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  Apple Patent Takes Augmented Reality Games To The Next Level

  Apple explores the awesome potential of augmented reality in a patent application that describes a multiplayer shooter that allows players to track each other for real using networked iPhones. Augmented reality is more than simply overlaying video game graphics on the real world using a camera. Sure, Invizimals is a hoot, but when it comes…

  By Mike Fahey Published November 4, 2010
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  Say Sayonara To Call Of Duty Swastikas

  The Japanese version of Call of Duty: Black Ops is different. The game was retouched to tone down torture and graphic violence. That’s not all. According to the game’s Japanese publisher Square Enix, the swastikas appearing on flags in the game’s “zombie mode” were changed to the Iron Cross in the dubbed console and subtitled…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published November 4, 2010
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  Microsoft Says Kinect Won’t Invade Your Privacy

  Microsoft’s new Kinect device will put an advanced sensor array in the living room of millions of people, an Internet-connected set of machine ears and eyes capable of capturing voice, recognizing faces and tracking body movement. Don’t worry, the company says, we won’t peep. “By default we don’t listen or look at anything,” MIcrosoft’s director…

  By Stephen Totilo Published November 4, 2010
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  It’s another day to talk about video games. Do your best right here. Thanks to reader Ben for today’s image. Submit yours to #TAYpics

  By Stephen Totilo Published November 4, 2010
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  3D Gaming Phone Ready To Battle Nintendo 3DS

  The Sharp Galapagos is an upcoming 3D smartphone. And it’s getting a handful of games that mean it might just give the Nintendo 3DS a run for its money. Powered by Android, it boasts a 3.8 inch glasses-free 3D screen, 512MB of on-board memory and so far, the phone is slated for seven games: horror…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published November 4, 2010
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  Growing Up, Learning Kanji

  To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Kinect Flood Incoming Busy nite! Loads of Kinect coverage. Nice work Team Kotaku. My 7-year-old son Mini-Bash is in first grade, which means he’s learning kanji. All first graders are required to learn certain characters each year. Kanji are the Chinese characters used in Japanese. They are used in combination…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published November 4, 2010
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  The Many Reviews of Kinect and Its Games

  The Xbox 360’s Kinect launched today with more than a dozen games. We played through half a dozen of them. Here’s a run down of the reviews for quick reference. Click on the game’s name to go to the full review which is much more detailed and packed with videos of us playing the games.…

  By Brian Crecente Published November 4, 2010
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  Do Gaming And Game Characters Help Political Campaigns?

  During the political campaigns for the recent election, some candidates made promises. Some candidates talked trash. And some candidates used video games to make their point. Did gaming give those politicos a 1Up in office? Website GamePolitics has a round-up of some of the politicians that used gaming in their campaigns. Take Missouri Congressman Russ…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published November 4, 2010
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  Cops Nab Man For Sharing New Pokémon

  On September 1 at approximately 8:00pm, 27-year-old Makoto Sekiguchi from Yokohama uploaded images of unrevealed characters in the new Pokémon game Pocket Monsters: Black & White via his mobile phone. He is now in police custody. According to 47 News (via ANN), Sekiguchi uploaded six images of unseen Pokémon, such as Chaoboo. The characters appear…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published November 4, 2010
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  360 Gets Old-School Role-Playing For A Buck

  “West” is a new indie game for the Xbox 360 that looks right up the alley of anyone who has ever played (and enjoyed) games like Pokemon or Mother It of course lacks the polish of those top-down, role-playing Japanese classics, but then, you can’t get them for $1 on an Xbox console, either. West?…

  By Luke Plunkett Published November 4, 2010
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  Dead Space 2, You Are Creeping The Hell Out Of Me

  Everything I’ve seen so far of Dead Space 2 has been about making the game bigger, more expansive, more explosive. Not much on whether the game’s gotten any creepier. Well, this trailer is pretty freakin’ creepy. Dead Space 2 will be out on PC, 360 and PS3 in January 2011. Click to view

  By Luke Plunkett Published November 4, 2010
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  Setting Up and “Tuning” Your Xbox 360 Kinect

  Setting up your Kinect array of cameras and microphones doesn’t take too long, but it’s much more involved than setting up the Wii or Playstation move. This video walks you through the initial set-up process and then some of the fine tuning you can do if you run into problems.

  By Brian Crecente Published November 4, 2010
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  Video Game Ads Were Better In The 1930s

  One of the best things about early 20th-century transportaton was the advertising. Cruise ships, airlines and car companies all used bold, iconic ads to sell their vision of the future. It’s a vision that transfers easily to classic video games. IGNs art team whipped up this line of ads showing how video game vehicles would…

  By Luke Plunkett Published November 4, 2010
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  Five Games That Were, And Should Be Again

  Wolfire, the charitable types developing kooky PC action game Overgrowth, don’t just make games. They imagine what it would be like if people went and remade someone else’s old games, making them as awesome in 2010 as they were originally. Wolfire’s team has posted examples of five classic games that “could still be milked, along…

  By Luke Plunkett Published November 4, 2010
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  In Two Years, Gears Of War Might Chainsaw A Phone

  Donald Mustard, creative director of Chair Entertainment (Shadow Complex), sees a bright future for gaming on a mobile phone. One so bright that in 2-5 years we’ll be playing Gears of Wars on something that fits in our pockets. Chair, who are currently working on Infinity Blade for the iPhone, say that at first doing…

  By Luke Plunkett Published November 4, 2010
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  9 Days With Kinect, My Video Diary

  One man lives with a Kinect for nine days. What happens? How does his mind change? What are the surprises? And where in the world does the guy go on Day 7? This is my Kinect Diary, in video.

  By Stephen Totilo Published November 4, 2010
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  Club Mario Makes Us Want To Forget The 1990s

  It’s easy to forget these days with Nintendo trying so hard to look all adult and stylish, but in the early 1990s, the company was anything but. Allow this montage of footage from Club Mario (a short “comedy” section of the The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!) serve as a reminder that not only did…

  By Luke Plunkett Published November 4, 2010
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  Beat The Foreign-Looking Dude With A Japanese Name

  Soccer franchise Winning Eleven (AKA Pro Evolution Soccer) is facing increased competition from foreign-based developers. The game’s latest television spots also show heavy competition from a sauve non-Japanese-looking fella with a Japanese last name. And they’re some of the most popular ads on Japanese television. The first ad opens with actor Fuku Kondo talking to…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published November 4, 2010
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  The Sights, Sounds And Dancing Armies Of Kinect’s NYC Launch

  While Kinect launches all across the US tonight, the peripheral’s official bash was in New York City, where Marky Mark, Microsoft and an enormous army of purple-shirted dancers overran Times Square.

  By Luke Plunkett Published November 4, 2010
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  Configuring A Room For Kinect: A Tale of Two Homes

  Kinect needs a lot of room, more room than any video game control device before it. But where there’s a will to move furniture or rotate TVs, there is a way. This is how we made room in two homes. From Stephen Totilo, deputy editor, based in Brooklyn: Space is tight in my Brooklyn condo.…

  Stephen Totilo and Brian Crecente Published November 4, 2010