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  The Ultimate Field Guide For LEGO Nerds [Update]

  I like LEGO. Do you like LEGO? Bet you do. So let’s all wish we could find a way to justify spending $80 on this glorious hardcover book and…wait a minute. $80 isn’t so bad! This is LEGO Collector – 2. Premium Edition, which is a very fancy way of saying it’s a catalogue depicting…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011
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  This Morrigan Painting Could Have Beaten The Nazis

  Darkstalker’s Morrigan goes all classic 1940’s pin-up in this amazing piece by Kazeki. Normally, the fighting game’s most iconic character is shown as being a little, well, slutty. Thankfully, that’s definitely not the case here. Succubus by Kazeki

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011
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  How’s Dragon Quest X Coming Along?

  Back in 2008, Square Enix said it was working on Dragon Quest X for the Nintendo Wii. Then…silence Fastforward to 2011, and Square Enix is talking about the game. Well, kinda. “The next Dragon Quest game, Dragon Quest X, will actually be released on Wii,” Dragon Quest Yuji Hori tells Nintendo Power. “I feel that…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 1, 2011
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  Fukushima Nuclear Plant Recreated In Fallout 3

  Over on a Fallout 3 mod and community site are images of the Fukushima nuclear plant, recreated by a 25-year-old via a Fallout 3 mod for PCs. The reaction online in Japan is varied: from impressed to disgusted and everywhere in between. Some even thought these images were from upcoming downloadable content, unaware that they…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 1, 2011
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  An Old Game About Fighting Robots Makes A Comeback

  In 1996, brilliant British developers The Bitmap Brothers released “Z”, a real-time strategy game that featured drunken, belligerent robots shooting the crap out of each other. It was, I remember, tough to control, but it was also funny as hell. At least, I remember my 16 year-old self thinking it was funny as hell. How…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011
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  3 Year-Old Killed By Mother For Throwing Away Game Console

  On the night of March 30, little Shizuku Tanaka was murdered in Osaka. Her feet and hands were bound by tape, and she was stuffed in a garbage bag. The bag was tied shut, and the three year-old is now dead. Her mother, 26-year-old Yui Tanaka, later told investigators, “Shizuku was being fussy and noisy…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 1, 2011
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  Sometimes, Kinect Just Wants To Make Things Look Pretty

  Microsoft’s Kinect is normally spoken of in terms of its practical applications. Let’s take a break from that, and use its “thousand points of light” as the basis for a beautiful photographic exhibit. Photographer Audrey Penven has put together a collection called “Dancing with Invisible Light”, which drops a number of her subjects in the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011
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  It’s Mirror’s Edge Meets Mario

  If you’ve ever wanted to practice jumping off walls and swinging from poles, there’s the place for you: the street. But if you’d like to do it in a relatively controlled (and safe?) environment, try Tempest Freerunning Academy. It purports to be California’s first indoor facility dedicated to freerunning and parkour. And it’s got blocks…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 1, 2011
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  The Crazy World Of NSFW In-Store Displays

  Forget commercials. Forget print ads. What might make a sale in Japan is more than hype. It’s the presentation, namely of the in-store variety. In-store displays play an important part in sales – not just in Japan, but pretty much everywhere. Take JB Hi-Fi, Australia’s largest home entertainment retailer, which has a policy of using…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 1, 2011
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  WARNING: It’s April 1

  Good morning, Kotaku. It’s April 1. April Fools Day. A day when the internet becomes a wasteland of bad jokes and annoying fake news. So wherever you tread today, be cautious. And if it’s any consolation, we won’t be trying to trick you. Seriously.

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011
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  Could You Play Street Fighter IV With Your Face? And Win?

  Mike “Broly” Begum is a Street Fighter IV player from Texas. And he’s pretty damn good. What makes Mike’s success notable, though, is the fact he’s so good despite having to play the game with his face Begum was born with arthrogryposis, which has left him with only partial use of one arm. While this…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011
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  This Is Major League Gaming

  Major League Gaming is the world’s premier professional console league. As the team embarks on a new season, with a new game in Halo: Reach, we spoke to some of the top players, and the CEO of the league itself to get an insight into competitive gaming’s exploding popularity, and what it takes to become…

  Mark Serrels Published April 1, 2011
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  CultureTotal Recall

  This Nintendo Was Inside A Television Set

  I don’t know what it is about old Nintendo hardware that makes it so interesting. Maybe it’s because, outside of Nintendo’s home run successes, there are a lot of straight-up strange devices in the company’s history as well. Not weird in a bad way, mind you. Just in a “well, it’s awesome somebody thought this…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2011
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  Pixel The Earth

  Ladies and gents, we’re on the cusp of knocking out one more workweek. Congratulations. Let’s make it go by even faster with some off topic conversation. You got an open thread here, so let’s use it. Did anyone partake in Major League Baseball’s opening day? The only game I watched was me farming some stones…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 31, 2011
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  Million-Dollar Perfect Game Contest Kicks Off Tomorrow

  2K Sports has laid another seven-figure bounty on a perfect game thrown in its Major League Baseball game. Players have had about a month to practice with MLB 2K11’s pitching and fielding; the chase for 27 straight outs officially begins at noon EDT tomorrow. It’s a simple proposition: Pitch a perfect game using a single…

  By Owen Good Published March 31, 2011
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  8-bit Pocket Camera Turns Your iPhone Into A Game Boy Camera

  Resolution of your iPhone camera got you down? Are HDR photographs just too dynamic for you? With the lo-fi magic of the 8-bit Pocket Camera app, you can make your iPhone’s photographic capabilities look a good 13-years-old, emulating the qualities of Nintendo’s Game Boy Camera. The 99 cent 8-bit Pocket Camera app brings that 8-bit…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 31, 2011
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  Burgertime’s Flamebroiled Fun Arrives This Summer

  We saw glimpses of it at GDC; this gameplay trailer gives a bigger sense of what’s behind Burgertime’s HD reboot, which is due this summer. Peter Pepper will still be assembling monstrous hamburger sandwiches, but he evidently will do so to defeat (or appease?) a boss character trapped inside the circular level. Burgertime, by MonkeyPaw…

  By Owen Good Published March 31, 2011
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  Metacritic Ditches Developers’ Career Ratings

  Shortly after introducing ratings of individual video game developers, based on the aggregated ratings of games in which they are credited, Metacritic has scrapped the idea altogether, saying the information is incomplete and can’t be trusted. Marc Doyle, Metacritic’s co-founder, told GamesIndustry.biz that the process of rating developers, as presently constituted, really isn’t fair to…

  By Owen Good Published March 31, 2011
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  The LP To Sword & Sworcery‘s EP Comes To Vinyl Next Week

  The recently released iPad sensation Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP is more than just a pretty face. If you’ve played the stylish adventure game, you know it’s got a soothing soundtrack to boot. Next week, you can get your hands on it. Superbrothers will release Jim Guthrie’s companion album, Sword & Sworcery LP – The…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 31, 2011
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  Madden Concussions a Teachable Moment, Says EA Sports

  EA Sports confirmed it will present concussions as a potential injury in Madden NFL 12, with special in-game commentary and gameplay circumstances that call attention to the seriousness of head injuries in a contact sport and the need to seek appropriate treatment. The depiction of concussion injuries is being done partly to reflect realism, a…

  By Owen Good Published March 31, 2011