New Tomb Raider To Trace the Origin of Lara Croft

Developer Crystal Dynamics is working on a new Tomb Raider meant to be an origin story for Lara Croft, the studio said today. “Forget everything you knew about TOMB RAIDER,” said Darrell Gallagher, Head of Studio, Crystal Dynamics. “This is an origins story that creates Lara Croft and takes her on a character defining journey…

Report: Politics Aren’t Keeping Up Japan’s Prime Minister, Gaming Is

Elite Japanese politicians might have different politics, but they’re joined by one thing: their love of “Go“. Prime Minister Naoto Kan is no exception. Kan is an avid Go player as well as a Mahjong and Shogi (Japanese chess) player. Before entering political office, Kan even developed and patented a machine to crunch numbers for…

Burger King Generous On Food, Xbox Japan Cheap On Kinects

For those who bought Whopper meals, Burger King and Microsoft gave away a Kinect every fifteen minutes in America until the motion sensor launched late last month. That’s over 1,500 Kinects! In Japan, twenty Kinects will be given out. Twenty. That low number isn’t too surprising considering that there are only 36 Burger King restaurants…

NSFW: Rap Makes Call Of Duty Better

This may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s certainly to mine, as a man freestyle raps his way through an entire round of Call of Duty: Black Ops’ multiplayer. It shows you all it’s going to show you by around 1:30, so if it’s grating you don’t feel required to sit around and watch…

Killzone 3’s Singleplayer Footage Is Worth Taking Cover For

I’ve been playing, and enjoying, Killzone 3’s multiplayer beta for a few weeks now. But singleplayer? Hadn’t seen so much. Until this video showed up! It’s ten unedited minutes of raw gameplay from Killzone 3’s singleplayer campaign, taking in a boss fight and lots of trudging through corridors shooting bad guys. It says a lot…

Japan’s Arcade Seniors Come For Friendship, Stay For Blankets

Ah, the elderly. They’re no longer content to watch re-runs and take walks. In Japan, they’re hanging out in arcades. Lower birth rates haven’t helped Japanese game centers. “These days, it’s become harder to target young males,” Japan Amusement Industry Association tells Japan’s Nikkei. Arcades, like Tokyo’s Sega Dream Factory, are having better luck with…

Alternate PlayStation Move Had Balls

As nice as Sony’s PlayStation Move is, we can’t help but look at this old patent for the device and think one of its original designs was a little nicer Filed last year but only recently being released to the public, this patent highlights just how much more Sony was looking at including in the…

Starcraft Developers Must Construct Additional Lawsuits

StarCraft isn’t a game in South Korea, it’s a national pastime. When gamers aren’t playing it, they can watch tournaments on TV. But its creator, Blizzard Entertainment, is unhappy. And it has every right to be. Blizzard’s Paul Sams appeared at a press conference in Seoul late last week and blasted cable channels MBC Game…

How One Man Can Make A Massive Video Game

In his spare time over the course of a year, Matt Rix bought two laptops, paid Apple a little cash and made a video game called Trainyard. That’s all it took to develop one of the year’s biggest video games. Released in June to little fanfare, it was only when Trainyard was featured on the…

Gamer Kid Threatened To Kill And Kill Again

After this fourteen-year-old boy’s cell phone gaming site membership was canceled, he decided to get even: by threatening to murder people. The boy belonged to popular cell phone gaming site “Mobage Town”, but lost his membership after making comments like “die” to a fellow player, reports Sanspo.com, while playing “Kaitou Royal” (pictured). Mobage-Town is incredibly…

Yakuza 4 Doesn’t Just Fight For Money, It Fights For Love, Too

There’s a delightful little saying we have here in Australia, which goes a little something like (NSFW) “glass the c#@t“. It’s not pretty, but there you have it. Anyway, it features in this new trailer for Yakuza 4. This is the second in Sega’s new attempts to try and package the notoriously fickle Japanese crime…

Kiss Your Copying Software Goodbye, Japan!

Under current Japanese, it is illegal to upload or sell pirated games and movies. It is legal to copy for one’s own personal use. Better get all your personal copying done pronto, because that’s going to get harder. According to the Asahi Newspaper, Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs is readying new legislation that will revise…

Dreaming Of A Zombies Ate My Neighbors Remake

Last year, for a class assignment, artist Rustam Hasanov decided to draw up some concept pieces for a dream project of his: a modern-day remake of classic 16-bit title Zombies Ate My Neighbours. If only it wasn’t a dream. This fantasy project imagined that the original games two stars, Zeke and Julie, have now grown…

The Nintendo Wii Wants To Be Japan’s Social Butterfly

You’re in the company rec room, why not play the Nintendo Wii? You just had a nabe party, you up for some Wii? Hey, it’s your day off, how about playing…the Nintendo Wii? Nintendo’s latest series of ads seem to be put forth just that: when people get together, they can play the Wii. Fair…

Wii Gatherings

Gran Turismo 5’s Balloon Crashes And Robot Drivers

Is this Gran Turismo 5, or a collision between car-shaped Thanksgiving Day Parade floats? It’s the former, of course. Makes you wonder what the priority board looks like at Polyphony Digital, where George Clooney can make it in just fine but car crashes – a somewhat essential part of car racing – end up looking…

Japanese Convenience Stores Look Beyond Video Games

Convenience stores are just that, convenient. Whether it’s buying used video games or pre-ordering big titles, today’s corner stores offer more than slushies and candy bars. One Japanese chain is considering one deader better. Family Mart, which expanded to the U.S. as “Famima”, is pondering whether it should enter the funeral business, reports J-Cast (via…

Doot-De-Don’t

To: Luke From: Owen Re: Wow, That Was Both A Short And A Long Week Friday I shared the family tradition of the doot-de-doo. Reader Nerf Herder tried it with his kid, and sent that in to me this morning. Some weekend highlights: What You Might Have Seen In Gran Turismo 5 If You Weren’t…

A Behavioral Analysis of the Pac-Man Ghosts

There a well known, long-established patterns for beating Pac-Man’s mazes, up until the ninth Key, as Buckner & Garcia sang. Still, Pac’s adversaries exhibit behavior that, if not exactly tactical, is still complex. Chad Birch, a researcher from Calgary, writes Game Internals, which “aims to spread knowledge of interesting game mechanics beyond the game-specific enthusiast…

Well, At Least They’re Forthright About It

Disclaimer – possibly mandated by a legal settlement, or at least to avoid one – on the back of one of those infamous Wii knockoffs you always see in drugstores this time of year. Seen via Siliconera.