Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST
Wakka Wakka, Indeed [Pac-Man]
Keep your cherry jokes to yourself, boys. [Full-size below]
[via Reddit. A similar design seems to be available on a swimsuit.]
Keep your cherry jokes to yourself, boys. [Full-size below]
[via Reddit. A similar design seems to be available on a swimsuit.]
Earlier this week, tens of thousands of users joined a Steam group dedicated to playing Half-Life 2 on Saturday between 2 and 2:30 p.m. EST, as a demonstration calling on Valve to get its ass in gear and release, or at least officially confirm work on Half-Life 3. How'd it turn out? It was either a great success or a disappointment, depending on your point of view.
I'll go with "success," as the game's numbers shot from 3,000 to more than 13,000 during the protest window, rocketing Half-Life 2 into the top 20 and just short of the top 10 (organizers note that it peaked at No. 11. The figures represent concurrent players.)
Now, when we first reported on this Tuesday, there were 30,000 members of the group. There are now 50,000. So less than half who originally backed this cause actually logged in to do so. And there's no assurance that Valve will acknowledge the demonstration or do anything in response to it.
Still, moaning and groaning over Half-Life 3 is something that takes place every day on gaming interest sites all over the Internet. This was actually a productive action, as it showed Valve that customers still love their games enough to play them seven years after release, rather than abuse Gabe Newell's email to demand one.
"I am personally impressed with what we've achieved today," the organizer wrote. "We're nowhere near done—in fact, we are currently in the process of planning new activities; this was only our first attempt, and, in my eyes, was a success for everyone." It's a success in my eyes, too.
A Red Letter Day: 13,216 fans play Half-Life 2 [Steam. h/t Mythos]
Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What's better? A list of those. Here's a roundup of the rundowns out there.
•Five Nintendo Series That Need a 3DS Reboot [3DS Buzz] With Kid Icarus: Uprising arriving in March, all-star commenter GiantBoyDetective whips up this argument for five other classic Nintendo series to get a reboot on the 3D handheld. What, no Balloon Fight?
•Best Sewer Levels in Video Games [UGO] Ten memorable trips into the effluent underworld, but I'm a little disappointed the Anoat level from Dark Forces wasn't included. That was my first brush with first-person survival horror. Those dianogas freaked me right the hell out. Also, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin had a couple of neat trips through St. Petersburg's sewers.
•The 13 Greatest Pop Culture Video Game Parodies [Ranker] Inspired by the Breaking Bad role-playing game, here are a dozen more videos, flash games and .gifs. Not on this list: Super There Will Be Blood or LEGO No Country for Old Men.
•Five of the Worst Trends from This Console Generation [PikiGeek] Public Enemy No. 1 is the Online Pass, of course.
•Eight Games This Year That Might Turn Out to be Disappointing [GamingBolt] They might all be disappointing. Some pre-emptive bellyaching covers Max Payne, Tomb Raider and others.
Today's Super Bowl between the Giants and the Patriots won't be much of a contest, if 1Up's simulation of 11 giants versus 11 Stormcloak patriots is any indication. Look for a lot of career-ending injuries late in the game.
The Giants pounded the patriots with a relentless pass rush, though they were briefly stopped cold early on. But the patriots just didn't have the magic today, and ran out of stamina early in the third quarter.
For those keeping score, previous simulations of Super Bowl XLVI have predicted:
• A 27-24 Giants victory [Madden NFL 12]
• A 45-31 Patriots victory [NFL 2K5]
With The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim supplying the decisive tiebreaker, I think it's safe for you to go out and bet the meadery on New York.
Skyrim Predicts the Super Bowl [1Up]
Skullgirls, Revenge Labs downloadable game coming sometime soon ("early 2012" is the latest word) on PSN and Xbox Live, is a 2D fighter with a heavy multiplayer component. That doesn't mean it doesn't have a story explaining who its characters are, how they acquired their skills and powers, and just what the heck "Skullgirl" means, anyway.
That trailer above, which Revenge released on Friday, clues everyone in on the Skullgirls canon, then walks you through the main characters and the moves they'll use in gameplay. For more details, including the exclusive trophies PS3 users will get with the game, head on over to PlayStation Blog.
Dev Diary: Skullgirls is a Feature-Rich PSN Fighter [PlayStation Blog. h/t hazelnut1112]
Our Super Bowl Sunday edition comes, astonishingly, by request. Yes, folks, you saw that picture of the Denver Broncos' Tim Tebow at Madden Bowl XVIII and demanded it be the source image for the Kotaku 'Shop Contest. Who am I to argue with the wisdom of the crowd?
If the NFL's best and brightest are not instantly recognizable to you, from left, that's Drew Brees, the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints; Jimmy Graham, of Goldsboro, N.C., and Tim Tebow of Nazareth. OK, OK, I'm kidding, Tim Tebow isn't in a rock band. He's the quarterback of the Denver Broncos. Jimmy Graham, however, is from Goldsboro.
Anyway, we've got three manly dudes planning out their strategy in Madden NFL 12, plus one unidentified bystander at back. That, plus Tebow's divinity, should provide a bountiful harvest of 'Shoppable inspirations. Get to it!
Source Image: Drew Brees, Jimmy Graham and Tim Tebow at Madden Bowl XVIII.
You know the rules: The 20 best will get rounded up and published at the end of next Saturday. Meantime, I and the rest of the starred commentariat will approve and promote as many as we can so folks can see them and pass judgment.
This is your no-frills step-by-step procedure to participation in the Kotaku 'Shop Contest.
1. Create your 'Shop.
2. Upload it to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. It's stupid simple. No account is necessary.
3. This is very important: You must use the URL of the image itself. In imgur, this is the second URL it gives you after you upload the image. It's under "Direct Link (email & IM)"
4. At the beginning of the comments roll, click "Start a New Thread"
5. To the right of your name, select "Image."
6. Paste the imgur URL in the image URL field. It's the field that says "Image URL."
7. You can add editorial commentary if you want, but then just hit submit and your image will load. If it doesn't, paste the image URL as a comment.
8. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. It will not upload to comments if it is over that size. What's more, we're getting reports that if your 'Shop is more than 1000px tall (vertical), it won't upload. If you're getting the broken-image icon, try resizing to a smaller dimension.
Now, Gentlemen, start your 'shopping!
Today we kick off Kotaku's eight-hour Super Bowl coverage with the Edge NFL Blitz Insider Sports Talk Amongst Yourselves Report Presented By TD Waterhouse and Driven by Bud Light. And now we'll throw it to our analysts. What do you see here? We need you to say some falsely wise cliché-strewn bullshit with all the earnestness you can muster! Don't worry, we're not asking you to comment on American football ...
No, the subject, as usual, is video games, anything that comes to mind. Today's TAYpic is courtesy of Sheows. You can get in on the fun, too. Grab the base image here, 'shop it up, and post it to the #TAYpics thread. Just keep it to 16:9 dimensons and, preferably, funny.
Ready? Omaha, Omaha! Red 21! Hut! Hut-hut! HUT!
Welcome to your Sunday read of the week's best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic.
I wasn't specifically planning on picking up ModNation Racers: Roadtrip when I collect my paid off PS Vita early start bundle from my local video game retailer next week, but when it's two in the morning and you can't find any blind sealed My Little Pony figures for your wife-figure you've got to buy something, right?
I'd imagine this was something Walmart meant to keep in the back room until system launch day, but with no chance of anyone purchasing the system beforehand I don't suppose selling a few games early is going to hurt anything. Especially when it's only ModNation. It's a fun game but I don't foresee an eBay-friendly shortage to arise.
Right then. *sets game on desk, stares at it until February 15*
Last week, a Nintendo 3DS owner unfortunately learned the wisdom of deleting all pictures of you smoking up before selling the thing. This made for an eminently teachable moment in the 'Shop Contest. We've got 19 winners plus overall No. 1 Idono inside!
First up, tonyp2121 (20) and christamofo (3) derive the origins of the two most recent WTF video game names coming out of Japan. JimThePea (10) takes another hit of Reggie; FF63 (5) goes completely off message with Mr. Bean. I'll allow it.
