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The Silly, and Sentimental, Appeal of Playing Golf as Toddler Tiger Woods
I’ve played video games as 7-foot-centers and hulking first basemen, I’ve probably pitched to or hit against the virtual counterpart of every Hall of Fame ballplayer who has appeared in the last 20 or so years. The idea of playing a sport as someone famous has well lost its novelty in the modern era of…
By Owen Good Published April 1, 2012 -
Draw Something CEO Backs Down When Notch Calls Out His Uncalled-For Twitter Rage
Shay Pierce made it clear why he turned down steady pay and benefits when Zynga bought his old employer, OMGPOP, the makers of Draw Something. He was concerned that his ownership of a personally developed and published game on the iTunes App store would be a conflict. He chose not to join Zynga with the…
By Owen Good Published April 1, 2012 -
Here’s the Great, Painful Trailer For Fake Assassin’s Creed Kinect
If Assassin’s Creed really was made to be played entirely with crazy gestures via the Xbox Kinect, it would be a) horrible, b) amazing or c) the cause for many, many injuries. Probably all of the above. Good work, fake Assassin’s Creed trailer-makers! This one made me laugh out loud. Assassin’s Creed for Kinect Announced!…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 1, 2012 -
Lamborghini Bat-‘Shop
What? What. Oh, come on. Like you couldn’t see this one from a mile away. Look, that’s the goddamn Batman, getting pulled over by regular police. Not Gotham’s either. Do they even have jurisdiction? Whatever, I know that we do here in the first Kotaku ‘Shop Contest of April. For those who are neither Batman…
By Owen Good Published April 1, 2012 -
Watch An Actor Struggle to Give Some Soul to a Jumping Block
I’d never heard about Thomas Was Alone However, after watching this mockumentary clip about the motion capture done to impart emotion to the game’s hopping blocks I’m definitely going to pick it up. The dedication shown by the actor doing mo-cap for the hero of the indie minimalist jumping game needs to be honored, people.…
By Evan Narcisse Published April 1, 2012 -
Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves
April Fools. We don’t yet have a new image, we’re still using March’s because kaploy9 barely beat the deadline and submitted the last TAYpic for the month late yesterday. Good morning, and welcome to Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves. However, we need a new TAYpic image, and that is no joke. We’re taking suggestions in the…
By Owen Good Published April 1, 2012 -
TIE Attack: The Winners
Alongside thousands of used cars, Craigslist last week sold this impressive, 1/3rd-scale TIE Fighter. It’s probably doing something boring right now, like sitting in someone’s garage. So Kotaku‘s smart ‘Shoppers stepped in to give it a more exciting epilogue. We’ve got 20 winners inside, including SirNinja! GiantBoyDetective (9), who is, like, a teacher or something,…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
Notch’s Next Game (Really, Trust Us) is ‘Mars Effect‘
A couple weeks back, Markus “Notch” Persson said he wanted to explore the possibility of a space-trading Firefly-inspired sandbox game akin to Firefly. It now appears that was a huge put-on. For April Fools’ Day, Mojang has launched the hoax website Mars Effect “After playing around with names like “Elight”, “Wind Commander”, and “Steve Online”,…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
Assassin’s Creed‘s Newest Hero Shares the Name of a Kentucky Janitorial Supply Company
The American Indian name for the hero of Assassin’s Creed III is “Ratohnhaké:ton.” Somehow, that Anglicizes to “Connor Kenway.” His last name came to light this week, and it’s there on Ubisoft’s official site. So there you go: La’Ahad (Altaïr), Auditore (Ezio) and now … Kenway. Sounds like an appliance to me, though I realize…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
Robotic Fish, ASCII Tanks, Crafting Animals and More are our XBOX Live Indie Favorites
Every few weeks we here at Kotaku make a selection of some of the best indie games that Xbox Live has to offer. These are our latest favorites. You’ll be able to find the list here for reference, or in the “Kotaku‘s favorites” channel in the Indie Game section of Xbox Live’s Games Marketplace. Robofish…
By Nick Vannucci Published March 31, 2012 -
Skyrim Gets Patched—Just Not for the PS3, Yet
PC players of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim got another crash-resolving update, an incremental uptick from patch 1.5. Xbox 360 and, more importantly, PlayStation 3 gamers? They remain stuck at 1.4, a patch now going on two months old, and for the PS3, still subject to a “bad memory situation,” which means a crash. That…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
Biff Tannen Final Four Special: Ohio State Wins the National Championship
Hey, are you a sports fan on the go? Who has time these days to watch the big game, or bother with messy DVR, or boring highlight shows? With Biff Tannen’s Sports Almanac, we’ll give you the weekend’s biggest matchups before they happen, thanks to these highly accurate peer-reviewed scientific simulations of sports video gaming’s…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
Rampage Movie’s Producers Want “Independence Day-Style” on “a Smart Budget”
It sounds like the folks behind the film adaptation of arcade classic Rampage are really serious about making it happen. The Hollywood Reporter calls it “a priority for New Line Cinema” and says they’re looking to make “an Independence Day-style picture on a smart budget.” That means lots of Rampage‘s signature trait: Buildings smashed and…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
Google Announces Google Maps — for the Nintendo Entertainment System [Update]
The undisputed Internet-age leader in April Fool’s hoaxes gets a one-day head start on its latest gag—a brilliant announcement video for “Google Maps 8-Bit,” a port of the popular, well, map service to the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicon. The best part? It’s an homage to Dragon Quest Not only is the video a first rate production—including…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
Why Is Atlus’s Twitter Account a Game of Thrones Spam Bot? [UPDATE]
Atlus has become one of my favorite video game publishers over the past few years. Not only do they localize almost every role-playing game they develop, they always show a willingness to take risks on crazy ideas—something that is very rare in the gaming industry. That’s why it’s more than a little disconcerting to see…
By Jason Schreier Published March 31, 2012 -
Sega of America Walloped by Layoffs; Western Publishing Reduces Focus to Sonic and Three Others
A restructuring in light of steep losses for the quarter ending today means that a lot of people at Sega of America lost their jobs yesterday. But rumors that the entire division is shutting down appear to be unfounded. Some Sega of America employees, on their Twitter feeds and via this post on Reddit, wrote…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
Two for The Show
Amazon’s 3-for-2 deal expires today, so if you have a couple titles in mind—any platform—this is a good day to use all of those bonus credits you’ve piled up by being such a consistent reader of The Moneysaver. For example, one is now being offered on the next Ghost Recon game, though it is cheaper…
By Owen Good Published March 31, 2012 -
The Best of Kotaku, This Week
It’s Edgar Allan Pokémon! Get it? Every battle is just a bunch of fiendish ravens clawing and poking each other’s eyes out, while Edger Allan Poe jots his observations down in the form of poetry. I would very much like to read those poems. I stumbled on this week’s image over on Reddit. Nintendo: new…
By Tina Amini Published March 31, 2012 -
New Chinese MMO Overdoses on Devil May Cry, Barfs Up DMC
China’s Tencent Games is releasing a new MMO called Age of Guns. The game features a dual wielding hero that looks like he was plucked from the Japanese character design reject pile. Much of the Age of Guns trailer looks familiar. Like stuff I could have sworn I’ve seen before back when this clip was…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 31, 2012