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  A Brave Attempt To Play a Game About Cleaning Up The Streets… the Boring Way

  Discovering that this game existed was a moment of perverse joy for me. I knew that it would be deeply boring—it really is-–and that I would have to play it extensively for no reason other than to take joy in being quite deliberately boring. It’s the kind of non-challenge I relish, and I gleefully set…

  Jim Rossignol | Rock Paper Shotgun Published July 12, 2011
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  GameStop Wreaks Havok on the X-Men, Gives Spider-Man an Identity Crisis

  With two Marvel superhero video games coming from Activision this fall, GameStop ransacks comic book continuity for fresh outfits to provide preorder customers of X-Men: Destiny and Spider-Man: Edge of Time Spider-Man developer Beenox really went to town on the alternate costumes in its previous outing, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, so this time around the preorder…

  By Mike Fahey Published July 12, 2011
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  BioShock for PlayStation Vita Will Be A Surprising, All-New, Weird Experiment

  Ken Levine and Irrational Games are going to get all weird on you with the next BioShock game—not BioShock Infinite, the one after that, the one coming to Sony’s new PlayStation Vita at some point. BioShock creative director Ken Levine tells IGN that the next entry in the series that he announced at E3 2011…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 12, 2011
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  Why Is The New XCOM A Shooter? Because ‘Strategy Games Are Just Not Contemporary’

  The beloved but dormant X-COM series, the strategy game franchise created by Mythos and Microprose, is getting a revival in the form of a first-person shooter next year, offending the sensibilities of old-school PC gamers. Why would 2K Games do such a thing? Christoph Harmann, president at 2K Games, explains to MCV that—sorry, fans of…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 12, 2011
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  Medal of Honor

  WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry looks at family members during a ceremony awarding him the Medal of Honor at the White House July 12, 2011 in Washington, DC. Petry, who received the medal for his courageous actions during operations in Paktia, Afghanistan, in May 2008, is the second living, active…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 12, 2011
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  PlayStation Store Update: Now You Can Flirt With Catherine

  There may not be a ton of new games to download from the North American PlayStation Store this week, but what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in the Catherine demo and Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax.” There’s much more than just intriguing demos and catchy pop songs for Rock Band 3, of…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 12, 2011
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  More Glimpses at the Game of Thrones Computer Game

  Due out this summer for the PC, A Game of Thrones – Genesis includes a single player campaign written under the supervision of author George R.R. Martin. These four new images gives us a look at the Targaryen army during a siege, the brothers from the Night’s Watch on patrol near Castle Black, the Tyrell…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 12, 2011
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  Zombies Welcome Their New EA Masters, Do Not Wish To Eat Their Brains At All

  The undead people behind one of PopCap’s most popular games, Plants Vs. Zombies, welcome EA’s acquisition of their parent company with open arms, open mouths, and jagged, ichor-dripping teeth.

  By Mike Fahey Published July 12, 2011
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  The Next Pocket God Update Adds Zombies

  They’re putting zombies in the next free update to the iPhone and iPad Pocket God: Journey To Uranus, possibly because there are no other successful video game series to add zombies to. Watch the trailer. The zombies fit right in to Bolt Creative’s virtual pygmy torture device playset. The update, officially entitled Pocket God: Journey…

  By Stephen Totilo Published July 12, 2011
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  Death Revisits EA Servers In August, Taking Army of Two, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Skate & More Offline

  Electronic Arts is performing another round of “online service shutdowns,” taking dozens of multiplayer games and demos offline forever. So, if you’re still playing Army of Two or Skate online, you won’t have the option much longer. The latest round of shutdowns affects games on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii and PSP, spanning…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 12, 2011
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  Playing Through The Cowboys & Aliens Video Game

  There’s not a whole lot of story in Absolution Training Ground, a Hogan’s Alley take on upcoming movie Cowboys & Aliens, and you can pretty much unlock all of the weapons on your first play through, but it’s still kinda fun. You can check the game out for yourself over on the official page for…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 12, 2011
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  Electronic Arts Buys Maker of Bejeweled and Plants Vs. Zombies

  Electronic Arts is in the Plants Vs. Zombies business it seems, announcing today that they have picked up PopCap Games for what could total more than one billion in cash and stock. “EA and PopCap are a compelling combination,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello. “PopCap’s great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA’s momentum…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 12, 2011
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  Is Sony Quietly Removing a PS3 Feature?

  A tipster sends us rumored word (and image) of an incoming replacement model for the 160GB Playstation 3 which brings with it a change in the way some people will hook the console up to their HD television. The new “K” chassis, which Sony will begin shipping to retailers this week, will require customers to…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 12, 2011
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  The New Zelda Didn’t Make Me Angry, Not a Bit

  It has come to my attention that people get angry about Zelda video games. This should have been obvious. People can be angry about anything, and I do recall some anger when the bad-ass Zelda game shown by Nintendo in 2000 turned into a Zelda that looked like a children’s cartoon. (And was excellent, by…

  By Stephen Totilo Published July 12, 2011
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  National Endowment for the Arts Makes Roger Ebert Eat His Words

  A little over a year ago, Roger Ebert was publicly denouncing the potential of video games to be considered art. This month, however, the National Endowment for Arts has publicly, if completely indirectly, disagreed. The NEA, the largest public funding for arts in America, is expanding its Arts on Radio and Television grant program to…

  By Jen Schiller Published July 12, 2011
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  Making a Magazine in Two Days Is a Longshot, But We’re Gonna Try

  Remember last year when those guys got together and made a magazine in 48 hours? They nearly got sued. But they also made a great magazine! Now they’re back as Longshot Magazine—and I’m one pleased peckerwood to announce that we’ll be hosting the creation of this issue right here at the Gawker offices in Manhattan.…

  By Joel Johnson Published July 12, 2011
• Esports

  The StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Competition Comes to a Head at BlizzCon 2011

  If you thought competitive StarCraft II in a bar was wild, wait until you see it amidst a throng of thousands of fans at BlizzCon 2011, home of the 2011 Global Battle.net Invitational and the 2011 Global StarCraft II League October Final. During my yearly sojourn to Anaheim for BlizzCon, I don’t often touch on…

  By Mike Fahey Published July 12, 2011
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  The Day Comcast’s Data Cap Policy Killed My Internet for One Year

  Today I came home to find my 15 MB down/3 MB up Comcast broadband service had been shut off due to exceeding their 250 GB/month data cap policy. This had happened the month before, and I called and had a polite but irritated conversation with Comcast’s “Customer Security” department (since the regular customer service folks…

  andre vrignaud Published July 12, 2011
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  New L.A. Noire DLC Case Lights Up Today

  Rockstar’s latest L.A. Noire DLC case Reefer Madness is available today on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The heady DLC is priced at 320 MS Points or free for Rockstar Pass holders. The new case arrives on PlayStation Network tomorrow.

  By Max Abrams Published July 12, 2011
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  Tim Schafer Pitches His Next Big Game… to a Muppet

  One of the perks (THE perk in my mind) that comes along with working on a Cookie Monster game is that you get access to the puppets. And you can apparently sweet talk them into making silly videos with you.

  By Brian Crecente Published July 12, 2011