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Kotaku Off Topic: Uninterrupted
After giving Kotaku Off Topic a few days off, let’s get back into the week with some conversation that doesn’t have to be about video games if you don’t want it to be. Movies, music, toys, fashion, politics. Cut loose. Even if you want to tell us about the excursions or events of your weekend,…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Someone’s Gonna Buy a R.O.B. for Four Grand
This display case, containing a pristine, never-played Nintendo Entertainment System, and a never-used Robotic Operating Buddy (we like to be formal on first reference here) fetched $4,150 in an eBay auction that just closed. For those who remember when the console first came out, this would be the Deluxe Set, which included the console and…
By Owen Good Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Mafia II Hands-On: The Scenic Route Is Full Of Centerfolds
What differentiates Mafia II from other open world gangster games, especially Take-Two’s other popular driving and delinquency-filled Grand Theft Auto series? For one, Mafia II runs things at a slower, simpler place. It also has Playboy Playmates. You may already know about 2K Games’ partnership with Playboy, but unless you have already played Mafia II,…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
A New Marathon Trademark? What’s That Pfhor?
One week ago Bungie filed a new trademark application for Marathon, the FPS superstar of Mac gaming’s brief apogee during the mid- to late-1990s. There are few details beyond that but the paperwork’s enough to stoke fantasies of a reboot. It’s definitely Bungie filing it, though the application notes the first use in commerce was…
By Owen Good Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Sony: Passing On Demon’s Souls “A Mistake”
Sony Computer Entertainment published From Software’s brilliant Demon’s Souls in its native Japan, but when it came time to take it westward, it was up to publisher Atlus to step forward and localize the PS3 game. “That was a mistake.” So says Sony Computer Entertainment VP of international software Yeonkyung Kim, according to 1UP’s account…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Multiplayer Fix for MLB 2K10 Could Arrive This Week
A fix correcting a debilitating dead-end bug for players connecting to random ranked matches in MLB 2K10 could go live as early as this week. The patch addressing the error contains a multitude of other fixes as well. On its forums, 2K Sports has published the patch notes. There are a lot of cosmetic changes…
By Owen Good Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD First Look At The Inevitable Re-purchase
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, the Nintendo DS strategy-RPG that went under-appreciated—and under-purchased—by too many last year, is getting a second chance on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in 2010. How’s it looking? Damn good, based on our hands-off preview of developer Capy’s high-definition upgrade to Clash of Heroes. The game’s hand animated…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Joanna Dark Returns, GTA: San Andreas Goes Cheap On XBLA This Week
Perfect Dark keeps Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade Block Party going, with the re-release of Rare’s 10-year-old first-person shooter hitting the Xbox 360 this Wednesday. Also, available, damn good deals on Xbox Originals. If you’re looking to spend exactly 800 Microsoft Points on downloadable video games this week, you have four new choices: Perfect Dark in…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Backstage Access with Kotaku, Ko, Ko, Ko-taku
To: Ash From: Crecente Last week was insane and things don’t show any signs of letting up anytime soon. Our GDC coverage marched right through the weekend and will continue well into the week with plenty of big stories including interviews with some huge names like Reggie Fils-Aime. We also had some interesting news out…
By Brian Crecente Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
What Are Halo Creators Making With ‘Bungie Aerospace’?
Halo creators Bungie are cooking up something new, something that, despite its new name, may not actually follow in the trail blazed by id Software’s John Carmack and involve shooting rockets into space. So what is Bungie Aerospace? Well, it’s not much more than a trademark spotted by Attack of the Fanboy while many of…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
NCAA Video Game Picks Kentucky, but Trouble Lies Beneath
A tournament simulation I did with NCAA Basketball 10 returns a believable national championship – Kentucky 88, Kansas 82 – but the rest reads like 3/4ths of the brackets in your average pool: Lots of chalk, and several WTF upsets. Yesterday, after suffering with plugging in this year’s 64 teams (the sim does not include…
By Owen Good Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Final Fantasy Director’s Take On Western Vs. Japanese RPGs
How does Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama explain the difference between Japanese-designed role-playing games and their western counterparts? By pointing out the divide between classic RPGs like Tomb Raider, Hitman and Final Fantasy. I know what you’re thinking. “Tomb Raider and Hitman aren’t western RPGs!” But Toriyama’s argument was that western gamers—or, more specifically,…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
ModNation Dated, Kratos, Ratchet & Clank, And Nathan Drake Join The Race
Want to know how to get Ratchet & Clank, Kratos, and Nathan Drake figures for ModNation Racers when it hits stores on May 25? It all depends on which retailer you preorder the game from. Don’t you love retailer-exclusive preorder bonuses? Me neither, but Sony seems to enjoy them, so much so that the company…
By Mike Fahey Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Call of Duty For The Rest Of Them
There are people who can’t play Call of Duty. Maybe, according to a flight of fancy proposed last week at the Game Developers Conference, those people could at least help us CoD players out. The theory was explained during a panel at GDC 2010 entitled Sporadic Play: The History And Future Of Making Games For…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 15, 2010 -
UncategorizedSuperbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, The Cool Thing At GDC
I wish I’d seen Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP for the iPhone/iPod Touch at the start of last week’s Game Developers Conference, instead of at the end, so that I could better answer the event’s most commonly asked question. It’s the best response to the frequent smalltalk question “So, did you see anything cool at…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
The Hunt For Sam Fisher Begins On Facebook
Third Echelon’s best agent has gone rogue, and they’ve turned to Facebook for help tracking down Sam Fisher. Where would you go if you were a top secret government agency trying to track down a traitor? MySpace? Please. Even super spies need social networking. The National Security Administration’s Third Echelon is on the hunt for…
By Mike Fahey Published March 15, 2010 - Uncategorized
Should Windows Phone 7 Offer Easy Achievements?
One of the stories I told to a few people at the Game Developers Conference was about the bright idea I had on Tuesday about a psychological trick Microsoft could play, if they wanted to. I guessed that this company, eager to sell the world its new cell phone platform — and therefore probably convert…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 15, 2010 -
UncategorizedThe Super Championship Edition Mash Up That Is Pac-Man Battle Royale
What is Pac-Man Battle Royale? This week’s Amusement Expo in Vegas explains it all with a playable four-player Pac-Man face off that borrows from both Pac-Man Championship Edition and Super Pac-Man to interesting results. Arcade Heroes captured first footage of the newest multiplayer Pac-Man arcade “come back”, giving us a good idea of how it…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 15, 2010