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  Pokemon Rangers Hold Back Bad Company On Japan’s Software Battlefield

  Just like last week, Nintendo’s latest Pokemon spin-off, Pokemon Ranger: Hikari no Kiseki for the Nintendo DS, tops Japan’s weekly software chart, fending off a long list of newcomers, including Battlefield: Bad Company 2. To Bad Company 2’s credit, the PlayStation 3 version of DICE’s shooter managed a top ten spot, wedged between Japanese fare…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 18, 2010
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  One Step Closer To The Mathematical Formula For Fun

  No, in this post you will not find the algorithm of entertainment, the theorem of thrills or the postulate of pleasure. But you will find details on how one unlikely game may, accidentally, calculate fun. The game is Dante’s Inferno, EA’s enjoyable and lurid re-imagining of the classic poem. The application of a possible mathematical…

  By Stephen Totilo Published March 18, 2010
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  Maybe Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Would Be Better If We Snuck Together

  Did you enjoy your glimpse of single player sneaking in the Peace Walker clip we posted on Monday? Well two can play at that game! See how two people can be sneakier than one in this latest clip. While I wasn’t initially impressed by the thought of cooperative sneaking in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker,…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 18, 2010
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  Threadless $10 Sale Lets You Dress For A Whole Week For The Price Of One Game

  Community driven t-shirt maker Threadless is kicking off its latest and, some say, greatest sale on upper torso wear, slashing prices to just $10 USD in honor of the brand’s tenth anniversary. That means super cheap gaming related t-shirts! For less than the price of a new release video game, you can dress yourself for…

  By Michael McWhertor Published March 18, 2010
• Reviews

  Max & The Magic Marker Micro-Review: What If The DS Was My TV?

  Next week, Nintendo will release the largest Nintendo DS yet seen in America, the pocket-busting DSi XL. But I have played a DS game that no DS can display — on my TV with a giant, virtual stylus. Max & The Magic Marker is a downloadable game from Press Play, in development for a couple…

  By Stephen Totilo Published March 18, 2010
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  Playing Political Games

  In a large theater at the 2010 Game Developers Conference, ten thousand game makers gathered for the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice awards ceremonies, where the best indie and mainstream games of the year are celebrated by and for their creators. In between the two, an unusual video was shown. Aneesh Chopra, the…

  Ian Bogost Published March 18, 2010
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  A More Nutritious Way To Review God Of War III

  A humorous Photoshop, or a look at how games would be labeled if the government handled ratings? As seen on Joystick Division

  By Mike Fahey Published March 18, 2010
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  Is USB Storage In The Xbox 360’s Future?

  Is Microsoft planning to drop its overpriced Xbox 360 Memory Units in favor of more affordable USB mass storage devices? According to documentation obtained by Joystiq, the answer is yes. Currently the only external storage solution for the Xbox 360 is the Microsoft-produced Memory Unit, a relatively expensive way to add up to 512MB of…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 18, 2010
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  PlayStation Move Party Report: The Muffin Dumpster

  Muffins are the unsung hero of the games industry. They are the glue that binds publishers, PR, and the media together. The idea of a muffin is, no one hates a muffin on principle. People (psychopaths) might dislike cookies, even chocolate chip ones, or they might have a thing against a particular variety of donut.…

  Tim Rogers Published March 18, 2010
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  This Game Boy Looks Damn Good On Paper

  French graphic design duo Zim and Zou have created a paper craft Game Boy that looks so real you could almost play a giant paper craft version of Tetris on it. Thibault Zimmermann and Lucie Thomas, otherwise known as Zim and Zou, merge their artistic expertise in digital design and paper crafts to create these…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 18, 2010
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  A Cave Story On My Wall

  Hitting March 22, the Wii version of classic PC game Cave Story will include new options and visual enhancements. It won’t, however, include this spiffy canvas that just showed up on my doorstep by indie artist Christopher Reavey or this letter from game creator Daisuke Ayama.

  By Brian Crecente Published March 18, 2010
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  Middle Earth Goes Snowblind In The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North

  Warner Bros. Interactive has tapped the team behind Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath to create The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, co-op action RPG for the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3. With the console installment of Baldur’s Gate and the two EverQuest-themed Champions titles under its belt, no…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 18, 2010
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  Yam Hand? Jelly Man? BioShock Monsters That Might Have Been

  If you thought BioShock had some creepy enemies, wait until you get a look at the enemy concepts that didn’t make it into the game. Irrational Games pulled out these five pieces of concept art from deep within its vaults, giving fans a taste of a BioShock that might have been. There seems to be…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 18, 2010
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  Metroid: Other M Isn’t Completely Off the Rails

  Playing through a section of Metroid: Other M last week, I couldn’t help but notice that the Wii title felt at times very much like the sort of game the developers said it wasn’t: An on-the-rails shooter. During his talk at the Game Developers Conference last week, Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto said the game was…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 18, 2010
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  Is This The Release Date For Dragon Age 2?

  A blood dragon-emblazoned card tucked within retail copies of the Dragon Age Origins: Awakening expansion suggests that February 1, 2011 is a date of some importance to BioWare’s latest RPG franchise. Is this the release date for Dragon Age 2? The card is definitely dating something, but isn’t it a bit early to reveal a…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 18, 2010
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  Wild Arms Creators Make RPG Magic On The iPhone

  From Square Enix and the developers Wild Arms comes Chaos Rings, an iPhone game that looks like it could be the first great 3D Japanese RPG on the platform, with production values on par with PlayStation-era Final Fantasy titles. The comparison is apt, considering the game features designs by Yusuke Naora, the character designer for…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 18, 2010
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  A New Darkstalkers Would Be Street Fighter Producer’s Dream Project

  The man behind Street Fighter IV doubts that Capcom would want him to work on a Hyper Street Fighter IV after iterative Super Street Fighter IV hits stores this year. Instead Yoshinori Ono has something else in mind: Darkstalkers. Asked what his next dream project would be during an interview last week, Ono first joked…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 18, 2010
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  Star Wars MMO Pricing Plan May Have “Some Twists”

  For about fifteen bucks a month, you can play World of Warcraft or most other massively multiplayer online games. That’s the genre standard. Could the next big MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic shake that up? In an interview with Kotaku at Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco last week, Ray Muzyka, general manager of…

  By Stephen Totilo Published March 18, 2010
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Dying to say something about video games? It’s a good thing this post is here for you to comment on. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ

  By Stephen Totilo Published March 18, 2010
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  Cry Your Way Through Age of Conan’s Asian Empire

  Wolf and Tiger mounts, choices and consequences that roll out branching storylines and bosses that need to be conquered with emotional outbursts are just a few of the new concepts coming to Age of Conan later this year. Age of Conan expansion Rise of the Godslayer takes place 20 years after the events of Robert…

  By Brian Crecente Published March 18, 2010