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Several Unscripted Moments with Madden‘s New Announcer
I thought I was going to have a script. Come on up, said EA Sports. We’ll put you in the booth with Gus Johnson, the new play-by-play man, and let you play the part of the color analyst. Instead, when it was my turn to call a 49ers-Seahawks tilt at EA’s Redwood Shores studio, I…
By Owen Good -
Madden Taps Gus Johnson for Video Games’ Top Play-by-Play Job
In a madcap dash covering the last seconds of 2009’s first Sunday of football, the Denver Broncos won their game, Gus Johnson lost his mind, and Madden NFL 11 found its voice. Today, Johnson, the exciting and excitable CBS sportscaster, officially became the fourth play-by-play man to hold sports gaming’s top booth job. Teased at…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku Off-Topic: Doobie-Oh-Seven
My apartment has been smelling like a baked horse turd for the past three weeks. My downstairs neighbor finally explained it’s because he has a license to grow ganja in the basement. It might be legal (Oregon law provides for growing medical marijuana, and deprioritizes policing other aspects of pot possession and use). But it…
By Owen Good -
A Peek at the Pitch for the Original — and Very Different — BioShock
We knew BioShock‘s original story was quite a departure from the finished game – a “deprogrammer” infiltrates a bioengineered cult. Irrational Games still sold the title on that concept, and has now posted seven scans from the original 20-page pitch. The images are the first installment in what Irrational promises will be the posting of…
By Owen Good -
Sega’s Big Sonic 4 News: It’s Delayed
Originally fixed for a summer release, today Sega pegged Sonic the Hedgehog 4 to “moar like latter half of 2010,” while touting the delay with a brave cheerfulness and saying it’ll allow for incorporating fan feedback into the game’s development. “For the first time ever, we’ve mixed internal suggestions alongside fan feedback to make some…
By Owen Good -
Backbreaker Demo Hits Xbox Live Tomorrow
The demo for Backbreaker, the football alternative promising real-time physics in place of canned animations, will hit Xbox Live for gold subscribers tomorrow. PS3 owners will get the demo “soon.” By “soon,” Natural Motion hopes that will mean Tuesday. Xbox Live silver subscribers can expect access to the demo on May 28. The retail game…
By Owen Good -
What in the H-E-Broken Hockey Sticks is Going On Here?
EA Sports put up the first screenshot of NHL 11 on the game’s official Facebook page, intending to drop hints about what it’ll deliver. From the details of the frame, it looks like a new physics engine and broken sticks. “All-New Real-Time Physics Engine in NHL 11” is the caption to the grab – manifested…
By Owen Good -
Fourth Pack for Xbox Live Game Room is Now Available
Konami’s Time Pilot headlines the latest Game Pack release for the Xbox Live Game Room, which just went live today. It’s joined by Asteroids, Space Duel, and four other Intellivision and Atari 2600 titles. With Game Pack 4 you also get Activision’s Stampede and Grand Prix, Intellivision’s Shark! Shark! Shark! and Atari’s Demons to Diamonds.…
By Owen Good -
Code Required for UFC Undisputed Online Play
UFC Undisputed 2010 has joined the “Project $10” bandwagon – at half the price – walling off its multiplayer content behind a one-use code that costs $5 to anyone without it, i.e. those who rent or buy the game used. The game’s street date isn’t until Tuesday, but someone already has the Xbox 360 version…
By Owen Good -
Army Schools to Offer Game Design Courses to Military Kids
American colleges and universities aren’t the only ones who have noticed the appeal of games design courses; so has the Department of Defense, which will offer them in its vocational programs for kids of enlisted military and civilian workers. The Department of Defense Education Activity schools have overhauled their curricula for the 2011-2012 school year,…
By Owen Good -
Unlockable Celebs Will Return to NBA Jam
When it hits the Wii, NBA Jam will pack more than 100 unlockables – including playable celebrities, this time with their permission. “If you’ve thought about it, chances are we have too and it’s going in,” says a developer. Speaking to IGN, NBA Jam’s creative director Trey Smith said the team has been in talks…
By Owen Good -
Halo Novel Trilogy to be Republished with Updates, New Content
The publisher of the original Halo novelizations will reissue the original trilogy “with updates and all new original content” in August, beginning with Halo: The Fall of Reach, the prequel that predates the upcoming game by almost a decade Tor Books, the well-known science fiction imprint, no doubt plans to capture interest in the Halo…
By Owen Good -
EA Closes Out Double Down Challenge By Raising $1,000
Enough. I am officially declaring this Double Down-eating developer competition over. Electronic Arts may not have really set the land-speed record for consuming Kentucky Fried lard, but it did raise $1,000 for – wait for it – cancer research. You may remember that when Disney Interactive claimed the record two weeks ago, its champion eaters…
By Owen Good -
Makers of Wii Bowling Ball Bring You Wii Rowing Machine
The brothers Markowitz at CTA Digital let Totilo inside their Wonkaland of Wii peripherals last November and promised they were working on some peripherals core gamers wouldn’t be embarrassed to use. Does a Wii Fit rowing machine attachment qualify? Well, Doug and Julie, two fit and attractive young adults, certainly think so. Of course, they’re…
By Owen Good -
Latest MLB 10 The Show Patch Includes Scoring Bug
Patch No. 3 for MLB 10 The Show was delivered to PS3 users earlier this morning, but unfortunately contains a rather serious error – runs crossing the plate on a third out are counted, where they shouldn’t. Pasta Padre noticed the glitch earlier today; we emailed Sony Computer Entertainment America to inquire about any fix…
By Owen Good -
Facebook, Farmville Reach Truce on Virtual Currency
The maker of Farmville, shedding users by the millions, got a jolt of good news on Tuesday when the game’s parent company reached an agreement with Facebook, settling a standoff over the handling of virtual currency transactions. Specific terms of the five-year pact were not mentioned by Zynga in its news release, but it did…
By Owen Good -
Write a Snappy Catchphrase, Hear It in NBA Jam
EA Sports just opened a contest to get four fan-written catchphrases announced in NBA Jam‘s reboot for the Wii. Note: “Boom-shakalaka” is already taken, but “boom-shakalaka-lakalakalaka” technically is still eligible. Enter the contest through the game’s Facebook page. They need submissions for the following plays: Dunks, assists, alley oops, blocks, three pointers, regular field goals,…
By Owen Good -
Green Day Sounds Pretty Certain It Will Have DLC for Rock Band
Although a producer said earlier there will be no additional DLC for Green Day: Rock Band – giving a rather sophisticated, creative reasoning for the decision – the band’s drummer sounds certain there will be more tracks coming via download. Speaking to Game Informer, Green Day’s Tre Cool said: We wanted it all to go…
By Owen Good -
Easy or Access? Bulletstorm Walks the Line in an Insular Genre
A death-dealing, results-driven, elite space mercenary who, to be honest, is a bit of a dick, Grayson Hunt doesn’t look like a guy who deals in caring, sharing or hand-holding words like “accessible.” But his game, Bulletstorm will. Put down that ridiculously large weapon: Bulletstorm is still outlandishly violent, serving headshots and explosions galore to…
By Owen Good
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