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Chinese Online Gamers Must Now Give Real Names
Two paragraphs is all the China Daily puts to this topic, so I can’t give much context here. But the Chinese government will start “real-name registration” for online game players this year. The item, in the China Daily, also notes that four online game companies had their operations suspended because they did not have “the…
By Owen Good -
EA Sports Offering Immortality to Pryzbylewskis of the World
If you’ve tried to live vicariously through NCAA Football as a big man on campus, but have such a F-ed up last name the announcers only referred to you by number, now’s your chance. EA Sports is asking you to submit your last name and its phonetic pronunciation for inclusion in NCAA Football 2010. Log…
By Owen Good -
Nirvana Bassist Vexed by Own Song on Rock Band
“I knew the bass line to the song, of course, but I couldn’t quite master this new, different way of playing it,” writes Krist Novoselic, bassist for Nirvana, of his encounter with Rock Band 2. Novoselic wrote about confronting a song he’d played hundreds of time – in studio, live, you name it – on…
By Owen Good -
U. of Wisconsin Bulldozes Its Last Arcade
The idea that the University of Wisconsin-Madison is razing its second arcade in as many years isn’t surprising — for-profit arcades are suffering terribly. But demolishing an eight lane bowling alley? In Wisconsin? Jeepers. Wisconsin’s Union South, the campus student union for the past 38 years, is being cleared off to make way for a…
By Owen Good -
Wii Helping Snowbound Schools Make P.E. Fun
Anyone who’s ever lived in upstate New York can imagine the difficulty gym teachers face in winter, when kids simply can’t go outside. Many schools, however, are using the Wii to get kids some exercise. A story in the Post-Star of Glens Falls, N.Y. reports about the mushrooming uses of video games in local schools…
By Owen Good -
“Mortal Kombat Killer” Gets 36 Years
Lamar Roberts, a teenager convicted of beating to death a seven-year-old, will be an old man when he gets out of prison. The so-called “Mortal Kombat Killer” received a 36-year sentence yesterday. The 2007 beating death of Zoe Garcia, 7, was described by prosecutors and law enforcement in Greeley, Colo. as a reenactment of fight…
By Owen Good -
Microsoft Retires Gamerscore Blog
Gamerscore Blog, an important part of Microsoft’s Xbox community outreach for several years, is being retired. Microsoft will now focus that effort through Xbox.com and the Xbox dashboard. In the final post, published yesterday at 5 p.m., Gamerscore said that internal housekeeping had organized community outreach into several channels, making Gamerscore a little redundant, making…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku Originals: Obi-Wat?
Flipping Obi-Wan from good to bad? Is this pro rasslin’? Apparently Free Radical’s decided to turn eternal Force face Ben Kenobi to heel. I’d rather see a bunkhouse stampede with Zuckuss, Porkins, and a Dianoga. The retcon or newcon or noncon or whatever it was that eagle-eyed Crecente spotted in the leaked Battlefront III footage…
By Owen Good -
[Updated] COD5 Beta Invites are Fake, Says Infinity Ward
Interesting tweet went out from Infinity Ward — if you get a beta invite from [email protected], delete it. It’s B.S. Not sure if it’s phishing, but the studio says it is not legit. [Update] Robert Bowling has a post about the fakery. Says it’s an exact copy of the beta invite he sent for Call…
By Owen Good -
Nice Underpants
To: Luke From: Owen Re: Rockier Trail Deductive reasoning reveals a number of disturbing things about this pic (it’s not mine. Found it rooting around teh interwebs today). For starters, you have two dudes creating a Mii with their droodies down about the ankles. Next, Mr. Dark Socks is showcasing panties, and worse, they look…
By Owen Good -
The Week in Games: Mirror Sledge
Mirror’s Edge for the PC arrives this week, and one wonders if the vision behind its gameplay will be more easily realized with keyboard and mouse. Lord of the Rings: Conquest joins it in a Tuesday release on four platforms. The rest of the lineup seems rather thin. The count: Five titles for the Wii,…
By Owen Good -
Looking at “The MMO Crash of 2008”
Hellforge posits that 2008 was the worst year on record for MMOs. But the “collapse” had nothing to do with the genre’s viability, and everything to do with hubris and poor decisions by game-makers. The wreckage includes three titles whose names are either punchlines by now or dangerously close: Hellgate: London, Age of Conan, and…
By Owen Good -
Rumor: Bioshock OTW for Mac
Oh yeah, there was another big tech expo this past week: Macworld. And the magazine is reporting Bioshock will be out for the Mac in the first half of 2009. At online retailer Feral Interactive’s booth, exhibitors wore shirts with Bioshock’s Big Daddy on the back. Writer Chris Holt checked with Feral reps, who confirmed…
By Owen Good -
Great Dane Gaming Mobilizes SWAT Team
We’ve heard of this in the States before, but if you game super loud in Denmark, especially in shooters with loud bang-bang noises, someone might sic a police strike force on you too. Working off a Google translation of this news story, it appears the po-po in the Land o’ Legos rolled up with machine…
By Owen Good -
Super Stage Production of Super Mario
Japanese variety show Kinchan no Kasoh Taisho pulls off what’s probably the best live-action literal interpretation of Super Mario Brothers I’ve ever seen. Readers FarmboyInJapan and Zuri F. sent this along overnight. I’ve already watched it about five times. This is a huge, complicated production, as you can see by all the people dressed in…
By Owen Good -
Following the Game Industry via Twitter
If you’re on Twitter and have nothing useful to say or, worse, have no friends, here’s a listing of dozens of accounts used by the game industry — some official, others personal accounts. The list runs the gamut of industry presences, from large publishers and well-known studios to indie firms and community managers. The maintainer…
By Owen Good -
Miyamoto-Autographed Pure White DS for $5.50
Well, that’s its price on eBay as of now. Better believe the reserve’s nowhere near met for this sucker. The seller got Nintendo’s cult figure to sign it at E3 2005. You might remember the Shigeru Miyamoto-scrawled GameBoy Advance that went for more than two grand back in 2007. With nine days left on the…
By Owen Good -
Eidos CFO Says Lara Croft Overhaul in the Works
Sacking 30 from the studio responsible for a disappointing Tomb Raider: Underworld apparently is not enough; Eidos’ Robert Brent says a complete remake of the Lara Croft character is necessary. In The Times of London, Brent is quoted as modeling the Croft overhaul after the one the cinematic Batman went through – from yet another…
By Owen Good -
Ratings: ESRB on Punch-Out, BBFC on Chinatown Wars
The British Board of Film Classification have given Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, an 18-rating. No surprise there, but the classification also mentions that there’s 168 minutes of cutscenes in the game. More than two hours of cinematics gives Chinatown Wars some heft and strengthens the perception this is going to be a very serious…
By Owen Good -
A Teacher’s Take on Nintendo’s “Kind Code”
This week Nintendo’s in-game hint system patent came to light, and gamers and developers alike had their reactions. Here’s one from a teacher, who examines what “Kind Code” offers as a teaching tool. “Kind Code,” to bring everyone else up to speed, would ride shotgun in a game experience and, when activated, would animate the…
By Owen Good
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