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T-Minus Three Days
To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Mini-Bash’s Favorite TV Show Is… I can’t believe we’re only three days away from what is shaping up to be quite a spectacular E3. There’s so much news that it’s popping loose before the show even before it gets underway. I think all of the big three are going to…
By Brian Crecente Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Go Frame By Frame With The King Of Fighters XII Crew
The transition to new, higher-definition 2D sprites in The King of Fighters XII didn’t just happen overnight. SNK Playmore illustrates why that process has taken so long with its animation showcase, “2D Dot Gallery.” Five of The King of Fighters XII‘s characters get the showcase treatment, letting fans peruse each frame of three animation sequences,…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Red Dead Redemption Eyes-On Impressions
Rockstar San Diego’s sequel to Red Dead Revolver has been a long time coming, with the original released in 2004 and a current-gen follow-up teased via video at Sony’s E3 2005 press conference. That four-year-old teaser for what is now called Red Dead Redemption is hardly indicative of what the final product plans to offer.…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Valve: Team Fortress 2 Random-Item Issues Improved Last Night
Some tweaks on Valve’s side of things may already have improved the controversial but still-evolving new system the company has been using to randomly grant players access to new items in Team Fortress 2. It may have been invisible to players but Team Fortress 2 director Robin Walker told Kotaku today that some of the…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
All Things Midway Going To The Highest Bidder
Bankrupt game publisher Midway has today “established the timeline” for selling of its assets, studios and intellectual property to the highest bidder, meaning that Smash TV and Joust could be yours… for the right price. Midway already has a $33 million offer from Warner Bros. to acquire a good deal of the company’s goods, including…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Win Stan Bush Swag If You’ve Got The Touch
Activision passed us some Stan Bush swag in celebration of “The Touch” being available as free downloadable content for Guitar Hero World Tour. If you know your Transformers the Movie trivia, it could be yours. Here’s how this is going to work. We have two XL Stan Bush t-shirts and five signed copies of Stan’s…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2009 -
UncategorizedThe Chiptunes Band That Just Might Break Through
by Leigh Alexander The notoriously insular and fickle Brooklyn music scene has had its doors blown off, and the culprit is – NES sound chip music? What’s That, Now? Chiptune music – tunes made using hacked sound chips from video game hardware – is as well-known to many gamers who snap to the nostalgic bleeps…
By Stephen Totilo Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Japanese Gamers Snap Up More Mass Effect Than You Might Expect
While BioWare’s Mass Effect didn’t score top placement in this week’s Japanese software sales chart—Sloane to MacHale: Nazo no Monogatari did—it had a pretty damn good showing, considering the platform’s last place position. Mass Effect‘s first week sales were a solid, if not spectacular 18,000, making it the third bestselling game in Japan, according to…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Robot Wars Round Three: Salvation
The Kotaku Robot Wars continue on the other side of the world, as Osaka Japan and Canberra Australia are reduced to steaming piles of rubble and broken robot parts…but whose broken robot parts? Once more we pit the power of human intuition against the mechanical will of Crecente’s R2-D2 robot to try and predict the…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Three (Or More, Or Less) Laws Of Gaming AI
It’s pure fantasy. Robots won’t ever actually rise up and go to war with humanity. You know why? Because the robots of the future will be governed by Asimov’s three laws of robotics. For those who don’t know what those are, know that sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov established three basic laws governing the programming of…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Sony’s New Phone Lets You Stream Media From Your PS3
Sony may not yet be ready to dive in feet first with a PlayStation branded phone, but the new Sony Ericsson Aino brings some of that “gadget to gadget” magic Sony bossman Howard Stringer teased. The Aino will let users control their PlayStation 3s using “Remote Play,” allowing for across-the-internet streaming of media from your…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Dead Space Extraction Extracts Itself In September
EA has given the Wii installment of their survival horror franchise a release date, with Dead Space Extraction scheduled to hit a little under a year after the original game. September 29th marks the date that Wii owners get shot of EA-flavored survival horror. Dead Space Extraction is an on-rails shooter that tells the story…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
2009 Life. Love. Game Design Challenge Winners Unveiled
Is it possible to educate about teen dating violence through a violence-free video game? That’s the idea behind the annual Life. Love Game Design Challenge, now in it’s second year. Jennifer Ann’s Group today announced the winners of their second annual flash game design contest, handing out $1,500 to Jared Sain for first place. Runners…
By Brian Crecente Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
The E3 2009 Kotaku Fantasy Betting Pool
Next week, all eyes will be on E3, as the video game industry blows the doors off the Los Angeles Convention Center with megaton-caliber announcements. There will be short shorts, there will be news. And we already know what some of that news might be, as prophesied by our sometimes precise E3 2009 predictions. Some…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Robots We Love: Pin*Bot
While video game robots are all well and good, it takes a special sort of robot to carry a pinball game. Sure, he may bear a striking resemblance to Cobra Commander, but we love Pin*Bot. Pin*Bot originates from the 1986 Williams pinball table of the same name. As you attempt to advance your silver ball…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
PlayStation Home Getting 64-Player Buzz! Trivia Game
Trivia fans will soon have their own haven in PlayStation Home, as Sony reveals the Buzz! HQ, a Buzz!-centric space complete with a 64-player trivia showdown. How does a 64-player trivia game work on PlayStation Home? Players gather on a gigantic game board with four colored squares. Questions are pulled from the MyBuzzQuiz.com website. When…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Natsume’s E3 Plans Much More Than Harvest Moon
Natsume has revealed their full game line up for E3 2009, and this time around only 40% of the games have Harvest Moon in the title. By far the most exciting title Natsume will be showing at E3 is the long-awaited PlayStation 3 title Afrika, which we’ve been waiting for since the title was first…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
A Guided Tour Of Burnout Paradise’s Big Surf Island
In the latest episode of Crash TV, Criterion takes us on a guided tour of Big Surf Island, the major chunk of new real estate coming to Burnout Paradise next month. After a year of driving around Paradise City, the prospect of new places to play is immensely inviting. The 45 new billboards and 75…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2009 -
UncategorizedSega Wheels Out Sonic All-Star Racing
Sega continues to milk their blue hedgehog for all he’s worth, with the announcement of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, which takes the world’s fastest video game character and puts him in a car. Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing, due out in 2010 for the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo DS, is just…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2009 - Uncategorized
Neo Steam Open Beta Full Steam Ahead
Atlus Online throws open the doors to Neo Steam, launching the open beta test for their first massively multiplayer online offering. JoyImpact’s Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent is the first of many games to be available through Atlus’s online gaming and anime portal. Initially announced in February of this year, the game has passed through…
By Mike Fahey Published May 28, 2009