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What’s It Take To Get A Boxer To Return Your Calls?
Arturo Gatti couldn’t make Fight Night Champion. It’s not because he’s dead – so’s Sugar Ray Robinson, and he’s in the game. It’s just that negotiating likeness agreements with boxers is head-bangingly more frustrating than in any other sports game. Answering whining customer complaints about the omission of some fighters – most of them known…
By Owen Good -
Madden The Man On Madden The Game
John Madden does not fly. So when EA Sports convened with the namesake of their NFL title, they went to him, in Pleasanton, Calif. The studio invited USA Today for a look at what was discussed and next year’s priorities. There’s a lot of history and retrospective in this video, which we’ve covered before, but…
By Owen Good -
Going Off The Rails On A Guitar Made Out Of An NES
Here’s a late entry for our 2010 Gift Guide Obscene Nicety and Sublime Naughtiness: an electric guitar made out of an NES. It’s $150, though currently its maker only has one in stock. You can get it through GetLoFi.com’s web shop, according to the caption on the YouTube video. “The signal is routed through the…
By Owen Good -
Butterbean Returns To The Ring In Fight Night Champion
Yesterday we saw Eric Esch – aka Butterbean – getting his flab knocked around in Fight Night Champion. He’s one of 13 new boxers on a roster of 54 licensed personalities appearing in the game when it releases next year. Here’s the full card: Boxers New To Fight Night Champion “Butterbean” Eric Esch Chad Dawson…
By Owen Good -
Cool Game Arrives For The PS3’s Attractive People In Time For Christmas [Update]
Two years after its release on the PC and the Wii, all five episodes of Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People are coming to the PlayStation Network in North America on Dec. 21. Pricing wasn’t mentioned in Telltale Games’ statement on the PSN release, but the set of five currently runs $29.99 on the…
By Owen Good -
Clearing Up When X-Men Gets Here And What It Costs
If you’ve read that Konami’s arcade classic X-Men is getting a timed exclusive on Xbox Live Arcade, fear not, PS3 owners. Well, PS3 owners in North America anyway, where the game’s coming out a day earlier on PlayStation Network. A Konami rep verified for Kotaku that X-Men is out Dec. 14 on PSN, Dec. 15…
By Owen Good -
Aimez La Resistance, Get More Screenshots
Enough people paid the Facebook “Like” ransom so Insomniac released another four Resistance 3 screens today (on the heels of the seven that went out yesterday). There’s also a theme you can slap on your PS3. The studio had held the five shots hostage until more folks hit their page’s like button. Apparently some threshold…
By Owen Good -
Epic Mickey’s Designer Addresses Kloodgy Camera Complaints
A common criticism of Disney’s Epic Mickey (made by Totilo in his review, too) concerns the game’s flawed camera view. Warren Spector, the game’s designer, says the problem is the game bridges two styles that use fairly standard angles. “We did the best we could given that we were not trying to make a platform…
By Owen Good -
Call of Duty “Phenom Booter” Use Lands British Teen In The Slammer
A U.K. teen using a tool called “Phenom Booter” to kick players off Call of Duty servers back in September is now enjoying a stay in jail following an investigation by the Manchester police department. Phenom Booter, which triggers a denial-of-service attack that can clear a server of specific users, or all of them, is…
By Owen Good -
Fight Night’s New Legacy
In case it wasn’t clear, “Champion Mode,” which is the role-playing career of fictional fighter Andre Bishop, is a wholly separate mode in Fight Night Champion. Legacy, the old career, will still return, with improvements. The big deal seems to be the addition of an experience point system replacing the old training structure whereby a…
By Owen Good -
New Law Reminds You To Include Virtual Property In Your Will
A law passed in Oklahoma provides for executors to access social media accounts and, presumably, distribute their holdings. So if you don’t write out that will with LegalZoom, a judge will decide who gets your Second Life counterfeit fuck coffin The law took effect Nov. 1. According to its author, its meant to remind people…
By Owen Good -
Race A Toilet With NASCAR’s Five-Time Champ
The motto of Jimmie Johnson, who clinched his fifth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup championship last month, is “Anything With An Engine.” With dumpsters, coffins and lawnmowers, this upcoming arcade racer bearing his name takes that to an illogical extreme. Jimmie Johnson’s Anything With An Engine, due next year for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, puts…
By Owen Good -
Halo Wars’ Leaderboards Saved
Responding to outcry from the game’s close-knit community, Microsoft has about-faced on its decision to end leaderboard and stat-tracking support for Halo Wars on Dec. 15. While the Halo Wars forums will still be merged into the Halo Waypoint forums, ending their presence on HaloWars.com, leaderboards and online statistics will remain active. Dedicated Halo Wars…
By Owen Good -
Ending Leaked For StarCraft II’s Next Chapter?
A clip, purportedly of the ending for “Heart of the Swarm,” the under-development second chapter of StarCraft II, leaked out earlier today. The video’s since been taken down. We’re not sure if it’s legitimate, but spoiler alert, just in case. The clip merges in storyboards and has no lip-synching to the dialogue, indicating it’s something…
By Owen Good -
Meet Sackbutler, V.P. of LittleBigPlanet-ization
After seeing a baby delivered with the Grabinator, I’d say it’s a virtual inevitability we’re going to end up with Kevin Butler Sackboy costumes sometime soon after LittleBigPlanet 2’s release. As to that, in case you are wondering, Mark Valledor, marketing manager for Sony Computer Entertainment America, has already semi-addressed such a possibility. I’ve tweeted…
By Owen Good -
FIFA Has Raked In $45 Million From DLC — And Counting
We’ve heard of hardcore customers of EA Sports’ “Ultimate Team” modes – spending more than $1,000 just on virtual sports cards in Madden, FIFA or NHL. We didn’t know what it meant to Electronic Arts’ bottom line, though. According to GameSpot, quoting the company’s chief financial officer, downloadable content accountes for 20 percent of the…
By Owen Good -
DC Universe Online Artist Now Tries Competitive Cake Making
Kotaku has a proud history of showcasing the artistic intersection of video games and cakes, so it’s no surprise who our favorite contestant is “Cake Boss: Next Great Baker.” Meet Brian Stevens, senior artist at Sony Online Entertainment. CB:NGB premiered on Monday and Brian survived the first round, so here’s hoping this post isn’t a…
By Owen Good -
Fight Night Takes The Hook Out Of Hooks?
This Official Xbox Magazine preview of Fight Night Champion offers a look at the boxing franchise’s gameplay. More importantly, they’re fooling with the analog controls again. Sounds like hooks and uppercuts won’t need the winding motions to execute anymore. On its face that sounds like a good idea. Part of the problem with Fight Night…
By Owen Good -
Doot-De-Don’t
To: Luke From: Owen Re: Wow, That Was Both A Short And A Long Week Friday I shared the family tradition of the doot-de-doo. Reader Nerf Herder tried it with his kid, and sent that in to me this morning. Some weekend highlights: What You Might Have Seen In Gran Turismo 5 If You Weren’t…
By Owen Good -
A Behavioral Analysis of the Pac-Man Ghosts
There a well known, long-established patterns for beating Pac-Man’s mazes, up until the ninth Key, as Buckner & Garcia sang. Still, Pac’s adversaries exhibit behavior that, if not exactly tactical, is still complex. Chad Birch, a researcher from Calgary, writes Game Internals, which “aims to spread knowledge of interesting game mechanics beyond the game-specific enthusiast…
By Owen Good
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