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  Hoping Each Time That His Next Leap Will Be The Leap Home

  Hello all, and welcome to yet another late-night Kotaku open thread. The week is drawing to a close, and we have a brief chance to breathe after Thanksgiving and before Christmas (or, you know, Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Festivus, or whatever you may observe). Here, as always, are some conversation-starters for your perusal. “The Worst…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 1, 2011
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  Why Modern Warfare 3 Remains an Un-Game

  Republished from Rock, Paper Shotgun. Last Wednesday Kotaku republished (with permission, of course) my review of Modern Warfare 3′s single player campaign. A review in which I described it as an “un-game with a core of nastiness”. This caught the attention of Kill Screen’s Brendan Keogh, who wrote a riposte to my piece on the…

  John Walker | Rock Paper Shotgun Published December 1, 2011
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  Augmented Reality NBA App Makes You the King of Someone’s Driveway

  An NBA-branded augmented-reality game released today for Android and iOS devices, promises to make you the King of the Court at any number of real-world basketball locations around you. So far I’m the King of a neighboring cul-de sac and a Wendy’s parking lot. King of the Court, by Ogmento, is free to play (but,…

  By Owen Good Published December 1, 2011
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  NFL Blitz‘s “Cover” Also Put Up to a Fan Vote

  Though not a retail release, the January reboot of NFL Blitz will still have a cover star, following a fan-voted campaign taking place during the Spike Video Game Awards next weekend. The candidates for the downloadable game (on Xbox Live and Playstation Network) are the Atlanta Falcons receiver Roddy White, the Baltimore Ravens running back…

  By Owen Good Published December 1, 2011
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  Fez Tantalizes Us With Another “Long Screenshot”

  Fez, which is going on four years in development, was delayed to “early 2012” way back in September, so at least this luxurious long shot of the perspective-switching indie platformer isn’t some oblique way of saying “BTW, it’s been pushed back again.” That we know of. Still, put in headphones and listen to this. Sounds…

  By Owen Good Published December 1, 2011
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  XCOM‘s Development Presses On, Says 2K—With One Less Studio

  Earlier this week, 2K Games announced that its Canberra, Australia studio was being shifted from helping with development of XCOM to working on Bioshock Infinite. The news led some to wonder if XCOM was in jeopardy of being postponed or canned. But 2K Games tells Kotaku that the reboot is still in development at 2K…

  By Brian Crecente Published December 1, 2011
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  A Cardboard Marcus Fenix Must Pay for a Seat on the Bus

  A student in Milton Keynes, England paid a full bus fare for Marcus Fenix. No, really. Carrying home a life-size cardboard display of the Gears of War protagonist, Liam Sheridan was told by the driver his monthly bus pass didn’t cover his companion. Sheridan, 17, was thus charged £1.80 for a full adult fare on…

  By Owen Good Published December 1, 2011
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  A New Challenger Approaches

  Mario Kart 7 | Totilo and I both had our 3DS in the office today, look what I picked up through Street Pass. Jokes Fly Faster Than Arrows in the Goofy-Yet-Epic Bard’s Tale The Bard’s Tale, the highly enjoyable action role-playing game that launches today at the App Store, has a long, storied history-far longer…

  By Brian Crecente Published December 1, 2011
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  Ocarina of Time‘s Forest Temple and Zora’s River Remade in Minecraft

  We’ve seen so many things remade in Minecraft over the past year or so, but this one is still worth sharing. YouTube user RedAshMason had gone ahead and made Zora’s River, The Forest Temple, and even a fair bit of Hyrule Field as originally seen in the famous Legend of Zelda game Ocarina of Time…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 1, 2011
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  Pink Chocobos and the Phoenix Down Woman of My Dreams in the Latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 Screens

  Oh Chocolina, with your modest demeanor and your adorable Phoenix Down outfit; who cares what the other 27 new screenshots have on them, as long as you’re here with me. I don’t know wehy Square Enix decided that a Vegas showgirl was the appropriate choice for a shopkeeper in Final Fantasy XIII-2; I’ve stopped asking…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 1, 2011
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  World of Warcraft‘s Deck Building Game Delivers the Joy of Cards Without the Pain of Collecting

