For those of you who are entirely too good at Canabalt (and we see you there on the leaderboards, you smug jerks), Adam Atomic has introduced a more difficult version under the guise of "education."
Canabalt: Typing Tutor Edition is the same game you're familiar with, but with the jump command mapped to a letter key that changes after every few uses, displayed in the corner of the screen. In order to successfully navigate the endless rooftop path, you have to be able to access the right key immediately. It also includes optional spacebar or double-click-based control options.
You can play the game in a browser window here. We don't expect to see this one on iPhone -- or, at least, we hope we never have to use the iPhone's virtual keyboard for this.
#mmo
Man, massively-multiplayer games like World of Warcraft are a drag. So much time! So much money! If only you could go through the same grind with the same problems in five minutes without spending a cent... More »
Is there any mom better than the Animal Crossing mom? Well, I guess there are. I mean, this Mom let you move out while you were still a little kid. She never comes to visit, and she let you shack up in a town full of animals. What the hell kind [...]
#microsoft
Microsoft's official, over-priced USB drives for the Xbox 360 are on their way to retailers as you read this. So what do you get for your money? More »
#2ksports
In January, 2K Sports put up a $1 million prize for the first person to pitch a perfect game in MLB 2K10. Today an Alabama man is $1 million richer. More »
Admittedly, Chuck Liddell is our second favorite "Iceman" -- Bobby Drake's mutant powers and frosty quips make him slightly more endearing to video game nerds like us. But the UFC fighter has his charms as well. Not only is he the winning coach on this season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show, but here he is in a promo video for the upcoming UFC Undisputed 2010 game, schooling all of us pushovers on what it takes to win in the Octagon.
[Spoiler: You have to get real angry and beat up that seemingly no-good Ortiz character.]
#wii
Ready the hype engines. Set your expectations to their loftiest, for Nintendo Power is tormenting early subscribers of the mag with a forthcoming reveal of a "huge new title" to debut right around E3 2010. More »
#halo
From May 14 to May 17, even those putrid, free-loading Silver Xbox Live subscribers will be able to get in on the Halo: Reach beta, Bungie throwing open the gates to both classes for a weekend of jetpack festivities. More »
#40k
Having been operating undercover for years now, it appears that THQ's massively multiplayer game based on the Warhammer 40K universe will make its public debut at next month's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. More »
Just when you thought your masterful Zerg Rushes couldn't get any more social -- you are reaching out and obliterating someone, after all -- Blizzard has announced that the new Battle.net and StarCraft 2 will soon sport Facebook features. The only feature mentioned in the announcement, however, is the ability to add StarCraft playing Facebook friends to your Battle.net friends list. The new feature will be added to the StarCraft 2 beta in "the near future" and should be available to all players when the full game hits retail this July.
It's worth noting that the press release refers to the friend finding feature as "the first step in integration," so it sounds like there will be more Facebook features added over time. As long as we're not flooded with status updates every time someone gets "pwned," we're all for it.
These are the women that are making names for themselves in the video game industry. You don’t know who they are? Perhaps you should hit up the feature below and learn about the girls that make games, and the ones that can kick your ass when you play them.
There she is, the Ultra 64. I remember talking all about this system while riding bikes with friends. I was so hyped up for this console, and then Nintendo chickened out on the ‘Ultra’ label and went with ‘Nintendo’. I was annoyed at first, but all those feelings went away the very [...]
How would you like 120 pages of video game-related comics, penned by some of the best known game comics out there? You’ll get works from Jeremy Arambulo, M.S. Corley, Bill Mudron, Jacob Chabot, Faith Erin Hicks and many more. Hit up the link below for more details on how you can grab a [...]
#thq
So says THQ bossman Brian Farrell, who calms one of our fears about Sony and Microsoft's venture into the motion control space with PlayStation Move and Project Natal, respectively. His company, at least, sounds uninterested in straight up Wii ports. More »
Well, I’m not sure what this could mean, but apparently we are all going to “pee your pants with excitement” next Wednesday as we learn something new about the title. We’ll keep you up to date as it comes round.
Bit.
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 Mauricio Garcia, one of the programmers of Nivel21, about how their game Rotor'scope proves that nothing is impossible.
How did your company get started?
Nivel21 Entertainment was born in 2005. At that time, some of us were working in software development and enterprise consultation. We were lucky to get to know each other some way or another, a group of videogame aficionados sharing the common dream of becoming professional game developers. So we decided to join forces and immediately began working together, trying to establish our own studio, or, at least, learn enough so that we could end up working in some other studio.
We never gave up hope to finally get where we are now, and we spent a lot of time and effort to learn just by ourselves everything that there is to know to make videogames. Even though it all started out as a hobby, we're pretty damn serious about it. Since our first "learning" projects, we've tried to work as professionally as we possibly can. After all these years, we finally see our dream come true in Rotor'scope.
#valve
Here it is, kids. The final major Team Fortress 2 character updates (for now). The last-in-line Engineer is due for his big makeover and Valve has officially upgraded our anticipation to Tier 3 with a new teaser. More »
Metro 2033 was released at the tail end of publisher THQ's last fiscal year, which ended March 31. With only two weeks of sales before the close of the fiscal fourth quarter, the 4A Games-developed title did not make a significant contribution to THQ's trumpeted turnaround. Still, THQ CEO Brain Farrell took a few moments during the company's earnings call today to highlight the game's sales to date. "It's a very profitable title for us," Farrell said, without disclosing a number.
Farrell did reveal that Europe has accounted for roughly two-thirds of Metro 2033 sales, as forecast by the publisher, with North America buying up the remaining units sold. "A lot of the sales were done on PC," he added, "and a lot of the sales were also done through digital mechanisms that don't get captured by any service."
The CEO attributed profits to the game's low-cost development model, "so when we get to even pretty modest levels of sales, we're still making good money." (First-time, Eastern European studios make cheap games, apparently.) "And we like that model going forward," Farrell noted, when it produces a high-quality game.
After all, first-time, Eastern European studios can make good, cheap games, too. (Apparently.)
#civilization
Civilization creator Sid Meier was our guest for Kotaku Talk Radio this week. You can listen to the full episode now or download it for posterity. So many topics. Did you know Meier wishes he made Tetris and Guitar Hero? More »
