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Morgue Humor in a Hospital Room
To: Luke From: Owen Re: 9 Basterds This weekend I thought I’d be writing about how I’d decided to re-grow my General Zod beard. Then Dad went bicycling and had a close encounter of the handlebar kind. Long story short, he went cycling with Mom on her birthday Wednesday and flipped ass-over-teakettle, taking a handgrip…
By Owen Good -
Piracy Protection is Why PSPgo’s Battery Isn’t Removable
In reconfiguring their portable, Sony paid attention. Pandora’s Battery made modding the PSP firmware, and thus software piracy, very easy. SCEA’s John Koller said the PSPgo’s battery was made internal-only for just that reason. “You won’t be able to rip your games and play them on the [PSPgo] system, the firmware precludes that,” Koller told…
By Owen Good -
Sonic Adventure DX Getting Another Remake?
Australia’s Classification Board has listed a new rating for Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut, suggesting that the GameCube game might be ported to current systems. The rating says “multiplatform,” which further vagues up whatever Sega’s plans are here. That Gaming Site, which saw the listing earlier today, figures it could be a new control scheme…
By Owen Good -
Terms That Are, and Are Not, in NHL 2K10
Talking to Randy Hahn for yesterday’s column about announcing NHL 2K10, I tested how deep his vocabulary runs in the game. I threw out a dozen hockey terms – some basic, others esoteric – and asked Hahn if he’d said them. The scorecard? Only three didn’t make it, and I half expected that two of…
By Owen Good -
Game Gun Guy Promises Retail Version — Console Compatible — by Christmas
Redneck Techie, the adorable nutjob who cobbled together motion controls, an LCD screen, and a rifle butt into the "Game Gun," has news for you. He says it’ll be retailing by Christmas, and it’ll be compatible with all consoles. Watch him show off the gun again – this looks like a different prototype, with a…
By Owen Good -
Argentine TV Warns World of Monkey Island’s Grog Recipe
Skepticism takes a holiday in Argentina, where three TV personalities – one of them a doctor – break the news that kids are mixing an alcoholic drink recipe that includes kerosene and axle grease – aka Grog from Monkey Island. Long story short, network C5N got trolled. Someone sent them a tip that a Facebook…
By Owen Good -
Week in Games: Heroes, Guitar and Otherwise
Guitar Hero 5 hits this coming week. So does Champions Online, pressing ahead with the PC release and still no word on when/if ever it’ll hit Xbox 360. Other highlights include Section 8, and the PSP’s Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. This week’s count: four for PS3, and 360, two for Wii, two for PC and PSP,…
By Owen Good -
ESA Annual Report Highlights Success in State Legislatures
The Entertainment Software Association released its annual report last week, and it shows a very impressive winning streak against anti-games legislation at the state level in the U.S. In the ESA’s last fiscal year, state legislatures introduced 43 bills that would have regulated the content or access to video games. No bill regulating sales became…
By Owen Good -
MC Hammer. Zombies. Achievement. That is All.
MC Hammer once had a house atop a hill off the 680 near Fremont, Calif., and every time I passed it I’d say to myself, “Self, some day I’ll write a Kotaku post about MC Hammer.” That day has come. MC Hammer, or at least his silhouette anyway, will make an appearance in the achievements…
By Owen Good -
The Making of Guitar Hero 5’s Playboy Commercial
This 7-minute video shows you the technical detail and painstaking direction it took to film Guitar Hero 5’s Playboy ad. But you probably don’t give a crap for that. It has 22 takes with teh wimmen on screen. Enjoy. If you’re here strictly for girls in lingerie cavorting with plastic instruments, that’s at the four…
By Owen Good -
LostWinds’ Wintry WiiWare Sequel Confirmed
The latest issue of Edge Magazine takes a long look at LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias, which is the sequel to last year’s WiiWare hit LostWinds. No release date was announced. When it arrives, Winter of the Melodias will allow you, as the game’s protagonist Toku, to change the seasons from summer to winter and…
By Owen Good -
Brütal Legend Makes a Brütal Offer
Oh, Brütal Legend. We thought you were going to be different. You’re a rebel. You’re rokken. You’re not supposed to be … corporate. So why are you doing this cheesy pay-for-access-to-the-demo thing that other pinhead games started? Reader Crashbanito, and others signed up on the Brütal Legend email, got word this morning that pre-ordering the…
By Owen Good -
Is PS3 Slim Slower than PS3 Phat?
Yes and no, say some comparison videos that hit YouTube yesterday. In the startup (above) and DVD loading, you see the Slim marginally trails the Phat. But in starting and loading Batman: Arkham Asylum, it’s faster. DVD Comparison – PS3 Slim vs. Phat Batman: Arkham Asylum – Game Bootup and Level Load The Slim’s bootup…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku Approval Ratings: The RPGs, MMO and Otherwise
No secret we have console- and shooter-heavy preferences here. But one genre, antipodal to run-and-gun action, but still found in heavy rotation, and with a long tradition on the consoles, is the RPG. Let’s see how you feel about them. Again, you will not see the results of these polls after you vote. They will…
By Owen Good -
A Look at Final Fantasy XIII’s Combat System and Strategy
The English localization is almost done. But the Japanese build of Final Fantasy XIII, shown off at Gamescom, gives you a good idea of what to expect in the gameplay when the title releases next year for Xbox 360 an PS3. FFXIII’s developer notes the game’s combat mechanism employs something they call the “paradigm shift”…
By Owen Good