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Japanese Developer Codes First Ever Ding-Dong-Ditch Simulator
We called it Ring-And-Run. Other kids called it Ding Dong Ditch. Only when I moved out and lived on my own did I realize how aggravating it is to have some nitwit fifth-grader knock on your door and hide in the bushes when you went to open it. At least they didn’t leave a flaming…
By Owen Good -
Can People Still Get Dead Island In Countries Where It’s Censored? ‘I Hope So,’ Says Developer
Like the original Dead Island, the sequel, Dead Island: Riptide won’t have a German release, because that country is really weird about depictions of killing video game zombies, who technically are not even human and literally are not real. The game’s creative director was asked if he thinks Germans are still getting their hands on…
By Owen Good -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Everything We Offer
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 Nov. 26.—Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Nov. 26.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Bleak Friday: The Winners
Know how I can tell this picture of a father and son buying a Wii U on Black Friday is staged? There are no police barriers in the background. A publicity photo from Nintendo was the grist for last week’s ‘Shop Contest. We’ve got a dozen more interesting takes on this tender moment, plus overall…
By Owen Good -
Here Are the Winners of the 2012 Saxxys for Excellence in Team Fortress 2 Movie-Making
Two weeks ago Valve opened voting on the second annual Saxxy Awards, celebrating cinematography in Team Fortress 2 and the Source Filmmaker tool released earlier in the year. Last night, voting ended, and winners in four categories were crowned. You may see them here in this gallery. The overall winner has not yet been named.…
By Owen Good -
What Kind of Person Plays a Sports Video Game? MIT Has the Answers.
More than a year ago, Abe Stein of the Game Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reached out to me about a survey he was conducting, an examination of sports video gamers. Stein, himself a committed sports gamer, wanted to know who made up this segment of gaming—long viewed as an outlier to the…
By Owen Good -
Yes, BioShock Infinite‘s Cover is Terrible, and Yes, That Actually Matters
2K Games revealed the box art for BioShock Infinite this morning and the verdict on it was swift and disapproving. “You have a game involving floating islands, mechanical creatures of all shapes and sizes, the existance of realityshifting and timebending magic and sky-ziplines,” said Redditor Gregar in a thread almost unanimous in its disappointment. “And…
By Owen Good -
City of Heroes Goes Out With a Roar and a Bang
Last night NCsoft shut down City of Heroes, a landmark game that eight years ago brought the thrills of super powers and comic-book crimefighting to an MMO roleplaying world. City of Heroes had an intensely dedicated community which fought to save the game when news of the closure was announced. When those efforts failed, they…
By Owen Good -
The Moneysaver: Fade From Black
The end of the major publishing calendar comes right after Black Friday, making this one of the quieter times for new releases. Retailers looking to cash in on the holiday sales season continue to offer discounts on some good titles released earlier in the year. Far Cry 3 is the big upcoming release, but savings…
By Owen Good -
True to Its Word, Halo 4‘s Multiplayer Sends Out Its Specialization Codes
Anyone who played multiplayer in Halo 4 before Nov. 20 is now getting access to six class-based specializations previously available only to those who purchased the game’s Limited Edition. Emails with download codes went out Friday evening, according to tipsters. “Specialization Priority Alpha,” is the codename for the DLC package unlocking the modes. You earned…
By Owen Good -
City of Heroes Says Goodbye Forever Tonight
More than eight years old, City of Heroes says goodbye tonight. In five hours—at 3 a.m. EST Saturday—NCsoft will pull the plug on both the superhero MMO and its developer, Paragon Studios If you still have an active account, there will be a final Unity Rally in one hour (11 p.m. U.S. EST) at Atlas…
By Owen Good -
Battlefront III was ’99 Percent’ Done When LucasArts Scrapped It
If you didn’t already hate LucasArts enough for needlessly canceling Star Wars: Battlefront III, wait until you hear this: They shitcanned it when the game was “99 percent finished,” said the co-founder of the defunct studio behind the game. All it needed was “bug fixing,” Steve Ellis told gamesTM magazine. That’s it. Ellis earlier complained…
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Backhanded Box Quotes: ‘I Wish They Would Do a HD Remake of Blood Money‘
Welcome back to “Backhanded Box Quotes,” a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic. Coming to the end of the year’s major release calendar, we still have no shortage of righteous indignation and implacable disappointment in the world of user reviews. Hitman: Absolution Released: Nov. 20. Critic: monkeylion (Metacritic) • “My…
By Owen Good -
There’s No Shame in Imagining Comic-Con as a First-Person Shooter
Plenty of FPS-parody videos have been filmed since, well, close to the beginning of the FPS genre. But my favorite aspect of this one? (Apparently filmed at New York Comic-Con last month.) Once this enters “Deadpool mode,” the shame-o-meter goes to zero. YouTube video uploaded by Lumberjack Films. (h/t Joel M.)
By Owen Good -
Your First Look at the Only Baseball You’re Getting in 2013
The only baseball you’re getting a console, anyway. These are the first screenshots released for MLB 13 The Show, which had competition in name only for about the past five years, as MLB 2K ran a distant second with an expensive license that was exclusive in name only. What does that mean? It means if…
By Owen Good -
Falling Hard—in More Ways than One—for a Quirky Sky Hero
The good news is you never hit the ground in Sky Hero. The bad news is that it’s not the landing that kills you every time, it’s the fall. You’ll still have a fun ride on the way down in Kokonut Studio’s quirky twist on an infinite runner that screams of game-jam origins. That’s my…
By Owen Good -
No, President Obama is Not Plugging NBA 2K13 With His #my2K Campaign
On a long drive back yesterday evening I heard over the radio that President Obama, using the White House bully pulpit in deficit negotiations, had opened a social media campaign designed to pressure Congressional Republicans. If tax cuts set to expire on Jan. 1 do so, middle-class families would take a cash hit of around…
By Owen Good -
This Dud is Still a One-Hit Kill in Black Ops II
This could only come from the great laboratory of death known as free-for-all in a multiplayer shooter. Given enough matches, enough combatants and enough button-spamming, you’ll inevitably discover that a bouncing betty to the face is a one-hit kill Call of Duty: Black Ops II—without detonating. YouTube video uploaded by reader Danny
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