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Microsoft now has Achievements for…Developers
Taking the notion of institutionalised rewards maybe a little bit too far, Microsoft has begun awarding achievements to developers Earlier today the company unveiled a beta plug-in for the Microsoft’s Visual Studio development environment, which offers 32 achievements for developers based on how well they’re coding. There are even leaderboards, and the achievements can be…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2012 -
Skyrim “Ported” to a Calculator
It used to be a calculator wasn’t a calculator unless it could run Doom. These days, they’ve gotta run Skyrim Or at least YouTube user no9sniper’s simple conversion of the game, which turns Bethesda’s role-playing epic into something a little less open-world and a lot more Zork If you’ve got a TI-84 model graphic calculator,…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2012 -
Terminator’s T-800 Walks the Streets of Brooklyn
Where others see household items, Peter Kokis sees robot parts. That’s because Kokis builds costumes based on famous robots. Above, his T-800 endoskeleton from Terminator The costume weighs 120 pounds and took Kokis around 300 hours to construct, sourcing parts from “ordinary and readily-available household, hardware, and sporting goods items…stuff we all have in our…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2012 -
You Might Soon be Playing Games on Your Car Window
When I was a kid, on long road trips I had to look out the window and like it. When I worked in childcare, kids would go home with a Game Boy in their hands. My kids, of course, might ride with something even cooler: games on their car windows. This concept video from General…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2012 -
Whoah, What is This Deus Ex Movie? It Looks Incredible! [Update]
A video turned up on YouTube today saying it was behind-the-scenes footage of a Deus Ex “Live Action Short Film”. And it looks way too slick/expensive to be a fan film. The credits at the end list it as being the work of Enso Productions, a professional “Action Design Team”. Which basically means people who…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2012 -
Beautiful Portraits of Video Game Characters
Canadian artist sakimichan specialises in portraits of characters. Beautiful, vibrant portraits of characters that are so pretty you’ll want to hang them on your wall and just stare at them, sighing every once in a while. The bad news is, these are small, and on a computer screen, not a canvas. The good news is…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2012 -
EA Sports Drafts Two from MIT, Colorado State
Four months ago, EA Sports opened up applications for a four-month fellowship meant to invite former college athletes into video game design careers. Today, the label awarded its first two, to graduates who played football at Colorado State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Clint Oldenburg, an offensive lineman at Colorado State and a…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2012 -
Mass Effect 3’s PC Specs
Mass Effect 3’s PC version is exclusive to Origin. If that doesn’t stop you from buying it – and really, it’s grounds for complaint, not boycott – you’re going to need to know if your PC can run the thing first. Well, of course it can. The underlying tech behind this game is nearly five…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 18, 2012 -
Get Your Ass to Marzipan
Greetings, Kotaku musketeers, and welcome to your mid-week open thread. I realized that I’ve started several of these with Total Recall references, so I thought I’d go ahead and do yet one more. Also, I just took a vote on twitter tonight about Marzipan, and got an equal number of votes for “Marzipan: Heck yes!”…
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 18, 2012 -
Doom Is Back Up on Xbox Live
Doom, one of the progenitors of the first-person shooter genre, has returned to the Xbox Live Marketplace after a mysterious three-month hiatus. The classic PC title is available for 400 Microsoft Points ($5). The game was removed in October with no explanation from Bethesda Softworks, the current rights-holder to the game (as the parent compabny…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2012 -
How Activision Reacted to that Giant Modern Warfare 3 Leak
Last year, we blew the lid off Modern Warfare 3 months before it was due for release. It was the biggest leak we’d seen, let alone written about, in almost a decade. It was, in short, one hell of a story. It was also only half the story. The other side, that of how publishers…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 18, 2012 -
Government Affirms Mom’s Right to Confiscate PS3 Until Piano Practice is Finished
The police in Lake Oswego, Ore., a Portland suburb, pride themselves on the motto “no call is too small.” And they took one, yesterday, that comes straight from the Sheriff Andy Taylor manual of community policing. Yesterday, an 11-year-old picked up the phone and dialed 911 to report that his mother had taken away his…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2012 -
What the Hell is Mutant League Football Doing in NFL Blitz?
Finish off the “Blitz Gauntlet” mode in the recently released NFL Blitz for PS3 and Xbox 360 and you’ll unlock a team full of zombies. And the logo on their jersey isn’t that of the National Football League, but of another league, one from a future of decaying flesh and dismembered bodies. That shot above…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2012 -
A Bad Day for SOPA and PIPA
Gaming against SOPA | On a day when Wikipedia and Reddit blocked their content to protest two controversial potentially speech-squelching, Internet-mangling bills—and legislators fell over themselves dropping support for those bills—an online guild, the makers of Minecraft and FarmVille giant Zynga all made their hatred of SOPA and PIPA known. Midweek Moneysaver: New Games Galore…
By Stephen Totilo Published January 18, 2012 -
There Is Half-Life Stuff Hiding in Counter-Strike: GO
The people at Valve Software like to tease. They don’t, however, like to confirm the existence of new Half-Life games Kotaku reader ZombieK says he spotted these images in the beta for Valve’s spring-scheduled multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: GO. Let’s classify them as teases. Or taunts. Or.. Easter Eggs? The shots first appeared on the Steam…
By Stephen Totilo Published January 18, 2012 -
Today’s Best Use of Unauthorized Video Game Footage
Chinese songstress Yang Yuying couldn’t have chosen a better video game to accompany a live performance of her song “I’ll Be Waiting For You In The Spring” than ThatGameCompany’s PlayStation Network masterpiece Flower, though she probably should have asked permission first. Something being bootlegged in China? No way! I can understand why Yang (or more…
By Mike Fahey Published January 18, 2012 -
The Many Ways to Stay Alive in I Am Alive
Ubisoft’s “Encounters” trailer for I Am Alive has what seems to be the protagonist giving advice on life in a dog-eat-dog world. “People more than dust are the most dangerous thing you’re going to encounter,” and the ways to deal with them are numerous. I Am Alive clearly rewards players for the use of cunning…
By Pierre Bienaimé Published January 18, 2012 -
…And Yet Another Senator Drops Support for PIPA
The rough day for the the Protect IP Act, the Senate’s version of the notorious SOPA, continues. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, once a co-sponsor, has pulled his support. He Tweeted: “It is simply not ready for prime time.”
By Stephen Totilo Published January 18, 2012 -
NPR’s Morning Edition Covers MAGfest and Video Game Music
Today, NPR’s Morning Edition dedicated a nice segment to the recent Music and Gaming Festival. They interviewed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, among others, closing out with this epic tune. Well played, NPR.
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 18, 2012