-
Guild Wars 2 Pays a Lasting Tribute to an Old Warrior
In whatever he chose to play, Roger Rall was a keystone member of his guild, the consummate teammate. As much as reveled in PvP in Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot or Rift, his voice was unmistakably calm, clear and authoritative above the din of the battle. He went by “Oldroar,” and, at 65, he…
By Owen Good Published July 21, 2012 -
This Video Game Studio Says No One Can Taste the Difference Between Coke and Pepsi
Oh come on. Come on. Who can’t taste the difference between Coke and Pepsi? Coke is drier and chocolatey…er. Pepsi is sweeter and … fizz…ier? For real, there is a complete and total difference between the two soft drinks, one that developers at Double Fine failed to recognize with any consistency. Come on. Apparently bored…
By Owen Good Published July 21, 2012 -
Some Patent Troll is Suing Minecraft and an Ensemble Cast of Big Names
If Mojang and Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of Minecraft, end up down at a courthouse in east Texas, they’ll probably see some familiar faces. Hell, it might be enough for a quorum of the Game Developers Conference. This morning, Notch tweeted that he awakened and discovered he’d been sued for patent infringement. And while…
By Owen Good Published July 21, 2012 -
The Big Winners in the Madden Lawsuit Are, Of Course, Lawyers
Electronic Arts will set up a $27 million fund to settle a class action lawsuit alleging its Madden NFL series was a price-gouging illegal monopoly. To no one’s surprise, the biggest payment out of that will be to lawyers. Terms are subject to a judge’s approval, but the plaintiff’s lawyers have agreed that when they…
By Owen Good Published July 21, 2012 -
Those Brain Butchers Mashed Up Total Recall‘s Trailer with Mass Effect
Illusive Man as Cohaagen, Miranda as Lori, Liara as Melina. And Shepard as Quaid. This is the audio from Total Recall‘s 2012 trailer and visuals from the Mass Effect trilogy, by an outfit called Node Studios. They’ve done three other mashups of recognizable trailers since June; this is probably the best of the four. Now,…
By Owen Good Published July 21, 2012 -
Savings on the Horizon
Just one upcoming release gets a discount this week, and Walmart is running a combination sale that’s attractive, but the games involved were released last year at the latest. If you’re looking to get a Kinect sensor, refurbished ones can be found cheap. Those savings and nearly 50 others highlight this week’s roundup of deals…
By Owen Good Published July 21, 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. The recent Team Fortress 2 excitement following the release of Valve’s Filmmaker and the introduction to the Pyro class still hasn’t died down, as evidenced by Donc-Désolé’s creation you see above. Moving on…
By Tina Amini Published July 21, 2012 -
Horror Is Not Mainstream
With each new year, it feels like I’m watching another horror series becomes less horrific. Resident Evil, Alien, and most recently, Dead Space. What started out as pure, hardcore horror becomes a fun, popcorn-munching good time. But hey, that’s okay. It’s the natural way of things. Horror isn’t mainstream. Much has been made recently about…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 21, 2012 -
My Name Is Aaron Sorkin, And You’re Fired
You may have heard that Aaron Sorkin, somewhat beleaguered creator of The Newsroom, has fired his entire writing staff, save himself and his ex-girlfriend. Away with you! All of you! You are the problem here, not me! Given that the show has up to now been more or less a caricature of Sorkin’s worst writing…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 20, 2012 -
One Writer Must Impersonate 13 Twitter Accounts in Madden
The shrewdly conceived “virtual” Twitter feed that will supplying news updates in Madden NFL 13‘s new unified career mode may be fully branded, and use the real names of real NFL insiders, but neither are supplying the actual content. Back in April, I was told that EA Sports hired one guy whose job was to…
By Owen Good Published July 20, 2012 -
More PS3 Games Should Look This Crude
Do you want cutting-edge graphics? Do you need your games to look ultra-realistic? Look elsewhere. The two games in the video here, Duke Wars and Grave Diggers, are not nominees for anyone’s Best Graphics Awards. Though… I actually like how they look. A lot. So what exactly are these things? They’re multiplayer games made in…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 20, 2012 -
Madden‘s Exclusive NFL License Survives in $27 Million “Monopoly” Lawsuit Settlement
Madden‘s exclusive license with the NFL emerged unscathed from the $27 million settlement of a four-year-old class action lawsuit alleging that the deal was an illegal monopoly. Though gamers are entitled to some monetary refund if they bought an American football product from EA Sports between 2005 and now, it is a paltry sum—up to…
By Owen Good Published July 20, 2012 -
Would You Pay $260 for Xbox Live? Technically, I Just Did
Helplessly watching this sweating man thrust all of his body weight into my bedroom wall, grunting over the whine of the drill, I realized I was seeing and participating in the perfect metaphor for my attempts to connect my Xbox 360 to the Internet in my new home. “Man,” he said, “you’re a real tough…
By Owen Good Published July 20, 2012 -
No Serious People Blamed Video Games For The Dark Knight Tragedy Today
A colleague IM’d me earlier today, asking if I was ready for video games to take the blame for this morning’s awful shooting rampage in Aurora, Colorado. I don’t know if I was ready, but I kept an eye out for the blamers and the blame-watchers, unsure of whose excitement to be more unsettled by.…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 20, 2012 -
DLC-Loving Cats Forced Developers To Make In-App Purchases Less Receptive to Pawing
When designing a user interface, you want to make sure the layout is intuitive enough that people can do whatever they need with ease. When your user is a cat, though, there’s such a thing as making things too easy. The folks at Hiccup found this out the hard way with Games for Cats, the…
By Patricia Hernandez Published July 20, 2012 -
Watch Me Beat Up Captain America and Magneto in Less Than Three Minutes
I’ve always wanted to be an Avenger. But I’d generally pictured being one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as being a bit more dignified than what I experienced yesterday. Up top is video from my first experience yesterday with Avengers: Battle for Earth, a motion-controlled tie-in being published by Ubisoft. The game happens during Marvel Comics’…
By Evan Narcisse Published July 20, 2012 -
Portal 2‘s Co-Op Robots Rampage Through Grand Theft Auto IV
This montage of Portal 2‘s ATLAS and P-body raising hell in Liberty City comes to you from the same guy who commissioned the insane death-dealing R2-D2 mod for Grand Theft Auto IV. It is outstanding. Just sit back and enjoy.
By Owen Good Published July 20, 2012 -
Sorry, Coach. This Video Game Says You’re Getting Fired.
Poor Paul Wulff. I don’t think I played a dynasty season in NCAA Football 12 in which Washington State didn’t fire him. Like clockwork, his name was on the axe list when the annual “Coaching Carousel,” implemented last year, started to spin. He never had a winning season in Pullman and his two Pac-12 victories…
By Owen Good Published July 20, 2012