• Uncategorized

  Fans Vote Heisman Winner For The NCAA 12 Cover

  Alabama’s Mark Ingram, the 2009 Heisman Trophy winner, was voted the cover athlete of NCAA Football 12, whose debut trailer you saw yesterday. Ingram, expected to be a high draft pick in next week’s NFL draft, beat out candidates Nick Fairley of Auburn, Jake Locker of Washington, and DeMarco Murray of Oklahoma in a fan-voted…

  By Owen Good Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  Gamefly Triumphs in Postal Service Dispute

  The U.S. Postal Service gave an unfair advantage to competitors like Netflix and Blockbuster Video, a regulatory board said Wednesday, awarding game rental service GameFly a victory in a two-year dispute over the postage, breakage and sorting of its disc mailings. The Postal Regulatory Commission found that the USPS gave “an unreasonable preference” to Netflix’s…

  By Owen Good Published April 20, 2011
• 

  Uncategorized

  The Uneasy Shooter Inversion Focuses On The Gravity Of War

  Cover based third-person shooter Inversion looks and feels very much like other cover based third-person shooters—Gears of War, for example—with the exception of one major thing: gravity. That and a rare innovation with one other video game staple, the exploding barrel. We’ve seen Inversion before and been impressed with its gravity manipulation based gameplay. But…

  By Michael McWhertor Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  The New No More Heroes Is For Adults Only In Japan

  There’s another version of the original No More Heroes coming to the PlayStation 3, but this one’s for Japan only and only for adults. No more toning down the graphic violence of Travis Touchdown in No More Heroes: Red Zone. As previously reported, Grasshopper Manufacture’s No More Heroes is being given another shot on the…

  By Michael McWhertor Published April 20, 2011
• 

  Uncategorized

  See The Sims Creator Will Wright Deliver A Dizzying, Fascinating Talk About Video Games And Education

  If you’ve ever seen Will Wright, the big brain behind games like The Sims, Spore and SimCity, deliver one of his humorous, hypnotizing talks, you’re probably going to want to settle in and watch this one too. If you’ve never had the good fortune to be assaulted by Will Wright’s smarts, well, you’re in luck.…

  By Michael McWhertor Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  Spoiler-Free Tips For Enjoying Portal 2

  You’ve heard of Portal 2, but are you ready to play Portal 2? Do you need help determining which part of the game to play first? Want to know how to find the game’s coolest hidden items? The answers to that and much more are below (some of them hidden behind links, to protect unspoiled…

  By Stephen Totilo Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  See (Almost) Every New Mortal Kombat Fatality, Then See Kratos Become A Baby

  We’re still plugging away at our Mortal Kombat review, but if you want to skip to the good and gory stuff, GameTrailers has a montage of the many, many ways to kill kombatants in the new game. They also have every single “Babality” in a hilarious diaper-filled montage. It’s kind of amazing

  By Michael McWhertor Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  Freek Out!

  CONTROL FREAK | NEW YORK, NEW YORK: Kontrol Freek’s new TeeFreek button toppers. (Photo by Crecente) Digital Dragnet Cast For More Possible Victims of Accused Xbox Pedophile Police are calling for parents to search the Xbox Live friend’s lists of their children for the user name of self-professed furry and accused sexual predator Richard Kretovic.…

  By Brian Crecente Published April 20, 2011
• 

  Uncategorized

  X Rebirth May Be The Sexiest Looking Space Sim Of 2011

  Granted, I’d be hard pressed to list many of this year’s hardcore space sim contenders, but the newly revealed X Rebirth—the latest in Egosoft’s 12-year-old X series—is going to have a hard time being visually out-sexed. This is a gorgeous game. Publisher Deep Silver labels X Rebirth “a fresh beginning” for the series, one that…

  By Michael McWhertor Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  ESRB Lauds Retailers’ Performance In M-Rated Game Report

  The Entertainment Software Ratings Board has responded to a Federal Trade Commission report that video game retailers do a good job of observing the M-rating on video games and refusing their sale to minors. “We are extremely pleased to see the Federal Trade Commission confirm not only that the video game industry continues to have…

