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  Team Fortress 2 Engineer Update Day One: Let Those Golden Wrenches Fly

  It’s Engineer Update Day One, and twenty-five lucky Team Fortress 2 Engineers have already found themselves on the receiving end of the fabled Golden Wrench, forever enshrined in the Official Wrench Log. Only seventy-five remain. Do you have the golden touch? Now I have to be honest here: I’ve not been following the lead-up to…

  By Mike Fahey Published July 5, 2010
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  We’re Huge in the UK

  As seen in the UK’s Sunday Times. [Thanks Paul]

  By Brian Crecente Published July 5, 2010
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  You Can Get The New 360 In Colors Other Than Black

  If you’re willing to pay a little extra, that is. Sensing correctly that there are some prospective purchasers of the Xbox 360 S not happy with its glossy black colour scheme, custom electronics firm Colorware are reminding the world that you can get a new 360 in its “classic” shade of white. Or blue. Or…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2010
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  All the FarmVille You Can Eat

  Uber popular real-time farming sim FarmVille has players grow their own fruits and vegetables. That’s a game. In real life, people buy crap from convenience stores. As previously mentioned, FarmVille has a cross-promotion at convenience store chain 7-Eleven with FarmVille branded snacks. The cross-promotion also features in-game FarmVille items that include a sandwich cart, a…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 5, 2010
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  You Don’t Need A Continental Congress When You’ve Got An Australian

  The United States had to fight a long and bloody struggle to gain independence from Britain. They should have just done things the Australian way, it’d all have been over with a single stamp. Thanks Zak Canard!

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2010
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  What Makes American Games “American”?

  This weekend was July 4, Independence Day. It’s America’s biggest national holiday. And it’s got me thinking about American games — namely, as this post title indicates, what makes American games “American”? Sure, the fact that Americans made them makes them American by default. There are obvious games to point to, like Madden football. The…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 5, 2010
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  This is Kotaku

  Hey there! Welcome to Kotaku. Sit back, have a drink, let me show you around the place. Kotaku might be best known for its up-to-the second video game news coverage, or its deep dive into video game culture, or the news it breaks, but it’s so much more. Kotaku is the gamer’s guide to everything,…

  By Brian Crecente Published July 5, 2010
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  When Mars Declared Independence From Britain

  Upcoming title Jamestown has very little to do with the early colonization of North America, and everything to do with four-player co-op on 17th-century British colonial Mars. Yup, it’s the 1600s and Britain has taken possession of the planet Mars. Sounds like an excuse to use muskets against Martians, but instead, Jamestown is a retro-themed…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2010
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Some of us have the day off today, but don’t let that stop you from talking here about video games. Go for it! Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ

  By Stephen Totilo Published July 5, 2010
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  Your NBA 2K10-Illustrated Guide to the LeBronathon

  NBA superstar LeBron James convened a six-team pitch summit over the long weekend and could soon choose his next club. Thanks to the magic of video games, we can see what all potential outcomes look like. While James’ choice will assuredly remake the NBA landscape, its effect on games is not so profound. Of course…

  By Owen Good Published July 5, 2010
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  Coming To America

  To: Crecente From: Bashcraft Soon, very soon, Mrs. Bashcraft and Mini-Bash will board an airplane for the U.S. It will be the first time that either has gone to America without me. The purpose of the trip? For them to learn English and about America. The reason why I’m not going is that whenever we…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 5, 2010
• Reviews

  Crackdown 2 Review: Shoot First, Leap Buildings Later

  Crackdown 2 poses a question players have subconsciously been answering since their first contact with a controller or joystick: Would you rather spend your time in a video game jumping? Or shooting? Three years ago with little preceding hype, Microsoft released the marvelous Crackdown, a gameplay-centric game created by Real Time Worlds and overseen by…

  By Stephen Totilo Published July 5, 2010
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  Activision Wants “More Value” For Call Of Duty Xbox Live Players

  The Call of Duty games have a massive multiplayer following on Xbox 360. But is the series going to make the leap to a massively multiplayer online game? Nothing is confirmed yet. “We’ve heard that 60 per cent of [Microsoft’s] subscribers are principally on Live because of Call of Duty,” Activision Blizzard honcho Robert Kotick…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 5, 2010
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  Metal Gear Solid Creator Poses With Cosplayers

  Hideo Kojima, best known for making Metal Gear Solid games, is in France for the Japan Expo. He is posing with cosplayers, and pointing a plastic gun at one guy’s face. Don’t point guns at people, kids! This cosplay of MGS character Raiden doesn’t just get the thumbs up from Hideo Kojima, it gets the…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 5, 2010
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  Video Game Beard Wars: The Winners

  For the past few days, the video game industry has waged a beard war in our inbox, grown men doing battle not with fists or firearms, but with braids, themes and names. Names for their beards. What began as an innocent request for challengers last week has become an expedition into the darkest recesses of…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2010
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  First Look At Super Street Fighter IV On An Arcade Cabinet

  When Super Street Fighter IV was originally revealed, it was not slated for arcades. But Street Fighter and arcades are inseparable, people said. Those people were right. Earlier this March, Super Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono told Kotaku that the company had no plans for an arcade release because Capcom felt that there was…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 5, 2010
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  Kinect’s Simple, Purple Box Art

  Some Xbox marketing material we got hold of over the weekend shows what looks like the box art for the Xbox 360’s upcoming motion-sensing camera, Kinect. It’s no game, sure, but box art is both an art and for some a fetish (especially with novel stuff like this), so here it is (along with that…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2010
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  CultureTotal Recall

  A Quick Look Back At Sega 3D

  While companies like Sony and Nintendo are pushing 3D, the technology is not new. In movies, 3D was used in attempts to attract theatergoers that had dwindled during the 1950s as the diffusion of televisions increased. For gaming, Nintendo tried (unsuccessfully) to release its own 3D headset, the Virtual Boy, in 1995. It was a…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 5, 2010
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  Celebrate American Independence With Some Video Games

  Enjoying your day off, Americans? Why not enjoy it with video games where you fight for your nation’s independence. Or the continuation of British rule! It’s 2010, we’re cool either way. There are plenty of games out there involving a struggle for American independence against foreign oppressors or invaders, some of them historical, some of…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2010
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  Indiana Jones Disneyland Attraction Recreated in Left 4 Dead 2

  Disneyland attraction “Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye” has been recreated by a modder in zombie first-person-shooter Left 4 Dead 2. The name? You guessed it, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Zombies. It does feature zombies, but the walk through in the video does not. It’s part of a modded map pack…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 5, 2010