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For Men Who Play as Women, Tiger Woods Will Present a Difficult Choice
For several years now, golf fans have been able to create a female professional and play the men’s PGA Tour with her. The creation of an LPGA Tour mode in this year’s game is another step forward. It’s the tour’s first appearance ever in a console video game, and the first time gamers may play…
By Owen Good -
Michigan Declared the Winner as NCAA Football 14‘s Election Crisis is Resolved
My fellow Americans, our long—and I do mean long—nightmare has passed, and we have peacefully chosen a new cover star for NCAA Football 14, restoring faith in our great democracy and the rule of law. Following a 77-day fan-voted election that actually saw the investigation of voting fraud, Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson has been declared…
By Owen Good -
Microtransactions for ‘Customization Items’ Come to Black Ops 2 on Xbox 360
Beginning Wednesday, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will begin offering “personal customizations” on the Xbox 360, the game’s community manager said this morning. The items don’t affect gameplay—they’re items like weapon skins, targeting reticles, and player calling cards. Moreover, the multiplayer map Nuketown 2025, originally a preorder incentive back in November, will be made…
By Owen Good -
49ers Strike Gold in Madden NFL 25‘s All-Star Cover Contest
Three San Francisco 49ers, including Hall-of-Fame teammates Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, are No. 1 seeds in the third edition of Madden NFL‘s tournament style cover vote. Current Niner quarterback Colin Kaepernick is the other top seed, as this year’s vote will celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary by pitting 32 current stars against 32 all-time…
By Owen Good -
Borderlands, Assassin’s Creed and Tons More Coming to Minecraft‘s Next Xbox 360 Skin Pack
Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition is pouring on the fan service with this week’s release of Skin Pack 4—providing delightfully low-res interpretations of Claptrap from Borderlands, Klei’s Mark of the Ninja and The Behemoth’s Castle Crashers, plus a whole lot more. Images of all 28 skins can be seen at this link. Here’s what you’ll get…
By Owen Good -
The Boy Scouts Add ‘Games Design’ to Their Merit Badge Program
Two years ago, the Cub Scouts offered their version of a merit badge for video gaming. This week, the Boy Scouts of America added the 131st merit badge to its active list: Games Design. The BSA’s program doesn’t mean just video games design either, though that is a part of it. (And, this post by…
By Owen Good -
The NMA Video About the SimCity Launch Disaster Goes from Funny to Cringeworthy in 39 Seconds
NMA, the wacko Taiwanese animation studio, has become a kind of grim reaper in the world of Internet scandal. If you end up in an NMA video, it ain’t good—although I am sure Francis, the YouTube comedian who rants about video games, is happy to cameo here on behalf of the outraged. That said, NMA…
By Owen Good -
Modders Keep MVP Baseball 2005 Alive With the World Baseball Classic
There is no game-action simulation of baseball on the PC this year, whatsoever. Management sims like Out of the Park Baseball or Sega’s MLB Manager are your only current options in a role that MLB 2K had filled—but the rush job it put in on MLB 2K13 left out that platform. At any rate, no…
By Owen Good -
Someone Put an Assassin’s Creed Screengrab In a TV Report on Syria
Ah, the dangers of Google image search. On Feb. 26, Denmark’s TV2 needed an over-the-shoulder shot for a report on the conflict in Syria, and some production assistant gave the control room a screengrab from the original Assassin’s Creed (which features Damascus prominently) Apparently it’s this one, from the game’s unofficial wiki site. That’s supposed…
By Owen Good -
The Best at Tecmo Super Bowl Settle a Claim Made by Everyone
MADISON, Wis.—Most of us are realistic about our shot. We are going to get our asses kicked, and then go to the bar. But we’re in March, we’re in a tournament, we’re all sports fans and if anybody in the 224-man field of Tecmo Madison, the largest Tecmo Super Bowl event in the nation, didn’t…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The Emperor Has No Pants
Though SimCity says it’s adding servers and stabilizing the situation, the game’s launch week will forever be remembered as a disasterbacle. That makes the image above of comedian Adam DeVine—a frame from this video advertisement—rather appropriate. The game was completely pantsed by its always-on DRM, and while I know a lot of you are upset…
By Owen Good -
Cool Dad Hacks Donkey Kong So His Daughter Can Play It as Pauline
This is pretty sweet. Mike Mika’s daughter is three years old, and the two of them play a lot of video games together. “She’s played as Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2 and naturally just assumed she could do the same in Donkey Kong,” he wrote. When it bummed her out to learn she couldn’t…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Sunday Comics: The Pursuit of Perfection
Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published March 6. Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published March 4. Read more of…
By Owen Good -
SimCity Boss on Game’s Failure: ‘This is on Maxis. We Own It.’
After fielding some 1900 questions in a 45-minute Twitter Q&A, Maxis, the maker of SimCity, directly answered about eight regarding the game, which has been inaccessible to many since it released on Tuesday. “This is on Maxis,” said Lucy Bradshaw, the studio’s boss, in response to a customer’s allegation that publisher Electronic Arts required SimCity…
By Owen Good -
Someone, Quick, Send UN Election Monitors to Observe the NCAA Football Cover Voting
I’ve already had my say on the cynical, abusive b.s.. of running a Twitter or Facebook campaign to get folks to vote on a cover or a character or to pretend to give them some kind of influence over a video game publishing decision. In a nutshell, it’s garbage, and its true purpose is to…
By Owen Good
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