All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

#pc Today, Outcast was released on retro downloadable games service Good Old Games. It's only $5, so I'm going to recommend it to almost everyone. And not because it's a good game. More »

Microsoft's Australian site has announced that one million Xbox 360s have been sold in Australia and New Zealand so far. Japan hit that landmark only last year, and about eight million consoles have been sold in North America so far, according to the most recent estimates. Congrats, Aussies and, erm, Newzies!

To celebrate, Microsoft will be auctioning off a few special edition consoles through Konsoles for Kids with awkwardly-painted portraits of Australian celebrities on them, including Russell Crowe, comedy duo Hamish and Andy, and ... Kim Kardashian? We guess they're not all Australian then. What's the deal, Microsoft? Was Andrew Denton too busy? What if we want a console with Yahoo Serious painted on the side?

[Via VG247]

#top The biggest Japanese game magazine, Famitsu, has awarded its highest score to stealth game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. In the process, the publication has shown why, as a source of objective game reviews, it cannot be trusted. Here's why: More »

#crime A pair of women from Toledo, Ohio thought it would be a good idea to try and sell their Nintendo Wii consoles via Craigslist. Ladies: it is never a good idea to conduct video game business over Craigslist. More »

- aerial raid flies in - an alarm sounds, but the alarm is different than the usual alarm - mechanical creatures start to attack - real Monado sword is capable of slicing through Kishin troops - not everyone can control the sword - Dunban can no longer wield the Monado, but [...]

#comedy In 2007, Adolf Hitler and Xbox Live helped start an internet meme that started the whole world laughing. Three years on, the distributors of the film the clip is based on have yanked it from YouTube. More »

A listing on Gamestop.com has revealed a Collector's Edition release for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii versions of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4. The package includes the game disc (yes!) as well as behind-the-scenese featurettes about both the game and the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie, plus a set of four "House Crest LEGO magnets." In addition, the Xbox 360 version of the game will include an exclusive Avatar item.

The price for this bundle? $70, fully $20 over the cost of the standard edition. For our $20, we'd need substantially more LEGOs. Even if those House Crests are functional, interlocking LEGOs, we can't build anything out of four of them.

#tron Are you wicked psyched for Tron Legacy? Or anything Tron for that matter? Then Threadless' new t-shirt and hoody combo, inspired by the Disney film and capable of turning any guy or girl into a casually dressed Program, is for you. More »

Deus Ex: Human Revolution may be a long ways off, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the first two games in the series right now. In fact, if you've never dabbled in the series before, now is the perfect time, as Steam has both Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition and its sequel Deus Ex: Invisible War on sale. Normally $9.99 each, both games have been lowered to a ridiculously low $2.50. According to Joystiq sister site Big Download, the sale is on until Thursday, so get your cheap cyber-action while it's hot.

#valve Developer Valve is wrapping up the beta for its big changes to the Steam UI this week, promising to roll out the still-in-beta version of its PC gaming service to everyone next Monday. More »

#sowrong As Kotaku's resident deplorable alcoholic, expectations for me are low enough that not only can I post something this reprehensible, it's practically expected. So here's the problem of drunk driving imagined as a 1990s-style game - note, this game doesn't exist. More »

A hint of things to come.

The upcoming "Trials of St. Lucia" expansion for Dante's Inferno will put you up against a force far more malevolent than Beelzebub himself: The inherently mean spirit of the online gamer. Dante will have to conquer challenges crafted by other players, which will most assuredly be more difficult than any brawl that came packaged in the game. Why, you might ask? Because everyone on the internet wants you to be miserable.

Don't give up hope! Greg Rizzer, the game's lead designer, created the video posted above, which is chock-full of helpful tips to keep you from succumbing to this deluge of pain. (Oh, and we were just kidding about the 'everyone wants you to be miserable' thing. We, for one, only want to bring you joy.)

Why the new Headhunter game type is going to get the Reach party started.

#konami Japanese game magazine Famitsu has weighed in the latest Metal Gear Solid adventure, welcoming the new PlayStation Portable into the coveted ranks of game's bearing the publication's highest mark. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has been rated 40/40. More »

As anticipated, the most gentlemanly pie-napper imaginable, P.B. Winterbottom, is now stalking the windowsill of Steam. Valve confirms The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is now available for download for $4.99 -- complete with Steam achievements, leaderboards and Steam Cloud functionality.

The title -- a puzzle-platformer Indiecade finalist developed by The Odd Gentlemen and published by 2K Play -- follows the titular Winterbottom, whose hunger for pie can only be described as insatiable. Offer the man a slice of cake and he may travel back in time to before you offered the cake and write you a pleasant note about how he never eats cake.

Been waiting to save otters on a PlayStation Mini? Your day has come.

Click to enlarge During its Captivate 2010 media event last week, Capcom revealed two additional multiplayer maps for Lost Planet 2. On top of the 10 maps included on the game disc, this pair of DLC maps will be used as a pre-order incentive (apparently exclusive to GameStop) and will also be made available for all owners of the game to purchase at an unspecified point in time after the game's release.

