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  PC Gamers, You Should Update Your Graphics Card Drivers This Week

  It’s been a big month for PC games, and things are about to get even bigger, so if you’ve been lazy and forgotten to update your graphics card drivers, you’re going to want to fix that. Between big games having issues (RAGE) and even bigger games just being…big (Battlefield 3), both AMD and Nvidia have…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011
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  CultureTotal Recall

  The Game That Started the Battlefield Series

  The first Battlefield game, Battlefield 1942, was released in 2002. Nearly ten years ago! Yet while it was the first game to bear the branding that lives on to this day with Battlefield 3, depending on how you look at it, it’s not really the first game in the series. That honour goes to a…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011
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  Much Ado About Lamprey Pie (And Russian Unicorns)

  Hello and welcome to another week at Kotaku! We’re off to a rip-roaring start, with a bunch of big pending game releases and other holiday-related news. I bet that a bunch of you already finished Arkham City (though if you actually survive the New Game+, my hat is off to you), and maybe you’re sitting…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published October 24, 2011
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  The Week in Dangerous Games: Layton’s Wino Tendencies, Romantic Rectal Exams, and The Humpty Dance

  After a week of downtime, I’m picking up our friend Mike McWhertor’s stewardship of our weekly look at the new ways that games are offending the world’s sensibilities. Or at least, offending the sensibilities of the fine folks at the Electronic Software Rating Board, aka the ESRB This week was a bit thin, given that…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published October 24, 2011
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  Still No Word From Netflix on Video Game Rentals

  No word yet in Netflix’s ongoing quest to change things up and, possibly, add video game rentals to their offered services. First the company announced that it was splitting in two, moving its disc-based rental service to a new company called Qwikster before reversing course and killing the whole idea This may or may not…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published October 24, 2011
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  Is Harley Quinn Arkham City‘s Most Subversive Character?

  Plenty of folks have been talking about how Batman: Arkham City handled (or mishandled) the character of Catwoman, but fewer have addressed the character of Harley Quinn. In a thoughtful post on his personal blog, Girl Parts author John M. Cusick looks at her character, identity, and the possible reasons she acts the way she…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published October 24, 2011
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  Why I Talked About Chickens to a Room Full of Game Developers

  A couple of weeks ago, I attended GDC Online in Austin. I was covering the event, but I was also there as a speaker, giving a microtalk as part of a six-critic panel on great game storytelling. Joining me were N’Gai Croal (Hit Detection), Leigh Alexander (Gamasutra), John Davidson (CBS Interactive/Gamespot), and Ben Fritz (the…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published October 24, 2011
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  Samsung’s New SSD Will Come With A Free Copy of Batman: Arkham City

  Two versions of Samsung’s new 830 series solid state drives will come with a free copy of Batman: Arkham City, the company’s vice president said during a press conference tonight. Reid Sullivan, senior vice president of mobile entertainment at Samsung Electronics America, announced the giveaway at a press conference in Manhattan tonight by bringing the…

  By Brian Crecente Published October 24, 2011
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  Ubisoft’s Post-It War Gets Video Documentation

  Over the summer, Kotaku did a fair amount of war correspondence. This particular war wasn’t happening in Iraq or Afganistan, but rather in Paris. It was an ongoing Post-It War between game developer Ubisoft and its neighbors, the French bank BNP. It started with small characters in office windows, then quickly spiraled out of control,…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published October 24, 2011
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  Are You Ready For Some Battlefield?