We had callbacks galore this week—jibla (9) gave us Ricky Lee Kalichun, aardvarkattack (1) supplied the obligatory Gabe Newell. Foxyshazam (6) turned me into a rastafarian with a huge ass pumpkin bong; Angryrider (2) apparently went and raided my most recent Twitpics.
Fan favorites: Cobaltios (4) went Epic Sax Guy on everyone; Pedro Silva (16) drew the obvious comparison to NARC, ruairidhcarmichael (18) freaks out and sticks the bong up his butt.
Overall winner? I go with Idono's (8) Cookie Monster. Yes, Cookie Monster already has a stoned expression, but he fits in so perfectly here. I also like the crop job. Looks like he really was celebrating getting baked on his own.
Thanks to all who participated. Another 'Shop Contest is on the way tomorrow.
Angryride
christamofo
Cobaltios
FF63
freeasabaird
Idono
jibla
JimThePea
krammali
Lemon_Nibs
madmangohan
MrEcko
pan1da7
Pedro Silva
Roy Salinas
ruairidhcarmichael
tonyp2121
A Taiwanese gaming site has posted cards detailing the movesets for characters Street Fighter X Tekken, due for release in March. The big news here is that the movesets confirm M. Bison, Xiaoyu, Akuma, Jin and Ogre for the game's lineup.
Bison and Xiaoyu were leaked out already, but not officially confirmed. Neither are any of these others, officially, but a listing of their movesets would seem to be good enough for most.
All of the movesets are available at Shoryuken, below.
SFxT Moveset Imges Confirm M. Bison, Akuma, Jin, Ogre, [Shoryuken]
In past years I've used the Saturday before the Super Bowl to handicap the field for the next cover of Madden NFL. Since the last time I did that, EA Sports put the honors up to a fan-voted, 32-player tournament in 2011, and on Thursday announced it was doubling that field to 64 for 2012.
That makes the job of prognosticating the cover star of Madden NFL 13 a little more time consuming and complex, but I'm up to it. Given what I know of this game, the league, and EA Sports' relationships with the NFL's top performers, here are my picks for the entire field of 64 when it is announced on March 7.
Madden NFL is the progenitor of the modern video game cover, both as a career honor and a marketing concept. It is the 21st century's Wheaties box. No other video game gets a fan base to argue or even care this much who ends up on its packshot.
In making my predictions below, known existing relationships with EA Sports' marketing operations carried the most weight, especially if the player appeared in last year's cover contest playoff. No prior association to Madden likewise counted against a player, especially if he is a longtime veteran. So-called skill positions on offense (receiver, running back, quarterback) have an advantage over defensive positions.
In short, a team's best, highest or mos decorated player —Eli Manning or Tom Brady, for example—may not be on this list. That's not its purpose. We're trying to guess who EA Sports has nominated, considering that if that person wins out, the two sides must be able to agree to some kind of contract terms.
This year's fan-voted contest will begin with a two-week "play-in" round matching players from the same team, to determine which one represents the franchise in the main draw. Once the play-in round is resolved, the entire bracket will be seeded.
As those matchups are unknown, I'm not prognosticating the entire tournament here, just who represents each team in the first and second rounds, and the winner's relative strength against the rest of the field.
Buffalo Bills: Receiver Steve Johnson fell in the first round of last year's cover vote. Absent any compelling alternative, he should return. The best top-of-mind alternative is quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, whose Harvard bio would make for a nice twist in the tale of this tournament.
• Picks: Fitzpatrick beats Johnson. Or the other way around. Neither goes past the first round.
Miami Dolphins: As thoroughly average as this team is, it does have a few names worthy of mention: wide receiver Brandon Marshall, and Reggie Bush, who held the cover of NCAA Football 2007. Lineman Jake Long was Miami's representative in last year's contest.
• Picks:Long and Bush, with Long winning out and going nowhere after that.
New England Patriots: Should be an easy call here. Danny Woodhead represented the team last year, prized for his personal story of being cut in the Jets' pre-season camp. If not Woodhead, all-pro receiver Wes Welker, and Rob Gronkowski, at tight end, just burst on the scene, too. Don't overlook BenJarvus Green-Ellis
• Picks: Woodhead and Welker have lost their appeal outside of the Hub. Go with Ellis and Gronk. Either will be stopped by by anti-Patriot backlash in the second round.
New York Jets: Quarterback Mark Sanchez may present a mixed bag in terms of results but he's the quarterback in a major media market and has solid ties to EA Sports, in both last year's contest and this last minute promotional video signaling the end of the lockout. LaDanian Tomlinson will probably retire; Santonio Holmes is a malcontent. Plaxico Burress almost shot his leg off in a night club. I think Darrelle Revis and EA have a promotional relationship—he's at least received a custom PS3 that the label sends out to its celebrity ambassadors.
• Picks: Sanchez and Revis, in the closest teammate matchup of the bracket, with Revis emerging.
Baltimore Ravens: Also an easy call here. Running back Ray Rice just won a vote-off to make the virtual cover of NFL Blitz. He also represented Baltimore last year. Future hall-of-fame linebacker Ray Lewis appeared on the cover of Madden NFL 2005 and has a good relationship with EA Sports (appearing on their behalf at E3 last summer).
• Picks: Lewis emerges on name recognition, but only goes as far as the final eight depending on seeding. Yeah, some people are going to make a stink about Lewis' involvement in an infamous double-murder case more than 10 years ago. (Charges were dropped; he was convicted of obstruction of justice.) They make a big stink about that any time he's mentioned.
Cincinnati Bengals: Lots of fresh faces on the Bengals make their two delegates a toss-up of a guess. I'm going with quarterback Andy Dalton and reciever A.J. Green, both rookies. There's no history working against either and a rookie QB/WR pairing is a neatly marketable concept.
• Picks: Dalton, by virtue of being a quarterback, may win a first-round matchup if he gets a favorable seeding.
Cleveland Browns: The only NFL franchise to mobilize a get-out-the-vote push for its candidate last year, don't dismiss the Browns Backers. They got Peyton Hillis on the Madden cover despite the most lackluster resume of any cover star at the time of selection. Hillis may not return to the team next year, thanks to both injury and a malcontent season that many fans found off-putting. He's also an unrestricted free agent coming into this season.
• Picks: All-pro offensive lineman Joe Thomas is the field's Joe Lunchpail representative. Josh Cribbs makes the cut for his versatility and special teams dynamism. He's also under contract, which is a key distinction among any candidate on this team.
Pittsburgh Steelers: Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and linebacker James Harrison are basically ineligible here, given their past. That's fine, Hines Ward represented the team last year, and Troy Polamalu graced the cover of Madden NFL 10
• Picks: Ward's an obvious pick. And am I looking at Troy Polamalu's hair? No! Am I looking at Troy Polamalu's hair? Yes ...
Houston Texans: Running back Arian Foster was at Madden Bowl XVIII. Receiver André Johnson represented Houston in last year's bracket. They'll both rep the Texans this year, following the franchise's first playoff appearance.
• Picks: Foster wins in a rout, and has great appeal, name recognition, and fantasy football value. He is easily a final four pick across the entire tournament.
Indianapolis Colts: This is where it gets vexing. Last year, EA Sports tabbed defensive end Dwight Freeney but he could be gone next year if the Colts clean house, as is expected. Reggie Wayne was a candidate in EA Sports' first try at this, a three-way voteoff for the Madden NFL 11 cover. But he also just played the final year of his contract. Ditto Jeff Saturday, who's an offensive lineman to boot. Peyton Manning wouldn't be in the tournament even if he was healthy and signed. Andrew Luck can't be tapped until he's actually drafted. There are almost no good options.
• Picks: Receiver Pierre Garçon and tight endDallas Clark, with either getting blown out in the first round.
Jacksonville Jaguars: The Jaguars have one star, and it is all-pro running back Maurice Jones-Drew, who was in last year's Madden cover vote. Slim pickings after MJD though. Rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert? Montell Owens?
