-
The Life. Love. Game Design Challenge to increase awareness of teen dating violence has named its winners. The contest is run by Jennifer Ann’s Group, founded in memory of Jennifer Crecente, the niece of former Kotaku editor-in-chief Brian Crecente. She was murdered by a classmate the day after Valentine’s Day in 2006.
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Grand Theft A-Hole
We had a thin week for timely exploitables, but this piece of art from Grand Theft Auto V caught my eye. It’s like it was made for the ‘Shop Contest, and it’s your challenge this week. The sister is almost totally unobstructed, as is our surly gamer up front, and his head is easily swappable…
By Owen Good -
Bohemia Interactive, makers of ArmA II, has reset all of its user’s passwords in light of a security breach that exposed their login details. Bohemia assures that no credit card information was involved in the breach, and that the passwords themselves were encrypted. Still, users must request a new one here.
By Owen Good -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Critical Miss
Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published July 10. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published July…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Let’s Make a Deal: The Winners
Who knew at the time, really? The business was so new, the fame so fleeting, no one could possible anticipate that Don Mattrick (above, right) would go from teenage video game whiz kid to, someday, the subject of the Kotaku ‘Shop Contest. At last that honor has arrived, courtesy of overall winner arniejolt! To recap,…
By Owen Good -
Street Fighter IV Getting Five More Characters, One Never Seen Before
From EVO 2013 comes news that Street Fighter IV‘s next update will deliver four new characters—and a fifth never before seen in the series. Rolento, Elena, Hugo and Poison will join the roster, plus an unnanounced fifth fighter. The characters, plus six stages and the usual complement of adjustments and balances, will come to PS3,…
By Owen Good -
Sony Won’t Appeal Fine Related to 2011 PSN Hack
Sony has abandoned its appeal of the fine assessed by the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office for negligence in the infamous 2011 breach of users’ information that brought down all of PlayStation Network for more than a month. In January, the ICO assessed Sony a £250,000 penalty which … subtract 32 … multiply by 5 ……
By Owen Good -
What in God’s Name is Tekken Revolution Doing With Its Roster?
Tekken 3, way back in 1997, had plans to include a new animal character in the fighter roster—a salmon. It was quickly judged too ridiculous to justify a $1-per-play cost in an arcade. Well, Tekken Revolution is taking suggestions for new characters, and the fish is one of them. And the others are even weirder.…
By Owen Good -
Sex Bet on Wii Game Ends With Mountie Shooting His Wife
You can’t write headlines much weirder than that, but it is not in dispute that Keith Wiens, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, shot and killed his common-law wife after she demanded that he pay up—in foreplay, evidently—for losing to her in a Wii game. Wiens told a jury in British Columbia that he…
By Owen Good -
Esports
Pro Video Gamers are Athletes, Says U.S. Government
Pro gamers may now travel to the United States on the same visas given to professional athletes, thanks to a long lobbying effort by Riot Games, the makers of the eSports staple League of Legends. Riot told GameSpot about the effort in a video interview published yesterday. “It was a lengthy process,” said Nick Allen,…
By Owen Good -
Blue Ice. The Star. Roenick. NHL ‘94 Lives Again in ‘Anniversary Mode’
Wait, before you ask it, he already knows your first question. “No,” says Sean Ramjagsingh, the producer of NHL 14, “you cannot make Gretzky’s head bleed.” Actually, you never could make anyone’s head bleed in NHL ’94 (That was actually NHLPA ’93 you saw in Swingers). But everyone has conflated the two thanks to Jeremy…
By Owen Good -
High School in NCAA Football 14 is Video Gaming’s Coolest Credit Roll
I had to laugh when, in the high school preamble to NCAA Football 14‘s Road to Glory career mode, I audibled to a draw and watched this skinny white kid slice the defense like Sonic the Hedgehog. “36 YARD TD BY ALEX HOWELL,” said the game. Huh? Alex Howell? He was a walk-on at Auburn.…
By Owen Good -
Xbox Live to Refund UK Users Pinched by Currency Conversion Mistake
Microsoft is saying some pricing changes seen by U.K. Xbox Live customers trying out the new Xbox Live beta—in which Microsoft Points are converted to local currency—are an error, and these users will be compensated for the difference. The pricing changes, as currently implemented to beta users in Great Britain and elsewhere, amounted to an…
By Owen Good -
The Good News is There’s a Rambo Game. It’s the Bad News Too.
The good news is that First Blood gets its due. We knew this when Fahey showed us screens of Hope, Wash. The bad news is that Rambo: The Video Game looks like something for the PlayStation 2. It just looks terrible. Which, of course, means day-one purchase for me. Make no mistake, I’m a big…
By Owen Good -
Online Petition Demands Return of Xbox One DRM
Video game petitions have a very long and mostly pointless history. As I’ve said several times, an Internet petition is worth the paper it is printed on. But I’ll give a little publicity to this thing, because it’s the most ridiculous one I’ve seen yet (that includes this.) Whether the work of PS4 fanboy trolls…
By Owen Good -
Madden‘s $27M Payout Held Up While Someone Appeals the Lawyers’ Fees
It’s your money? You want it now? Tough. Now it could be another year before some $27 million is distributed to gamers from Electronic Arts’ settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought against the exclusive license its Madden NFL series held. Why? Someone’s objecting to the lawyers’ fees. To recap, more than five years ago Electronic…
By Owen Good -
Fan-Favorite NHL Hitz Gets Updated—for GameCube
The dear departed Midway found a good deal of success in the arcade sports model, notably under NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, titles that were bought by EA Sports and re-released over the past three years. NHL Hitz was not picked up—but that doesn’t mean it can’t get an update, too. Modder John Mazzocchi has…
By Owen Good -
Ten Stolen Controllers, Xbox 420, and One Yellow Bicycle
Crime is a constant feature of video games writing. Somewhere, someone is doing something illicit with them—sometimes comically stupid, sometimes tragic. Games and consoles are currency, objects of dispute, sometimes even weapons themselves. Kotaku‘s Police Blotter is here to round up the latest in games crime. The Bicycle Thief VENICE, Fla.—For a month cops pursued…
By Owen Good
Owen Good
Owen Good's posts