Uncategorized

The FPS: Where Freedom isn’t Free

As game designers become more like film directors, the paths they lay out for players becomes increasingly scripted and, frankly, downright restricted. Still the illusion of freedom persists in this genre. The blog One Dimensional Man deconstructs this kind of design, and comes up with another illusion – the illusion that the game isn’t linear,…

Microsoft Patents the Exercise Guilt Trip

Microsoft’s filed a patent that would make avatars more realistic and less idealized, with the point of getting your husky ass out to exercise if what you’re seeing in the dashboard is a more realistic presentation of yourself. “Avatar Individualized By Physical Characteristic,” is what Microsoft is claiming. “Linking the avatar to a physical characteristic…

The 2010 Video Game Bowl — and Playoff — Spectacular

Do you want a college football playoff? Do you love the tradition of a New Year’s Day packed with A-list bowls? You can have both, as shown by Stick Jockey’s video game simulation of a 16-team tournament – and 27 bowls. Warning: This is a very long column. There are more than 40 games described…

Weekend Coupons: Hardware Store

Weekend Coupons is noticing a definite swing toward console deals and bundles as the holiday shopping season wears on. Might want to consider snapping them up this week, as they’re certain not to last much past Christmas. Hardware • Amazon is going used-car-dealer nuts with the prices on Xbox 360s. The arcade is $179; the…

Kotaku Originals: The Year We Make Contact

With less than 17 shopping days till 2010, Kotaku oriented its eyes to the future and this week’s report toward what you can expect from it. But we still had plenty of time for news of the present. Kotaku Talk Radio Columns Well Played: A Surprise Education Stick Jockey: Not the Bottom of the Ninth,…

Browser Pong More Fun That It Sounds

Seriously. Fire this up. It’s a game of Pong, only, it uses browser windows. Clever, and surprisingly playable, all things considered. Just…when you boot it up, hit “S” right away. Like, right away. [Browser Pong]

God Of War Collection Getting A European Release

Having so far been released only in the United States, the God of War Collection will finally be released in PAL territories in 2010. Only, there’s a catch. See, in the US, it was released in convenient, standalone form. But the only way PAL customers will be able to get their hands on a copy…

Heavy Rain Gets A Collector’s Edition

Heavy Rain’s pre-order DLC in the US won’t be pre-order DLC in Europe. Instead, it’ll be part of the Heavy Rain: Collector’s Edition box set. Yes, Sony are going all-out in the game’s home market, offering the game in a “specially embossed” box (to make it look like it’s been rained on) that includes episode…

Torchlight Goes On Sale, Gets New Stuff

Runic’s quietly amazing Torchlight is due for a bumper few days this weekend, Valve announcing today that the game’s in line for some post-release improvements. First up, “over 60” Steam achievements are being retro-fitted to the title. Next up, it’s being made compatible with Steam Cloud, meaning you can move your settings and save games…

Rapstar Teases Song Selection

4mm’s Rapstar intrigued me at E3, but music games live and die by their tracklists, not their good intentions. And neither of these new “trailers” for the game give any hints whatsoever. Indeed, the only clues as to tracks we can expect when the game ships sometime in 2010 come from this single screenshot, above,…

Nielsen’s US Gaming Market: By The Numbers

Market research giants Nielsen have today released a report on the demographics of the video game industry, revealing things like total console ownership figures, gender division and statistics on the number of hours people play video games every day. According to the company’s research, undertaken in Q3 2009, 54% of American households own some kind…

Some Advertisement Mentions PSP-4000

A PSP accessory advertisement in the latest issue of British trade mag MCV contains an odd selling-point: that it’s compatible with the PSP-4000. A console which does not exist. See for yourself in these pics. It goes a little beyond “typo”, since they actually created a little bubble logo for the console. So it’s either…

NBA Live 10 DLC? It Must be the Shoes.

Do you know what’s in the free DLC EA Sports just rolled for NBA Live 10? Do you know? Do you know? Do you know? About a zillion new varieties of Nike, adidas and Converse for your hoopsters’ hooves EA Sports’ blog promises the same package is on the way “very soon” for PlayStation 3.…

EA Sound A Little Shakier On Support For Tiger Woods

When news of Tiger Wood’s “personal issues” first hit, EA Sports came out on the defensive, issuing a strong statement of support for their star. A couple of weeks (and a dozen ladies) later, however, things aren’t looking as solid. Here’s the original statement, sent out by EA on December 2: Our strong relationship with…

Mass Effect 3 Will End Story Arc

Mass Effect 3 is no secret; BioWare’s said for some time this is a trilogy. But we can expect that that sequel will be the final chapter – to this story arc, anyway. Shacknews reports that Casey Hudson, the series’ project director, told a press event in Edmonton that, “‘Mass Effect 3’ will be easier…

Playboy’s Annual Batch Of Naked Game Girls Shows Surprising Trend

It’s December. That means Playboy magazine dedicates a handful of pages from its end of year issue to naked video game characters, a marketing ploy typically reserved for the year’s more forgettable games. But not this year. While last year’s spread featured naked versions of characters from games like Afro Samurai, Ride to Hell, Velvet…

My kids are game addicts… and I’m ok with that. Perhaps I never should have been a parent because I’m the kind of parent most parents HATE. When my kids were 2 months old I started putting a little cereal in their bottle at night so they would sleep through the night (and they did).…

Electronic Arts Looks South for New Development Center

Electronic Arts is taking a serious look at the land of grits and fatback for a development center that could employ up to 300 people. Atlanta and Savannah, Ga., are in the running, along with Louisiana. EA’s Jeff Brown confirmed to the Atlanta Business Chronicle that the publisher is considering the Peach State for a…

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Squad Deathmatch Trailer

Okay, it looks like we’ve figured the mystery around the mutliplayer mode I previewed earlier and the online beta that some of you have been playing. Squad Deathmatch is new to Battlefield while what’s going on in the beta is “old.” EA publicist Jino Talens says it better in this email: Squad Deathmatch is a…

New Clash of the Titans Screens Are All Greek To Me

Namco Bandai is drumming up support for its video game adaptation of 2010’s Clash of the Titans remake, releasing a batch of new screens of the game that should be as good as anything developers Game Republic have ever done. That means that Clash of the Titans should be as on par (or close to…