Owen Good

Pick Up Red Dead Redemption’s Soundtrack — In Vinyl

Sure you can download the Red Dead Redemption soundtrack – get it on CD even! But if you want authentic pop, crackle and hiss coming over your wild west soundtrack, only Rockstar has what you need, a double vinyl LP. The studio partnered with Wax Poetics to present the limited edition RDR soundtrack “on blazing…

Not Its Own Video Game, Not A Real Card Collection, Yet More Than Both

Somewhere out there is a guy who’s spent big money on football cards. He can look at them, but can’t touch them. He can use the players – all elite – in a $60 video game, but never does. In fact, there are actually 35 of these big spenders – players who have each paid…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Master System Cover Winners

The Master System/Mega Drive debuted before the advent of home desktop publishing, so the design choices of its ridiculously minimalist covers seemed somewhat sophisticated at the time. We gave modern games a retrofit in last week’s ‘Shop Contest. razzbarry (15) and Zinger314 (20) had different takes on similar themes. BuckThunder (5) was so, so cruel…

Shadow Puppets 2.0 — With Kinect

This cool demonstration by Design I/O, which produces “interactive installations” shows the Kinect being used to project animated hand puppets that respond to the user’s movements. Design I/O built it in a day using open-source Kinect drivers. Kinect’s software recognizes not only the X and Y axes of your arm’s position but also its Z…

Box Scores: Fickle Forty-Niner Fans

San Francisco’s quarterback swap and resulting two game winning streak in real life had one 49er fan jumping into Madden to reboot the season, starting by dumping proven bust Alex Smith. Mike Singletary and Jed York are still insane and delusional as all hell, respectively, but Derek B. runs this show, meaning they’re 1,000 percent…

EA Sports Rumored To Revive NFL Blitz

NBA Jam’s critical success has led EA Sports to resurrect the beloved NFL Blitz series as well, Jeff Gerstmann reports over on Giant Bomb. Development is rumored to be underway, and the multiplatform game wouldn’t release until 2012. Gerstmann attributes the news to an industry insider and also his previous report that EA Sports, in…

The Moneysaver: ALL THESE COUPONS ARE YOURS

What is going to happen? Something wonderful. I’m afraid. Don’t be. We’ll be together. Where will we be? Where I am now. Would you like to renew your PowerUp Rewards Card? Put $5 down on GT5? Hardware • Refurbished Nintendo Wii with controller, nunchuk, Sports Resort, Wii Sports, plus a “classic controller” is $157.97, free…

The Week In Review: Black Friday Eve

The calm before the annual storm. It was the last normal week before the holiday shopping season begins and the mass media enforces your civic duty to agonize over what to buy mom, and whether Walmart sold enough of it. We stepped in with our 2010 Gift Guides on five platforms so far, with more…

A Fine Day For A Pac-Man Parade

The lone game character from the International Video Games Hall of Fame’s inaugural class will appear on a float for the first time in the 122-year-old Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, Calif. Pac and his four adversaries also constitute the first video-game float ever in the parade, which precedes the Rose Bowl on New…

Wiebe: Still Points Available In Race To Donkey Kong’s Max Score

The infamous “kill screen” sets a limit to the highest possible score in Donkey Kong. Steve Wiebe, who reclaimed the world’s No. 1 in September, says the game still has about 100,000 points to go. “Believe it or not, we’re still leaving some room at the top.” Wiebe told Crave. “But I think people put…

Books Retailer Jumping Into Used Games Market?

Books-a-Million, America’s third-largest books retail chain, weathered a crummy third quarter but sounded upbeat about plans to move into a new line of business: Video games. That’s news to some of their stores. Gamasutra reports that many of the chain’s locations, principally located in the American South and Midwest, began selling used titles over the…

Poker Night At The Inventory Is All-In On Monday

Telltale’s crossover card game, Poker Night At the Inventory, has an official release date: Monday. For a $5 ante you can splash the pot with Strong Bad, Team Fortress’ Heavy, Penny Arcade’s Tycho and Max. Considering we had all of 11 days left in Poker Night’s promised delivery month, the short notice is to be…

NASCAR Screens Trade Paint In Pretty Ways

Another five screens for NASCAR The Game 2011, due next year from Eutechnyx and Activision, show off the wear and tear on the cars, walls, and pavement – such as the patch job at Phoenix International Raceway.

GT5 Install: Hope You Have 10 GB And An Hour To Spare

It’s an optional install – you may still play Gran Turismo 5 with a 256 MB basic installation if you don’t have much space. Whole hog, you’re going to need upwards of 10 gigabytes – and 50 minutes – free. Amar212, a GT5 power user well known on about three forums, got his hands on…

NASCAR The Game 2011 Screens

Kotaku’s 2010 Wii Gift Guide

The holidays are coming, and that means it’s time for you to start thinking about what sorts of gifts you want to give and get this year. This year’s slate of Wii releases saw plenty of reliable performers and familiar brands in the console’s strongest genres. But it also featured a few games in the…

Kotaku Writers on Facebook

• Brian Crecente, Editor in Chief. • Stephen Totilo, Deputy Editor. • Michael McWhertor, Reviews Editor. • Brian Ashcraft, Senior Contributing Editor, Japan. • Luke Plunkett, Contributing Editor, Oceania. • Michael Fahey, Reporter, East Coast. • Owen Good, Reporter, Weekends. Kotaku on Facebook

Kotaku Writers on Twitter

• Brian Crecente, Editor in Chief. • Stephen Totilo, Deputy Editor. • Michael McWhertor, Reviews Editor. • Brian Ashcraft, Senior Contributing Editor, Japan. • Luke Plunkett, Contributing Editor, Oceania. • Michael Fahey, Reporter, East Coast. • Owen Good, Reporter, Weekends. Follow Kotaku on Twitter.

Pinball Gave NBA Jam’s Announcer His Gaming Start

His bombastic boothman persona in NBA Jam isn’t Tim Kitzrow’s only gaming credit. The guy also was the voice of Rod Serling in the classic Twilight Zone pinball table. He got his start from his bandmates, who worked for Midway. “In a lot of ways, it was the most fun I ever had,” Kitzrow (left)…

Donkey Kong Banana Chowdown Features Japanese Champion Eater

Takeru Kobayashi, famous as the six-time winner of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, is appearing in Toronto for a pre-release stunt for Donkey Kong Country, in which he and the game will evidently have a banana-eating contest. That’s all I can infer from the wording of Nintendo of Canada’s news release, which says Kobayashi…