• Picks: Gonna go with MJD and Gabbert here. I don't know a thing about the Jaguars after those two gentlemen. Neither does most of America.
Tennessee Titans: Another easy pairing. Chris Johnson is their most recognizable star, at running back, and appeared in the cover vote last year. Backup quarterback Jake Locker, a rookie first-round draft pick, was in the NCAA Football 12 cover vote. I'd love it if Cortland Finnegan made the field. No way in hell that happens, not with Andre Johnson representing Houston.
• Picks: Chris Johnson trounces Locker but after that, wins one round at best, depending on seeding.
Denver Broncos: As I have written, if Tim Tebow is in this tournament, then it's Tebow's tournament to lose. Whatever you think of him as a person or player, he was unquestionably one of the NFL's most visible performers and compelling stories this past season. While he faces a considerable anti-vote, he also has enormous name recognition and should have sizeable get-out-the-vote backing. And churches won't lose their tax-exempt status if they tell their congregations to go vote for this man.
• Picks: Tebow will be joined by linebacker Von Miller. Tebow bulldozes to the final round, at least, and if he gets that far I can't imagine him losing to anyone else in this field.
Kansas City Chiefs: An unfortunate ACL tear cost Jamaal Charles practically all of the 2011 season. It would be too strange to vote on a guy coming back from a career-threatening injury, and I doubt he'd agree to participate for those reasons, too. That leaves a very bare cupboard for the Chefs.
• Picks: Matt Cassel did work for another football game. Kyle Orton was a midseason pickup, cast off from the Broncos. I'm searching for a good pairing here, so I'll go with former LSU teammates Dwayne Bowe (wide receiver) and Glenn Dorsey (defensive line).
Raida Organization: As a former NCAA Football cover star, and last year's representative, Darren McFadden is a lock here. Don't laugh, but Carson Palmer was on the cover of NCAA Football 2004. That may be ancient history, though.
• Picks: McFadden and receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey. Whatever his opposition, McFadden wins out and wins one round, tops.
San Diego Chargers: Total no-brainer pairing here. Quarterback Philip Rivers, who was a No. 1 seed last year in the bracket's toughest region. Tight end Antonio Gates has a strong promotional history with EA Sports.
• Picks: Rivers beats his favorite target and wins two rounds, depending on where he's seeded. The Chargers failed to reach the playoffs a second straight year and are a franchise in turmoil. Rivers didn't have a great season, costing him the fantasy-owner vote. Hard to see either getting far despite their big names.
Dallas Cowboys: DeMarcus Ware represented the team last year and should return. Tony Romo is another big-name quarterback who would have gotten involved before now if he was interested, so he's out. As for second options, DeMarco Murray was in the NCAA 12 cover contest. He had a reasonable year for a rookie, but isn't the team's first option at running back. The alternatives are guys like Dez Bryant or Felix Jones. Jason Witten appeared in Quickhit NFL, likely ruling him out.
• Picks: Ware, and I'll hold my nose and take Murray, as it won't really matter who the No. 2 option is here. It also won't matter who the No. 1 option is. Everyone hates the Cowboys, and their representative gets voted off the island in round one.
New York Giants: Again, Eli Manning would have been on the cover by now if he had any intention of doing so, so he is out. It's hard not to like a pairing of the Giants' eye-catching wide receivers, Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz, the latter of whom has a great Horatio Alger story and just played a breakout year. Jason Pierre-Paul is a fine option, but defensive players didn't do well in last year's voting.
• Picks: The receivers, with Nicks winning the play-in and lasting one round, tops.
Philadelphia Eagles: Despite all his baggage, Michael Vick reached the final round of last year's cover vote with EA Sports none the worse for wear. There's no reason not to bring him back this year. He'll be paired with receiver DeSean Jackson, who has appeared in Madden promotions before.
• Picks: Vick beats Jackson, but coming off a weaker season, won't make it as far as he did last year. Wins two rounds, tops.
Washington Redskins: GEICO tried its damndest all year to make Brian Orakpo a household name, in an advertisement that should win Orakpo's agent a lifetime achievement award. The rest of the country doesn't know who the hell he is, but he did represent the Shanaclan in last year's cover vote and there's no better option on this sad bunch.
• Picks: Orakpo and linebacker Ryan Kerrigan, who had a solid rookie season out of Purdue, with a big game-changing interception against the Giants in the Sept. 11 season opener.
Chicago Bears: Running back Matt Forte was on the blue carpet at Madden Bowl XVIII, so he's a lock to represent the Bears. Julius Peppers was the Bears' representative in last year's field. No reason to go against the grain here.
• Picks: Forte wins out and loses in the first round.
Detroit Lions: This is tricky because I don't know what kind of relationship, if any, EA Sports has with Matt Stafford or if they're working on bringing in Calvin Johnson. Obviously, if they have access to Megatron, he becomes a solid favorite to win it all, but if EA Sports had anything going with him, he would have been down on Madden Bowl's blue carpet. Ndamukong Suh represented the Lions in last year's tournament, but the league may have a problem with someone it's repeatedly fined appearing on the cover of its official video game. Not that either he or Nick Fairley would get very far. Fairley was in the four-man field vying for the NCAA Football 12 cover last year, but he is Suh's backup and was practically anonymous in his rookie season.
• Picks: Suh prevails over someone we haven't heard from yet, like Jahvid Best at running back, who spent about half of the season on the injured list. But unless Stafford or Johnson get into the act, Detroit is one-and-done in the tournament, just like it was in the playoffs this year.
Green Bay Packers: With Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews Jr. involved in Madden NFL 12's promotion, there's no reason to believe they wouldn't be in the field here—unless EA Sports doesn't pass Rodgers' discount double-check, now that he's a huge endorsement figure. If the quarterback doesn't sign up, I'd pee my pants if they got Greeeeeeg Jennnnnnnnings to do it.
• Picks: I'm gonna go with my heart over my head and say Matthews and Jennings, not Rodgers. Jennings is an immensely likeable person, has been a great sport about his notoriety in Demetry James' video, and EA Sports itself has no problem referencing it, as evidenced by the "Put Da Team on Your Back," achievement in Madden NFL 12. EA Sports wants stories it can sell through this tournament, and Jennings' makes him a very dangerous competitor. Also a deeply religious man, Jennings would be the only one who could take down Tebow in the final round, splitting the Christian vote and picking up mainstream fans who love the Packers and/or that video. I say he at least makes the final four.
Minnesota Vikings: The Vikes' representative last year was Adrian Peterson and he tore his ACL on Christmas Eve. Absent that he'd be one of the top four contenders in this field. Peterson may not want to be up for a Madden cover in a rehab season, and EA Sports may not want to put him up to such an awkward situation. That leaves Jared Allen as the leading representative. The defensive lineman was in the 2010 vote-off against Wayne and Drew Brees and appeared in this pre-season promotion for Madden NFL 12. No reason he shouldn't return.
• Picks: Allen and punter Chris Kluwe. If any active pro football player truly connects with video gamers, it's Kluwe, a World of Warcraft devotee who also turned Peterson on to Magic: The Gathering. He'd be a great novelty selection, especially considering anyone other than Peterson would lose to Allen.
Atlanta Falcons: The clear choices are quarterback Matt Ryan, who was in the 2011 cover playoff, and wide receiver Roddy White who was a candidate for NFL Blitz's virtual cover back in December.
• Picks: Ryan wins the play-in. His problem is Atlanta fans have a deservedly fair-weather reputation. With no get-out-the-vote muscle, the semifinals are as far as Ryan advances even given his name recognition and marquee position.
Carolina Panthers: Quarterback Cam Newton is the most visible Panther. He wouldn't have represented the franchise in last year's vote because it had yet to draft him. That said, he didn't have any association with NCAA Football in the one year he'd have been expected to (insert joke about $180,000 demands here.) It's more likely that he's not in the field, but I wouldn't rule him out. Steve Smith, the franchise's all-time leading receiver is the only other obvious choice, but if he wasn't in last year's field, why would he be in this year's?
