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What’s Microsoft Announcing At Its CES Keynote?
Next Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will kick off the Consumer Electronics Show with a keynote that will likely involve chairs being thrown and perspiration-soaked Brooks Brothers shirts. But what about product announcements? Um… It doesn’t sound like Microsoft is bringing much in the way of big guns, at least if Techcrunch’s report on details…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Problems With Puzzle Quest iPhone
Puzzle Quest is no stranger to gameplay bugs in any of its myriad releases, but the iPhone version deleting characters takes the cake for the “kick in the shins” category. According to forum posts on touchArcade and my own awful experience on a six hour car ride, heroes are randomly deleted from the game. You’ll…
By AJ Glasser Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
EA, Take-Two Deal Makes Media Deals Worst Of List
Congratulations, Take-Two. You win second place on the list of 10 worst media deals of 2008. Spurning Electronic Arts’ offer to buy you got the attention of some list-making investors, who hailed your decision. Oh, they hailed it as a massively missed opportunity, considering EA offered to buy your stock at a premium of $25.75…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
White Knight Chronicles Has Solid, If Not Spectacular Week In Japan
Role-playing game White Knight Chronicles has been the focus of much attention for its perception as a great white hope for the PlayStation 3 in Japan. It is from Level 5, after all. You know Level 5, developers of the best selling Professor Layton series for the Nintendo DS, entrusted with Square Enix’s most recent…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Rain Delay
To: Ash From: Crecente Re: That New Year Smell We had to put off publishing our Game of the Year awards until Monday due to a technical glitch. Blame it on pregnant chads or Boca Raton voters. Saturday we’re leaving El Paso, driving back to Denver over the weekend. As much as I love visiting…
By Brian Crecente Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
iPhone Game Lets Your Pecs Battle With Push Ups
Looking at the bird chests of the Kotaku editorial staff, you’d think we don’t know from push ups. But we’re thinking, thanks to PushupFu for the iPhone, we’ve got more chiseled cleavage in our future. Normally, we avoid “exergaming” but PushupFu, one entry in a planned series of exercise focused Fu Apps for the mobile…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Clip Where Dead Rising Wii Thrashes Out, Almost Redeems Itself
Dead Rising Wii was at TGS. Was almost the worst thing there. Truly awful. Yet at the same time, it was almost the best thing there, because this clip was playing at the demo booth. We’d forgotten all about it, but Capcom Japan have seen fit to release the clip – performed by Gagaga SP,…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
PixelJunk Expands By Three In 2009
What does 2009 have in store for the PlayStation Network? At the very least, two more PixelJunk games. At most? Maybe three! Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert briefly outlined his company’s 2009 plans for the series. He writes on the official U.S. PlayStation blog that “two or three more PixelJunk titles [will be] coming out” in…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Yes, Roy Orbison Is Coming To Rock Band Next Week
Harmonix confirmed today what you may have already had leaked all over you: a Roy Orbison six-pack is hitting the Rock Band series next week. The tracks? You already know. “Claudette”, “In Dreams,” “Mean Woman Blues,” “Oh, Pretty Woman,” “Ooby Dooby,” and “You Got It,” six tracks that span nearly years worth of Orbison’s career.…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Vibras Five.One Surround Sound Headset Review
The Vibras Five.One from Track Scan delivers big Dolby Digital surround sound in a tiny package. It boasts that it’s “the only headset to earn Microsoft’s authorization as ‘Licensed for Xbox 360’.” Is that enough? Manufacturer Track Scan purports that the Vibras is “unsurpassed in its superior audio quality,” offering up an Xbox 360 tailored…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Urine The Video Game: Clicking And Dragging To A Healthy Tinkle
From the makers of Gas Attack, a pinball machine that teaches about flatulence, comes Urine the video game. Our visit to the touring Grossology show netted me not one, but two video games. Last week/year I pointed out that Grossology had a neat little pinball game designed to teach about gas, though really I didn’t…
By Brian Crecente Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Used Game Sales of 2008 Dip Below 07 Used Sales
The average price for used video game sales on eBay and other resellers dropped nearly 12 percent from last year, according to an analysis by Video Game Price Charts.Com. Average used game prices started at a high of $12.69 on Jan. 1, dropped down to a low of $8.57 on Nov. 3 and rose back…
By Brian Crecente Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Peter Moore Has A Question: “WTF, Eurogamer?”
We wish there were more executives like Peter Moore, the kind who wonder where the f…. hell their game is on the end of year “Best Of” lists. As Moore has done to Eurogamer. Now, we don’t have any particular issue with Eurogamer’s choices for the Top 50 Games of 2008, but the head of…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Read The Full First Issue of Dead Space the Comic
You can read the entire first issue of Image Comics’ Dead Space over at Newsarama right now. The site is hosting high-quality, full scans of every page of the initial issue of the comic based on the Electronic Arts video game. Dead Space Comic [Newsarama]
By Brian Crecente Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
A Gaming Take on Parrish’s Daybreak
The Tanooki points to an interesting take on Maxfield Parrish’s “Daybreak.” The luminous look of the original is flattened a bit in this homage by Adam Baron, but the scene now include a DS Lite. Maybe it’s the invasion of games into the otherwise idyllic scene, but for some reason I don’t find Game Break…
By Brian Crecente Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
Oh look! The weekend! Again! After having a restful New Year’s Day, playing Left 4 Dead and Rez HD, it’s time to take two additional days off. So, what’s left to play this weekend? My newly acquired copy of Final Fantasy III DS perhaps? Maybe some Gears of War 2? Maybe I’ll even give that…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Star Trek Online Takes Us To The Year 2383
Cryptic continues to expound on the future history of Star Trek Online, updating their game time line with the year 2383, in which the Romulans continue to fall apart and the Klingons get increasingly pissed. If you’ve not been keeping up with the Star Trek Online time line, Cryptic has been doing an excellent job…
By Mike Fahey Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
The Boston Herald’s iPhone Game Top 20
Tom Rose of the Boston Globe has waded through the metric ass-ton of games available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, compiling a lovely little list of the 20 best games of 2008. Navigating the storm of games that have appeared in Apple’s App Store since it launched earlier this year is a complete pain…
By Mike Fahey Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Vote For Mod DB’s Mod Of The Year Awards
Mod DB has announced the start of voting for the 7th Annual Mod of the Year Awards, celebrating the best in fan-crafted game modifications, and your vote counts. Voting kicks off today at ModDB.com, where users browsing the collection of mods on the website are urged to click the VOTE button located in each mod’s…
By Mike Fahey Published January 2, 2009 - Uncategorized
Firebird Mini Gaming Rig Priced At $1800
That mini-PC gaming rig I was all excited about last year just got priced. The PC with a small footprint and an even smaller environmental footprint will start at $1,800. The Vista-based Firebird will come with quad-core Intel Core 2 processors of up to 2.83 Ghz (note they don’t tell you what the base line…
By Brian Crecente Published January 2, 2009