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  We Watched them Play Max Payne 3 , and We Were Very Impressed

  Rockstar Games will end an a 10-month stretch of no major new video games next March. Not with the release of the next Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption, but with the shooter I saw at their New York office this past week, the unexpectedly beautiful and expectedly violent Max Payne 3 Suddenly, I’m…

  By Stephen Totilo Published October 6, 2011
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  Super Mario 3D Land In 75 Images Set to Disco

  Nintendo just dropped 75 new tiny 3DS screens on us for the upcoming, very-fun-to-play, Super Mario 3D Land. So we turned them into a video and added… disco! Why not? OK, all reasonable answers. But I did it anyway. 😀 Super Mario 3D Land hits stores Nov. 13. I had a chance to play through…

  By Brian Crecente Published October 6, 2011
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  Square Enix, Tear Down This Final Fantasy XIV and Give Us Final Fantasy XV

  In today’s final and fantastic episode of Speak up on Kotaku, commenter Paradox Me has an absolutely brilliant idea for Square Enix: Trash the failed MMO and recycle its assets for a new single player Final Fantasy game. Why is Final Fantasy XIV so goddamn pretty and why can’t we get this style in a…

  By Mike Fahey Published October 6, 2011
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  Do You Live In the Biggest Video Gaming City In the U.S.?

  Huntington, New Yorkers spend more than four times the average amount of video games, according to a recent study by credit card spending tracker Bundle. The study looked at spending at GameStop, EB Games and Steam from July 2010 to June 2011 for the top 100 cities in the U.S. by population. Bundle based their…

  By Brian Crecente Published October 6, 2011
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  A Grand X-Men Finale, 1950’s Avengers, Sonic and More of This Week’s Comics Worth Buying

  There are new comics to buy each week, and, as always, I have some suggestions… Comics You Should Consider Buying (from comics shops) Action Comics #2 Grant Morrison continues his tale of the re-booted Superman, back when Superman was young and an anti-authority super-hero activist. Morrison’s first issue was superb. Animal Man #2 One of…

  By Stephen Totilo Published October 6, 2011
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  The world lost a great innovator and man yesterday with the death of Steve Jobs. At age 56, it is a death that most definitely came too soon. The loss will echo across multiple industries, but his legacy lives on, and Apple will make it through. This makes me think though: what other losses have…

  By Matthew Buzzi Published October 6, 2011
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  Even Turtles Like To Do Touristy Things

  Half-Shell | NEW YORK: In 2007, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles visited the Empire State Building. (Photo: Marion Curtis | AP Photo/Warner Bros.) There Are No Music Games. There Are Only Rhythm Ones. PaRappa the Rapper designer Masaya Matsuura has been called the father of music games. Thing is, he doesn’t believe there are music…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 6, 2011
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  Getting Shafted was Never This Much Fun

  In, Mechanic Panic, you’re an elevator maintenance guy on his worst and, inevitably, last day of the job. You will die. The question it poses is how will you choose to spend it? Saving your own skin? Or trying to save others? Maybe that gives a little too much narrative credit to the game, an…

  By Owen Good Published October 6, 2011
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  They Want to Make Sequels a Thing of the Past

  Imagine the lovechild that would emerge from the coupling of, say, Epic’s Gears of War and Zynga’s Adventure World. You’d get all the gritty action and polished mechanics of a AAA game buoyed by a constant stream of updates and content. Daddy’s eyes and mommy’s brains, so to speak. And sequels? With a back-end where…

  By Evan Narcisse Published October 6, 2011
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  Mario Kart 7 Screens Pull Up. Throw Turtle Shells.

  This December, Mario Kart 7, which is actually the ninth Mario Kart, pulls off the line. Mario Kart 7 features a new first-person mode, hang gliders, and new weapons. It also features Mario. He’s not new, but that’s okay. We love him. You can contact Brian Ashcraft, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 6, 2011
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  There Are No Music Games. There Are Only Rhythm Ones.

  PaRappa the Rapper designer Masaya Matsuura has been called the father of music games. Thing is, he doesn’t believe there are music games. “Strictly speaking I do not believe that ‘Music Games’ as a genre really exists yet,” Matsuura recently told Kotaku. “We just have ‘Rhythm Games.'” This isn’t the first time Matsuura has said…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 6, 2011
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  PokéPark 2: Beyond the World Hits Japan in November

  On Nov. 12, PokéPark 2: Beyond the World will be released in Japan on the Wii. The Pokémon theme park spin-off is the sequel to the 2010 title. [Nintendo]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 6, 2011
• Culture

  Dead Island’s Concept Art Isn’t Sexy, It’s Scenic

  For a game that, when it wasn’t paying big bucks for moody trailers wasn’t afraid to use rotting chicks in bikinis to sell it, this Dead Island concept art is surprisingly free of buxom walking corpses. Sorry. What it does have, though, is a glimpse at a far more ambitious title, one that looks more…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 6, 2011
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  Wait, There’s a Halo Movie Planned for 2012?

  Here’s an odd thing. The French press kit for the Halo novel Cryptum mentions a Halo movie. Involving Steven Spielberg. With vague words that it’s due in 2012. That’s…not far away. You can see it at the foot of this press handout, also mentioning the involvement of Spielberg’s Dreamworks studios. It’s not the first time…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 6, 2011
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  Star Wars, As Explained by Some Japanese Lady

  At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Luke and I had our collective mind blown after speaking to multiple Japanese colleagues who had not seen Star Wars Mika has seen Star Wars and explained it in the above video. Her native language is not English—and she does a valiant job! And before you crack snide jokes,…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 6, 2011
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  In Which Your Favourite Video Games Become Beautiful Cartoons

  Artist Gobeur has a neat calling card: she takes video games, sometimes gritty, sometimes less gritty, and makes images in which it looks like there’s an expensive cartoon based on them. Even though there’s no such thing. Some of the franchises she’s worked her magic on include Gears of War, Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect and…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 6, 2011
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  Japan, Get Ready To Party with a New Wii Bundle

  This November, Nintendo is rolling out a new bundle in Japan. The white or black Nintendo Wii will come with a regular Wii Remote Plus and a Nunchuk as well as a pink Wii-mote Plus and a copy of Wii Party All priced at ¥20,000 (US$260)—a good deal as the Wii console itself is priced…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 6, 2011
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  It’s Square Enix x Yahoo! Monster x Dragon

  Sigh. Double sigh. The “large scale new title” Square Enix and Yahoo! Japan are teaming up on is Monster x Dragon. It’s a “MMO active time strategy” game. Who knows, maybe it’s good! [ANN]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 6, 2011
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  Soccer Players Kick Ass at Real, Impressive Game of Angry Birds

  Part tribute to the casual video game of the moment, part homage to a series of Nike football commercials that ran a year or two ago, this clip shows a couple of college goalkeepers playing Angry Birds with trash cans, brick walls and anything else they can get their hands on. While the Nike ads…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 6, 2011
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  Making a Butt-Flashing Music Video Sure Looks Easy (and Breezy)

  Japanese voice actress Chiaki Takahashi of BlazBlue and The Idolmaster fame is releasing her debut solo single, a cover of club tune “Chupa Rico”. So far, Takahashi has gotten more attention for the song’s video. In it, she licks things and shakes her butt. That’s also what she does in this making-of clip from her…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 6, 2011