  Coming this spring from Cryptozoic Entertainment, World of Warcraft: Clash of Champions is 423 cards worth of tabletop raiding fun for two to four players in one sexy $45 box. The deck building game has saved my wallet. See, I love card games, and I love the colorful artwork and unique rules of trading card…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 1, 2011
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  Say Goodbye to Skyrim’s Majestic Backwards Flying Dragons

  They were… bizarre… while they lasted: Dragons in full flight, breathing fire, swooping, all backwards. The glitch that put some of the creatures in reverse is being fixed next week, so if you want to witness the beauty of a backwards mythical creature in the wilds of The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim, you might want…

  By Brian Crecente Published December 1, 2011
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  I Love Metal Gear, But I Don’t Want a Metal Gear Solid 5.

  I am pretty much the biggest Metal Gear Solid fan there is, and I really, really hope that Metal Gear Solid 5 doesn’t happen. Kotaku recently published Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima’s comments to Official PlayStation Magazine regarding a potential Metal Gear Solid 5–there’d “probably” be one “at some point,” the famed director said, as…

  Leigh Alexander Published December 1, 2011
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  Yoostar in MTV is Worth One Drunken Night of Playing

  It’s not everyday that three men dressed like Zach Ryder walk into your apartment at two in the morning. Drunk and looking to play some Xbox, I turned them to my awesome new copy of Yoostar in MTV. This is what came out of that night.

  By Chris Carolan Published December 1, 2011
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  Man Mods Etch-A-Sketch to Work With Nintendo Controller

  Have you ever wanted to control an Etch-A-Sketch with a Nintendo controller? Probably not, but it’s pretty awesome. Watching this video, I tried to imagine all the uses this device had, but most of them were drawing boxes. I’m sure somebody will come up with something better then that.

  By Chris Carolan Published December 1, 2011
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  NMA Turns Urinal Video Games Into a Pissing Contest Between the UK and Japan

  For once, you have to admire the restraint of the creative folks at Next Media Animation. Never ones to pass up low-hanging jokefruit, they don’t make a Wii joke in the report that covers the westward march of urinal games. NMA does offer their visions of permutations of pee-based games for women and kids, though,…

  By Evan Narcisse Published December 1, 2011
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  The Most Popular Game on iTunes Keeps Crashing on iPads, But a Fix is En Route

  Infinity Blade II, a very good game that just launched on iTunes today, is getting rave reviews from people who can get the game to run and is being pilloried for a bug that keeps crashing the game on some iPads. A solution is coming. “We’ve discovered an issue with some users who are running…

  By Stephen Totilo Published December 1, 2011
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  Starting Next Month You Will Get the Tools To Reinvent Skyrim on PC

  Starting next month computer Skyrim gamers will have access to the same development tools used by Bethesda Games Studio to make The Elder Scroll title. “We want to thank everyone reading this for playing our game and supporting all it tries to do,” according to the post on the official Bethesda Blog. “We wouldn’t have…

  By Brian Crecente Published December 1, 2011
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  Konami’s NeverDead Will Start Its Eternal Life on January 31, 2012

  Being immortal’s what you make of it. Sure, watching all your friends die and learning how to work new TV remotes every decade or so aren’t happy endeavors. But, Bryce Boltzmann’s decided to use his unkillability for fun and profit. He’s the hero of NeverDead, the third-person action title created by Shinta Nojiri who’s best…

  By Evan Narcisse Published December 1, 2011
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  Assassin’s Creed Recollection Brings Deep Card-Based Strategy Assassination to the iPad

  As promised, Ubisoft has unleashed Assassin’s Creed Recollection on the iPad just in time for the holidays, giving more strategy-minded assassins plenty of numbers and bits of artwork to screw around with. I’m just as puzzled as Stephen was when he first revealed the coming of Recollection back in October. I have absolutely no idea…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 1, 2011