• Culture

  Red Faction’s Art Is Now Buried Beneath the Dust

  Despite the guilty pleasures of Red Faction: Guerilla, all it took was one sub-par game in the series (Red Faction: Armageddon) for publisher THQ to, at least temporarily, pull the plug on the series. Which is a damn shame. In memory of a franchise (or at least its contemporary revival) that lived too fast and…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  Lulzsec’s Public Voice Arrested

  A “spokesperson” for hacking collective Lulzsec, who among other targets hit the online operations of Nintendo and Sony, has been arrested in the United Kingdom. And not just any part of the United Kingdom. The Shetland Islands. Which are about as remote as you can get and still be in Europe. LulzSec ‘spokesperson’ arrested by…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  Can You Handle the Monster Hunter Cuteness?

  Monster Hunter isn’t very cute. It also isn’t very popular in the West, but in Japan, it’s huge The game’s spinoff Monster Hunter Diary Poka Poka Airu Village is cute and features darling versions of the Felyne (Monster Hunter cat people). Here are upcoming Monster Hunter prizes for Japanese crane games. They are adorable! 特大ジンオウガも登場、「モンハン日記…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 28, 2011
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  Mario Kart 3DS, Super Mario 3DS Coming This Holiday Season

  As part of its press release outlining the 3DS’ massive price cut, Nintendo also provided more detailed release information for two of the system’s more eagerly-anticipated titles, saying Super Mario 3D Land (November) and Mario Kart 7 (December) will be out in time for Christmas. As will Kid Icarus! You can contact Luke Plunkett, the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  This Video Game Documentary Looks Gorgeous

  The team at Animatronic Ackbar is putting together a documentary on video game culture. It’s looking good! This trailer was minted with the upcoming EVO 2011 in mind. I’m not the biggest fan of most kinds of competitive gaming, but there’s something about fighting game fans that’s just so damn entertaining. It’s extremely competitive yet…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  Americans, Your Download Speeds May Vary

  Like most countries, download speeds in the US vary from city to city. Unlike most other countries, though, the United States is huge, meaning those differences can be, well, just as huge. A study by Pando Networks has found the average download speeds for internet users across the United States, and perhaps unsurprisingly found that…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  Nintendo Launching Game Boy Advance and NES Games for eShop

  Until now, the Nintendo 3DS’s eShop has only offered Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. Soon, that will change. Today, Nintendo revealed that it would be giving those who purchased the 3DS before the August 12 markdown the chance to download 20 free games (either NES or GBA Virtual Console) via the 3DS eShop.…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 28, 2011
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  Dear Valve. This Girl Wants a Job.

  Meet Erin. She really wants to work at Valve, and after sending her resume three times, she’s taken to YouTube. With a not so modest proposal. And a song. Thanks, Brandon for the tip! You can contact Brian Ashcraft, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 28, 2011
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  Nintendo 3DS Gets Sudden, Massive Price Drop

  Boy, those 3DS sales sure fell off a cliff. So much so that Nintendo has instituted one of the swiftest and deepest price cuts for a handheld in recent memory. The 3DS only went on sale earlier this year for $249, but as of August 12, it’ll be slashed all the way down to $169.99.…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  Nintendo’s Hardware Sales Aren’t Looking so Hot

  What a difference a couple of years makes. It seems like only yesterday Nintendo was an unstoppable juggernaut, its consoles and handhelds tearing up the sales charts. In 2011, things are a little different. Nintendo just put out its financial earnings release for the three months of Apr-Jun 2011, and they’re grim reading, especially for…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  PS3 Sales Down, but the PS2 Lives On!

  Some strange news out of Sony’s latest financial earnings release: sales of the PlayStation 3 are down, while sales of the PlayStation 2 are steady and the PSP is making a late-life comeback! The release covers the three months between April and June this year. In that time, the PS3 sold 1.8 million units (down…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  When Kissing a Dude Is Bad

  People have sex. It’s a natural and normal part of being a human being. Famous folks have sex, too. (They also take craps and put on pants one leg at a time). In Japan, even pure idols snog and screw. Mind blowing, isn’t it? The most recent issue of tabloid Bubka purports to have indecent…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 28, 2011
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  Which New Female Shepard is Female Shepard’s Favourite?

  There’s a great interview with Jennifer Hale, the voice of the female Commander Shepard from Mass Effect, over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, where she talks about all kinds of cool stuff. Most poignant at this present time, though, are her thoughts on the vote for her character’s new face And those thoughts are? “I like…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  EA “Hopes to Work out an Agreement” With Steam Over Disappearing Games

  Crysis 2 has disappeared from Steam. Ditto for Dragon Age II. There’s a war being waged between EA and Steam over online PC gaming, regardless of EA’s stated hopes. Issuing a statement in response to Dragon Age II’s removal from Steam, EA says “At EA, we offer our games and content to all major download…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  CultureTotal Recall

  Remembering the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of MS-DOS

  If you think messing around with the user-interface of a modern console, or even a modern iteration of Windows is hard, spare a thought for anyone involved in PC gaming during the 1980s and early 90s. Those hardy pioneers didn’t need icons, or dashboards. They used letters, and arcane commands, which were the bread and…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011
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  Street Fighter‘s Ono vs. Tekken‘s Harada: Round One—Fight!

  Context is key. While this video shows Tekken prevailing over Street Fighter in a series of challenges at Comic-Con 2011, what you don’t see is what led up to it. Earlier, at the Street Fighter X Tekken panel on Thursday, Yoshinori Ono, producer of the Street Fighter series, played a video in which Tekken counterpart…

  By Owen Good Published July 27, 2011
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  Adios, Red Faction

  Poor sales of Red Faction: Armageddon this year means the end of the franchise, publisher THQ said in a conference call today. Brian Farrell, the THQ chief executive, told investors that “we do not intend to carry forward with that franchise in any meaningful way.” Volition, the studio developing the series, has now been reassigned…

  By Owen Good Published July 27, 2011
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  Finding an Even Better Brawl in Batman’s City

  It wasn’t until 72 hours later, when I flew home and resumed an old save file in Batman: Arkham Asylum that I truly appreciated the innate quality of brawling I experienced in Batman: Arkham City, a game I missed at E3 but, at long last, got my paws on at Comic-Con 2011. In Arkham Asylum…

  By Owen Good Published July 27, 2011
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  A new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and more Halo are Among the Biggest New Comics of the Week

  Ever Wednesday there are new comics in comics shops and available for (legitimate) download. But there aren’t new Alan Moore comics, every Wednesday, so this one is special! Read on for some recommendations: Comics You Should Consider Buying (from comics shops) Criminal: Last of the Innocent #2 The second issue of Ed Brubaker’s latest crime…

  By Stephen Totilo Published July 27, 2011
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  Get Your Xbox Through TSA More Conveniently With This Travel Case

  From CTA Digital, the Brooklyn idea factory known for bowling ball Wii peripherals and other strangely useful oddities, comes this is a handy carrying case for a full Xbox 360—with Kinect. It doesn’t make packing up any easier but it does make transportation a little more convenient. What makes the Xbox 360 not “portable” is…

  By Owen Good Published July 27, 2011