All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

[bookgrl] Remember when you were in elementary school and the lunch menu featured "Chicken Surprise?" This week's Swag Sunday is a lot like that, only without the look of revulsion on your face when you eventually find out what the "surprise" is all about! We're giving away two Xbox 360 games this week and we're not telling you what they are -- not until you win them, that is.

What we can tell you is this: one of them involves shooting nazi fools and the other may involve plundering ancient tombs. Maybe. Give us your two best made up game titles involving said actions within the next 24 hours below in the comments section and we'll pick one of you at random early this week. Bonus points go to entries with story behind them (and to keep us from getting board when we choose the winner).

• Leave a comment telling us your two best made up game titles involving "shooting nazi fools" and the "plundering ancient tombs."
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec -- somewhat because of how the folks from the Gaspé regions generally act, ya know?).
• Limit 1 entry per person per day.
• This entry period ends at 8:31PM ET on Monday, April 22.
• At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive one copy of *Name Withheld* for Xbox 360 (ARV: $19.99) and one copy of *Name Withheld* for Xbox 360 (ARV: $49.99)
• For a list of complete rules, click here.

What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.

#streetfighter Although unlikely to get an official release in North America, Super Street Fighter IV will get a cabinet in Japan, Capcom said at the recently concluded Japanese championships. More »

#newreleases The week after Easter Sunday is typically slow for new game releases, but this one coming up is unusually so: Just four games going out, and the biggest one is the retail version of the Borderlands DLC. More »

Happy final Easter everyone! Wait, what? You didn't get the memo about this being the last Easter? Yeah, apparently the recent 2010 Time 100 Poll, which ranks the most influential people on the planet, is actually a sign of the impending end of days. Yeah, that was the only explanation scholars could come up with when they saw that Lady Gaga was in the lead (with approximately 150k votes), ranking above global humanitarians and, you know, world leaders.

Carving out their own little slice of notoriety are Penny Arcade co-creators Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, who's 9th place position (at the time of this writing) has pinned them as more influential human beings than Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, and Oprah Winfrey. Hey, as nutty as that sounds, we've never bought a video game based solely on recommendations from the latter three.

[Via Kotaku]

A weekly round-up of all that's new in the world of Facebook games

#trailer Now that you've seen the first images from "Resident Evil: Afterlife," gaze upon the first trailer for the film. Let's see: Swords vs. guns, Matrix-y bullet-time effects, driving rock score with fatalistic lyrics. Yep, it's a video game movie. More »

It’s funny that this article come up today. Just last night I was playing some Mario Kart Wii online, and I was realizing just how good Dry Bones can be. I think he might have to be my character of choice. Hell, I think it’s time for Dry Bones to get [...]

We’ve been seeing a ton of user-created microgames from WarioWare D.I.Y., but now we have some user-created music!

Have you had a chance to play Ristar yet? Sure, this is the Game Gear version, but we all know that the Genesis one is better! If not, hop on the Virtual Console and grab it! It’s one of my favorite old-school platformers, and I promise you won’t regret the purchase!

A portion of a Dtoid review… Again is a mediocre game that provides nothing. Its story is nowhere near good enough to justify the interactive novel approach, the “spot the difference” psychic gimmick is miserable and sleep-inducing, and the characters themselves look like they’ve all escaped from a mental hospital and are playing around in the [...]

There’s Super Meat Boy app available on the App Store, but I don’t think you’ll want to buy it. I noticed this yesterday when I was chatting with Nicky Hill. When you read the description, you come to find out that the game is pretty much a glorified April Fools’ Day joke, [...]

I just got this email in my inbox from Netflix… As I said in my impressions, I think the quality was actually quite good. I just like seeing that Netflix is willing to work hard on improving quality even further.

We wish we possessed the kind of thought processes required to make the mental association between the release of the Rock Band Network and the catchy, quirky ditties from 'Splosion Man. The game's theme is already up on the RBN Store, but that's not the extent of the musical 'Splodiness -- in an interview with SavyGamer, Twisted Pixel CEO Mike Wilford revealed two other tracks from the game would soon hit the Network: "The 'Splode Beneath My 'Splosion" and "Donuts Song."

No time frame has been given for the songs' release, but that hasn't stopped our excitement for the vocal part of "T'SBM'S" from growing to catastrophic, earth-quaking levels.

