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Strippers or Counter-Strike — Which Gets a Gamer’s Attention?
Over in Moscow, two top Counter-Strike teams met in a LAN contest. As soon as they started runnin’ and gunnin’ however, the promoter threw in a surprise to test the team’s focus: Strippers. Russian strippers. Let’s get to the NSFW! English Russia reports that “it was impossible to put an attention of those hopeless men…
By Owen Good -
Using Trophies to Deliver Big Game
Going through the list of the trophies and medals in Uncharted 2, one spots a yak-petting exercise called “Beast Mode.” Jacob Minkoff, of the studio Naughty Dog, explained its origin with a laugh. “There was a tester we had who came in and was constantly describing Drake as going into ‘beast mode,'” said Minkoff, a…
By Owen Good -
Industry Types Confess the Evil Deeds They’ve Done (in Games)
What’s the most cruel, unfair, downright evil thing you’ve done in a game? Bitmob polled some industry types with the question. Hal Halpin was a real jerk in Mario Kart 64; Todd Howard created a suicide squad in X-Com. Halpin, the Entertainment Consumers Association’s president, deployed the lightning bolt with ruthlessness on fellow racers attempting…
By Owen Good -
Why Games Should Have a Few More Senior Moments
In video games, senior citizens are largely stereotyped NPCs. Rare is the kind of game like Metal Gear Solid 4, with a truly aged, playable protagonist. Can games create more roles for the elderly? Should they? Matthew Kaplan of GameCritics thinks games have a lot of growing up to do, especially as the median age…
By Owen Good -
Valve: Left 4 Dead 2 Demo Did Not Reveal DLC Names
Speaking at an event today sponsored by Eurogamer, Valve’s Chet Faliszek said the names for DLC packs found in the Left 4 Dead 2 demo were spaceholders only, put there as a test required by Microsoft. According to audio of the event, Faliszek said: If you’re reading in the forums and you’re reading about the…
By Owen Good -
Hungary Prevails in Dragon Age 24-Hour Contest
Hungary made goulash out of a 10-team field in BioWare’s 24-hour competition called Dragon Age: Origins Wardens’ Quest, netting each team member a cool $12,500. Second place was, apparently, a separatist nation-state known as “BioWare Community,” with Canada and Poland in third and fourth place, respectively. Good ol’ U.S. of A finished ninth, not lasting…
By Owen Good -
With NCAA 10, EA Guns for Two Shining Moments
Connor Dougan had me at “Nana-na-na-na-NA-na-naaaahhh!” Anyone who’s hoisted a driveway three has hummed a TV sports anthem to set it up, and that one’s the CBS Road to the Final Four theme, one of two in NCAA Basketball 10. “You hear that,” Dougan, a producer in EA Sports‘ Vancouver studio, said after humming the…
By Owen Good -
Weekend Coupons: Keep on Diggin’
You might strike oil. Or China. Ain’t much out there, but it’s to be expected as the zenith of the new release season crests right before the holiday retail splurge. Hardware • The standard Wii config (Wii Sports, ‘mote) is $20 off through Dell. [TechDealDigger] • The typical PS3 Slim SKU is $25 less through…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku Originals: T&A
That would be Terrorism and Alexis. Modern Warfare 2 stirred up plenty of controversy, and then came Crecente’s interview of gamer pornstar Raven Alexis. Afterwards, we still found room for more than 60 original headlines over the past week. Top Stories Games, Not Porn, is Adult Actress’ Secret Pleasure Modern Warfare 2 Features Skippable Scene…
By Owen Good -
Xbox Live Smashes Mass Banhammer on Pirates
“A small percentage” of Xbox Live users with modded consoles that allowed pirated games to play woke up to find an early treat in their Halloween bag: a banhammer. IGN noticed scuttlebutt about bannings in technical feedback forums and asked Microsoft about it. A spokesperson confirmed they banzored some modded consoles. Said the spokesperson to…
By Owen Good -
[Update] Left 4 Dead 2 Demo Doesn’t Name Upcoming DLC
PC gamers dissecting the Left 4 Dead 2 demo found files that might reference the names of future DLC packs, CVG reports. [Update] Valve’s Chet Faliszek shot down this rumor. They were spaceholder test file names. Original story follows: “Miracle Pack” and “Apocalyptic Pack” are both mentioned in the demo files. The original L4D survivors…
By Owen Good -
NBA Live 10 and NBA 2K10: It’s Fargin’ War
Because of exclusive arrangements and wide disparities in quality, pro basketball is really the only sports title where there’s genuine head-to-head competition. And it’s getting nasty between 2K Sports and EA Sports. Earlier this week, Pasta Padre found a forum post – since taken down – in which a 2K Sports representative questioned whether NBA…
By Owen Good -
Patch Means Lilith’s Power Now ‘Works as Intended’ in Borderlands
I’ve logged about a zillion hours in Borderlands, none of it as Lilith. But apparently her phase strike “now works as intended” thanks to patches for the PS3 and 360 versions that rolled out today. Here are the PS3 fixes, from the Gearbox official forums (fora?) • Load times have been improved • Lilith’s Phase…
By Owen Good -
Cole Hamels Reminds You That Grenades are “for Pussies”
Well. This is edgy as all get-out. Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels comes to Modern Warfare 2 to tell us that mindlessly hucking grenades is a dickbag cop-out. And then there’s “Fight Against Grenade Spam,” which makes a cheerful acronym. It looks like this video (NSFW language), posted by Infinity Ward, just went up. I’m not…
By Owen Good -
Lego Indy Trailer Discreetly Avoids Dr. Jones’ Creepy Past
Here’s the Nepal bar shootout scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, for Lego Indiana Jones 2. I guess the Lego-talk gibberish can’t get across the sequence’s subtle implication that Dr. Jones was boinking Marion when she 16. Then again, it’s rated E10+, so maybe we should just let Marion’s fist do all the talking.…
By Owen Good