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The Wii U Gamepad Gets a Horizontal Stand with Wii Party U
A horizontal stand for the Wii U gamepad will be included with Wii Party U when the game launches at the end of the month. The stand will make it easier to play one of the title’s mini-games. In this morning’s Nintendo Direct, a group dance game was shown in which the Wii U gamepad…
By Owen Good -
A Blindside Hit Takes Down an NCAA Football Team Rallying to the End
Wednesday night, he was having anxiety attacks over his designs for next year’s game. Thursday afternoon, it didn’t matter; his title was canceled. And ten minutes after showing up on Monday, he no longer had a job. By all accounts, Alex Howell and the rest of EA Sports’ college football development team were working right…
By Owen Good -
Permadeath Visits Batman with ‘I am the Night’ Mode
When it was revealed a little while ago in a list of achievements for Batman: Arkham Origins, folks didn’t know what this “I am the Night” mode is, only that it must be big if it’s offering 70 Gamerscore on Xbox 360. In fact it’s a permadeath run through the game—one life. “I am the…
By Owen Good -
‘I’m an RPG-Kind-of-Girl’ Says Newly Crowned Miss World
Megan Young enjoys Assassin’s Creed, Fable, and especially Pokémon—her favorite is Blastoise (a “basic Pokémon with a lot of strength and spunk.”) Last night she was crowned Miss World 2013. If we’re ever in a beauty pageant with aliens from other galaxies, folks, this is the woman we want representing humankind. Young was crowned Miss…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: No-Stick
Look, I’m not saying it’s the best exploitable—but it certainly is the most timely. Valve’s Steam controllermade its debut to the public on Friday and people are trying to wrap their heads around gaming without twin analog joysticks. Let’s explore even greater possibilities in this week’s ‘Shop Contest. Simple, yet open-ended task. Take that image,…
By Owen Good -
Xbox One Presenter Humiliated Me on Stage, Says Transgender Journalist [UPDATE: Some allegations recanted.]
A journalist says she was “completely dehumanised” on stage during an Xbox One Event at Eurogamer Expo 2013, by a comedian who made degrading jokes about her gender. Eurogamer Expo says it is investigating the matter. Laura Kate Dale, who is a transgender woman, says she was called “he,” “it,” “thing” and “this one,” by…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Inferior Decoration
Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by you, our readership. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Sept. 23. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published Sept. 23. Read more of Penny Arcade Brawl In The Family by Matthew Taranto. Published Sept.…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Canine Countenances: The Winners
Risking certain death by Polonium-210, ten ‘Shoppers bravely took up last week’s mission—using a picture of a Ukrainian dog that looks like Vladimir Putin, create something even more hilarious. I hope their life insurance policies are airtight, because we have all of the winning entries inside, including No. 1 enemy of the state Jose Sediles!…
By Owen Good -
Now We’ve Heard It All: Minecraft Blamed in School Violence Case
A nine-year-old Orlando, Fla. boy—”so tiny … he could barely see the judge over the podium”—was sentenced to home confinement by a state judge after he brought “multiple weapons to school.” The video game being blamed? Minecraft. Mine-bleeping-craft The unnamed student had “an unloaded handgun, a magazine with six bullets inside, a steak knife and…
By Owen Good -
Sounds Like Aliens Will Invade Your Base in XCOM: Enemy Within
The 30 new achievements for XCOM: Enemy Within—the expansion for last year’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown—slipped out to Steam a couple of weeks ago, but only now have I noticed what they describe. From the list, we can assume that a Base Defense mission is returning to the series. XCOM diehards lamented Enemy Unknown‘s lack of…
By Owen Good -
The Art of Fighting, an event mustering the charitable spirit of the fighting games community to raise awareness of and money for the treatment of fatal birth defects, is underway now. The tournament just began, and you can watch it here. The story of the father who organized it may be read here. To contact…
By Owen Good -
NY Library Discovers Timothy Leary’s Stash of Experimental Video Games
You may not remember that Timothy Leary, the psychologist renowned for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs and a key figure of the 1960s counterculture movement, dabbled in video games development in the 1980s. Now a trove of games discovered inside hundreds of discs in Leary’s archives will be playable at the New York Public Library.…
By Owen Good -
Whac-a-Mole’s Inventor Linked to Weird Experimental Fuel Explosion
This happened in Florida, of course, where Aaron Fechter, creator of Whac-a-Mole and Chuck E. Cheese’s “Rock-a-Fire Explosion” animatronic band, owns a warehouse. On Thursday, it went kaboom, and cops say an experimental fuel called “Carbohydrillium” is to blame. No one was injured in the blast, but it shook downtown Orlando and shut down train…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Someone’s Attempting to 100 Percent GTA III and Vice City in 24 Hours
Pedestrians of Liberty and Vice cities, beware. World-class speedrunner AdamAK is attempting to 100 percent both Grand Theft Auto III and GTA: Vice City over the next 24 hours. That means carnage on the sidewalks and beaches for sure. You may watch the run below—he’s about four hours into it as of posting time, playing…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Incumbents Rule in Sunday Comics’ Latest Elections
The votes have been counted and your lineup for Sunday Comics is set. All eight of the existing features will return. ActionTrip, which ran from Sunday Comics’ debut in 2009 until last year, returns. Life in Aggro is the only totally new strip readers chose. These are the final results. Comics will appear in this…
By Owen Good -
No College Football Video Game Next Year, Says EA Sports [Update]
EA Sports will not publish any college football video game next year, the label said moments ago, citing ongoing litigation brought by current and former college players that threatens to change how all of big-time college sports does business. “Today I am sad to announce that we will not be publishing a new college football…
By Owen Good -
Maker of Religious Video Games Faces Stock Fraud Charges in U.S.
Remember those Left Behind holy-war video games made for the PC in the middle of the last decade? U.S. regulators just sued the company’s founder, saying that he and a friend artificially inflated the firm’s revenue figures through a stock kickback scheme. The founder says the government is discriminating against him. In a wide-ranging statement…
By Owen Good -
Judge Bans Teen From Playing Video Games. Uh, What?
A Judge in Wisconsin banned a 17-year-old from playing video games after he was arrested and charged with assaulting his mother when she unplugged his PlayStation 3. So, this kind of thing doesn’t happen just with Xbox 360 players, just sayin’. The Racine Journal Times, according to WISN-TV in the video below, reported that Jeffrey…
By Owen Good -
NBA 2K14 Designer ‘Regrets’ Repeated Control Changes
For the third straight year, 2K Sports’ NBA 2K series has remade its control set, which imposes a learning curve on everyone—even the series’ most dedicated players. The game’s lead gameplay designer called the repeated changes “kind of regrettable,” and “something that I’m a little embarrassed of” in a podcast today. “That’s kind of regrettable…
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