Greetings Kotaku-eers, and welcome to a mid-week open thread. I hope you have had a good week, and are not too stressed about upcoming holiday travel. Just remember: they’re only in-laws. They can’t legally kill you. Here are some conversation-starters and other random bits and bobs from the internet: An excellent ’80’s Dating Montage –…
Sucker Punch made a very interesting, very good choice in choosing to set their follow up to inFamous in a fictional recreation of post-disaster New Orleans. The first game had a lot going for it—I’ve always thought it was underrated—but, its setting was not one of them. Our own Evan Narcisse has described inFamous as…
First we have Wired magazine’s Geek Dad mock-fretting that the wonderful time-sink of Skyrim may be hurting the productivity of the American worker and therefore may drag the nation’s economy down. Today, we have Matthew Yglesias, smart writer at Slate providing slightly more serious analysis about what Skyrim‘s impact on the economy might be. Good…
For most people, high school sucked. The endless questioning and self-doubt, the lack of control over your own schedule, dealing with the impossible mysteries of the opposite sex while navigating the often treacherous shoals of what amounted to a four year, walled-in social experiment. Yeah, high school sucked. It’s that very suckage that makes high…
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 • Tuesday Dec. 20 release Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC) for $59.95 is rumored to come with $15 gaming coupon in Kmart stores for…
Gawker’s House of Pancakes | I took Monday and Tuesday off. When I returned to the office today I discovered a large-ish metal box crouching on a counter in the Gawker communal kitchen. Push a button and the square hunk of tech plops out pancakes on demand. Great idea, but wouldn’t it be better if…
This week on the PlayStation store, the pickings are slimmer for new games than they’ve been, but there is still some fun stuff to be found. Alice: Madness Returns arrives as a downloadable game, with a full-game trial for PlayStation Plus users. Rocksmith owners will have a chance to download some killer Megadeth tracks, which…
There’s finally some downloadable content out for Assassin’s Creed Revelations, but you should keep your $4. Why? Stephen Totilo, who wrote a glowing review for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations: I’m including a video in this Gut Check in order to show you the coolest thing about the Ancestors Character Pack. If you look at it closely…
This replica N7 pistol from upcoming Bioware game Mass Effect 3 was created for the Child’s Play Charity auction by reader Bill Doran. Doran, who makes custom weapon props and customs, says he based the replica on a single reference image he found and then worked with the M5 Phalanx as a jumping off point.…
People who I’ve spoken to at Rockstar Games have hinted to me that the multiplayer mode in Max Payne 3 is going to be something special. According to IGN impressions of the March 2012 game’s competitive multiplayer, these people hinted the truth. The point of reference IGN uses for Max Payne 3‘s multiplayer is Call…
You’ll never look at video games’ interstellar soldiers the same way again after watching this production by the MAKE design studio. The creators there made the clip pro bono—generating work which looks like it took weeks, if not months, to finish—to drum up support for the Child’s Play charity started eight years ago by Mike…
Don Coyner, who has been leading the design experience group for Xbox since the console’s launch, has been replaced at Microsoft, Cnet reports. Coyner, who has been working with the Xbox since the console’s inception, was replaced by Emma Williams, according to Cnet sources. Williams was in charge of the redesign of the Live interface…
Games like Battlefield and Call of Duty are worst when they are played by casual fans, people who may enjoy the occasional match but who don’t take the time to daily hone their skills. I fit neatly into that category. Despite being a big fan of military shooters, I’m not very good at them. But…
You think you’ve built yourself a burly PC that can withstand the intensive demands of today’s most impressive games. But how sure are you? 3DMark can help you find out. Long the gold standard of PC benchmarking tools, 3D Mark’s latest version charts performance along multiple vectors and can be customized for specific uses. It’s…
Comic books still exist. And there are new ones today. You can buy them in shops. You can download them digitally (legally!). Just don’t buy bad ones. Please allow me and Evan Narcisse to make a few suggestions… Comics You Should Consider Buying (from comics shops) Avengers X-Sanction #1 I’ve enjoyed the writing of Jeph…
Hey! Listen! Kotaku Game Club is discussing the second quarter of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword tomorrow! You should come too! We’ll be here at 4pm Eastern.
A missile “threads the needle” in Modern Warfare 3 in this amazing clip by YouTube user KingGreqo If you’re ever wondering why you’re getting killed so much playing MW3, it’s because you’re playing against people who can do this. Threading the Needle [YouTube]
Joe Danger Special Edition was released on Xbox Live this week. It’s the PS3 game, but with an extra career mode added on to apparently double the content in the stunt-bike game. Joe Danger SE is mostly an enhanced version of its predecessor, but don’t let dissuade you from giving this over the top motocross…
I have a friend, whose name is Mark Sorrell, who yesterday posted this column. It’s probably worth going and reading that first, or none of the rest of this will make sense. That column triggered a bunch of discussion, part of which was a reddit thread, and part of that thread was this comment from…
I’ve shown you how the upcoming PS3 motion magic title handles and now these new screens let you peer into the underworld you’ll be adventuring through. As previously mentioned, the prestidigitation magic title will be available next spring.
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