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Reviews
Madden NFL Arcade Micro-Review: Snacking on Football
Did you toss the football around over Thanksgiving? If so, did you take time to read the playbook and set your audibles? Thought so. That’s the spirit behind EA Sports‘s Madden NFL Arcade, the bite-size complement to its full franchise. Sports sims’ increasing complexity and granular game management decisions can be off-putting, even intimidating, to…
By Owen Good -
Sticks Up, Lacrosse Breaks Into the Xbox 360
Let’s be real. It would take a nuclear war for lacrosse, even though it’s literally more American than football or baseball, to displace either game on TV. It would take even more to put it in a retail video game box. “A lot of people have been demanding this in a video game for a…
By Owen Good -
Weekend Coupons: Console Yourself, Shopper
Retailers are trying to move more than games, they’re discounting hardware, too. If you’re so gauche that you’re gonna buy a console when you should be thinking of others – I say right on, you’ve come to the right place. Hardware • Wii. $15 off. Get it through Dell. Not much that needs to be…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku Originals; I Like This Aussie’s Tabasco
Crecente went on vacation; Totilo talked with Electronic Arts’ top man, but let’s not forget Luke’s eloquent and comprehensive breakdown of Australia’s games classification, and the political climate influencing it, in the roster of this week’s biggest stories. Kotaku Talk Radio Australia Hey, Stop Blaming The Australian Government/People For “Banning” Games Aliens vs Predator “Banned”…
By Owen Good -
Modern Warfare 2’s Army is 26,000 Times Larger Than Sparta’s
Activision sent out a news release today touting the Modern Warfare 2 installation base – 8 million strong and growing – as larger than most real world armies. Indeed it is. How does it compare to history? Acti says the 8 million highly irregular, untrained MW2 fighters outclass: • The active-duty forces across all 28…
By Owen Good -
Pot, Video Games, Child Care: Which One Is Not Like the Other?
A Florida father is looking at a long and uncomfortable tour of the justice system after getting high, gaming all night, and then falling asleep on his 7-month-old daughter, suffocating her in the process. Cops in Sunrise, Fla. say the the father, Emanuel Lawrence, 30, was responsible for looking after the girl while her mother…
By Owen Good -
Latest Madden Patch Pays Tribute to Slain QB
The second patch for EA Sports‘ Madden NFL 10 adds the tribute helmet sticker Tennessee is wearing for Steve McNair, murdered in the offseason by his deranged mistress. Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Johnson also gets the memorial treatment. Those are the cosmetic changes to the game. Many others are included with the next patch, which…
By Owen Good -
Child’s Play Raises More than $1M for the Year
With the all-important holiday month still to come, Child’s Play, the charity donating video games and toys to children’s hospitals worldwide, has tallied more than $1 million in donations this year. It hopes to eclipse $1.4 million by year’s end. The figure is especially encouraging in light of the crap economy in the U.S. Child’s…
By Owen Good -
Uncharted 2 Experiments with Plunder, Crushing Multiplayer this Weekend
In response to overwhelming community feedback, Naughty Dog is experimenting with crushing-level difficulty in its Uncharted 2 multiplayer, and also offering a “plunder only” multiplayer playlist. Both experiments run for this weekend only. For starters, ND says player health “in ALL game types” will be lowered to to 65 percent, the same as the Crushing…
By Owen Good -
Crazy Girlfriend vs. PS3: Fake or Not Fake?
This is now the second When Pissed Off Girlfriends Attack Consoles video that’s crossed my inbox in the past week. The first one was obviously staged. This, however, looks good. Is it legit? YOU MAKE THE CALL! Reasons pro: • Gameplay on screen while PS3 assault committed. • F-bombs galore, so, probably not marketing but…
By Owen Good -
Star in Your Own N64 Freakout Kid Video
GameStop’s holiday promo puts you in the feeted jammies of the infamous Nintendo 64 Freakout Kid. Or puts your face over his. Anyway, the point is they expect you to react this way to any gift bought from their store. Come on, say it with me now, kids: “Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories? Used?…
By Owen Good -
Debit Your Way to that Next EA Sports Purchase
EA Sports and VISA have teamed up to put out a reloadable debit card whose purchases rack up “rewards points” redeemable toward video game purchases. Wait, what if you use it to buy an EA Sports game? The prepaid card, announced Wednesday, “is a perfect marriage of encouraging responsible spending while providing a unique reward…
By Owen Good -
Mega Man Done Deathmatch Style
A modder has put “Doom and Mega Man into a blender” to “spew out a fun new way to blast your buddies online.” Mega Man: 8-Bit Deathmatch seeks to recreate the original game’s levels and weapons in a 3D environment. The mod’s levels employ 8-bit textures and sprites. “Mega Man will jump high and take…
By Owen Good -
The Saboteur is “Feckin’ Hard”
The Saboteur might be in France, but its maximum-strength difficulty is all Irish, reflecting the nationality of its protagonist. Although – help me out here, United Kingdomians, I thought “fookin'” would be the onomatopoeic for the Emerald Isle’s f-word adjectival. Anyway, you can see that the bastard-ass difficulty is “feckin’ hard” according to that screenshot.…
By Owen Good -
Detroit Shopper Gets Cray-Cray When He Can’t Return a Console
The ancient Chinese curse reads, “May you live in interesting times.” So when a GameStopper says “It was an interesting day here,” you know he’s not talking about big sales. Four cops in a Detroit suburb overpowered a 43-year-old man who tried to return an Xbox without a receipt and, once rebuffed, got so PO’d…
By Owen Good -
Medal of Honor Soldier Evokes Real Afghanistan Warrior
As many have noticed, the title man for the newly announced Medal of Honor is reminiscent of another Afghanistan fighter, the amply bearded “Cowboy” photographed by LIFE in 2002. Chris Plante at UGO noticed the similarities and I have to say, he’s not off by much. Facial hair – especially to that depth – is…
By Owen Good -
Conan O’Brien Leaks Tiger Woods PGA Update
Tiger Woods status as EA Sports’ top golf pitchman is probably safe. In fact, his “personal failings’ might be grist for a new direction in his namesake video game, as Conan O’Brien (or his writers) shows. You have to go through about a minute of this video to get to the germane portion. In all,…
By Owen Good -
Exploiting MW2’s ‘Javelin Glitch’ Will Get You Banned, Says XBL
While Infinity Ward works up a fix for the infamous suicide-bombing “javelin glitch” in Modern Warfare 2, Xbox Live’s chief lawman vows that anyone caught doing it in his jurisdiction can expect a daylong banhammer, minimum. Said Stephen Toulouse (Stepto) over Twitter earlier today: While IW works on getting the MW2 glitch fixed, people we…
By Owen Good -
Scandal or No, EA Sports Stands by Its Man
This is hardly a shock – if Gatorade, Nike and Gillette aren’t running from Tiger Woods, in light of his philandering, why would EA Sports? The publisher released a statement standing by the namesake of its golf franchise. Says EA: Our strong relationship with Tiger for more than a decade remains unchanged. We respect Tiger’s…
By Owen Good
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