hitachi and JVC models) at Tokyo Game Show. It’s been a while since we had a cosplay exploitable, and if any is good for the…
By Owen Good -
ChrisWarcraft’s Weekly NFL Quest, Level Three: Banish the Gold Farmers of the West [Update]
Haven’t you heard? Football is a role-playing game. Or at least, that’s how Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings punter and noted World of Warcraft and RPG fan, seems to be 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…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Champion Troll
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. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Sept. 21.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Sept. 17.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The More You Know: The Winners
We have five dual finalists in this week’s roundup of the Kotaku ‘Shop Contest, which asked for recognizable mashups of G.I. Joe with video games. Luckily, we have 19 overall candidates, which ejected from an airplane at the last minute, or weren’t shot by grossly inaccurate lazer fire from an M16, or managed to survive…
By Owen Good -
Six-Hour Xbox Live Outage Strikes Some Time-Warner Subscribers
For six hours now “a subset of Time/Warner ISP users” have had problems connecting to Xbox Live, says Microsoft. The problem appears to be regional. Kotaku staff have had trouble connecting in New York, but were able to get online in the Southeast. There is no word on what the trouble is or who it…
By Owen Good -
Yes, Super Hexagon has an Ending. The Creator Will Show It to You.
Terry Cavanagh creates some hellaciously difficult video games, like VVVVV, but it’s not like the man won’t eat his own cooking. Thanks to Joystiq, you can see the creator of the ultra badass puzzler/whatever-it-is Super Hexagon beat the game on its hardest mode, showing that the iOS game indeed has an ending. Not that you…
By Owen Good -
Skyrim‘s “Cribs” is Where the Magic Happens. Literally.
Lots of folks aren’t diggin’ Hearthfire, the homemaking Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim extension that some have called SkySims and others have noted does not do anything different from any PC mod already available. But that’s because you’re not using your imagination, bitches! Here, YouTube’s Tyrannicon introduces us to the most gorgeous digs in all Riften,…
By Owen Good -
Bayonetta 2 Going to Wii U Isn’t a Platform Change, from Its Creator’s Certain Point of View
Some interesting doublespeak comes out of Tokyo Games Show, as reported by Polygon. Platinum Games’ executive director Atsushi Inaba affirmed that Bayonetta 2 wouldn’t exist without Nintendo publishing it. Most folks already saw it that way, but he put it on the record with Polygon, so there you go. But then, “We are not viewing…
By Owen Good -
Borderlands 2 Tips Its Cap to a Dark Souls Fan Favorite With This Easter Egg
Borderlands and Demon’s Souls were two of 2009’s biggest hits, measured by sales and/or popular acclaim. So there’s a nice symmetry in seeing Borderlands 2 paying homage to Dark Souls with an Easter egg encountered in the Caustic Caverns. There’s a ghost sitting on a rock, which is enough of a visual Easter egg. But…
By Owen Good -
Dishonored Protip: Don’t Do What You’re Told Until You’re Told To Do Something
Evidently playtesters of Dishonored took the game a little too literally the first go around, requiring developer Arkane Studios to do a little bit of handholding to get them to complete the missions. For example, “People would just walk around,” Arkane’s Julien Roby told Games.On.Net. “They didn’t even go upstairs because a guard told them…
By Owen Good -
The Moneysaver: Where Credit is Due
Ordinarily bonus credits don’t do much for me as you’re still paying full price, and the lure is meant to get you to buy more later. But Resident Evil 6 delivers $20 in Xbox Live’s funny money if you pick it up through the Microsoft Store, and that credit’s good for a whole lot of…
By Owen Good
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