Weekend Reader: The Themes of 9/11, and After, in TIE Fighter

TIE Fighter was released in 1994, a time in which serving as the instrument of an oppressive, corrupt government against insurgent forces didn’t raise the kind of uncomfortable questions such a game would after Sept. 11, 2001. But, however uncomfortable, there are similarities between the Empire’s prosecution of its war on the Rebellion and hegemony…

Ubisoft Dev Signs Off With a Flash

William David, a former designer for Ubisoft, felt he should finally take the plunge and strike out on his own. This week he left Ubisoft and uploaded this flash game as part explanation, in part thanks to his friends and co-workers. As someone who’s quit a lot of jobs, and part of a generation increasingly…

Madden Launch Returns to Its Roots — for One Weekend Only?

Time was, EA Sports‘ Madden franchise released on the weekend, not a Tuesday. “Madden Football Friday” predated the “Madden Holiday” of the past dozen or so years, and it returned again this week. But is it back for good? No, said Nathan Stewart, the EA Sports Director of Marketing. What took place this year was…

Weekend Coupons: Pencils, Notebooks, a Wii …

It’s August, so marketers will try to hook you for your back-to-school/college nostalgia, or use it to cross sell you some things you really don’t need, but probably want. Let’s have a look. Hardware: • Target’s targeting the beginning of back-to-college migration as a pretext for putting all sorts of study aids on sale. Basically,…

Kotaku Originals: Annual Affairs

They happen every year: QuakeCon, the Woodstock of Gaming. Totilo’s in Dallas, bringing back the peace and love. Madden also dropped this week; with a splurge of coverage and controversy. And console price rumors? Oh, right, they happen every day. The week in original reporting on Kotaku: Kotaku’s QuakeCon 2009 Coverage News Former LucasArts President…

Mommy, Where Do Classic Video Games Come From?

After crying to the heavens about the lack of an English-language version of classy French gaming mag Amusement, editor Abdel Bounane was kind enough to point us towards this gallery from the latest issue. No need for translation with these! These are from a piece called “Made in Myth”, and show how cats like Miyamoto…

Red Steel 2 GamesCom Video

We knew Ubisoft’s Red Steel 2 was going to be playable at GamesCom, and this teaser trailer doesn’t tell us much more than that. I am excited that I’m finally going to get a chance to go hands on with the Wii MotionPlus title. I was so excited about Red Steel and so, so, so…

All Weekend, Valve’s Games Will Be Crazy Cheap

Valve are saying “to hell with third party Steam sales” this weekend, as their digital download store plays host to an in-house firesale, with Half-Life, Counter-Strike and Team Fortress products all going for a song. All standalone Half-Life titles (including Team Fortress Classic) are a whopping 66% off, meaning you can buy all seven of…

Eat that, ho.

July’s Top-Selling PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade Games

There are sales charts for the US, sales charts for Japan, even sales charts for Britain and the PC, so why not for downloadable games on consoles? Why not indeed. So let’s take a look. GamerBytes have posted the top 10-selling games for both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade for the month of…

Brink Impressions: It All Makes Sense Now

Splash Damage’s 2010 squad-shooter Brink wowed our Luke Plunkett at E3. Here at QuakeCon, a public demo of the game wowed several hundred more people. The game defies easy classification. It’s ambitious. Brink is the Bethesda-published game from the makers of Enemy Territory Quake Wars, Splash Damage. The studio’s chief, Paul Wedgwood, took the same…

Bethesda Have “No Plans” For More Elder Scrolls

On this week’s instalment of No Plans Watch: Bethesda’s Todd Howard, speaking at QuakeCon 09 on the future of the Elder Scrolls series now that his company is officially done with Fallout 3. Answering fan questions on the subject, Howard said that there are “no current plans” for a fifth game in the Elder Scrolls…

They Don’t Have A Modern Warfare 2 Box Big Enough For This One

Life-sized Modern Warfare 2 ‘Ghost’ prototype, as seen on fourzerotwo’s Twitter.

A Blog For The Ladies… Who Date Gamers

A former co-worker of mine started a blog for girlfriends of gamers. I’m hoping she’ll expand the scope — but for now, I get to be both her target audience and her audience’s target. The Gamer’s Girl is supposed to be a place for girlfriends of gamers to commiserate about their gamer-dating-related woes and advice.…

Madden Launch: It Happens Every Year

Last night the Springfield, Ore., Game Crazy treated about a dozen people to tailgate food and a Madden tournament. Despite the hype, the launch memories many of them shared had little to do with the highest-selling franchise of all time. Resident Evil 5 was bigger, said Travis Wade, 27, a store employee. Halo 3 was,…

Eternal Sonata Manga Looks… Different

I just now got around to reading the manga adaptation of Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume (a.k.a. Eternal Sonata) by Kuroi Mimei and I’ve got to say — I’m a little weirded out. For one thing, a huge chunk of the cast is missing from the 10-chapter story — including my favorite unbalanced character, Viola.…

‘Inglourious Plummers’ Spoof Is Basterdly Good

Okay, so that heavily mustachioed Toadsworth is no Brad Pitt, but this spoof of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds set in the Mushroom Kingdom compensates in charm. It’s rock solid use of Wario and game footage doesn’t hurt. Don’t hit that pause button until you make it to the very end of GamerVision‘s Inglourious Plummers. It…

Sega Putting Chromehounds Servers To Sleep

Xbox 360 mech sim Chromehounds is about to have its online component put to sleep. Sega will be taking the game’s multiplayer portion behind the barn, hopefully ending its life with the first shot. The Chromehounds community, dozens strong, was informed of the news last week: Sega will be pulling the plug on January 6,…

I Should Probably Start Packing

To: Owen From: Crecente Totilo is homeward bound after spending a chunk of the week in Texas at Quakecon (expect a lot more from him in the coming days). And it’s just in time too. Mike and I are both flying out on Sunday for Germany. I just realized that it’s Friday night and that…

Tecmo Adding Ninja Gaiden, Rygar To Virtual Console Arcade

New ESRB ratings indicate that Tecmo is planning to inject some life into the incredibly dull Wii Virtual Console Arcade lineup, with new ratings for Ninja Gaiden, Solomon’s Key and Rygar. Those three Tecmo arcade games all spawned NES ports, with Ninja Gaiden remarkably different from its arcade predecessor. While we haven’t seen an announcement…