• Picks: Newton's in Indianapolis as a celebrity coach for the annual beach-football tournament, so if he and EA Sports were involved, he'd have been at least scheduled to appear in Madden Bowl's celebrity crowd. Outside of him, this is the most anonymous team in the field. Jordan Gross, an offensive lineman, represented the franchise in last year's tournament, so let's say he returns. Assuming Smith and Newton aren't involved, the hell with it, I'll pick the pride of Appalachian State, Armanti Edwards. I don't think running back Jonathan Stewart or tight ends Jeremy Shockey or Ben Hartsock have what EA Sports wants.
New Orleans Saints: EA Sports has several options here. Tight end Jimmy Graham was just at Madden Bowl XVIII, teaming with quarterback Drew Brees to win the celebrity tournament. Brees was featured on the cover of Madden NFL 11, was in the cover playoff last year, and has a great relationship with the label. If he wants to sit this out, there's always running back Mark Ingram, who was on the cover of NCAA Football 12 and also won a four-way fan vote for the honor, thanks to Alabama's fan base.
• Picks: Brees and Ingram, with Brees emerging. No one's been on the cover twice, and no one has been on the cover of em>Madden and NCAA Football in consecutive years. Both are easily marketable stories. But after a record-breaking year, Brees would be considered at least a darkhorse candidate to win it all, with only his previous appearance working against him with egalitarian-minded voters.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: After missing the playoffs at 10-6 in 2010, good things were expected of the Bucs in 2011. They didn't happen. There are plenty of damaged goods here as a result. No way in hell Albert Haynesworth gets a look. The Bucs had one Pro Bowl pick, an offensive lineman, so forget that, too. Josh Freeman at quarterback, is the team's de facto face. After him, there's really only Kellen Winslow, Jr.
• Picks: Freeman and Winslow, with Freeman prevailing and losing early.
Arizona Cardinals: Receiver Larry Fitzgerald shared the Madden NFL 10 cover, represented the team last year, and is as good a pick here as any in the field. Patrick Peterson just completed an electrifying Pro Bowl rookie year in which he returned four punts for a touchdown, tying him for a single-season record. His sensational 99-yard return to win in overtime against St. Louis is one of the year's greatest highlights.
• Picks: Fitzgerald and Peterson, with Fitzgerald winning out. He can win three rounds with favorable seeding.
San Francisco 49ers: Linebacker Patrick Willis is a shoo-in, as a dominant performer, an NFL Blitz cover candidate, and the Niners' representative last year. After Willis, it's tight end Vernon Davis or running back Frank Gore.
• Picks Davis prevails and wins one round at the most.
St. Louis Rams: Quarterback Sam Bradford, injured for much of 2011, may not return to the cover tournament. The best available players after Bradford are Chris Long and Steven Jackson.
• Picks: Bradford and Jackson, either bowing out in the first round.
Seattle Seahawks: Don't expect the gimmicky 12th Man to reappear this year, although Marshawn Lynch may be unavailable for money, personality, or a combination of the two. Outside of Lynch, the best options are receivers Golden Tate or Mike Williams. Cornerback Marcus Trufant was injured while the season was barely underway.
• Picks: Seattle's about as dire a situation as Carolina or Indianapolis. Take Lynch and Tate, but it's a crapshoot for either. None wins a single round.
Have you heard that video is a big thing over at Gawker Media? It's true, we watch and post a lot of videos each week. Here are some of the best videos of week, culled from an array of Gawker Media sites.
For Kristen Bell's 31st birthday, fiancé Dax Shepard decided to surprise her with a visit from her favorite animal, the sloth. The excitement of the introduction was too much for Kristen to handle and ended up sending her into a complete emotional breakdown. The whole thing caught on tape is truly something to behold. I mean, who would have known that Veronica Mars was such a softie?. View »
Did you guys watch Luck on HBO last night? Did you fall asleep like I did? Well, if you tuned in you saw the most exciting thing before the show even started: a new trailer for Game of Thrones. View »
It's apparently the '80s all over again, with Doc Brown's "Back To The Future" DeLorean now joining Ferris Bueller in this leaked Bud Light Super Bowl ad spot. Great Scot! View »
It's only halfway through the abbreviated NBA season, so I'm hesitant to dub anything dunk of the year. But here it is, dunk of the year-and of course it's from Blake Griffin. Kendrick Perkins's family requests no flowers be sent. View »
A Cessna 172B pilot in Mexico had to save his plane after his airplane propeller detached in flight. Yes, detached. Plonk. You can see the action from the cockpit in this video, including the exhilaration and relief of the passengers at the end. View »
Last week the world wondered what Matthew Broderick was up to in a short ten-second teaser clip on YouTube where he appeared to be playing Ferris Bueller, the character from his famous flick "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." View »
Mitt Romney appeared on CNN's Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien this morning to gloat over yesterday's win in Florida and instead told her he doesn't care about poor people. Romney said his "current focus is not on the poor" as "we have a safety net there," and he instead plans to focus on all those suffering members of the middle-class. View »
In addition to his love of saturated colors, precocious children and Bill Murray, Wes Anderson really enjoys stylized shots from above. See evidence here. View »
Brant Widgeon, an Astronomical Image Enhancement Engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center*, explains his experience creating all those amazing space images that leave the entire world in awe. What the entire world doesn't know is how they are really created. View »
This whole video of teens dancing at a Hong Kong Apple store is entertaining. But go to around 1:06 and check out the moves of the girl in white. Her face is like the face someone would make while carving an ice block into a statue of a machine gun, with a chainsaw. View »
This is a video of 'The Stuntbusters' - Speed TV's artisanal automotive show that I think just sets crap on fire - blow up and flip what looks like a 1974-1980 MG Midget 1500 at 1000 frames per second. View »
I'm a sucker for these multiple-track music videos. This guy is Nick McKaig, and he's extremely good at reproducing songs using just his voice. Here's the proof: the Simpsons' theme sung a capella. View »
UConn, America's foremost institution of sports riots and male rage, is in uproar after student-run (and student-funded) television network UCTV aired a sketch comedy segment that depicted a crying girl using a blue-light phone while fleeing a possible rapist. As she attempts to escape, the robotic blue-light voices call her a "cock gobbler," a "stinky bitchy," a "blonde bitch," and a "howler monkey bitch" who is "crying rape." The sketch ends with the girl falling to the ground after her attacker strangles her in a dark parking lot. View »
We are familiar with the James O'Keefe of today, certainly, what about the O'Keefe of yesterday? Before he was a fugitive, professional ambusher and rabble-rouser, James O'Keefe led the life of a simple teen-aged student, wandering aimlessly through the halls of his high school humming "Life is a Highway." View »
You ever look at a race car driver's neck and wonder why they're usually so thick? Watch this video of a woman trying to keep her head in one place while being battered around the Abu Dhabi Yas Marina track in a two-seat Formula One car. Whiplash! View »
While I'm hesitant to praise ESPN First Take blowhard Stephen A. Smith for anything, an exception can be made for moments of distinguished valor-or at least doing something every single one of us has wanted to do on multiple occasions, like flipping Skip Bayless the bird. Last week Terrell Suggs called Bayless a douchebag, which means we're on a bit of a roll here. Maybe next week will bring the words to Skip Bayless on which we've been waiting far too long: "You're fired." View »
NASA said that their Blue Marble 2012 was "the most amazing image of Earth ever." Now they have released the other half, answering to popular demand. View »
How sweet of Teleflora to remind us ladies, just in case we forgot how gift-giving works, that we are obligated to have sex with our man if he does anything nice for us this Valentine's Day... Honestly, they fucked this thing up so badly that I think they owe themselves a bouquet! View »
Now that Stephen Colbert is no longer running for the President of the United States of South Carolina, he went to retrieve his Super PAC (and its money) from Jon Stewart. But Stewart wasn't going to give it up without a fight. Tonight's Colbert Report opened with their long and arduous chase. Here it is. View »
[Image via Shutterstock]
That there is a custom toy scene by Donald Kennedy, an artist recently featured in iam8bit's store. I can't tell if the subject of the examination is supposed to be Toad or Peach. Either way, Dr. Mario seems set to earn his pornstache.
