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  What Are You Reading?

  Welcome to tonight’s themed open thread, Kotaku readers. While your free to make conversation on any topic, video game related or otherwise, readers of novels, comic books and other forms of printed material are invited to share. Me? In addition to reading the Internet, I’m finally getting around to reading Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of Richard…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  Dreamcast Collection Coming To 12 Inches Of Vinyl

  Sega is once again putting music to vinyl, following up on the bright blue Sega Genesis Collection soundtrack on LP with one for the Dreamcast fans out there. And by “there,” I regretfully mean “Australia.” Yes, like the last Sega vinyl record, this bonus item is strictly for our friends down under and only available…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  PlayStation Store Update: Tactics Ogre, Back to the Future & More

  This week’s North American PlayStation Store update has arrived, bringing with it new games, old games and games based on old things from the future. Highlights include the PSP remake of Tactics Ogre: Lets Us Cling Together, the debut of Telltale’s Back to the Future on PlayStation Network and Acceleration of SUGURI X-Edition. And for…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  This Is What Diablo III Looked Like A Long Time Ago

  There’s still a chance we’ll get to play the highly anticipated third Diablo game in 2011. Whenever we do get Blizzard’s next big action role-playing game, it will look like a very different beast from the canned 2005 version. The Diablo III we’ll eventually play on our PCs will be much more colorful—too vibrant for…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  One Last Chance To Own Super Mario All-Stars For Wii

  Nintendo is cutting off your supply of the Wii version of Super Mario All-Stars, the limited edition collection of four NES era Super Mario Bros. games with a 16-bit makeover. But it’s also giving you one last chance to buy it. Nintendo of America said today it’s producing its “final run” of the Super Mario…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  More Chocolate Death

  So I got more candy yesterday after I shot the first batch. Crazy! I Know!! Get Ready To Play Dress-Up With Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Now that Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is on store shelves, Capcom can start doling out the downloadable costume packs. Check out upcoming costume changes for Captain…

  By Brian Crecente Published February 15, 2011
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  You’ve Never Experienced Neo Geo Hardware Drama Like This

  Are you ready to have a Neo Geo make sweet love to your eyeballs? Thanks to photographer Aaron Nanto and his perfectly preserved, beautifully shot SNK hardware, your retinas are about to be thoroughly and lovingly sexed. This is “Neo Geo: Bigger Badder Better,” a “cinematic tribute to SNK’s 24-bit arcade powerhouse” and the most…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  The Killzone 3 PS3 Bundle You’ve Been Waiting For

  If Killzone 3 will be the game that finally convinces you to become a PlayStation 3 owner, this is the package for you. Included is a 160GB PS3 system and one copy of Killzone 3—or “the ultimate PlayStation Move and 3D game,” according to this cardboard box. If you’re already a PlayStation 3 owner, you…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  16-Year-Old Confesses To Killing Mom Over PlayStation

  Philadelphia teenager Kendall Anderson confessed in court to murdering his sleeping mother after she confiscated his PlayStation. And if you don’t like crime-related video games stories with terrible, sickening endings, don’t go any further. This one is perhaps the worst. Anderson’s confession, read in court by Philadelphia police homicide detective Thorsten Lucke, admits to attacking…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  Games Might Not Desensitize Us To Violence After All

  The “video games desensitize children to violence” argument is a popular weapon in the arsenal of the anti-violent video game crowd. A new study finds violent games to have no effect on long-term emotional memory at all. Researchers at Ryerson University in Toronto led by Holly Bowen, a PhD candidate in psychology, gathered a group…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 15, 2011
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  The Hilarious Agony Of An Old Smurfs Video Game

  Old games were difficult in stupid ways. This video — full of NSFW language — confirms this fact. The poor guy who tries to get through this 1982 Atari and Colecovision game previously struggled through the disturbingly similar QWOP. Let there never be another video game like this. Smurf Rescue Gameplay and Commentary [YouTube]

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 15, 2011
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  A Musical Video Game About Catching Snowflakes With Your Tongue

  Rich Vreeland makes music for video games; games like Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter and the upcoming Fez. He’s also made a short video game about making music with your tongue and snowflakes. January is a tiny game, simple to control—walk right or left, press up to stick out one’s tongue—but also fun to…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  Could Video Games Ruin Toys?

  Toy Fair is a rather large test tube of possible fun. It’s been held, in recent years, at the massive glass-walled Jacob Javits Center in New York City, inside which there’s a swirl of new toys and that popular foreign substance we love here: video games. There are many ways in which we can measure…

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 15, 2011
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  Mortal Kombat’s Newest Kombatant Will Make You Puke

  The black ninja is back. Noob Saibot, first introduced in Mortal Kombat II, will return for the upcoming PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 reboot. The Noob of the new Mortal Kombat will double team you and make you violently ill. The latest confirmed kombatant in the Mortal Kombat that goes back its roots features more…

  By Michael McWhertor Published February 15, 2011
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  How You Can Help Build A World-Class Video Game Museum

  The staff at the Museum of Digital Art and Entertainment have the knowledge, passion, and the gaming artifacts to create a world-class video game museum in the San Francisco Bay area. Now they just need a place to put it. Archiving video game history is an important undertaking that needs to be handled with the…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 15, 2011
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  Quake’s Oddest Controller Is Made Of Mouse, Keyboard And Masking Tape

  In 2006, before Kinect and maybe even before Wii, gamer Niel de la Rouviere decided to make a motion-controller for Quake III. He says he was bored; I say that Niel de la Rouviere, armed with masking tape, was efficient. He uploaded a video of his makeshift contraption to YouTube yesterday. I’m impressed that it…

  By Stephen Totilo Published February 15, 2011
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  What Makes Zombies So Terrifying?

  As the entertainment world’s zombie outbreak continues unabated, one of the nation’s top minds seeks an answer to a pressing question: What makes humans fear these brain-hungry abominations, aside from the whole brain-eating thing. Stephen Schlozman, MD, knows a little something about fear and the undead. He’s an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 15, 2011
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  Crashing The Silent Protagonist Party

  When a party’s guest list includes Gordon Freeman, The Legend of Zelda’s Link, and Crono from Chrono Trigger, the chances of striking up a good conversation are pretty slim, even for gaming’s most appropriate party crasher. I prefer the premise to the punch line in the latest video from the folks from Dorkly. There have…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 15, 2011
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  You Decide The Best PlayStation Network Games Of 2010

  Sony is giving players the chance to honor upon their favorite downloadable titles of 2010 in the first-ever PlayStation Network Gamers’ Choice Awards. Which of the 20 nominees will walk away with top honors? Since PlayStation Network users are the ones that play the downloadable games Sony makes available on the PlayStation 3 and PSP,…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 15, 2011
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  Interview: Defrosting Frozen Synapse

  You know what we haven’t talked about for a while? Frozen Synapse – the high-speed tactical strategy game from Oxfordshire developers Mode 7. It takes the spine of X-COM, adds a little procedural generation and tweaks it into something fresh, fast, instant and accessible. And it’s still not been released, despite having been released last…

  Alec Meer, Rock Paper Shotgun Published February 15, 2011