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Kotaku’s 2009 Summer Playing List
July is the time for snooty summer reading lists (not ours) and cocktail party chatter about reading them. The time when certain magazines and certain readers just lord their oh-so-fulfilling summer over your shiftless vacation. This hasn’t happened to you? Lucky. Tell you what. We’re going to put together our summer list, the games that…
By Owen Good Published July 8, 2009 -
Dragon Age: Origins Ogres Are Not Loveable
The ogre depicted in this new bath of screens for BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins is not cuddly, nor does it have layers, like onions. I’d say it’s an accurate assumption to say that they do not fall in love with lady ogres voiced by Cameron Diaz, or befriend talking donkeys or cats with Spanish accents.…
By Mike Fahey Published July 8, 2009 -
LucasArts Hopes To Turn Old Into Gold With Adventure Games
There was a time when gaming was left more to the imagination than the pixel-count. When the written word was mightier than the joystick. Adventure games started as just black on white, or perhaps green on black. Word told the story. Words described the scenery and through words people played. Text adventures like Pyramid 2000,…
By Brian Crecente Published July 8, 2009 -
Don’t Copy That Floppy: The Next Generation
MC Double Def DP’s 1992 hit “Don’t Copy That Floppy” is getting a modern-day update, once again unleashing the industry’s number one weapon against software piracy – rap music. Kids, if you pirate software, your mother will be dragged into the street and beaten by the police. At least that seems to be the message…
By Mike Fahey Published July 8, 2009 -
BioWare: Sometimes Sex Makes Sense
A blast for the not-too-distant past today, as BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk revisits the Mass Effect sex scene controversy, explaining that sometimes sex just makes sense. CVG interviewed Zeschuk recently, touching on the subject of the Mass Effect sex scene, a subject that drove the uninformed media wild around the time of the game’s initial…
By Mike Fahey Published July 8, 2009 -
Lessons From a Pinball Wizard
At 98, the father of modern pinball still has some lessons to impart to the video game industry. It was in 1948 when Steve Kordek revolutionized pinball. Asked to design a new pinball at the last minute for the upcoming pinball trade show, Kordek decided to add flippers to his design. Competitors were using six,…
By Brian Crecente Published July 8, 2009 -
The Witcher Patch Removes DRM, Adds Adventure
Patch 1.5 for CD Projekt Red‘s award-winning PC roleplaying game The Witcher is now available, removing the pesky digital rights management while adding five new player-created adventures to the game. Those of you pondering removing The Witcher install from your PC in order to free up space might want to hold off a little bit…
By Mike Fahey Published July 8, 2009 -
Dungeons & Dragons Online’s Freedom Dated
Turbine has selected an early August date for the release of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, the update that switches the massively multiplayer D&D game to a free-to-play business model. Early August brings massive changes to Dungeons & Dragons Online, with a new class, new dungeons, and a new free-to-play, micro-transaction-based financial model that…
By Mike Fahey Published July 8, 2009 -
THQ Outlines Laundry List of Fixes For UFC’s Broken Online Play
It sounds like the current state of online play for UFC 2009: Undisputed is a bit of a mess. Fortunately, publisher THQ says they know all about it and are working on a patch. Neven Dravinski, UFC Producer, tells gamers that the entire development team play a lot of online matches and read the boards…
By Brian Crecente Published July 8, 2009 -
Battlefield 1943 Establishes Beachhead
Battlefield 1943 is available today for purchase and play on Xbox Live Arcade, and the quote-laden launch trailer is here to compel you. This is the UK launch trailer for DICE’s big thing in a small package Battlefield release, but luckily for those of us in the U.S. they included a quote that lists the…
By Mike Fahey Published July 8, 2009 -
EA Re-NERFs The Wii
Packaging a video game with a NERF gun worked so well the first time that EA’s doing it again, adding secret decoder functions to the arsenal in NERF 2: “N-Strike” Elite for the Nintendo Wii. NERF 2 is being developed partially in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the NERF brand, and perhaps mostly due…
By Mike Fahey Published July 8, 2009 -
Peggle Gives Away World of Warcraft-Themed Game
PopCap Games today released a standalone World of Warcraft-themed Peggle mash-up for free on their website. The game comes with ten new levels and includes the “sights, sounds and storyline” of World of Warcraft… plus unicorns and rainbows. Levels in the freebie include “Too Soon, Executus” and “The Traitor King” and new challenges include “Phat…
By Brian Crecente Published July 8, 2009 -
This Is…
To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: What’s a Grit? Man, I miss a good breakfast. For all the food Japan does right, breakfast really leaves a lot to be desired. As many of our astute commenters pointed out, a teru teru bozu. You can learn all about it right here. What you missed last night Dragon…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 8, 2009 -
Don’t Expect PS3 Games On Demand Any Time Soon
Microsoft are 100% behind the idea of allowing users to download full, retail copies of Xbox 360 games. But the PS3? Hmmm. Despite the fact Sony essentially pioneered the idea on home consoles, with games like Warhawk, GT5 Prologue and Siren (and EA’s Burnout Paradise) already available for download, when it comes to adopting the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2009 -
Sony Love The XMB Just The Way It Is
While Microsoft have seen fit to completely overhaul their console’s front end, Sony say that they’ll be nothing of the sort with the PS3. At least, not anytime soon. Chatting with PCWorld, Sony’s Eric Lempel has said: What we find is that people really like our current interface. We did redesign the PlayStation Store last…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2009 -
Sony: We Could’ve Come Out With PS2.5, But Didn’t
There’s been a lot made recently about the PS3’s price point. Some say it’s too expensive, some want a price cut. But for Sony exec Jack Tretton, those folks are not thinking long term. “We could’ve come out with a PlayStation 2.5 for $299 or less, and in the first two or three years it…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 8, 2009 -
It’s Portal, Running In ASCII
Just in case you’ve ever wondered “what would Portal look like if it had been released in the early 80s”, now, courtesy of Joe Larson, you can find out. Click to view ASCIIpOrtal Update 2 ASCIIpOrtal update video 2 [ASCII Portal, via Offworld]
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2009 -
Monster Hunter Sets PSP Record In Japan
Capcom’s Monster Hunter does monster business in Japan. Back in March, we reported that the PSP budget version Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G the Best shipped 3 million copies. Now, it’s July. Known as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite in the West, the game has shipped over 3.5 million copies, making it the first PSP title…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 8, 2009 -
Roll Up, Get Your Cave Story T-Shirts
Cave Story seems to be getting bigger and bigger the closer it gets to a WiiWare release. Take, for example, these new t-shirts, due to go on sale later this year on Attractmode’s online store. The four shirts are pretty hit and miss, but man, that Balrog shirt is a hit. Apparently these are still…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2009