- Uncategorized
Kotaku Off Topic: Raw Thrills
It’s Friday night and we’re feeling a little “off topic” right now, so let’s take a sharp turn from our regularly scheduled video game conversation and discuss other nerdy delights: film, music, comics, science, food, whatever you choose. Me? I’m going to talk about food for a minute, which may be the new rule: Friday…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
PSP Still Winning The War In Japan
The PlayStation Portable may not have had another stellar performance on par with its showing in Japan last week, but the PSP is still resting comfortably atop the country’s hardware chart. Sony’s portable managed to move another 39,125 units in Japan last week, according to sales tracker Media Create, outselling the Nintendo DS platform by…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Game Developers Conference 2010, As Told To Twitter
What was everybody (on Twitter) talking about during this year’s GDC? Game researcher Jesper Juul offers his annual look at the most tweeted highlights from the week of GDC, during which “pocket protector” was a surprisingly hot topic. Back from Game Developers Conference 2010 and trying to get my bearings like everybody else. On the…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Beyond Sonic The Hedgehog: These May Be The New Sega All-Stars
Sonic the Hedgehog may be Sega’s most recognizable cash cow—those Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games titles are huge—but the successes of Bayonetta, Total War and Football Manager may represent the new wave of Sega’s key franchises. Sega bigwig Mike Hayes tells CVG in an interview that has designs on “sequelizing” many of its…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Everybody Loves The Panda
From: McWhertor To: Ashcraft Re: Your Favorite Animal Is… Did you really go to the zoo? Or was that just Night Note code for “I’m going to sit on the couch watching French films and pounding sake”? If you did, here’s an uninteresting factoid: my most recent zoo excursion occurred in Japan at the Ueno…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Pikmin 3 “Well Underway” Says Miyamoto
Nintendo designer and Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto was in London today to pick up his BAFTA fellowship award, an honor he reciprocated by delivering his acceptance speech in pure English. What did Miyamoto have to say, specifically about Pikmin? According to the tweet-reporting of the Official Nintendo Magazine UK, Mr. Miyamoto offered the briefest…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Keeps 2D Fighting Alive This Summer
North American fans of the two-dimensional fighting game will get their fisticuffs fix with the release of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this summer, the follow up to last year’s BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. While not a full-fledged sequel to Calamity Trigger, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift’s incremental updates—three new playable characters, Tsubaki, μ-12…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
What else? God of War III was released this week and, despite my initial apathy toward playing through another God of War game, I’m excited. That’s why I’ll be trading in a bunch of games this weekend. Oh, I’ve got a few spare copies of games that are unlikely to ever see the inside of…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Review Round-Up: Yakuza Greed, Street Fighter Max
With the use of some red ink and some blue ink, we reviewed some video games this week. Links to the results are below. How’d we do? Brother In Arms 2 Micro-Review: Oh, Brother Where Art Thou? In which Brian Ashcraft could have sworn he was playing Thumbs: The Game Scrap Metal Micro-Review: There’s a…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
To Do In Atlanta: Momocon – Anime, Comics, Gaming, And Kotaku
If you’re in the Atlanta area this weekend, you’d be remiss if you didn’t stop by MomoCon, the largest free admission fan convention in North America, featuring anime, manga, gaming, comics, and a special Sunday panel session with yours truly. MomoCon is a free fan convention with a focus on video games, anime, costuming, manga,…
By Mike Fahey Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
PixelJunk Expansion Channels Demon’s Souls, Of All Things
The stylish, HD-retro PixelJunk games are among the highlights on the PlayStation platform. But another cult favorite, Demon’s Souls, beat the series to its latest clever innovation. The spring update to the first PixelJunk game, PixelJunk Racers, will add the ability for players to summon and race against the ghost of any player on their…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Repo Men—Now Playing Everywhere
In this futuristic action-thriller, Jude Law and Forest Whitaker star as repossession experts for The Union who collect artificial organs from their past due recipients. In theaters now! After a freak accident, Remy finds himself fitted with a top-of-the-line heart-replacement—-and a hefty debt. The hunter soon becomes the hunted, as Remy goes on the run…
By Gawkercreative Published March 19, 2010 - Tips & Guides
FarmVille How To: The Tips and Tricks of The Farming Masters
With around 82 million players worldwide, odds are at some point you’re going to be playing the hit Facebook game, FarmVille. Kotaku went directly to Zynga’s FarmVille team for tips and tricks on harvesting your way to the top. While I’ve merely dabbled in FarmVille myself, being more of a Petville man, it’s hard to…
By Mike Fahey Published March 19, 2010 -
UncategorizedModNation Racers Was My Favorite Low-Expectation Game Of The Show
I care little for kart-racing games and seldom generate any user-generated content. So, to be honest, I did not rush at the chance I was given last week to play ModNation Racers at Game Developer’s Conference 2010. My mistake. ModNation Racers is indeed a kart-racing game built on a foundation that supports and encourages user-generated…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Puzzle Quest 2 Playable At PAX East, And So Are We
The eagerly anticipated follow-up to the game that launched the puzzle-RPG genre, Puzzle Quest, will be playable at PAX East next weekend, if you can manage to pry us away from the controls. Now I can’t speak for Stephen Totilo, my partner in PAX crime, but Puzzle Quest is more than a game for me.…
By Mike Fahey Published March 19, 2010 -
UncategorizedApple Bans Game, Days After Developer Publicly Trashes App Store
Last week, game developer Tommy Refenes publicly called Apple’s app store “awful” and “horrible.” This week, Apple yanked his game from their store. There are a couple of reasons that may have compelled Apple to remove Zits & Giggles, a pimple-popping game for the iPhone and iPod Touch, from the App store: Possibility 1: Its…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Now Everyone Can Be A Lord Of Ultima
EA’s web-based strategy revival of classic RPG series Ultima has entered open beta, with thousands of players fortifying their towns for the inevitable invasion by everyone imaginable. Will you join the fray? The original Ultima was a series of PC role-playing games with rich stories and deep character development, so disappointment over Lord of Ultima…
By Mike Fahey Published March 19, 2010 - Reviews
Street Fighter IV iPhone Review: A Party For One
Street Fighter IV was an exuberant return to the days of classic arcade fighters. It was a game designed specifically to reel back in aging gamers who once dropped pounds of quarters on virtual tournament in arcades around the world. But, it turns out, many of those aging gamers don’t have consoles and aren’t planning…
By Brian Crecente Published March 19, 2010 -
UncategorizedThe Spectacular Downhill Chair Racing of Slider in Motion
I had a chance to virtually chair-run my way through the downhill streets of a virtual city last week using the Playstation Move controller. But words don’t adequately describe how strange this game looks in motion. This is the sort of thing I’d like to see more of on the Playstation Move.
By Brian Crecente Published March 19, 2010