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Japanese Games are Less Popular These Days Because of Changing Tastes In Graphics, Says Nintendo
Increases in the realism of video games are limiting the ability of Japanese games to appeal outside of their home country, according to the president of Nintendo. “Because the expressions in games are becoming more and more photo-realistic, I imagine that the cultural differences in acceptance have started to be reflected more clearly,” Nintendo chief…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 2, 2011 -
Nintendo Concedes the Wii Struggled with Online, Promises to Improve
Last week, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said he regretted going it alone with the Wii, which was an odd regret given the machine’s massive success. Was something lost in translation? Today, we get a look at how Nintendo itself translated Iwata’s remarks. Suddenly the regret is more clear… and more understandable. The specific problem, Iwata…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 2, 2011 -
New Osama Bin Laden Game Tops The Charts
The chart-topping game on popular Flash gaming site Newgrounds this morning was, not surprisingly, a video game involving Osama Bin Laden. The user-submitted game, called Mujahedin (play it here), lets players control a suicide bomber, recruited by the now-deceased founder of terrorist group Al Qaeda to attack a U.S. Army base. The player can “praise…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 2, 2011 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves
Welcome to May and a brand new season of Talk Amongst Yourselves. You can talk about video games all you’d like, but please also admire our new artwork. This month’s painting is Marriage à-la-mode: 2. The Tête à Tête by William Hogarth. Thanks to reader Mythos for the suggestion. Now, as we do every month,…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 2, 2011 -
Captain America Weighs in on Wikileaks
Given that he used to be frozen in ice for a few decades, we should not be surprised that Captain America has been a little slow in addressing the Wikileaks scandal. That silence was cracked in this week’s Secret Avengers issue no. 12.1 (recommended on Kotaku earlier this week). Spoiler: Captain America is not down…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 29, 2011 -
They Make Video Games For Nerds, And They’re Damn Proud Of It
Fredrik Wester can actually name a computer game that was too hardcore, too out there, for his company to publish. That’s a surprise, considering how (putting it kindly) obscure (?)… specific (?) … for-nerds (!) the games that Wester’s Paradox Interactive puts out there. Naval combat simulator set in the Arctic Circle? Too hardcore for…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 29, 2011 -
To-Do In New York: Watch A Portal 2 Writer Play Portal 2
Portal 2 co-writer Erik Wolpaw is coming to New York University next month to present a “brief guided play-through of Portal 2“, according to the event’s organizers at NYU. He’ll also hopefully say smart things. I’d settle for funny things. Or things about Portal 2 DLC. Or… anything. NYU Game Lecture Series – Erik Wolpaw…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 28, 2011 -
To-Do In Early May: Watch Live Zelda Ocarina Concert On My Computer
Heather in St. Louis appears to be obsessed with playing the ocarina. She’s got a hit YouTube channel full of dozens of videos of her playing Zelda songs, along with Donkey Kong songs, Final Fantasy songs, and even a Nelly song. (She manages to have a different ocarina in just about every other one of…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 28, 2011 -
A Colleague Shares the Trauma of the Southern Tornadoes
Tiffany Nevin, news editor at GamingAngels.com (we’ve featured her work before) lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her neighborhood and much of the rest of the American southeast has been mauled by tornadoes, claiming the lives of more than 200 people. Yesterday, another tornado ripped through her neighborhood. She shot this video an hour after it passed.…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 28, 2011 -
Hulu Plus Will Be Free On Xbox 360 For A Week, Thanks To Beef Jerky
The Hulu Plus service launches on the Xbox 360 tomorrow, enabling people to stream episodes and clips of popular TV shows—or at least a subset of the ones that are available through your computer—through an Xbox 360 and onto a TV. Usually, this will cost you both the price of an Xbox Live Gold account…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 28, 2011 -
Infamous is cool, but 900 Issues of Action Comics is Extraordinary
Wednesdays are new comics days at comics shops in North America. Every week, I recommend some of the new comics to get at the shop or on an iPad. This week is huge for Superman and general DC Comics fans, not so huge for fans of video game comics. Comics You Should Consider Buying (from…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 27, 2011 -
It Was a Foggy Night, and I Was Trying To Get to the Bottom of L.A. Noire
The audience laughed loudly once during the first film festival screening I’ve ever seen of a video game. There hadn’t been much comedy and, even more importantly, not much awkwardness. The video game had masqueraded successfully as a movie, drawing its viewers in to its world rather than repelling them for any of the clumsy…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 27, 2011 -
Twitter Cracks Wise About PlayStation Network Hack
Your personal information may have been stolen from your PlayStation 3’s online account by a malicious hacker. Your credit card number may have been compromised, though the people at PlayStation aren’t sure. There is a bright side to this news: now we have more hilarious jokes, specifically about the PSN hack. Take it away, people…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 26, 2011 -
That Crazy New Call of Duty George Romero Zombie Map is Big and Made for Snipers
It’s not enough that you can play as the stars of Machete, The Walking Dead, A Nightmare On Elm Street and Buffy The Vampire Slayer in the new Call of The Dead map going on sale next week for Call of Duty: Black Ops. You’ve got what is said to be one of their biggest…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 26, 2011 -
L.A. Noire Can Be Rockstar’s Easiest Game or One Of Its Toughest (Your Choice)
The next big game from Rockstar Games and Team Bondi will be challenging—or easy—in unusual ways. The game, L.A. Noire, is a detective story, a dialogue-heavy noir adventure punctuated with brief moments of violence. Much of the game involves searching a crime scene for clues, pondering the wounds on dead bodies and scrutinizing suspects’ facial…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 26, 2011 -
How Did the Worst-Sounding Wii Game Become My Most-Anticipated Wii Game?
There are two ways to describe Nintendo’s next Wii game, Wii Play: Motion. Well, three ways, if you include Game I Was Never Going To Touch Based On Its Original Description. For Nintendo, there were two: 1) There was the way the company described June’s Wii Play: Motion on their official product page when the…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 26, 2011 -
Star Fox 64 3DS Remake is ‘Newly-Arranged’ and Motion-Controlled
Star Fox 64 was one of the Nintendo 64’s best video games. It was a fantastic on-rails shooter, it introduced rumble to Nintendo console gaming and it gave the world one of the best pieces of advice ever delivered by software: “Do a barrel roll.” How in the world do the people re-making the game…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 26, 2011 -
Nintendo’s New Console ‘Playable By Everyone’ At E3
Nintendo’s confirmation this morning that they’ll be showing their new console at E3 left many unanswered questions, but also raised a note of skepticism. The company’s statement on the Wii successor promises “a playable model” of the machine at E3 in June. But would Nintendo just play it on stage and leave attendees to gawk?…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 25, 2011 -
Valve ‘Probably’ Done With Single-Player Games
The makers of such acclaimed single-player video games as Portal and Half-Life 2 want all of their future games to support connected, non-solo gaming, in some way, at all levels. That assertion first appeared in the Final Hours of Portal 2, journalist Geoff Keighley’s recent behind-the-scenes chronicle about Valve’s newest game. It’s an assertion he…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 25, 2011 -
Café Amongst Yourselves
Welcome back to Talk Amongst Yourselves, where we talk about video games. We are pleased to announce, by the way, that the next generation of Talk Amongst Yourselves will be playable at E3. It will support inputs of at least eight buttons and present a new paradigm for talking amongst yourselves. Thanks to veteran TAY…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 25, 2011
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