  Battlefield 3 –Our copies of tomorrow’s big game arrived this morning. The Queen of Blades is No Match for the New and Improved Blizzard DOTA Kerrigan. The Queen of Blades. The most feared woman in the known universe, destroyer of worlds, and murderer of millions. The greatest leader the Zerg has ever known. Kerrigan is…

  By Brian Crecente Published October 24, 2011
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  These Shank 2 Co-Op Screens are a Bloody Good Time

  Klei Entertainment’s upcoming Shank 2 brings a new brand of extreme slice-em-up to the stage with its co-op gameplay. We’ve already seen some of it in action off-screen, and it certainly looks like a lot of team-stabbin’. Klei sent along a grip of new screenshots from both the single-player and teh co-op. I thought I’d…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published October 24, 2011
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  Dr. Robotnik Just Didn’t Think Things Through

  What do you do after you’ve turned every animal in the world into a robot? Don’t ask Dr. Robotnik; he’s got no freaking clue. If I were Dr. Robotnik I’d totally dress them up in little outfits. Click to view You can contact Michael Fahey, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also…

  By Mike Fahey Published October 24, 2011
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  Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Isn’t Fooling Game Reviewers

  On November 1, Nathan Drake ventures into the hidden depths of the Earth to capture the most elusive treasure he’s ever sought — the heart of game reviewers everywhere. Some think they’re just a myth. Personally I don’t think such a thing even exists, but if they do, than Nathan Drake and Uncharted 3: Drake’s…

  By Mike Fahey Published October 24, 2011
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  Won’t World of Warcraft‘s First Neutral Race Cause Player Vs. Player Pandemonium?

  With Pandaren players able to choose either Horde or Alliance in the Mists of Pandaria expansion pack, World of Warcraft‘s arenas and battlegrounds will soon see an outbreak of panda-on-panda violence. I asked the game’s senior game producer Ray Cobo how players will tell Pandaren apart once the fur starts flying. As new Pandaren players…

  By Mike Fahey Published October 24, 2011
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  Uncategorized

  Batman: Arkham City‘s Mockery of Lost is Funny

  I first realized that Batman: Arkham City had Lost jokes in it when I overheard one of the game’s thugs complaining about how the show explained the famous TV show’s mysterious island. A reader pointed me to a better joke, one Tweeted about by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, who noted: “Crud. Now I’ve gone and…

  By Stephen Totilo Published October 24, 2011
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  The Newest Dreamcast/Neo-Geo Game Mashes Metroid with a Commodore 64 Classic

  It’s been out of production for years but garage coders and hardcore fans of the Dreamcast have been keeping it alive with fresh content and inventive hacks. The latest example of the former comes from German studio NG:DEV.TEAM in the form of Gunlord. The side-scrolling shooter appears to show the influence of the old-school Commodore…

  By Evan Narcisse Published October 24, 2011
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  Which of the Console Companies will an Apple “Smart Television” Kill?

  There’s going to be another round of consoles. There’s another Xbox coming, another PlayStation. Anything could happen in the next couple of years before they’re released. For instance, Apple could start selling “smart televisions”. There have been “Apple TV” rumors for years, even before there was the current bolt-on AppleTV. (Here’s one of today’s.) But…

  By Joel Johnson Published October 24, 2011
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  Everything We Know and Think about Batman: Arkham City

  We’ve reviewed Batman: Arkham City. We’ve offered tips so you can start playing it the right way. We’ve cobbled together instructions for how to grab the many downloadable additions to the game (how good are you at leaping through hoops?). We’ve explained that Catwoman stuff. Here, in one handy place, is our Batman: Arkham City…

  By Stephen Totilo Published October 24, 2011
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  Uncharted 3 Video Shows the Best Way to Punch Your Way to Victory in Multiplayer

  The video of Harrison Ford playing Uncharted 3 last week was clearly meant to communicate some kind of blessing from Indiana Jones to Nathan Drake. And Indy’s a professor who taught lessons with his fists. This video features Naughty Dog’s Robert Cogburn talking about how you can do the same in the studio’s hotly anticipated…

  By Evan Narcisse Published October 24, 2011
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  The Solo StarCraft II Player Thanks You For a Shorter Heart of the Swarm Campaign, Jerks

  During BlizzCon 2011 this weekend I got to ask Starcraft II senior designer Jonny Ebbert what was in store for the solo player in the upcoming expansions and why Heart of the Swarm‘s campaign is nine missions shorter that Wings of Liberty‘s. You whiny bastards. Not you folks personally — well, not all of you…

  By Mike Fahey Published October 24, 2011