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NFL Player Returns From Games Addiction
Quinn Pitcock was an all-America defensive lineman at Ohio State, and a third-round draft pick by the Indianapolis Colts. But he quit the NFL in 2008, at age 24. The reason? Video games addiction. That remarkable admission is in today’s Tacoma News-Tribune, covering the Seattle Seahawks training camp, where Pitcock has returned to restart his…
By Owen Good -
Kaka Is FIFA 11’s Worldwide Cover Athlete
Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite will be the global cover star for EA Sports’ FIFA 11. You might know him better as Kaka, the 28-year-old Brazilian star for Real Madrid. FIFA’s covers shift from region to region, accommodating the global nature of the sport, but Kaka will be the unifying player for all of them.…
By Owen Good -
The Cooperstown Model Comes To Video Games
Whether you think it should be in Tokyo, Silicon Valley or elsewhere, the International Video Game Hall of Fame inducts its inaugural class this weekend in Ottumwa, Iowa. Today, the mayor went on NPR to justify why it belongs there. Mayor Dale Uehling appeared on this afternoon’s All Things Considered and invoked Cooperstown, home of…
By Owen Good -
Gaming Surpasses Email In Time Spent Online
Gaming accounts for 10 percent of time spent online in the United States – overtaking email – according to research by Nielsen, which doesn’t sound like a lot but it is the second-leading reason, and one that’s growing. Social networking is first, accounting for 22 percent of online time, surging above the 15.8 percent share…
By Owen Good -
Get Your PC Love-Meter Rating In Kotaku Talk Radio
Crecente and Totilo discussed the robust year PC gaming is having so far in 2010, and also what they love and hate about a gaming platform with plenty of polarizing topics. Kotaku Talk Radio, available for download now! Hosts: Stephen Totilo and Brian Crecente Ranter: Owen Good Listen to the podcast here. [Chat About It]…
By Owen Good -
You Don’t Need Shoulderpads To Play Madden, But It Helps
Madden NFL 11’s remade cooperative online play this year, but rather than bog down in a technical discussion, let’s see what happens when Ray Lewis and Mario Williams show up to pit two rival Texas high schools against each other. Online Team Play now supports up to three players per side, and gives them control…
By Owen Good -
GameStop Listing Gives Up Possible Career Mode in NBA Elite
A preorder premium for NBA Elite 11 offered by GameStop tips off a new mode in NBA Elite 11, something called “Become Legendary.” The smart money’s on this being a singleplayer career along the lines of FIFA’s “Be a Pro.” Saith the listing: Reserve NBA Elite 11 and receive a GameStop exclusive Jordan Brand Boost…
By Owen Good -
“Halo: The Fall of Reach” Comes To Shelves Today
That would be bookshelves, kids, in bookstores. A new revision of Eric Nylund’s “Halo: The Fall of Reach,” first published in 2001, went on sale today with 27 pages of new material. What’s in the new trade paperback? Glad you asked. According to a release from Tor Books, you get: • Excerpts of Office of…
By Owen Good -
Kid Bribed With Video Games To Steal Drugs, Say Cops
Kids, if someone promises you a video game! if you let them borrow a bottle of mom’s pills without telling mom, that’s bigtime STRANGER DANGER and you need to tell McGruff the Crime Dog. Cops in Portsmouth, N.H. on Sunday arrested a woman by the name of Shannon Leathers and charged her with bribing a…
By Owen Good -
Uncharted Movie Back At Square One After Director Talks Break Down
Hothead director David O. Russell will not be directing any Uncharted movie, the Los Angeles Times reports, and the unsuccessful negotiations to bring him to the project have pretty much shot any chance the movie has of releasing in 2011. Russell’s proclivity for some grade-A blowups in the past added the potential for comedy, if…
By Owen Good -
Backbreaker’s Officially Bigtime Now — It’s Sold Out To KFC
A day after releasing news of its behemoth patch on Xbox 360, the folks who make Backbreaker say its free iPhone version has picked up a Kentucky Fried Chicken sponsorship. Runners will now celebrate with, what else, the Chicken Dance. This is for Backbreaker Lite – not the paid Backbreaker version (although that only costs…
By Owen Good -
EA Sports “Monitoring” Favre Situation
Brett Favre’s officially on the Minnesota Vikings – in Madden NFL 11‘s launch version. If he retires, the first roster update will drop him from the game, making him unavailable in multiplayer. How soon after the Aug. 10 release will that first update come? “We are monitoring the situation, and will detail our plans should…
By Owen Good -
Walmart Holding Midnight Mass For The Church Of Madden
We’re now one week (and 30 minutes, to be exact) from the traditional midnight launch of Madden NFL, and Walmart’s promising nationwide events for those who want to take it home as soon as the clock strikes 12. Word from Walmart corporate says that line-waiters will get $5 gift cards for buying the game at…
By Owen Good -
The Oregon Trail uh, Trailer — There Will Be Dysentery
This trailer, allegedly for a movie based on everyone’s favorite edutainment game Oregon Trail, is so well done I honestly triple-checked to make sure the movie wasn’t really being filmed. Revisit all the well known gags – overloading on ammo, the banker’s uselessness and, of course, dysentery’s sweet, brown embrace – in this short shot…
By Owen Good -
Backbreaker Gets A Makeover With Enormous Patch Due Soon
New plays, better AI, a suite of replay cameras and new “focus modes” are among features coming to the football title Backbreaker, possibly as soon as Wednesday, through one of the largest patches I’ve ever seen for a sports game. That’s the good news; the bad news is sort of that they were needed in…
By Owen Good -
Xfire Sold Off, Development Team Leaving [Update]
Two communications today from Xfire, the social networking tool for PC gamers, indicate that the service has been sold off and most of its development team will be leaving as a result. Update: Titan Gaming has acquired Xfire. At about 3:15 p.m. Pacific Time, Xfire members received the following message: Xfire was bought by new…
By Owen Good -
Kevin Butler Gets a Gift Basket of Sorry from New Zealand
The New Zealand TV network that ripped off a PS3 ad and was called on it by fake executive Kevin Butler sent the PlayStation “vice president of everything,” a large gift basket as a gesture of goodwill. Butler, noticing that New Zealand’s TV3 straight-up copied the PS3’s “Montage” ad from earlier this year, didn’t send…
By Owen Good -
Time to Upgrade
To: Luke From: Owen Re: The War on Phallic Graffiti Getting a review copy of Madden NFL 11 on the PS3 has made it apparent how much I need a current console of that platform. You might remember I ended up with a 20GB NTSC:J launch configuration, which my former employer had snapped up in…
By Owen Good
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