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Court Rejects Claim that ‘San Andreas’ Hero was Based on Cypress Hill Backup Dancer
Unless he wants to try his luck before the U.S. Supreme Court, a backup dancer for Cypress Hill [not pictured, above] won’t be getting $250 million-or any money-from the makers of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A California appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling against the dancer’s claim that the character of Carl “C.J.”…
By Owen Good -
GameStop’s Former PR Chief Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Almost $2 Million [UPDATE]
Chris Olivera, formerly the vice president of corporate communications for GameStop, pleaded guilty on Thursday to an embezzlement scheme that netted him $1.9 million over the course of two years. Olivera, according to his guilty plea, set up a fake PR agency (“Cloud Communications”) in Nevada, with a nonexistent person (“Jennifer Miller”) as its boss,…
By Owen Good -
A Game So Frustrating I Can’t Stop Playing It
When I was 16, in an effort to improve my feeble hitting, I sawed off a broomstick, taped both ends with grip, and would spend hours in the back yard hitting driveway gravel at the galvanized roof of our horse barn. I was quite good at it. Still am. Unfortunately, pitchers my junior year did…
By Owen Good -
The Moneysaver: Aprés le Déluge, le Deals
What are we calling it, is it Hurricane Sandy still? Technically that wasn’t a hurricane when it started smashing into things and bringing down power and flooding out datacenters and spawning the Kotumblr and canceling a marathon. Hurricane Sandy, Superstorm Sandy, whatever, it can’t bring a halt to the engines of video game commerce, and…
By Owen Good -
Cultures Clash in These Assassin’s Creed III Videos
A culture clash theme anchors a couple of viral cosplay videos commissioned by Ubisoft Netherlands, showing Connor Kenway coming to grips with the new world. The first is above, here’s the second. There’s a choose-your-own-adventure outcome at the end, each outcome neither much surprising nor terribly violent. The costume and settings still form a nice…
By Owen Good -
Beat Halo 4 and Take $25 Off Your American Express Bill
Finishing Halo 4 will give you cash back on your credit card. And it’s not like it’s some $1.52 bullshit you get back from Discover either, it’s $25 off (or £25 in the UK) your American Express bill, provided you link the thing through a promo site. Linking your card and collecting the “Wake Up,…
By Owen Good -
Madden NFL Social Makes the Right Call on What Mobile Sports Should Offer
Madden NFL Social launched two weeks ago on Facebook with almost no announcement from EA Sports. They were waiting for today, when the game’s mobile application hit iTunes. Social combines aspects of the player management and collection seen in modes like Ultimate Team and the Facebook game Madden NFL Superstars, with a bite-sized gameplay experience…
By Owen Good -
Midweek Moneysaver: Hell, Yes, We Still Have a Midweek Moneysaver
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night, nor a prolonged datacenter outage, stays the couriers of Dealzon from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Forty-one savings, bargains and deals from the height of the fall release calendar await you below in this week’s Tumblrsaver! Software • Yesterday’s release Assassin’s Creed 3…
By Owen Good -
A Hurricane Warning from 1996, Still Unheeded
“Here. Right here,” he said, almost triumphantly. “He said it would be right fucking here.” I was a reporter for The Daily News of Jacksonville, N.C. He was the science writer for The Charlotte Observer, back when a newspaper that size could staff such a position. It was Sept. 6, 1996, the morning after Hurricane…
By Owen Good -
Epic Kids Are a Paragon of Mass Effect Cosplay
These three kids are Preston Thorne’s, technical support manager for Epic Games, and they showed up at Dad’s office costume party in full Mass Effect regalia. Cliff Bleszinski, formerly of Epic, retweeted this out earlier with a “WOW,” and I concur. The stroller outfitted as the Normandy probably qualifies as a fifth cosplayer, but little…
By Owen Good -
2K Sports Loads the Wrong Roster into NBA 2K13’s Update
After James Harden (pictured via Operation Sports, above) was traded to the Houston Rockets in a weekend blockbuster deal, NBA fans were keen to see how he’d play with his new team in NBA 2K13. Trouble is, this morning’s regular roster update didn’t have Harden on the Rockets. Nor did it look a thing like…
By Owen Good -
Culture
The Week in Games: Assassin Nation
If Hurricane Sandy doesn’t wipe out their releases in the American northeast, Tuesday will see two heavily anticipated arrivals on retail shelves: Assassin’s Creed III and the reboot of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. There’s also Assassin’s Creed: Liberation on the Vita, starring a completely different protagonist. For pro wrestling fans, WWE 13 brings the…
By Owen Good -
XCOM is Secretly One of the Year’s Best Sports Games
He renamed all his teammates for his friends, he put himself on the roster and took all of the best equipment. He rebounded from painful defeats—or, eh, restarted a few here and there—and scored fist-pumping victories in all the others. He felt all the vicarious thrills that every sports video game offers. But when Garth…
By Owen Good -
Stop “Zombie Mouth.” Give Free Plants vs. Zombies to Trick-or-Treaters (Or Yourself)
The maker of Plants vs. Zombies is teaming up with the American Dental Association to offer free copies of the game as Halloween treats, balancing out the usual bagful of teeth-rotting sugar and plastic every kid scarfs down on Nov. 1. This site “StopZombieMouth.com” offers the printable coupons in .pdf form. (Dentists also are giving…
By Owen Good -
Minecraft Dethrones Call of Duty as the Xbox 360’s Most-Played Game
Death, taxes and a shooter atop the chart of Xbox Live’s top activity. Since Major Nelson has publicized the numbers, the most popular game on Xbox Live—this is according to unique users playing the game while logging into the service, not just those playing multiplayer—has always been a shooter. Gears of War. Halo. And, for…
By Owen Good -
Close Out the PlayStation All-Stars Beta With This Guide to the Basics
With two days to go in the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale beta the game’s developer, SuperBot Entertainment, has released this video covering the basics of the game. It’s an attempt to answer a lot of the questions the studio has been fielding since the beta opened Oct. 16, but it also functions as a video…
By Owen Good -
Hurricane Sandy Forces Triforce Johnson Out of the Line for the Wii U
With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on New York City, Isaiah-Triforce Johnson (real name: Isaiah-Triforce Johnson) has been told to vacate his position as first in line to purchase a Wii U at Nintendo World in Manhattan. The console releases in 21 days. Johnson had begun the vigil on Oct. 22. Johnson was told by Rockefeller…
By Owen Good
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