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The Total Defeat of the Man Who Said He Owned the Word ‘Edge’
We’ve given Tim Langdell a wide berth (like, for nearly two years) rather than assault you with incremental developments in the legal proceedings involving his ridiculous, all-encompassing trademark claims to the word “Edge.” But we’ll check in now, as a court ruling in the U.K. affirms what many have long suspected: His entire operation is…
By Owen Good -
Longtime Madden Producer Leaves the Team
Phil Frazier, a 13-year veteran of EA Sports and the executive producer for the label’s flagship Madden NFL title, is leaving the company, Kotaku has learned. Frazier’s departure follows by two months that of Ian Cummings, the series’ former creative director and himself a 10-year veteran of the project. Madden NFL 12 is due for…
By Owen Good -
Why Nintendo Went Back to White for the Wii U
Launching in a white case five years ago, the Wii has seen a special edition release in red, and currently is available in black. Its successor, Wii U, goes back to white. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto says the design choice is so people won’t think the console is kid’s stuff. Miyamoto, speaking to Game Informer said…
By Owen Good -
The Awesome LEGO BioShock Playset We Wish We Had When We Were Kids
This is, basically, a multistage BioShock playset, in LEGO spanning the game’s opening plane crash, to the lighthouse and to the Medical Pavilion and beyond. It is fantastic, the work of Imagine Rigney at MOCpages, built for Chicago’s Brickworld 2011 expo and noticed today by the gang at Irrational Games. There are many, many more…
By Owen Good -
Nicktoons MLB is More Than The Bigs for Little Kids
At E3, I visited the 2K Games booth every day of the show. Every day I went there, I saw these two guys from High Voltage Software in the 2K “Sports Bar,” sitting in easy chairs, playing Nicktoons MLB. As far as I know, it was all they did all day. After playing it with…
By Owen Good -
This Chiptune American Bandstand has a Good Beat, You Can Dance to It
It’s hard explaining why syndicated dance party shows like American Bandstand and Soul Train were compelling television, unless you grew up in that analog era that predated VCRs, cable TV (in some stubborn households) and goddamn for sure the Internet. If we used classic game soundtracks, now it becomes something listenable, if not watchable, and…
By Owen Good -
There’s Not Much Reason to Live in NeverDead
In video games, death is anything but final. We’ve been playing games with some form of immortality or reincarnation for decades, whether that’s gamesaves, extra men, whatever. NeverDead enforces the concept in gameplay itself. No matter what grisly mishap befalls your hero, he will not die. The problem is NeverDead didn’t inspire a matching will…
By Owen Good -
Is the Third Black Ops Map Pack Coming at the End of June?
A tipster sends along that picture of that GameStop poster, advertising Call of Duty: Black Ops‘ third map pack, titled “Annihilation.” June 28 appears to be the release date. The maps are Hangar, Hazard, Silo, Drive-In and another Zombie map. We’ve been hearing that GameStop is taking preorders for the pack. I called mine here…
By Owen Good -
Speak Clearly and Carry a Golf Stick in Kinect Sports
“Xbox,” I say, “Streak 20,” and the huddle breaks. My quarterback trots up to the line. I instinctively half-squat and reach out my hands, placing them under the giant rear end of an invisible lineman. “Hike!” There is a slight delay between command and action, and sometimes I’m not sure if Kinect Sports: Season 2…
By Owen Good -
The Owner of halo4.com Probably Made a Lot of Money, but He Isn’t Saying
Microsoft last week announced Halo 4, not that it owed the halo4.com domain or anything. They cleared up that little detail after the fact, acquiring the name today, reports Fusible. The domain’s original owner isn’t saying anything about what convinced him to let go of it. Yes, I’m assuming it was money, as opposed to…
By Owen Good -
No Harm, No Foul in PSN Outage, Says EA Sports
EA Sports president Peter Moore brushed off the suggestion that the PlayStation Network outage did particular damage to his label, which has in the past two years seen significant revenue growth through its downloadable content, especially in its popular Ultimate Team offerings. “It was unfortunate but … I think it’s just delayed purchases,” Moore told…
By Owen Good -
A Loose End Begins the Next Jurassic Park Video Game
With the license to make a Jurassic Park game in hand, Telltale Games had to find the perfect starting point for a story that would fit into the film’s canon without upsetting or reimagining the events of the first film. They found it in a can of shaving cream, lost for nearly 20 years. The…
By Owen Good -
The War of the Worlds Takes a Novel’s Approach to a Game
If there’s a star of The War of the Worlds, the upcoming downloadable title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it’s someone working behind the scenes or above the action. It’s the score by Chris Hülsbeck, or the writing by Chris Fowler or, not least, the narration by Patrick Stewart. As a game, however,…
By Owen Good -
Backbreaker‘s Team Checks In Again With Icebreaker
In real life, I skate like a waddling five-year-old forever on the verge of crapping his pants. In Icebreaker, I’m light on my feet, spinning, deking, and sprinting away from the bowel-loosening checks coming my way. At the end of it all, there’s a shot on goal that always goes in. Icebreaker (99 cents), like…
By Owen Good -
The Northwest U-Turn
The Northwest U-Turn | My flight home took me to Eugene, Ore. by way of Seattle. Here is a view from my window. I thought that was Mount St. Helens at the middle, but now I am not so sure. (Update: Many readers have said it is in Oregon, and it is the Three Sisters…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Duke Nukem, At Last
Well, we’re not impressed by what we’ve seen so far of Duke Nukem: Forever, but there is something to be said for this game finally hitting shelves after a torturous 14-year development. Other titles out this week include Child of Eden and Alice: Madness Returns. Seven days from now, Ocarina of Time‘s long awaited remake…
By Owen Good -
Excitebike‘s Subtle Shift in 3D Scenery
If you’ve got a 3DS, and you’ve got an Internet connection, there’s no reason to not have downloaded the latest system update and pulled down 3D Classics: Excitebike from the Nintendo eShop. It’s free, after all. But developer Arika didn’t just break down the 2D game into separate layers for 3D presentation. As you can…
By Owen Good -
The Lowlights of L.A.
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. •Top 5 Fails of E3 [Calm Down Tom] This recap gets all of the cringe-inducing gaffes and underwhelming reveals we saw down in L.A. The…
By Owen Good -
Here’s a Look at the Zelda Tribute Level in Super Mario 3DS
At E3, Totilo liveblogged a Nintendo developer Q&A which showed a Zelda-inspired level for the upcoming Super Mario 3DS. Pictures and video weren’t allowed, but a snipped of video just went up to Nintendo’s official E3 site, giving a glimpse of what Super Mario 3DS has in mind. This level is a top-down board, familiar…
By Owen Good -
Molyneux Disowns Fable E3 Demonstration as a “Horrendous Mistake”
The E3 news conference demonstration for Fable: The Journey, the Kinect-enabled next entry in the role-playing franchise, was objectively speaking a flop. The series’ creator himself says so, because The Journey left the impression this was a rail-shooter spinoff, and now everyone’s in damage control. “I made an horrendous mistake on the press demo on…
By Owen Good
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