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Sex as a Commodity, Women as Achievements
Mass Effect is a sophisticated, acclaimed video game. It took uninformed flak for its sex scene, which gamers defended as a mature portrayal of the act. But it’s not that different from the depiction of sex in many other games. Video games, on the whole, perpetuate a transactional model of sex, argues Alex Raymond at…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
CCP Boss: Dust 514 for Those Who ‘Blow Sh— Up’
DUST 514 takes the prize for most intriguing hybrid – console FPS/RTS/MMO that performs in the persistent EVE Online universe. Here, the CCP Games CEO explains the concept more, including the fundamental difference in EVE and Dust characters. Hilmar Pétursson drew a familiar analogy – EVE Online players are the air force; DUST 514 players…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
The Art of Calling an Unseen Game
The scene is familiar: Midway through the first period of an NHL game, and the shot knots up the score. Randy Hahn considers the action for a split-second and leans into his microphone. “The Sharks have come right back and tied this one up,” says the television voice of San Jose hockey. “That goal is…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Weekend Coupons: In Which Owen Damn Near Buys an Elite
Coupon assemblage is, routinely a yeah-yeah task. I mean, really, who the hell wants a pink Guitar Hero guitar. But this weekend, there’s some 360 hardware values you need to see. Hardware • If this is to be believed, Play.com has an Xbox 360 bundle that reads like a Ronco But-Wait-There’s-More ad, except it actually…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Kotaku Originals: Follow That
Meaty news week here in Kotakopolis. Last week’s PS3 Slim announcement fairly forced Microsoft to do two things: 1) Declare there’s no 360 Slim following suit and 2) announce a comparable price cut is on the way. Reviews of Wolfenstein and Batman helped you decide if you want to play ’em. Ditto the news about…
By Owen Good -
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Half-Formed Half-Minute Hero Impressions: Why Am I Naked?!
Another game Stephen Totilo got to first that I was curious about was Half-Minute Hero, the game where you really only have 30 seconds to beat a level. The game’s concept sounded simple enough to me – you play as little 8-bit characters that riff on classic role-playing game tenants and have 30 seconds to…
By AJ Glasser -
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The Wizard of Oz: Beyond The Yellow Brick Road – A Second Look
Not too long ago, Stephen Totilo got his hands on D3 Publisher/Media.Vision’s The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road for the DS. The week I got my own look at the game – mostly for curiosity’s sake, since I read the books as a child and adore the glorified fanfiction that is Wicked…
By AJ Glasser -
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Bank Deficit Freezes EVE Accounts
From the MMO-as-IRL file, EVE Online’s biggest bank has frozen accounts for anyone who invested any kredits with it, after it was discovered that the bank is 380bn kredits in the hole, without the funds to cover player withdrawals. EBank, the institution in question, was also hit by a naked fraud scheme earlier this year,…
By Owen Good -
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Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga Preview: Making The Jump To Home Consoles
The Valhalla Knights games (all two of them) have been confined to the PSP since 2006, but now they’re finally making the jump to home consoles. The big plus here is the larger screen size. Back when I reviewed Valhalla Knights 2 for PSP and one of my biggest complaints (no pun intended) was that…
By AJ Glasser - Uncategorized
Cryptic: Microsoft’s Behavior Means No Champions This Year
Jack Emmert, the Cryptic chief creative officer, says Microsoft has a “baffling” issue with MMOs, and it’s holding up the console release of Champions Online. In a VG247 podcast, Emmert says Cryptic has a 360 version of the game “ready to go,” but it’s not likely to arrive this year. “It just takes time for…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Ju-on: The Grudge Preview: Hide All But One Of Your Wiimotes
Technically, Ju-on isn’t an on rails shooter – because you’re excruciating slow instead of on rails and instead of a gun, you get a flashlight. Even so, there’s a bit of the nostalgia to Ju-on that you sometimes get form on rails shooters. The Japanese horror movie craze in America seems to have died off…
By AJ Glasser
