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Square Enix to Open Dragon Quest-Themed Bar

Dragon Quest fans will recognize the name Luida’s Bar from the role-playing game; it’ll also be the name of an establishment Square Enix is opening in Tokyo later this month, coinciding with Dragon Quest VI‘s release on the DS. The bar opens to the public Jan. 28 in Roppongi, Tokyo, but before that, it’ll be…

Savage Cycle

Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono poses in front of the Resident Evil motorcycle created by Savage Cycles at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas during the CES launch party for Dark Void.

Comparing Two Games That Sell Themselves

Paid downloadable content and in-game advertising are two touchy issues in gaming discussions, and two recent releases have in a way brought both together, one more artfully than the other. Writing for Pop Matters, Nick Dinicola examines Assassin’s Creed II and Dragon Age: Origins, both of which make a rather direct pitch to the player…

Dark Void Zero: Blow Me

It may only be two hours long, but Capcom’s 8-bit DSi Dark Void prequel doesn’t feel like a bit of fancy marketing. Dark Void Zero, expected to hit Nintendo’s download store in the next couple of weeks, features three levels, three bosses and an original 8-bit soundtrack composed by Battlestar Galactica’s Bear McCreary. I fiddled…

Metroid Prime Trilogy No Longer Published or Shipped

Four months after its release, Nintendo has stopped publishing and shipping the Metroid Prime: Collector’s Edition. A company rep told an interested gamer the only way to find it now is through the second-hand market. “[It] is no longer being shipped,” Nintendo told the blog Coffee With Games. “When first introduced, it was announced that…

Motion Controlled Left 4 Dead 2 in Action

Yesterday Mike wrote up his impressions of a motion-control enabled version of Left 4 Dead 2 running on a PC with the help of Sixense TrueMotion wireless motion controllers. Now take a gander at a Razer rep playing a bit of the game with the dual, black sticks.

Can Sports Video Games Win One for the Little Guys?

Of the independent games available on Xbox Live, a sports title is currently the No. 1 downloaded title and another is the No. 2-rated game, across all offerings. But sports is far from the service’s dominant genre. The action and adventure, puzzle and trivia, and shooter categories all have more than 100 listings. Sports, just…

Weekend Coupons: Winter Games

Retail’s harvest season is over, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any more discounts and values to be had. There just aren’t as many, that’s all. Hardware: • Want a Wii? Don’t pay full price. Dell Small Business has got it for $184. TechDealDigger notes that you will have to add it to your cart…

Kotaku Originals: On Topic

This week saw the debut of Kotaku’s overnight off-topic discussion, aka Our Excuse to Talk About S—t Like the A-Team. Crecente and McWhertor in Vegas still helped keep the rest of the site on-topic for original coverage this past week. Kotaku Talk Radio Reviews, Previews, Hands On and Impressions Super Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament…

The Average PC Gamer’s Rig, As Of December 2009

Earlier this week, Valve released the latest set of data from their regular hardware survey, revealing just what kind of hardware the average PC gamer is packing these days. Here are the major findings: you prefer Intel systems to AMD, you prefer NVIDIA graphics cards to ATI, and the majority of you now have at…

What Is The Longest You’ve Left A Game On Pause?

Here’s how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn’t some marketing survey or whatever. It’s an emotional investment in you. Yes, we’re interested in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know oodles about us – more than you even want to, we’re sure. But, hey,…

FIFA 10 Gives Modern Warfare 2 A Run For Its Money

While Modern Warfare 2 emerged as 2009’s biggest-selling game globally, in Europe, it was a close-run thing, Activision’s blockbuster shooter only just edging out EA’s FIFA 10. Granted, this information comes from…Electronic Arts, the game’s developers, but seeing as they get access to complete, accurate sales figures (something the general public does not when it…

Death by Cube Ready To Kill Xbox LIVE

One of the bloodiest titles at last year’s Tokyo Game Show (if not the bloodiest!) has been dated. Death by Cube, an Xbox LIVE Arcade game developed by a studio called Premium Agency, is a twin stick shooter that takes place on a minimalist battlefield that looks like graph paper. Graph paper covered in blood,…

Kotaku Off Topic: (._. )

Instead of focusing on the past, wondering what may have happened to yesterday’s Kotaku Off Topic open thread, in which anything can be discussed video game related or not, let’s focus on the future! I mean, really, who’s all that interested in placing blame about the lack of Kotaku Off Topic yesterday? Certainly not me!…

Super Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament Edition S Hands-on

A new year, a new Street Fighter and a new update to Mad Catz’s tournament edition fight stick. We went hands-on with the newer, slimmer Super Street Fighter IV branded model at CES. Is it worth the upgrade? Like our hands-on time with the original Street Fighter IV licensed sticks, the controller impressed mostly for…

And a Sackboy Made of Snow …

Snowboy? Sackman? As seen on PlayStation.Blog. Thanks Jonathan S.

Playing Super Stardust HD At CES… In 3D!!!

Surprisingly, it was the 3D rejiggering of a PlayStation Network game, not Gran Turismo 5, that made me think “Hey, this 3D display gimmick might not be so bad after all.” That game was Housemarque’s excellent Super Stardust HD. Where Super Stardust HD in 3D succeeded was adding to the dazzling lightshow that a few…

Sony’s Wireless Dash Can Play Games, Maybe Interact with PS3

Unveiled at Sony’s CES keynote earlier this week, the Dash is a "personal Internet viewer" that includes some pretty nifty technology. The little wireless device can run a bunch of different apps on its touch screen, letting you check weather, traffic, email, browse the net, all sorts of things. It also lets you play games…

2K Boston (formerly Irrational Games) now Irrational Games (formerly 2K Boston)

Game Informer confirms a poorly kept secret – that 2K Boston is returning to its original name, Irrational Games, by which it was known before 2K Games acquired. The name change provoked something of an identity crisis, with the parenthetical “(formerly Irrational Games)” trailing many references to the studio, so people would remember its history…

What Did The Simpsons Ever Do For Video Games?

Since the Simpsons’ TV showed launched in 1989, more video games have been made about them than just about any non-game franchise this side of Star Wars and Dragonball Z. Unfortunately, the medium doesn’t have much to show for it. On Sunday FOX TV will air a 20th anniversary celebration of The Simpsons TV show…