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New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12
There may not be any optimal time to tell gamers about all the microtransactions and DLC for which they can expect to pay extra in an upcoming release. But the official reveal of a game’s main features – the stuff folks expect to come with the $59.99 retail price – would probably be the least…
By Owen Good Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
The Check Isn’t in the Mail
The Postal Service lost something I mailed a week ago to my Dad. This kind of an occurrence may not be any less rare today than it was before e-mail and other services, but it’s definitely losing credibility as an excuse. “It must have gotten lost in the mail,” is never believable when money is…
By Owen Good Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
Chinese Prisoners ‘Forced’ to Play Video Games, Farm Your MMO Gold
Inmates at China’s Jixi prison labor camp are tasked with backbreaking, mind-numbing work: mining rock, carving chopsticks by hand, and assembly line work. Some are even forced to endure grueling video game play, farming for gold in online games. That’s no joke. The Guardian reports on the conditions at a Chinese labor camp that allegedly…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
Mega Man vs. Wolverine vs. Spider-Man vs. Batman
New comics come out in comics shops and on some of your favorite portable devices each Wednesday. Not all of them are worth your time and money, but some are. Some are even about video games (others are about Wolverine). As I do each week, I’ve got some recommendations: Comics You Should Consider Buying (from…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 25, 2011 -
UncategorizedGet Trenched, That World War I Tower Defense Mech Game, on June 22
The people at Double Fine Productions, of Brutal Legend, Costume Quest and Stacking fame, are releasing their next game in June. That’s Trenched, remember? You don’t remember? Well, if you’re not in the mood to click the link to Kotaku‘s preview of Trenched, it’s an entertaining blend of tower defense tactics, third-person shooting from the…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
NHL 2K12 Ain’t Happening
2K Sports yesterday confirmed that NHL 2K12 will not be published on any console, likely ending that simulation’s run. Unable to gain traction against EA Sports’ NHL series, 2K put NHL 2K on a one-year hiatus last year, ostensibly to return with a breakthrough game built on a two-year cycle. The series still published on…
By Owen Good Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
A Flight of Joysticks
CURSE YOU RED BARON | French scientist, engineer and aviator Robert Esnault-Pelterie, inventor of joystick control in aircraft. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) I’m A Little in Love With My New iPad Arcade Machine Last night I sat in front of an arcade machine in a darkened room of my house and played ’80s…
By Brian Crecente Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
Super Smash Bros. (and Everyone Else) Brawl
The house is full with this group of backseat gaming legends! Artist Nina Matsumoto has them all fighting for the controller. (Complete List) Check out the gaming store that commissioned this piece HERE Related Rampage: Transbender Backseat Gaming by Nina Matsumoto (Blog) (deviantART) (Twitter) Need your daily fill of geek eye candy? If so, head…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 25, 2011 -
UncategorizedParkour Pioneer Cole Phelps Wants His Damn Hat Back
I forget at what point exactly but in L.A. Noire Cole Phelps remarks that his hat cost $12. How much is that worth in 2011 money? Dunno, but it’s worth falling off a house a dozen times in 1947. How the hell did his hat get up there in the first place?
By Owen Good Published May 25, 2011 -
UncategorizedDiablo III‘s Skill-Transforming Runestone System in Action
When it was first explained to me way back in 2008, the power-enhancing rune system of Diablo III sounded like it would lead to countless permutations of every skill and spell in the game. Now it’s only five, but they’re still pretty spectacular. This slimmed-down runestone system made its debut at last year’s BlizzCon. Rather…
By Mike Fahey Published May 25, 2011 -
UncategorizedKonami’s Birds of Steel Brings WWII Plane on Plane Violence to Consoles
Fans of World War II era aerial dogfighting may want to enlist in Konami’s Birds of Steel, coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation courtesy of developer Gaijin Entertainment (IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, Apache Air Assault). Birds of Steel promises to bring online and offline Axis versus Allies aerial combat to consoles, stuffing “over…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
This is Real War, Viewed from the Call of Duty Camera Angle
In real, modern combat, in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some soldiers have cameras attached to their helmets. The videos make it to YouTube (and on Kotaku, too), giving the rest of the world a first-person view of real combat. This week, The New York Times presents a simultaneously stunning and mundane video of…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
Japan Falls in Love with the Naughty Akiba’s Trip, But Portal 2 Not So Much
A game about stripping the clothes off of vampires in otaku haven Akihabara is Japan’s bestselling game right now, the curious and cleverly titled Akiba’s Strip for PSP. That game easily beat the new Dead or Alive and Valve’s Portal 2 overseas. Dead or Alive: Dimensions settled for second this week, a debut not so…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 25, 2011 -
UncategorizedDoes This Experiment Prove That Violent Games Increase Aggressive Behavior?
In a University of Missouri study sure to be cited by anti-gaming pundits for years to come, researchers provide what could be considered solid proof of the link between violent video games, aggression, and wearing funny hats. Associate professor of psychology at the University of Missouri Bruce Bartholow and his colleagues have seen studies claiming…
By Mike Fahey Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
Get Your Call of Duty: Black Ops PS3 Bundle On Next Week
Sony confirms today that a new PlayStation 3 bundle will go on sale this month—the one we told you about a few weeks ago—one including a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops and a 160GB console. Even better? The $299.99 USD asking price also gets you a “First Strike Content Pack” and a fancy…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 25, 2011 -
UncategorizedWhat if You Could Play Pool with the Moon or Smash Galaxies Together?
A reader who was tired of my stories about L.A. Noire recently wondered why I hadn’t written about Universe Sandbox. What’s that? A simulation of the universe I can run on a Windows computer? And here I am at work on a Mac? At least I can watch the trailer of this marvelous-looking creation. You…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
Will Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Be ‘Better With Kinect’?
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier‘s box art seems to think so, or at least the version uploaded to (and then removed from) Xbox.com today, touting Kinect support for the oft-delayed Tom Clancy game on Xbox 360. Could the delay of Future Soldier to sometime between March 2011 and April 2012 have something to do with Kinect…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
The 2011 Into the Pixel Collection Celebrates the Finest in Video Game Art
Every year experts from the fine art world and the interactive entertainment industry bestow upon video game artists the highest honor they can receive — inclusion in the Into the Pixel art collection. Let’s take a look at the seventeen pieces that made the cut this year. The Into the Pixel collection is a joint…
By Mike Fahey Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
One Year Later, Did Sony Keep Their E3 2010 Promises?
E3 is a den of promises. Promises sell products. And according to the cynics of the world, promises are meant to be broken. Yesterday, we took a look at the promises that Microsoft made at last year’s E3. Today, we scrutinize Sony. Did their PS3 and PSP-related promises bear out, or were we left feeling…
By Drew Cohen Published May 25, 2011 - Uncategorized
GLaDOS Begins Aural Testing with Free Portal 2 Soundtrack Downloads
While the brilliant and mostly dead scientific minds at Aperture Science aren’t busy coming up with new ways for robots to kill you, they like to kick back and relax with a little testing music. Now you can too, with the first of three “downloadable aural stimulus packages” featuring the music of Portal 2 Get…
By Mike Fahey Published May 25, 2011