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  Level Up and Unlock Achievements By Skiing in Colorado

  Starting this November five popular ski slopes in Colorado, Nevada and California will start tracking powder time to award skiers achievements pins and the ability to level up. EpicMix goes live on all but one of Vail Resports’ slopes this coming ski season. Keystone, which opens on Nov. 5, will be the first to see…

  By Brian Crecente Published September 22, 2010
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  Pinball Machines: Film’s Most Omnipresent Villain

  Here’s the deal about pinball: It’s not such an innocent game. In fact, for more than three decades, it was illegal in much of America. From Los Angeles, to Chicago, to New York City, police “pinball squads” swept through gaming halls and gambling dens, confiscating thousands of machines in a series of Prohibition-style raids. The…

  Seth Porges Published September 22, 2010
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  How To Study The Hacker

  A New York University professor teaches a course in the history of hackers and hacking. Oh, to be back at NYU and be able to take interesting courses like this. The Atlantic Monthly presents a “syllabus-as-essay” from Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist and assistant professor who teaches Hacker Culture & Politics at NYU. An excerpt from…

  By Stephen Totilo Published September 22, 2010
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Are you finished talking about video games? No? Well, okay then. Talk about them here. Or call in and talk about them on the podcast later, if you’re brave. Thanks to The_Saint for today’s Rubens riff. Get your own name in lights here by submitting a great image to #TAYpics

  By Stephen Totilo Published September 22, 2010
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  Let’s Chat Games!

  Don’t forget. Mark your clock! Today’s podcast day. Drop by at 1 p.m. eastern, 10 a.m. pacific to chat about Civ V, achievement ski bums and, inevitably, Dante’s hair

  By Brian Crecente Published September 22, 2010
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  This Is Noisy

  To: Brian From: Luke Last year, I moved into a brand new house in a brand new suburb. Pros: everything in the thing was brand new. The cons? The suburb is a work in progress, a point which came screaming through my bedroom window this morning at 6am when the block next to mine, empty…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 22, 2010
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  Wesker’s Spidey-Sense Is Tingling

  One of Marvel’s most cherished heroes and one of Capcom’s most persistent villains face off in these new screens for upcoming fighter Marvel vs Capcom 3.

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 22, 2010
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  Bringing Dead Rising 2’s Dirt Bike To Life

  British firm Head First, not content with designing the front cover for the upcoming Dead Rising 2, figured a more enjoyable way to commemorate the game’s release would be to build a replica of protagonist Chuck Greene’s dirt bike. This involved taking a real dirt bike, stripping it back to its bare bones, repainting everything…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 22, 2010
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  Your Consoles Are Not Made In A Happy Place

  That’s not street art. Those are the “suicide nets” erected at console manufacturer Foxconn’s Longhua complex in Shenzen, China. Part of a great read over on BusinessWeek

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 22, 2010
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  See Starcraft II’s Update In Action

  Starcraft II’s first official patch, v1.1, is now ready for download, and changes, they have been made. Such tweaks are hard to visualise in your head, however, so let’s look at a video guide to them instead. YouTube user PsyStarcraft has posted this handy guide to the updates made to many of the game’s units,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 22, 2010
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  Indies, You Might Soon Be Able To Make Kinect Games, Just Like Those Other Guys

  Right now, the only people who have access to Microsoft’s Kinect development tools are larger, established studios. Microsoft is trying to expand that group to include indie developers, though the emphasis at this stage is still on “trying”. “When [the indie] community will light up, we don’t have a date lined up yet” Microsoft’s Phil…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 22, 2010
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  Retro Games vs Modern Games, To The Death!

  This is 8BITS. It’s a stunning piece of animation – and I’m not making this up – manifesting the struggle between the games of yesterday and the game’s of today. It’s tradition versus industry. Persistence versus greed. And since this is a story, and not a documentary, you already know who comes out on top.…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 22, 2010
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  The Dante That Almost Was

  No matter how much you may hate the new punk look of Devil May Cry’s Dante, keep in mind it could have been worse. When developers Ninja Theory were asked by Capcom to come up with a new look for the star of a reboot of the popular action game, now known only as DmC,…

  By Brian Crecente Published September 22, 2010
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  Blizzard Making Its Own Starcraft II Mods

  Blizzard is making mods for Starcraft II. Does that still make them mods? I don’t think so, I think it just makes them updates, but hey, if mods are what Blizzard wants to call them, then mods it is. Lead designer Dustin Browder tells Game Informer “We’ve got some mods we’ve developed internally that we’re…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 22, 2010
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  EVE Online Prepares For An Incursion

  The deadly Sansha’s Nation aims to create its own utopia, taking down any pilots who get in its way in EVE Online: Incursion, the latest expansion for CCP’s outer space MMO, due out in November. Players will join public fleets in massive battles to fend off the Sansha incursion, giving those of us who dabble…

  By Mike Fahey Published September 22, 2010
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  Monster Hands or MiniChuk?

  These pack of diminutive Wii remote and nunchuk is too cute for words… so I shot a video instead. The Miniremote has LED illuminated action buttons, a textured rubber grip and is a third smaller than the much less cute Nintendo remote. The MiniChuk has a click-free thumb button and formed rubber grip. The pack…

  By Brian Crecente Published September 22, 2010
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  China’s Game Machine Slaughter House

  While it appears that nearly all of these 600 video game machines are used for gambling, it doesn’t make their death at the hand of Chinese police any less tragic. I can see copies of World of Warcraft going into a bonfire next. Contraband [Time, thanks Kyle]

  By Brian Crecente Published September 22, 2010
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  Boomerangs? Beat Gauntlets? Guitar Rock! A Look at Dynasty Warriors Online

  Is mowing down hundreds of enemies, like cutting through grass with a scythe, your kinda thing? Then you’re probably looking forward to Aeria’s Dynasty Warriors Online which is packed with weapons and enemies who stand like chaff on the field of battle, waiting to be knocked down. If these screens, and the concept for this…

  By Brian Crecente Published September 22, 2010
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  Weta Is Making Halo: Reach ATVs (And You Can Have One)

  Weta Workship, the New Zealand studio that specializes in fantastical concept design and manufacturing, the team responsible for making a drivable Halo Warthog, is making more Halo vehicles. Exactly two Mongoose-style ATVs. And you can win one. Microsoft has tapped Weta to make a pair of working Halo: Reach Mongoose ATVs that “look and sound”…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 21, 2010
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  A Master Storyteller

  Hello, Kotaku. Would you like to join us for some off-topic conversation? Would you like to start with some apps? Maybe a few jalapeno poppers or an Awesome Blossom(TM)? Speaking of Awesome Blossoms(TM), while the above photo represents the opening course of my recent dinner with Team Ninja, it’s become something of a tradition for…

  By Michael McWhertor Published September 21, 2010