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  Arcade Improv: Humans Pretending to Be Videogames

  At the PAX East conference last year, a young man approached the microphone during the Q&A with Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, creators of the popular Penny Arcade webcomic. Instead of asking a question, he bellowed, “Welcome to ACTION CASTLE! You are in a small cottage. There is a fishing pole here. Exits are out.”…

  Andy Baio Published November 9, 2011
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  Red Sox’ Gonzalez is The Show‘s Cover Star

  “Well played, Mauer,” appears to be finished as a catch phrase for MLB The Show with today’s naming of Boston’s Adrian Gonzalez as the cover star for next year’s edition of the game. He displaces the Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer, who held the packshot for the past two years. Sony dated the game, too,…

  By Owen Good Published November 9, 2011
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  A Deeper Look at the Vita’s Big Charmer, Escape Plan

  We’ve seen plenty of Uncharted and Resistance on the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld, but we haven’t seen enough of the truly creative stuff. In this new video from Sony, Matt Morton from Fun Bits Interactive talks through the creation of Escape Plan, the studio’s hilariously violent-looking black-and-white puzzle game. Morton talks about why they went…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published November 9, 2011
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  Fight Night Champion Offers Its Modes a la Carte on PSN

  As tipped off yesterday, Fight Night Champion is being offered a la carte over PlayStation Network beginning today—gamers can buy the boxing title’s “Champion Mode,” the cinematic narrative of fictious boxer Andre Bishop, for $5. If they enjoy that, they can add other game modes on a piecemeal basis. EA Sports made it official with…

  By Owen Good Published November 9, 2011
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  Skyrim Will Have Infinite Randomly Generated Content. But Will It Ever Feel as Real as Minecraft?

  Speaking to Wired in a new interview segment published today, Skyrim director Todd Howard revealed that the game will feature randomly generated quests created by its Artificial Intelligence “director,” known as Radiant Story Howard mentions that after finishing the written “story” quests for factions like the Dark Brotherhood (made up of assassins) and The Thieves…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published November 9, 2011
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  Midweek Moneysaver: The Modern Warfare 3 Edition (and More)

  This Wednesday edition of Kotaku’s The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can’t wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon. Modern Warfare 3 • Best deal on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3) is $51.99 plus free shipping or pickup from Best Buy, plus…

  dealzon Published November 9, 2011
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  The Formula To Skyrim’s Success

  MATHMATICAL! –Game Informer executive editor Andrew Reiner explains via a picture on Twitter how he figured out his Skyrim score. Here’s the Tube Terror in Modern Warfare 3 That’s Freaking Out the Brits Depictions of terrorist attacks on London’s Tube are just one of the ways military shooter Call of Duty courts controversy in this…

  By Brian Crecente Published November 9, 2011
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  Dead Space 2, Rayman Origins Demo New This Week on the PlayStation Store

  This week, Sony brings its usual raft of new and tweaked content to the PlayStation Store. Notable additions to their selections include Dead Space 2 as a downloadable for $29.99, with a free full game trial for PS+ subscribers. If you’re more in the mood to try something new, you can give the Rayman Origins…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published November 9, 2011
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  A Very Beginner’s Guide to The King of Fighters XIII

  Charming, talented, and highly susceptible to flattery Atlus PR manager Aram Jabbari is joined by Dream Cancel community member Metaphysics in the first in a series of tutorial videos aimed at getting new warriors up-to-speed with the upcoming The King of Fighters XIII While I doubt the series will touch on my special method of…

  By Mike Fahey Published November 9, 2011
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  Should You Buy Super Mario 3D Land? Yes.

