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Hotel Dusk Developer Goes Bankrupt
Founded in 1999 and best known for mystery game Hotel Dusk, Cing filed for bankruptcy on March 1. The company is over 200 million yen in debt. Besides Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Fukuoka-based Cing also developed Wii title Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories and partnered with Town Factory for Little King’s…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 8, 2010 - Uncategorized
Portal 2 Coming To A Mac Near You
The issue of Game Informer blowing the lid off Valve’s Portal 2 is now in people’s hands, and those people are scouring it for details. Most important of which is confirmation the game is going to be available on Mac. Not the world’s greatest surprise, what with Valve’s not-so-subtle teasing last week, but the thing…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 8, 2010 - Uncategorized
Meet Bodycount, From The Creator Of Black
No, not that Body Count. The cover of the upcoming Official Xbox Magazine reveals Bodycount, the new shooter from the creators of first-person stylized shooter Black. Apparently, the game is being developed by a team at Codemasters Guildford that is lead by Stuart Black, who worked on Black, the shooter that shares his name. OXM…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 8, 2010 -
UncategorizedWatch A Man Start A Game On a PC, Continue On Windows 7 Phone, Finish on Xbox 360
Microsoft’s “Live Anywhere” concept, whereby Xbox Live can be shared across multiple platforms, isn’t quite yet with us. But when it is, it may look something like this. Speaking at TechEd Middle East, Microsoft’s Eric Rudder has shown off this demo of a platformer than is able to be played across a Windows 7 phone,…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 8, 2010 - Uncategorized
Activision, Explained
It’s March. For half of the globe the weather is getting warmer. It will be spring before you know it! And before then, there’s a week of tweets. The designer of Gears of War cheers on The Hurt Locker on Oscar night. Coincidence? Taito used to get people drunk. Hideo Kojima is now tweeting in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 8, 2010 - Uncategorized
Ubisoft’s New DRM System Falls Down, Locks Out Paying Customers
Hey, Ubisoft: when you force users to maintain an internet connection even when playing a singleplayer game offline, you’d damn well better make sure you hold up your end of the bargain. Having recently implemented a wildly unpopular new form of digital rights management for its PC titles, over the last few days Ubisoft released…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 8, 2010 - Uncategorized
Oscar Winning Film Features Xbox 360 Time Travel
Hurt Locker trounced the competition at the 82nd Academy Awards Sunday night, winning six Oscars. The movie has been called “near perfect” by critics. “Near perfect” as in not perfect? While there have already been discussions (more here) about the film’s technical inaccuracies, those pale in comparison to two far more erroneous mistakes. The film…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 8, 2010 - Uncategorized
Look Ma, Sudoku
To: Luke From: Owen Out for a jog on the Willamette today I was passed by a kid, riding no-hands on a BMX bike – and doing Sudoku. If that’s not multitasking, I don’t know what is. I’m off in about 10 days. I’ll be in here next weekend though. Here’s some highlights of this…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Uncategorized
Well, You Always Need an Extra Button
Billboard for Southern Polytechnic State University of Marietta, Ga., as seen by reader Ant just outside that city. The school, however, is not one of the top 50 game design programs recently ranked by the Princeton Review.
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Uncategorized
A-Ha! ESRB Outs Lips: I (Heart) the ’80s
Yes, yes, simmer down, I know you were all dying for another installment of konsole karaoke. Happily, the ESRB issued another of its fabulous spoiler alerts, letting us know we’ll be wailing along with one-hit wonders sometime soon. It’s rated T for “Lyrics, Mild Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco,” but any objectionable…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Uncategorized
Week in Games: Finally
This is Final Fantasy XIII’s week, as the game arrives in North America on PS3 and Xbox 360. Other releases of note: Assassin’s Creed II, DRM and all, on the PC, BlazBlue on PSP, and the BioShock 2 DLC. Let’s not forget Mega Man 10 on the PS3, Yakuza 3 getting its North American and…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku’s Top Five List of Top 10 Lists
Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What’s better? A list of those. Here’s a roundup of the rundowns out there. •Top Commercials with Video Game References [The Kartel] I don’t know how you top the Pontiac Spy Hunter ad. Not only was it a great…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Reviews
MLB 10 The Show Review: The Game for All America
The game of baseball was brought to video game consoles long ago. The total experience – the Pastime – represents the next frontier of simulation, for a public delighted by every stat and detail, no matter how small. This is the direction in which MLB The Show now strives most noticeably. Having nailed the essential…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Reviews
Major League Baseball 2K10 Review: Pitching With Two Strikes
If MLB 2K9 had been an actual ballplayer, last year’s performance would have sent it to the minors, if not the waiver wire. After a soul-searching offseason, 2K Sports decided to focus on the fundamentals for MLB 2K10. This year’s game fixates on the batter-pitcher matchups that infuse every at-bat with suspense and dramatic potential.…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Uncategorized
Javelins, Zerg Rushes, Ninja Looting and Other Social Dilemmas
It’s there, and you know how to use it. It’s an exploit or a glitch or some imbalance in the AI. Morally, it’s wrong. But what if everyone else is doing it? Or just the potential for them doing it? Jamie Madigan, well known as the gamer with the Ph.D in psychology, tackles an adaptation…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Hard Times Edition
Some recent weekend screengrabs of Sonic and Mario engaged in vice and loansharking supply fodder for the latest edition of Kotaku’s ‘Shop Contest. Three weeks ago, reader Aaron S. sent us that picture of a pawn shop on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Sorry, Mario, but our hunting knife, stereo and moped are in another…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Uncategorized
Blur Devs Promise “Massive” DLC Strategy, Just Not at Launch
Blur‘s developers do have plans for DLC but they don’t intend to put any out at launch. In fact, no dates have been set, and they’ve made clear they’re not going to tackle DLC until the main game’s finished. Bizarre Creations is still putting the final coat of polish on the arcade racer, which entered…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Culture
Sunday Comics
Penny Arcade published March 3 PvPonline published March 1 ActionTrip published March 1 Digital Unrest published March 3 EXTRALIFE published March 4 GU Comics published March 4 Dotgif published March 5 Dueling Analogs published March 4 Nerf NOW published March 5 Rooster Teeth published March 6 Monday Night Crew published March 3 Virtual Shackles published…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Off-Topic: Oh, Hell, When is Daylight Saving Time Again?
Surprise, it’s not today. Made you look! Which I had to do because, once upon a time, we had these things called “newspapers” and on the day of the switch, if all else failed, the front page reminded you. Instead it is next week, March 14. That’s when you take that bonus hour of sleep…
By Owen Good Published March 7, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Next-Gen Cereal System Edition Winners [Update]
The Shop Contest, it’s for breakfast now! Our call for entries for new game-themed cereals produced another raft of strong entries, including two from the same commenter, a first. Update: I apologize for the deleted comments in the original post. This was an erroneous double post and unfortunately the only one the system let me…
By Owen Good Published March 6, 2010