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Sniping
To: Ash From: Crecente Re: What Guns Have You Fired? Yeah, I’m not really into guns either, but my dad and step-dad are. Both collect them, both served in the military. I’ve fired a myriad of different handguns, several shot guns, an MP5 on full auto, sniper rifles, machine guns. I even own an old…
By Brian Crecente Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
Studio Ghibli’s Gorgeous Ni no Kuni Gets Hands-on At Tokyo Game Show
We’re just a few weeks away from the 2010 Tokyo Game Show and publishers are started to tout their wares. Professor Layton and Dragon Quest developer Level-5 is one of the first to announce its plans… and they’re exciting! Most exciting is that its collaboration with animation experts Studio Ghibli, Ni no Kuni: The Another…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
Madden NFL Superstars Launches on Facebook
Madden NFL Superstars, a Facebook card-and-management game anticipated for several months, went live to the public earlier today. The free-to-play game resembles June’s FIFA Superstars in structure while borrowing elements from the popular Madden Ultimate Team of the console game. In the game (accessible here), players assemble a team through acquiring packs of cards, which…
By Owen Good Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
Consoles From Cashews?
It may sound nuts, but a new bioplastic being developed by Japan’s NEC Corp. using cashews could change the way electronics are manufactured in the future. Of course normal plastic changed the way electronics and just about everything else is manufactured, but the convenience comes with a price. Synthetic plastics often contain toxic materials. The…
By Mike Fahey Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
Sonic Adventure Sprints To XBLA In September
Sega’s “Return of the Dreamcast” starts in September with the re-release of Sonic Adventure on Xbox Live Arcade. Microsoft has put a Sept. 15 release date on the Dreamcast to PC to XBLA port. A PlayStation Network version is also planned.
By Michael McWhertor Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
Bangai-O Brings The Missile Fury To Xbox Live Arcade
Treasure’s classic puzzle-shooter for the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast gets the big-screen sequel it deserves this fall with Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury for Xbox Live Arcade. Giant robots and fruit for everyone! Bangai-O Spirits for the DS was okay, but nothing less than a full HD sequel could truly satisfy fans of the original game,…
By Mike Fahey Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
In Search Of The First Video Game Gun
What was the first video game gun? There are three ways to try to answer that question. Originally, when we set out to identify gaming’s first gun for our Gun Week here at Kotaku, we looked for the first video game to show a gun. The video game historians we talked to mentioned 1975’s Gun…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
Frankenreview: Metroid Other M
After all these years of spelling Metroid a certain way, Nintendo and Team Ninja go and pull an Other M on us. How will the assembled video game critics handle this new consonant? Of course there’s more to the new Metroid than another M. The team behind Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden are on…
By Mike Fahey Published August 31, 2010 -
UncategorizedJames Bond’s Blood Stone Adventure In Istanbul
Bizarre Creations’ take on seminal super spy James Bond is looking better, bigger and just more Bond-like. Or so my recent hands-off time with the cinematic action game, James Bond 007: Blood Stone, at Gamescom made me think. Publisher Activision’s newest trailer of James Bond 007: Blood Stone gives us a more explosive, more boiled-down…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
MythBusters Looking To Tackle The Science of Video Games
MythBusters, the science-fact television show that started life on the Discovery Channel, has put hundreds of rumors, myths and adages to the test. In the future, they will be tackling the fact and fiction of video games. So said MythBusters co-star Adam Savage at Comic-Con 2010. Addressing an interested MythBusters fan’s request to see, say,…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 31, 2010 -
UncategorizedGetting Shot: A 103-Second Retrospective
What’s it look like to get shot in a video game? The portrait of pain has been changing over the years. We took a bullet in 18 years’ worth of games to bring you this montage. Isn’t it amazing how getting shot has evolved over the years in video games? We’ve gone from a grunting…
By Mike Fahey Published August 31, 2010 -
UncategorizedGunfusion: More Info Than We Need To Know, Boss
Sometimes, the obsession with guns in video games gets ridiculous. So we’re celebrating acts of “gunfusion.” The entertaining Metal Gear Solid series is gun-crazy. (It is!) Here’s the ultimate more-detail-than-necessary discussion of a gun, from MGS3, at the four-minute mark.
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2010 -
UncategorizedBuilding The Perfect Kill House With Video Games
Armed with M-4 automatic rifles, swathed in body armor and combat fatigues, the five man U.S. Special Forces Airborne entry team stacks up outside the entrance to the house. An explosion sends bits of the door flying inside. The men slide through the still-smoking opening, fanning to the right and left, guns up, safeties off,…
By Brian Crecente Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
Fake Diamonds Vs. A Four-Page Instruction Manual
Andy and Chris are going to Seattle this weekend. They are going to the Penny Arcade Expo where they will share a booth and let the public, for the first time, try their games. Things are looking good.. for Andy. Andy and Chris are Andy Schatz and Chris Hecker, veterans of big video game companies…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
The Hidden Pattern Of Video Game Scare Stories
Media coverage of violent video games spikes twice every year in the same months, April and November, according to “data journalist” David McCandless. In a recent TED talk, McCandless showed charts that he believes reveal the patterns and rhythms of recurring stories reported by the media to an anxious public. The video game bit starts…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
Half Life Remake Black Mesa Tantalizingly Previewed
“Is Black Mesa the ultimate Half Life mod?” That’s the question Atomic MPC asked after going hands-on with a near-final build of the eagerly anticipated Half Life Black Mesa mod. I’m so jealous. The front page of the dev team’s website has us calling the mod “hot shit,” yet still they tease. It’s been years…
By Mike Fahey Published August 31, 2010 -
ReviewsDead Rising 2: Case Zero Review: The Case Of The Zombie-Killing Demo
I have downed alcohol until vomiting, I have halved zombies crown to crotch. I have wielded an electrified rake. I am Chuck Greene: The zombie apocalypse’s worst nightmare. Xbox 360 exclusive Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is meant to be a prequel to the full Dead Rising 2 game due out on Sept. 28. In…
By Brian Crecente Published August 31, 2010 - Uncategorized
The Video Game Ad Too Violent For Print?
As mentioned in our recent History of Headshots article, the 2000 video game Soldier of Fortune was a pioneer — a bloody pioneer — in the technological art of connecting a gamer’s virtual gun with various enemy body parts. This ad, which I’m told by a tipster was scuttled by Soldier of Fortune publisher Activision…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 31, 2010 -
UncategorizedMicrosoft Reveals New 360 Controller With Transforming D-Pad
The Xbox 360 controller gets a little more fighter friendly later this year, with a new version featuring a transforming d-pad and monochrome buttons hitting stores on November 9. So what’s a transforming d-pad? As Major Nelson demonstrates in the video below, users can change the new Xbox 360 controller’s directional pad from a flat…
By Mike Fahey Published August 31, 2010