Kennedy is now running a giveaway, if you can put this on a bookshelf without getting slapped. Run over to his site, kodykoala.com, and leave a comment on this post with a suggestion for his next toy subject. Don't think too hard, the winner will be chosen at random and named on Feb. 27. For those overseas, yes you are eligible. Donald says he'll ship anywhere.
Brainstorm With Me and Win a Custom [Donald Kennedy]
Last summer PC peripheral maker Razer introduced the world to the Razer Blade, a device CEO Min-Liang Tan boldly described as "the world's first gaming laptop." Well now the world's first gaming laptop is in my dining room. Let's open this baby up, shall we?
Of course we shall.
As the Blade's promised Christmas release came and went without a unit shipping, I started to wonder if this $2,800 dedicated gaming machine would ever see the light of day.
Now that it's in my dining room I can't say it'll get much sun, but it will definitely get a vigorous going over before Razer pries it forcibly out of my hands. Good luck with that, Razer. They told me investing in an automatic turret defense system was silly, but I'll show them.
Look for my initial impressions of the Blade on Monday, after I've had some time to futz about with the unit, and should you want a specific game tested out with the system, drop it in comments and I'll see what I can do.
Protip: Aluminum foil is only useful for protecting you from the mind-controlling radio signals sent out by the CIA. If you're using it to shoplift games, all it does is attract the attention of the store manager.
Tabatha Edington, 23, of Prescott, Ariz., (pictured) just learned this the hard way. Cops say she tried to make off with nine new PlayStation 3 games by wrapping them in aluminum foil, presumably to defeat the scanners located at the store entrance.
Thing is, store managers are paid to notice things like people wrapping merchandise in aluminum foil and then putting them in a paper bag in her shopping cart. Cops met up with Edington, the two sides briefly embraced, and now she is in the slammer.
Edington, who "yelled profanities and was uncooperative," is looking at felony burglary charges, of all things, for stealing nine games valued at $593.79. That's an average price of $65.97, meaning at least one was a special edition. My money's on it being Madden NFL 12.
Woman in Jail for Allegedly Trying to Steal Games [The Daily Courier]
North American subscribers to Battle.net, check your inboxes—and your spam box, in case its settings are too strict. Blizzard sent out another 100,000 invitations to the Diablo III beta overnight.
This message comes with a cautionary warning: phishers try to take advantage of this crap all the time, so be sure that anything you click is indeed from Blizzard or links to a legitimate Blizzard domain before you provide your login information. This is especially true if your Battle.net password is the same as any other you use elsewhere.
If you didn't get a beta key, don't worry, there will be another round of invitations in the future.
In an email to PlayStation Network subscribers, Sony told subscribers that their PlayStation Network accounts will now be known as "Sony Entertainment Network" accounts. Not that this does away with PlayStation Network as a name. Sony says PSN "will be aligned with Sony Entertainment Network."
It's a purely cosmetic change, in other words and, no, it has no effect on either your PSN login, password or anything. "This transition is based on Sony's goal to enhance its unique digital entertainment offering," Sony said in an email to subscribers. "This helps us get closer to our goal of establishing a global comprehensive network platform of services across games, movies, music and more, all accessible from one convenient account."
Notably, PSN accounts on the PSP will not be given the name change.
The rebranding will take effect in the next software update for the PS3, due to roll out Feb. 8.
The action RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning releases on Tuesday, bringing with it damn near 200 hours worth of gameplay. You don't have to get it full price, either, there are savings on the console and PC versions of the game, plus more than 58 other values, inside this weekend's Moneysaver!
• Feb. 7 release Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (360, PS3) is $44.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $60. PC Download is $50.99 at Amazon. Steam is $60. [Dealzon]
• Mar. 6 release MLB 12: The Show (PS3) is $47.99, free shipping from NewEgg through Sunday. Next best is $57. [Dealzon]
• Feb. 7 release The Darkness 2 (360, PS3) is $59.99 and comes with a $10 bonus credit from Amazon. PC Download is $42.49 from Amazon. Steam is $50. [Dealzon]
• No real discount on Feb. 7 release Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition: (360, PS3) $49.69 from Deep Discount up to $49.99 elsewhere, (PC) $39.99 everywhere. [Dealzon]
• Tuesday's release Final Fantasy XIII-2 (360, PS3) still comes with a $20 bonus credit for $59.99 at Amazon. [Dealzon]
• Tuesday's release Soul Calibur V (360, PS3) is still $49.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $58. [Dealzon]
• Dynasty Warriors 7 (360, PS3) is $39.99, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $57. [Dealzon]
• Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (PC, Mac) is $38.73, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $50. [Dealzon]
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Wii) is $29.99, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $39. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are still $39.99 plus $3 shipping from Gamestop. [Dealzon]
• Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (360, PS3) is $29.99, free shipping from Amazon. Best Buy has for $30, elsewhere $37 and up. [Dealzon]
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift (PS3) is $15.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $25. [Dealzon]
• Feb. 7 release Shank 2 (PC Download) is $8.99 from Amazon, a buck off list price of $9.99. [Dealzon]
• Risen (PC Download) is $5.99 from Amazon. Next best is $30. [Dealzon]
• Xbox 360 Live 12-Month Gold Subscription Card is $35.99, free shipping from Microsoft. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]
• Corsair Vengeance 1500 Gaming Headset is $74.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $93. [Dealzon]
• Tritton Detonator Xbox 360 Headset is $49.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $60. [Dealzon]
• Power A Air Flo Xbox 360 Wired Controller is $29.99, free shipping from Amazon. Next best is $45. [Dealzon]
• Planar 27-inch PX2710MW 1080p 2ms LCD Monitor is $239.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $270. [Dealzon]
• Samsung 27-inch S27A550H 1080p 2ms LED Monitor (Refurbished) is $239, free shipping from Buy.com. Next best is $261. [Dealzon]
• Asus 24-inch VE248H 1080p 2ms LED Monitor is $179.99, free shipping from Buy.com. Next best is $194. [Dealzon]
• Asus 23.6-inch VE247H 1080p 2ms LED Monitor is $149.99, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $178. [Dealzon]
• Toshiba Qosmio X775 17.3-inch laptop with Core i5-2450M, 6GB RAM, GeForce GTX 560M is $1,054.95 with free shipping from BuyDig.com. That's cheapest ever by $44 and $95 off the next best price of $1,150. [Dealzon]
• This week Lenovo released a new IdeaPad Y470p 14-inch laptop configuration with Core i5-2450M, 6GB RAM, and new Radeon HD 7690. The $200 coupon code drops the price from $949 to $749. [Dealzon]
The following listing of digital download bargains are grouped by distributor. For more, see Deals4Downloads' roundup.
Adventure Shop
• Agon - The Lost Sword of Toledo Deluxe Edition is $9.74, save 35 percent.
• NiBiRu is $12.99, save 35 percent.
Amazon
• Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition is $7.49, save 75 percent.
• Dragon Age 2 is $4.99, save 75 percent.
• Silent Hunter V: Battle of the Atlantic is $12.35, save 59 percent.
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Standard Edition is $14.99, save 50 percent.
• BioShock 2 is $10.73, save 46 percent.
DLGamer
• Patrician IV - GOLD Edition is $14.99, save 50 percent.
GameFly
• Bulletstorm is $5.99, save 70 percent.
• Dead Space 2 is $14.99, save 50 percent.
• Black Mirror II - Reigning Evil is $9.99, save 50 percent.
GamersGate
• ArmA Gold Edition is $9.95, save 60 percent.
• Tom Clancy's Collection is $24.99, save 50 percent.
• ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead is $19.95, save 50 percent.
• Assassin's Creed Complete Collection is $79.95, save 50 percent.
• Achron is $14.99, save 50 percent.
• Sports and Manager Pack is $19.95, save 43 percent.
Get Games
• Dungeon Siege III is $9.99, save 75 percent.
