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The Moneysaver: The Savings at the End of the Universe
There may be 10 shopping days left until Christmas, but there are only SEVEN left for the rest of all eternity! So get out there and save, save, save with a variety of combos, and discount specials before the Mayan apocalypse wipes us out. Actually, that raises a good question: If there was no tomorrow,…
By Owen Good -
Drudge Report: Connecticut Killer “Obviously Not Well,” “Suffered From Personality Disorder,” “Played Video Games …“
Now that we’ve got the right name of the killer in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre yesterday, the media profiles are starting to emerge. To the Drudge Report, playing video games is a remarkable enough thing that it bears mentioning in a headline. An italicized headline. Oh, it’s factual enough, but that typeface and…
By Owen Good -
Backhanded Box Quotes: ‘Very Very Videogame.’
Welcome back to “Backhanded Box Quotes,” a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic. Far Cry 3 is pulling down a Metacritic 90. The Walking Dead just re-released for retail and was the Video Game Awards’ game of the year. Clearly, video gaming has saved its best for last. So have…
By Owen Good -
Sports Cover Voting Craze Gets Really Out of Hand, Goes Up to 126 Candidates
In 2010, Madden NFL 11 put its cover up to a popularity contest, giving fans three candidates for the honor of regressing to the mean in the coming season. Begun, the cover vote craze had. Two years later, the escalation in cover contests has reached five-blade razor proportions. Madden went from 32 to 64 nominees…
By Owen Good -
The Year in Arrows Starts Right Now!
On Feb. 12, 2012, Kotaku introduced “The Kotaku Network,” which brings you the best that TV has to offer: regularly scheduled programming. We hatched segments like Off-Kilter, Melodic, Sportaku, and Panel Discussion, and dedicated blocks of time on the site to their topics. But soon into this idea, a problem emerged: How do we let…
By Owen Good -
Petition to Build the Death Star Gathers Enough Signatures to Rate a Response from the White House
A petition calling on the United States to begin construction of a moon-sized superweapon has achieved 25,000 signatures, which according to the rules of the Obama administration’s feel-good bullshit platform “We the People,” requires a response from the White House. None has yet been made. You might recall all those articles of secession a bunch…
By Owen Good -
Beginner Mode: A Tutorial for MLB The Show’s Non-Tutorial
So, it’s not exactly a tutorial. I got that impression about the new “Beginner Mode” of MLB 13 The Show in a talk with one of the game’s producers last week. But having gone four innings with it myself already, I can see that label no longer applies. Honestly, I’m not sure what label applies…
By Owen Good -
You’ll Have a Large Farva and a Liter o’ Fun with Smash Cops Heat
At first I didn’t really get how to drive in Smash Cops Heat. Then Fahey showed me. The gist of it is, you have the authority to drive really stupid. Once you realize that prerogative, the game reveals itself as a chortle-inducing demolition derby going lights-and-sirens through every fire hydrant and phone booth in town.…
By Owen Good -
Judgment Delivers the Multiplayer Feature Gears of War Fans Demanded
Beast Mode vs. Horde Mode. Gears of War fans started batting around that concept even before Gears of War 3 introduced Beast Mode two years ago. Hell, some folks thought that’s what they were getting in Gears of War 3 “Everyone kept saying, ‘Wow, why can’t we do both of those?'” said Chris Wynn, the…
By Owen Good -
It Doesn’t Look Like It, but I Think This Ridiculous Red Bull Ice Skating Game is Getting Me In Shape
Wednesday morning last week I woke up feeling like I had been dragged behind that truck from Raiders of the Lost Ark. It felt like I had actually, like, worked out, which is stupid. I let my month-to-month gym membership expire once review season began. Then I remembered: I played that goddamn Red Bull ice…
By Owen Good -
No Longer a Rookie, Bryce Harper Wants to Welcome You to The Show
He was the first teenager to make an All-Star Team in nearly 30 years and the first ever to do it as a position player. His team made the postseason, and he was the National League’s rookie of the year. Bryce Harper had a pleasant introduction to The Show this year. Sony hopes you’ll have…
By Owen Good -
Changing Its Testimony, Gears of War: Judgment Remains True to Its Story
I’m no lawyer, but I’ve watched enough TV to think I know how to coach a witness. Mostly, shut up. Answer the question and don’t say any more than you have to. Don’t volunteer anything. It’ll only make things harder for you later. Cpl. Damon Baird—pardon me, Lt. Damon Baird—never learned that lesson. That forms…
By Owen Good -
BioShock Infinite‘s Box Art is for ‘Frat Guys’ or ‘People who Aren’t Informed’
I’ll be straight up, and praise Ken Levine—the auteur of Irrational Games—for being honest, at the same time I jape at his justification for the generic bro-shooter motif of BioShock Infinite‘s chin-down-eyes-up cover. Bottom line, says Levine, this cover ain’t for us. ‘Us’ being those who put more care into buying a video game than…
By Owen Good -
A Game Every Year, but Never a Game of the Year
The Video Game Awards celebrated 10 years of giving out hardware on Friday. Bet you didn’t know, or at least you forgot, who was the first winner of its Game of the Year award. Madden Specifically, Madden NFL 2004—yes, the one with Michael Vick on the cover. It was a different time, for sure, but…
By Owen Good -
Culture
The Week in Games: Hibernation Begins
Fresh off its big evening in Los Angeles on Friday, The Walking Dead gets a retail release on Tuesday. It’s joined by free-to-play indie mecha title Hawken, downloadable content for Dishonored, and not much else as the games publishing business takes its customary extended holiday. Tuesday • The Walking Dead (PS3, 360) • 007 Legends…
By Owen Good
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