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There Will Be No Rock Band 4 This Year, But There Will Be More Lady Gaga and Ozzy
Guitar Hero publisher Activision has already announced its intentions to take a breather from the music game genre in 2011, now it appears that the Rock Band team will cool its heels as well. But there’s some good news for Rock Band 3 owners. Chris Rigopulos, VP of Strategy and Business Development for Rock Band…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 4, 2011 -
Gamers More Agitated by Playing Sports Games than Shooters, Says UK Study
There’s a couple of ways to look at this latest video game study out of the U.K. Either there is no meaningful link between playing violent video games and aggressive behavior, or FIFA 11 is deadlier than Modern Warfare Guess which one formed the headline in the British press after a study found that a…
By Owen Good Published May 4, 2011 -
New York Noire
Noire | Advertisement for L.A. Noire spotted over a downtown Manhattan subway entrance. (Photo: Brian Crecente) Mass Effect 3 Thrusts Its Way into Early 2012 Remember the first trailer for Mass Effect 3? The one that teased us with a “Holiday 2011” release date? Consider it invalidated, as the game’s executive producer scootches its release…
By Brian Crecente Published May 4, 2011 -
Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 Are Going Mobile
You may be playing two of EA’s biggest upcoming games on the go, as the publisher has listed “handheld/mobile” releases for both Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3, two games currently announced for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. That could simply mean spin-off releases for platforms like the iPhone—EA released a version of…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 4, 2011 -
Judge Tosses College Athletes’ Claims Against EA Sports [Corrected]
A federal judge on Monday threw out former college athletes’ claims against EA Sports, regarding the use of their likeness in past versions of NCAA Football and the now canceled NCAA Basketball. While the ruling clears Electronic Arts in a legal sense, the claims still will proceed against the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company,…
By Owen Good Published May 4, 2011 -
Player One or Player Two? Chimps Can Tell the Difference
Using the vast power of science, researchers at Kyoto University in Japan have found another good reason for a chimpanzee to play video games: to determine if they are self-aware enough to know which pixel represents their primate self. Self-awareness isn’t just for humans anymore. Sure, it’s a major feature of the human brain and…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2011 -
EA Says There’s An ‘Outside Possibility’ Star Wars: The Old Republic Could Slip to 2012
BioWare’s ambitious Star Wars massively multiplayer online role-playing game is still officially on the books for a 2011 release, penciled in for the second half of the calendar year—though publisher EA is hesitant to pin it down more specifically. The company mentioned today during an investor call that there’s an “outside possibility” the PC game…
By Michael McWhertor Published May 4, 2011 -
The Single Edit That Removed Tokyo From Motorstorm: Apocalypse
Despite being set in a fictional town along the U.S. west coast, Motorstorm: Apocalypse has been inexorably tied to Japan and the earthquakes there. That’s perhaps because of the delays triggered by the quakes in Japan and the game’s seismic-themed racing. But there aren’t any Japan references in the entire game… at least not anymore.…
By Brian Crecente Published May 4, 2011 -
Donkey Kong Doesn’t Have to Do Anything, He’s a Gorilla
What’s so terrifying about a short Italian plumber that would make an 800 pound gorilla flee instead of facing him? As it turns out, absolutely nothing. Dorkly’s latest game-inspired video hits the barrel on the head. Even as a young boy, something struck me as odd about the dynamic between Mario and Donkey Kong. Mario…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2011 -
Canada’s Privacy Czar Thinks Sony Should Pay
“I was disappointed that Sony did not proactively notify my office…It seems to me that it’s time to begin imposing fines – significant, attention-getting fines – on companies when poor privacy and security practices lead to breaches.” [The Vancouver Sun]
By Drew Cohen Published May 4, 2011 -
Nintendo President: Wii Price Drop Was Perfect Timing
Nintendo announced today that it is cutting the price of its popular Wii home game machine from $200 to $150. The $50 price drop, which goes into effect May 15, comes as Wii sales are slipping and as the company is gearing up to reveal a brand new game machine, which it will show to…
Winda Benedetti Published May 4, 2011 -
Rebooted Voltron Force gets horrific rap theme song “Let’s Voltron”
We usually enjoy the latest SwizzBeats track as much as the next pop rap follower. However, the brand new Voltron Force theme song, which turns our favorite kitty robot into some sort of horrible buzz verb, has us worried. It just sounds like all those other horrible commercials where the marketing team tries to turn…
By Meredith Woerner Published May 4, 2011 -
Mass Effect 3 Thrusts Its Way into Early 2012
Remember the first trailer for Mass Effect 3? The one that teased us with a “Holiday 2011” release date? Consider it invalidated, as the game’s executive producer scootches its release into early 2012. When a trailer comes out more than a year in advance of a game’s release, you can generally assume that the date…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2011 -
The Darkness 2 Will Get the Blood Flowing on October 4th
The Darkness 2, sequel to the cult-hit, will be available in the US and Canada on October 4th, with a global release coming on October 7th. I never played the original Darkness but I saw this game back at PAX East and was impressed by the game’s surprisingly intuitive Quad-Wielding system, which lets players quickly…
By Mike Epstein Published May 4, 2011 -
Watch Someone Play Child of Eden Without Clapping
There are two control schemes for upcoming trippy space shooter Child of Eden: Both involve the Xbox 360 Kinect’s ability to track movement in real time, this is how you play without clapping. In the clap-free way of playing, a gamer uses their left hand to control the tracer rapid-fire shot, and their right hand…
By Brian Crecente Published May 4, 2011 -
Konami Preps For Giant Gaming Show with Its Own Pre-E3 Global Screening
The developer behind Castlevania, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid plans to hold a global online screen event the week before this year’s E3 to help “build buzz” before the big show, Konami said today. “The annual E3 show is the world’s marquee video game conference and trade show event that draws a critical mass…
By Brian Crecente Published May 4, 2011 -
Next Week’s Rift Update Opens a Rift to the Plane of Facebook
If you’ve lost friends to Trion Worlds’ massively-multiplayer online role-playing game Rift, prepare to get them back in an annoying fashion next week, when the 1.2 update hooks its claws into Facebook. Now that the rifts from the Plane of Death have been sorted out, it’s time for Earth and Fire to have their go…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2011 -
Back When All of the Games Were Multiplayer and Came with Boards
Put down the controller and dig through the closet for the dusty remains of childhood memories courtesy of commenter Vlyke615, reminiscing about his favorite board games in today’s Speak-Up on Kotaku. I have a lot of fond memories as a kid growing up, and some of those moments were playing games…Board Games. I’m sure I’m…
By Mike Fahey Published May 4, 2011
