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The Girls Aren’t Real. But Neither Is the Camera.
Former Xbox 360 exclusive The Idolmaster 2 is coming to the PS3. Players get a huge amount of what was paid DLC on the Xbox 360 free of charge. It doesn’t stop there. Namco Bandai is including a “Gravure 4 You” mini-game in the limited edition PS3 version that allows players to snap photos of…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 4, 2011 - Uncategorized
Team Fortress 2 Secretly Teams Up with Fallout, Quake & Elder Scrolls
The latest update to multiplayer shooter brought with it a few secret surprises, in the form of unique items inspired by those used in games like Quake, Fallout, RAGE and Brink OK, so with QuakeCon this week it’s a Bethesda marketing stunt (having published the last two Fallout games and owning id Software, the creators…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 4, 2011 - Uncategorized
This Is a Very Large Controller
This past spring, Japanese peripheral maker Hori said it would make a specialized Miku Hatsune rhythm game controller if enough people pre-ordered it. Enough people did, and Hori made the controller. And it’s huge. The controller is for the PS3 version of the Hatsune Miku arcade game. Just look at it! The controller isn’t exactly…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 4, 2011 - Uncategorized
World of Warcraft Still Losing Players
World of Warcraft’s player numbers have been stalled since late 2008, and in decline for most of 2011. That’s the bad news for the game’s developers, Blizzard. The good news? It’s not a massive drop, as at June 30 the game still had 11.1 million players. The past quarter the game’s subscriber base had fallen…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 4, 2011 - Uncategorized
When Parents Let Their Kids Die
It’s one of Japan’s dirty secrets. Summer after summer, parents get their gaming fix at pachinko parlors, leaving small children in the car. Alone. To die. Pachinko’s existed in Japan for decades, gaining popularity in the years following the war. In the last several decades, pachinko machines have become increasingly high tech. Game developers, like…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 4, 2011 - Uncategorized
You Won’t Know the Wii U’s Price or Release Date Until 2012
Nintendo might have shown the Wii U off at this year’s E3, but that doesn’t mean the console is gearing up towards a launch in early 2012. All we know for now is Nintendo plans to release the Wii U sometime after April 1, 2012. With declining Wii and DS sales and the lacklustre performance…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 4, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallMark Wahlberg, Not Even You Could Save the Sega Mega CD
Almost every gaming platform ever released has its oddball titles. The ones that weren’t quite games, the ones that weren’t quite there. For Sega’s Mega CD add-on in the early 1990’s, that oddball was the Make My Video series. Spanning three titles, all of them released in 1992 (the year the ill-fated CD expansion for…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 4, 2011 - Uncategorized
EA’s Disaster Plans Don’t Include Billion-Dollar Lawsuits or Giant Meteors
A cocktail-napkin calculation about what’s at stake in former NCAA players’ lawsuit against EA Sports arrived at a potential cash-and-prizes value of $1 billion. But as apocalyptic as that total sounds, Electronic Arts doesn’t sound too worried. “We could lose billions more if a giant meteor hits the earth,” spokesman Jeff Brown told CNBC’s Darren…
By Owen Good Published August 3, 2011 - Uncategorized
Um, Pretty Sure This Is An Open Thread, Guys
Friends of Kotaku, you’re more than welcome to take this thread and make it your own, flavoring it with all the off topic conversation that you seem to like so much. So, have at it. Anyone going to QuakeCon this weekend? I’ve never been, but it seems like it’s going to be a good time.…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 3, 2011 - Uncategorized
Nintendo: It’s For Dresses, Now
Honey, if I bought this for you, would you wear it for me? This Game Boy-themed tube dress costs about as much as the original device did—$70. It’s made by HereandThereVintage and available on etsy. Nintendo Dress [Etsy via LikeCool] You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also…
By Owen Good Published August 3, 2011 - Uncategorized
DC Universe Online Brings a Multitude of Heroes to the Fortress of Solitude
DC Universe Online‘s latest game update delivers a new group raid in Superman’s hideout, and tunes up the difficulty in the old one at Batman’s crash pad. It’s available now for the game on PS3 and PC. The narrative behind the Fortress of Solitude raid involves heroes and villains forming an uneasy alliance against Brainiac,…
By Owen Good Published August 3, 2011 - Uncategorized
Now Minecraft Has Its Own Convention—MineCon
Looking for an excuse to go to Vegas? Why not meet up with your fellow Minecraft fans at the game’s forthcoming convention, MineCon? That’s the place to be for Minecraft high rollers this fall. The game’s creator, Marcus “Notch” Persson, tells PC Gamer that MineCon will throw down at the Mandalay Bay on November 18…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 3, 2011 -
UncategorizedThe 15 Greatest Pros—and the Greatest Pair of Cons—Come to NBA 2K12
Before Air Jordan, Converse was the top brand on the basketball court, singularly identified with Julius Erving since his ABA days. The only way I’d have a bigger shoe-gasm watching this video is if Dr. J set those kicks down on a red-white-and-blue ball, and the camera raised up to reveal a New York Nets…
By Owen Good Published August 3, 2011 -
UncategorizedThe Most Mythologically Epic Pile-Drive in the History of YouTube
There are fan videos, and there are fan videos. And then there’s “The Ballad of Mike Haggar.” Posted by YouTube user Hortyort (whose real name is Glorbus Finn), the video shares an epic poem recounting the journey of Final Fight‘s ass-kicking mayor as he fights his way to the end of the the game and……
By Kirk Hamilton Published August 3, 2011 - Uncategorized
What Is Scribblenauts Remix?
Currently, we know Scribblenauts Remix is a new domain registered by Warner Bros. (and spotted by “superannuation“), but little else about mysterious Scribblenauts project. But, I wonder what would be summoned if we typed in “iOS” into a Scribblenauts game…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 3, 2011 -
UncategorizedIndie Bundle Adds Five More Games if You Donate Five Bucks or More
The Humble Indie Bundle 3 has now added five more games, and still is being offered for the super-low price of “whatever you want to pay.” Provided whatever you want to pay is more than the average donation, which is $4.96 as of now. The Bundle’s masters today decreed that the lineup from Humble Indie…
By Owen Good Published August 3, 2011 - Uncategorized
Quake Cake Down
Strogg!!! – Strogg recently beheaded from Fahey’s Quake cake. (Photo by Michael Fahey) Requiem For An iPhone Game Free running through a dream, leaping over crates, running along walls, dashing through gaps, Requiem is a slightly marred look at what Mirror’s Edge could have been on the iPhone. In Requiem you play a boy lost…
By Brian Crecente Published August 3, 2011 -
UncategorizedThe Hidden is the Strange Lovechild of Face Raiders and Ghostbusters, Living in Foursquare’s Foster Home
At first glance, The Hidden looks an awful lot like Face Raiders, one of the free augmented reality games pre-installed on every 3DS. Like Face Raiders, The Hiddenis a shooter that uses the 3DS’ camera to superimpose things for you to shoot in your real world environment, turning whatever room you’re in into a shooting…
By Joshua Rivera Published August 3, 2011 - Uncategorized
The Video Game That Got Jazz so, so Right
For some reason or other, jazz soundtracks are a rarity among video games. Plenty of games feature heroic chiptune anthems, Hollywoodesque orchestral scores, and evocative sci-fi themes, but jazz, one of America’s oldest art forms, remains surprisingly underrepresented. Though they may be few and far between, there are a handful of games that have used…
By Kirk Hamilton Published August 3, 2011