#wat
Maybe you know someone who's just a little too cray-cray for Gears of War. If not, now you do. Meet iSekC, who's cuckoo for Cole Train and was knighted by Cliff Bleszinski himself as the game's No. 1 fan. More »
The war for dominance over the motion-controlled gaming market escalated significantly earlier this week, when Microsoft's Kinect gained an endorsement from one of the world's foremost cultural leaders: Teen sensation Justin Bieber. Click past the jump to see the intro video to one of Bieber's recent performances: A clip which shows Bieber and company trying out Dance Central and Kinect Adventures, unlocking a few lucrative (albeit fake) Achivements along the way.
Of course, that's just the first half of the video posted after the break. We won't judge you for watching the second half of said video, which features Bieber's opening number. We're not too proud to admit that we viewed the entire thing -- but only because we're fascinated by the technology which must have gone into creating this bionic boy.
#weird
The infamous leak of Half-Life 2's beta in 2003 was a story with an international scope and wide-ranging consequences, some just now coming to light. Such as this box of Russian-made Half-Life 2bubblegum. More »
Nintendo of America's towering president stopped by the set of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon yesterday, closing off the show's week long celebration of upcoming video games with a look at Donkey Kong Country Returns. After teaching Fallon the correct method of Diddy-maneuvering, Reggie Fils-Aime brought out the big guns: The 3DS, which he told Fallon would be coming out "next year." Oh, that thing you just heard? That was the sound of one thousand Christmases being simultaneously ruined.
You can check out the Donkey Kong demo and Fallon's enthusiastic reaction to the handheld's glasses-less 3D effects in the video posted after the jump.
#boxscores
Alright, I confess, I'm fully aboard a soccer bandwagon that, if fate has any sense of timing, should barrel headlong into a shattering wreck this afternoon. More »
Just in the nick of time, Nintendo opened up the full site for Sin and Punishment 2. There’s really nothing new for anyone that’s been following the game up to this point. I mean, we’ve been waiting for the release for over a year now! Glad to see it’s finally happening, and [...]
Every once in awhile we take a look at game prices in other countries, just to see how insane things are. Just today, we get a look at what video game pricing is like in Uruguay, and it’s not pretty. The prices you see below are USD.
Did you happen to know that today is the 10-year anniversary of Kirby 64’s release? I still remember the day I picked this game up at GameStop. I got to take home the giant display box that they had in the window!
A portion of a C3 review…
A really fun little title that has plenty on offer for everyone whether that be the die-hard or the casual. It gets quickly tricky after the first few worlds and doesn’t let up. Mekensleep have brought us a gem from seemingly nowhere and should be at least tried by everyone. [...]
Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) has released a report listing various attention metrics from gamers from two sites, GameTrailers and IGN.com, regarding the most "popular" titles from E3. We put "popular" in quotes there because these stats are for things like trailer streaming and page views rather than a scientific survey -- this is a general feel of the zeitgeist on these two specific sites rather than a comprehensive view of what gamers thought of E3.
But there are interesting things to note even in this limited set of stats, especially when you compare it to our own anecdotal show floor and "chatter" data from you commenters. We heard from quite a few of you during the show that Nintendo's press conference was the most popular event, and this list agrees. Likewise, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was one of the most popular titles on the show floor, and there's no shortage of Link representation here. Kirby's Epic Yarn is probably the biggest unannounced-before E3 title on the lists, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 captured a lot of attention -- not much was revealed at the show itself, but it was placed front and center on the floor of the West Hall.
At the same time, there are some weird conclusions here. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, an expansion which didn't even make an appearance at E3, registered in the top 20 in the GameTrailers stats and Red Dead Redemption, a game that's already out, picked up spot No. 8 on IGN's Page Views list of big E3 titles. EEDAR also notes that the Nintendo 3DS didn't rank on any of these lists, but given the lines at the Nintendo booth to see it, the new handheld garnered plenty of attention. So you can't really bank on these titles yet. But if you're interested, you can check out EEDAR's top 10 in each category after the break.
#dealtaku
You think you're tough for reading The Moneysaver every day? There's half a million scarecrows in Denver who'd give anything for one coupon of what you got. They live on rats and sawdust bread and sometimes ... on each other. More »
#openthread
The man's a gamer. Maybe not one of us - we don't run Electronic Arts after all - but this week's profile of EA boss John Riccitiello portrayed a man who thinks earnestly about games, in ways we gamers do. More »
For the third year in a row, a small group of brave, platforming-adept gamers have holed themselves up in a room, where they'll play a vast cornucopia of Mario titles until their viewers allowthem to stop. That sounds more sadistic than it actually is -- the Mario Marathon is actually a charity drive, where the players take on more difficult in-game tasks as donations for Child's Play continue to pile in.
