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‘Green’ Cases Don’t Do Much for Greenpeace Rankings
Doesn’t look like cutting a bunch of plastic out of the standard game cases did much for anyone’s Greenpeace ratings. The environmental advocacy group released its quarterly rankings of electronics companies, again tsk-tsking Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Nintendo, I guess because it goes whaling in its spare time or something, again clocked in with a…
By Owen Good -
A Designer of an Arcade Classic Critiques His Work
No secret one of my most favorite classic arcade games is Paperboy. I was one once. It’s out on the iPhone, and the original designer rather likes the updated 3D version. His own work? He’s a bit more critical. Dave Ralston thinks the bicycle collision was too unforgiving. (Very true. Skidding almost to a stop…
By Owen Good -
Reviews
Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot Micro-Review: A Very Long Engagement
Don’t call it a deathmatch, says Gearbox. Don’t call it Horde mode either. It’s just Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, an epic-length firefight in Borderlands, played to shifting rules and a brass accompaniment of spent casings clattering on the ground. Borderlands’ “role-playing shooter” combination makes it one of 2009’s most spectacularly addicting games. But what happens…
By Owen Good -
MLB 2K10’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria is the coverboy for MLB 2K10, but the third baseman’s bringing backup. With this trash-talking video, 2K Sports touts the “impressive council” of seven baseball all-stars it’s signed to serve as promotional muscle and gameplay advisors.
By Owen Good -
Reaping Beauty — the Video
Also on Kotaku Talk Radio today, Fahey introduced us to “Reaping Beauty,” rapper MC Lars’ shout-out to Bayonetta. Well, here’s the accompanying music video, and it’s slam full of gameplay. “Reaping Beauty” is brought to you by MC Lars featuring colleagues Random and Beefy, with Tina Root singing the hook. Ms. Pac-Man, Zelda, Lara Croft,…
By Owen Good -
Bethesda Once Pitched Singleplayer Star Trek RPG
Before making Fallout 3, Todd Howard and Bethesda Softworks pitched a sprawling single-player RPG set in the Star Trek universe – of the Shatner Capt. Kirk era, Howard told Kotaku Talk Radio. Appearing on our call-in show earlier today, Howard said at one point Bethesda did have the rights to Star Trek games, acquiring them…
By Owen Good -
Motion Control on a New DS — How Might That Work?
An oblique reference to a DS successor helped turn Satoru Iwata‘s interview with Japan’s leading newspaper into a full-on bombshell. Specifically, the Nintendo chief said such a device must be enabled for motion control. What could they be working on? Motion control in a handheld is trickier proposition because, of course, you’re manipulating the thing…
By Owen Good -
Sony Details PSN Expansion To Other Products
At CES 2010, Sony Computer Entertainment chief Kaz Hirai described long-anticipated plans to unify its PlayStation Network content offerings across its product line – including network enabled Blu-ray players, Sony televisions and PCs. Further, Hirai announced the creation of a new studio specifically to produce content for this type of distribution. The studio will be…
By Owen Good -
Gentlemiis, Start Your Engines …
So, the Xbox 360 version of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing gets Banjo (and) Kazooie as playable characters. What’s the Wii version offering? Well, you, of course. And by that Sega means Mii. Sega announced on its official blog today that players’ Miis will be part of the racing lineup, likewise taking advantage of special…
By Owen Good -
Tennessean Plays GTA for 40 Hours Straight, Pees Three Times
Barely four months after an Indian equity broker logged a world record by playing Grand Theft Auto IV for 40 hours and 20 minutes, a 19-year-old college kid in Tennessee has beaten it. David Scherer (pictured), an honors student at Austin Peay (student section chant: “Let’s Go Peay!” True story.) logged his 40th hour, 21st…
By Owen Good -
Aion Players Hit Jackpot After Maintenance Goof
Maintenance on an Aion server yesterday caused a glitch that delivered more than 34 trillion Kinah – that’s Aion cash – to “a small number of players.” NCsoft was forced to do a server data rollback to correct the mistake. “Havoc broke out as players spent their ill gotten gains, mailed around coin, and awaited…
By Owen Good -
Capcom’s France Boss: “The Future is on PS3 and 360”
Capcom’s director general for France sounds very pessimistic about development for the Wii, feeling that its user base has “radically changed” into something that is no longer interested in core games such as the poor-selling Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. “The customer of [the Wii] has turned into something [of a] much broader audience. It…
By Owen Good -
Amazon Now Offering Cheap-O Xbox Live Subs
If your gold subscription to Xbox Live renews this month – or not, heck, this is a card with a code – Amazon is offering 12-month subscriptions for $34.99 which is 30 percent off. That means if you have the dough now, you can save yourself $15 later. I’d say this is a run-go-get it…
By Owen Good -
Wife or Six-Foot Orc Statue? Warcraft Fan Forced to Choose
The Scottish Sun – “Scottish Newspaper of the Year” mind you – reports that a woman gave her 42-year-old husband an ultimatum: Ditch that six-foot-tall World of Warcraft orc statue, or I move to Canada. Who did he choose? Surprise! This is actually a story about rational people. He put the orc, which he’d owned…
By Owen Good -
Family Guy Teaches Us How to Drive — Using Grand Theft Auto
Last night on a very special Family Guy: When Peter loses his memory, he needs to re-learn everything. That includes driving. Trouble follows when Lois hooks him up to the murder simulator. By the way, can you tell that’s a hooker? It’s a hooker. Look how she’s dressed. Peter Uses Grand Theft Auto as a…
By Owen Good -
EA Sticks with Tiger Woods Online; Mum on Console Games
Announcing an open beta of EA Sports‘ browser-based PGA Tour game later this month, Peter Moore says EA Sports is sticking with embattled golfer Tiger Woods “on the masthead of this game.” “Our relationship with Tiger has always been rooted in golf,” Moore wrote on his official blog late Monday. “We didn’t form a relationship…
By Owen Good -
High-School Farce: 360 Puts Celeb Couple on the Rocks
Another celebrity couple is said to be on the road to splitsville because of a console. This time, it’s “High School Musical’s” Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, and the “other woman” is an Xbox 360. Contactmusic.com, quoting unnamed sources (but inevitably stripping out the “likes,” and “so he’s/she’s all”) says Hudgens gave her squeeze a…
By Owen Good -
Rumor: NBA Jam Returning — to Wii
Were you unenthused by the rumor that EA Sports new title would be an NFL-branded trainer for the Wii? You’ll like this one better. ESPN.com says the game will be an updated NBA Jam, for the Wii. Citing “unnamed sources,” ESPN.com says EA Sports got the rights from the NBA to deliver an updated version…
By Owen Good -
Cheevers Try One Last Time for NBA Live Mark
Achievement boosters failed back in October to claim the 100-point bounty for being signed in with 1,000 others to NBA Live 07. With servers for the game deactivating Feb. 2, they’ll take another crack at it on Jan. 31. Xbox360Achievements.org is once again staging the final run at this damn-near-impossible mark, which appeared in the…
By Owen Good -
New Year’s Football
To: Luke From: Owen Re: Happy Happy This was left unsaid in the sports column I wrote Saturday, but I wanted to make a record of it here. Dad’s method of arranging football pictures is far easier in real life. Doing it on a video game was tough. First I needed to recreate my high…
By Owen Good
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