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  An Early Glimpse at GDC

  The Game Developers Conference might not be officially kicking off for another hour or so, but we were able to get some early photographs of the prep work for the big show. Don’t forget to check back throughout the week to keep up with the news breaking at this year’s GDC. At the very least…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 23, 2009
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  Warhawk’s Dylan Jobe Leaves Incognito, Forms New Studio

  This morning Dylan Jobe announced that he and other members of Incognito Entertainment have left the company to form their own studio. LightBox Interactive will be working on several new games for Sony Computer Entertainment of America and the “Playstation family of platforms.” Incognito was founded in 1999 in Salt Lake City with Scott Campbell…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 23, 2009
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  Bioshock 2 Hasn’t Had A Name Change After All

  This is all a bit silly, going around in circles over something as simple as a subtitle, but there’s a record that’s got to be set straight: Bioshock 2 is still “Sea of Dreams”. You can forget those reports from last week that explicitly stated “You won’t be seeing ‘Sea of Dreams’ moving forward, just…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 23, 2009
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  Max Payne 3 Hits This Winter

  Max Payne 3 is currently in development and scheduled to hit the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 this winter, Rockstar announced this morning. The sequel, in development by Rockstar Vancouver, will tell the story of a retired police detective “embroiled in a world of corruption, turmoil and intense violence.” “We’re starting a new chapter…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 23, 2009
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  Need For Speed Shift Shifts Into September

  EA racer Need for Speed Shift, the latest entry in the Need for Speed series, will be released on September 17 and September 22 in the US. Need for Speed: Shift is a first person racing simulation, featuring realistic handling and physics for some of the world’s top racing vehicles. This title is part of…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 23, 2009
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  So What’s Mass Effect 2 Actually About?

  Details on BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 are scarce. We know there will be blood, robots wearing people clothes and…that’s it. Lucky we’ve got Amazon’s preorder page for the game to add a little colour. The site contains a brief plot description, which reads: The second chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy takes you to the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 23, 2009
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  Riddick Producer: “Nintendo Wii Is An Effing Genesis”

  Well, his language was a little more colorful. In a podcast with GameTrailers’ Invisible Walls, developer Peter Wanat talks about Nintendo and the Nintendo Wii. Wanat, whose credits include Scarface, Chronicles of Riddick and the forthcoming Wanted: Weapons of Fate, points out how most third party developers aren’t finding success on the Wii — save…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 23, 2009
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  First Look At Blacklight

  Zombie Studios, the development team behind the newly-announced Blacklight, have lifted the lid on the game, revealing the first screenshot for the futuristic shooter. And here it is. It’s dark, there’s a man with a gun in it, and from the looks of that streetscape, it’s a real screenshot, not some fanciful “target render”. Your…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 23, 2009
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  DIY Street Fighter IV Cabinets Make The Best Birthday Presents

  What did you get for your birthday? James got a Street Fighter IV cabinet built from scratch by his friends, the lucky bastard. During midterms and work, Steve and his roommate Figge collectively spent 4.5 man-hours over five days to build the arcade. A hundred nails were hammered into the handsawed wood panels. A FightStick…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 23, 2009
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  Kama Sutra Comes To The DS

  Note: this isn’t a retail product. There’s no Nintendo seal on the box. So no running off and telling Fox News, OK! Instead, this handy guide to all things carnal comes via the homebrew community. SutraDS, as it’s called, was whipped up by Cid2Mizard and submitted as part of a DS flash cart’s annual coding…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 23, 2009
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  Why There’s Not A Pokemon MMO

  Why isn’t there? A Pokémon online game sounds like a logical idea. But the Pokémon franchise director Junichi Masuda has an explanation. “At this point, we’re not thinking of going in that direction,” says Masuda. “Trading is a core concept of Pokémon. So when you’re trading, you meet with a friend and decide which one…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 23, 2009
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  February’s Top-Selling Games, Accessories By Platform

  You’ve devoured, then processed the lists detailing the top-selling games and consoles for February. But do you want to know the best-selling games by platform? Or the games that didn’t quite make the top 10? Wired have published a series of charts provided by the NPD Group, which show the games that finished 11-20 on…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 23, 2009
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  Get Your Battlestar Galactica Fix With These Games

  After a run of over five years, Battlestar Galactica finished over the weekend, and there’s a hole in my heart. Probably one in yours, too. One that needs filling. I mean, you’ve got to fill it with something. It’s not like the show will magically continue next week. It’s over. Well, aside from an epilogue…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 23, 2009
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  Korean Report: Sony Halting PS3 Supply

  According to Korean news site Chosun Online, Sony has ceased supplying South Korea with PS3s for the time being in order to prevent Japanese tourists from picking up the console at a cheaper price point. “We are troubled by ‘reverse-importing’, which is when products exported into South Korea are flown back into Japan,” said a…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 23, 2009
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  It’s Monday. Ban Monday.

  Our favorite Kotakuday? Ban Monday. While we don’t have any problem banning on regular days, we turn up the Ban Hammer sensitivity to MAXIMUM on Ban Monday. Here’s how it’s works: Send us the commenter page to tipsATkotakuDOTcom for anyone who should get the axe, err, hammer. You can put in your request at tipsATkotakuDOTcom.…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 23, 2009
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  Japanese Gamers More Satisfied With Xbox 360 Than Wii Or PS3

  Game magazine Famitsu has published the results of a reader poll about console satisfaction. Results cover the DS, Wii, PSP, PS3 and the Xbox 360. Readers were also polled about games as well. Keep in mind, this poll questioned Famitsu readers, whose opinions might differ from more mainstream Japanese consumers. That, and not as many…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 23, 2009
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  In the Room

  To: Luke From: Owen Re: iPhone Kindle Believe it or not, this island has a comedy club. This week I went by and poked around and left a message for the owner about maybe doing some guest sets in the future. He invited me down later to have a look around and get a feel…

  By Owen Good Published March 22, 2009
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  Week in Games: Spring has Sprung

  We’ve got the most titles in a single week since Black Friday, which makes me wonder: We just had the first day of spring, why is everyone pushing games when we should be outside playing? Today we experienced the mayhem of Pokémon Platinum. Big names rolling out in the coming week include Wheelman, the Vin…

  By Owen Good Published March 22, 2009
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  Ohio Cops Haul In Recidivist Guitar Villain

  Robert Snively of Port Clinton, Ohio, should be having a moment of clarity right now, because the dude is headed for town court over freaking Guitar Hero. Snively, 33, was jamming on the game late at night this weekend, pissing off his neighbors for the last goddamn time. They sicced the fuzz on him, and…

  By Owen Good Published March 22, 2009
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  Metallica’s Hetfield: Games are “Gateway Drug” to Music

  Metallica frontman James Hetfield continues the payday publicity blitz in an interview with Rolling Stone that comes straight out of the celebrity endorsement playbook for music games. There seems to be a formula to these interviews: 1) Genuflect to rhythm games as a whole, citing at least one quality that inspires music appreciation. 2) Tell…

  By Owen Good Published March 22, 2009