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  And The Nominees For The 10th Annual GDC Awards Are…

  The nominations are in for the 10th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, with Uncharted 2, Flower, and Assassin’s Creed II dominating the nominating. Naughty Dog could win big at the 10th annual awards show, held every year during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has been nominated for no less…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 19, 2010
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  Bioshock 2’s Chief Creator Against A Tide Of Skeptics

  Jordan Thomas has no overall map for Rapture, the majestic underwater city in which the BioShock series is set. He doesn’t have blueprints or a population figure. He works a little more by instinct. Thomas is the creative director of Bioshock 2. He’s got one of those dream gigs in games, overseeing a major release…

  By Stephen Totilo Published January 19, 2010
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  Catch Ho-Oh Or Lugia When You Preorder Pokémon

  Nintendo gets your Pokémon collection started with these figures of Ho-Oh and Lugia, yours when you preorder Pokémon HeartGold or SoulSilver for the Nintendo DS. Starting February 1st, select retailers will be offering these two limited edition figures for customers who preorder these latest Pokémon remakes, with HeartGold customers scoring Ho-Oh and SoulSilver pre-purchasers walking…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 19, 2010
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  Best Video Game Cut Scenes of 2009

  We’re not just debating the best video game of 2009 this week. We’ve got other awards to dole out. Today, I declare which ’09 game had the best cut scenes and which was the runner-up. Winner: Little King’s Story The obscure Wii-only Japanese role-playing game mixes city-building with Pikmin-style roaming-gang action with unexpectedly touching storytelling…

  By Stephen Totilo Published January 19, 2010
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Talk is cheap, unless you’re talking here about video games. That’s the kind of talk we value highly. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.

  By Stephen Totilo Published January 19, 2010
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  Intern At Kotaku

  We’re looking for a few good folks, people hoping to one day enter the realm of journalism and cover video games. If that’s you, then maybe you should consider an internship at Kotaku. It will mean lots of hard work, almost no perks and zero pay. If that doesn’t dissuade you then here are a…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 19, 2010
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  Suggestions

  To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: Night Flyer WATCH THAT BOB DYLAN DOCUMENTARY. What you missed last night Pocket God Micro-Review: Heaven or Hell? Why Is Square Enix Raising Cash? Rock Band Network Launching Tomorrow U.S. Army Trains with “SimCity Bagdad” Unpaid Internet Bill Leads to Game-Blamed Stabbing

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010
• Reviews

  Pocket God Micro-Review: Heaven or Hell?

  You are god. That’s the premise of iPhone app Pocket God from the two-man developer team Bolt Creative. But is it a heavenly experience or a hellish one? In Pocket God, players are a divine hand. As the first sentence of this review explains, you are god. And, as god, you can do pretty much…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010
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  British Sales Charts: You Dance

  It seems our warnings were for naught. And now Britain suffers, with Ubisoft’s Just Dance the best-selling game in the country. You’ve nobody to blame but yourselves. Well, not literally you lot. You probably went out and bought Army of Two, or Bayonetta, or Darksiders. No, you’re looking for somebody to blame, blame your mum.…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010
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  People Still Writing Scripts For Warcraft Movie

  Whether or not famed director Sam Raimi does the Warcraft movie in the near future is anyone’s guess. Just in case he does, though, the movie’s engines are being kept running. Robert Tapert, producer on the project, has told iFM “It’s in development. We’re in the outline/story/script phase”. Which in movie language means early days,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010
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  Wii Balance Board Goes Forth In The Name Of Science

  While the Wii Balance Board‘s usefulness as a fitness device are questionable, there’s no doubts over its ability to perform as a…rehabilitative “force platform”. That’s a device used by doctors to measure the balance of a person recovering from a stroke (or similar injury), employed when the patient is “relearning” how to walk. While lab-grade…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010
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  Why There’s A Naked Final Fantasy XIII Character Model

  Looking through the assets on the Final Fantasy XIII game disk data, Japanese website MADOKA Park! apparently noticed something. Something naked. After looking through the disk and turning up character models for all the main characters as well as main Summons and weapons, the site discovered a character model for Oerba Dia Vanille, and she…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010
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  Super Mario Bros Wii. Fastest Wii Title To Hit Three Million In Japan

  Going on sale in Japan on December 3, 2009, Wii title New Super Mario Bros. Wii has sold over 3 million games. In Japan, that’s not just fast for a Wii title, it’s the fastest. In its first seven weeks on sale, the game moved 3,002,753 units, making it the fastest title to hit the…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010
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  So, Does Japan Actually Read Game Magazines?

  Apparently! Some people read Japanese game magazines like Famitsu when scans leak early onto the internet. Other people actually buy the print publications. But how many? The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association has released circulation numbers for domestic video games magazines. Data is between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009. Title: Weekly Famitsu Publisher: Enterbrain…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010
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  Vietnam Finally Gets The PlayStation 2 (And PS3, PSP)

  Over the weekend, Sony Computer Entertainment began operations in Vietnam, marking the first time the PlayStation brand has been officially sold in the communist state. Sony’s first sanctioned (as in, not privately imported) PlayStation products in the country went on sale on Saturday morning, with the120GB PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable (the PSP-3000) and PlayStation 2…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010
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  Etrian Odyssey III Pushed Back

  Upcoming Nintendo DS role-playing game Etrian Odyssey III: Visitor From Star Ocean from developer Atlus has been delayed in Japan. The game was originally slated for a March 4 release. Joining the typical dungeon crawling of the previous Etrian Odyssey games, the third installment will also feature ocean exploring. Atlus attributed the delay to “various…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010
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  Plenty More TF2 Updates On The Way

  Over two years on from the game’s release, every Team Fortress 2 class save the Engineer has received a major update. Does that mean, then, that there’s only one major update left in the game? No way. In an interview with Team Fortress 2 community site Community Fortress, Valve’s Robin Walker has said “We’ve got…

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010
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  What Do Gundam, Pro Evo and Nintendo Games Have In Common?

  Last year in Japan, people bought tons of ’em, that’s what. Enterbrain, the publisher behind Japanese game magazine Famitsu, has released sales data for fifty biggest selling games of last year. The data was collected for the dates between December 28, 2008 and December 27, 2009. Where applicable, the data in the parenthesis is the…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010
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  Party Like It’s 2009 With Yakuza 3 Screens

  So what if Yakuza 3 has been out in Japan since forever. It’s now on its way to the West, meaning we can get excited about it all over again.

  By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010
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  Kenka Bancho, The Badass Gallery of Tough Guy Faces

  This March, fighting game Kenka Bancho is coming to the silver screen in Japan with Kenka Bancho ~ Zenkoku Seiha (Nationwide Domination). It’s bringing hard-nosed facial posturing with it! The cute is provided by idols Erika Yazawa and Mai Satoda. Sneers by the dudes. Thanks, dudes! 里田まい『喧嘩番長 劇場版〜全国制覇』で「夢が叶った」 [Famitsu]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010