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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 - Uncategorized
Dark Void Zero: Blow Me
It may only be two hours long, but Capcom’s 8-bit DSi Dark Void prequel doesn’t feel like a bit of fancy marketing. Dark Void Zero, expected to hit Nintendo’s download store in the next couple of weeks, features three levels, three bosses and an original 8-bit soundtrack composed by Battlestar Galactica’s Bear McCreary. I fiddled…
By Brian Crecente Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Metroid Prime Trilogy No Longer Published or Shipped
Four months after its release, Nintendo has stopped publishing and shipping the Metroid Prime: Collector’s Edition. A company rep told an interested gamer the only way to find it now is through the second-hand market. “[It] is no longer being shipped,” Nintendo told the blog Coffee With Games. “When first introduced, it was announced that…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Motion Controlled Left 4 Dead 2 in Action
Yesterday Mike wrote up his impressions of a motion-control enabled version of Left 4 Dead 2 running on a PC with the help of Sixense TrueMotion wireless motion controllers. Now take a gander at a Razer rep playing a bit of the game with the dual, black sticks.
By Brian Crecente Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Can Sports Video Games Win One for the Little Guys?
Of the independent games available on Xbox Live, a sports title is currently the No. 1 downloaded title and another is the No. 2-rated game, across all offerings. But sports is far from the service’s dominant genre. The action and adventure, puzzle and trivia, and shooter categories all have more than 100 listings. Sports, just…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Weekend Coupons: Winter Games
Retail’s harvest season is over, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any more discounts and values to be had. There just aren’t as many, that’s all. Hardware: • Want a Wii? Don’t pay full price. Dell Small Business has got it for $184. TechDealDigger notes that you will have to add it to your cart…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Originals: On Topic
This week saw the debut of Kotaku’s overnight off-topic discussion, aka Our Excuse to Talk About S—t Like the A-Team. Crecente and McWhertor in Vegas still helped keep the rest of the site on-topic for original coverage this past week. Kotaku Talk Radio Reviews, Previews, Hands On and Impressions Super Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament…
By Owen Good Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
The Average PC Gamer’s Rig, As Of December 2009
Earlier this week, Valve released the latest set of data from their regular hardware survey, revealing just what kind of hardware the average PC gamer is packing these days. Here are the major findings: you prefer Intel systems to AMD, you prefer NVIDIA graphics cards to ATI, and the majority of you now have at…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
What Is The Longest You’ve Left A Game On Pause?
Here’s how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn’t some marketing survey or whatever. It’s an emotional investment in you. Yes, we’re interested in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know oodles about us – more than you even want to, we’re sure. But, hey,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
FIFA 10 Gives Modern Warfare 2 A Run For Its Money
While Modern Warfare 2 emerged as 2009’s biggest-selling game globally, in Europe, it was a close-run thing, Activision’s blockbuster shooter only just edging out EA’s FIFA 10. Granted, this information comes from…Electronic Arts, the game’s developers, but seeing as they get access to complete, accurate sales figures (something the general public does not when it…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Death by Cube Ready To Kill Xbox LIVE
One of the bloodiest titles at last year’s Tokyo Game Show (if not the bloodiest!) has been dated. Death by Cube, an Xbox LIVE Arcade game developed by a studio called Premium Agency, is a twin stick shooter that takes place on a minimalist battlefield that looks like graph paper. Graph paper covered in blood,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Off Topic: (._. )
Instead of focusing on the past, wondering what may have happened to yesterday’s Kotaku Off Topic open thread, in which anything can be discussed video game related or not, let’s focus on the future! I mean, really, who’s all that interested in placing blame about the lack of Kotaku Off Topic yesterday? Certainly not me!…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 8, 2010