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  Valve Teases Team Fortress 2’s Close Range Sniper Update

  The Team Fortress 2 team isn’t quite yet ready to reveal what changes are in store for the game’s Sniper class, on deck to receive new unlockables, but it’s quite ready to tease those additions. Thankfully, it doesn’t sound like Valve will go ahead with its April Fool’s Day plans to add jars of Sniper…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  What Bayonetta Prototype Footage Looked Like One Month In

  Platinum Games’ Bayonetta didn’t always look this good in motion. Before the gun-happy witch had her posterior so perfectly modeled and her hair so expertly coiffed, she looked… rough. The Platinum Games YouTube channel (via Unseen 64) shows off what the Sega game looked like when it was just about a month old, well before…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  Microsoft’s Rumored Motion Controller May Be The ZCam

  Microsoft may finally be ready to make good on extended threats of a motion sensing controller for the Xbox 360 at this year’s E3, with a rumored camera accessory reportedly in the works. Last week, Engadget wrote that Microsoft’s long-rumored motion controller pursuits were real and that its solution was coming in the form of…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  EA Expects Wii MotionPlus Bundles To Help Sales, Have Little Impact On Profits

  With Nintendo’s own Wii Sports Resort on ice until July, third parties will have the Wii MotionPlus hardware add-on all to themselves. First to take advantage of the new motion control accessory is Electronic Arts. That’s a very good thing for the company, which has hitched its development wagon to the Wii. The company is…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny Looks More Stunning Than We Thought

  .html Maybe Namco Bandai is releasing the PSP version of Soulcalibur—which looks a hell of a lot like Soulcalibur IV—with some sort of Super FX chip built in to the UMD. Because this looks spectacular. Beyond PSP expectations spectacular, that is. The first trailer for Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny , while looking very much like a…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  Mario, Kirby Get Gory With 8-Bit Fatalities

  Mario may have racked up billions of kills during his decades-long career, sending Goombas, Koopas and Bloopers to their deaths. But Mario’s not generally considered violent. Steven Lefcourt’s “8-Bit Fatalities” series may change that assumption. Lefcourt explores the gorier side of traditionally non-violent video game characters, including Pac-Man, Mario and Kirby, giving us a peek…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  About Kotaku Reviews

  Earlier this year, Kotaku began running its reviews under a unified template that was designed with a trio of key components in mind. First, there would be no alphabetical or numerical review scores. Second, reviews would be focused on delivering the most critical information in the most efficient way possible. Third, they should be fun…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  EA’s Wii Business Nearly Doubled Last Year

  EA embraced the Wii last year and the Wii embraced it right back, with the percentage of revenue due to the Nintendo console nearly doubling over the previous year. According to the company’s recently released financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2009, 14% of EA’s revenue was generated by Nintendo Wii titles…

  By Mike Fahey Published May 5, 2009
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  Obama Is Latest Butt Of ‘President Evil’ Joke

  The people behind the new Barack Obama joke comic aren’t the first ones to smack the image of a U.S. president onto a Resident Evil image. The new “President Evil” comic book coming this July from Antarctic Press was an inevitability. The comic features Obama teaming up with political friends and foes to turn back…

  By Stephen Totilo Published May 5, 2009
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  EA Making Less, Losing Less, Thanks To Cuts

  Electronic Arts announced its fourth quarter earnings today, pulling in $860 million in revenue, resulting in a loss of $42 million for the three months ending March 31st. EA’s annual losses totaled $1.088 billion. The company’s quarterly revenue was down by 24% year-over-year, as EA pulled in more than a billion dollars during the same…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  All The Bionic Commando Screens You Can Eat

  Capcom released a bionic handful of new screenshots for Bionic Commando today, just in case you’d forgotten what the game looks like right before it launches. It’s been a long strange trip for Bionic Commando since we first heard news of the remake so many moons ago. Now the release is a mere two weeks…

  By Mike Fahey Published May 5, 2009
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  Here Are Your 10 Most-Played Wii Games

  According to our research, Super Smash Brothers Brawl is the Wii game that collects the least amount of dust. But two other games are surging toward top status. Since September of last year I’ve been tracking the usage stats for top Wii games. Earlier reporters are at MTV Multiplayer. Today, I bring the concept to…

  By Stephen Totilo Published May 5, 2009
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  Sega Confirms Six From Its E3 Lineup

  With E3 just weeks away, expect to see a torrent of official announcements from publishers about what they’ll be bringing to the show. One of the first out of the gate is Sega. Via Twitter. The third-party publisher has revealed six of its E3-bound wares, confirming the expo appearance of already announced games. That includes…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  Paragon Comes Down Hard On City Of Heroes Cheaters

  City of Heroes players who exploit the new Mission Architect in order to power level their characters will soon find that crime doesn’t pay in Paragon City, even if you play a villain. In a post on the game’s official forums, Matt “Positron” Miller addressed the issue of “meow farms”, which are missions where enemies…

  By Mike Fahey Published May 5, 2009
• Reviews

  Equilibrio Micro-Review: Tilt and Break

  Based on shareware title Fragile Ball, DK Games’ Equilibrio for WiiWare brings maze maneuvering to the Wii with a motion control twist. Using the Wii Remote or the Wii Balance Board, players must tilt and twist the game world to guide a ball to each level’s exit. Like a two-dimensional version of Sega’s Super Monkey…

  By Brian Crecente Published May 5, 2009
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  About Kotaku Previews

  After launching the Kotaku review template last year, we decided to move on to the next most important aspect of judging games: Judging them before they’re finished. Most folks call them previews. Our goal with previews was to make them easy to read, to the point, and complementary to our review system. They are designed…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  Live the Dream: Design the Games you Play!

  Our unique program is your first step toward becoming an artist and designer in the multi-billion-dollar game design industry. Details after the jump. You’ll learn how to design game play and background, create characters and their environments, and apply your knowledge of video and computer games to evaluate products. You will also learn to plan…

  By Chrissie Lamond Published May 5, 2009
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  Marge Simpson Enjoys Her First Teabagging In Halo

  The twentieth season of Matt Groening’s The Simpsons introduces the corpse-desecrating act of “teabagging” to the stalwart Simpsons fan in a not-so-subtle nod to Bungie’s Halo 2, complete with mostly accurate Xbox controllers. That near-accuracy may lead some to speculate that the grinding of one’s digital undercarriage on the armored cadaver of a fallen foe…

  By Michael McWhertor Published May 5, 2009
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  World At War Map Pack 1 Sells Two Million

  The popularity of Nazi zombies is cemented forever in video game sales history, as Activision announces more than two million downloads of the Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 1. Released in March, the first map pack for Call of Duty: World at war contained three multiplayer maps players could care less about…

  By Mike Fahey Published May 5, 2009
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  Why Kotaku?

  Never mind why your new Deputy Managing Editor has come to Kotaku. Why are you here? What kind of person leaves a nice games-reporting job at MTV News, gives up running their own blog to work under the iron fist of one Brian Crecente? Me — your new Kotaku deputy managing editor. People asked me…

  By Stephen Totilo Published May 5, 2009