All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

We're not sure there's a force on Earth that could have stopped VG Cats' "Obligatory" from taking top honors in last week's Webcomic Wrapup. Not only was it VG Cats' first update in like, a decade, but it also features a rarely executed double Caruso -- a near-impossible maneuver to pull off.

Do you remember the Nintendo Fun Club newsletter? Were you even around when that was being circulated? If not, you’ll be happy to know that the newsletter is still around to this very day. It’s just that we call it Nintendo Power now. Without the success of the Nintendo Fun Club, [...]

#toys I look at this amazing model kit on display at the 2010 All Japan Hobby Show in Tokyo and my first thought is a robot voice gargling PREHSZ STAAAHT BATTAN. My second thought is I need this. More »

#halo The latest update from the minds behind Halo: Reach says the game's rank cap, currently limited to Lieutenant Colonel Grade C, will be lifted once the game's community completes 117 million daily and weekly challenges. More »

#aceteam Rock of Ages is a good name for ACE Team's (Zeno Clash) next project, but surely Super Monty Python Ball would have been better? I don't know. Maybe it was taken. More »

#starcraft Remember those 5000 people Blizzard busted for cheating in Starcraft II? Well the developer is going after those responsible with a vengeance, taking three men to court for creating the hacks those users employed. More »

Let's face it -- once those new Super Street Fighter IV costumes come out, the game's community will be split into two age-old castes: The haves and the have-nots. How will these two groups be able to play against one another, when one sports fancy duds the likes of which the other has never seen? Capcom recently explained that players without the DLC who play against a character using a new costume will still be able to fight against said player, though it will appear as though they're wearing their default costume.

This switcheroo can be prevented by downloading a free "Catalogue" add-on, which will allow players without the DLC to see the new outfits on other players. The Catalogue will come in two chunks, the first half arriving on Oct. 26 -- the same day as the first batch of costumes -- and the second on Dec. 21. This add-on has only been announced for the 360 so far; we've contacted Capcom to see if PS3 players will have access to it as well.

[Thanks, Christian!]

#howisthisnews The Swiss set a record for the longest tunnel ever dug, 35 miles through the Alps, connected yesterday. How awesome would it have been to attach a giant Cthulhu head to that borer for the moment it broke through? More »

#science It's time for our mostly daily Kotaku science post! Today we take a look at an important scientific study that has found that babies can't tell human beings from humanoid robots. More »

#clips This is Kinect outside of Macy's in New York City's Herald Square. There were no Kinects in the window displays at GameStop a block south. What kind of crowd do we think Microsoft is going for with their no-controller controller? More »

We take you through which gaming platforms are capable of 3D, what you can play, and how to do it.

#mods Literally. YouTube user ShredRexx attempted to soft-mod an original Xbox but wound up frying it. Perhaps taking a page from this stunt, he placed it atop an airbag from an older car and, well, see for yourself. More »

Good news, Final Fantasy XIV fans, more free gaming is on the way. Square Enix has announced that the free trial period for Final Fantasy XIV is to be extended by an additional thirty days. The FFXIV website notes that extension is being made in light of "the nature of much of the feedback" and "the current state of the game," which we're assuming translates to "bugz." The extension will be available to all users with a registered service account who have purchased a character prior to October 25.

The site adds that the extension does apply to those with multiple accounts and that all extensions will be made automatically. Furthermore, those who have already been emailed about the end of their trial will still receive the extension.

#multiplayer Uncharted 2's studio is running a 24-hour One-Year Anniversary Event in the game's multiplayer beginning in about five-and-a-half-hours, offering five playlist favorites, quintupled cash payouts with no cash cap, and an exclusive anniversary Nathan Drake multiplayer skin. More »

Twitter users know that #FollowFriday is a cherished tradition — an opportunity to share the love by recommending your favorite personalities. We’re expanding that concept with a comprehensive list of PlayStation gaming personalities and organizations every month or two.

Today, we’re expanding the internal PlayStation ecosystem while introducing a directory of PlayStation third-party publishers, game developers, and industry luminaries. Our goal is to create a definitive directory of the best sources of PlayStation news and discussion over time.

But we’ll need your help to make it truly complete. Got a recommendation for us to include? Leave your favorites in the comments, and we’ll take notes for the next column. Let us know what you think!

Twitter

• @PlayStation
• @PlayStationEU
• @Naughty_Dog
• @InsomniacGames
• @Zipper
• @SuckerPunchProd
• @LittleBigPlanet
• @MediaMolecule
• @Killzonedotcom
• @thatgamecompany
• @TheKevinButler
• @P_TOM (PlayStation: The Official Magazine)

