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Ascension Of A Japanese Gaming Meme
Action game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron might have a wordy title, but Japan is totally enamored with the game’s hero Enoch and his flowing locks. You could say Japan has a crush. Time for a meme! El Shaddai is inspired the Book of Enoch and features a pre-fall Lucifer who carries a cell…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 12, 2010 -
Former US Marine: Medal Of Honor Turns War Into “Participatory Cinema”
A former US Marine has delivered a thoughtful piece on many of the creative decisions surrounding the latest game in the Medal of Honor series. “I honestly don’t like that Medal of Honor depicts the war in Afghanistan right now, because – even as fiction – it equates the war with the leisure of games”…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2010 -
Mario Kart? No, Mario Celebrates A Race
As seen during the Malaysian Grand Prix by はちま起稿
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 12, 2010 -
Sonic’s Design Has Been Changed For Nintendo Fans
This is sure to bring out either chuckles or frowns from anyone old enough to remember the console wars of the 1990s: the design of Sonic’s recent titles has been altered to appeal to Nintendo fans. Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka tells IGN: “From a general game design perspective, in recent years we’ve been able to…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2010 -
Turmoil In The Land Where Your Consoles Are Made
This year, a rash of suicides at the factories of manufacturing giant Foxconn has focused attention on working conditions. Improvements were apparently made, but a recent report suggests otherwise. Foxconn assembles the Xbox 360, the PS3, the Nintendo Wii and the iPhone, among many other electronic devices. A recent report features interviews with over 1,700…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 12, 2010 -
Make Your Own Wii Hard Drive With This
It’s always fun seeing random Chinese hardware manufacturers with a sense of humour. Case in point: this hard drive case, shaped to look just like a Nintendo Wii. One of the Wii’s biggest drawbacks has long been its lack of internal storage space, so this would be a cute purchase for anyone who felt like…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2010 -
Pokemon Animated With 3D Computer Graphics Looks Like This
The weekly Pocket Monsters anime program is typically a 2D affair. But the opening credits for the latest series, Pokemon: Best Wishes!, shows off some fancy computer-generated 3D graphics. For comparison’s sake, this is what the opening for the previous Pokemon series looked like. Below is the current opening for the new Pokemon: Best Wishes!…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 12, 2010 -
The Zerg Are Starcraft II’s Least Popular Race
Blizzard has released statistics showing how popular each of Starcraft II’s three races are amongst the game’s multiplayer users. And it’s the poor Zerg coming in last. Of course, that headline and intro could easily have said “Protoss are most popular!”, but I’ve never liked the Zerg, so felt like drawing attention to that instead.…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2010 -
How I Met Your Kinect
The most recent episode of American comedy program “How I Met Your Mother” featured not one, but two cameos. One of them was talk show host Maury Povich. The other? Microsoft’s forthcoming Kinect motion control system. The show is actually a series of flashbacks narrated by Bob Saget of Full House fame about how he…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 12, 2010 -
This Is Why People Play Minecraft
Minecraft is a game that’s difficult to really sell with words. It’s something you have to play to get a feel for. Or watch, in this case, as people do inspiring things. This video runs for 3:23. It’s sped-up for convenience’s sake. For information in how the clip was made, as well as what upgrades…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2010 -
Dead Rising Producer Hates His Job, He Wants To Retire
In a recent interview, Capcom’s Keiji Inafune (of Dead Rising and Onimusha fame) talks about the impossible, doing the impossible and how that makes game developers grow as people. He also says he hates his job. After Inafune talks about challenges and daunting tasks, the interviewer says that the Dead Rising producer seems like he…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 12, 2010 -
Life After People (On Halo’s Reach)
When sci-fi shooter Halo: Reach ends, so too does humanity’s presence on the planet. This gallery of environment art for the game shows what the place would look like with everyone gone. That’s not its point, of course; it’s just a collection of in-game art showcasing the talents of Bungie level artist Anthony Vaccaro (with…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2010 -
Super Mario Bros. Makes Its Creator Embarrassed
Super Mario Bros. was originally released in 1985. Televisions were different then — blurry and fuzzy-like. Thus, seeing the game on a HDTV makes Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto feel slightly embarrassed. “When I see this [Super Mario Bros.] so clearly, it’s a little embarrassing,” Miyamoto tells Earthbound designer Shigesato Itoi. “Back then, with tube televisions,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 12, 2010 -
The Great PlayStation Car Chase
Darren Suchon, a 42 year-old unemployed man from Lehigh Township, Pennsylvania, likes video games. He likes them so much that when somebody tries to take them away, it results in a car chase, road rage and the cops. Suchon’s girlfriend, Colleen Frable, had last week gotten so fed up with his bum lifestyle that she…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2010 -
Does Japan Think The Nintendo 3DS Is Over-Priced?
The forthcoming Nintendo 3DS will cost ¥25,000. That’s US$305! That’s… a lot of cabbage. The handheld does not yet have a price point outside of Japan. But what does The Land of the Rising Sun think? Website GetNews.jp has the results of a poll that asked over 1,000 folks whether they think the Nintendo 3DS…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 12, 2010 -
Is Blizzard Banning Starcraft II Players For Cheating In Singleplayer? [Update]
It’s fine to take drastic action against somebody cheating in multiplayer. Those people are scum. But what happens when people begin to be banned for bending the rules of a game’s singleplayer component? Gamer gm0ney is accusing Blizzard of suspending his Starcraft II account for the use of “unauthorized cheat programs”. The thing is, gm0ney…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2010 -
EA Cancels Steven Spielberg Game
For years now, Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg were supposed to have been working on a project called “LMNO”. We’d long thought it was dead. Now EA has finally confirmed it. Jake Kazdal, a former EA developer who worked on the game, told the 8-4 podcast “I don’t know exactly what was the thing that…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2010 -
A Look at Black Ops’ Single Player Gameplay and Story
This latest Call of Duty: Black Ops trailer gives us a much better sense of what we can expect from the upcoming shooter, both the story and gameplay. Treyarch and Activision’s debut of the trailer on ESPN tonight couldn’t have been timed better with Medal of Honor due to hit store shelves tomorrow morning.
By Brian Crecente Published October 11, 2010 -
Final Fantasy XIV MMO Log Three: Strength In Numbers
Does the Final Fantasy XIV experience change greatly once you have a group of like-minded individuals to share the game with? Find out in this week’s installment of the Final Fantasy XIV MMO Log. Kotaku’s MMO reviews are a multi-part process. Rather than deliver day one reviews based on beta gameplay, we play the game…
By Mike Fahey Published October 11, 2010