• Infernal is $2.49, save 75 percent.
• Mini Ninjas is $7.49, save 75 percent.
GMG
• Nuclear Dawn is $12.37, save 50 percent.
• Virtual Families is $6.79, save 48 percent.
GOG
• All King's Quest, Police Quest & Space Quest titles are 50 percent. off.
Impulse
• Age of Empires III: Complete Collection is $19.99, save 50 percent.
• Blood Bowl Legendary Edition is $19.99, save 50 percent.
iTunes Store
• MADDEN NFL 12 by EA SPORTS (iPhone) is $0.99, save 80 percent.
• Inotia 3: Children of Carnia (iPhone) is $0.99, save 80 percent.
• Grand Prix Story (iPhone) is $0.99, save 75 percent.
Mac App Store
• Zombie Revenge (Mac) is $1.99, save 67 percent.
• Emperor - Kaiser (Mac) is $0.99, save 50 percent.
Microsoft Xbox Live
• The Sims Medieval is $24.99, save 50 percent.
Steam
• All Warhammer 40k games are 66 percent. off.
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is $16.99, save 66 percent.
• Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II Gold Edition is $10.19, save 66 percent.
• Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War - Gold Edition is $6.79, save 66 percent.
Kotaku thanks our coupon partners for providing these and other great deals. Be sure to bookmark and search their Kotaku hashtags (#dealzon, #deals4downloads and #dealtaku) for updates throughout the week. Further, to our friends across the pond and north of the border, check the #ukdeals, #europedeals and #canadadeals hashtags and be sure to flag any deals you might have with that.
As always, smart gamers can find values any day of the week, so if you've run across a deal, share it with us in the comments.
Stephen Toulouse—known as StepTo to those listening to Major Nelson's podcast, or unfortunate enough to feel the cold kiss of the Xbox Live banhammer—has given his two weeks notice to Microsoft. The director of Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement will leave Feb. 16, after 18 years with the company.
On his personal blog, Toulouse calls the separation amicable, but says he's leaving for "complex and personal reasons."
We'll remember StepTo as the face of Xbox Live enforcement; vowing swift justice for Modern Warfare cheaters; hilariously reading from "The Book of Enforcement" at PAX 2009; backing up The Pro in his epic clash with a 12-year-old shitbag; and suffering hack attacks and hack attempts from scores of butthurt trolls that Microsoft expunged from Xbox Live during his tenure.
In a statement to Joystiq, Microsoft confirmed the departure and thanked Toulouse "for his years of contribution." No plans for his successor were discussed. We also thank Sgt. StepTo for his service, and wish him well.
In Which I Leave Microsoft [Stephen Toulouse via Joystiq.]
Believe it or not, that bed is not actually a murder scene! It's a thing that someone with super-amazing taste and instincts thinks you'll want to buy.
Hello there friendly Kotaku readers. It's been a long, fun week. Have you had fun? I sure have. We announced our four new team members, and I for one am so damned excited to start working with all of them. They start next week!
At any rate, welcome to the open thread. Here, from the internet, are some things that are worth checking out and maybe gabbing about. Or maybe not.
And that's that. Have good chatting, and I hope you have a fantastic weekend. See y'all next week.
You care not for the needless expense of classic shooter Rayforce, or the under-delivering action of One Epic Game. You've not heeded the sweet siren call of Puzzlejuice, with its punishing mix of Tetris and Boggle. Perhaps the odd Android gamer has lost his or herself in Osmos HD, but that's old hat to iOS gamers.
Nah, their playing Kingdom Rush. I can smell it on them. And now that it's the weekend I might just join them.
Dirty kingdom rushers!
If you have a suggestion for an app for the iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows Phone 7 that you'd like to see highlighted, let us know.
Rayforce was first released in Japanese arcades in 1993-when I was fifteen. The game is now out on the iOS. For $11.99. More »
That it took so long for PC, MAC, and iOS masterpiece Osmos to reach Android devices is a tiny bit of suck which absorbs smaller sucks until it's the biggest suck of them all. The Ubersuck, if you will, master of all that sucks. More »
Peanut butter and chocolate. Trenchcoats and cyberpunk. Some great-tastes-that taste great-together are obvious. At first blush, the Tetris-and-Scrabble fusion that Puzzlejuice presents doesn't look like it's going to be appetizing at all. But, the indie iOS release winds up being one of the most delicious mash-ups ever. More »
One of the first stories of infatuation that I heard about the iPad game Kingdom Rush involved a man and a woman who were in love with each other and in love with Kingdom Rush. More »
Having reviewed the likes of Matt Hazzard: Blood, Bath and Beyond, I was prepared to dislike One Epic Game, a platformer set in, let's see here, yes, "an alien invasion right in the middle of a zombie outbreak in a fantasy kingdom somewhere in a post-apocalyptic wasteland." That's from a cutscene. "With World War II also involved somehow." More »
Earlier this week, the official Madden NFL 12 simulation of Super Bowl XLVI took both the underdog and the under for the first time in the past nine years, calling the New York Giants as 27-24 winners over the New England Patriots. A simulation run on dearly departed Madden nemesis NFL 2K5 returned the opposite result.
Operation Sports community member VLN13 predicts a 45-31 track meet and New England's fourth Super Bowl title. The simulation used a custom roster file updated to present times, a copy of NFL 2K5 (console not specified) and playing eight-minute quarters. All other settings were unknown.
VLN13 acknowledged the simulation has some problems he can't correct. One is that the teams kick off from the 30 (instead of the 35, a rule implemented this year.) The other is the way in which offensive gameplans have changed dramatically, even in the past eight years. There isn't much of a screen pass game available in NFL 2K5. It also doesn't account for the heavier pass rush encountered today, which places the Giants at an unfair disadvantage.
Still, you dance with who brung ya. In VLN13's sim, New York scored first after picking off Brady, but New England quickly answered. The Giants surged to a 17-7 lead before Brady lobbed a 48-yard bomb to, of all receivers, Julian Edelman, and go into the half down 17-14. The second half was all Patriots, though, and New England won in a rout that was over by the beginning of the fourth quarter.
NFL 2K5 Super Bowl 46 Sim [Operation Sports]
This week Harris was really on fire—a whole grab-bag of games, with some spectacular shots from Zeno Clash, Fuel Total War: Shogun 2s. Let's dig in.
First up, up top we have:
Hot damn, that is an awesome shot of the desert in Fuel. Wow.
Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering (windowed), antialiasing (4xMSAA, 2x transparency supersampling, injected FXAA w/ texture presharpening), restored developer menus, vignette effect disabled, no-HUD, free camera.
Another great wide-angle shot from Fuel. This game really does deserve the benefit of a good cameraman.
Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering (windowed), antialiasing (4xMSAA, 2x transparency supersampling, injected FXAA w/ texture presharpening), restored developer menus, vignette effect disabled, no-HUD, free camera.
Yeah, it follows that we'd get at least one more great Bioshock shot after last week. Don't look so glad to see me, Little Sister.
Tools and tricks: antialiasing (FXAA), Post Process Injection DLL w/ pre-sharpening for texture and post-sharpening for image, high-performance ambient occlusion, 2160p rendering, no-HUD, custom FOV, noclip, timestop.
A great shot from Zeno Clash, a game I know unfortunately little about.
Tools and tricks: no-HUD, viewmodel removed, Valve demo recorder, custom FOV, 2160p rendering, antialiasing (8x MSAA + 2x transparency supersampling).
The first of several epic shots from Total War: Shogun 2.
Tools and tricks: unrestricted camera, 2160p rendering, antialiasing (injected ‘ultra-quality' SMAA), HUD removed in Photoshop.
Another shot from Zeno Clash that actually reminds me of a level I just played in Resident Evil: Revelations.
Tools and tricks: no-HUD, viewmodel removed, Valve demo recorder, custom FOV, 2160p rendering, antialiasing (8x MSAA + 2x transparency supersampling).
Another kickass shot from Total War: Shogun 2. As Harris puts it, "RTS rendering has reached a point where zooming out to anything remotely playable feels like a retreat."