Developers, Publishing Partners, and Gaming Figures

• @24CaretGames – Developer of Retro/Grade, coming soon to PSN.
• @AtlusUSA – Publisher of Demon’s Souls, Rock of Ages, Persona 3 Portable, 3D Dot Game Heroes, and much more.
• @BethBlog – Developer and publisher of Fallout 3, the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas, and more.
• @Capcom_Unity – Publisher of Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5, Dead Rising 2, and the upcoming Marvel vs Capcom 3.
• @CreatStudios – Developer of TerRover, Smash Cars, and the upcoming SkyFighter.
• @CriterionGames – Developer of Burnout Paradise and the upcoming Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
• @EA – Publisher of @MedalofHonor, @DeadSpace, and the upcoming @Crysis 2.
• @eidosmontreal – Developer of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the upcoming Thief 4.
• @FireHoseGames – Developer of the upcoming Slam Bolt Scrappers.
• @GearboxSoftware – Developer of Borderlands, plus the upcoming Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens: Colonial Marines.
• @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN – Director for Metal Gear Solid through Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and more.
• @Housemarque – Developer of Super Stardust HD and the upcoming Dead Nation.
• @IGLevine – Creative director for BioShock and BioShock Infinite and co-founder of Irrational Games.
• @IrrationalGames – Developer of BioShock, BioShock Infinite and more.
• @jawltd – Just Add Water, developers of PSN title Gravity Crash and the upcoming PS3 remake of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath.
• @JD_2020 – Community manager for @Treyarch, developers of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: World at War.
• @jenovachen – Creative director and co-founder of thatgamecompany, behind Flower and the upcoming Journey.
• @Leveluptime – Steve Papoutsis, executive producer for Dead Space 2.
• @LucasArtsGames – Publisher of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.
• @NamcoBandai – Publisher of Tekken 6, Soul Calibur IV, the upcoming Splatterhouse, and more.
• @NISAmerica – Publisher of Cladun: This is an RPG, Prinny, and the upcoming Disgaea 4.
• @nooBdE – Design director for the @mk_MortalKombat series.
• @OneofSwords – Community manager for Activision games.
• @RockstarGames – Developer and publisher of Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, the upcoming L.A. Noire and The Agent, and more.
• @Ronnie2K – Community manager for 2K Sports titles.
• @Sega – Publisher of Valkyria Chronicles (@ValkyriaTribune), Yakuza 4, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and the upcoming Vanquish.
• @SquareEnix – Publisher of Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, The 3rd Birthday and more.
• @THQ – Publisher of UFC Undisputed 2010, @RedFaction, the upcoming Homefront, and much more.
• @TellTaleGames – Developer of Sam & Max on PSN and more.
• @TheBehem0th – Developer of Castle Crashers.
• @TheRealCliffyB – Design director for Epic Games, currently working on BulletStorm.
• @TimofLegend – Creative director for DoubleFine games, behind Brutal Legend and the upcoming Costume Quest.
• @Ubisoft – Publisher of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Prince of Persia, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2, and much more.
• @XSeedGames – US publisher of Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, Ys Seven, and the upcoming Ys: The Oath in Felghana.
• @zen_studios – Developer of PSN titles Zen Pinball and Planet Minigolf.

#dlc For those who haven't picked up Red Dead Redemption, or aren't interested in its main singleplayer campaign, Rockstar will soon release a single disc that includes all of the downloadable content, playable without the main game. More »

Shortly after Enslaved's launch we were informed that the game was only outputting stereo for those using optical audio output for surround sound on PS3. We were told by Namco today that it is currently working on a title update to support 5.1 sound output.

A Namco rep tells Joystiq, "[The update] will be ready around the same time as the paid DLC, which will be available within the next couple of months. Details on that DLC will be announced soon."

So, good news: patch incoming. Bad news: gonna take a while to fix. The game does currently support 5.1 surround via HDMI (provided you have the appropriate receiver).

#achievements The list of achievements for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is upon us; before you descend on it to pick pan for nuggets of info, let me ask you, do you know Morse Code? More »

#preview Eleven days into 2011, we get a new Kingdom Hearts that is unusual even by that series' standards. More »

The latest Game Developer Magazine has a full postmortem of Final Fantasy XIII, featuring Square Enix developers Motomu Toriyama and Akihiko Maeda revealing just what went right and wrong with the thirteenth iteration of the classic series. The main issue with the game, they say, was a lack of "shared vision" among the developers for what the title should be. Some developers wanted to create a game to answer Western concerns about JRPGs, while others wanted it to serve as a showpiece for a crossplatform engine, and still others wanted to simply emulate the feeling of that first trailer back in 2006.

In the end, what made the vision concrete was the creation of the demo available with Advent Children -- that demo changed the team's talks "from theoretical discussions based solely on abstract concepts to concrete dialogue," and helped the team realize the kind of work they'd have to do on the title before release.

The few clips of the postmortem on Gamasutra don't mention the linear aspects of the game that turned quite a few players off, but the devs say that the more realistic picture of the production brought about by that demo helped them target what to work on by "keeping in mind exactly how the asset would be used in the game." In other words, focusing on one path was supposed to help them make sure that path was worth playing. But of course it's up to players to decide how that worked out.

Contrarian Corner: The sad case of a game without cinema.

#screens The latest raft of screens for the superhero MMO from Sony Online Entertainment depicts beatdowns in the Bat Cave, the Metropolis Subway, and the Temple of Isis. Enjoy! More »