Our Show-Us-Hell-Win-Hellgate: London contest has drawn to a close. Voting time! We’ve got TK finalists, and it’s up to you, Kotakuland, to vote for the one finalist you like best. Remember, vote for ONE and only ONE. Voting ends Monday, December 10th at 11:59pm. Hit the jump for the finalists!
OMGLists.com has a compilation of what it believes are eight of the worst game loading screens (that pretend not to be) – like Resident Evil‘s slowly-opening doors (which actually nab first place). I thought they had a sort of rustic charm to be honest. Hard to appreciate when you’re being chased by a flesh-eating zombies, but hey. Rustic.
It’s an alright article, as long as you can ignore this juvenile comment for the Assassin’s Creed entry:
Instead of having Altair wandering aimlessly through the fog of his memories, they should have just plastered the screen with images of Jade Raymond dressed as a schoolgirl pouting. That would probably make a little more sense. And by “make a little more sense”, we mean “make us aroused”.
Firstly, Ubisoft Montreal didn’t try to hide the fact that this was a loading screen. Secondly, can we stop with all the puerile Jade Raymond comments? Do whatever you want in the privacy of your parent’s basement, but keep it off the Internet, okay?
Anyway, that’s my valiant rant for the day.
8 Blatant Loading Screen Cover-ups [OMGLists.com]
What? It’s that survey thing again?
Yes, indeed it is. If you’ve taken the time to complete it already, then thank you, we appreciate any and all feedback. You’re also in the draw for a sweet $250 gift voucher. All you have to do is sit back, relax and keep an eye on the mailbox.
On the other hand, if this is the first time you’ve heard about Kotaku AU’s 2007 survey, then stop reading right now and go do it. Please.
Pretty please?
Super mega please?
You get the idea. We like you. We like your ideas. We even like your pet cat/dog/gimp. So why not be in with a chance to treat yourself, or your gimp, with a $250 gift voucher and complete our wonderful survey.
*Gimp not included.
Atari Australia seems to have its wires crossed. According to the publisher’s website, Alone in the Dark: Near Death Investigation came out 11 months ago! I must have missed the press release on that one. And the review copy. And the reviews.
Yes, I realise it’s a small mistake, but I think because of it AITD is appearing on the front page of the site along with The Witcher and Jericho, two games that came out weeks (or months) ago. Might cause a bit of confusion when punters go looking for it. Mind you, $119.95 is quite a price tag…
Other than this snafu, Atari Australia has a great site.
Alone In The Dark: Near Death Investigation [Atari Australia]
I can’t say I visit the websites of local publishers often, as they do a good job of keeping me informed of release dates, pricing and announcements via email.
It occurred to me, however, that most people don’t have this luxury and that, from time to time, they’d have to check out the online abode of a game’s publisher for RRP details, screenshots or an incredibly bias review.
So once a week for the next several weeks, I’ll be reviewing the design, functionality and availability of information of the local websites of the major publishers. Today we’re going to take a look at Atari’s online presence in Australia.
Hit the jump for all the pulse-pounding action. It made me want to pound something.
To: Ash & Luke From: Maggie Subject: I hate finals week.
Ok, ok, I love finals week, too, because it means we’re almost done with classes for at least a few weeks (and I can stuff a lot of books like The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan on my bookshelves to be forgotten about for a few months). But I really hate it because there’s so much to do and not enough time. This weekend, I’m knee deep in PRC history while putting together a final paper, and here’s what my coffee table looks like: … I realised with a bit of horror that those don’t even make up half of the books we read this quarter. My brain has reached saturation point, and I’m ready for a stiff drink and a day (or three) dedicated to sleeping in, gaming, and not reading.
Here’s what you might have missed this weekend:
Flynn went to the Spike TV Video Game Awards! Crecente reminded us that the Funde Razor charity event will be kicking off on Wednesday in Brooklyn and Denver Tom Brokaw declared video games and blogs “cancerous”. I guess we’re doubly screwed here at Kotaku!
Hope you guys have a nice night. Flynn will be back next weekend and I will be done, done, DONE with the fall quarter – both of which I am super-excited about.
I love Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and I really love Advent calendars – when my aunt and uncle lived in Germany, they’d send me one every year. RPS has co-opted the (fair trade!) advent calendar idea to count down to their game of the year (to be revealed on the 25th, naturally), and left me going “Why didn’t WE think of that?”:
Every day until Christmas we’re going to reveal our favourite twenty-four (count ‘em) reasons to own an enormous PC-thinking machine. That’s the only qualifier. It’s our Games of the Year, and we take that literally. These are the ones which, when we look back on 2007, are going to remember most fondly. In other words, something that made us laugh ourselves sick for one night and we’ll always recall will appear above the sixth-edition of a solid genre game. No, they’re not really in order, except when they clearly are (which we’ll leave as an intelligence test for you lot to guess wildly about). It’s about love, which is a bit sappy, but it’s the season for it, so let’s be soft for a while, yeah?
However, yes, the game that’s revealed on Christmas morn is our game of the year.
I’ve been keeping an eye on it every day, and you can too over at the Rock, Paper, Shotgun Advent Game-o-Calendar 2007.
At some point during the crazy “Call of Duty 4 price hike on Steam” debacle, a community member over at Internode Games Network contacted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to see if it had anything to say.
Over the weekend, the community member received a response from the body, and Internode Games Network was good enough to post it on its site.
From the story:
The ACCC is not a price setting body for goods and services at either the retail or wholesale levels and has only a limited role in the area of price regulation overall. It does not have a direct role in regulating or setting prices except in the case of products or services that are declared under Part VIIA of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TPA)*. The ACCC can examine the prices of selected goods and services in the Australian economy, if the Government has declared them.
Long story short – Activision and Steam can do whatever the heck they want.
Government Watchdog checks out Call of Duty 4 Pricing [Internode Games Network]
Treyarch Taking Call of Duty Back To WWII? Seems like a silly idea considering how well the modern version has done. That’s if you can afford it, of course.
Spike Video Game Awards: Winners, Losers and Boozers A good showing this year, and I’m reasonably happy with the winners. I won’t spoil it for here though, so click on the link for Kotaku’s coverage of the event.
Ziff Sets Us Straight On Stolen Street Fighter IV Pics Unfortunately, this story just missed out on coming across during Saturday morning refeed of US content to the Oz site. Apologies for it being on the front page for so long without the correction. As much as I’d like to work 24/7 to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen, I’ve got to sleep some time.
Who Wants New Grand Theft Auto IV Screens? GTA IV – it isn’t out until “sometime” next year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t stare lovingly at screenshots.
Have a Halo helmet sitting around collecting dust? Clearly, it’s crying out to be a tree topper. I’ve seen a couple of these floating around (my favourite had a Santa hat jovially stuck on top), but I have yet to see the obvious: the Halo helmet with a … halo. Kotakuite shizknight sent in these photos of his friend’s Christmas tree. Anyone else have any clever game-related decorating ideas?
