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Here is the Worst Sports Theme of All Time, Video Game or Otherwise
It is 2006. You are 2K Sports, the newly created challenger to EA Sports. You’ve been cleaved from Sega, bought up by Take-Two, given an exclusive license to make Major League Baseball games. You’re young and ready, lean and hungry, ready to establish a new order. The title card announcing games under the new 2K…
By Owen Good -
Check Out Blake Griffin’s Best Dunks as If They Happened in the Original NBA Jam
News and notes from around the world of sports video gaming: • SB Nation put together that delightful compilation of chiptunes and pixelated highlights to give us Blake Griffin’s theoretical NBA Jam highlight reel from the 1993 classic. Enjoy. [SB Nation] • NHL 13‘s cover vote is down to its final four. Claude Giroux and…
By Owen Good -
If We Won’t Have MLB 2K to Kick Around Next Year, Here’s What The Show Must Do
Baseball fans have started to come to terms with the idea that MLB 13 The Show will be their only video game option next year. MLB 13 The Show needs to come to terms with that, too. Consistently well reviewed, The Show‘s dirty secret is that there are areas of its product that are growing…
By Owen Good -
Too Human is Worth, Oh, a Few Bucks, Says Judge
The great Silicon Knights-Epic Games slapfight is at last underway in a courtroom, but already a judge has suggested that even if the maker of Too Human wins, it could lose. He’s said that the damages up for grabs are $1. That’s because Silicon Knights failed to provide him with a timely, or acceptable, itemization…
By Owen Good -
Here’s Tebow Tebowing—and Victor Cruz Salsa Dancing—in Madden NFL 13
On Friday, Mike Young, the creative director for Madden NFL 13 revealed that the game would feature the notorious “Tebowing” posture, whose namesake drops to one knee in a solemn and evidently religious celebration. Operation Sports today published the first screenshot of what that would look like. In fact, they said it came on a…
By Owen Good -
A Terrible Decision Created MLB 2K—But It Also Brought Us BioShock
The mythology built up around Major League Baseball 2K is that the game could not do anything right. Eight-figure losses and terrible review scores every year are, yes, terminal deficiencies. But its pitching and hitting mechanisms forced the dominant MLB The Show to respond with weak revisions to its controls, and MLB Today—when it worked—was…
By Owen Good -
Major League Baseball 2K‘s Cancellation Looms on Grim News from Game’s Creators
Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of 2K Sports, notably left Major League Baseball 2K out of its planned releases in its coming fiscal year in a call with investors today. Kotaku asked Take-Two Interactive if it could confirm the end of the series, and it released this statement: “Our legacy Major League Baseball agreement will…
By Owen Good -
That Disturbing Photo of Owen With a Wheelbarrow has Somehow Become Even More Disturbing
This picture has become a meme here on Kotaku, and a favorite callback joke in our weekly Kotaku ‘Shop Contest. I’m pushing a wheelbarrow, wearing the Selk’Bag 4G sleep system that I reviewed for gamer lifestyle suitability back in October. But wait, is that a spooky hidden secret lurking in the background? Credit reader HerpesDerpes…
By Owen Good -
Culture
A Force to Recon With
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier arrives this week, giving Dragon’s Dogma a tough act to follow. PlayStation Move title Sorcery also finally arrives on shelves. Today • Mario Tennis Open (3DS) Tuesday • Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PS3, 360) • Dragon’s Dogma (360, PS3) • Sorcery (PS3) • Men in Black: Alien Crisis (360,…
By Owen Good -
Drive Yourself Nuts Trying to Guess the “3 to 4” Undiscovered Secrets Still Left in Arkham City
If you thought you had discovered everything in Batman: Arkham City or, if not, it could be found on GameFAQs or in some other corner of the web, well, that’s not so, says the game’s studio. There are still “three or four” secrets in the game that no one has yet found, the game’s director…
By Owen Good -
The Shrinking Numbers of the Games That Put Up Video Game Numbers
It drives me nuts every time I hear it. A professional athlete delivers a gobsmacking statistical performance, whether for a single game or a longer span, and a commentator or a columnist inevitably describes him as “putting up video game numbers.” When the Texas Rangers’ Josh Hamilton unloaded nine home runs and 15 RBI in…
By Owen Good -
They’re Just Trademarking the Hell Out of Everything in Skyrim
If you’ve got any Dragonborn T-shirts, bumper stickers or other crap up on Cafe Press or Etsy, now might be the time to hold a clearance sale. ZeniMax Media just submitted a trademark application for that term, joining the recent filing it made for “Fus Ro Dah,” presumably for the same purposes. They’re not screwing…
By Owen Good -
Back From Hell: The First Seven Days of Diablo III
Diablo III‘s long-awaited release this week—and its unfortunate launch-day server problems—demonstrated that PC-only titles have not lost the ability to dominate all of video gaming’s conversation. And this was in a week that saw the release of Max Payne 3, another title that fans had been looking to for a very long time. For better…
By Owen Good -
Madden NFL 13 will Feature “Tebowing”
This is sure to rankle a ton of axe-grinders, which makes it remarkable the development team for Madden NFL 13 chose to poke this snake. But there will be a “Tebowing” celebration animation in the game this year, according to Mike Young, the game’s creative director. When one Tebows, he drops to a knee and…
By Owen Good -
Spider-Man’s in a Rush in his Newest Gameplay Trailer
Not sure how I feel about “web rush” having seen this latest trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man. I’m sure everyone’s going to call this a quicktime event mechanic, and that sequence where Spidey taps the stooge on the shoulder and then wraps him up does look scripted. But as the game’s executive producer explains, “web…
By Owen Good -
Shoppin’ Cats and Dogs
Pancake, the Official Weiner Dog of Borderlands 2, meet Cosplay Cat from Journey. You two look so adorable, we know you’re going to have a great time together in this week’s edition of the Kotaku ‘Shop Contest. So, to recap, on Wednesday, thatgamecompany discovered someone in Japan had not only created cat cosplay for Journey,…
By Owen Good -
Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves
The bucket-on-the-head gag from Skyrim helps Pan1da7 steal #taypic honors once again. Good morning and welcome to Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves. Want a piece of the TAYpic action atop this six-day-a-week post? Grab the base image here, provide a funny variation on it, and post it in the #TAYpics thread. Keep your image in a…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Sunday Comics: A Hell of an Error
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. Virtual Shackles by Jeremy Vinar and Mike Fahmie published May 18.—Read more of Virtual Shackles Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published May 14.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…
By Owen Good
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