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For EA Sports, Few Options Other than Toxic Tiger

“Sponsors like Gillette and Electronic Arts are going to drop Tiger Woods regardless of what they are saying now,” writes a Forbes national editor. But who would that leave to carry on EA’s golf franchise? Nobody, basically. “Forget about any golfers picking up the sponsorship slack,” says Michael K. Ozanian. “According to E Poll Market…

Holiday Travel With Star Trek Online

Continuing their Top 10 for Trekkies series, developer Cryptic Studios has put together a list of 10 locations Star Trek fans will want to visit in Star Trek Online. Think of it as a virtual vacation. In space.

Review Round-Up: Canabalt, Zelda, Saboteur, Gyromancer And More

Another week gone by, another round-up of Kotaku reviews with no Demon’s Souls review, am I right? Here’s what else we reviewed. Canabalt Micro-Review: Up On The Rooftop, Tap, Tap, Tap In which Michael McWhertor did a catch-up review (which some of you love) but only wrote positive blue text (which some of you hate).…

Dozens of Tester Jobs Affected in Sony QA Consolidation

Sony Computer Entertainment America is consolidating its two QA groups in one location, meaning 30 staff positions are being sent from the Bay Area to San Diego, Calif., and we hear another 100 contract positions were affected. SCEA’s Patrick Seybold confirmed to Kotaku the consolidation of the company’s first-party QA operations, saying the decision was…

See the REAL Lego Rock Band at Ümloud!

Yesterday, my ears were ringing a little too loudly to make heads or tails of all the flickr galleries and YouTube posts on Ümloud! But today I finally found a video of my friends’ band rocking out. My buddy Andrew and his housemates have been playing Rock Band for ages, so it wasn’t much of…

When Can We Expect Rival Schools On PSN or XBLA? “Never”

That’s a long time, never. When asked when school yard fighting game Rival Schools would be appearing on the PlayStation Network, Capcom spokesperson Chris Svensson replied. “There are IP clearances and rights we no longer have (particularly pertaining to voicework/soundtrack I believe) so our IP management group has told us it can’t be re-released,” Svensson…

Another Awesome Day Note

To: Someone, anyone! From: Totilo Re: Two Big Santa Differences Just received a last minute whisper of an assignment to write a Day Note. Assignment came from Down Under from a B. Crecente, a former newspaperman who has been battling the inferior Australia-U.S. Skype pipelines all week. This far-flung adventurer has found himself indisposed, unable…

Nintendo: New Super Mario Bros. Wii Sells 2 Million In U.S. Since Launch

Easing concerns that New Super Mario Bros. Wii selling 1.39 million copies in its first two weeks on U.S. store shelves might somehow not be impressive enough, Nintendo has announced that the game has since crossed the 2 million mark. Nintendo’s follow-up to yesterday’s sales figures says that the Wii game has racked up at…

Shoot 1UP Brings Manic Shmup Action To Xbox Live Indie Games

Xbox 360 owners will get a rare opportunity to play a manic top-down shoot ’em up next month with the release of Shoot 1UP, a shmup with all the bullet-hell trimmings mixed with a clever mechanic. The self-described “manic-yet-playable shooter” is from Mommy’s Best Games, the developer of indie efforts Weapon of Choice and the…

Notebook Dump: 2010 Games, 17 For The IGF, And Where 1943 Leads EA

There comes a time in the week to reflect on what got into my reporter’s notebook but didn’t turn into Kotaku blog posts. Shall we? I wasn’t able to do a dump (not that kind) last week, because Brian Crecente was on vacation and I was doing the Day Note to end my shift each…

Final Fantasy XIII Summons Epic Soundtrack

Square Enix has revealed its plans to drain even more hard-earned yen from the Final Fantasy fanatic, announcing the official Final Fantasy XIII original soundtrack. It comes in two pricey flavors, one more deluxe and limited than the other. The standard edition of composer Masashi Hamauzu’s score to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game…

No Non-Gamers Allowed

There may not be any special handshakes or furtive high signs for it, but make no mistake: Video gamers are part of a secret society. Sure, nowadays billions of people from all walks of life enjoy the occasional video game. They play Farmville on their lunch break, Hearts while working on a term paper. Celebrities…

Blizzard Gets Into The Holiday Spirit, ‘Craft Style

Warcraft and StarCraft collide for holiday greetings, as seen in our Kotaku.com e-mail inboxes.

SweetRobot Pits Pets Against Monsters

Here’s a closer look at the kid-friendly Pets vs. Monsters, the first game from Funcom’s new casual studio, SweetRobot, heading for open beta testing before the month is out. Pets vs. Monsters is a free-to-play MMO targeted at children between the ages of 8 and 12. Kids create an avatar, select between dogs, cats, and…

Aliens Vs. Predator Impressions: This Time, As An Alien

Violent in a way that would displease the genteel and the members of an Australian ratings board, Aliens Vs. Predator is all about stabbing heads and bursting chests. Not surprisingly, this game’s playable Alien is no diplomat. Kotaku has witnessed the human and Predator sides of the game. Now Aliens. The Aliens campaign, like those…

Borderlands Update Fixes Many A Bothersome Bug

While Gearbox Software has been busy readying at least two batches of downloadable content for shooter-RPG Borderlands, it’s also gotten around to addressing many of the game’s long-standing quirks, bugs and sources of player frustration. Perhaps most notable are fixes focused on the loss of skill points and character data. Equally as welcome are changes…

Fans Are Shearing For Mega Man 10’s Sheep Man

Only two days after his big debut, Mega Man 10’s Sheep Man has already generated more fan art than you can shake a shepard’s crook at. We’ve only known about Capcom’s retro-riffic Mega Man 10 since Nintendo Power revealed the WiiWare title on Wednesday, introducing the world to the glory of Sheep Man, Rock’s latest…

Couple Chucks Cable Box, Settles For PC And Xbox

The most popular story on the New York Times website chronicles the tale of a couple doing something I don’t think I could do. This is one brave couple that you can read about on the Times. They have canceled their cable service. They have decided that they will still watch TV, still watch movies,…

New Super Mario Bros. Helps Wii Reclaim Top Spot In Japan

After months of so-so weekly sales in Japan, the Wii returns to the top of the country’s hardware sales charts, its best weekly tally since the release of Monster Hunter 3. Thank New Super Mario Bros. Wii for that! Japanese Wii sales more than doubled on the release—and massive sales—of the new four-player Mario game,…

Frankenreview: The Saboteur

The Saboteur is the story of an Irishman living in the back of a burlesque house helping liberate World War II Paris from the Nazis. Nothing could possible go wrong with this scenario. Pandemic Studios set about making a different sort of World War II game with The Saboteur, and it is decidedly different. Whether…