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How to Punish Penn State—from the Comfort of Your Living Room
When the NCAA leveled crippling sanctions against Penn State a week ago, harshly penalizing the football power for its lack of institutional control in a 13-year sexual abuse scandal, it wasn’t long before I was asked if the NCAA Football series, this year or in the future, would incorporate any of these bans and restrictions.…
By Owen Good Published July 28, 2012 -
See Vice City‘s Final Mission, as Imagined on a Commodore 64
You talk about love at first sight. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City had me at its opening credit screens: the LOAD “*”,8,1, multicolored flashing logo and rudimentary MIDI theme took me straight back to 1986, and all the days I spent parked in front of my Commodore 64. When I showed it to my brother—not…
By Owen Good Published July 28, 2012 -
It’s Settled: No Yellow Card if You Curse at FIFA‘s Referee
One of the funnier controversies coming out of E3 was how FIFA 13 intended to handle voice recognition in its new suite of Kinect-enabled features. A promotional video left a strong impression that yelling “#$@%!” or “$&%@!” or “wanker!” at the virtual official would result in a yellow card. That was the impression that the…
By Owen Good Published July 28, 2012 -
The Moneysaver: Collect Them All
Three collector’s editions headline the usual summer clear-out of stock as we transit to August. Walmart gets really desperate with a three-for-one come-on—for PSP games. Sixty savings, bonuses and deals await below. Software • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Collector’s Edition (360) is $49.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $60. [Dealzon] • Dead…
By Owen Good Published July 28, 2012 -
The Best of Kotaku, This Week
Welcome to the Best of Kotaku, where I round up all of this week’s best content. First up is the image above. We look into the real eyes and mustache of Mario, thanks to deviantART artist CALLit-ringo. Be sure to hit up the link for the full-sized image. Thanks to dotcore for the find. Moving…
By Tina Amini Published July 28, 2012 -
The Video Game Version of The Dark Knight Rises‘ Prison Scene Is, Um, Different
Ah, the poetry and metaphor of the prison sequence in The Dark Knight Rises! How would one ever turn that into an awesome video game level? The answer: by adding lots of dudes for Bruce Wayne to punch. Video games are excellent at many things, but adapting movie scenes that don’t have a lot of…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 27, 2012 -
Woah: Heath Ledger’s Joker Was Basically Tom Waits
There have been few if any comic-book movie performances as startling and singular as Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight. At once loose and strong, purringly deadly and weirdly vulnerable… it was a shambling shaggy dog performance for the record books. There’s no way to know now where Ledger drew his…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 27, 2012 -
Our Psychological Need For Villains and Bosses Explained
Most games have bosses—and there are multiple in-game reasons for that. What punctuation does for sentence structure, video game villains do for narrative: namely, pushing the pacing forward. Bosses give you reason to act: if Bowser never kidnaps the princess, there’s no game! A boss can also act as a good mastery check, which is…
By Patricia Hernandez Published July 27, 2012 -
Knock Knock. Who’s There? A Customizable Haunted House Defense Game
I have not played The Void, but it’s on my list. And I’ve definitely heard enough about the game to make me think that the developer, Russian studio Ice Pick Lodge, has some interesting video game ideas. Their latest idea, which they’re funding via a fairly low-priced Kickstarter (at least by video game standards), is…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 27, 2012 -
Hello Giant Robot, You’re Beautiful.
Artist Kogoro Kurata makes robots. Huge robots. In a shed. Previously, Kotaku featured Kurata’s amazing work. Recently, Wired Japan checked out his latest project, Kuratasu, and took some stunning pics of an amazing creation. Have a look. 人が乗って操縦できる巨大ロボット「クラタス」、完成目前の勇姿を公開！ [Wired Japan] (Top photo: Wired)
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 27, 2012 -
When You Don’t Know Jack Asks You To Marry Your Boyfriend, You Say ‘Yes’
Now here’s an adorable story. The folks at Jellyvision, the company behind wonderful Facebook game You Don’t Know Jack, sent us the above video along with the following: John Zekind reached out to us via @youdontknowjack on Twitter for help with a “secret mission” Jellyvision DMd him and his request was that he and his…
By Jason Schreier Published July 27, 2012 -
Now I Want Pokemon, Star Fox and Metroid to Happen In Feudal Japan
We’ve already had a look at artist Jed Henry’s great reinterpretations of video game characters as they would’ve appeared during the age of samurai. But the shots above ramp things up even more. I can’t decide if the Starfox or Pokemon art is my favorite. See more of Henry’s Ukiyo-e styled images here
By Evan Narcisse Published July 27, 2012 -
There Was a Nintendo 3DS In the Olympics’ Opening Ceremony For Some Reason
The opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Summer Games had their share of surprises, but we certainly weren’t expecting to see a Nintendo 3DS among them. Get off the stoop, young man, and go do some sports! I’m a fan of the 3DS myself, but I think I’d have a hard time sitting on the…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 27, 2012 -
Here’s What the Live-Action Hawken Series Looks Like. I’d Rather Be Playing the Game.
Directed by Gears of War art director Jeremiah O’Flaherty and starring the guy that played Darwin in X-Men First Class, this teaser trailer for the 2013 web series based on indie mech game Hawken is nearly as impressive as the actual game. Since getting my hands on Hawken at E3 last month, my only Hawken-related…
By Mike Fahey Published July 27, 2012 -
This Might Be the Most Well-Rounded Week in Gaming Apps Ever
Two iOS games, one iOS / Android combo, an Android exclusive and a special Windows Phone 7 version of a game that’s now out on all three. How’s that for diversity? Shut up, Blackberry. As part of my never-ending quest to cover all segments of mobile gaming, I’ve gone so far as to take it…
By Mike Fahey Published July 27, 2012 -
Fall of Cybertron Abuses a Great Moment in Transformers History to Push Retailer-Exclusive Preorder DLC
This is not a moment you screw with, Activision. This is scripture. This is the ultimate chapter in the Book of Optimus. This is not — I cannot stress this enough — not an advertisement for GameStop exclusive preorder downloadable content. Now I’ve talked to folks at Activision and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron developer High…
By Mike Fahey Published July 27, 2012
