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Working the Angles to Make Video Game Baseball Look More Like TV
Maybe no other sport is influenced this much by irregular stadium dimensions. Maybe no other sport has fans who’d care about this. But how you see a baseball game on TV is unique, park-to-park. In video games, however, it’s uniform. This dawned on me when my pitcher was promoted out of Indianapolis a few weeks…
By Owen Good Published April 17, 2010 -
Ubisoft: DRM ‘Vital’ to ‘Creative and Innovative’ PC Games
Ubisoft wants PC gamers to know it’s heard the complaints and anger regarding its DRM “online services platform,” and, after careful consideration, it’s digging in. The creative side of the company is now calling it vital to what they do. “We consider that protecting our PC games is vital to our business,” Max Béland, the…
By Owen Good Published April 17, 2010 -
Roger Ebert Asks a Good Question
The Chicago Sun-Times film critic has finally revisited his old contention that games can never be art, to defend it “in principle,” and to dispute about that which cannot be disputed. He also asks a great question. “Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art?” Ebert’s got a point. This…
By Owen Good Published April 17, 2010 -
Weekend Coupons: The Good, the Bad, and the Frugal
There’s two types of people in this world, my friend. Those with Weekend Coupons, and those who dig. You dig. Hardware • The Xbox 360 “Super Elite” 250GB bundles, coming in the Splinter Cell: Conviction or Final Fantasy XIII flavors, are $349 plus $10 shipping at Walmart.com. Next best price is $400. [Dealzon] • Walmart.com…
By Owen Good Published April 17, 2010 -
Kotaku Originals: Warfare of Attrition
Few stories can overwhelm a major game reveal like Gears of War 3, but the disintegration of the studio that pumped out 2009’s cash powerhouse definitely qualifies. If ever there was a week for pyrrhic news victories, this was it. Kotaku Talk Radio Call of Duty: Legal Warfare The Modern Warfare Fight: Your Guide to…
By Owen Good Published April 17, 2010 -
Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves
This reminds me of something Crecente would always say on the cops desk, when a hospital spokesperson told him a victim was in “stable condition.” And that is, “Death is technically a stable condition.” So keep your discussions unstable! Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ
By Owen Good Published April 17, 2010 -
Akihabara Girl Group Singing Dragon Ball Song
AKB48, the most popular idol group in Japan at the moment, will be singing the ending theme for anime series Dragon Ball Kai. AKB48 has around 48 members (sometimes it is slightly lower or higher depending on how many members have left or “graduated”) split into three teams: A Team, K Team and B Team.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 17, 2010 -
Team Fortress 2 Takes A Trip To Pride Rock
The Lion King is probably the last truly great film Disney (not Pixar!) produced (though I did dig Atlantis). Know what makes it better? I bet you do: Team Fortress 2. A couple of months ago Fantachan released this clip, above, where a sequence from the Lion King was re-dubbed by characters from the Lion…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 17, 2010 -
LittleBigPlanet 2 Will Feature…Electronic Music
Electronic musician Christopher Leary (aka Ochre) has taken to Twitter today, pleased as punch to officially announce the inclusion of one of his songs in Sony’s upcoming LittleBigPlanet 2. Whether Sony is as happy remains to be seen. That’s because while Leary is only too keen to go speaking publicly of the game’s existence, Sony,…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 17, 2010 -
Just Cause 2 Multiplayer? Somebody’s Working On It
While we never reviewed it, know that I played a lot of Just Cause 2, and I loved it. The only thing that would have made it better was some multiplayer, and, hey, what do you know. Look at this. Similar to mods for the Grand Theft Auto games on PC, some guys are working…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 17, 2010 -
StarCraft II Hit With Adults Only Rating in Korea
The game of StarCraft is kind of a big deal in Korea, the country in which Blizzard opted to announce the highly anticipated StarCraft II in May of 2007. Shame, then, that the PC game has been rated adults only. That rating issued by Korea’s Games Rating Board could mean that Blizzard sells only millions…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 16, 2010 -
Kotaku Off Topic: Sproutrage
Ahhh…. Friday. Let’s get this weekend started right with some soothing, satisfying off topic conversation. What do we talk about on Fridays? You guessed it. Brussels sprouts. I mean food. It’s Food Friday, after all—which also includes Booze Friday conversation—so if you want to wax about the culinary, do so here. I’m about to head…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 16, 2010 -
In a First for Rockstar, Red Dead Redemption Gets Difficulty Settings
Rockstar says Red Dead Redemption will feature three different difficulty modes, and while they’re limited mostly to just the game’s aiming feature the studio is calling the variable difficulty a first for any open-world game it’s ever built. There will be an expert free-aim mode with no auto-lock, a standard aiming mode that snaps the…
By Owen Good Published April 16, 2010 -
Nintendo DSi XL Off To A [Adjective] Start In U.S.
In March, the Nintendo DS had a hell of a month, selling more than 700,000 units to portable gamers in the U.S. That was the same month the pumped up Nintendo DSi XL launched. How’d it do? According to NPD figures cited by Gamasutra, the XL version of Nintendo’s DSi system moved 141,000. Which is…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 16, 2010 -
School Play Confronts Video Game Addiction [Updated]
If you’re near East Brunswick, N.J., a high school play being staged this weekend certainly has a modern and timely subject – video games addiction, and relationships falling apart because of it. Today’s production is probably over by now, but tomorrow at 7 p.m., “Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom” (pictured) will be performed by students…
By Owen Good Published April 16, 2010 -
Review Round Up: That Guy Is Poison
I believe it was the poet Bell Biv DeVoe who said “Never trust a big butt and a smile.” But one thing you can trust? Kotaku reviews. So let’s review what video games, movies and hardware we reviewed this week. Splinter Cell Conviction Review: The Best Lurks In Shadows In which Stephen Totilo uses the…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 16, 2010 -
Modern Warfare 2 Platformer Shows Breach-and-Clear in 2D
Hey, if Modern Warfare 3 falls hopelessly behind schedule as Infinity Ward crumbles, maybe Activision can go this route instead. Well, maybe except for the part about this PC game being 100 percent free. I suppose a spoiler alert is in order for some of this, at least the conclusion. Anyway, this platformer was apparently…
By Owen Good Published April 16, 2010 -
This Week In Comics
I’ve written before that I don’t care much for adaptations. If I love a game, I don’t need to see a movie about it. If I like a movie, I don’t need to read the graphic novel. My bias changes, however, when the Right People are involved. In the case of the Prince of Persia…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 16, 2010 -
Left 4 Dead 2’s The Passing Is Coming Next Week
The first downloadable episode for Valve’s southern fried zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 didn’t make its originally scheduled “late March” release. Thankfully, it looks like “The Passing” campaign will make a late April release. Valve updated the official Left 4 Dead 2 blog today with good news—The Passing, a new campaign set between the…
By Michael McWhertor Published April 16, 2010