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  PC Game Cancels E3 Appearance as SOPA Protest, Shutting Down Beta for 24 Hours

  You may have noticed a few websites around the place pledge to “shut down” on January 18 in protest against the awful Stop Online Piracy Act. That’s all well and good, but now Red 5 Studios, the developers behind the upcoming Firefall, are doing it as well. Thing is, they’re shutting down their video game.…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 13, 2012
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  Gran Turismo 5 Gets More Cars, New Track

  On January 17, Gran Turismo 5 owners will get two news pieces of DLC to purchase, one of them a pack with six new cars, the other a new test track. The car pack, which costs $6, includes the Lamborghini Aventador, Jaguar XJR-9 LM, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, 1966 Volkswagen 1200, the Mini Cooper S…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 13, 2012
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  Mario, That’s Inappropriate

  There’s a reason Nintendo characters don’t turn up in each other’s games as often as they should. Mario’s a dirty grab-ass. [As seen on somethingsomething]

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 13, 2012
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  Minecraft Updated to v1.1 (Real Sheep! Better Bows!)

  Those of you who still play Minecraft, the game’s been updated to v1.1. What’s new? All kinds of stuff, which may or may not be really important depending on what language you speak and how you feel about sheep. The biggest improvements are probably the extra language support for Europeans, enhanced bows, reduced brewing times…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 13, 2012
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  The Smooth, Sexy Fan Art of Will Murai

  Brazilian artist Will Murai has worked extensively in the video games, comics and advertising industries. But that’s not why we’re here today. We’re talking about Will because of his amazing fan art. Using a style that’s halfway between ‘classic pin-up” and “newspaper caricature”, Murai has paid the ultimate, illustrative homage to some of his favourite…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 12, 2012
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  EA Mentions Second Medal of Honor Game. Again.

  Electronic Arts has yet to officially take the wraps off a second game in its rebooted Medal of Honor series, but that hasn’t stopped the publisher from continually referencing it. Last year, copies of Battlefield 3 included an insert all-but advertising the game. And those who finished Medal of Honor’s singleplayer campaign will know it…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 12, 2012
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  “I’m So Glad I Ate Six Chalupas”

  Welcome, Kotaku clan, to our relaxing Thursday night open thread. We have had a dearth of late-night open threads of late, and I can only blame the holidays for that. Fortunately, we’re back and running. How were your holidays? How has the new year been treating you? Have you finally beaten all of the games…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published January 12, 2012
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  These Might be the Most Sexist Gamers on the Planet

  Get some popcorn and/or a cup of tea. This is some good late night reading. So there’s this online community called the Men Going Their Own Way Forums. Calling themselves “the Internet’s biggest and best Men’s forum”, it’s actually a place where disgruntled, repressed men can go and bitch about women. While their rants on…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 12, 2012
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  This Man Has No Eyes, Yet Can Play World of Warcraft

  Ben Shaw has had one hell of a last few years. Serving overseas, the former British Army soldier was wounded by a roadside explosive in Iraq, and as a result had to have both of his eyes removed. Yet does that stop him playing World of Warcraft? No, it does not. Before the incident, Ben…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 12, 2012
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  Sega Responds to SOPA Question Like a Heartless Robot, Apologises Like Funny Human

  A reader of site HotBloodedGaming decided to email Sega and ask what the company’s stance on the Stop Online Piracy Act was. Sega was nice enough to reply. Well, as nice as an automatic mailing system that’s completely useless is capable of being, anyway. As we’ve shown you, user DanGlozier66’s email was a relatively simple…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 12, 2012
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  Meet Midas: A Clever, Free Game With a Golden Touch

  I was happy to stumble upon the free Kongregate game Midas today. Created by Melbourne-based Kongregate user wanderlands, it’s a simple 2D platform/puzzler based around the story of King Midas. King Midas, as you may remember from Greek myth, was granted the magical ability to turn everything he touched into gold. Of course, he soon…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published January 12, 2012
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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