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  Mass Effect 3 Won’t Be All Shooting Giant Robots in the Face

  That quote, dropped by Mass Effect 3 lead writer Mac Walters in the most recent BioWare Pulse developer diary, shows that he is at least very serious about talking about making Commander Shepard show some real emotion this time around. As I fretted in my “5 Reasons I’m Nervous about Mass Effect 3,” every time…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published January 12, 2012
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  Charting the Cultural Ascent of the Word ‘Gamer’

  Most folks don’t really much like the term “Gamer.” It has a lot of cultural baggage, and is even a little bit like “Hipster” in some ways. We all like games these days, don’t we? So what is a “Gamer” anymore, anyway? Over at his blog The Ludologist, video game researcher (and author of A…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published January 12, 2012
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  The Crew of the Normandy Gets Cuter

  My what small legs you have, Samara | A detail from a charming collection of drawings of the Normandy crew by inker/illustrator/horror-expert Stacie Ponder Why Most Of Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s Hi-Res Graphics Disappeared at Launch During the beta test for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic players with high-end PCs enjoyed stunning high…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published January 12, 2012
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  This 8-Bit Atari Homage Takes the ‘Cake’

  If you can steel yourself for a post-modern jumble of space exploration and robotic sing-song, Upside Down Cake’s “Star Strike” offers a neat walk through Atari antiquity. Some of these games certainly deserve the homage. Fun facts about a few of these games: Space Invaders caused an actual coin shortage in Japan, Berzerk was the…

  By Pierre Bienaimé Published January 12, 2012
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  Armored Core V Gets a Release Date

  From Software’s upcoming Mech-buster Armored Core V has a release date—it’ll be landing in stores on March 20th for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Apparently, it’s not really the fifth title in the series, it’s the fourteenth. Fancy that. Check out a trailer for the game here

  By Kirk Hamilton Published January 12, 2012
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  The U.S. Army Pulls the Trigger on Realistic Video Game Controllers

  It’s not news that you can get a plastic gun to play a video game where you get to shoot other human beings. It is news that you can get gun controllers that exist with the blessing of the U.S. Army. Today, we learned that accessories maker CTA Digital will rolling out officially licensed U.S.…

  By Evan Narcisse Published January 12, 2012
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  This is What EA’s Up To (On the Day Zynga Hired One of Their Top Guys)

  The FarmVille people at Zynga just hired Barry Cottle—former executive vice president of EA Interactive—to be their executive vice president of business and corporate development… … which you can re-read as: “EA and Zynga are going toe-to-toe in the world of Facebook games, downloadable games, iOS games and more” … … which you can re-re-read…

  By Stephen Totilo Published January 12, 2012
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  CD Projekt Retires its Witcher 2 Piracy Witch-Hunt

  Today, the folks at CD Projekt RED have ceased their ongoing practice of tracking down people they believe have pirated The Witcher 2 and threatening them with legal action. This aggressive approach came under fire from fans and the media, specifically from Rock Paper Shotgun, whose John Walker published an open exchange with CD Projekt…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published January 12, 2012
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  In Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon Multiplayer Modes It’s You Versus Them Versus the Other Ones

  In the second multiplayer trailer for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City to drop this week Capcom details the various multiplayer modes that will see your team versus their team versus hordes of biological weapons of your ass destruction. Looks like there’s a nice selection of online multiplayer mayhem coming March 20 from Capcom and developer…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 12, 2012
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  2K Sports Opens Doors on MLB 2K12 Million-Dollar Challenge

  2K Sports is offering a cool million to the winner of a public, 8-person Major League Baseball 2K12 tournament… this April. From the MLB’s Opening Day on April 4th (definitely learned something just now) to the end of that cheerfully prank-filled month, athletes (read: gamers) will be clawing their way to the top of the…

  By Pierre Bienaimé Published January 12, 2012
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  It’s Time to Review Our Portal 2 Testing with the Kotaku Game Club

