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No More Manuals as EA Sports Goes Green
This is the last printed manual you’ll ever see for an EA Sports game. The publisher has joined Ubisoft in releasing games without an instruction booklet, and will instead include a version of instructions that gamers may page through from within the game. EA Sports spokesman Rob Semsey confirmed the change, begun on March 1…
By Owen Good Published March 19, 2011 -
Dinner After The Show
The longest Major League Baseball game ever played remains the 25-inning marathon between the Chicago White Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers back in 1984. One devotee of MLB 11 The Show and his brother broke that mark on Monday, playing nearly a triple-header’s worth of baseball. Wonder if Dave Campbell, The Show’s analyst, trotted out…
By Owen Good Published March 19, 2011 -
Creator of NBC’s “Community” Celebrated Its Renewal with … Bulletstorm?
The Twitterverse went off like a fireworks volley on Thursday when news passed that “Community,” the critically acclaimed but low-rated NBC comedy-drama, was picked up for a third season. How did the show’s creator celebrate? “I came home and I played ‘Bulletstorm.'” What the dick? Well, Dan Harmon says it was either Bulletstorm or go…
By Owen Good Published March 19, 2011 -
Your Bodyguard [Updated]
He was only 9. I practically raised him since he was 2. Drive you crazy! Tell him to sit down, he’d stand up. Tell him do his homework, he’d read a comic book. Couldn’t eat food without spitting it at you. A real shoplifter too. Go through a store, half of it’d wind up in…
By Owen Good Published March 19, 2011 -
The Week In Gaming Apps
Kart racers, panda launchers and shuriken dodgers lead this week’s mobile games for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. There’s even a non-game on this week’s list of gaming apps, thanks to the official PlayStation Network app for iOS and Android phones. Let’s catch up on all the games we played on our phones this…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 19, 2011 -
Metacritic Now Ranks iPhone and iPad Games
Metacritic, whose cumulative scores provide a thumbs-up/thumbs-down barometer that can move games publishers’ stock prices, has expanded. The review aggregator has begun listing iPhone and iPad apps. “Our addition of a robust iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch games section … reflects the critical community’s growing acceptance of the iOS platform as a legitimate, full-fledged gaming system whose games…
By Owen Good Published March 18, 2011 -
Kinect Makes You the Rampaging Controller
Some folks, including the creator, describe this Kinect mod in Hulk-smash terms. It does tint the screen (and the skin of the players) green. But towering above puny buildings and smashing them into rubble, that sounds more like Rampage, to me. Either way, let’s get this one into production, stat. Next on the to-do list:…
By Owen Good Published March 18, 2011 -
Weekend Getter
Huzzah! We’ve done it, Kotakus! We’re officially going to head into the weekend. So let’s send this workweek off with a little off topic conversation, shall we? Indeed we shall. I’m about to hit the local pho place, where I won’t be indulging in tendon or tripe, but satisfying my delicate Western palette with some…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 18, 2011 -
Our First Few Days with the Surprisingly Joyful Nintendo 3DS
The Nintendo 3DS is the next big thing in video games. The new portable gaming system from Nintendo lets you play games in 3D, without the need for special glasses, but there’s much more to it than that. We’ve had two of the first North American 3DS systems for several days and we’ve discovered a…
By Joel Johnson Published March 18, 2011 -
Kevin Butler, as You’ve Never Seen Him Before (NSFW)
Cat’s out of the bag, folks. Kevin Butler is not really PlayStation’s vice president of everything from First Person Shooter Relations to Rumor Confirmation. He is, in fact, the actor Jerry Lambert, who played quite the cringe-inducing straight man in the most recent episode of Showtime’s “Shameless” on Monday. KB, under the auspices of being…
By Owen Good Published March 18, 2011 -
Google Now Guesses Release Dates for Movies and Video Games
Google has some pretty neat built-in tricks, and it seems they’ve just added another one: with just a quick search, Google will try to tell you the release date of any movie or video game. [Lifehacker]
By Joel Johnson Published March 18, 2011 -
In Russia, Raving Rabbids Make Your Salads, Not Mischief
Who would want to co-opt Ubisoft’s bothersome mascots, the Raving Rabbids? Russian salad maker Belaya Dacha, apparently, who have swiped the leporine mischief makers—or a very, very close approximation—to shill their pre-packaged salad greens. A helpful tipster turned us on to Belaya Dacha’s salad spot, which he says was created by the Bazelevs Group, a…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 18, 2011 -
Stacking Piles on the DLC in April
If we had any quibbles with Stacking, Double Fine’s acclaimed downloadable game, it’s that it felt held back in a semi-conspicuous way – one that might have foretold a sequel or a DLC extension. Lo and behold, the latter is indeed coming. The Lost Hobo King, the next chapter of the ragtime nesting-dolls saga, will…
By Owen Good Published March 18, 2011 -
3DS LEGO Star Wars Makes The Case Against 3D
Playing through a healthy chunk of LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars on Nintendo’s 3DS left me impressed. It also left me with a question: Should Nintendo require 3D on all 3DS games? I don’t really know the answer to that, but this LEGO game leaves me hoping they won’t. Don’t get me wrong.…
By Brian Crecente Published March 18, 2011 -
Ducks, Limited
Duck Hunt’s erstwhile mallard joins two of its kin in flight for this mixed-media wall art, available via Etsy for $120. The pixels forming the duck are quarter-inch tiles made from salvaged book covers. The entire piece is 21″x26″, sold framed with glass. Asshole Dog sold separately.
By Owen Good Published March 18, 2011 -
Your Latest Reboot Is Sonic the Hedgehog‘s Comic Book Series
Even Sonic the Hedgehog is starting over with a clean(er) slate. After 200-plus issues of Sonic’s Archie Comics series, Sega’s famous mascot is shedding nearly 20 years of continuity, and “going back to a simpler premise.” Sonic: Genesis will go where many comic book series have gone before, possibly killing off a major character and…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 18, 2011 -
Snow and Sun
A Final Snow | Colorado treated us to a beautiful morning snow today. It’s probably the last I’ll see here before moving to New York at the end of the month. (Photo: Brian Crecente) Silent Auction, Live DJ Added to Japan Earthquake Relief Fundraiser With less than a week till kick off, the Kotaku Japan…
By Brian Crecente Published March 18, 2011 -
NES Classic Super Dodge Ball Is Back As WiiWare Game
In addition to breathing new life into River City Ransom, developer Miracle Kidz is giving another Technos classic some love. There’s a new Super Dodge Ball (aka Downtown Nekketsu Dodgeball) on the way for WiiWare, a game that appears to stick to its NES roots closely. The game is already available as an Xbox Live…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 18, 2011 -
PlayStation’s Top U.S. Exec Cleans Up Pro Poker Tour Event
That, folks, is a 10-6 unsuited. In poker jargon, that hand is known as “garbage.” But for Jack Tretton, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, they were the winning cards at a pro-am poker event earlier this week. Tretton was one of several executives entered in the World Poker Tour’s Silicon Valley Poker Challenge,…
By Owen Good Published March 18, 2011 -
The Gorgeous Tech That Powered Milo & Kate Makes The Xbox 360 Look Brand New
Fable developer Lionhead was working on an ambitious Kinect-controlled game, Milo & Kate, and developing new engine technology to go with it. They showed off some of that new tech at GDC and, well, it’s really, really good looking. Ben Sugden, lead programmer at Lionhead Studios showed off Milo & Kate’s world at GDC in…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 18, 2011