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  Hollywood To Rip Off Video Gaming’s Excellent Framerate

  Video games have stolen many things from Hollywood. What’s Hollywood going to take back? Director James Cameron wants to shoot Avatar 2 and 3 at 48 or even 64 frames per second, the latter rate being the ideal framerate for first-person shooters and racing games. Movies are usually shot at 24 fps, but, hey, if…

  By Stephen Totilo Published March 31, 2011
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  Sony’s MMO Studio Confirms Massive Layoffs, Closes The Book On The Agency

  Yesterday’s rumors have proven true, as Sony Online Entertainment confirms 205 cut positions, the closure of three studio locations, and puts the final bullet in the head of massively multiplayer online spy game The Agency. In an official statement delivered to Kotaku this afternoon, Sony Online Entertainment outlines the strategic decision that resulted in the…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 31, 2011
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  Infamous 2 Is Our Next Garish Super-Hero Comic, In Video Game Form

  What exemplifies super-heroes? It’s more than super-powers, which the first Infamous video game on the PlayStation 3 had, in the form of a man named Cole whose electrically-charged body was as deadly as a toaster in a tub. There is a gaudiness to super-heroes, a garishness that the dark, slick first Infamous lacked. There’s people…

  By Stephen Totilo Published March 31, 2011
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  This Is All You Need To See Of The Saints Row: The Third Debut Trailer

  Game Informer has posted the debut trailer for THQ and Volition’s Saints Row: The Third, consisting of some music, a few splash screens, and one second of actual gameplay footage. See for yourself

  By Mike Fahey Published March 31, 2011
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  It’s Not Every Day You Get To Create A Brand-New Muppet

  Creating a brand-new official Muppet character is a task few people in this world have the opportunity to undertake. Double Fine Productions Scott Campbell is one of those people, and this is what his effort has wrought. Once Upon A Monster is the most exciting Sesame Street video game ever created. Using Microsoft’s Kinect camera,…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 31, 2011
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  You’ll Never Forget Your First 3DS Street Pass Notification

  On the fourth day since the official release of the Nintendo 3DS, I finally walked past someone else who had the system and was sharing their data … at the Sony Style Store, surrounded by PSPs and PS3s. I don’t know exactly when it happened. Possibly when I was talking to some PlayStation public relations…

  By Stephen Totilo Published March 31, 2011
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  BloodRayne Is Back And More Two-Dimensional Than Ever

  We’ve still got a day left until April Fools, so we’re going to have to take Majesco seriously when they announce the return of their half-vampire, half-supermodel heroine this summer in the 2D side-scrolling platformer BloodRayne: Betrayal. Why take a franchise that did moderately well as a 3D action-adventure title and transform it into a…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 31, 2011
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  Deep Space Mystery Solved Using 1970s Computer Graphics Technique

  Extra-solar probes Pioneer 10 and 11 have been confusing astrophysicists for the last decade: they’re slowing down a lot more than we’d expected as they’re leaving the solar system. The slowing has become know as the “Pioneer Anomaly.” (But you probably know it by the popular formula, “Ol’ (8.74±1.33)×10^−10 ms^−2”.) Scientists working out of Lisbon…

  By Joel Johnson Published March 31, 2011
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  Canadian Man Terrorizes Bus With Video Game Controller

  A 50-year-old man surrendered to police in Maine this morning, following a nine-hour standoff during which he threatened to blow up a bus using a fake detonator crafted out of a spiral notebook, a video game controller, and duct tape

  By Mike Fahey Published March 31, 2011
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  This Speak-Up Post Is Dedicated To Steve

  Today’s episode of Speak-Up on Kotaku is dedicated to a very special video game character. From the heart of commenter Digimope to the annals of Resident Evil history, this one’s for you, Steve Burnside. Every Resident Evil post on Kotaku, all I see is 100 comments about how f*#@ing awesome Leon is and it’s getting…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 31, 2011
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  Magicka: Vietnam Dated, Blindfolded, Taken Out Back And Screen-Shot

  Paradox Interactive and Arrowhead Game Studios have put an April 14 date on the downloadable content no one saw coming, celebrating the impending release of Magicka: Vietnam with the screenshots everyone will want to see. The sight of robed wizards making their way through the rice paddies of Vietnam should not warm my heart, yet…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 31, 2011
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  Insanely Popular Doodle Jump Adds Multiplayer

  It’s the one iOS craze I’ve managed to avoid, so I must trust what I’m told about Doodle Jump: that it’s fun. And moreover, that it’s fun when playing two-player over Wi-Fi. But how could I ever possibly know?! [iTunes]

  By Joel Johnson Published March 31, 2011
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  March is ending, so we proudly present to you our final read-submitted March image for Talk Amongst Yourselves. This one’s from Shinlord What’s next? April! We need a new image for April’s Talk Amongst Yourselves. You can nominate any painting that is in the public domain. Suggest something that’s more landscape than portrait, in terms…

  By Stephen Totilo Published March 31, 2011
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  One Of These Is Not Totoro

  WABBIT SEASON | OSAKA, JAPAN: Springtime is a good time to get fresh air with friends. (Photo: Brian Ashcraft) Mega Man Universe Is Totally Canceled Mega Man Universe was supposed to be out this year on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. It won’t be. Capcom, the game’s developer, is shutting the title down…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 31, 2011
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  Return To 2099 In Spider-Man: Edge Of Time

  Developer Beenox and Activision cross continuities again in Spider-Man: Edge of Time, a time-hopping adventure that’s one part Amazing Spider-Man, one part Spider-Man 2099. One Spider-Man just isn’t enough for developer Beenox. After giving four Spideys a try in Shattered Dimensions the team trims things down to two in Edge of Time. The untimely death…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 31, 2011
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  Street Fighter Needs To Be Like Soccer

  Well, that’s what Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono thinks. And he’s even got an analogy to explain why “Until very recently fighting games have been a niche,” Ono tells the Guardian. “In order to play you needed to understand all the rules, you had to know exactly what to do in every situation.” In turn,…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 31, 2011
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  Looks Don’t Come First With Final Fantasy‘s Leading Ladies

  When Square Enix is making heroines, it might start with the character’s back story or her role in the story. For example, in Final Fantasy XIII, the initial concept for protagonist Lightning was a “strong woman”. FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama tells Japanese game mag Famitsu, “it was personality-based instead of plot-driven.” Then Toriyama says the…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 31, 2011
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  Don’t Talk Video Games With Japanese Prisoners

  Between 2006 and 2010, a prison guard in Chiba Prison chatted with prisoners about things he should not have. He talked to them about video games and comic books. But that isn’t all. Disciplinary actions were taken against the officer on March 29. The 31-year-old former corrections officer said he thought the idle chatter would…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 31, 2011
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  This Sega Cosplay Just Got A Little Bit Sexy

  Crystal Graziano, who we last saw cosplaying as Valkyria Chronicles villain Selvaria Bles, is back again as…Selvaria Bles. Only this time, in a bikini. While this sounds absurd, swimsuits actually feature in the war drama, so Crystal has a perfectly good excuse for swanning around the recent Anime Conji 2011 in…this. Valkyria Chronicles was originally…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 31, 2011
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  Commander Shepard Can Punch Women, But Can He Beat Boba Fett?

  In many ways, Mass Effect is what it is because its developers made a successful Star Wars game. So it’s about time we go to see the franchises square off. Artist Edrice Waliyar has done these two images, depicting some of the stars of the respective series taking each other on. In one pic, the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 31, 2011