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Vibrating Football and Pocket Chess: The Future Past of Gaming At CES
Excalibur isn’t just the name of a wicked-cool sword, it’s also the name of a company that makes retro gaming products. The Excalibur booth at CES was packed with a cornucopia of chintzy handheld games, wooden chessboards, mini air hockey tables and wooden puzzles. But what really caught our eye was their line up of…
By Brian Crecente Published January 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Ding Dong, It’s Another BioShock 2-o-Gram
A month before its release, special deliveries from the BioShock 2 viral website are still showing up at people’s doors. This time, the packages contain a chess piece and a coded telegram from the “International Order of the Pawns.” Reader J.P. says way back in September he wrote to the address one finds on the…
By Owen Good Published January 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
The Shapeshifting PC Motion Controller
We saw this Wii PC peripheral knock-off while strolling through the halls of CES this weekend. The fact that the oddly-named CyWee Z lets you play the likes of Shaun White Snowboarding with motion on your PC wasn’t all that interesting. What was interesting was that the controller transformed from a straight Wii remote like…
By Brian Crecente Published January 10, 2010 - Culture
Sunday Comics
Penny Arcade published Jan. 6 PvPonline published Jan. 7 ActionTrip published Jan. 4 Digital Unrest published Jan. 4 EXTRALIFE published Jan. 5 Dotgif published Jan. 3 GU Comics published Jan. 7 Ctrl-Alt-Del published Jan. 6 Dueling Analogs published Dec. 29 Nerf NOW published Jan. 4 Rooster Teeth published Jan. 7 Monday Night Crew published Jan.…
By Owen Good Published January 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Play Modern Warfare 2 With a Machine Gun
CTA Digital, makers of Wii bowling balls, tennis rackets and pool cues, aren’t content with cornering the market on bizarre Wii peripherals, they’re bringing their line of unorthodox controllers to the Playstation 3 too. While stalking the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center this week during the Consumer Electronics Show, past women in evening…
By Brian Crecente Published January 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves
That’s right, being the Father of the Country means you can be passive-aggressive to an entire nation. We prefer much more direct conversation here in Kotaku’s Official Open Thread. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.
By Owen Good Published January 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Playing Dark Void PC at CES… In 3D!!!
Nonplussed by the PS3’s Gran Turismo in 3D and sort of blown away by Super Stardust HD 3D, I was split on 3D gaming when it came time to check out Capcom’s upcoming Dark Void. Where Gran Turismo’s 3D seemed to add very little to the experience, giving you a slight sense of depth but…
By Brian Crecente Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
A Look Inside the LEGO Universe
A massive profile of NetDevil by the Denver alternative weekly WestWord turns up some interesting tidbits about the LEGO MMO the studio is building. The piece, by Joel Warner, is a serious deep dive into not just NetDevil, but also the LEGO culture it seeks to tap with LEGO Universe, a project that has been…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
EA to Release Three More Game Soundtracks for Download
Over the next month EA Recordings will roll out soundtracks for three of the publisher’s big upcoming releases, releasing music for Mass Effect 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Dante’s Inferno via digital download. Mass Effect 2’s soundtrack will release Jan. 18, (the game is out Jan. 26), likely via iTunes, reports Gametunes.Net. It will…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Ships Named for Star Trek Online
Cryptic held a contest to develop names for three ship classifications in its upcoming Star Trek Online MMO, and the winners have been announced. The winners get the game and a special in-game title for their characters. Here are the ships, identified as Tier 5 vessels: EMISSARY CLASS (pictured) Emissary Class Star Cruisers are the…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 -
UncategorizedJust How Much Punishment Can a NES Cart Take?
Inspired by a three-year-old Kotaku article, Canadian blogger Rinry subjected eight NES carts to varying forms of torture to see just how durable the goods were. Seven of them were still fully playable. This is a long, but very watchable (and well made) video. Plus you get to hear Rinry say “out” and it’s always…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Touching The Mad Catz Eclipse Line With Our Lifestyle
Peripheral and controller maker Mad Catz is getting into the “lifestyle orientated mice and PC keyboards” game, launching the Eclipse line of high end PC accessories later this year. We went hands and lifestyle on with the line at CES. The wireless Eclipse litetouch Keyboard is the most impressive offering, a slick looking, minimal design…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Ron Jeremy: Games a “Bigger Negative Influence” than Porn
The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is the other big show in Vegas this weekend. At a CES 2010 panel debate, porn pioneer Ron Jeremy took on an anti-porn activist and threw games under the bus to make a point. Jeremy, who has the most improbable physique (not to mention amount of backhair) for a guy…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Scrap Metal Hands-On: Calling All Twisted Metal Fans
Slick Entertainment‘s Scrap Metal adds some much needed vehicular carnage to Xbox Live Arcade, a top down combat racer that evokes warm feelings of Twisted Metal and Ironman Ivan Stewart’s Super Off Road. The developers of N+ for XBLA look to have in Scrap Metal something for the Twisted Metal fan who might have been…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Pay a Penny for Crayon Physics
Indie hit Crayon Physics Deluxe turns 1 this month, and developer Petri Purho is offering it at a name-your-price sale similar to what World of Goo ran back in October. So, once again, if you feel like being a heartless bastard and paying just one cent for this PC game, that’s your prerogative. If you…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Mega Man 10 Brings the Easy
Megaman 10 has an interesting little addition to the franchise not seen since 1988’s Megaman 2: An Easy mode. Technically, Mega Man 2’s easy mode was called normal mode, while the white-knuckled difficulty typically found in a Mega Man game was called difficult, but it was an easy mode. The difference this time around is…
By Brian Crecente Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Square Enix to Open Dragon Quest-Themed Bar
Dragon Quest fans will recognize the name Luida’s Bar from the role-playing game; it’ll also be the name of an establishment Square Enix is opening in Tokyo later this month, coinciding with Dragon Quest VI‘s release on the DS. The bar opens to the public Jan. 28 in Roppongi, Tokyo, but before that, it’ll be…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Comparing Two Games That Sell Themselves
Paid downloadable content and in-game advertising are two touchy issues in gaming discussions, and two recent releases have in a way brought both together, one more artfully than the other. Writing for Pop Matters, Nick Dinicola examines Assassin’s Creed II and Dragon Age: Origins, both of which make a rather direct pitch to the player…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010