Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending 
High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle 
The Last Moments Of GAME 
How Bad User Interfaces Are Ruining Video Games And Other Wonderful Things 
She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant 
The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks Some enterprising types over at fan site Relic News have gone patent-digging. Unearth anything interesting, then lads? YES. They’ve found that THQ, who now own original Homeworld developers Relic, have picked up the rights to the series from former owners Vivendi (ie Sierra). This isn’t confirmation that any new Homeworld titles are in the making, of course, but then they’d hardly go to all the trouble of getting the rights if they weren’t going to something with them. As someone who only last month was playing the original and remarked aloud “could really do with another of these fantastic games”, this is truly exciting news. THQ DO indeed now own Homeworld [Relic News, via Shacknews]
3D Fighter Maker lets people make their own 3D fighters. Yes, the title lives up to the name! A recent unearthed clip shows the zany fighters possible with this title. The game was published by Famitsu publisher Enterbrain for the PS2 and the Dreamcast. This clip is something like seven or eight years old. Zaniness like this is timeless, though!
Thanks muu!
Never played Maniac Mansion on the NES, and haven’t played the original in so long that I’d fail to spot the differences anyway. But a fantastic article penned by former Lucasfilm/Lucasarts employee Douglas Crockford shows just how many changes they had to make to the adventure classic to get it published on the NES, and how batshit loco some of those changes were. Howie Rubin of Jaleco (the company that was going to publish the game under license) advised us the that the baddest bad word is Kill. The central activity in most Nintendo games is killing things. The image and the act are good, but the word is bad, even if the word does not suggest the image or the act.
The mansion contains a number of arcade video games. One was called KILL THRILL. The name had to be changed. Doug Glen, our Director of Marketing, suggested that we change it to MUFF DIVER, which I thought was a pretty good idea.
See? Good reading. The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion for the Nintendo Entertainment System [via Dtoid]
It. Just. Won’t. Stop. Sure, Halloween is so last month, but Team Fortress 2 company cosplays are still cool. That up there is how PC Gamer and Maximum PC Magazine spent their All Hallows Eve — in, you guessed it, matching Team Fortress 2 outfits. Well, at least four of them did. The others worn things like flannel. For those who missed our Team Fortress 2 group cosplay fever mode, here’s a round-up: Volition, Blizzard, NCSoft, Bioware, EA< ?a> and Nihilistic Celebrated. Hey, Gaming Industry, next year send us the memo, dammit! Perfect Line-up [Flickr, Thanks Norm!]
Word’s coming in that Target have pulled Manhunt 2 from their shelves, and won’t be stocking it. At all. Seems the ESRB clearing it for release means squat, with Target bosses playing censor and deciding off their own backs the game shouldn’t be offered for sale. While there’s no official confirmation on this from Target or Take-Two, there are numerous reports coming in from both customers and Target employees indicating this is indeed the case. Someone, anyone care to put this game out of its misery? Target Pulling Manhunt 2 [Evil Avatar, via GamePolitics] More confirmations on Target’s removal of Manhunt 2 [Go Nintendo]
Games, games and more games. (Oh yeah, Blu-ray and Home, too.) This new Sony ad packs in a lot of info in a short amount of time. Best part? It doesn’t annoy the crap outta us.
Thanks Alex!
It’s hard to imagine a game like Civilization working on a console. Sure, there’s nothing technically stopping it from functioning, but tweaking the controls and interface so they can be managed almost effortlessly using nothing but the limited selection of buttons on your average gamepad has to pose a bit of a problem.
It’d have to be extra painful for a developer so intimately familiar with the PC. Yet, Firaxis has taken up this exact challenge. Civ: Rev represents the first time the series has ventured to other platforms.
Last week I had a chance to play the Xbox 360 version of Civilization: Revolution up at Take 2′s HQ in Hornsby. I was hesitant to pick up the control pad, feeling that it would somehow taint my love of the series, but then I wouldn’t have been able to write this hands-on.
Contest start! So, we’re giving away a BlackSite: Area 51 gaming PC from Alienware. The winner will also get an Area 51 T-shirt, an “eyeblack” patch and a copy of Midway’s Stranglehold PC. The computer is a $US 3,000 dollar machine, making this one of the most expensive things we’ve given away, so any bitching about the TOTALLY FREE AND AMAZING PRIZE will be met with the blunt end of the Ban Hammer.
The contest is based on Crecente’s sadistic treasure hunts. Long-time readers will know what we’re talking about. Basically, we give you a clue about a post we’ve done, and then y’all must go find it. If you find the correct post, there will be another clue, which you’ll need to track down. And so on. This contest will have ten questions, or “Missions” as I call them. These missions are unnumbered, but if you are doing the contest correctly, they show flow into the next question, etc. The contest ends Monday November 11 at midnight EST. Send all your answers with links to kotakucontest@gmail.com with the word contest in the subject line. The winner will be randomly selected from the correct entries and announced Friday November 16.
Anyone who posts answers on Kotaku or anywhere on the internet will be banned and made an example of. Here’s your first mission:
While Crecente wasn’t able to see out of his Halo 3 helmet, this guy was — and added an awesome visor. Thumbs up all around. Find him!
Spent literally hours putting this together, trying to make this as hard and difficult as possible. Remember, nothing is free, so if you want this pricey loot, get to work!
Specs after the jump.
Eds Update: Quick note about the contest. Three things: Be sure to include your name and home address. Also, to enter this contest, you must be 18 years old and up. Also, if you are only sending us one link, you are wrong. Very, very wrong. Send us TEN links and correct answers.
Anthony over at EcoGamer has let us know that Big W will be having a one-day sale on November 10, where thrifty gamers will be able to pick up any of the Guitar Hero III game plus guitar combos for a tasty $98.
I don’t think I need to explain how awesome a deal this is.
So find the willpower to wait three days after the official release on the 7th, and save about $50!
Big W One Day Sale November 10th [EcoGamer]
To: Ash & Luke From: Flynn Subject: Road Trip
Hey guys. It was an odd weekend this one. Saturday seemed to be filled with news and fun stuff to write about while Sunday seemed to open up a black hole that sucked in everything around it including anything terribly interesting to write about. Odd how it works that way sometimes.
I’m in NYC again, this time to celebrate a friend’s birthday and I’m starting to get quite used to the idea of being here. Of course, I will be leaving soon for SF so I’m trying not to get too attached. Speaking of moving, as it turns out, I will be taking a week long journey across the country with a friend, my dog and all my crap in a U-Haul so I will probably be away for a couple weekends come the beginning of December while I get myself settled. Gonna try and hit some sights along the way as well and I’m really looking forward to seeing the world’s largest ball of twine in Muncie, Indiana.
Some things you may have missed this weekend:
• This week’s Arcade Flyer Art Saturday came with a special treat.
People are crazy for the L-block
Our own Crecente has a kind and generous black heart
Well, with that I’ll leave you to your late night doings. Hope you have a good week and I’ll see you next time!
