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Amazon’s Android Appstore Terms Unreasonable, Says Game Developers’ Association
The terms of selling through Amazon’s newly launched Android app store are so unusual – if not unfair to games makers – that the International Game Developers Association has circulated a letter cautioning its members to read any agreement with Amazon closely, and to understand what prerogatives they may be giving up in the sale…
By Owen Good -
FBI Raids College Kids, Looking for Gold Farming Fraud
The FBI now is raiding homes looking for World of Warcraft gold farmers. The party van showed up March 30 at an apartment shared by two University of Michigan students (building pictured), who say the feds have got the wrong suspects. The two students, neither named, say they aren’t gold farmers and don’t play World…
By Owen Good -
Another Hint That Portal 2 May Be Releasing Early
The Valve-owned domain aperturescience.com tossed up a countdown whose timer expires at noon EDT/9 a.m. PDT tomorrow. Rumors, abetted by Easter eggs, have hinted that the game is arriving a week ahead of its announced April 19 date. Hey, it’s either that or Half Life 2: Episode 3.
By Owen Good -
One Man’s Vacation to New Vegas
Given “a few days in the Mojave,” one fan of Fallout: New Vegas decided to construct his visit around the game, searching out real-world locations that inspired the in-game scenery. The lone wanderer, one Chris Worth of the United Kingdom, even constructed a Pip-Boy (with admittedly ‘shopped map screen) and Power Fist. Designers from Obsidian,…
By Owen Good -
A Compendium of Freaked-Out Reactions to Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Ordinarily, you toss a video like this on YouTube, and every comment shouts it down as fake. But anyone who’s played indie horror hit Amnesia: The Dark Descent knows this guy’s skin-crawling, pupil-dilating, sphincter-clenching, headphone-grabbing reactions are on the level.
By Owen Good -
Done Yours Yet?
Done Yours Yet? | If not, you still have the weekend. A quirk in the calendar, involving a District of Columbia holiday, gives Americans until April 18 to postmark their income tax returns. (Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images) New Nintendo Console Debuting At E3 This June, Launching In 2012, More Powerful Than Xbox 360 and…
By Owen Good -
Cheerleaders Return to Madden
EA Sports sent out a few photos over Twitter earlier today – two for Madden, one for NCAA Football. Kick meters, which have changed almost annually the past few years, look like they’ll revert to what we saw from Madden earlier last decade. NCAA Football showed Ralphie the Buffalo, indicating that mascot pre-game entries will…
By Owen Good -
One of the 360’s First XBLA Hits is Delisted
Xbox Live Arcade was available for about a year on the original Xbox, before relaunching with the Xbox 360. When it did, a game named Marble Blast Ultra became one of the first breakout hits on the downloadable service. It has now been delisted. The studio behind the game told XBLA Fans that the title…
By Owen Good -
Hey, the Yars’ Revenge Remake is Out
Scheduled for the 29th anniversary of the release of Yars’ Revenge on the Atari 2600, that would have put a May release date for the on-rails shooter reboot. Instead it quietly slipped out to Xbox Live sometime today. Not seeing it yet on PlayStation Network. It’s 800 Microsoft points on Xbox Live.
By Owen Good -
Hacker’s Fight With Sony Is Over, But Not For Anonymous
Sony and George Hotz, the hacker who jailbroke the PS3, reached a settlement that ends Sony’s multizillion dollar claim against the 21-year-old rapper provided he never screws with their stuff ever again. End of controversy, right? Well, someone failed to clear this with Anonymous, self-appointed sheriff of Internet privacy and free expression. Anonymous, which has…
By Owen Good -
Backbreaker: Vengeance is Official; Releasing Only on Xbox 360
Backbreaker: Vengeance, a variant on the original Backbreaker’s wildly popular “Tackle Alley” mode, will be released for the Xbox 360 over Xbox Live this year by NaturalMotion and 505 Games. It’s exclusive to the 360. Panned at release, then shored up with a huge patch three months later, Backbreaker as a full football title fell…
By Owen Good -
Black Ops Mod Tools Should Arrive in May
A PC mod toolkit for Call of Duty: Black Ops should release next month, according to this Treyarch developer (and retweeted by community manager Josh Olin.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 disappointed many when it did not release mod tools. Treyarch promised last year that Black Ops would bring them back.
By Owen Good -
We’re One Step Closer to a Wall-E Society with This Kinect Powered Chair
The best part about this Kinect-powered armchair? Microsoft’s going to release the source code for it. Shown off today at the company’s MIX11 coder symposium, the Kinect-powered La-Z-Boy is a proof of concept for the Kinect PC software development kit, which will open up development over Visual Basic and C++. The recliner code will be…
By Owen Good -
Madden Moves Its Release Date to the End of August
Traditionally arriving by the first or second Tuesday of August, Madden NFL 12 will be released three weeks later, Aug. 30, in a move EA Sports says will carry into future releases, too. Rob Semsey, a spokesman for EA Sports, said the change was not influenced by the current NFL lockout, which threatens the opening…
By Owen Good -
Stellar Escape Almost Gets Away With It
Anyone who’s played Canabalt has thought about screwing with its controls setup. How about a double-jump? Maybe a speed burst? Maybe these things would be good, but in the end, I like knowing that it has one, press-anywhere command, and when I tell the thing to jump, it by God jumps. So here comes Orange…
By Owen Good -
Snooze and the Gray
Snooze and the Gray | Interestingly, South Carolina chose to observe the 150th anniversary of April 12, 1861, the first shot of the American Civil War on April 9, 2011, the 146th anniversary of the Confederates’ surrender. Here a Confederate re-enactor – hell, is there any other left? – takes a nap during South Carolina’s…
By Owen Good -
Promoter Sues Microsoft Over Kinect Launch Event
Remember the Times Square launch event for Kinect last fall? It took some begging, pleading, and cold hard cash just to happen, when the cops made the last-minute discovery a full blown concert didn’t have the requisite permits. The promoter who made all the bad stuff go away says Microsoft owes him $63,000 for it.…
By Owen Good -
Beating a Different Drum
Another tranquil week; Patapon 3 arrives for PSP; World of Tanks rumbles across the line on PCs. Outside of those two, the heavy sounds of shovels as April’s first bloom hits its stride. Sunday Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time (3DS) Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D (3DS) Monday Escape Trick: The Secret of Rock City Prison…
By Owen Good -
LittleBigPlanet 2 Does a Good Job of Babysitting with this Game Boy Remake
Drive up the volume for this user-created level from LittleBigPlanet 2, an homage to World 1-1 from Super Mario Land on the Game Boy. Creator Junkvxxl loaded the level three days ago; it became a developer favorite two days ago; it’s been played more than 36,000 times in that span. If you have the game,…
By Owen Good -
Top 5 of 10: Bad Dog Days
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 Game Characters Having a Worse Day Than You [Calm Down Tom] Though No. 2 is “Kane and/or Lynch in Kane and Lynch 2,”…
By Owen Good
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