Owen Good

It’s Lexicon Like Donkey Kong

Having nothing better to do, evidently, Denver’s Westword set out to chart the comprehensive history of “It’s On Like Donkey Kong,” and found that Ice Cube has much to do with the social currency of the phrase, whether a call to celebrate or a challenge to fight. It was copyrighted by Nintendo last year. The…

D.C. Universe Online Should See ‘Subtle’ Tie-Ins with Comics’ Relaunch, says Jim Lee

In September, D.C. Comics’ lineup of monthly titles all will restart at issue No. 1, some delivering major changes to their continuities, all of them rebooting—or relaunching, as Jim Lee gently insists it be called. None of this will affect the video game bearing the D.C. name, nor should it. “It’s the platonic ideal,” Lee,…

Help Me Think of a Title For This

A buddy is writing a book and enlisted me and a bunch of other friends in a quest to find the perfect title for it. (I can tell you what it’s about but then I’d have to kill you.) This is a hard freaking job, much harder than coming up with superhero names when we…

Rooney Again Anchors FIFA Cover in UK, Australia

Wayne Rooney is again on the cover of EA Sports’ FIFA series, joining Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere on FIFA 12 for release in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Middle East. In Australia, he will be partnered with Tim Cahill, the Australian star who plays for Everton in the English Premier League. No word yet…

EA Sports Would Consider Publishing an Indie Game

As the genre’s undisputed 1,000 pound gorilla, EA Sports knows that independent games developers are not looking to build sports games if it means taking on that kind of label. That’s why Andrew Wilson, EA Sports’ top development executive, says they would be open to publishing an indie sports game, although probably on mobile platforms…

In Debt Halo Cosplayer Takes His Armor to Pawn Stars

How much would you say a used suit of MJOLNIR assault armor, from Halo, is worth? This guy thinks about $2,000. The History Channel’s Pawn Stars thinks it’s a bit less. Maybe if it was actual functioning armor could Chumlee here come up to that kind of asking price, which the guy already figured was…

Street Fighter‘s Ono vs. Tekken‘s Harada: Round One—Fight!

Context is key. While this video shows Tekken prevailing over Street Fighter in a series of challenges at Comic-Con 2011, what you don’t see is what led up to it. Earlier, at the Street Fighter X Tekken panel on Thursday, Yoshinori Ono, producer of the Street Fighter series, played a video in which Tekken counterpart…

Adios, Red Faction

Poor sales of Red Faction: Armageddon this year means the end of the franchise, publisher THQ said in a conference call today. Brian Farrell, the THQ chief executive, told investors that “we do not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way.” Volition, the studio developing the series, has now been reassigned…

Finding an Even Better Brawl in Batman’s City

It wasn’t until 72 hours later, when I flew home and resumed an old save file in Batman: Arkham Asylum that I truly appreciated the innate quality of brawling I experienced in Batman: Arkham City, a game I missed at E3 but, at long last, got my paws on at Comic-Con 2011. In Arkham Asylum…

Get Your Xbox Through TSA More Conveniently With This Travel Case

From CTA Digital, the Brooklyn idea factory known for bowling ball Wii peripherals and other strangely useful oddities, comes this is a handy carrying case for a full Xbox 360—with Kinect. It doesn’t make packing up any easier but it does make transportation a little more convenient. What makes the Xbox 360 not “portable” is…

Madden Demo Kicks Off Aug. 9; All Free Agent Moves Available at Launch

Madden NFL 12 moved its release to the end of August but still will deliver something for fans on the second Tuesday of the month, its traditional release date for much of the decade. The Madden demo hits PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade then, and will feature the Chicago Bears against the Green Bay…

Madden Welcomes Back the NFL, Gets to Work on Free Agency

The NFL’s four-month player lockout suspended all personnel operations except for the rookie draft—signings, trades, all of it. With labor peace declared today, that process will be condensed down to a hectic few weeks, and can dramatically reshape the rosters in Madden NFL 12 By way of that video, and a “Free Agent Forecast” web…

NFL Lockout Ends, but Madden Must React Quickly

The National Football League’s players approved a deal with the league owners this afternoon, ending a four-month lockout that had threatened the regular season and cast a shadow over development of one of the NFL’s signature licensed products, EA Sports’ Madden NFL. The game is on shelves Aug. 30. EA Sports has yet to issue…

Reckless Endangerment Makes for a Sloppy Getaway

When video games call for criminal behavior, I try to portray the bandit with a heart of gold. Running innocents off the road delivers neither a thrill nor a punchline in something like Grand Theft Auto. In fact, I take it as a sign of my own terrible driving. All of that is on display…

GoldenEye: Reloaded Screenshots

Activision had Plans for High-Definition GoldenEye All Along

Depending upon the consoles you own, the bad news about GoldenEye: Reloaded may still be the good news. It is most definitely a high-definition remastering of last year’s title reboot on the Wii. But given the much larger shooter constituency on the PS3 and 360, and online multiplayer’s vastly greater viability on those consoles, that…

Adios, Comic-Con

So Long, San Diego | A mini-bust of Shae Vizla, of Star Wars: The Old Republic bids us farewell as Comic-Con 2011 comes to an end. (Photo: Michael McWhertor) Oslo Terrorist Used Modern Warfare 2 as “Training-Simulation”, World of Warcraft as Cover The accused shooter in yesterday’s massacre in Norway has been linked to 1,500…

Catherine the Great?

Journey into the twisted dream world of a man smitten with a beautiful girl named Catherine in the eponymous game arriving this Tuesday. Dragon Age II also gets an expansion, From Dust arrives in Xbox Live’s Summer of Arcade, and PC and PS3 players get Black Ops‘ Annihilation map pack. Tuesday Catherine (PS3, 360) —…

Dick Move, Mario

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. •7 Glaring Reasons Why Mario is a Dick [Ranker] He may be the cheerful plumber-savior of the Mushroom Kingdom, but deep-a-down, he’s-a-douchebagga, says Ranker, which…

Marvel Pinball Expanding to Other Platforms, but First, a Ghost Rider Table

The well received Marvel series of tables for the acclaimed pinball simulator Pinball FX 2 will be getting another set of four tables by winter, and also will expand to other platforms in 2012. Ghost Rider leads off the Vengeance and Virtue series coming to Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network this winter, by…