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  A Dead Sega Mascot is Even Deader Now

  Forget his flirtation with Nintendo on the Wii. Monkey maraca simulation Samba de Amigo was, is and always will be a Sega icon, a reminder that the Dreamcast was cool, quirky and now very, very dead. Something this neat shirt captures perfectly. Samba de los Muertos is a new shirt from Meat Bun that takes…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011
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  Does This Lady Love Final Fantasy XI More Than You?

  Emiri Kato doesn’t just play Final Fantasy XI, she lives there. The voice actress has an impressive resume of anime and game titles she’s worked on, but that’s nothing compared to her FFXI playtime. As pointed out on website 4Gamer, Kato has played FFXI for 557 days and 18 hours. That’s 13,386 hours. Before you…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 20, 2011
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  Bleep a Few Words and Suddenly Zelda is Very NSFW

  While getting a genuine laugh out of the Zelda cartoon series is tough, it’s not impossible. Provided you cut a few words out which turn innocent encounters into tawdry tales. While this clip’s joke wears thin pretty quick, while it’s still wearing it’s good for a chuckle or two. Especially when she’s only three inches…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011
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  Ni No Kuni Gets Extra Help in the Cute Department

  Ni no Kuni isn’t only the PS3’s most beautiful game, it’s also pretty darn cute. Thank Studio Ghibli for that. Know what cute calls for? A cute kid. Mana Ashida is one of the most popular stars in Japan. She’s only seven, but she’s already done way more than those twice—three times, even—her age, including…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 20, 2011
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  Pokémon Gray Incoming?

  Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services recently registered pokemongray.com. This is the same company that registered pokemonblackwhite.com, an official Nintendo site. When you mix black and white you get…gray. [IGN via Gimme Gimme Games!]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 20, 2011
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  You’ll Probably Want to Avoid Battlefield 3’s “Standard-Def” Version

  I thought the first screenshots of Battlefield 3 running on an Xbox 360 looked fine, but then, they were probably using the optional high-resolution texture pack Those who don’t use that pack, well…you may want to find a way to make it work. Because Battlefield 3 producer Patrick Bach has given the vanilla version of…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011
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  Why Do Shy Girls Love Singing about Nerdy Things?

  I guess they’re not that shy, because they are filming themselves singing songs and then uploading the clips to YouTube. There’s an entire subgenre of young females strumming their guitars, usually in their bedrooms, and singing about the nerdiest things imaginable, from StarCraft to physics. Many of them do a wonderful job, too. Kotaku‘s posted…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 20, 2011
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  Some of Team Fortress 2’s Coolest Weapons Have Been Made by You

  Well, not you specifically, “you” as in “people who don’t work for Valve”. Ever since Team Fortress 2’s recent Manniversary update, players have been able to show off fan-made weapons and items in The Workshop, a central spot where other players can vote on them. The best ones then get taken by Valve and turned…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011
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  Arkham City is (Maybe) Mark Hamill’s Last Performance as The Joker

  Arkham City is pretty damn special, so the fact it’s out this week is good news. That good news has been tempered with a little sadness, though, as it could be the last time we’ll ever hear Mark Hamill lend his voice to The Joker. The star of General Hospital and The Big Red One…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011
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  CultureTotal Recall

  When Street Fighter met GI Joe, the World Suffered

  The year was 1993. Street Fighter was one of the biggest things on the planet, and venerable toy franchise GI Joe…wasn’t. In an effort to boost Joe’s sales, Hasbro figured creating action figures based on Street Fighter would be a really good idea! It wasn’t. Between 1993 and 1994, Capcom and Hasbro teamed up to…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011
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  Ultima Creator’s House for Sale for a Cool $4 Mil

  Richard Garriott, the Ultima creator and space tourist believed to be the only private citizen to own property on an extraterrestrial body, is selling real estate here on Earth. For about $4 mil you may claim the stately Texas manor owned by Lord British. According to KUT-TV of Austin, Texas, Garriott’s “captivating and magical” estate…

  By Owen Good Published October 19, 2011
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  Pinball FX2 Gets a Free Table for Halloween

  Zen Studios, the master maker of pinball tables, will offer a free treat by Halloween for all Pinball FX2 owners. Anyone who picks up the free Pinball FX2 platform on Xbox Live can get the Paranormal table for free from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2. Paranormal‘s setup involves “solving” a series of supernatural phenomena served…

  By Owen Good Published October 19, 2011
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  Imagine I Gave You $10,000 For That Tooth

  Greetings once more, Kotaku readers. We’ve had a fun day here, talking about all sorts of video game stuff, from the contentious to the non-contentious. And now it’s time to talk about other things. Good things! Bad things! All of the things. So kick back, relax, put on some smooth saxophone music, and dive into…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published October 19, 2011
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  The Best Quotes of GDC Online (and Things I Noticed While I Was There)

  Last week, I attended the Game Developers’ Conference Online in Austin. I was there to give a talk about game storytelling, but I stayed for the entire event, and caught a good number of talks, workshops, and keynotes. On Monday, Gamasutra (who helps put on GDC each year) ran a fun collection of quotes from…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published October 19, 2011
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  All It Takes is a Dollar and a Dream in EA Sports’ Oklahoma Lottery Cards

  You can’t buy a cold six-pack* in Oklahoma, but next time you’re at the likker store for a carton of Parliaments and a fifth of Evan Williams you can buy some EA Sports-branded lottery scratch cards. The Oklahoma Lottery teamed up with the sports video games label for the lottery’s latest sports-themed scratcher, seen above.…

  By Owen Good Published October 19, 2011
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  How 9/11 Gave Us Grand Theft Auto‘s Iconic Cover Style

  There was Sept. 11. Then there was Oct. 22, when Grand Theft Auto III released, at a time when the United States was extremely high strung about things like the violence and moral relativism for which the series is known. Rockstar Games’ Dan Houser, in a rare interview, said that the game did strip out…

  By Owen Good Published October 19, 2011
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  Hype Video for NFL Blitz Doesn’t Show Off a Lot of Big Hits

  Lost in the shuffle with the announcement of NFL Blitz‘s return is the fact the game is actually rated more strictly than its Madden counterpart. As the inaugural hype video for the game shows, it’s an E10+ for, among other things,”mild language.” Didn’t the original NFL Blitz have comically censored cussin’? Maybe that’s what the…

  By Owen Good Published October 19, 2011
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  Should You Buy Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One? Yes.

  Let’s get this out the way first: going through the PlayStation 3 exclusive Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One in single-player isn’t much fun at all. The one AI partner you get while playing solo tends to move slow and All 4 One has clearly been built as a multiplayer-first experience, from the menus to…

  By Evan Narcisse Published October 19, 2011
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  PS3 Trophies Indicate NBA 2K12‘s “Legends” DLC is Coming Soon

  The patch to address NBA 2K12‘s multiplayer problems went live for the PS3 today, and the updated trophies it delivered points to the game’s unannounced downloadable content, and hints it may be coming soon. Reported first by Pasta Padre, the trophies and their descriptions give a little more detail on what you will be doing…

  By Owen Good Published October 19, 2011
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  Pinball!!!

  Pinball – Do you like your video games to be a little less virtual? Then you might want to check out the 2011 Pinball Expo which kicks off in Chicago this week. Make sure to grind a machine for me if you go! From Yale To Persia: Read the Private Diaries Of Gaming’s Renaissance Man…

  By Brian Crecente Published October 19, 2011