Reporter: Activision Blacklisted Us Because I Refused to Pull Call of Duty Sequel Story [UPDATE]

Yesterday, reports that a sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops would hit this year circulated all over the internet, sourced to a product page that went live on Amazon. Gameblog.fr reported on this apparent slip-up, as did other French websites, but they refused to pull the story when asked by Call of Duty publisher…

This Week in the Business: ‘Xbox Live is Going to Lose Out’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Xbox Live is going to lose out.”—Tim Schafer, CEO of Double Fine, talking about what Microsoft should do to stem the migration of developers away from Xbox Live QUOTE | “You belong in a subset of human beings in a circle…

First Mojam Game Gets a Name: Catacomb Snatch [UPDATE]

Mojang, the makers of Minecraft, invited over some friends this weekend to build video games from scratch and raise a ton of cash for charity. Mojang, Oxeye Game Studios and Wolfire Games have already raised more than $200,000. But don’t forget, you can play the end product of their build-a-thon, when it ends in about…

Let’s Punch Up Some Deals

A $20 discount on Skyrim‘s collectors edition joins modest savings and bonus credits on Tuesday’s new releases to highlight our latest edition of The Moneysaver. We’ve got more than 50 deals, values and savings in hardware, software and digital downloads inside! Software • Feb. 21 release Asura’s Wrath (360, PS3) is $56.99, free shipping from…

Half-Life 2‘s Most Magical Moment

Well, if we’re going to be doing more recent games for Total Recall, we’d better talk about Half-Life 2 sooner rather than later. As is true for so many people, HL2 is one of my favorite games of all time, an evergreen gem that I replay about once a year. It’s hard to put my…

Grim Death Never Looked So Lovely

Over at the International House of Mojo, they’ve put together a terrific retrospective on the equally terrific adventure game Grim Fandango. It’s a fun, comprehensive retrospective, but what really grabbed me was the illustration that Colin Panetta did for it, of a skeleton that’s recently been “planted.” Death-by-flowers has long been one of my favorite…

My Addiction to the Original Saints Row

Programming note: Check the arrow for more on “Recent Recall.” These days, Saints Row is very much a household name in gaming. It’s a critically successful franchise, a game that has become notorious through its marketing and gimmickry, but also by being a whole lot of fun. The Saints Row concept really came into its…

Total Recall Starts Here

Welcome to the Friday Night Total Recall, a night that hasn’t traditionally had Total Recall. We’re gonna have a slight twist, though—I’m gonna be rocking the posts tonight, and rather than try to keep up with history master Plunkett, I’m going to do something that’s a bit more “Recent Recall,” writing about games from the…

It’s a Snap!

Hello, Kotaku, and welcome to the week-ending Open Thread. It’s been a fun week here, and we hope you’ve liked all the new kinds of stuff we’ve been running. I’ve got some fun posts coming up in the new Friday night version of “Total Recall,” which will focus on more recent games that are still…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

As Kotaku’s weekend editor, my problem is the fact Friday is my hump day. Now, I know it’s a lot of other folks’ hump day too, but for different purposes. But when I talk about what I’ll be playing this weekend, bear in mind this is like what you would be playing on your Thursday…

The Best Use of the Vita’s Rear Touch Panel So Far

One of the best uses of the PS Vita’s rear touch panel comes from the FIFA folks at EA Sports, who realized that the back of the Vita and the back of the goal aren’t that different after all. I’ve purchased two different versions of FIFA 12 in an attempt to learn a sports game…

This Week in Evil DLC

Downloadable content. Everyone hates it—but everyone buys it. Here’s a look at the latest package of extensions and pre-order bonuses designed to crowbar the last dollar out of your wallet. Can you still respect yourself if you buy it? Final Fantasy XIII-2: “Sazh: Heads or Tails?” Available:Feb. 28. Price: $5 for an extra episode, $3…

Someone’s Making a Twisted Metal Flick and I Can’t Wait for the Reviews

Let me put this delicately. I don’t want to see a Twisted Metal movie. But I do want to see a Twisted Metal movie get made. I want to see what happens when the whole thing gets trashed in a review. If it’s anything like what happened with the game’s review this week, it’ll be…

Questionable Words With Friends

I sometimes play Words With Friends, and I play it the way I play Scrabble: using words that a) I know and that b) I’m sure are words normal people would use. I don’t use wacky words (which isn’t to say any word I don’t know is “wacky”—in some cases I’m the ignorant problem). But…

Why Skyrim and Arkham City Don’t Have Multiplayer

Who needs multiplayer video games? Skyrim was a single-player hit. So too was last year’s Batman game, Arkham City (unless you’re counting the online leaderboards for its multiplayer challenge modes). In an age when so many games get tacked-on multiplayer to fill out a list of back-of-box bullet points, how did these two games not…

A Different Interpretation on the Chell/GLaDOS Relationship

Internet Harmony | Reddit user GryphElyse drew Chell and GLaDOS in adorable kitten form. (Photo: Imgur) Why People Give a Shit About a 1988 PC Role-Playing Game Brian Fargo, whose credits include Bard’s Tale and the original Fallout, wants to make a new Wasteland game. This is a very good idea. It’s also a very…

What MLB The Show’s “Diamond Dynasty” Is, and Why It Isn’t Another Ultimate Team [UPDATE with images]

Cards, collections, virtual currency— when “Diamond Dynasty” appeared in a retail listing as a new mode for MLB 12 The Show, everyone thought they knew what it was: A feature that would borrow heavily from EA Sports’ “Ultimate Team,” which has been a cash cow for its FIFA, NHL and Madden franchises. It would seem…

MLB 12 The Show Diamond Dynasty Images

Jeremy Lin Gets Another Ratings Boost in Time for the Weekend

News and notes from around the world of sports video gaming: • As promised, 2K Sports rolled a second roster update early this morning to give New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin another nudge in his overall ratings. Lin, who has come from the end of the bench to lead New York to seven straight…

Biff Tannen Predicts This Weekend’s Biggest Sports Matchups

Hey, are you a sports fan on the go? Who has time these days to watch the big game, or bother with messy DVR, or boring highlight shows? With Biff Tannen’s Sports Almanac, we’ll give you the weekend’s biggest matchups before they happen, thanks to these highly accurate peer-reviewed scientific simulations of sports video gaming’s…