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Chinatown Fair’s Spiritual Descendant Will be a Different Type of Arcade
The beloved New York City arcade Chinatown Fair closed last month after three decades; its owner, Henry Cen, will open a new arcade, but it will be in a different location, with a different focus, and evidently with fewer games. The New York Times, in a profile in today’s edition, says Cen will open “Next…
By Owen Good Published March 13, 2011 -
Gears of War Board Game Still In The Works
The people who have turned the video game Civilization into a board game are continuing their improbable quest to make a Gears of War board game. They don’t have anything to show of the game here at Boston’s PAX East other than a banner. No boards. No pieces. No gameplay details. A company rep said…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 13, 2011 -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Milo Edition
This week’s challenge is another no-brainer. Develop unearthed some storyboards for Milo, the presumed-dead game by Lionhead Studios that was one of the first proofs of concept for what is now known as Kinect. Now, we value good games development and are very respectful of others’ property, always. But not when we’ve got our mitts…
By Owen Good Published March 13, 2011 -
The iPad 2: Gizmodo‘s Complete Coverage
The iPad 2 is here. And yeah, it’s pretty great. Despite the early looks, we’re still finding surprises. Like? The screen is definitely better than the original iPad’s. That’s just the beginning. Here’s Gizmodo‘s ongoing iPad 2 coverage, from speedtests and graphics battles versus the original iPad to essential apps (and app deals), a possible…
By Joel Johnson Published March 13, 2011 -
Power Concerns After Japan Quake Take Down Multiplayer Servers [Updated]
At 6 p.m. EST/3 p.m. PST, servers for Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI will be taken offline for at least one week as Square-Enix cooperates with a Japanese power company’s request to conserve power while it restores services severely damaged by Thursday’s monster earthquake. [Update] Servers for Metal Gear Online also have been…
By Owen Good Published March 13, 2011 -
Pokémon Company Squashes Twitter Rumor of Creator’s Death [Update]
A spokesman for the Pokémon Company said all employees, including Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri, are alive and safe following Thursday’s tremendous earthquake in Japan, specifically rebutting a widespread rumor that Tajiri had died in the disaster. “False. Everyone at the Pokemon Company and Gamefreak is fine,” spokesman J.C. Smith told Kotaku. He said that power…
By Owen Good Published March 13, 2011 -
Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves
Welcome back to Kotaku’s Official Forum. Feel free to talk about anything on your minds, but make it fast. We’ve got one less hour in the day thanks to daylight saving time today. Today’s image is by pistelho. Read this thread for directions on how to do a TAYpic.
By Owen Good Published March 13, 2011 -
Let’s Learn How To Play The Wonderfully Complex Civilization Board Game
Civilization: The Board Game from Fantasy Flight Games is no mere global Monopoly, no svelte Catan. It is a complicated affair and one that’s not so easy to capture on video. The game came out in November, but I’d not seen it played until this weekend at PAX East. One of Fantasy Flight’s employees was…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 13, 2011 -
PAX East Cosplay Day 2: The Castle Crasher, The Little Sister, And A Lego Master Sword
On the first day of PAX East, we got some good video game cosplay, but day two trumped the day one efforts. A Zelda sword made of Lego pieces? A Team Fortress 2 / BioShock mash-up? Professor Layton teaming up with Uncle Sam? Congratulations, all around PAX East day 2 cosplayers. You did some fine…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 13, 2011 -
Toy Soldiers: Cold War Adds Co-Op And… Is That Rambo?
We here at Kotaku loved the first Toy Soldiers, a downloadable Xbox 360 tower defense game set during World War I. The new one, Toy Soldiers: Cold War, is debuting at PAX East in Boston, where I saw it on Saturday. It looks like a fantastic upgrade. The game’s creators at Signal Studios have added…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 12, 2011 -
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: History’s Greatest Villains Winners
Last week, we asked you to take some of the most revered, most admired and least threatening figures of history and swap them out for the most dreadful and frightening adversaries in video games – as if John Adams were, for example, a Triceratops. Here’s what we got. Krakenstein (12), who inspired our contest, added…
By Owen Good Published March 12, 2011 -
Star Trek Fan Dances His Ass Off To Kinect
This man is playing Dance Central, a dancing video game for the Xbox 360’s Kinect sensor. He’s at Boston’s PAX East gaming convention. He is dancing to Bell Biv Devoe’s Poison, a song that taught children of the 90s never to trust a big butt and a smile. The song teaches us a new lesson:…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 12, 2011 -
Resistance, Ratchet & Clank Creators Push Into Facebook with Insomniac Click
Insomniac Games, the makers of the Resistance and Ratchet and Clank series, will push into mobile and Web-based games development with a new division – Insomniac Click – that the studio unveiled on Saturday. Going public with their plans at a social gaming panel at the South by Southwest interactive festival in Austin, Texas, Insomniac…
By Owen Good Published March 12, 2011 -
Nickels, Dimes, Pennants, Pennies or Points, Sports Gamers Still Get Value
>It didn’t take long after MLB 11 The Show’s release for everyone to notice its microtransactions menu and give it a good public flogging. While I don’t claim that these things are in anyone’s interest other than the publisher’s, gamers do a fantastic job of making this out to be a more odious threat than…
By Owen Good Published March 12, 2011 -
Here’s One Tricked-Out Ride on Shift 2 Unleashed
Here’s Shift 2: Unleashed being played at PAX East on three extremely large television screens, shot by our man there, Stephen Totilo. It’s video-of-video, but this setup definitely amplifies the thrill-ride sense of speed and motion delivered through driving the game in its default in-car camera view. The flag drops on Shift 2 Unleashed on…
By Owen Good Published March 12, 2011 -
New Settings Highlight The Show‘s Good Cause
MLB 11 The Show arrived on Tuesday, bringing with it a set of controls and options designed to include disabled gamers. The association for these gamers, begun by a 25-year-old college student, also launched on Tuesday and gets a plug from the PS3 game. The Association for Disabled Virtual Athletes is the brainchild of Hans…
By Owen Good Published March 12, 2011 -
Stop What You Are Doing and Watch This My Little Pony Video Right Now
Proving that My Little Pony makes everything hilarious and StarCraft II makes everything awesome – at the same time – is this fantastic two-minute mashup that is simply not to be missed. YouTube’s StubbornlyObsolete put this together using the audio from StarCraft II’s cinematic launch trailer and video from seventeen goddamn episodes of “My Little…
By Owen Good Published March 12, 2011 -
UFC Takeover of Strikeforce Could KO EA Sports MMA After One Round
Zuffa llc, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has bought out mixed martial arts’ second largest promotion, Strikeforce. The acquisition could mean only one MMA video game going forward. Last year’s EA Sports MMA was licensed by Strikeforce, using its rules, many of its fighters, and venues where major Strikeforce cards have been…
By Owen Good Published March 12, 2011 -
Warp Is My Favorite Scientist-Exploding PAX East Discovery, So Far
I keep asking people who I run into at PAX East to tell me which games I should check out. Thank you, to whoever told me to try Warp. I think it was Eka, hype man extraordinaire for Monday Night Combat. I’m glad I went. Warp lets you be an alien who can warp through…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 12, 2011 -
Homecoming Kings
The Rays and the Red Sox had an old-fashioned bad-blood rivalry early last decade, one that cooled off in animosity as the talent gap between the two clubs has narrowed. When these two American League East franchises meet, three big name players will be facing their former team. That would be Carl Crawford, who played…
By Owen Good Published March 12, 2011