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It’s Official: Clicking on Cows is a “Thing”
Every day, more evidence that Ian Bogost’s satirical game-turned-real-game-turned-ironic sensation Cow Clicker has become a bona fide sensation. Take the case of the startup “Wander,” which has no real product or service… at all… and yet has registered over 10,000 users. How have they done this? Why, by having their users click a cow, of…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
Swedish School goes 8-Bit
My high school had murals in the cafeteria, all painted by senior art students. And although my senior year, members of my class did get to repaint one (they went with a Calvin & Hobbes panel), the next newest one was a portrait of John Lennon painted the year before most of my graduating class…
By Kate Cox Published February 20, 2012 -
UncategorizedThe Painstaking Process Behind ‘The Best Pinball Video Game Ever Made’
Pinball is storied; pinball is distinctive. Pinball has a fascinating history, pinball has been a part of almost every American’s youth in some capacity or another. It’s a controlled collision of physics and art, all in the service of giving players a kinesthetic experience that’s not quite like anything else. Pinball is… well, it’s pinball…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
New Skyrim App Brings ‘Free-To-Play’ To Cartography
The folks over at Prima Games have released an app for iPhone and iPad that allows you to explore and interact with Skyrim‘s entire map, developer Bethesda said today on its blog. Unlike Dragon Shout, the independently-created Skyrim map released last fall for iOS, this map will not be entirely free. Though you can snag…
By Jason Schreier Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
Respect the Beard
The Bearded Man From City 17 | Valve’s Gabe Newell now looks a good deal more like Half-Life hero Gordon Freeman. Love the knife. (Illustration by G-e-e-r-s/Deviant Art.) Alan Wake’s American Nightmare: The Kotaku Review Going into Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, I’d worried that I hadn’t played the DLC that followed the 2010 game that…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
Was League of Legends’ Newest Champion Inspired by an Employee?
A few days ago a League of Legends champion, named Fiora, got leaked onto a respected League of Legends‘ fansite. Accompanying the flood of information was a picture of Fiora herself who seemed…oddly familiar. On the left of the photo above we can see Fiora, the Grand Duelist, and on the right we have Nika…
By Elyas Gorogo-Baker Published February 20, 2012 -
UncategorizedHow They Came Up With Skyrim‘s ‘Arrow In The Knee’ Line
The big video game joke of 2011—and certainly the most repeated line—came from Skyrim, a game populated by guards who used to be adventurers, just like you, before they “took an arrow in the knee.” Sorry if you thought you were done with that line. Can you tolerate it one more time, just to learn…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
BioWare Writer Describes Her Gaming Tastes; Angry Gamers Call Her a “Cancer”
BioWare writer Jennifer Hepler is trying to delete her Twitter account as of yesterday after feeling the hate of gamers who are angry about what she apparently said in a 2006 interview. She’s been called terrible things on the Internet, after a flame that was lit by a post on Reddit calling Hepler, as the…
By Tina Amini Published February 20, 2012 -
UncategorizedRetro City Rampage Now Coming to Vita, Steam and PS3, Still Looks Rad
I’ve had my eye on Vblank Entertainment’s Retro City Rampage for a good while now—it’s hard not to be interested in a game that merges elements of the original Grand Theft Auto with all manner of other retro games, wrapped up in a vintage style and what sounds like a kickass soundtrack. This new trailer…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
You Know You Play Too Much EverQuest When These Jokes are Still Funny Ten Years Later
These days you can tell you play too much of Sony Online Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game EverQuest by the simple fact that you play it at all. Ten years ago, when hundreds of thousands of people played the game on a regular basis, there were different standards of measurement. Ten years ago we…
By Mike Fahey Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Dorkly Weekly: The Horrible Fate of the Leftover Pokémon
The folks at Dorkly pride themselves on the ability to solve gaming’s great unsolved mysteries. For example, if Ash chooses Charmander and Gary chooses Squirtle, what happens to Bulbasaur? Oh. Oh. That happens to Bulbasaur. I always suspected, but I guess I didn’t really want to know. At least it’s not animal cruelty; Bulbasaur is…
By Mike Fahey Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
Bogus Pokémon Yellow Game Is Now Number Two on the Apple App Store
Early this morning, we wrote about the surprise appearance of a Pokémon game on Apple’s iOS storefront. Y’know, the one that’s apparently a broken scam? Despite that, developer QEAB’s Pokemon Yellow is sitting at #2 on the App Store’s Paid Apps chart, right behind the fully-functional and actually-pretty-good Grand Theft Auto III When downloaded on…
By Evan Narcisse Published February 20, 2012 -
UncategorizedGreat Moments in Gaming Humor: He’s Good in the Dark
Dialog-heavy Japanese role-playing games don’t often make the journey westward with their wit intact. Tri-Ace’s challenging role-playing shooter Resonance of Fate proves itself one of the rare exceptions, nailing both the text and the timing of this hilariously steamy scene. I’d give equal credit to the localization team and the voice actors on this one.…
By Mike Fahey Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Very Last Face I’d Expect to See on an Arcade Stick
I’ve seen many a custom arcade joystick in my days, but none moved me quite as much as the world’s first and only Michael McDonald Arcade Fighting Joystick, now available on eBay. Not possessing a joystick featuring former Doobie Brothers front man and five-time Grammy award-winning singer / songwriter Michael McDonald might be the one…
By Mike Fahey Published February 20, 2012 -
UncategorizedThe Guild Wars 2 Charr Character Intro, Unintentional Commentary Edition
Once I finished recording the voice over character creation video for my Guild Wars 2 beta article that ran this morning, I turned off my microphone to capture the story the game generated based on the decisions I made while building my Charr thief. Or I thought I turned off my microphone. I stopped the…
By Mike Fahey Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
Why I’m Not Okay With Sony Ditching PSP Discs
Last summer, I bought a copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable for the PSP. I’d heard nothing but fantastic things about Atlus’s role-playing game slash high school simulator, and I figured it’d be a good opportunity to bolster my RPG street cred. A few months later, when I finally opened the game, it…
By Jason Schreier Published February 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
Capcom Teases Intra-Company Crossover With Asura vs. Ryu Image
You’ve got to hand it to Capcom: they’re not above crossing the streams to see what happens when their franchise characters meet up with other brawlers. Whether it’s the Marvel vs. Capcom series, X-Men vs. Street Fighter or Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, the powers-that-be at the Oska-based publisher will pit Ryu and crew against anybody if…
By Evan Narcisse Published February 20, 2012 -
ReviewsAlan Wake’s American Nightmare: The Kotaku Review
Going into Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, I’d worried that I hadn’t played the DLC that followed the 2010 game that introduced Remedy’s literary action hero. I loved the long-brewing Xbox 360 exclusive but, after months of never being able to slot in The Signal and The Writer add-ons, I’d decided to skip them after repeatedly…
By Evan Narcisse Published February 20, 2012