They're currently standing at a little over $20,000, but they'll need a lot more fungible encouragement if they're going to be made to tackle some of their loftier goals. Why not drop by and show your support?
Following sold-out performances last year, the San Francisco Symphony will be performing two concerts next month featuring music from the Final Fantasy series. What's more, series maestro Nobuo Uematsu will be in attendance and appear at meet & greet events following the July 15 and 16 performances.
In addition to officially revealing next week's XBLA offerings, Major Nelson has also laid out Xbox Live Marketplace schedule for the rest of June, including the Deal of the Week, Games on Demand and Avatar Marketplace. The Deal of the Week -- or Deals of the Week, rather -- takes the spotlight, with several decent titles on sale. Darwinia+ will be marked down to 800 points ($10), while Defense Grid, PB Winterbottom, Rocket Riot and Poker Smash will all be marked down to 400 points ($5). Also, the OneBigGame charity project, Chime, will be reduced to a puny 240 points ($3).
Meanwhile, both Tomb Raider Underworld and Command & Conquer 3 will hit Games on Demand on June 29, and some Crackdown 2 Avatar items will be released on July 1.
With World Cup fever spreading absolutely everywhere -- not even Gandalf is immune, it seems -- it's not surprising that it has bled into the world of video games. And no, we're not talking about the actual World Cup video game. We're talking, of course, about the vuvuzela, the bane of ears worldwide. If you thought the rocket launcher, or even the mighty BFG, were the best weapons in Doom 2, think again. They don't hold a candle to the mighty vuvuzela.
Okay, so it's probably just a re-skinned chaingun, but it's pretty funny. Check it out after the break. Just be sure to turn the volume down first.
This Xbox Live Gold Family Plan thing is sounding better all the time. Slated to arrive this November, the plan already allows gamers to snag four Xbox Live Gold memberships for $99 (half the usual price), and now Kotaku has learned that current members will able to roll their single accounts into the Family Plan later this year. According to Microsoft's Jerret West, current Live members will receive credit towards the Family Plan based on the value of the remaining time on their current subscriptions. Should that value exceed the $99 price, the extra will simply extend the subscription beyond one year.
In other words, you might be getting some Xbox Live Gold time "on the house," depending on how much time you have left on your current pool of subscriptions. Forget this "Family Plan" business, kids. This here is the Dorm Plan.
Media Molecule knows you've been waiting in agony for those Marvel-themed LittleBigPlanet costumes revealed at Comic-Con last year, but the studio has come up with a solid way of making amends: Starting the week of July 7 and then on every other following week, the game will receive four Marvel costume packs, each of which include the outfits of five different characters from the Marvel universe. Click past the jump for all of the heroes and villains you can expect.
In addition, Media Molecule announced the Marvel Level Kit, which includes a pre-made adventure that has you battling against Magneto, who has virtually zero power over sackcloth. While toppling Magneto's reign, players will be able to collect "Marvel-themed music, objects, materials, stickers, and a special 'Rooftop' background." This is all great news -- now, about those Final FantasyVII costumes ...
#ubisoft
When an in-development game like Beyond Good & Evil 2 goes quiet, even for just a few months, any word that it's still alive is comforting. Especially when we get status updates like the one game designer Michel Ancel recently provided. More »
In a Nikkei BP interview (translated by Andriasang), CEO Fumiaki Tanaka said that he expects around 3 million units of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker to sell worldwide. That's a pretty high number for a PSP game, but it's not outrageous for a game that is at least part Monster Hunter. The sales were "according to expectations" at the time of the interview -- which predated this month's North American and European release of the game. We'll find out next month how many copies sneaked into Western homes in the first month of release.
Tanaka also announced a delay for Metal Gear Arcade out of its original March release date. The company is putting in some extra time on the title, which most of us will never see anyway, because seriously, when was the last time you saw an arcade?
#clips
If you discount the static and deliberately skipping video what you have here is a blend of Crysis 2's trailer and its closed-doors demo, shown at E3. Spoiler alert: The MetLife building goes down, and it goes down hard. More »
#harmonix
They said it would never happen. But MTV Games and Harmonix aren't going to let discriminating taste get in the way of Canada's greatest musical contribution to the modern age, Nickelback, from coming to Rock Band. More »
This weekend we say "au revoir" to staffer Xav de Matos -- gentleman, scholar and, most importantly ... Canadian. As Xav had to remind us repeatedly through the ironic use of a Molson advertisement (found after the break), the people of his mysterious land aren't that much different from those in the States. To be honest, we still don't know if Xav is just how those in the north say "X" ... just look at how they turn the letter "Z" into the word Zed. You'll always be our buddy, pal.
