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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  It’s Thursday, and if you’re anything like me you’re suffering from a sudden irrepressible urge to talk about video games with your community. This is perfectly normal. We even have a post just for sudden onsets of such conditions. It’s called Talk Amongst Yourselves, and you’re already here. Please, converse! Also, a great big Internet…

  By Joshua Rivera Published July 7, 2011
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  10 Tips for Achieving CivWorld Greatness, From the People Behind the Game

  The people who make Civilization have given the world CivWorld, a free Facebook version of their legendary strategy series. The game is complex and kind of tough! Today, the makers of CivWorld are giving us tips. (Thank you!) We asked for them. We needed help. So, courtesy of the people at Civ studio Firaxis and…

  By Stephen Totilo Published July 7, 2011
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  Spirit for iPhone & Android Looks Like Geometry Wars, But Plays More Peacefully

  Marco Mazzoli’s Spirit, a frenetic arcade style app for the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms, may remind you visually of the addictive 2D shooter Geometry Wars at first glance, thanks to its neon fireworks and simple graphics. It’s not a clone, but something akin to a touchscreen adaptation, perhaps, a game inspired by Bizarre Creations’…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 7, 2011
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  Yep, That’s a Purple Shirt

  Howie | SUN VALLEY, IDAHO: Sony boss Howard Stringer arrives at Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference. (Photo: Scott Olson | Getty) When Disney Collaborates with… an Erotic Game Artist Fans make sexy drawings of various characters. From Peter Pan‘s Tinkerbell to Beauty and the Beast‘s Belle, they’ve done this for years. The Undying Video…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 7, 2011
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  This Is the Game One Mexican State and One U.S. City Want Banned

  Call of Juarez: The Cartel has been quietly slinking toward its July 19 release date, apparently gone to ground after weathering a storm of controversy over its modern-day setting and drug-cartel plot. Here’s our first deep look at the game since its appearance at E3. Middling graphics aside, the seven minutes of play show a…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 7, 2011
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  China Launches “Virtual Property” Insurance

  Live in China? Own property? Virtual property? Sunshine Insurance Group Corporation might have you covered. Working with online game operator Gamebar, the insurance company is issuing virtual property insurance to protect players from theft or loss of “virtual property” such as “land” or “currency”, reported China Daily According to Sunshine, the insurance will also protect…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 7, 2011
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  Japan’s Best C. Viper Player Ready to Kick Ass at Evo 2011

  Japanese model Kayo Satoh revealed that she’ll be competing at this year’s Evo fighting game championship. Very cool, considering that Satoh isn’t only a talented player, but also a celebrity in Japan, regularly appearing on prime time television. Might mean more international exposure for Evo! [Kotaku Japan]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 7, 2011
• Culture

  The Undying Video Game Art of Toshiaki Takayama

  Depending on your gaming tastes, you may not have seen much of the work of Toshiaki Takayama. Which is a shame, because his work is incredible. Takayama’s work in the video game field (he’s contributed to anime, trading card games and books as well) has turned up in Japanese arcade titles like Lord of Vermilion,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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  Sure, Let’s Watch Twelve Minutes of Deus Ex Footage

  We’ve been talking a bit recently about all the leaks and legal matters surrounding Deus Ex. It’s enough to get you down! So let’s change the pace this morning and watch twelve minutes of gameplay footage. Note this is “proper” gameplay footage. Not a compilation of prostitutes being punched in the face

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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  Let’s See What You’ve Got American Cosplayers!

  You’re dead wrong if you think the West can’t cosplay. It so can. And at the recent Anime Expo in Los Angeles, America did just that: cosplay. There are some very inventive outfits here. Love the Ice Climber cosplay, love it. More pics at Kotaku Japan and in the link below. 本格派から謎の物体まで！　会場で見かけたコスプレイヤーさんたち [週アスPLUS]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 7, 2011
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  Too Many Shooters Would Make Nintendo Sad

  Looking at the company’s back catalogue, and the fact it had to get an American studio in to do a first-person Metroid series, it’s clear Nintendo is not a big believer in the West’s genre of choice. A point Nintendo president Satoru Iwata addressed during a recent investor Q&A session in Japan. While acknowledging that…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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  The Loving Embrace of a Darkstalkers Statue

  Toy company SOTA will be taking quite the exclusive to the San Diego Comic-Con later this month: this statue based on fighting game series Darkstalkers, showing Morrigan and Lilith in what they call a “loose embrace”. “Morrigan and Lilith fall, together, in a loose embrace, unaware of how much longer they have together” reads the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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  Gran Turismo Developer Ditching Tokyo

  Polyphony Digital, creator og Gran Turismo, is moving its development studio across the country to Fukuoka City. The reason for the move is the March 11 earthquake. According to Gran Turismo designer Kazunori Yamauchi, out of various cities that were considered, Fukuoka, which is in the far West of the country, is a good place…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 7, 2011
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  The Man Who Has Every PS2 Game In America

  Ahans76, a PlayStation collector, is apparently more of a PlayStation collector than most, because he claims to now be in possession of every single North American PS2 game ever released. Having picked up a console on its launch day back in 2000, he began his collection with Ridge Racer 5. In the beginning, he simply…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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  A Collection of Wiis Gathering Dust

  As more and more seasoned gamers let their consoles fall by the wayside, the jingoism “my Wii is gathering dust” became common. These Wii controllers? They’ve literally gathered dust. They’re part of a neat feature on Wired examining the whens and whys people stopped using their Nintendo Wii, mostly from gamers who just never really…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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  When Disney Collaborates with… an Erotic Game Artist

  Fans make sexy drawings of various characters. From Peter Pan‘s Tinkerbell to Beauty and the Beast‘s Belle, they’ve done this for years. But Disney’s now hooked up with an honest-to-goodness erotic game illustrator, Aoi Nishimata, for an official collaboration. The end result, however, isn’t sexy. But is it any good? Nishimata is an in-house illustrator…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 7, 2011
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  Square Enix Pushing For Valve’s Help In Catching Hackers

  While pursuing those responsible for leaking a preview build of Deus Ex Human Revolution onto the internet, publishers Square Enix discovered that the game (well, part of the game) had been a copy they’d hosted on Valve’s Steam service. This happens all the time; often with PC preview coverage here at Kotaku, for example, we’re…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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  The Mass Effect Movie Will be at Comic-Con

  Hollywood studio Legendary Pictures will be holding its first ever “standalone panel” at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego. Why do we care? Because they’ll be talking about the Mass Effect movie, that’s why. Yes, tucked away at the bottom of the press release announcing the studio’s showings is the news that the film’s writer…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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  CultureTotal Recall

  The Amazing 1979 Song About Computer Games

  There have been plenty of songs written about video games over the years. You have your favourites, I have mine One that lingers in my memory, though, comes from a time before I was even born: 1979’s Computer Games, by the Australasian band Mi-Sex. What’s so memorable about this song isn’t the fact that it’s…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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  Nintendo Says Netflix Viewing on Wii U Controller is “Theoretically” Possible

  Credit to Forbes for pressing Nintendo of America’s president, Reggie Fils-Aime, on the take-it-anywhere capabilities of the Wii U’s touch-screen controller. In an interview, Forbes’ David M. Ewalt asked Fils-Aime whether it was possible to watch streaming video on the controller. “The messaging comes right from the console. So the programming would need to originate…

  By Owen Good Published July 6, 2011