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  Sonic CD Comes Early to GameStop Tablet Customers

  The world’s largest dedicated video game retailer recently started selling GameStop-branded Android tablets, and now they’ve got their first exclusive, scoring Sonic CD a full month ahead of its wide release. GameStop’s branded versions of the Acer Iconia, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, and Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets come bundled with gamepad support and a bevy…

  By Mike Fahey Published November 1, 2011
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  These New Max Payne 3 Screens Bring Grit, Bullets and Explosions

  According to the Rockstar official site, these new screens for Max Payne 3 represent new features for the upcoming game. You’ll be able to trigger Bullet Time events via certain parts of the environment and enemies will show individual reactions to being hurt in battle. Natural Motion’s behavior system will create more nuanced movements in…

  By Evan Narcisse Published November 1, 2011
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  Silicon Knights Cuts Half of Staff, Refocuses On “One Of Its Most Requested Titles for the Next Generation”

  Massive layoffs hit Too Human and X-Men: Destiny developer Silicon Knights last week, cutting the Canadian developer nearly in half after an unnamed publisher pulled out on a project the team was working on, the company told Kotaku That unnamed project is still under development, the developer said. “Last week Silicon Knights experienced layoffs due…

  By Brian Crecente Published November 1, 2011
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  Should You Buy GoldenEye 007: Reloaded? Yes.

  They’ve made yet another game called GoldenEye again, which should have the smart shopper wonder what the deal is. Is James Bond’s fourth game called GoldenEye worth getting, let alone worth the name of the first great game to bear that name? Stephen Totilo, who had the Nintendo 64 original just about bolted into his…

  By Stephen Totilo Published November 1, 2011
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  Battlefield 3 Development Started on PC, But Switched to Consoles

  Despite a launch that’s seen 5 million shipped in its first week, Battlefield 3‘s debut has not been without issues. Most of the praise has come for the PC version of the game and the assumption’s been that that where the main development of the military FPS happened, with that code ported over to the…

  By Evan Narcisse Published November 1, 2011
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  Sometimes You Conquer the Road, Sometimes the Road Conquers You

  How do you create a competitive driving game with only one car? Bernhard Handler’s Roadeo offers a simple and elegant solution. Player one drives the car, and player two steers the road. Oh for those heady days of youth, when playing a multiplayer game on a PC meant you either had two joysticks hooked up…

  By Mike Fahey Published November 1, 2011
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  Twin-Stick Space Combat Shooter Fusion: Genesis Hits Next Week for $10

  Space combat, twin-stick shooter Fusion: Genesis hits the Xbox 360 on Nov. 9 for 800 points ($10). You can see the game in action here. The developers will also be releasing Fusion: Sentient for Windows Mobile 7 on the same day for $3. You can contact Brian Crecente, the author of this post, at [email protected].…

  By Brian Crecente Published November 1, 2011
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  Say Hello to Modern Warfare 3’s New Multiplayer Matches and Modes in This New Trailer

  Activision’s 800-lb gorilla FPS franchise gets a lot of its muscle from its multiplayer and this clip shows what’ll be different and new in Modern Warfare 3. New modes—like Kill Confirmed, which tasks players to get dog tags of downed opponents—will show up along with the abilities to tweak and share settings into custom modes.…

  By Evan Narcisse Published November 1, 2011
• Reviews

  Kirby’s Return to Dreamland: The Kotaku Review

  Kirby was always a simple video game character. He was a pleaser. Today, he’s a rebel. In the vintage of his heyday, one that Nintendo has attempted to uncork again with this season’s Wii game, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland, Kirby charmed players by being cute. He was—and is again—a pink blob with puffed cheeks and…

  By Stephen Totilo Published November 1, 2011
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  Jimmy Kimmel Smashes Bandstand As Donkey Kong

  Jimmy Kimmel went full video game for the Halloween airing of Jimmy Kimmel Live. The late night host dressed up as Donkey Kong, at one point tossing a barrel into the bandstand. Other show members dressed up as a variety of video game characters including Frogger, Pac-Man, Pikachu and a ill-formed clutch of Tetris pieces.…

