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  Now These Here Are Some Rockin’ Mass Effect Leggings

  Chicagoan Alexandra Threw has posted the above Mass Effect-inspired N7 Leggings to Etsy, where you can buy a pair for $75. As video-game themed leggings go, these are pretty damned cool. I wonder if Threw could get an endorsement from the Commander. “I’m Commander Shepard, and these are my favorite leggings on Etsy. Wait, what’s…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 4, 2012
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  Homophobes Slam EA With Thousands of Letters Over Same-Sex Romance

  The past year has seen a great deal of discussion about the existence of same-sex romance options in EA and BioWare’s Mass Effect franchise and their MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic One recent, particularly irrational anti-gay “family values” campaign has kicked off a wave of thousands of letters to EA disapproving of the addition…

  By Kate Cox Published April 4, 2012
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  Stealthy Divorcés and Killer Astronaut Bears: Some Peter Molydeux Game Highlights

  Since writing it up on Monday, many more games have been added to the full list of playable prototypes from the goofy, high-energy Peter Molydeux game jam. I haven’t had time to play even a fraction of the nearly 300 game prototypes available for download, but I have had a chance to play some of…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 4, 2012
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  Machinarium Follow-Up Botanicula Gets Release Date, Looks Adorable

  Man, I want to play Botanicula. Amanita Design won me over forever with their splendid adventure game Machinarium, and I’ve been looking forward to its follow-up Botanicula ever since I first heard about it. Today, Amanita announced that Botanicula will be released for Windows, Mac and Linux on April 19th. No word on an iOS…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 4, 2012
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  Midweek Moneysaver: Xeno-philia

  This Wednesday edition of Kotaku’s The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can’t wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon. Software • Friday April 6 release Xenoblades Chronicles (Wii) is up for pre-order on GameStop.com at $49.99 plus shipping. No discounts yet but nice to finally…

  dealzon Published April 4, 2012
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  GameStop Begins Buying and Selling Used Skylanders Toys

  GameStop might not accept your band game instruments as trade anymore, but the company does have its eye on another sort of colorful plastic toys. Gaming website Pixelitis recently received information about a Skylanders trade-in program being tested at several U.S. GameStop locations. Having spent the months following Christmas 2011 fielding calls from desperate children…

  By Mike Fahey Published April 4, 2012
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  Deus Ex Arrives on Mac Later This Month

  On April 26, Square Enix will release Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Ultimate Edition on the Mac, which packs the original game, its DLC, an art book and making-of documentary all in the one box.

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 4, 2012
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  The Spooky-Smart Platformer Closure Is All About Shadowplay

  Lots of indie platformers these days are basically Mario with a twist. The quality of the game, then, relies hugely on that twist. Braid was an incredible game because the time-manipulating twist so fundamentally changed the template set forward by Super Mario Bros. that it became its own whole thing. Closure is a new downloadable…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 4, 2012
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  USC’s Song Girls Finally Immortalized in a Video Game

  News and notes from around the world of sports video gaming: Do little jugs get your attention? No? Well, how about the Song Girls of USC, or the Texas Pom Squad. Or a guy from Michigan staring up the crotch of Paul Bunyan. Trophies and university-specific cheerleaders are part of the coat of polish the…

  By Owen Good Published April 4, 2012
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  Retired Pro Football Players Get the Go-Ahead to Blitz EA for Using Likenesses in Madden NFL

  Like a quarterback scrambling in the pocket, Electronic Arts has been dodging court cases related to its sports titles left and right. In recent years, the litigation’s been initiated by athletes—both college and professional—that would have the publisher dole out a cut of profits for using their likenesses. The latest one could potentially involve thousands…

  By Evan Narcisse Published April 4, 2012
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  Reviews

  Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13: The Kotaku Review

  Last year’s sports video game of the year, the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series this year faces what NBA 2K12 did in October—a nearly impossible encore. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 at last delivered The Masters, reviving a series that had plateaued and giving longtime golf fans moments and memories that were legitimately emotional. How…

  By Owen Good Published April 4, 2012
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  Sportaku Starts Now

  From the Worldwide Leader in Sports … Video Games, your 6 p.m. Sportaku begins now.

  By Owen Good Published April 4, 2012
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  Sonic‘s Co-Creator Joins Nintendo

  Well this is a line-crossing worth taking note of. Gamasutra reports that Hirokazu Yasuhara, co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, has taken a job at Nintendo. Because it’s never the wrong time for a Ghostbusters quote: Dogs and cats! Living together! Mass hysteria! Yasuhara has joined Nintendo’s Software Technology devision, an American-based second-party developer that has…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 4, 2012
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  A Simple and Slimy Definition of Gamer Pain

  Every now and then Speak Up on Kotaku eschews the long-winded for the shorter, sweeter things in life, like commenter Paradox Me‘s single sentence ode to the ones that get away. Nothing is more painful than watching a Metal Slime get away. 🙁 About Speak Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say,…

  Speak Up Published April 4, 2012
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  Kingdoms of Amalur‘s “Teeth of Naros” DLC Will Add Bite to the Game

  EA and 38 Studios just keep making the already-sizeable Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning bigger. On the heels of last month’s massive pirate-themed DLC, EA has announced the next bout of content for the game, a forbidding area called the “Teeth of Naros.” The “Teeth of Naros” is named for a troll god, we are told,…

  By Kate Cox Published April 4, 2012
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  Attention PAX East Attendees, We’re Hosting a Crazy Panel on Friday

  On Friday, April 6, you can take over Kotaku for one hour…. if you attend our PAX East panel! Our panel will run from 2:30-3:30pm on-site at the Arachnid Theater, and it just might destroy our site’s sterling reputation. Hooray! We’re calling it: “Take Over Kotaku (For One Hour)” Have you dreamed of filing a…

  By Stephen Totilo Published April 4, 2012
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  Report Claims That These Are the Next PlayStation’s Processing Specs

  Following up on news broken by Kotaku on Sony’s next PlayStation, IGN is reporting that the console codenamed Orbis will use two AMD chips for graphics and processing. Citing unnamed sources, the article says that the Orbis might be sporting AMD’s A8-3850 APU and Radeon HD 7670 GPU. The 7670 is an update of the…

  By Evan Narcisse Published April 4, 2012
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  Did These Horrible Deeds Clinch EA’s Spot as America’s Worst Company?

  Game publisher Electronic Arts took home the grand prize in The Consumerist’s Worst Company in America contest, and they don’t seem pleased about it But do they deserve the gold star? How do they stack up next to the other finalists? Let’s go through the four companies that made it to the Final Four and…

  By Jason Schreier Published April 4, 2012
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  The Ancient Mayans Foresaw the Coming of this Devastating Case Mod

  Dan McGrath’s stunning Thermaltake Level 10 GT mod might be called the AzTtec, but the inspiration is all Mayan. Looking every bit as if it were carved out of ancient stone from some scenic Central American temple, the material covering Thermaltake’s Level 10 GT case is actually a material called Balsa Foam, which when carved…

  By Mike Fahey Published April 4, 2012
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  I Didn’t Know What to Expect from the Wonderfully Random Really Big Sky

  Why would I feature a game that came out last year in our relatively new weekly PC Indie Spotlight feature? I simply couldn’t resist the sweet allure of a procedurally generated twin-stick shooter that never played the same way twice. And I missed Luke’s post last year and didn’t notice Really Big Sky until it…

  By Mike Fahey Published April 4, 2012