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New Health Potion Adds “+160 HP” and Ginseng
There’s a new video game-inspired energy drink in town. As if we needed another one. Harcos Inc. has released a new red Health Energy Potion to go with their blue Mana Energy Potion. Mind you, these aren’t in any way related to the Final Fantasy Potion drink beyond the basic concept of video game commercialization.…
By AJ Glasser Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Pachter Breaks Up Fight Between Kaz, Greenberg, Claims Both Are Right
Gentlemen, gentlemen, please. Why don’t we stop all this console manufacturer bickering and make peace? Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai and Xbox 360 director Aaron Greenberg are both right. How can that be? Surely both mouthpieces, whether they’re boasting “official leadership in this industry” or whether they’re claiming the…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
EA Confirms Cuts At Madden Developer
What was rumor yesterday is now fact. Madden NFL, Tiger Woods and NCAA Football games developer EA Tiburon is home to the latest casualties at Electronic Arts, though numbers were not disclosed. The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that EA Tiburon’s Craig Hagen confirmed that cuts were made to the 650-plus employee strong studio in Maitland,…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Mailbag: From Two Years of Harassment to the Anthropology of Kotaku
To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Wash Your Hands? Gargle? I think maybe, people don’t understand the sheer volume of emails we receive in a given day. And how incredibly different they can be. A bulk of the emails I receive are either tips, people contacting me from a company or bloggers/writers asking for advice. But…
By Brian Crecente Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Team Fortress 2 Getting One More New Gameplay Mode
Valve’s team-based shooter Team Fortress 2 may have at least one more gameplay mode left in it, according to the developer’s Robin Walker. On top of that, a tenth class is in the works. You’re just going to have to wait a while to see what that tenth class — previously teased in a Left…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Sony To Cut 2,000 Employees, Kill TV Plants In Japan
Sony head honcho Howard Stringer will announce on Thursday plans to eliminate 2,000 full-time jobs and close two television manufacturing plants in the face of a projected $1.1 billion loss, reports Japan’s Nikkei Daily. Potentially more painful to Stringer is a reported plan to cut managerial and executive bonuses for the year. Nikkei reports that…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009 -
UncategorizedNew “Rock Band Game” Name Dropped
What’s this then about a new Rock Band game? The reference comes from, of all places, Vic Mignogna, best known as the voice of Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist and his work in quite a few Dragon Ball Z games. About 6 minutes into part five of a six part recording taken from the Winter…
By Brian Crecente Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Why Is GameStop No Longer Selling Dawn Of War II?
Relic Entertainment’s Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II appears to no longer be available for purchase at GameStop. Why? A person claiming to have knowledge of the matter says it’s because of the game’s association with Steam. As of January 15th, according to Google’s cache, GameStop was still taking pre-orders for the real-time strategy game.…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Monsters Vs. Aliens – The Trailer Of The Game Of The Movie
Activision has released a trailer for their movie tie-in with the upcoming Dreamworks Animation 3D feature film Monsters vs. Aliens, and it actually doesn’t look half bad. Sure, it’s a movie tie-in, but lately Activision’s movie tie-ins have managed to be somewhat enjoyable. Kung-Fu Panda in particular was a game I could actually play all…
By Mike Fahey Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Wii Fit Helps Paralyzed Girl Walk Again
A 10-year-old girl left paralyzed by a virus four years ago is learning to walk again thanks to her doctors and a copy of Wii Fit, Ireland’s Herald.ie writes. The girl took her first steps in four years at a New York hospital late last year. Now, back in her home town of Wexford, Ireland,…
By Brian Crecente Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Grand Theft Auto: The Lost And Damned Achievements Work In One Dick Joke
In anticipation of upcoming Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned previews, Rockstar Games has revealed the Xbox 360 exclusive episode’s Achievements, ensuring that low-brow humor permeates all aspects of the downloadable content. Fan site GTAgaming.com was one of the lucky few to have early details dished on how Grand Theft Auto IV owners will…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Watch The First Four Minutes Of Assault On Dark Athena
G4 got their hands on the first four minutes of Starbreeze’s Chronicles of Riddick follow-up, Assault on Dark Athena, featuring our favorite psychotic killer doing what he does best – lurking in shadows. No one lurks quite like Riddick, the finest role Vin Diesel has ever portrayed outside of The Iron Giant. In Pitch Black,…
By Mike Fahey Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Grand Theft Auto IV Elite Case is the New Black
Reader Mike sends us word that he was the lucky winner of the Grand Theft Auto IV Elite Sweepstakes Console nine months or so ago. And his prize just arrived. The ebony black Xbox 360 Elite sports a slick GTA IV logo, which at first glance may look like a sticker but is actually embossed…
By Brian Crecente Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
ESRB Explains Noby Noby Boy For Us
Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi’s next game, Noby Noby Boy, has been rated by the ESRB. That’s good news. But even better is the software ratings board’s helpful description of what Noby Noby Boy is. Oh sure, you may have actually paid attention to previews of the PlayStation 3 game, hopefully due any day now,…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Video Games Are One Of The 10 Things We’re Still Buying
Financial publication Forbes takes a look at some of the things people are still willing to spend money on in the face of the recession, and of course, our favorite hobby makes the cut. The economy might be tanking, but we still need our stuff. Without our stuff, what would we be? Stuffless…and no one…
By Mike Fahey Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Take Airport Security Game Through Airport Security
We first wrote about newsgame Airport Security back in 2006, today Ian Bogost reports that an iPhone version of the game is now available in the App Store. Jetset is still about the absurdity of security at airports, but now it comes with a bunch of extra airplane-safe bells and whistles. In the game you…
By Brian Crecente Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
In Search of Wisdom from the Crowd of Gamers
What did Rock Band gamers play most, after Rock Band? Jon Radoff wasn’t asked, officially, but he figured his company had enough data — from 400,000 gamers — to give an good answer. It’s Bioshock. “That really surprised me,” said Radoff (pictured) the CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based GamerDNA, a startup that is literally a next-door…
By Owen Good Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Frankenreview: Lord Of The Rings: Conquest
Pandemic Studios took the winning formula from the Star Wars: Battlefront series and applied it to the Lord of the Rings fantasy universe to create Lord of the Rings: Conquest. It sounds like such a sure thing, doesn’t it? Epic fantasy battles recreating moments from the beloved fantasy books and movies. All EA and Pandemic…
By Mike Fahey Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
I Am Alive In March
Ubisoft’s mysterious survival title I Am Alive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, is apparently due out by the end of March…so hopefully we’ll know something about it by then. I Am Alive, originally scheduled for a 2nd quarter 2009 release, is a survival game developed by Cold Fear developers Darkworks, that takes…
By Mike Fahey Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Ultimate PS3 Red Alert 3 Trailer
Since the PlayStation 3 version of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is the "Ultimate Edition", that makes this video the Ultimate Red Alert 3 launch trailer. Let’s watch. Okay, well perhaps it isn’t all that ultimate, but it gets the job done, mentioning the Blu-ray disc they’ve packed with delicious C&C:RA3 goodness while giving…
By Mike Fahey Published January 21, 2009