  Eight months after the 3DS’ North American debut, Mario at last debuts on the handheld in Super Mario 3D Land. Nintendo is keen for a big hit to energize interest in the device, and they’ve put their best plumber on the job. Should you hire his services too? Owen Good, the Sports Guy Who Went…

  By Owen Good Published November 9, 2011
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  Call of Duty’s Elite Service Still Broken, But Getting Better

  Elite, Call of Duty’s answer to stat tracking, community building, help guides and original videos, remains mostly unusable nearly two days after the service’s official launch. But teams are working around the clock on fixing the problems, Activision tells Kotaku “We are being challenged by a response beyond any of our expectations on day one,”…

  By Brian Crecente Published November 9, 2011
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  Multiple Film Projects Might Move Leonardo Da Vinci From Assassin’s Creed Sidekick to Superhero Spotlight

  Hollywood loves nothing so much as copying successes. It’s how gladiator, vampire and zombie trends start to run amok. And now that historical action hybrids are all the rage—Sherlock Holmes, The Da Vinci Code, we’re looking at you—there’s apparently a rush on projects centered on Leonardo DaVinci. Slashfilm’s got the scoop here. In a way,…

  By Evan Narcisse Published November 9, 2011
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  Now You Can Play Dead Rising 2 in Your Web Browser

  Capcom has teamed up with those magical people at Gaikai to deliver a 30 minute timed demo of Dead Rising 2 that runs in your Java-enabled web browser. Ain’t technology a thing? Gaikai works by running the games you want to play on its own server, streaming the game via video to your browser, giving…

  By Mike Fahey Published November 9, 2011
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  Games Are Art Only When You’re Playing Them

  The debate continues to rage (or perhaps it is at a smouldering point at the moment) as to whether or not video games are art. In an essay from the book, Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God, Andrew McAlpine of the band Andrew M and The Coalition of the Willing, asserts without reservation…

  Joshua Wise Published November 9, 2011
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  Battlefield 3 Still Can’t Dethrone Black Ops

  The latest Xbox Live activity list—the first covering a full week of Battlefield 3 availability—shows that more people are still playing 2010’s Call of Duty: Black Ops online. BF3 is second, then Modern Warfare 2

  By Stephen Totilo Published November 9, 2011
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  Video Games Represent Dangerous, Metaphorical Powers in “The Tetris Effect” Short Story

  The hardest lesson taught by Tetris is that success isn’t infinitely sustainable. Those blocks are going to get unmanageable at some point. Over at The Awl, video games figure prominently in a new written work by Justin Wolfe. It’s a hypnotic hodgepodge of hero’s-journey structure and pop culture references. Picture a literary, cross-media orgy with…

  By Evan Narcisse Published November 9, 2011
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  The Cave Story Soundtrack Goes Heavy Metal

  Cave Story already has a pretty damn good soundtrack, but as with all things, it can be improved by being dipped in liquid fire and rendered into heavy metal. Thankfully there’s Erik Peabody, who has released his new 7-track album “Made of Metal” upon the world. It features “metal remixes honoring some of the most…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published November 9, 2011
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  30 Seconds of Skyward Sword: A Masterpiece of a Forest

  The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has beautiful graphics, despite the fact that it runs on dated hardware. In this game, artistry repeatedly trumps technological limitations. I want to show you one example of the game’s great look in one of the first areas you can reach in the game. This is the game’s forest,…

  By Stephen Totilo Published November 9, 2011
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  Microsoft Stores Becoming Competitive Multiplayer Hubs for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Launch

  If you’re like me, you’ve yet to step into one of Microsoft’s fine, fine retail emporiums. Nothing against ‘em, it’s just that you can get everything online nowadays. Pizza. Liquid refreshment. That goes from online competition, too, but, Microsoft’s going to be stocking its stores full of all three to commemorate the impending release of…

  By Evan Narcisse Published November 9, 2011
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  Culture

  Halo Anniversary Edition Pizza Unboxed, Eaten, and Unappreciated

  Why thank you, internet, for bridging the gap between two countries and giving those of us confined to the states a delicious look at the UK-exclusive Halo Anniversary Edition pizza from Pizza Hut. YouTube user Shadders1 spices up this pepperoni chicken monstrosity of a pizza with some appropriate music to create an unboxing far more…

  By Mike Fahey Published November 9, 2011