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Jackpot Trivia
To: Luke From: Owen By far the highlight of my week back in the Bay Area came Tuesday night at Beckett’s pub in Berkeley. My team of six – three of us from Columbia, so suck on that, Cal – cleaned up the weekly trivia contest and took the jackpot. I’m happy to report that…
By Owen Good -
UncategorizedMass Effect 2’s Sex Scenes Already Revealed [Update]
Looks like someone with an early copy of Mass Effect 2 has skipped straight to the money shots, digging up four steamy-yet-clothed scenes involving male Shepard and three of his office conquests. Update: The blog Empire State Gamer found these originally. Commenter ItotheCtotheE found three of ’em up on YouTube. The one above is probably…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Nomura: Still No FFVII Remake, but Maybe Cloud Cameos
Square Enix designer Tetsuya Nomura reiterated the no-plans watch for a Final Fantasy VII remake any time soon, although it would take much more than the nuanced way he said it to put to rest the speculation on this game. In the current Famitsu, Nomura, who designed the game’s much-beloved characters, says: Fans are looking…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Week in Games: MAG Effect
The first big release week of 2010 arrives with Mass Effect 2, MAG, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and even some Phoenix Wright and No More Heroes thrown in. That gives you major console exclusives on the 360, PS3 and Wii all on Super Tuesday, with Blood Bowl (likewise a 360/PC exclusive) thrown in. This week’s count:…
By Owen Good -
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Kotaku’s Top 5 List of Top 10 Lists
Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What’s better? A list of those. Here’s a roundup of the rundowns out there. •Microsoft’s Top Ten Milestones of the Past Decade [The Kartel] A rather credible assessment of how Microsoft evolved from new entrant with a money-losing console…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
BioShock 2 Score will be Available Digitally
Garry Schyman, who composed the award-winning score for the first BioShock, returns to duty in BioShock 2, and word is that you won’t need to buy the special edition just to get your hands on the soundtrack. Citing “a recent conversation with Schyman,” Gametunes.net says the Bioshock 2 album will be sold via iTunes and…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Hey Kids, Now You Can Ride Sonic (the Rollercoaster)
You’ll have to visit the Alton Towers Resort in the U.K., but Sega Europe has inked an “exclusive video game rights” deal with the amusement park, which includes a “ride and stay experience.” Can we please have more double entendres? The ride will be called “Sonic Spinball,” and it will be an updated version of…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Product or Media? The Intersection of Games and Design
A director of design and an avowed “hardcore ludologist” ponders why the well constructed games he nominates do so poorly in design competitions, engaging a debate over whether games are a media or designed objects. But they’re both, he says. Matt Jones of the London-based design consultancy BERG, has unsuccessfuly nominated console games like Left…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: iSlate Edition
So, thanks for your patience while we worked out the kinks in our first ‘Shop Contest. The bonus, you get your next assignment a week earlier than planned. What games can an iSlate handle? Let your imagination be the guide. As we all know, Apple will unveil its tablet PC later this week, and we’ve…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
‘Wii Dad’ Columnist Pens Response to Kotaku Commenters
“It’s clear most of these commenters can’t seem to conceive of a world where everyone doesn’t play video games all day long,” writes Chris O’Brien, whose column about returning a Christmas-gift Wii summoned a tempest of gamer fury . To recap: O’Brien, a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, thought he was penning “a…
By Owen Good - Culture
Sunday Comics
Penny Arcade published Jan. 20 PvPonline published Jan. 20 ActionTrip published Jan. 18 Digital Unrest published Jan. 18 Dotgif published Jan. 18 GU Comics published Jan. 20 Dueling Analogs published Jan. 21 Nerf NOW published Jan. 18 Rooster Teeth published Jan. 19 Monday Night Crew published Jan. 20 Virtual Shackles published Jan. 20 Little Gamers…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Week One Results
Well. I badly underestimated the participation and interest in a Kotaku photoshopping contest, and as such, we need to make a few changes to accommodate everyone in the future. But first, a roundup of submissions from our Heavy Rain debut. We opened this feature with a challenge to punch up Quantic Dream’s rather bland North…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
How Would Commander Shepard Himself Play an RPG?
Evil, the first time through, says Mark Meer, the voice of (the male) Commander Shepard in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. But then he gets his act together. “I generally play evil on my first go-through, then switch to good for the second so I can feel like I’m redeeming myself and making amends…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Well, He Does Look Like He Could Work There
Once again, The Onion cuts to the chase: Lane Kiffin, the new football coach at Southern California is rumored* to have been wooed away from the job by the chance of a lifetime: Working at a GameStop. (* – By “rumored” we mean “this is pure bullshit, but funny.”) Kiffin is 34 and looks about…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
MLB 2K10 Preview: Battling Back to Even the Count
2K Sports‘ baseball franchise, maybe more than any other sports title, will have this year’s title judged against and compared to last year’s offering, and not for its good qualities. It’s hard to tell whether last year’s MLB 2K9 – one of the worst-reviewed (and deservedly so) games ever for this class of sports simulation…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
Are You Ready for Some Combaaaaat?
Uber Entertainment probably can’t put it that way – ESPN has a legal division after all – but I can. Uber’s sent along three exclusive screens of the classes in its upcoming class-based shooter Monday Night Combat, for Xbox Live Arcade. The game looks like a blend of American Gladiators, Battlebots, Monday Night Football, Team…
By Owen Good - Uncategorized
The Problem(s) with Olympic Video Games
Maybe you noticed Vancouver 2010, the official title for the Winter Olympics, released last week. But more than VIII Olympiads since the Activision Decathlon and the Epyx Summer Games, the Olympics still have no real toehold in the sports genre. There are any number of reasons why, but the fact remains: It is the biggest…
By Owen Good