Owen Good

The Original Doom 3 is Back on Steam

The release of Doom 3: BFG saw the disappearance of the original Doom 3 from Steam, notable for two reasons: 1) the game was rather cheap and 2) there were a bunch of mods for it. People were rightly pissed, Bethesda Softworks offered a hurried non-answer, and the whole thing looked like a cynical sales-protection…

ChrisWarcraft’s Weekly NFL Quest, Level Nine: Take the Lions’ Share of Silver

Football is a role-playing game. That’s how Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings punter and noted World of Warcraft and RPG fan, is approaching it. Each week in the NFL, ChrisWarcraft characterizes his upcoming game in terms of an MMO quest. We’re going to chart his progress and see how fast he levels up. After opening…

Whatever Happens Now, Johnny Football is a Video Game Legend

By all rights, Johnny Manziel should have engraved his name on the Heisman Trophy yesterday. He quarterbacks one of college football’s most archetypal brands, the Texas A&M Aggies, and has had an outstanding season running the nation’s most demanding gantlet, the Southeastern Conference. On Saturday he and A&M deposed Alabama, the No. 1 team and…

Warcraft-Playing Ph.D Candidate has Some Questions for You About Gaming Addiction

An East Carolina University doctoral student studying MMOs and video game addiction is looking for survey participants to help in a key component of his dissertation. Notably, the researcher conducting the survey is himself a World of Warcraft player. That would be Andrew Byrne, whom Joystiq’s WoW Insider noted is a shadow priest within the…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Icing on the Chief

Alright, we are back in business with the Kotaku ‘Shop Contest, and as I previewed last week, it brings an exploitable that should right the ship. Master Chief carving up his own head, even if it is a cake representation, is about a 9 of 10 on the shops-itself scale. Some of you may already…

The Angry Video Game Nerd’s Feature Film has an Official Trailer

The scourge of terrible retro games over the past six years, James Rolfe—the Angry Video Game Nerd—has been working on a feature-length film for some time; he announced plans for it back in 2010 and last year cut back production of the Angry Video Game Nerd series to focus on it. Yesterday, he uploaded the…

Sunday Comics: Assassin’s Critters

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. ActionTrip by Borislav Grabovic and Ure Paul published Nov. 5.—Read more of ActionTrip Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Nov. 5.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!!…

Final Fantasy XIV Ends with Cinematic Bangs and Server Whimpers

Here’s the end of Final Fantasy XIV, Square-Enix’s MMO getting a reboot in the form of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Fittingly for a flawed endeavor—one Square-Enix officially apologized for—the last day didn’t go so well for some users. A glut of traffic is to be expected whenever you’re bringing down an MMO—who doesn’t…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Hipster Sixty-Four, the Post-Sandy Winners

These entries are two weeks old and the challenge is probably long gone from memory, but in light of Urban Outfitters selling Nintendo 64 controllers, we asked the ‘Shop corps to come up with their interpretation of the Nintendo 64 Christmas kids as hipsters. These are the entries we got before the power went out…

THQ’s bad week is worse than we knew. The company is in default on a $50 million credit arrangement with Wells Fargo

Battle.Net Hack Results in, Yep, a Class-Action Lawsuit Against Blizzard

A law firm specializing in consumer protection cases slapped Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo III, with a class action lawsuit over its sale of two-factor account authenticators, a claim the company says is without merit. Yes, you can get a completely free Battle.Net account authenticator through the use of a…

Black Ops II is British bookies’ favorite for holiday best-seller, followed by FIFA 13 and Medal of Honor

CBS Sports Remaps College Football’s Buttons With Its Own Controller

Say this for CBS, in extending the “video game sport” cliché to different levels of illustration, they managed to come up with a twin-analog controller whose D-pad looks even worse, if possible, than the Xbox 360’s. This lighthearted segment featuring Texas A&M do-it-all quarterback Johnny Manziel came from today’s game between the Aggies and Alabama,…

Violent Games Blamed as Russia Grapples With Mass Shooting

Described as “Russia’s Breivik”—a reference to Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian mass shooter who killed 77 in 2011—Dmitry Vinogradov already is being linked in Russian press to the bête noire of violent video games, Manhunt, as authorities probe a workplace shooting that left six dead in Moscow. Vinogradov’s shooting spree is said to have been…

Buy Stuff on Black Friday, Get New Super Mario Bros. U for Free, Sort Of

Technically, it’s not “free,” as you must spend $40 at clothing chain Old Navy. The retailer is also only giving out limited quantities of the game. Still, if your plans—or the plans of someone you know—include shopping here, it may pay for you to get there early. Nintendo World News, citing the chain’s Black Friday…

Watch This Guy Make the Cleanest Getaway Ever in Grand Theft Auto

This is like some kind of stunt porn from The Fast and the Furious, but it’s still impressive to watch a guy get past a cop car and a SWAT roadblock, on a bridge entrance, without a scratch. I might get the alignment checked after a drive like this, but damn. Fine work. Somewhere an…

See the Making of Black Ops II Tomorrow—if You Have DirecTV

DirecTV will airing a making-of documentary on Call of Duty: Black Ops II Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, the day the game releases in the U.S. If you don’t have the satellite service, this two-minute teaser video will have to suffice. A news release said the show would feature “exclusive footage” from the game plus commentary…

The Moneysaver: Eternal Vigilance for the Price of Duty

Our deals partners are on overwatch for offers on Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and so far have found no discounts, but a NewEgg coupon code will get you Hitman: Absolution for $12 off the cover price. It’s out in two weeks. Halo 4 sees a cash discount from one retailer, and bonuses from…

Grand Theft Auto‘s Writer Talks Women, Writing—and Creative Larceny

Dan Houser, the 39-year-old chief writer of Rockstar Games and a co-founder of the studio that’s delivered the Grand Theft Auto series, admitted to some screen-looking in an interview this weekend with The New York Times: “Anyone who makes 3D games who says they’ve not borrowed something from Mario or Zelda is lying,” he said.…

Duke’s Basketball Opener Features Some Spartan Ops, Too

Duke University’s student body is often stereotyped as carpet-bagging one-percent Yankees, and it’s true that is a powerful constituency at that university. But take it from me, most of the kids I’ve encountered at Cameron Indoor Stadium are harmless math camp counselors, like our geeky friend here who attended the season tipoff in this royal…