The maps, "Helix" (pictured above) and "Back to the Island," are (according to G4) said to feature the ability to swim (well, tread water, at least) with the former taking place underwater at the NEVEC ocean research facility. The latter, a remake of a map from the original game, sounds like it starts off on the beach of Island 902, carries on into the jungle, and then eventually winds up underground after players open a mysterious hatch. It's a lost planet, after all.

We weren't sure what to expect from Space Ark when it was first announced, but with this trailer out, we can certainly say it looks colorful. Something called an "Arkonaut" is tethered and bouncing off of a moving platform called a "Bounce Pad," and then there's a Fruit Frenzy, and then the Pad can shoot fruit for a Super Combo, and then there's even a Bonus Stage after that. Whew, there's a lot going on there! But it does look (and sound) like fun. You can also see a "Level Up" score multiplier on the side of the screen -- and, as we all know, multiplying your score is always the right thing to do.

The trailer puts the game's release on XBLA in spring 2010, which, last we saw out the window, was right about now. So you probably won't have to wait too long to get your daily dose of space fruit from Strawdog Studios.

What if Mega Man 8 was made for the Nintendo Entertainment System instead of the Playstation? That’s what one fan asked himself, and then he actually went through and made the game himself! Capcom loves this kind of stuff, so I don’t think you’ll have to worry too much about getting in trouble [...]

#rip Keith Elam, a hip-hop artist who performed under the name Guru, died Monday after ending a long battle with cancer. Elam voiced 8-Ball, the demolitions artist with whom the protagonist escapes at the very beginning of Grand Theft Auto III. More »

We'd like to take a moment to wish all of humanity (and felinity?) the best of luck when dealing with Risk: Factions' recently announced, third group of soldiers: the unfeeling, unstoppable Robot Menace. Check out the video above to see the origins of this once-domesticated group's violent self-awareness, and the screenshots below to see the Robots in action.

EA also revealed an Avatar costume piece based on the new faction, which turns your online representation's typically dopey head into a Robot's horrifying countenance. We're sure it will strike fear into your wall of adversaries in 1 vs 100.

#contest Hey! Don't forget to place your vote for what you consider the best Kotaku-themed WarioWare: D.I.Y. game created by you, the readership. The winner will walk away with some mega-sized Nintendo prizes, so choose your votes carefully. More »

Just to let you know that we’ve just launched a brand new flash game on our Prince of Persia Facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/princeofpersia. It’s a new way to discover more about PoP:TFS! It’s by an indie team named Explosive Barrel, the same team who’ve designed the very cool Straw Hat Samurai and Darkness [...]

We're of the opinion that the world could do with more cute robots and more hand-drawn 2D games. It's no wonder, then, that we watched the trailer for the WiiWare game Robox so raptly. Robox tells the story of a cube-shaped probe robot exploring a strange, lush planet, surviving with the help of the indigenous life-forms.

The trailer reveals platforming, an offensive "drop" ability that can be used to break blocks, and a retractable arm that can grab items. It also features segments of pointer-based shooting. Dreambox Games has yet to reveal a release window or price for Robox.

#konami With Konami revealing very little about its all-new Silent Hill game, we're left to speculate about which direction the psychological horror franchise will go. Will Silent Hill, like XCOM, make the first person shooter switch? More »

Baseball fans –

Next up on our divisional predictions series is the American League Central. This division hasn’t had a repeat champion since the Twins in 1994 and there looks to be a lot of parity again this year, so first place could be up for grabs.

With a new ballpark in Target Field and a reigning MVP (and MLB 10 The Show cover athlete) in Joe Mauer, the Twins look poised to break this trend and repeat as division champs. The Tigers are looking to redeem themselves after last year’s late season collapse and hope perennial All-Stars Magglio Ordonez and Justin Verlander are ready to lead the charge. The White Sox should be contenders this year as well, with a stellar starting rotation in Mark Buehrle and Jake Peavy. The Royals, on the other hand, have finished over .500 only once since 1994. I’m not sure if this year will be any different, but at least they have an ace in reigning Cy Young winner Zack Greinke to give the fans something cheer about. And then there’s the Indians…we’re not expecting much this year, but with Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner anchoring your lineup, I guess anything’s possible.

Here’s a look at our final AL Central predictions video showing you which teams will come out on top this October according to MLB 10 The Show.

Welcome to The Show!

Being a giant, beloved video game blog has its downsides. For example, we sometimes neglect to give independent developers our coverage love (or loverage, if you will) as we get caught up in AAA, AAAA or the rare quintuple-A titles. To remedy that, we're giving indies the chance to create their own loverage and sell you, the fans, on their studios and products. This week we talk with Riot Games co-founder and president Marc Merrill about how he and his team turned their passion for a Warcraft III mod into a full-fledged game.

How did your company get started?

The idea to create League of Legends and open Riot Games both started around the end of 2005. We had been playing DotA (Defense of the Ancients, a user-created mod of a popular Warcraft III map) and been very active in the community for a while and believed that the gameplay was so fun and innovative that it represented the spawning of a new genre and deserved to be its own professional game with significantly enhanced features.

Riot's CEO Brandon Beck and I co-founded Riot and partnered with some of the key creative minds behind the creation of DotA-Allstars - Steve "Guinsoo" Feak and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon to accomplish this mission - and League of Legends was born. It took almost a year to get Riot off the ground and open our initial office in September of 2006, which is really when we began to build the team to start on development.