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  The New Ridge Racer Game Looks Somewhat Familiar

  I promise you. This is not a trailer for a new Burnout game. It is instead a trailer for Ridge Racer: Unbounded, due out next year on the PS3, PC and Xbox 360. Remember: Ridge Racer. Not Burnout

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  What Would You Do with the World’s Largest HD Screen?

  Why, you’d play video games on it, just like NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. did at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. As website Joystiq points out, it took 57 workers four months to complete the 332.5 ton, 720p screen, which is comprised of 9 million LEDs. Dale Jr. Takes World’s Largest HDTV For a Test Drive…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 12, 2011
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  New Hitman Games Links with Movie, Stars a Carradine

  The latest game in the Hitman series, Absolution, is taking the series in a slightly different direction than longtime fans may be used to, as publishers Square Enix seek to tie the games in with the upcoming movie. “We’ve designed a more stylized, more serious, and darker game this time around in both the story…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  Uncategorized

  This One Goes Out to Fans Of Out of This World

  Or, as I knew it, Another World. This indie demo is for a game called Concurrence, and while this particular section has been put together for a competition, a full game is in the works. You play a man (Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, it seems) who wakes up on an alien planet and has to find…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  “Social Gaming Is Going to Crash”

  Game designer Denis Dyack, who labored on action game Too Human for years, thinks that social gaming is a bubble waiting to burst: “The trend that I see is it’s probably going to be one of the biggest bubbles and explosions that our industry’s seen in a long time and I think when it crashes…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 12, 2011
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  Playing Space Invaders with 480 Sneakers

  Converse’s “The Canvas Experiment” was just that: take a 4m x 5m canvas, put 480 pairs of Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers on it then play a game of Space Invaders Admittedly, it sounds better in theory than it looks in practice, the “screen” making things pretty tough to see, but then, you can make…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  Nine Names for Your Oregon Trail Family

  Emily Weiss has a list of surname possibilities next time you’re playing the American educational classic. “‘Somebody has cholera’ does indeed add a new element to the intrigue. [The Hairpin]

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  Controversial Game Brought to Life With Tight Rubber, a Nice Lady and Fake Blood

  Thrill Kill, a violent S&M-themed fighting game, was too much for the PlayStation 1. It’s not too much for Metal Gear cosplay queen Omi Gibson. In her latest photoset, Gibson cosplays as cattle prod-wielding, sexually charged dominatrix Belladonna. The character “accidentally” killed herself with said cattle prod, something echoed in this cosplay. While the game…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 12, 2011
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  The Flight Is Like Rez, Only with Less Vibration

  Swiss indie developer Tobias Baumann, who made the awesome Dopplescope, is currently working on a new project called The Flight, which is a shooter that uses music as bullets. While the general premise is one that’s been used a few times before, The Flight still looks cool in that it’s basically Rez, only instead of…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  Can You Handle All This Badass Plastic?

  Namco Bandai doesn’t only make video games. It’s Bandai arm has toy and game licenses for iconic Japanese institutions like Gundam, Kamen Rider and Ultraman, as well as new favs like One Piece and Haruhi Suzumiya At an Akihabara showcase, Namco Bandai displayed the latest entries in its high-end collectibles range. The end results are…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 12, 2011
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  Square Enix Just Cancelled a Bunch of Games

  Square Enix has cancelled multiple in-development titles, according to the company’s latest financial forecast. These games were binned as the company is “introducing a tightened selection standard regarding title lineup to strengthen the revenue base of the Company’s digital entertainment segment”. The name/franchise of the cancelled titles was not disclosed. [Square Enix]

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  Nintendo, Your Piracy Protection Isn’t Working

  Earlier this week, Nintendo pushed live an updated piece of firmware for the DSi. It was aimed at stopping piracy. Less than a day later, however, flash cart manufacturers had already found a way around it. It took flash cart (cartridges allowing the use of homebrew and/or pirated software) producer R4iDSN less than 24 hours…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  Inside Japan’s Largest Cosplay Theme Park

  At any geek event in Japan, you’ll see them: cosplayers. Convention centers are not ideal backgrounds for the fantasy of fancy costumes. Amateur photographers who aren’t happy with the shitty con setting even rent private spaces and hire cosplayers for more professional looking photos. While cosplayers continue to favor real backgrounds like abandoned buildings, empty…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published May 12, 2011
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  So, Nobody Is Buying PS1 Games On The PlayStation Phone

  The big selling point of the Xperia Play, Sony’s first mobile phone to run its PlayStation Suite of handheld games, is the fact users can download PS1 games. So it’s a little weird that nobody seems to be doing that. Because the games are available on the Android Marketplace, it’s easy to see how many…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  The 3DS E-Shop Has Been Delayed

  The 3DS launched without its online store being ready for business. Which was weird. Weirder still is that the store’s launch has now been pushed even further back (if only by a week or so). A brief announcement on Nintendo’s web site states that the online store, originally planned for release in late May, will…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  The New Age of Empires is Out This Fall

  Age of Empires Online, the new online-only version of the strategy classic, will be launching for real this Fall, both online and with boxed retail copies. [Age of Empires]

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  CultureTotal Recall

  The HD Console Game From…1993?

  While most people would peg the beginning of the high definition era around the time of the PlayStation 2 (some games able to run in 1080i), here’s one game that was running in HD nearly twenty years ago It’s Hudson’s Hi-Ten Bomberman, which has the honour of being the world’s very first high definition video…

  By Luke Plunkett Published May 12, 2011
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  Lineage Shuts Down June 29, is Free-to-Play Until Then

  After a run of more than 10 years, Lineage is “no longer financially viable in the West,” says publisher NCsoft, and its North American servers will be shut down permanently on June 29. Beginning now, the game is free-to-play until that date provided one has or had created a Lineage account before today. All existing…

  By Owen Good Published May 11, 2011
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  Sony Online Entertainment Loses Development Chief to Zynga [Updated]

  John Blakely, a nine-year veteran of Sony Online Entertainment and most recently its vice president of development, has apparently left the company for casual-games behemoth Zynga. Blakely’s LinkedIn resumé has him departing SOE as of last month to become general manager at Zynga. Update: Sony Online Entertainment has confirmed Blakely’s resignation and departure. In a…

  By Owen Good Published May 11, 2011
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  Can one crazy dungeon master defeat the forces of neo-nerd hipster douchery?

  When a neo-nerd hipster douchebag joins Scott’s old-school D&D game, it looks like heads are going to roll along with the dice. Help make this funny, original movie about geek culture a reality by donating! The film is called Zero Charisma, and it’s from an experienced group of filmmakers in Austin. They’re raising money for…

  By Annalee Newitz Published May 11, 2011