  By Owen Good Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  The 3DS Is Back On Top In Japan, Despite Heavy Robot Casualties

  After losing the weekly hardware battle against the deeply entrenched PlayStation Portable, the Nintendo 3DS strikes back, becoming the bestselling piece of hardware in Japan. The system likely has two new games to thank for that little surge. Pilotwings Resort was just released overseas, as was a 3D version of Konami’s baseball sim Pro Yakyuu…

  By Michael McWhertor Published April 20, 2011
• 

  Uncategorized

  N.O.V.A.: Elite, The Facebook FPS Where Paying Is Winning

  Gameloft takes its iPhone Halo clone to Facebook with N.O.V.A. Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance: Elite, a competitive first-person shooter that eschews balance for the sake of getting paid. It’s a common practice in social games; the more people pay, the better they play. But having a larger farm than the next guy isn’t quite the…

  By Mike Fahey Published April 20, 2011
• 

  Uncategorized

  Step One: Move To L.A., Step Two: Re-Think My Entire Video Game Collection

  We’ve seen some great gaming set-ups on Kotaku in the past: Brian Crecente’s High-Def Game Room, galleries of game developer’s game rooms, and even pictures submitted by you guys (to Kotaku Australia), which included some of the most awesomely bad set-ups I’ve ever seen. Almost as bad as when my friend Drew made his own…

  Lisa Foiles Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  The Arrival Of The First Mass Effect 3 Screens

  First screen shots of BioWare’s Mass Effect 3 are here, thanks to Game Informer, and if there’s one thing we can glean from our first look at this year’s big sci-fi RPG, this sure as hell is a Mass Effect game. We’re only going to get two screens for now, both of them showing Commander…

  By Michael McWhertor Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  PlayStation Home Now Home To Real-Time Multiplayer, Better Graphics & More

  The PlayStation 3’s digital hang out space, PlayStation Home, will soon be home to better actual video games, thanks to the platform’s next big update. Version 1.5 of Home brings promised features like real-time multiplayer, improved physics and better visuals. What else? The official announcement goes far enough to say that “PlayStation Home v1.5 was…

  By Michael McWhertor Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  Activision Explains How Call Of Duty Will Escape Guitar Hero‘s Fate

  Guitar Hero was once a shining star of a video game franchise, with each yearly installment generating more excitement than the last. Now the series is on indefinite hold. An internal Activision memo obtained by Giant Bomb poses a compelling question. “Isn’t Call of Duty today just like Guitar Hero was a few years back?”…

  By Mike Fahey Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  The Newest Mass Effect Saga Ends, A Familiar Halo One Begins Anew

  Wednesday is new comics day in North America. As always, I have recommendations. Plus, this week, there is a pile of interesting video-game-themed comics. Comics You Should Consider Buying (from comics shops) Dark Horse Presents Vol 2, No. 1 The official summary should convince you: “The legendary, premiere anthology is back! The 80-page spectacular, Dark…

  By Stephen Totilo Published April 20, 2011
• 

  Uncategorized

  How To Find Three Of Portal 2‘s Best Secrets

  Have you already finished Portal 2? If not, maybe you shouldn’t watch this video, which shows you how to dig up three of the game’s Easter Eggs, because at least one of them is seriously spoileriffic. In fact, you better stop reading right now, because we’re going to explain what buried treasures are featured in…

  By Michael McWhertor Published April 20, 2011
• Uncategorized

  Department of Homeland Security Spends $286K on a Bad Video Game

  Backed by a Department of Homeland Security grant, The Day The Earth Shook is meant to be a video game that teaches children about surviving an earthquake, but it’s more likely to educate them about the dangers of bad game design. In the free PC and Mac game, players are meant to help Allen and…

  By Brian Crecente Published April 20, 2011
• 

  Uncategorized

  Finally, Somebody Started Building StarCraft Units Out of LEGO

  Not only did someone take the time to painstakingly replicate StarCraft’s Siege Tank, they actually made it able to change into and out of siege mode. The only thing missing here is… a guide on how to build one.

  By Mike Epstein Published April 20, 2011