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Pre-Buy The Next Final Fantasy XI Scenario Next Week
While there’s no word on when you can play the second of three new Final Fantasy XI scenarios. A Moogle Kupo d’Etat – Evil in Small Doses, now we know when you can buy it. Starting on July 5th, Final Fantasy XI players will be able to purchase the follow-up to A Crystalline Prophecy –…
By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Halo ODST Features An Open World, “Reach” Could Use Natal Tech
Upcoming Bungie shooter Halo ODST won’t be a straight-forward linear shooter, rather blending elements of traditional shooters with the open world exploration of Grand Theft Auto, Bungie told he Seattle Times in a recent interview. “We’re doing a lot of pretty neat things in terms of mixing it up, introducing some non-linearity, some free exploration,”…
By Brian Crecente Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Fragile Breaks Into Europe With Rising Star
Celebrate the newly-announced European release for Tri Crescendo‘s Wii RPG Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, with a batch of new screens courtesy of publisher Rising Star Games. So Fragile is making it to the states courtesy of XSEED, and now Europe is getting the game sometime in the first quarter of 2010 via Rising…
By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Nintendo Download: Summertime In The Fantasy Zone
It’s summertime, and on top of the usual crop of random puzzle games and a return to the Fantasy Zone, Nintendo has a couple of games available for download today that accurately simulate being outside. What’s outside, you ask? No earthly clue. As far as I am concerned my world ends at that heavy curtain…
By Mike Fahey Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
MTV Lands Former THQ Veep
Scott Guthrie, former executive vice president of publishing THQ, was named MTV Games new executive vice president and general manager today. MTV Games also named former Sony Computer Entertainment America sales and merch director David Cox as their senior vice president of sales. “With our acquisition of Harmonix to our relationship with Jerry Bruckheimer Games,…
By Brian Crecente Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Talk Amongst Yourselves
A fraction of your Kotaku team is under the weather today and has spread his germs to our favorite yellow-hatted bunch. Drink plenty of fluids, and please comment about video games here. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.
By Stephen Totilo Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Let’s Try Shiso Pepsi!
To: Crecente From: Bashcraft …like shiso. I love me some shisho, but fizzy Pepsi shiso? It’s drinkable, but more of a novelty. Less mouthwashy than the cucumber Pepsi released a few years back, maybe even “good”… Think I’m going to have another glass! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. What you missed last night StarCraft II Hands-On: Round Three StarCraft…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Licensed Avatar Clothing Starts Rolling Out
Over the weekend, Microsoft’s Larry Hryb confirmed that the mysterious “Xbox 360 Beta” that a bunch of Microsoft employees were “testing” wasn’t a game. Wasn’t Natal. It was…licensed avatar clothing. Here, we can see what he’s talking about, as MS employee “Randy No Arms” here is fully decked out in garish Halo threads, from his…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Sony’s Exclusives Coming Up Short?
From the day of the PS3’s launch, Sony have pursued a bold strategy of constantly launching new, original IP as exclusive titles on the console. But while it’s a move that should be applauded on principle, it’s just not translating into sales. Number-cruncher Matt Matthews has, in a report over on GameSetWatch, detailed the sales…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Michael Jackson Spent Big Bucks On Gaming
We’ve all seen that clip from Living with Michael Jackson where he goes bananas buying stuff in Las Vegas. Jackson didn’t limit his spending sprees to tacky furniture. Oh no. This image from Japanese tv shows that a then-34-year-old Jackson allegedly spent over half a million dollars at a London toy store on video games…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Making Of Earthworm Jim: Worms, Beasties, Rocky Mountain High
During the 90’s, Sega had a reputation for some fairly left-field (for the industry/time) marketing. Here’s a great example: the making of Earthworm Jim. WARNING: features John Denver. Isn’t Dave Perry’s accent kooky? What the Hell: Badical Earthworm Jim Documentary [Bitmob]
By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Tetsuya Nomura On Kingdom Hearts 3
One new Kingdom Hearts game, KH 358/2 Days, has been released in Japan. Two more Square-Enix-meets-Disney mash-ups are forthcoming: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for the PSP and Kingdom Hearts: Coded for cell phones. But where is the one everyone is waiting for, Kingdom Hearts 3? Kingdom Hearts designer Tetsuya Nomura says he already has…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
If Only These Characters Were Actually In Scribblenauts…
Scribblenauts looks amazing. 10,000 in-game items? Can’t. Wait. And yet…something tugs at the subconscious. Just like it did with LittleBigPlanet. We love creativity, yes, but we also love existing characters. The game won’t, of course, let you conjure the intellectual property of other characters. So if you’re in a pickle, you can’t just write “TRAVIS…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Hey Look, Now, There Is A Dragon
The countdown page for some game Square Enix is trying to hype. The large “4” and the countdown clock are old, but the dragon drawing is new. Even if we don’t like countdown clocks, we do like dragon drawings. Also, the SaGa (AKA Final Fantasy Legend) style music *might* be new as well, since we…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
StarCraft II Beta Planned To Last 4 To 6 Months
Dustin Browder, lead designer on StarCraft II at Blizzard, says that the team is planning to have a publicly playable beta for the game that runs about “four to six months.” When that would go live, Blizzard still isn’t saying. But considering that we’re already six months into 2009, a four to six month beta…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
SEGA PSP Music Title Is Pantsu Heavy
Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku, is coming to the PSP with Hatsune Miku -Project Diva-. So are her underpants! SEGA has been playing up the “3D modeling” of the Miku character. This is perhaps why? Then again, maybe these are just her bathing suit — totally innocent. Still, a slew of new screenshots makes some wonder…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
What’s Inside Blizzard’s Library?
Blizzard’s main campus is home to what might be the coolest (and nerdiest) library you’ve ever seen. The employee library, from which Blizzard staffers can check out books, software and more, is a great place to lose oneself. The Blizzard employee library is home to the informational—programming language texts, maps, historical reference—but it’s also filled…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Japanese Newspaper Wonders About “Game Addicts”
The Mainichi Daily News is running a three part series on online game addiction. Most of it seems like scare mongering — students who start playing Maple Story and suddenly became poor students. There’s even worse with one mother saying this about her game addicted child, “Sometimes, he’ll throw the remote control at the TV,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
StarCraft II Hands-On: Round Three
This past week, Blizzard invited press to visit its Irvine, California campus to go hands-on with the latest and greatest build of StarCraft II‘s multiplayer game. That wasn’t the original plan. When we were first invited to Blizzard’s headquarters, we were going to get our first hands-on experience with StarCraft II‘s single-player game. We were…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Lost Planet 2 Demo Soonish
Capcom’s Lost Planet 2 is slated for this winter. So, we should expect a demo sometime between now and then, no? LP2 producer Jun Takeuchi tells Famitsu, “I think we might be able to offer it [the demo] in a little bit.” The game was in playable form at E3, and Capcom is busy developing…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 29, 2009