B-Day

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: The American Toilet Is Very American Today was Trish’s birthday. I suspect I enjoy it more than she does because it gives me a chance to pamper her. Yesterday we went to a nice Italian restaurant with her parents. This morning I paid for a trip to a spa for…

EGM Subscribers Getting Maxim As Replacement

Those of us with outstanding subscriptions to Electronic Gaming Monthly may finally be on the receiving end of a suitable replacement, should you be a horny hetero male who doesn’t like actual nudity in your magazines and enjoys skimming Maxim. While EGM folded as a print publication earlier this year, interest in the magazine and…

GTA Chinatown Wars Completists Now Exceed 5,800

When last I checked, just over a month ago, nearly 4,500 people had jumped through the hoops to finish Rockstar’s portable GTA. The increase has been steady. I’ve now checked the completion stats online for Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars three times: in mid-April, mid-May and mid-June. These stats are listed on the Rockstar Social…

Tim Schafer Explains Why Dio’s Out Of Brütal Legend, Tim Curry’s In

Double Fine Productions’ Brütal Legend is packed with big names, including Jack Black, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford and, now, Tim Curry. Curry will replace Ronnie James Dio as Doviculus, chief bad guy of the open world action-adventure game. Why? Well, Tim Schafer, president of Double Fine, essentially says that the character simply grew to be…

I can’t wait for Ghostbusters to come out That game is all I can think about Bustin’ makes me feel so good When I think about it, I get wood Whew..so..uh…you wanna get some breakfast or something, Kotaku?

Reminder: Xbox Live Going Down Tonight

If you need to get any multiplayer gaming in on your Xbox 360 today, make sure you do it before the clock strikes 12:01 AM PST. Xbox Live will be going down for maintenance tonight, for up to 24 hours. As previously foretold, Microsoft’s online gaming service will be taking a breather tonight, affecting the…

Duke Nukem Forever Lawsuit Unearthed, 360 Version A Sticking Point

Take-Two’s lawsuit against Duke Nukem Forever maker Apogee/3DRealms has finally seen the light of day, with some Xbox 360-port and offshore-money twists. May brought news that the long road of the 1997-announced Duke Nukem Forever might finally have finally run out, as development studio Apogee ceased making the game and publisher Take-Two filed a lawsuit…

Call of Duty: World At War Tops 11 Million

Treyarch’s latest entry in the Call of Duty series is a success, as official word notes that Call of Duty: World At War has racked up more than 11 million sales since its launch in November of 2008. The game got off to a damn good start during the pre-Christmas season, selling more than 1.88…

World Of Warcraft: The Art Exhibit

While the argument over video games as art rages on, there can be no denying that games have influenced art, as evidenced by the WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon at the Laguna Art Museum in California. The WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon exhibit, which runs from now until October 4th at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna…

Portable Game Beats Console Games For… The First Time Ever?

The selection of Scribblenauts as best game of E3 2009 by three major gaming outlets is a milestone for which we can find no precedent in gaming history. During the final day of E3 2009 I shared a quick cab ride with 5th Cell game designer Jeremiah Slaczka, and I asked him what was getting…

Sega President Departs To Helm ngmoco’s iPhone Network

President and COO of Sega of America Simon Jeffery has left the house of Sonic, hitching his executive wagon to iPhone developer and publisher ngmoco—you know, the one former Electronic Arts exec Neil Young co-founded in 2008. Jeffery, whose executive credits include stints at Sega and LucasArts, will assume the role of chief publishing officer…

The King of Fighters Online Flouts Its Mai

Fan-favorite Mai Shiranui is in fine form in this trailer for King of Fighters Online, the upcoming PC roleplaying game from Dragonfly and Triple Games. We originally thought the game was being developed by Triple A Games, but as Mai’s appearance proves, there is no room in this game for that A. According to the…

ThatGameCompany And The Beauty Of Taking Risks

“Everything is intense the first time you experience it,” says Jenova Chen, the 27-year-old creative director at Santa Monica-based studio ThatGameCompany. The first few World War II shooters Chen played floored him. We were all floored until the last Great War became such a vanilla setting for shooters. Old hat, and don’t we want something…

Is Super Monkey Ball Rolling Onto Wii Balance Boards?

Is Sega planning on doing additional banana grabbing on the Wii? A recently filed trademark for Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll would lead us to believe it might be, adding Wii Balance Board support to the formula. After all, the Nintendo DS take on the Super Monkey Ball series, closely tied with Nintendo’s varied…

DJ Hero Features Completely Original Soundtrack

DJ Hero, the turn-table sporting rhythm game, will come with an entirely fresh playlist of mash-ups created by DJs specifically for the game, developers told us. While the more than 80 mixes, which include songs by everyone from the Gorillaz and David Bowie to Nirvana and Rick James, will all be debuting in the game,…

Red Faction: Guerrilla Review: Bustin Makes Me Feel Good

Red Faction has been delivering first-person-shooter flavored environmental destruction since 2001, tasking players with revolution both on Mars and on Earth. With Red Faction: Guerrilla, players return to Mars to once more stir up trouble in an open-world game promising unheralded destruction from a third-person perspective. Can a third take on the same general concepts…

Create Your Own Hybrid

Ever dream of having your own personal Deadaku? Kotak09? Gizaku? Well now you can! No more shifting between Gawker Media titles – users can now elect to read their favorite content from any combination of Gawker titles, all on one page. Create Your Hybrid »

Konami Announces It Will Make Metal Gear Announcements

As of June 12th, this past Friday, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a year old. We say “Happy birthday, Old Snake.” Konami says, “We’re gonna make some Metal Gear announcements!” Yes, the Metal Gear publisher is once again prefacing actual video game announcements with a warning that it plans to make…

Bionic Commando Fails To Grab Retail Success

Despite swinging into retail stores amidst a flurry of hype, nostalgia, and relatively kind reviews, Capcom’s Bionic Commando failed to capture big numbers at retail, pushing only 27,000 units in its opening month. Gamasutra got their hands on the NPD numbers for the title, which represent U.S. retail sales between May 19th and May 30th.…

The Great Chain Interview, Part 1: Miyamoto Questions Metroid Director

Over the course of three days in Los Angeles earlier this month, one Kotaku reporter spoke to nine top industry figures and had each of them ask one question for the next guy. Shigeru Miyamoto started. I had tried a chain interview once before. It was March. I still worked for MTV. I traipsed through…