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  An Exclusive Tour of Valve Software, the Place Where Portal, Half-Life, and Team Fortress Come to Life

  Valve Software’s Chet Faliszek recently gave me a tour of his company’s Belleveue headquarters, a final act of kindness during a visit in which Chet also let me play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and eat catered tacos. We went for a playfully confrontational mood for our tour, as we passed by hallway displays for Portal 2,…

  By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2011
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  The Last Dead Island Trailer Before Everyone Dies

  With a musical cue taken from the heartbreaking trailer that started all of this Dead Island excitement in the first place, here’s the final trailer for Techland’s tropical zombie apocalypse, hitting stores next week. You can contact Michael Fahey, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and…

  By Mike Fahey Published August 31, 2011
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Believe it or not, August is over. For a lot of you, that means school starts again. Good thing TAY is here to satisfy your video game needs. Thanks to Brian H. May for the last Jester-themed TAY. September begins tomorrow, and we’ll need a new image. Don’t forget to choose a painting in the…

  By Jen Schiller Published August 31, 2011
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  An Open Letter to Team Pottermore

  After almost fifteen years of waiting, I finally got my Hogwarts letter. At least, that’s what early registration to Pottermore, the new online extension of the Harry Potter world, should feel like, shouldn’t it? When Pottermore opened for early registration three weeks ago, I “tracked down the magical quill”. I validated my account. I registered…

  By Jen Schiller Published August 31, 2011
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  Winning Eleven Online Is Made for Korea

  For Kicks | SEOUL, KOREA – Konami and South Korea’s NHN Corp. are co-developing an online version of the popular soccer series. (Photo: Game Impress Watch) Meet the Craziest Sony Product of 2011 It’s the early 1990s all over again! Sony revealed today that it is launching a new head-mounted display, able to screen both…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 31, 2011
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  The First Look at the Call of Duty Convention

  It’s not a good look. But it is a look. From Sept. 2 to Sept. 3, one of the world’s most famous games, Call of Duty, is holding its own convention, Call of Duty XP In the photos, there are Xbox 360 consoles and monitors. And there are large displays and lights. Tickets are $150…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 31, 2011
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  Duke Nukem Sounds Best on the Dukulele

  “Tiny Bubbles”, this ain’t. YouTube people Johnny Streets and Mike Martinez played the Duke Nukem theme on ukuleles. The result is fantastic. “Yes, the only reason I did this was for the pun,” wrote Johnny. That, and the lulz. The sweet sounding lulz. Pretty good for somebody who learned the ukulele a day before this…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 31, 2011
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  When Bayonetta‘s Designer Trolls the Internet

  With a hair body suit and pistol heels, Bayonetta was one of the most interesting games of 2010. Wouldn’t it be great if Platinum Games made another? Sure it would. When asked on Twitter about Bayonetta 2, Hideki Kamiya replied, “In this weeks game magazine…” The game magazine he’s apparently referring to is Famitsu, and…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 31, 2011
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  Toppled Libyan Palace Reveals…Prince of Persia Art?

  Watching a supposed mobile camera capture from the ruins of the ousted Gaddafi regime in Libya, Dutch site InsideGamer spotted something strange. Seems Colonel Gaddafi’s fifth son, Moatassem-Billah Gaddafi, might be the world’s biggest Prince of Persia fan. Skip to around 1:35 in the video above and you’ll see Mutassim – the country’s national security…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2011
• Culture

  Gameloft Games Look Better at the Concept Art Stage [Update]

  Mobile publisher Gameloft gets a lot of bad press for the way its games borrow visual and design cues from popular console titles. Its popular NOVA series, for example, is really HALO in all but name. Or so it is by the time it hits your phone’s screen. At the concept art stage, things are…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2011
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  Why Can’t You Shoot Women or Children In Battlefield 3?

  Battlefield games take place in urban environments, and even in the most war-torn regions on earth, those places are still usually full of people. Ever wonder why none of them are around while you’re capturing command points? It’s not a technological limitation. It’s a design decision based, and I think this is the right call,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2011
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  Finally, a Star Wars Game Where Everybody Dies

  In the Star Wars universe, nobody ever really wins anything. When good “wins” evil remains, and when evil remains, good goes into hiding to repeat the cycle. That won’t be the case when MMO Star Wars Galaxies ends, though. When it ends, it’ll end. With the game being shut down on December 15, the developers…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2011
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  Everybody’s Favorite Bikini Cowboy Hat Lady Getting New Game

  Onechanbara. You know, those hack-and-slash games with bikini cowboy hat lady. According to the latest issue of Japanese game mag Famitsu, the latest Onechanbara, Onechanbara Z Kagura, will be released this winter in Japan on the Xbox 360. [ゲーム情報！ゲームのはなし]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 31, 2011
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  Take-Two Accused of Treating Some Testers Like Crap

  A former tester at Visual Concepts, the developers behind 2K’s NBA and MLB games, is trying to take the pair’s parent company Take-Two Interactive to court, accusing them of a number of workplace violations. The suit is being put together by former “temporary employee” Aaron Martinez and his legal team, alleging that Quality Assurance (QA,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2011
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  These Aren’t Just Cosplay Photos. They’re Portraits.

  Photographer Mike Kowalek loves taking pictures, whether that be birds, bridges, you name it. But it’s his cosplay photos that got him on Kotaku He doesn’t just take photos, but proper portraits of folks who don costumes, who deserve way more than simple convention snaps. The originals are viewable on Mike’s site. Check ’em out!…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 31, 2011
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  Metal Slug Gets Real (Really Real!)

  Reader Andrew McMurry sends us this short little video he made, in which he jumps head-first into a Metal Slug level and proceeds to shoot, slash and explode his way through legions of bad guys. All in the name of your entertainment. While these “real man shoots like he’s in a video game” clips are…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2011
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  Time To Check Out Ten Free NES Games

  Today, Nintendo’s ambassador program kicked off early in Japan, giving early 3DS adopters like me the chance to snag free NES games. In this video, I give some of the games a spin. It’s hard to give things a spin when you’re holding an iPhone with one hand and tugging on a joystick with another.…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 31, 2011
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  There Is, No Shit, an Uncharted 3 Reality TV Show

  There’s a reality TV special to be broadcast on Spike later this year that’ll be all about Uncharted 3. Think Survivor, only it’s a single episode. Or, more aptly, The Tester with half-tucks. It’s called Uncharted 3: Race to the Ring To be filmed over the course of a week in October in Los Angeles,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2011
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  Look Ma! Free NES Games Go Live Early in Japan [Update]

  Today, the 3DS’ “ambassador program” kicked off in Japan—you know the program that gives early birds twenty free games. Previously, Kotaku let you how to get your free games with words. And now we’re doing it with words and moving pictures. The future, people, the future! As readers (and my wife) pointed out, these free…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 31, 2011
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  Sega Forms New Studio Just to Make Gangster Games

  Sega’s Toshihiro “Brown Man” Nagoshi, the creator of the Monkey Ball series, has revealed today that he’s formed a new studio at Sega which will deal exclusively with games for the Ryu ga Gotoku (Yakuza) series. That studio’s name is Ryu ga Gotoku Studio (catchy!), and is currently working on two new titles. The first…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 31, 2011