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  Coraline Screens Creep Me Out

  I’m thrilled Neil Gaiman children’s book Coraline is getting the Nightmare Before Christmas treatment. But I can’t say the same for the video game tie-in. Something about these screens just seems too happy to me. No spoilers, but suffice it to say Coraline is not a tale of bright, shiny, happy things. So why does…

  By AJ Glasser Published January 13, 2009
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  New Game Informer Reveals Activision’s Singularity

  The February issue of Game Informer drops a “world exclusive” on us, Activision and Raven Software’s Singularity. What is it? A sci-fi shooter, if you can possibly believe that. According to the magazine’s teaser, Singularity “features mind-bending gameplay that not only has the player jumping through time, but using it as a weapon.” You get…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009
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  FIFA Interactive World Cup 2009 Grand Final goes to Barcelona

  FIFA, Electronic Arts and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe today announced that the 2009 FIFA Interactive World Cup is going to go down in Barcelona this May. There’s still time to enter the tournament before the March 31 cutoff date. Qualifying rounds are going on worldwide via PlayStationNetwork and at FIWC 09 Live Qualifier Events. Check…

  By AJ Glasser Published January 13, 2009
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  Analyst Dates PlayStation 3 Price Drop For April

  Microsoft says its anticipating a PlayStation 3 price drop in the “springtime,” but what about the video game industry’s best-known analysts? One has pegged Sony for a PS3 price cut as early as April. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has consulted the spirit world (and probably a spreadsheet or two, to be fair) bringing back…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009
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  Red Alert 3 For PS3 Is The “Ultimate Edition”

  There’s a good reason PlayStation 3 owners have had to wait to play Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 on their console. EA’s been busy packing the ULTIMATE experience onto a Blu-ray disc! Or so says the EA Store, which now lists the PS3 “Ultimate Edition” port of the latest Red Alert real-time strategy game.…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009
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  Report: Nintendo DSi Gets Priced, Dated For U.S. Launch

  The next Nintendo DS, dubbed the DSi, is rumored to be launched in the United States in April of this year, according to a report from IGN which cites “multiple sources close to Nintendo.” According to the report, the follow up to the tremendously successful Nintendo DS Lite will land on U.S. shores on April…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009
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  TV

  To: Ash From: Crecente Re: So I Hear This Season’s 24 Is Good… So Far I don’t really watch that much television. Between running Kotaku, spending time with Trish and playing with Tristan, I’m pretty whipped by the end of the day. When I do watch TV it’s often old movies on AMC or the…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 13, 2009
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  Future Rock Bands May Steer Closer To “Real Musicianship”

  What does the future hold for the Rock Band series? Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos gives us another hint in a new interview, one that teases closing the gap between real and fake rock and roll. Rigopulos says that “during the coming years we will continue to try to bridge the gap between simulated musicianship and…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009
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  PixelJunk Eden Gets Updated, Easier This Thursday

  North Americans, expect your copy of PixelJunk Eden to become breezier this week, as the patch that adds more time, more control options and more forgiveness will hit the PlayStation Network this Thursday. Q-Games’ big boss Dylan Cuthbert reveals on the official U.S. PlayStation blog that the patch that hit Japan late last year will…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009
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  Breaking News: Nintendo Games Not A Substitute for Reading a Book

  A Carlsbad mother is fighting mad. Turns out that video games make her 5-year-old have panic attacks and, get this, they’re not a good replacement for reading books or playing outside. The Isabelle Clingerman tells the local news there that while her 9-year-old, who owns more than 40 Nintendo games, can play the games to…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 13, 2009
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  Killzone 2 Gets Bundled With PlayStation 3 For Europe

  Sony Computer Entertainment Europe just loves to put things inside retail PlayStation 3 boxes. Case in point, this Killzone 2 bundle, which reportedly leaked from SCEE earlier this week. That’s right, consider it unconfirmed. But don’t consider the package, basically an 80 GB PS3 plus a copy of Guerrilla Games’ shooter Killzone 2, unlikely. Or…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009
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  Aksys Goes Way Retro With Bit.Trip Beat For WiiWare

  Aksys Games and developer Gaijin Games unveil Bit.Trip Bit, a rhythm action game that takes retro past the Nintendo Entertainment System, landing squarely in Atari 2600 territory. Bit.Trip Beat is an upcoming WiiWare title that takes the age-old concept of a paddle and balls and mixes in some of the latest Chiptune music in order…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 13, 2009
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  Novint Falcon Soon To Confuse Console Gamers Too

  With the peculiar-looking Novint Falcon finally gaining some solid support in mainstream games, such as Valve’s Left 4 Dead, the company plans on bringing the 3D controller to consoles. Looking like a device you’d expect to see in a medical office or alien spaceship, the Novint Falcon is a USB device that replicates mouse movement…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 13, 2009
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  Turns Out You Can Be Arrested For Sexually Soliciting Boys On Xbox Live

  Who knew that chatting up 13-year olds via Xbox Live then asking them for naked photos would be so frowned upon? What’s that you say? Anyone with a shred of common sense? One man who learned that lesson the hard way was 24 year old Portsmouth, Virginia resident Ryan Edwin Donker. Donker, whose very last…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009
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  Suicide Girls Rock Band Their Pants Off

  If they’re going to tackle Halo 3 in the buff and Grand Theft Auto IV lollipop-fetishism, you know that the avant-garde nudies over Suicide Girls is all over Rock Band. And I do mean all over. In this latest pictorial, photographer tmronin took 1,800 shots over two separate shoots in Chicago to create this 72-photo…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 13, 2009
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  Playstation 2 Hits 50 Million in North America

  The Playstation 2, born in 2000, continues to churn out impressive sales despite being a generation behind the current slate of gaming. Earlier today Sony announced that the PS2 just hit 50 million. And that’s in North America alone, the Associated Press reports. John Koller, director of hardware marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment of America,…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 13, 2009
• Reviews

  Lumines Supernova Review: Still Shinin’

  Q Entertainment’s sound and lightshow-cum-puzzle game Lumines was one of the breakout hits for the PSP. It has since been ported to everything possible, including the PlayStation 3. Does Lumines Supernova bring anything new? Fortunately, yes. While the color-matching, Tetris-like gameplay is unchanged, a few new modes make Lumines Supernova a worthwhile entry in the…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009
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  The Most Beautiful Atari 2600 Lamp Ever Created

  In the long and storied history of Atari 2600-themed lighting projects there have been countless interesting creations, but only one Atari 2600 lamp deserves to be called the Ultimate. This is that lamp. Okay, so perhaps Atari 2600 lamps aren’t all that readily available in the first place, but that surely doesn’t steal away any…

  By Mike Fahey Published January 13, 2009
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  Ubisoft Announces Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

  Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is coming to the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 this year, Ubisoft announced today. The game will be a prequel to the wild west shooter that was met with mediocre reviews in 2007. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood transports players from a ravaged Civil War-era Georgia to…

  By Brian Crecente Published January 13, 2009
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  Free Midnight Club LA DLC Sneaks Out, Quickly Yanked

  The downloadable content for Midnight Club: Los Angeles announced in December went live this morning for Xbox 360 owners. We (and Microsoft) hope you didn’t download it. Because that could be bad. Turns out the sudden appearance of the “South Central” content for MCLA wasn’t actually meant to go live on Live. That means, according…

  By Michael McWhertor Published January 13, 2009