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There’s Not Much Reason to Live in NeverDead
In video games, death is anything but final. We’ve been playing games with some form of immortality or reincarnation for decades, whether that’s gamesaves, extra men, whatever. NeverDead enforces the concept in gameplay itself. No matter what grisly mishap befalls your hero, he will not die. The problem is NeverDead didn’t inspire a matching will…
By Owen Good Published June 16, 2011 -
Female Shepard Finally Gets Cover Girl Glory in Mass Effect 3
Mr. Commander Shepard, star of Mass Effect video game box art, is going to have to share the cover with his female counterpart, Ms. Commander Shepard, at least in the collector’s edition version of Mass Effect 3, BioWare says. While the masculine version of Shepard has dominated official screen shots, wallpapers and box art for…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 16, 2011 -
Duke Nukem Catches a Plane, as Only Duke Nukem Can
We understand that many new video games ship with glitches. We (sometimes) forgive them. We also understand that some glitches are features or Easter eggs. We celebrate that, just as we celebrate this glitch from Duke Nukem Forever Duke Nukem Forever – Plane Glitch [YouTube]
By Stephen Totilo Published June 16, 2011 -
Take Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect and Other Gaming Greats, add Jedi
Everyone loves Star Wars. If you don’t love Star Wars, you’re wrong. Some people love Star Wars so much, they want more things to be Star Wars. Forevergeek.com has taken 50 Star Wars Mashups from all over the internet and thoughtfully put them all in one place. Here are the video game tie-ins from their…
By Jen Schiller Published June 16, 2011 -
A Tiny Bit of News About the Next Animal Crossing
Katsuya Eguchi, creator of Animal Crossing and producer of the next game in that series, mostly talked to me about Wii U at E3 last week. But surely he had some news about Animal Crossing’s forthcoming 3DS installment? He did! (Not much) “To those Animal Crossing fans,” he said, “I just would like them to…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 16, 2011 -
Game Club is Back! We’re Playing Shadows of the Damned.
Kotaku is bringing back the Game Club next month! We’ll be playing next week’s Shadows of the Damned. If you’re planning on playing it, stay tuned and we’ll let you know when we’re going to start playing and how!
By Mike Epstein Published June 16, 2011 -
Best Unapproved Kotaku Comment of the Day
“What is with Kotaku lately and all their crying foul about Facebook games not being like? They being payed these days to be mamby pambys?” – submitted by prospective Kotaku commenter CaptainQuenta beneath our story about the circus of E3
By Stephen Totilo Published June 16, 2011 -
Redbox Game Rentals Are Live
Starting Friday the denizens of grocery stores, Walmarts and gas stations nationwide can quickly rent video games from kiosks at $2 a day. Ignoring for a second the option to rent by mail through Gamefly, that means a month’s rental will end up running you about the same amount you’d spend on buying the game.…
By Brian Crecente Published June 16, 2011 -
Yes! That Really is the Head of Activision Acting Opposite Brad Pitt In A Movie
We were all surprised to discover early this morning a smiling Robert Kotick, Activision Blizzard president, apparently landing his first acting gig opposite Brad Pitt in upcoming sports drama Moneyball It’s not a clever video edit. It’s not a lookalike. Activision confirmed with Kotaku that yes it really is Kotick telling Pitt he can’t have…
By Brian Crecente Published June 16, 2011 -
What Is Japan’s Fetish This Week? Foreign… Flair
Someone once told me, “Half-Japanese kids grow up to either be TV celebrities or porn stars.” Flip on television, and there’s half-British male model Joy selling Samurai Road 4 or singer Becky promoting her latest CD single. Turn on a dirty movie, and there’s half-Brazilian actress and Yakuza star Rio getting naked. This isn’t true,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 16, 2011 -
You Don’t Have to Play Battlefield 3‘s Silly Pre-order Game to Get Its ‘Physical Warfare Pack’
Don’t worry, Battlefield fans. You don’t really need to engage in pre-order incentive nonsense for Battlefield 3, at least not if you want the “exclusive” weapons, ammo and add-ons that Electronic Arts is dangling in front of first-person shooter enthusiasts. Earlier this week, Battlefield 3, the other huge military shooter of the fall, did some…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 16, 2011 -
A Look at Call of Duty: Black Ops Annihilation in Action
Here’s our first look at the next map pack coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops. In the video we get a quick walk-through of Annihilation’s four maps: Hangar 18, Drive-In, Silo and Hazard. Hanger 18 takes place in Area 51 and is packed with conspiracy-theory Easter Eggs. There’s a nice mix of close quarter…
By Brian Crecente Published June 16, 2011 -
Shigeru Miyamoto Wants to Unite Inverted and Un-Inverted Gamers
During the same Nintendo developer roundtable where we were given a Tanooki suit history lesson, Nintendo godfather Shigeru Miyamoto discussed the new control scheme for Star Fox 64: 3D, and how the they may have provided the solution for a long-standing source of stress for him. Miyamoto’s issue revolves around inverting the game’s Y-axis controls…
By Mike Epstein Published June 16, 2011 -
Next Week’s New L. A. Noire Case Promises Action and… Howard Hughes?
Rockstar has a new $4 case for L.A. Noire players to solve, and it’ll be out next week. Along with the official trailer, here’s the official summary: “Nicholson Electroplating” is a downloadable case from the Arson desk available for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. At 9.45 in the morning, a thunderous explosion rocks Los…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 16, 2011 -
Make Portal 2 Music
If you listened closely, you may already know that Brooklyn band The National recorded a song “Exile Vilify” for Portal 2. And now Valve is holding a music video contest for it. Win and get swag from Valve and the band [http://www.ThinkWithPortals.com]
By Joshua Rivera Published June 16, 2011 -
One Very Odd Circus of Video Games
They call it E3, which isn’t that cool a name. Absurdly, you may have also heard, that E3 is Video Games, or what (some/most) of the big, rich companies in the gaming industry would have you believe is Video Games. That’s kind of right. Each June (sometimes July), the ESA does this E3 thing. The…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 16, 2011 -
Troll Faces and Empty Jackets Populate This Animated Look At the Hacker Civil War
Next Media Animation’s army of computer graphic animators churned out a story today neatly encapsulating the week’s escalating hacker wars. LulzSec, depicted as the bad guys in this video, are responsible for attacks against a number of sites including Sony, The Escapist, Minecraft and Eve Online. Out of the swamp that is 4 chan, two…
By Brian Crecente Published June 16, 2011 -
Dig These Minecraft Pads
Joining a host of t-shirts and fridge magnets born of a Minecraft licensing deal are these foam pickaxes and sticky notecubes. Now you can wear a Minecraft Union shirt and smack around a block notecube with a faux pickaxe while you kill time waiting for the game to finally launch. The notepad, which shows damage…
By Brian Crecente Published June 16, 2011 -
It’s a Nintendo From a Parallel Universe
Graphic designer Graham Smith has a little ongoing project where he takes famous brands and switches their logo. So for example you get the Coke logo but it says Pepsi. His work include a few video game examples. Two are Nintendo (one as Sega, another as Sony), one the Xbox 360 (as the PlayStation 3),…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 16, 2011