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  Savings are Your’n on the Fourth of July

  You probably think it’s just a hamburger. A patty’s just a piece of meat, but it can have character. See that doughnut hole? Gets 18 patties to the pound instead of 16. Saves me about $40,000 a year. That’s serious money, Ron. I plug the hole with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, spices. I cover it with…

  By Owen Good Published July 2, 2011
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  The First of July

  Kotaku readers, we leave you this Friday with an open thread for your enjoyment. You’re steering the ship tonight, so please make pleasant conversation and offer links of interest to your fellow Kotaku readers so that we can have a healthy, productive off-topic post. If you’re celebrating your independence this extended holiday weekend, please do…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  Artist Wants to Make a Life-Size Replica of Counter-Strike‘s ‘Dust’ for Us to Play In

  Aram Bartholl has a habit of bringing the most recognizable things from our virtual worlds into reality. He created the first-person shooter glasses. He installed replicas of Need for Speed Underground 2‘s flashing neon arrows and Counter-Strike‘s crates in public spaces. Now he wants to construct one of the world’s most played multiplayer maps, “de_dust”…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  Professor Layton Anime Coming Stateside This Fall

  Level 5’s puzzle adventure series Professor Layton spawned a film in 2009, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva. Anime distributor Viz Media now plans to bring the Japanese movie to America this fall, reports Anime News Network. Another puzzle solved.

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  Even Team Fortress 2‘s Mann Co. Store is Having a Sale

  Now that Team Fortress 2 is free-to-play, what will you spend your disposable income on? Perhaps newly price-slashed items in the game’s Mann Co. store! Many of those virtual items are on sale, just like tons of other Steam stuff. Some of those virtual goods, which one could argue carry price tags too hefty, are…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  LittleBigPlanet Creators ‘Stepping Away’ from Series to Pursue ‘New Ideas’

  Media Molecule, the UK studio behind LittleBigPlanets big and small are taking a break from the PlayStation series that has spawned two PlayStation 3 games and one PSP game. They’re moving on to “new ideas,” according to the studio’s director. Edge reports from Gamelab 2011 in Barcelona, citing Siobhan Reddy, who says the developer is…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  Civ World Wants You… But Not Just Yet

  Happy Fourth Soon | Sid Meier as Uncle Sam. (Image from Firaxis Games) Zynga Files $1 Billion IPO Fueled By Virtual Farms, Mob Wars and Cityscapes The game makers behind mega Facebook games Farmville, CityVille and Mafia Wars today filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission to take Zynga public in hopes of raising…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 1, 2011
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  Left 4 Dead 2 Campaign Opens A Portal to Portal 2

  Spoiler alert? Only if you planned to play community made campaign “Suicide Blitz 2” in Left 4 Dead 2, currently the officially featured fan-created add-on for Valve’s zombie horror first-person shooter, the game that has a very neat Portal 2 Easter Egg buried within. Watch as two Left 4 Dead 2-loving ladies discover the existence…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  Bye Bye Games for Windows Marketplace, Hello Xbox.com

  In what does not seem like a positive sign for Microsoft’s Games For Windows efforts, the Games For Windows Marketplace is merging with Xbox.com, a move that the Xbox 360 maker says is for convenience and ease.

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  6 1/2 Minutes of the Most Gorgeous Game You’ll See This Week

  This is Journey, a downloadable game for the PlayStation 3 that is coming out this fall and looks like a dream. The game’s creators at ThatGameCompany are running a beta for the Journey now, to test its quiet, anonymous multiplayer mode. I played through the beta. It takes about a half-hour to get to the…

  By Stephen Totilo Published July 1, 2011
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  The Week in Gaming Apps

  In a surprise twist marking my return to the site and consequent reclaiming of The Week in Gaming Apps round up, only two of this week’s apps are physics puzzlers, and hey, one is not an iOS game! Not that there’s anything wrong with physics puzzlers, especially when one of them features paper-eating monsters and…

  By Mike Fahey Published July 1, 2011
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  Listen Up! There’s More Free Portal 2 Music Today

  Volume two of “Songs To Test By,” Valve’s soundtrack to Portal 2, is now available. 18 tracks of free music, plus some bonus ringtones and chimes for your iPhone and Android mobile. [Think With Portals]

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
• Culture

  This Week in the Business: “Brilliant strategic move.”

  What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Push out the lifespan of PS3.” – DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole responds to rumors that Sony is actually preparing to unveil and PlayStation 4 sometime next year STAT | $4.27 million – How much Sony CEO Howard Stringer earned for the…

  James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published July 1, 2011
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  Ex-Sonic the Hedgehog, NiGHTS Creator Now Has His Own Fishing Game

  Yuji Naka, former head of Sonic Team where he was responsible for many Sonic the Hedgehog games, hasn’t given up on the Wii. He has a new fishing game, Family Fishing, in the works, complete with its own unique controller. In development at Naka’s new studio Prope, Family Fishing is more than just a fishing…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  Drawn to the Warming Glow of the Triforce

  Artist Fergus Robinson brings the beautiful Triforce and adventurous Link to life in his top notch Zelda fan art illustration. Related Rampage: Link The Triforce by Fergus Robinson / Fergus (Twitter) Need your daily fill of geek eye candy? If so, head over to Justin Page’s Rampaged Reality and get your fix. Republished with permission.…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  The State (and Stats) of the Portal 2 Gamer

  If you ask us, Portal 2 is a great game. However, a few weeks after its release we took a look at its Steam Achievements and discovered that only half of its players had actually finished the game—and we also found that even less had played any of the game’s co-op campaign. We decided to…

  By Joshua Rivera Published July 1, 2011
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  What Are You Playing This Weekend?

  It’s a perfect time to catch up on new releases and backlogged titles, now that the video game industry is going on what amounts to summer break. Perfect time for me to play Shadows of the Damned, I say. And so I shall, finally taking the shrinkwrap off Grasshopper Manufacture’s game this weekend for a…

  By Michael McWhertor Published July 1, 2011
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  Toys R Us Brings Halo, Sonic, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Republic Commando Toys to Comic-Con

  Some people go to the San Diego Comic-Con for the latest news on their favorite comic books, television shows, and movies. Some go to hobnob with the stars, or show off their latest cosplay masterpiece. Me, I go for the toys, and this year Toys R Us is bringing plenty of exclusive video game merchandise…

  By Mike Fahey Published July 1, 2011
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  How To Kill the Company Behind FarmVille

  Hate Farmville, CityVille and all of its billions of pestering, needy fans? There’s a simple way to get rid of the company that makes those games: Kill Facebook. Buried in Zynga’s mammoth digital registration filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which could lead to injecting a billion, perhaps billions, in cash into the company,…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 1, 2011
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  The Daily Show Attacks Video Games In Light of Supreme Court Decision

  Jon Stewart fumbles the ball on his take down of the Supreme Court’s decision to rule that video games are protected speech this week, forgetting that he’s living in the same glass house. Ironically, Stewart uses the very graphic video game images he thinks should be criminalized, on a television show that is itself protected…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 1, 2011