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I Had to See This, and Now You Do Too
And then Luke got eaten by spiders. That’s the town of Wagga Wagga, where recent floods have made millions of arachnids that would otherwise remain safely hidden underneath your bed or in your shoes take to the skies in a majestic display of oh god, I am going to throw up in fear. Luke is…
By Mike Fahey Published March 7, 2012 -
UncategorizedThe PlayStation Vita Somehow Makes Augmented Reality Look Amazing
This is augmented reality, but not as you know it. Usually, AR in video games is a tedious gimmick, reliant on either incredibly simple, overlaid images or specially-made cards being placed in specially-designated positions. But Sony’s PlayStation Vita can now do proper, three-dimensional AR all on its own. No tricks, no cards. All it needs…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 7, 2012 -
UncategorizedAfter Five Crummy Games, Marvel Wants No More of Sega
“No current plans” is politespeak for “this ballgame is over.” And that was the reply given by Marvel’s senior executive responsible for video games production, when asked what the future holds for the publishing label and Sega. “There are no current plans for additional Marvel games to be published by Sega,” T.Q. Jefferson told The…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2012 -
UncategorizedFez Creator Says Comics and Games Can Expand Your Brains
“Hi, I’m Phil Fish and I’m here to talk about Japanese games.” Referencing the controversy over his recent remarks, the Fez designer’s opening line during the Indie Soapbox got big laughs. But, his remarks at the GDC 2012 session actually dealt with comic books, a medium that originated in America, and the conceptual connection between…
By Evan Narcisse Published March 7, 2012 - Uncategorized
Nearly 6 Million Years of World of Warcraft Healthy for Players’ Brains
A number of recent research studies conducted on games and gamers have found a generally positive trend in the effect that gaming has on players’ brains, the Wall Street Journal reports. Not only is World of Warcraft good for senior citizens brain function, it’s good for a lot of other groups as well. Some of…
By Kate Cox Published March 7, 2012 -
UncategorizedHow Do You Make a Super Mario Game At a Time of National Tragedy?
Most of Koichi Hayashida’s talk at the Game Developers Conference today about making the most recent Super Mario game for Nintendo was silly. Some of it was even a joke. Until he got to the earthquake. March 11, 2011. Japan’s worst natural disaster in ages. He was in the fifth floor of a building in…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 7, 2012 -
UncategorizedYou Lived to See the Day When the Cubs Finally Win the World Series
I was on a six-hour flight back from Washington last week and struck up a conversation with my seatmate, a woman who was, literally, a brain surgeon from Arizona. She asked what I do, and I told her, and she asked me what value sports video games provide that playing an actual sport does not.…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2012 - Uncategorized
Who’ll Win the First Round of Madden‘s Cover Contest (I Think)
EA Sports yesterday completed its announcement of the field of 64 candidates for the cover of Madden NFL 13, and opened voting today in its joint promotion with ESPN. Having tried to predict the entire field before it was announced (I went 38 for 62), I’m now going pick who wins the play-in round. How…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2012 -
UncategorizedWe’ve Played Mario Tennis 3DS… Poorly
Here’s a hands-on look at Mario Tennis Open, a goofy upcoming sports game that will be out this May for Nintendo 3DS. And by “hands-on look,” I mean Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo demonstrating a serious lack of ability to play video games. As you can see, Mario destroyed him. Totilo wants me to note that…
By Jason Schreier Published March 7, 2012 - Uncategorized
The New Face of Browser-Based Gaming, Courtesy of Unreal Engine 3
Epic Games likes to show off at the Game Developers Conference. They just did. They wanted to show how their Unreal Engine running in Flash. In a web browser. So they showed us Epic Citadel the tech demo used to show off Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 on the iPhone and iPad. It looked great. And…
By Mike Fahey Published March 7, 2012 -
UncategorizedHeavy Rain Maker Shows off Incredible Demo of Kara
Developer David Cage, of Quantic Dream, has just unveiled a demo of their new motion capture tech at this year’s Game Developer Conference, called “Kara.” “Kara” is not a new game, but is more akin to The Casting video that Quantic Dream released several years ago, prior to Heavy Rain. The demo features a scanned…
By Kate Cox Published March 7, 2012 - Uncategorized
Gabe Newell is the (854th) Richest Man on the Planet
Gabe Newell is now the 854th richest person on the planet, reports business website Forbes today. This is Forbes’ 25th annual list of the world’s richest billionaires—a list which cumulates to a record $4.6 trillion amongst its members. Newell’s $1.5 billion net worth places him amongst the 1,225 other billionaires. He joins 128 new list…
By Tina Amini Published March 7, 2012 - Uncategorized
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Dev: ‘We Should’ve Put More Effort’ Into Boss Fights
Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a very good game. But it had one big problem: those frustrating, out-of-place boss battles. At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Eidos Montreal’s senior game designer Francois Lapikas addressed the boss battles once and for all: The team didn’t put enough thought into them, he said, and weren’t…
By Kirk Hamilton Published March 7, 2012 - Uncategorized
Prototype Motion-Sensing Interface Makes You the Screen
Many of the advances in game-related tech we’ve seen in the past few years have come in the area of control. Touch screens and motion control have become the order of the day on our handheld devices as well as on our home consoles. A researcher at Carnegie Mellon University has designed a prototype system,…
By Kate Cox Published March 7, 2012 - Uncategorized
Tera Revolutionizes MMO Combat, But Is That Enough?
My newly-created Priest character descended towards the mystical island upon his majestic flying steed amidst a squadron of legendary heroes. They spoke of the adventures to come, but I wasn’t paying attention; I was focused on the glaring texture seam in the sky behind them. Here were these gorgeous characters flying atop magical beasts —…
By Mike Fahey Published March 7, 2012
