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  Crysis 2‘s Ultra Upgrade Explained In Pretty Images and Even Prettier Video

  Don’t know your parallax occlusion mapping from your custom shape based bokeh depth of field effects? Don’t worry about it! Crytek, maker of Crysis 2, illustrates what new tessellation and displacement mapping technology, part of the game’s new “Ultra Upgrade” pack, means for you, PC gamer. The free DirectX 11 upgrade for Crysis 2—with a…

  By Michael McWhertor Published June 27, 2011
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  Violent Video Game Foe Rod Blagojevich Convicted of Trying to Sell Obama’s Senate Seat

  The verdict is out in the second federal corruption trial of former Illinois Governor (and supporter of failed anti-violent video game legislation) Rod Blagojevich. The jury found him guilty on 17 of the 18 counts. [Gawker]

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011
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  Duke Nukem Forever Bringing Its ‘Special Pain Cake’ to the Mac This Summer

  Gamers who prefer their operating systems designed by Apple will also have a chance to take a bite of Duke Nukem Forever‘s “pain cake” this summer, when Aspyr brings 3D Realms, Gearbox Software and 2K Games’ raunchy first-person shooter to Mac OS X this summer. Having not yet played Duke Nukem Forever, I can’t explain…

  By Michael McWhertor Published June 27, 2011
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  Cave Story 3D Delayed, Now Going Up Against, Uh… Modern Warfare 3

  The lovely-looking 3DS remake of side-scrolling action game Cave Story has been bumped from a summer release to November 8, the same day as Modern Warfare 3. Good luck, Cave Story! Its publisher attributed the delay to: “additional game improvements.”

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011
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  Used Copies of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D Will be Forever Haunted by the Last Owner

  Used Copies of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D might not be worth your money because Capcom made it impossible to for anyone to erase game save date from the game card. Capcom included a note in Resident Evil‘s game manual that reads: “Saved data on this software cannot be reset.” Translation: Everything is permanent. What…

  By Sam Winstrom Published June 27, 2011
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  Buy These Five Summer of Arcade XBLA Games, Get One Free

  You could be on the receiving end of a “free” copy of co-op dungeon crawler Crimson Alliance, pictured above, Xbox 360 owners, if you go all-in on this year’s “Summer of Arcade” games for Xbox Live Arcade. What’s on the list? It’s a pretty good one, including graphically beautiful games like Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet…

  By Michael McWhertor Published June 27, 2011
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  The Supreme Court’s Best Arguments For and Against Violent Video Games

  Whether you agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling against a California law against violent video games, today, you should know that strong arguments were made on both sides. Video games are just like literature? America is okay with kids seeing violent entertainment? Video games are meaningfully more immersive than books? The Founding Fathers never intended…

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011
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  Wimoweh Your Way Through This Zombie Video

  Pungee stick grenades, exploding wind-up monkeys all set to a catchy tune! While I doubt The Kingston Trio will be singing when you play the Shangri-La map in Call of Duty: Black Ops’ upcoming download map pack, everything else will be in there. The pack, along with a clutch of multiplayer maps, hit Xbox Live…

  By Brian Crecente Published June 27, 2011
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  Playstation Portable Dual Packs Brings $15 Two-Game Bundles To Stores

  New PSP Dual Pack bundles featuring two bundled games grabbed from the “Greatest Hits” and “Favorites” collections hits both retail and the Playstation Network store this week. The first three set to hit stores this week are: Secret Agent Clank and Daxter; Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow and Killzone Liberation; and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and…

  By Brian Crecente Published June 27, 2011
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  Is Goldeneye Reloaded Just a Fancy Word for Rereleased?

  Activision puts nostalgia-loving gamers in their sights once again, gathering a nice list of domain names revolving around something called “Goldeneye Reloaded“. This could mean a number of things are in the works: an HD re-release of Goldeneye for the Wii, an HD remake of the classic N64 Goldeneye, or maybe even a turn as…

  By Sam Winstrom Published June 27, 2011
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  Crysis 2 Gets Sexy on the PC Today, Map Editor on Wednesday

  As predicted, Crysis 2’s Ultra Upgrade hit today, giving PC gamers full DirectX support for the shooter. What’s that mean? If your computer has the brawn you’re going to get tessellation, water rendering improvements, high quality HDR motion blur, and higher quality texture formats. Starting Wednesday computer gamers will also be able to pick up…

  By Brian Crecente Published June 27, 2011
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  Let the Countdown to the Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta Begin!

  Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells wants gamers ready around 2 p.m. PDT tomorrow to download Uncharted 3‘s multiplayer beta. This release is only for certain people. The rest of us have to wait until July 4. [via Twitter]

  By Sam Winstrom Published June 27, 2011
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  Video Games Are Ruled Protected Speech, Now What?

  Ending a years-long battle with California legislators, the U.S. Supreme Court this week ruled that video games are protected free speech and that their sale to minors can’t be criminalized. More important than that historic ruling is the reminder by a U.S. Supreme Court Justice that video games, like books, plays and movies, communicate ideas.…

  By Brian Crecente Published June 27, 2011
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  Which Old School Game Character Would You Like to See Brought Back?

  All this chatter about your favorite vintage systems and controllers had us dreaming about which lovable characters of yore we’d like to see rebooted. Is it time for Sonic to have another go around? Do you wet yourself at the thought of being reunited with Ecco the Dolphin? Inspired by the mob power that brought…

  Sponsored post Published June 27, 2011
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  Know Your Rights

  Justice of the Supreme Court Antonin Scalia defends the Supreme Court’s decision to keep violent video games in the hands of California gamers based on the First Amendment.

  By Sam Winstrom Published June 27, 2011
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  Diablo III Looks to be a Gamescom No-Show

  Blizzard listed the titles it will be showing at the upcoming Gamescom gaming expo. Diablo III doesn’t appear as though it will be there. Kotaku.com will be there, though! Diablo III is currently slated for who-knows-when. [via VideoGamer]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published June 27, 2011
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  What’s Wrong With Kids These Days?

  Back in my day things were different! If I wanted to play a video game I had to use one joystick to move and aim! In the snow! Come to think of it, it wasn’t that bad at all. Acast010 thinks that this generation is a lot worse—not the games though. He says the gamers…

  By Sam Winstrom Published June 27, 2011
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  When Duke Nukem Forever Advertising Goes Horribly Wrong

  This has nothing to do with Duke Nukem Forever the game, but it’s still a sad tale as far as game advertising goes. While some titles have caught flak in recent years for appearing on things like buses, we’ve never seen one turn up in such an inappropriate place. This billboard, advertising the decidedly-adult DNF…

  By Luke Plunkett Published June 27, 2011
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  Minecraft Plans Slip a Little

  Minecraft creator Notch said on his blog today that the game’s next 1.7 beta update will only add pistons to the world-building game. Planned “adventure” content arrives in update 1.8, which “might be a long wait.” The game’s official release has been bumped back to the week after November 11.

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011
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  First Amendment Trumps California in Supreme Court Battle Over Violent Video Games

  The Supreme Court sided with the video game industry today, declaring a victor in the six-year legal match between the industry and the California lawmakers who wanted to make it a crime for anyone in the state to sell extremely violent games to kids. In a 7-2 ruling Justice Antonin Scalia said the law does…

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011