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Kotaku Approval Ratings: Taking it Online
After a week off for Labor Day, Kotaku’s Approval Ratings are back again to measure your attitudes and preferences regarding online play and downloadable games. No doubt many of these responses will break down along our earlier platform preference results. Remember, the point of answering a survey isn’t to declare a winner, but to know…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Choose Your Hero in Borderlands
Meet the good and bad guys, and gals, of Borderlands. I’d like to get a good look at them, but thanks to the cuts and the black-flashes it doesn’t linger on anything for more than 0.78 seconds. Game still looks great though. Pity about the censored stamps covering up all those sweet, sweet headshots. Borderlands…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Remembering the Early Days of Copy Protection
I remember when my copy of Legacy of the Ancients arrived with its codewheel. I fired up my 1200 baud acoustically-coupled modem, hit the BBS and ranted my indignation that I can do as I please with my purchase. OK, I didn’t. Time was, copy protection didn’t inspire such anger in power consumers, probably because…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Nintendo Files the Trademark to End all Trademarks
Well, we can stop watching trademark filings now. Nintendo has officially registered “The Last Story,” so from here on, no more can ever be told, right? Siliconera noticed the filing and has few details other than the words involved. They do, however, note that “The Last Story” is registered in Japan, albeit with English words.…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Your Official PAX Attendance: 60,750
Big Download got the scoop from Penny Arcade‘s Robert Khoo that PAX 2009 sold out to the people-packing tune of 60,750. While slightly over last year’s attendance, it’s still taken as a strong showing. Last year drew 58,500; this year at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, the show had a fixed…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
First Video Game Ever Sold is Being Sold
Two arcade cabinets for Nolan Bushnell’s Computer Space, regarded as the first commercially sold video game ever, have been listed on eBay. The games, which predated Pong by about a year, are currently going for $1,500 and $2,500. Computer Space was developed and published in 1971 by Nutting Associates, not Atari, although programmers Bushnell and…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
World at War Map Pack 3 Releases Next Week for PC
Patch 1.6, which includes Map Pack 3 for PC, deploys next week. This time I am going to get his name right and attribute the news to Josh Olin, the Treyarch Community Manager. Map Pack 3, of course, includes the multiplayer settings Battery, Breach and Revolution, plus the Nazi zombie map Der Riese. Unlike the…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Got Red Baron Source Code? It’s Worth $1,500
Red Baron fans, if you have the complete source code to that game, Red Baron II or Red Baron 3D, the series creator is offering a $1,500 bounty if you can deliver it. The announcement was made “in an effort to bring these games back to life,” as Mad Otter Games, home of Red Baron…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
In Case You’ve Patched Call of Juarez Lately …
Ubisoft’s put out word that any patches to Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, made available recently, were “wrongfully released” prior to Ubi’s deadline and are not the final version. That will be available “in the coming days.” Word of this passed in an “ALL MEMBERS MUST READ” message on the Ubisoft forums. VE3D, which…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
All 22,802 Words in Scribblenauts
Attributed only to “some hackerish type” who took apart the ROM, Scribblenauts’ full dictionary has – inevitably – made it to the Internet. In terms of scope, this is the biggest spoiler alert we can offer. For those who want to discover everything that’s in this amazing game for the DS, on their own, avert…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Disney Producer Lets Slip that Tron Legacy Game in Works?
According to The Latino Review, Disney producer Steven Lisberger confirmed that a video game is being developed for release with next winter’s long-awaited release of Tron Legacy According to the report: The first thing I wanted to know was, is there a Tron video game in the works? Because so far, I haven’t heard anything.…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Too Much Work or Not Enough Fun?
In an essay for Gamasutra last week, academic Lewis Pulsipher mused that games have become so complex as to feel like work, and the stratification of hardcore and casual gamers puts games in a far less inclusive posture than other entertainment. Pulsipher analogizes video games to chess. Not only do the masters play a great…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Conn. Pol Caught Playing Video Game in Session
A Connecticut Democrat apologized profusely to his district’s constituents after he was photographed playing computer solitaire inside stately Wayne Manor the statehouse (pictured) while the state House Republican leader addressed the chamber on the budget. “It was certainly bad judgment for me to play a computer game even for just a few minutes during the…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
So I Went to a Fight, and a Video Game Broke Out …
When Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount falcon-punched Boise State’s Byron Hout to begin the college football season (and end his own career) it made me wonder: Why don’t we see that in NCAA 10? It’s in the game, right? Hell, yes it is. I’ve seen unranked and untelevised N.C. State and North Carolina squads get into a…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Weekend Coupons: Caveat Emptor
Coupons: An astounding deal on a very desirable piece of console hardware leads this week’s roundup, but lets be careful to read that which is printed fine – or not at all. Hardware • Meritline is offering a 120GB hard drive for Xbox 360 for $79.97, but let’s carefully notice the semantics here. Nowhere in…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Originals: SafeSearch is ON
I wanna know how long (and where) Crecente looked for the right “safe” pic to illustrate his porn/PS3 post. Yes, I know of “SFW Porn” but I don’t think that fits. I’m also not linking it, because it’s still NSFW. Alright, enough of that. From PAX Flu to Courtney Love, this week was the Emerald…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Don’t Like Black? Get Your PS3 Slim In Other Colours
While the old PS3 was released in black, white, even “gunmetal“, the PS3 Slim is so far available in one colour: black. Or, at least that’s the only colour available officially. Console detailing specialists Colorware have announced that they’re now taking orders for the PS3 Slim. As with the company’s previous offerings, you can either…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 12, 2009 - Uncategorized
Have You Ever Learned Something From A Video Game?
The day after Thursday is…? The day before Saturday is…? FRIDAY! Time for Tell Us Dammit. 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…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 12, 2009