  By Brian Crecente Published November 1, 2011
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  This New Trailer Shows Off Syndicate’s Co-Op Corporate Warfare

  The controversially re-booted Syndicate will be sporting co-op play, shown off in this shiny cyberpunk trailer. We’ve got seeing-through-walls vision power, enemy-tracking bullets and some kind of area-effect blast. Also: Everyone wears trenchcoats. Except the rent-a-soldiers, of course. You can contact Evan Narcisse, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also find him…

  By Evan Narcisse Published November 1, 2011
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  Non-Gamers Pick the Winner of the GameCity Prize, and They Picked Minecraft

  None of the members of the GameCity Prize jury are gamers, but the odd collection of actors, musicians, politicians, and journalists recruited to judge seven of the most entertaining video games of the year sure picked a winner. A new project from the folks that put on the annual GameCity gaming celebration at Nottingham Trent…

  By Mike Fahey Published November 1, 2011
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  Activision Uninvites Celebrity from Modern Warfare 3 Party After Learning She’s a Porn Star

  Dutch porn star Kim Holland was invited and then quickly uninvited from a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 VIP party in Amsterdam later this month after the game’s publisher discovered what she did for a living, Eigenwereld reports. The last-minute uninvitation has Holland questioning Activision’s seemingly hypocritical take on sex versus violence. Holland, an…

  By Brian Crecente Published November 1, 2011
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  Meet the Guys Who Make Skyrim’s Magic Happen in This New Video

  Bethesda’s released a taste of the documentary that will come with the collector’s edition of Skyrim. The clip shows how the members of the development team grapple with the challenge of providing a wide-open canvas for an individual, player-driven experience. Todd Howard and his cohorts clearly have a sense of the risk of their endeavor…

  By Evan Narcisse Published November 1, 2011
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  Extravagant Collector’s Editions are Overwhelming Video Game Collectors

  If you thought spending $149.99 for a massive collector’s edition is too much, what about folks like commenter Gemini-Phoenix, who feel compelled to purchase every limited collector’s edition that comes out. Let’s hear his desperate please to publishers in today’s Speak Up on Kotaku. In the world of collector’s edition (CE) video game collecting, we…

  By Mike Fahey Published November 1, 2011
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  As Corporate Propaganda, the Blackwater Video Game Shoots Blanks

  There’s no way you can expect Blackwater to be a good game. Ten minutes with it reveals that impossibility. The completely unintuitive controls, the wooden, stiff animation and the below-average graphics and voicework don’t take long to deflate any expectations of quality. But I had different expectations. The name Blackwater is synonymous with the phenomenon…

  By Evan Narcisse Published November 1, 2011
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  Gears of War 3’s Horde Command Pack Delayed

  The Horde Command Pack release for Gears of War 3 scheduled to hit today is temporarily delayed due to unspecified technical issue, according to the Epic Games forums. “We apologize to those of you who are anxiously awaiting to play. We know this is disappointing news as we’ve seen a lot of posts today showing…

  By Brian Crecente Published November 1, 2011
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Welcome to November. Welcome to more Talking Amongst Yourselves about video games. Have at it in the comments section. The images atop each TAY are made by you, the readers. Well, they are made by you making some sort of video-game-oriented manipulation of a classic painting, preferably one tied to what’s going on in games…

  By Stephen Totilo Published November 1, 2011
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  Quiver at the Sight of Lord of the Rings: War in the North‘s Collector’s Edition

  I arrived home after a weekend away to find a long cardboard box waiting for me, and within it was the PS3 collector’s edition of Lord of the Rings: War in the North. It’s a long and skinny box, a different shape than the large, square statue-holders from other games. I opened ‘er up and…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published November 1, 2011
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  Driver San Francisco Races Back to the Dark Ages of Mobile Gaming

  Before the Android and the iPhone mobile gaming seemed a hopeless endeavor, where every game released felt like a cereal box toy facsimile of a more complete console experience. Gameloft’s Android version of Driver San Francisco remembers those days all too well. Our own Stephen Totilo called the console version of Driver San Francisco “the…

  By Mike Fahey Published November 1, 2011