#screengrab Left 4 Dead Easter Eggs, made by a friend of Kotaku reader Jeff R. When the infected eggs start to rot I bet they smell like authentic zombie, too. Two more pictures on the jump. More »

#reselling Goozex is a swap-meet alternative to reselling that's gotten pretty popular with cash-conscious gamers. The service just added 6,000 titles on several retro platforms, from the Nintendo 64 all the way back to the Atari 2600. More »

Happy Easter to everyone out there. I hope there is chocolate, a great day with family, and – if you’re lucky – a day off tomorrow for some quality gaming time.

As I was putting together the list this morning, this “cover” for the monthly digital Kotaku Magazine caught my eye, reminding me to remind everyone in the Pacific Northwest to come try out PlayStation Move this Thursday in Seattle. See you there?

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of March 29, 2010)

• Review: Fat Princess: Fistful Of Cake – The Sixth Axis
• Hands on with ModNation Racers on PSP – Pocket Game
• The core have “looked down their nose” at motion gaming, says Dille – VG247
• Game of the Month: March 2010 – PlayStation Universe
• Sony’s Dille talks PS3 marketing evolution – GameSpot
• Hands-on: PlayStation Move: The future of gaming – Examiner.com
• Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love Review – IGN
• Cage: Heavy Rain Sales Sent ‘Very Strong Message’ About Innovation – Gamasutra
• Q&A with God of War III technical art group manager Giovanni Luis – Examiner.com
• What We Think (and Hope) the God of War III Teaser Might Be – IGN
• The Art of God of War III at Gallery Nucleus – Joystiq
• Zen Studios’ Planet Minigolf will be Move-enabled – Joystiq

#iphone After ranting publicly that the iPhone is "the Tiger handheld game of this generation," Tommy Refenes saw his game removed from the App Store. He's struck back, releasing a Tiger-ized version of Super Meat Boy for a dollar. More »

How many games can you name that support the balance board? I bet you can’t name 100, but there are that many titles out there that do so! There may even be more, as this number is a rough estimate. With that said, there are indeed at least 100 games that have [...]

Poor Gex never did make it into the limelight, did he. I played the full series, and while I wouldn’t call it anything special, I honestly don’t think it was that bad. It just came at a time when people were starting to move away from interest in platformers and mascot-based gaming. [...]

#religionweek I've no idea why, but it seems no accident that the week before Easter I went back to start over the original Assassin's Creed, the only game I've ever played that is set in the Holy Land. More »

“We’ve had video game programmers come to us and say they’d be very excited [to do a game], but [not an actual developer].” - Fantasy fiction author Peter S. Beale I never thought of it, but The Last Unicorn would make for a pretty damn good game. With today’s platforms, you could pretty closely nail [...]

Talk about Nintendo having an absolute fit. Currently, the Android Market is being dominated by two paid-for apps…both of them being Nintendo emulators. Of course, these emulators are not allowed in any way, shape or form…but the Android Market is still in its wild west days right now. You can bet that [...]

#kotakureader Welcome to the March 2010 edition of K Monthly, a look back at some of the best original coverage, including reviews, previews, features, weekly columns and more from Kotaku. More »

Like Remedy Entertainment told us back in January, Alan Wake's poorly lit world will be getting a few DLC "episodes" this year. What we didn't know, however, was how said episodes would fold into the game's narrative arc -- but head of franchise development Oskari Hakkinen recently shed some light on them in a recent interview with Edge (via CVG), saying, "We've thought of DLC, which will be more of a bridge between season one and season two, should this first part be a success." Hakkinen here is referring to the first, yet to be released Alan Wake as "season one," banking on the interest in the first game to produce a sequel (or "second season") with DLC episodes set to bridge the narrative between the two "seasons."

And though Hakkinen doesn't exactly illuminate the details of the DLC, he does call it a "Christmas special," adding that it "will give you a different perspective on the stuff you've played in season one." If our past with Christmas specials is any indication of what we can expect from this DLC, we're just as excited as you are.

Here’s something that should make Sonic fans sit up and take notice. Sonic X has hit Hulu, and it’s not the Sonic X you’re used to. There are 26 episodes currently online, and they’re all in their original Japanese form. No edits, no cuts, no horrible English voice acting. You can [...]