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America Gets Its 3DS Fire Emblem in 2013
The next game in Nintendo’s long-running turn-based strategy series Fire Emblem will be out next year in America, according to last night’s big Nintendo Direct online newscast. The game was released this year in Japan. The 2013 release date may explain why Nintendo didn’t bother to even confirm it was coming to America before we…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 22, 2012 -
If You Must Buy a First-Person Shooter on PS3, How About This Weird Painting One?
-Yawn- Great. The Unfinished Swan. Just another first-person painting game… that’s all we’ve got here. The story of this game? You’re a young boy who is chasing a swan into an unfinished painting. Yes. They’re really doing that again. Try something new, will you, Unfinished Swan developers? Don’t tell me… the boy is bald and…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 21, 2012 -
Microsoft Doesn’t Want You to Read That ‘Leaked’ Xbox 720 Document, According to Takedown Notices
On Saturday, a 56-page document that may or may not have been a real 2012 Microsoft plan for their next-gen Xbox. Hoax? Real? It appeared on the document-hosting service Scribd, which was served with a takedown notice that same day by a law firm that has done work for Microsoft. Today brings reports via The…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 21, 2012 -
The Best Games You Should Play, on Any Platform… Updated!
We’ve updated our lists of the best games you can play on just about any machine that plays games. These are our our top picks for everything from Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to Nintendo 3DS and Android. You can see all the updates at their respective categories, all listed below. We’ve made the most…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 21, 2012 -
New Nintendo Webcast Tonight Will be Company’s First Hype-Fest Since 15 Days Ago
It’s been too long since Nintendo addressed its fans, but the company is breaking its two-week info drought with a new Nintendo Direct webcast focusing on Wii, DS and 3DS, tonight at midnight Eastern here. We’ll cover the top news.
By Stephen Totilo Published June 21, 2012 -
A Terrific Riff On Magic: The Gathering, Starring Video Gaming’s Real Heroes
The Kotaku guest appearance on one of Giant Bomb’s marathon E3 podcasts a couple of weeks ago appears to have wrought two things: The world’s best Hawkman-inspired Kotaku -esque site A very cool prototype for a video game industry version of Magic: The Gathering, featuring some of the coolest (mostly)-creative people in gaming. The first…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 20, 2012 -
Ascend: New Gods Has a Case of The Demon’s Souls. This is a Good Thing.
It usually takes a couple of years for good ideas from one game to seep into another. It appears that late 2009’s Demon’s Souls has spilled some into Ascend: New Gods, one of the wilder games I saw at E3 earlier this month. Demon’s Souls popularized—or re-popularized—a style of single-player gaming that is perpetually affected…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 20, 2012 -
E3’s Cutest Booth Babe?
I was going through the final unused pieces of my E3 reporting and realized I never posted this video. It’s nothing big, but it was one of my favorite sights at E3. Just a person in a giant LittleBigPlanet Sackboy costume. Later, I happened to walk by a rest area outside the PlayStation area. Sackboy’s…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 20, 2012 -
The Strange, Scary, Fascinating, Exciting Future of Video Games, According to A Giant
You are, presumably, a person who plays video games and probably not a rich executive. Maybe you own an Xbox 360 or play games on your iPhone or maybe both. You have some favorite video games. And there are some series and some types of games that you hate. Maybe you keep up with gaming…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 20, 2012 -
2012 Saint’s Row Expansion Cancelled, Shifted into 2013 Saint’s Row 4
We are no longer getting a standalone $30 expansion to the insane open-world crime game Saint’s Row: The Third this year, as publisher THQ, emboldened by a change in leadership has nixed the project in order to expand it into a full-sized new Saint’s Row next year. Here’s new THQ president Jason Rubin on what…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 20, 2012 -
‘When we are on our deathbeds, will we regret the hours we spent playing games?’
The usually-optimistic game designer Jane McGonigal has been thinking about whether those of us who love to play video games will regret it in the end. She keeps meeting people who think gamers will. She keeps meeting people who doubt any of us will wish we played more games. So…the question she’s been asked: “When…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 19, 2012 -
Mike Tyson Will be in the Next WWE Wrestling Game
Former heavyweight champion, Hangover co-star Mike Tyson will be in the WWE ’13 video game, his first official wrestling video game appearance, if not his first gaming appearance. (He’s been in a batch of boxing games). He’ll be playable as a wrestler in WWE ’13, but only if you pre-order the game or presumably purchase…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 19, 2012 -
Need for Speed: Most Wanted Is Basically Burnout: Paradise 2, Thank Goodness
One of my happiest discoveries at E3 a couple of weeks ago was that this fall’s strangely-named Need For Speed: Most Wanted could and maybe should be called Burnout Paradise 2 This fall’s racing game comes from Criterion, the EA-owned studio that made the Burnouts, including the magnificent, open-world Paradise, before apparently getting the assignment…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 19, 2012 -
Zynga’s Next Arcade Game is a Riff on Bejeweled‘s Brilliant Diamond Mine
When I’m not playing Drop7 on my subway rides through New York City, I am trying to burrow ever deeper into my second-favorite iPhone game, Bejeweled—specifically that game’s Diamond Mine mode which challenges me to match gems in order to dig ever deeper down into the dirt at the bottom of my screen, as I…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 19, 2012 -
Ask a Video Game Developer Anything … Call for Questions
You may have heard about the game journalist who wanted to be a game developer, but have you seen this Jeremiah Slaczka guy we’ve got writing for us each month? He may be the CEO and creative director of 5TH Cell (Scribblenauts, Hybrid, Run Roo Run), but I think he might want to be a…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 18, 2012 -
8 More Things Worth Knowing About Assassin’s Creed III
The first time I saw Assassin’s Creed III I spotted 50 interesting things in the game. I’ve seen it a couple more times recently and have learned a few more things. It helps to have the people who are leading the game nearby to point some of them out. We’re going to be able to…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 18, 2012 -
One Shot, One Kill, No Skill: Why a Regular Gamer Started Paying to Cheat at Video Games
The tale of how one man from Canada became the kind of person who pays a monthly fee to cheat at video games is like many stories about good people who slide toward the more nefarious extremes of life. There was hurt. There was frustration. And then there was the temptation to step inside from…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 18, 2012 -
A Father’s Day Bike Race in NYC, from the Makers of Grand Theft Auto
The folks at Rockstar Games are bicycle-crazy, as Brooklynites who sees people decked in Rockstar jerseys zipping by can attest. This Sunday, Rockstar sponsors their annual Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic. Details to watch in person or online at Rockstar’s site
By Stephen Totilo Published June 15, 2012 -
Can Americans Not Handle The Sight of Their Ancestors Being Killed in Assassin’s Creed?
From the very first day I saw the new Assassin’s Creed, the top creative people involved with the game assured me that their game, set during the American Revolution, was not a rah-rah, jingoistic USA #1 kind of video game. “[People were worried] that it’s going to be rah-rah-Team America and flag-waving,” the game’s creative…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 15, 2012 -
America Will Get Its Gold PS3 Controllers Through GameStop
It looks like the Metallic Gold PlayStation 3 DualShock 3 controller that is slated for release in Europe this month as a tie-in to the Olympics will be sold in America through GameStop this October. $55. Product listing here
By Stephen Totilo Published June 15, 2012
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