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Spy Plate Will Sap Dinner
Or make a casserole look like a pork chop. Reddit user tortus says he painted this after his girlfriend drug him to a pottery-painting class when he wanted to be playing Team Fortress 2. For those who want to say so, yes it is a slow news day. Feel free to point that out in…
By Owen Good -
Patent Troll Lawsuit Begins on Tuesday
Way back in 2007 an “investment firm” that so happened to hold some patents filed a suit claiming Microsoft and Nintendo infringed them. The suit wends its way to the courtroom on St. Patrick’s Day. Fenner Investments Ltd. says controllers for the Gamecube, Wii, Xbox and Xbox 360 infringe the “low-voltage joystick port interface” patent…
By Owen Good -
German Chancellor Eyes Video Games in Wake of Shooting
More details of the shooting linked to video games over in Germany: The shooter was playing Far Cry 2, and Chancellor Angela Merkel is considering what could be done to limit access to violent games. Merkel did not give specifics in this Reuters story (via International Herald Tribune) so perhaps it’s just a politic response…
By Owen Good -
Kojima on MGS Touch: “Simple, Yet Solidly Playable”
Hideo Kojima gave an interview to Famitsu iPhone magazine, and gave up a lot of detail on the forthcoming Metal Gear Solid Touch. Your next Metal Gear is a 20 stage game but, ruh roh, you don’t get them all at once. “Of these, 12 stages will be available initially,” according to Anoop Gantayat at…
By Owen Good -
Halo Kitty Action Figure Can Be Yours for $50
Hey, you got your Hello Kitty in my Master Chief! You got your Master Chief in my Hello Kitty! Two great tastes that … eh … perhaps not. Yessir, that’s a custom pink Master Chief with Hello Kitty tattooed/embossed on his ass, kneepads, “HK47” rifle and shield. In other words, it looks like the kind…
By Owen Good -
Jay-Z’s Getting Into Games?
A brief aside in an upscale mag’s profile of hip-hop performer, impresario (and Beyoncé spouse) Jay-Z mentions he might be turning his attention to a video game project. “He is relaxing after a typically jam-packed day that included a photo shoot, an interview, and a meeting about his potential involvement in a forthcoming video game,”…
By Owen Good -
Your Sunday Morning Facepalm
Over on CNET, a writer dares ask the question, “How far should violent video game ads be kept from schools?” Oh, God … This goes back to the row over the mean-ol scary Killzone 2 ads in Toronto (and has its roots in the mean-ol scary Fallout 3 ads in Washington and Grand Theft Auto…
By Owen Good -
Gamer Deaths Make Clan Notification Difficult, Awkward
An AP story about online death-notification services ledes with a Warcraft gamer, who died mid-quest and left his bereaved daughter to find his friends and explain why he was suddenly gone. The story is largely how death notification has changed to accommodate one’s virtual friends and acquaintances. There are a number of services out there…
By Owen Good -
Wrist Computer Very Useful in Your Real Life Wastelands
Your real-life Pip Boys now come in two flavors – visually accurate, with few functions; or fully-featured with a different design. You can actually purchase this sucker, which weighs in at more than a pound and measures 4.5 by 3.5 by 3 inches (a whopper, in other words). But the Zypad WR1100 does include a…
By Owen Good -
Boston Mayor Now Hearts Gaming Biz Dollars
Boston Mayor Tom Menino has transmogrified from a do-it-for-the-children pol backing unconstitutional laws against video games to a guy touting that industry’s heft in his city and its backyard. Menino, a democrat, announced on Friday two initiatives to back the industry locally and encourage its growth there. First is PoweringUpBoston.com, an industry networking site, and…
By Owen Good -
Wii’s Dead Space Will Last as Long as Original
Tidbits from a chat with Dead Space: Extraction‘s production team dropped a few tidbits, which add up to promises that the title will be a full game on its own, not a warmed-over port. According to Skewed & Reviewed: • Dead Space Extraction will take “about as long as it took players to play through…
By Owen Good -
The Old Republic: Your “Personal Star Wars Saga”
Bioware and LucasArts have put out another video documentary on Star Wars: The Old Republic, teasing the storyline and characters of the MMO, set in a "relatively unexplored timeframe of the Star Wars canon." The writers and the producers discuss the TOR universe, which they hope will create a “personal Star Wars saga,” for everyone…
By Owen Good -
Saturday Timewaster: And We Really Mean It
Some wit cooked up a HD-version of Tetris – I can’t even begin to count the grid here – which makes dying or clearing lines an agonizingly long process. Everyone who’s played this and blogged about it so far instead have created abstract art or raced each other to a fastest death time, some taking…
By Owen Good -
Writing Contest Offers Trip to Blizzard HQ
Fanfic writing just got a little less thankless and potentially more rewarding with a creative writing contest just announced by Blizzard. Winners get a sword, lunch, and a peek at Blizz HQ. Fans of Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo are invited to write 3,000 to 10,000 words, set in either of the three franchises. The grand…
By Owen Good -
Improv Act Seeks “Wiimbledon” Champ
“Wiimbledon Champion” looks great on a resume, especially if whomever’s reading it thinks it’s just a typo. An improv troupe is putting the title up for grabs in a tournament next month in Seattle. Organizers for Wiimbledon, to be held April 11, are looking to fill a field of 32 doubles teams playing Wii tennis.…
By Owen Good -
Weekend Coupons: Free and Reduced Price Lunch
A $20 gift card can be yours with Resident Evil 5; free shipping can be found for Halo Wars 2, and Gamestop is offering three-for-the-price-of-two on used titles. Here’s this weekend’s bargain-huntin’ highlights: • Toys R Us is offering a $20 gift card with a purchase of Resident Evil 5, so you can pick it…
By Owen Good -
How a Lightweight Console Lay the Foundations of Game Design
A book by two professors of media studies examines the challenges of designing games on the Atari 2600, and posits that the infamous port of Pac-Man wasn’t a half-assed effort after all. Racing the Beam sets up the Atari Video Computer System (later 2600) as a console that profoundly shaped game design because its limitations…
By Owen Good -
The Pitt: a Confluence of Mutation
.html Lots of running-and-gunning in this here debut trailer for Fallout 3’s “The Pitt”, which drops March 24. So I guess I’ve been playing wrong. See, my instinct when I’m down in the tunnels and I hear a feral ghoul (or, in this case, a trogg) snarl is to bring up VATS, take a deep…
By Owen Good -
Kotaku Originals: Up Your Nose With a Rubber Hose
Kinda presumptuous to welcome myself back, but, I don’t see anyone else doing it. Anyway, it’s nice to be missed. I was missed, right? This week was Resident Evil 5’s big closeup, but others still managed to crack the news lineup. Namely, BioShock 2’s Big Sister stomped on in and said, where you saw but…
By Owen Good