  Welcome back everyone! Today is our first Kotaku Game Club meeting of 2012, and the opening discussion of our series on Kotaku Game of the Year Portal 2 Since this month’s game was released last May, we’ve changed the traditional Game Club formula a little bit. Instead of basing discussions around chronological portions of the…

  By Mike Epstein Published January 12, 2012
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  Here’s What You Get For Pre-Ordering Ninja Gaiden 3

  Details about Ninja Gaiden 3‘s Collector’s Edition came through a whole back but Tecmo’s finally seen fit to show everyone what it looks like. As mentioned before, you’ll get a two-figure Duel of the Masked set and a downloadable demo from Dead or Alive 5, the upcoming entry in Tecmo’s fighting game series. There’s a…

  By Evan Narcisse Published January 12, 2012
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  This Touch My Katamari Trailer Needs 500% More Crazy To Be Really Katamari

  It’s been a rocky ride for Namco’s Katamari games ever since Keita Takahashi left the Japanese publisher. The odd, left-field whimsy that the game designer imbued 2004’s Katamari Damacy with dwindled with each sequel. Still, Stephen Totilo’s last look at Touch My Katamari made me wonder if Namco might be finding their way back to…

  By Evan Narcisse Published January 12, 2012
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  Indie Favorite RadianGames Launches Four New Games All At Once, All For You

  After crafting some of the best games in the Xbox Live Indie Games program and branching out to both iPhone and PC/Mac development, RadianGames is ready to take the PC indie gaming scene by storm with the launch of not one but four brand new titles. Did I mention RadianGames is just one guy? Luke…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 12, 2012
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  Shhh! It’s Unit 13’s Stealth Gameplay on PlayStation Vita, Okay?

  Our previous glimpses at Zipper Interactive’s Handheld social shooter focused on Unit 13‘s firefights and social network elements. But a new demo video from the CES floor focuses on the sneakier side of thing in by highlighting the military action title’s Covert missions. The actual gameplay starts at about 2:26. You’ll be able to creep…

  By Evan Narcisse Published January 12, 2012
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  Check Out Hi-Res Screens and Video From The Old Republic‘s Rise of the Rakghouls Update

  Detailed last week and set to release next week, Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s first major update, Rise of the Rakghouls, looks pretty spectacular. It’s a pity it won’t look this good to players. Ah, Rakghouls, the zombies of the Star Wars universe. Folks getting attacked, getting infected, and turning into mindless (for the most…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 12, 2012
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  Goths Don’t Cry In This Villain-Centric Lollipop Chainsaw Trailer

  In the high-school food chain, it always seemed like nerds or stoners would be the natural enemies to cheerleaders, not goths. Suda51 seems to think otherwise, judging by the trailer for the developer’s upcoming Warner Bros.-published action game. This guy Swan looks disturbingly like the Billy puppet from the SAW movies. Knowing the horror-centric film…

  By Evan Narcisse Published January 12, 2012
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  It’s Pinball Day on the Nintendo Download

  This week’s Nintendo Download celebrates the silver ball with not one but two games to satiate gamers’ cravings for hitting metal spheres with paddles. First up we have 101 Pinball World, a quick and dirty little game that features 101 bite-sized pinball tables across four different worlds. It sounds like it’s perfect for a quick…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 12, 2012
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  Why Most Of Star Wars: The Old Republic‘s Hi-Res Graphics Disappeared at Launch

  During the beta test for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic players with high-end PCs enjoyed stunning high resolution graphics. Now that the game has launched those sexy textures have mostly disappeared. What gives? Take a look at the image I’ve posted here. On the left is my Bounty Hunter as he appears in cut…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 12, 2012
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  Introducing Kotaku Core, For Readers Who Only Want to Know About Video Games

  Year after year, we at Kotaku have done our best to tell you what’s going on in the world of video games. And we’ve heard your replies: “You guys are the best!” “You’re my favorite video game site” “Your color scheme is weird.” “Hey, was that really video game news you just wrote there? It…

  By Stephen Totilo Published January 12, 2012