Tools and tricks: unrestricted camera, 2160p rendering, antialiasing (injected ‘ultra-quality' SMAA), HUD removed in Photoshop.
Here come death, in Total War: Shogun 2.
Tools and tricks: unrestricted camera, 2160p rendering, antialiasing (injected ‘ultra-quality' SMAA), HUD removed in Photoshop.
A nice-looking one-off shot from Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2010.
Tools and tricks: 2160p rendering, antialiasing (4xMSAA + 4xSGSSAA), Racer_S camera and HUD hack, in-game Photo Mode.
After watching the Grosjean Brothers' hilarious Skyrim 2012 sequel, I decided to re-roll and create "Gregethor," in the image of their friend Greg, who plays the distant descendant of Whiterun's sleazy merchant, Belethor (that picture, above, is of the two meeting). As Belethor is a Breton, I chose that race for my Gregethor, and that made going the mage route more sensible. I decided to play it loosely like old D&D—no armor, but I allowed myself the use of one-handed weapons and, of course, a bow (until I acquired firebolt.) I'm going up the destruction power tree, with some attention to enchanting and alchemy.
I know this is the Super Bowl weekend and at halftime, everyone either gets up and takes a dump or plays Madden. I'll probably duck back into Winterhold to clear off some sundry quests and sell loot before catching the second half. That's what I'm playing. What are you playing this weekend?
Halo: Primordium, by Greg Bear, released just after the new year, and if you're curious what the book's all about, Macmillan has provided Kotaku with this five minute clip from the novel's audiobook version.
Narrating this clip is Tim Dadabo, the voice of 343 Guilty Spark.
These days, it can seem as though every Facebook game-title ends in -ville. So thank God for Telaxo, whose game Ball Separation stands out from the sack... I mean pack.
Truly, this game looks like it swings free! I hear that Facebook gamers the world over are just nuts for it. It looks like one of the real jewels of the social gaming space, and whether you play with your left hand or your right, you'll get a firm hold on its mechanics in no time flat.
Heat up some water, drop in a teabag, and get ready for some hang-loose fun.
Ball Separation [Appdata Page via Ferricide]
Join me as I take a trip through my favorite new feature of Final Fantasy XIII-2, monster recruitment, snag a couple of rare creatures, and witness the beginning of a legend that will never die. Well, probably never die. More »
There have been a lot of stories about game-cloning flying around lately, from Zynga's cloning of Nimblebit's popular iOS game Tiny Tower to Spry Fox's lawsuit against 6waves for cloning Triple Town. More »
Riffing on the Family Research Council's outrage over same-sex NPC relationships in Star Wars: The Old Republic, talk show host Conan O'Brien and team cobble together some footage of the science fantasy franchise's most famous gay couples. More »
While speaking with Gamerzines, Mass Effect producer Mike Gamble suggested that "it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep your ME3 saves. ... Obviously I can't say anything, but it wouldn't be a bad idea." More »
Yesterday, we learned that the video game publisher THQ is sitting on 1.4 million unsold copies of uDraw, a hugely unsuccessful game designed around a tablet peripheral. uDraw was such a disastrous investment—it cost the publisher around $100 Million on production and lost revenue—that it is almost singlehandedly responsible for their dire financial straits. More »
YouTube user LiquidMyPhone found a very large soldier on the battlefield of Battlefield 3. We have no idea how to replicate this, but we would if we could. More »
Perhaps proving that you can have too much of a good thing, a recent total completion playthrough of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning clocked in at more than 200 hours, which has the lead designer wondering if maybe they might have overdone it a little. More »
Today, BioWare's community coordinator Chris Priestly posted the following to the BioWare forums:
Mass Effect fans have been asking for a comment on recent concerns over Mass Effect: Deception. We have been listening and have the below response on the issue.
The teams at Del Rey and BioWare would like to extend our sincerest apologies to the Mass Effect fans for any errors and oversights made in the recent novel Mass Effect: Deception. We are currently working on a number of changes that will appear in future editions of the novel.
We would like to thank all Mass Effect fans for their passion and dedication to this ever-growing world, and assure them that we are listening and taking this matter very seriously.
Certainly a win for fans of Mass Effect lore the world over, and not quite indicative of a coming dystopian future where novels are released just like video games.
Hopefully no more books need to be burned.
Del Ray and BioWare comment on Mass Effect: Deception [BioWare Forums via Phil Doyle]
QUOTE | "Xbox 720, PS4 must show a dramatic leap in quality."—Epic CEO Tim Sweeney discussing what he expects from the Xbox 720 and the PS4 in terms of graphics capability.
QUOTE | "Holy shit, now what?"—Kaz Hirai, new CEO of Sony corporation, on the challenges facing him in dealing with Sony's $2.89 billion loss for the year.
QUOTE | "Wii U hardware is still changing constantly."- Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi talking about what it's like developing a new title for the Wii U.
QUOTE | "We were looking at uDraw as a bridge to the digital future, and it turned out to be a plank that we walked off of."—Brian Farrell, CEO of THQ, in a candid moment when explaining THQ's dreadful financial results for the last quarter.
STAT | 35.7% – Kindle Fire's market share among Android tablets in January, making it the #1 Android tablet versus the Samsung Galaxy Tab's 35.6% market share.
QUOTE | "I give a compliment to one of our competitors."—John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, actually praising something that Activision did in creating the Call of Duty Elite subscription service.
QUOTE | "Xbox has effectively positioned itself to lead the way forward."—Scott Steinberg, game industry analyst and CEO of TechSavvy Global, discussing which console manufacturer has the best chance for the next generation.
QUOTE | "We are upgrading Nintendo to Super Mega Buy."—Asif A. Khan and Adam H. Kraus from Panoptic Management Consultants giving their reasons for why Nintendo stock is a great investment.
STAT | 38% – Percentage of Japanese adults that own a handheld gaming device as of October 2011, down from 42% in February 2011.
QUOTE | "Publishers don't reveal costs because the truth is that most still invest way too little."—Ed Del Castillo, president of Liquid Entertainment, talking about why game companies should reveal how much it costs to make a game.
STAT | $1 billion – Amount of revenue EA took in from digital products during the calendar year 2011, representing over 25% of their total revenue.
It's the back of the box for the new Wii game Rhythm Heaven Fever. Nintendo is selling the idea that the game isn't just fun to play, but that it's fun to watch.
There are many games that are fun for spectators. The Grand Theft Auto games have been good crowd-pleasers. Assassin's Creeds work well, too. Uncharteds. But not everything works. Ever try to get someone to watch a Zelda for a long time?
Here's what Rhythm Heaven Fever looks like, though you can't see what it looks like to watch someone play it, and that, I think is part of the fun they're talking about.
Which other games are so much fun to watch from the sidelines that that could be a selling point?
Join me as I take a trip through my favorite new feature of Final Fantasy XIII-2, monster recruitment, snag a couple of rare creatures, and witness the beginning of a legend that will never die.
Well, probably never die.
Since finishing the main story of Final Fantasy XIII-2 last weekend I've spent the majority of my time in the game hunting down any and all monsters I might have missed in my journeys. I blame the Pokémon franchise directly for my obsession; the slogan wasn't "You gotta catch most of them and then do something else" after all.
No, I will not rest until they are all caught, and with Square Enix promising more catchable critters via downloadable content I see no end of that quest in sight. I'm doomed to wander the world like some sort of fabled Chocobo.
The guys at ApertureVFX have put together this more-than-somewhat-awesome live-action take on the chaotic, visually disorienting gameplay of Battlefield 3.
It plays out almost exactly how you'd picture a real-life BF3 match looking, though I don't remember seeing quite so many pairs of sunglasses during my time playing the game. I'm not sure whether some of the funky lip-syncing is an intentional homage to the game, or whether the audio track just got messed up, but who really cares? It's a cool video, with some particularly good sound design, and a dramatic and emotional score by Colin Lawson.
Also, apparently, when you play Battlefield 3 in real life, you play it on a PS3. Who knew?
