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Tacit Dissent: Why Great Characters Must Speak
The issue of silence in Half-Life or Fallout 3 has a long discussion history, but one critic doesn’t consider it a virtue. Stripping the voice from a main character is “a pathway into madness and schlocky conceits,” he says. Sean Sands, writing for Gamers With Jobs, says the forced silence of a character like Gordon…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: What’s He Really Playing? Edition
Two weeks ago, MTV Multiplayer’s Russ Frushtick invited Project Runway‘s Tim Gunn over to critique Mario’s fashion sense – and blast on some virtual big game. And as a ‘shop goes, this should be like shooting fish in a barrel. So, your mission should be apparent. Bear (har har) in mind that Gunn is an…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Your Final Shot at 100 Gamerscore Just for Showing Up [Update]
Friendly reminder that beginning in about 30 minutes, Xbox 360 Achievements.org is staging one last run on NBA Live 07’s “Online with 1,000 People” achievement. This is the last chance to do it before EA shuts down the servers on Tuesday. The boosting session starts at 1 p.m. U.S. Eastern/10 a.m. U.S. Pacific. Trueachievements.com said…
By Owen Good -
- Culture
Sunday Comics
Penny Arcade published Jan. 27 PvPonline published Jan. 29 ActionTrip published Jan. 25 Digital Unrest published Jan. 25 EXTRALIFE published Jan. 26 GU Comics published Jan. 27 Dotgif published Jan. 25 Ctrl+Alt+Del published Jan. 27 Dueling Analogs published Jan. 28 Nerf NOW published Jan. 25 Rooster Teeth published Jan. 26 Monday Night Crew published Jan.…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Kotaku Off Topic: Mr. T vs. a Door
How many takes did Mr. T need to deliver his lines after that door-busting shot? The dude is 57 and you clearly see the pain on his face. It’s like he’s in the onset of a myocardial infarction. Another YouTube sensation – Ernie Anastos of WNYW-TV in New York, best known for the “Keep f***ing…
By Owen Good -
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Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: iSlate iPad Edition Winners
Much better! Week two of Kotaku’s ‘Shop Contest went more smoothly than our debut, with several dozen entries conceiving of what games on the iPad would be like before we found out on Wednesday. Our alternate source image, of Pyramid Head and a vacuum cleaner, produced fewer entries. Here’s a gallery of the 20 best,…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Bungie Definitively Shuts Down Halo: Reach/Natal Speculation
Rumors that Halo: Reach might be Natal-enabled were close to flatlining of late, but the subject never got a flat-out “no.” Well, now it has. The studio says emphatically that it is not a Natal title. That’s the newsy news out of a fun-filled “mythbusters” post Bungie put up about Halo: Reach’s development. Natal rumors…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
System Shock 2’s Surprise Ending — for Ken Levine, Anyway
Widely acclaimed when it released in 1999, System Shock 2’s cinematic conclusion nonetheless disappointed Irrational Games creative chief Ken Levine. The reason: The video that was shot wasn’t anything like what he had scripted. “Due to miscommunications or differing ideas, a different cinematic video was created from the one that I originally scripted,” Levine says…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Three New Screens for EA Sports MMA … Plus a Broadcast?
Three new screens of EA Sports MMA show Bobby Lashley – fighting tonight at Strikeforce Miami – is another fighter signed to the title. In another development, EA Sports‘ web site will stream one of tonight’s bouts live, for free. The live stream starts at 9 p.m. U.S. Eastern time (6 p.m. Pacific) and will…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
GameStop: We Must Educate Customers About DLC
GameStop’s chief operating officer says the company must embrace downloadable content for the games it sells and educate its customers on its benefits, calling such a posture critical to the company’s survival. Speaking at the Game Business Law conference at Southern Methodist University, J. Paul Raines said the DLC market could see considerable growth immediately,…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
The Replacements, Still Replaced in Video Games
Fifteen years ago, in the infancy of console sports simulations, 38 baseball players made a choice that would ensure they would never appear in a video game. Only five of them remain in the major leagues. They crossed a picket line, an act of war to organized labor, by signing replacement player contracts with Major…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Win a Football Autographed by an NFL Star
This isn’t Super Bowl weekend, it’s Pro Bowl weekend. And to liven up what is otherwise light-hitting exhibition football action, we’ve got a memorabilia giveaway courtesy of Quick Hit Football. Quick Hit, whom I’ve written about before, is the free online American football strategy simulation. They have five current NFL players appearing in the game,…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Disgaea Infinite to Hit North American PSPs in May
NIS America‘s latest Prinny Bomb communication announces that Disgaea Infinite is on the way to North America. We’ll see it in May. This will be NIS’s first visual novel, a popular genre in Japan, published in the United States. According to the announcement, players can play with a Prinny as the main character, and they…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Weekend Coupons: Spread the Savings
No real theme to this week’s deals, but that means there’s a wide array of cheap stuff being offered out there – some of it meh, most of it good. Hardware • 360 console update: Best Buy has the Elite with free Madden NFL and an extra controller ($76 bonus value, ends this Sat. 1/30),…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Courtney Love Now Says Cobain Would’ve Been Cool With Guitar Hero 5
Professional widow Courtney Love, PO’d at Activision for how Kurt Cobain of Nirvana is presented in Guitar Hero 5, says Cobain probably would have found his game appearance amusing. But since he’s dead she gets to do all the suin’. Telling the U.K.’s NME magazine, Love characteristically spewed filth-flarn-flarn-filth when passing along this update. What…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Kotaku Originals: iPad the Score
Apple’s unveiling of a tablet PC threatened to crowd out the rest of the games and devices news this week, but we didn’t let that stop us from delivering our usual slate of reports, reviews and rumors. iPad Hands On With Apple’s iPad, Everything But The Games iPad Doubts: A Gamer’s Problems With Apple’s Wonder…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves
Looks like George is late for both the iPad announcement and the State of the Union. Who schedules these things in January, anyway? It’s not a convenient month for travel. But it’s always a convenient time for Kotaku’s open thread. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.
By Owen Good