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Magneto’s Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Suit is Again a Royal Pain for Spain
About six years ago, Marvel needed to give Magneto a uniform befitting a head of state for his appearance in The Pulse: House of M Special. It was, as that image above suggests, a straight copy of the duds King Juan Carlos wears as World’s Most Interesting Man Captain General of the Armies. The royal…
By Owen Good -
The Games for All of Us
With respect and admiration for, if not apologies to, the late Ernie Harwell, here’s something adapted from his famous Induction Day speech at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Aug. 2, 1981, which itself was adapted from this 1955 essay. Stick Jockey published this last year on Thanksgiving weekend. I’ve updated it for this year,…
By Owen Good -
Lawsuit Dropped with “Jew or Not a Jew” iPhone App’s Removal
If someone was going to sue over an iPhone app called “Jew or Not Jew,” I would have expected it to be an infringement claim coming from Saturday Night Live, or Al Franken, the Minnesota senator who wrote a sketch by that name which aired in 1988 here in the U.S. Instead, it was an…
By Owen Good -
EA Sports Delights in Signing Away Pro Evolution Soccer‘s Three-Time Cover Star
Back in January, one of Lionel Messi’s teammates on FC Barcelona let slip that the football superstar greatly enjoyed playing EA Sports’ FIFA series. At the time, he was the three-time cover star of Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer, from its 2009 to 2011 editions. So it wasn’t much of a surprise, then, when Cristiano Ronaldo…
By Owen Good -
Get a Sneak Peek at Gears of War 3‘s New Multiplayer Characters
RAAM’s Shadow, the second downloadable extension to Gears of War 3, is due to arrive Dec. 13, but its six new multiplayer skins have already been exposed through the game’s character-selection stage. Kotaku reader Jestin snapped shots of the new skins with his phone camera but says he didn’t try to download them out of…
By Owen Good -
Nexon Says Huge MapleStory Breach Did Not Compromise U.S. Players’ Personal Info
The second-largest data breach in South Korea’s history compromised the personal information of more than 13 million subscribers to the Nexon MMO MapleStory, but none of those accounts are held outside of Korea, the publisher said Saturday. A Nexon spokesman told the Yonhap News agency that the game operates separate servers for each country. The…
By Owen Good -
Black (and Blue) Saturday
If you’ve survived the stampeding, rioting, body-slamming, pepper-spraying madness that marked Black Friday here in the United States, then pick yourself up and dust yourself off, there are 29 more shopping days until Christmas. Prepare for the long march ahead with this weekend’s roundup of the best gaming hardware, software and accessory deals—and get ready…
By Owen Good -
Your Friend Who Is Playing Facebook Games All the Time at Work
For the hopelessly devoted Facebook gamer on your list, sure, you could just load up a gift card and give them $100 to burn through in MafiaCitySimSocialCastleFarmWars. You could also stage an intervention. Neither option is going to make both giver and recipient happy. Instead, here are some ideas that, like the best holiday gifts…
By Owen Good -
I Am Alive Creator Insists He’s Not Opposed to a PC Port and Didn’t Mean to Piss Off PC Gamers
Yesterday, Stanislas Mettra was quoted by IncGamers as saying some, well, very inflammatory things about why I Am Alive, the upcoming downloadable title for Xbox 360 and PS3, didn’t have a PC port. Mettra’s now written us—not to give the usual “I was misquoted,” or “taken out-of-context” dodge—but to say that if his words sound…
By Owen Good -
Leland Yee Has More Black Friday Shopping Tips For You
Calif. State Sen. Leland Yee was unsuccessful in getting his anti-video game law to remain the supreme law of the land of California—when the Supreme Court smacks down something 7-to-2 with Justices Scalia and Ginsburg agreeing, you know that was one rancidly unconstitutional piece of work. So he’s back with another handy set of Black…
By Owen Good -
I Am Alive’s Creator Does Just About Everything He Can to Piss Off PC Gamers in Explaining Why They Don’t Get a Version of the Game
Here’s a heartwarming tale full of good holiday cheer. In an interview with IncGamers, Stanislas Mettra, the creative director behind Ubisoft’s thought-provoking survival tale I Am Alive said chances of a PC port are about zero because a) um, piracy and b) lol, nobody buys PC games anymore. U mad? Oh, it gets better, Mettra…
By Owen Good -
The Sounds of The Show Come from the Minor Leagues
When Sony San Diego Studio needs to build a new major league ballpark for MLB The Show, they go to that ballpark, take hundreds of measurements and images, and spend about four months constructing it in the game. When they need new sounds you hear at that ballpark, they go to a minor league field.…
By Owen Good -
Trine 2 will Feature Cross-Platform Multiplayer for PC and Mac
Trine 2 is getting both a Mac and a PC version, and developer Frozenbyte is going to see if they can play together nicely. The Steamworks version of the game will offer cross-platform multiplayer support, the studio said in a news release. A newly released Mac beta, available to all who preorder the game, will…
By Owen Good -
It’s Mario Kart 7, not Mario Kart 3DS, Because 7’s a Lucky Number
Mario’s debut on the 3DS was, appropriately, called Super Mario 3D Land. And never in the series 19-year history has the game had a numbered sequel (well, technically there’s Mario Kart 64, but it was not the 64th game in the series.) So why is the franchise’s 3DS version, due out in North America next…
By Owen Good -
Oh God, Desert Bus is Now on iOS and Android
Just in time for Desert Bus for Hope’s fifth annual charity drive, the infamous mini-game from Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors for Sega CD is now available on Android and all iOS devices. It is, by all appearances, a straight port of the unforgiving original, which requires you to drive eight hours in real…
By Owen Good -
MLG National Championship Finals Underway Now
The final round of play in StarCraft and League of Legends Major League Gaming’s National Championships in Providence should be underway any moment. You can see the championship’s full bracket here, and catch all of the action through the MLG main site here.
By Owen Good -
Weekend Note of Nov. 20
A Children’s Treasury of Insane Throwing-Knife Kills in Modern Warfare 3 We have no illusions that this is the first WTF knife kill for a game that’s been out for two weeks, and played by millions online since its release. Another year, another Call of Duty, another crazy across-the-map blind knife kill, right? There have…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Live by the Sword
The final Tuesday before Thanksgiving in the U.S. effectively closes out the major release calendar for North America. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is available on the Wii today. WWE 12 arrives for PS3, Wii and 360 on Tuesday. Downloadable content for Batman: Arkham City and Gears of War 3 arrives Tuesday and Wednesday,…
By Owen Good -
Update Brings Movie Parties to PlayStation Home
PlayStation owners are now able to stage or join movie-viewing parties in PlayStation Home thanks to an update delivering Sony’s Crackle network to Home’s entertainment-on-demand system. “Hundreds of full-length Hollywood movies and thousands of television shows,” are now viewable with friends for free, says PlayStation Blog. Social viewing of up to 60 users is supported,…
By Owen Good -
We Have Ripoff …
Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What’s better? A list of those. Here’s a roundup of the rundowns out there. •The Most Shameless Video Game Console Knockoffs [Ranker] The “Super Polystation,” the “Polystation 3,” the “Treamcast” and “Game Joy” headline this roundup of gaming platforms…
By Owen Good