With those stories has come a fair amount of discussion—is cloning a bad thing? Should it be illegal? Where do we draw the line between inspiration and theft? Kill Screen Magazine co-founder Jamin Warren has put together an interesting, nuanced take on the situation. Cloning isn't an entirely bad thing on its own, he says, and if we can continue to increase literacy regarding who is responsible for video game ideas, the financial damage caused by a game-clone will be significantly diminished.
Warren begins by pointing out that copyright does not allow for the control of an idea, merely its expression. As an example, he says that you can copyright a song, which is an expression of a musical idea, but you can't copyright "the blues." For games, he uses Scrabble and Words with Friends as an example—the rules of Scrabble are not copyrighted, its look, branding, board and layout are.
Warren speaks on the matter with james Grimmelmann, an associate professor at New York Law School. Grimmelmann points out that games are difficult to copyright, since they exist on so many different levels of expression. Mechanics, in particular, are difficult to patent, because a patent has to express what makes the object in question of value to people. Where lies a game's entertainment value?
Most instances of game cloning don't actually involve stolen code—they're simply identical ideas created by designers who played popular games and built their own versions. An exception to this is the whole Spry Fox/6waves Triple Town mess, because 6waves did have access to Triple Town's code before breaking off talks to publish the game.
Back to the music analogy, this kind of thing happens all the time with songwriting and composition. Popular chord progressions have been cloned outright for a long time, and players would put their own melodies on top of them to create a "new" song. The chord progression for George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" is a prime example—while the song and its melody remain the property of Gershwin and his publisher, the chord progression, now just called "rhythm changes," is one of the post popular in jazz music and has served as the foundation for hundreds of songs since the original was published in 1930.
Warren also makes the argument that in some ways, cloning is good for the game industry. "Can you imagine a world in which one could take legal recourse for game mechanics being stolen?" he writes. "That would mean no more platformers after Super Mario Bros., no more first-person shooters after Doom, no more real-time strategy games after Command & Conquer."
Cloning also identifies good ideas, Warren says, and through their perpetuation allows them to flourish. In truth, "The problem isn't cloning. It's credit." Cloning, he argues, shows that game designers need stronger identities. If the public just knew which games were clones and which games were originals, they would naturally lean towards purchasing the original.
From the article:
There is, of course, a monetary penalty to cloning. A confused public chooses a game that looks or sounds like a popular title, and pulls money from an "original" title to its clone. In its complaint, Spry Fox is seeking more than $100,000 in damages and an alleged $500,000 in profits that its clone generated.
Again, this confusion points to a larger identity problem in games. They are still a faceless occupation, and the lack of personality around their creation makes cloning a more likely problem. Even many independent games, unmoored from the marketing constraints of majors, are marketed by title or by franchise, not by creator or by studio.
Have you heard of the film production company Asylum? You may know it for such blockbuster films as Transmorphers, The Da Vinci Treasure, and Snakes on a Train. Sound familiar? They are deliberate copies of popular films with cheap, lackluster special effects and tepid acting. Studio founder David Michael Latt told the New York Times:
"I'm not trying to dupe anybody," he says. "I'm just trying to get my films watched. Other people do tie-ins all the time; they're just better at being subtle about it. Another studio might make a giant robot movie that ties into the ‘Transformers' release and call it ‘Robot Wars.' We'll call ours ‘Transmorphers.' "
The point is that no one would mistake Asylum's films for actual blockbusters (in large part due to low-quality FX), but more importantly, the cultural literacy around film is much higher than it is for games. In other industries, copycats are identified as derivatives and aren't given the same credit as the original creators. Both live in the same ecosystem and both may be commercially successful, but only the originator is hailed by critics. The public understands a B-movie as a filmic trope. That's why Michael Bay doesn't feel the monetary pinch from cloners. The public knows his work and knows well enough to stay clear of impostors.
In the end, Warren argues that literacy is perhaps the clearest route to minimizing the damage caused by game-cloning. Rather than going after one another for clones, game designers should be targeting the institutions where "credit" is assigned for games and game ideas, e.g. schools, museums, and media outlets.
Cloning ideas is not a bad thing, he says, and in fact is in many ways a good, natural part of the creative process. The financial damage done by cloning, primarily felt through lost sales, could be undone significantly if the originators of great ideas are credited properly, as the public will gravitate towards their games rather than knock-offs. In much the same way as buyers still prefer authentic designer clothing to cheapo knock-offs, gamers will continue to prefer Minecraft and Mario to their countless imitators.
"An informed public is a powerful public," Warren writes, "and the only way to stop clones is to disgrace them. But that conversation only works if all who play games are onboard, not just those that make them."
Attack of the Clone Attackers [Kill Screen]
Riffing on the Family Research Council's outrage over same-sex NPC relationships in Star Wars: The Old Republic, talk show host Conan O'Brien and team cobble together some footage of the science fantasy franchise's most famous gay couples.
Of course the actual footage has nothing to do with the actual situation in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it's somewhat amusing nonetheless, especially for those of us that always felt Chewbacca got shafted in the whole Han Solo / Leia / Luke relationship triangle. Where's the Wookie love?
"Star Wars: The Old Republic" Is Same-Sextastic [Team Coco]
The annual peer-selected award will honor Spector's many contributions to the science and art of game development, from his early days working on TSR's Top Secret/S.I. and Origin's Ultima series to the creation of Deus Ex, widely considered one of the greatest PC games of all time. In the role-playing genre in particular Spector has been instrumental in opening new avenues of thought and design, paving the way for today's popular action role-playing hybrids.
As Meggan Scavio, general manager of GDC Events at UBM TechWeb, put it in the official announcement: "Warren, whose rarified, ‘big picture' thinking and ideals have done a great deal for the games industry, exemplifies the exact qualities that a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient should possess. In presenting him with this honor, we continue a tradition of highlighting individuals whose work stands as a benchmark for the next generation of developers."
Did I mention he also wrote DuckTales comic books?
Warren Spector will receive the prestigious award at the 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards next month at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
"Obviously I can't say anything," he said, "but it wouldn't be a bad idea."
Rock, Paper Shotgun's John Walker had some fun with this, floating theories about the meaning behind Gamble's statement—perhaps the save-game code contains some Great Untold Secret! Perhaps it is because the code has become self-aware and this would be tantamount to murder!
Maybe this calls for a more detailed analysis of Gamble's language. After all, "It's not a bad idea to keep your saves" is different from "It's a good idea to keep your saves." It's not a bad idea—if it were a bad idea to keep your saves, Gamble would have warned us. Therefore, we can conclude that it is safe to keep our Mass Effect 3 saves, that they won't corrupt or destroy our hard drives. Also, is it ever a bad idea to delete save games? Maybe he just means that it'll be good to keep in them in case we ever want to play Mass Effect 3 again.
Or, you know, it could just be that EA and BioWare are planning to make more games in their hugely successful, rapidly growing video game franchise rather than arbitrarily ending it forever after the third game. Time will tell!
Hang on to your Mass Effect 3 saves, suggests BioWare [GamerZines via Rock, Paper Shotgun]
Antonio Bolfo was an animator at Harmonix, working on video games such as Guitar Hero. Then, with the legacy of September 11 on his mind, he joined the New York Police Department. He started bringing a camera along and snapped photos of the police at work. And then he left the force and made photography his main gig.
The New York Times ran some of his best photos today. Take a look. The work is magnificent.
On the Beat: With a Gun and a Camera [The New York Times]
In case Kirk Hamilton's preview of The Witcher 2 on the Xbox left you with unanswered questions about the 360 remake, here's CD Projekt with a professionally produced video filled with colorful lights, sounds, and people talking about making the game.
Yep, nothing like a highly-polished marketing movie to show us exactly where a game stands in terms of development. This is a raw, tightly-edited look at how the game developers are working to make the Xbox 360 version of its award-winning PC role-playing game so good that even PC players will buy it again, just for funsies.
Ha! Well guess what? It'll totally work, at least in my case. Can't speak for you people, but if I could you'd all be saying nice things about my eyes.
