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Guess Who’s Publishing Modern Warfare 2 In Japan?
Square Enix, that’s who. Known best for Final Fantasy, the Japanese game company is once again attempting to expand its portfolio by bringing eagerly awaited first-person-shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to Japan. The company has yet to make an official announcement, but there’s a teaser site with a large “2” that fades in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Bank Deficit Freezes EVE Accounts
From the MMO-as-IRL file, EVE Online’s biggest bank has frozen accounts for anyone who invested any kredits with it, after it was discovered that the bank is 380bn kredits in the hole, without the funds to cover player withdrawals. EBank, the institution in question, was also hit by a naked fraud scheme earlier this year,…
By Owen Good Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
250GB Xbox 360 Looking More Likely
One listing for a 250GB Xbox 360 could be an accident. A typo. But two in two days, on opposite ends of the planet, well, that’s something else. This is an ad from South African retailer BT Games, showing a “Super Elite” Xbox 360 that packs a 250GB HDD. Interesting. Certainly makes the German version…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga Preview: Making The Jump To Home Consoles
The Valhalla Knights games (all two of them) have been confined to the PSP since 2006, but now they’re finally making the jump to home consoles. The big plus here is the larger screen size. Back when I reviewed Valhalla Knights 2 for PSP and one of my biggest complaints (no pun intended) was that…
By AJ Glasser Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Cryptic: Microsoft’s Behavior Means No Champions This Year
Jack Emmert, the Cryptic chief creative officer, says Microsoft has a “baffling” issue with MMOs, and it’s holding up the console release of Champions Online. In a VG247 podcast, Emmert says Cryptic has a 360 version of the game “ready to go,” but it’s not likely to arrive this year. “It just takes time for…
By Owen Good Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Ju-on: The Grudge Preview: Hide All But One Of Your Wiimotes
Technically, Ju-on isn’t an on rails shooter – because you’re excruciating slow instead of on rails and instead of a gun, you get a flashlight. Even so, there’s a bit of the nostalgia to Ju-on that you sometimes get form on rails shooters. The Japanese horror movie craze in America seems to have died off…
By AJ Glasser Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Beatles: Rock Band TV Spot Does Abbey Road Overload
Expect to see this television commercial for The Beatles: Rock Band more frequently than the insides of your eyelids this fall. Thank goodness it’s both interesting and technically impressive. While that close-up shot of John may border on slightly creepy, the blend of footage of the band and the people who could conceivably play The…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Motorstorm PSP Dated, Timed for PSPgo Release
MotorStorm: Arctic Edge will release in UMD format on Sept. 29 – delaying the downloadable version of the game until Oct. 1, just in time for the PSPgo’s debut. For those uninitiated, this MotorStorm takes the festival up to the land of the midnight sun, adding sno-cats and snowmobiles (sigh, snow machines) to the vehicle…
By Owen Good Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Sony Offers “Behind The Scenes” Look At PS3 Motion Control R&D
The still un-sexily named PlayStation 3 motion controller may have a feature or two you don’t yet know about. Thankfully, the PlayStation blog and creator of things neat Dr. Richard Marks are here to inform you. The PlayStation folks offer an insightful look at the research and development of the PS3’s motion control offering, the…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces Preview: Guileless, But Not Innocent
Everyone loves the Ace Combat games for their action-y flight simulation and normally fabulous graphics – both of which are selling points for The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces. The other selling point for Sky Crawlers is its tie-in with a Japanese novel series of the same name. In this alternate-reality world where it’s permanently World…
By AJ Glasser Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
PS3 Ad Hoc Party Coming As Early As Next Week?
Japanese PlayStation 3 owners have been enjoying Ad Hoc Party for nearly a year now, but when will we get it here in North America? Maybe as early as next week? That’s when fighting game Fate/Unlimited Codes releases for the PlayStation Portable, according to the official PlayStation.blog. That game’s trailer promises that PSP owners can…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
9 Basterds
To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Did you ever catch Inglourious Basterds? Man, what a great movie. Sorta happy I saw it instead of District 9 first. Should I go see that next? Or is it something I should pass on? What you missed: Universal Ratings Raises Its Head Again, ESA Responds Modern Warfare 2 Gameplay…
By Brian Crecente Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Nintendo’s Mii Collecting Game Still A Big Hit In Japan
When Nintendo describes its software as “evergreen,” it means games like the Nintendo DS title Tomodachi Collection, which was released mid-June and sits atop this week’s Japanese software sales chart. The Mii collecting game beats out DS rival Dragon Quest IX to secure the top spot once again amid a non-eventful release week. Stuff like…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Notebook Dump: The Wii’s Missing Arkham, NBA 2K10, More
There comes a time in the week to reflect on what got into my reporter’s notebook but didn’t turn into Kotaku blog posts. Shall we? Shifting Responsibility: EA was nice enough to stage a game demo of Need For Speed Shift just one block from my office on Thursday. So I went to it, got…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
ESRB Details Unannounced Raystorm, Thexder Revivals
While neither game has been officially announced to the best of our knowledge, both Raystorm HD and Thexder NEO have recently been fully described by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. So you can expect their respective North American announcements soon. Both Thexder NEO and Raystorm HD appear to be remakes of the 8-bit and 32-bit…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
A Reignited Console War Means A Happy Holiday For Gamers
The long-simmering war between the Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 has boiled over in time for the holidays thanks to dual price drops that put all three consoles within $50 of each other. In a much anticipated move, Sony announced a new $300 model for their Playstation 3 in Cologne, Germany during the Gamescom…
By Brian Crecente Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Maxis Layoffs Include Outspoken Spore Dev Chris Hecker
Electronic Arts’ recent attempt to “focus” Spore developer Maxis—which was a nicer way of saying some people got laid off—includes one of its more rant-ready folks, Chris Hecker, a Technology Fellow at the company. Remember him? If not, he’s probably best known—in addition to his contributions to Spore—for one of his Game Developers Conference talks,…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
More Monkey Island Hits WiiWare Monday
After a relatively successful launch on the PC, Telltale Games is ready to release Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay with Monday’s Nintendo Download. Sure, Nintendo Wii players have had to wait a couple of weeks longer than PC gamers to take the next step on Guybrush Threepwood’s journey to…
By Mike Fahey Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
DSi Honors Japanese Bestelling Hardware Tradition
Not much activity in the Japanese hardware market these days, as the Nintendo DSi remains atop Media Create‘s weekly sales chart, with the PlayStation 3 an understandably distant third. Hey, when there are no PS3s to buy, the console can’t very well show itself in an impressive way in terms of console sales. Depleted stock…
By Michael McWhertor Published August 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Exploring Strange New Worlds With Ratchet & Clank
Insomniac creative director Brian Allgeier walks us through the space exploration that our favorite Lombax will be doing as he searches for his robot buddy in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. Exploration and discovery have always been a large part of the Ratchet & Clank experience, but space travel has generally been…
By Mike Fahey Published August 28, 2009