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 What’s worse than one King of Games shirt emptying your bank balance? Yeah. Two shirts. Hitting almost simultaneously on the site are these tees, one – commemorating the Mega Drive – from Sega’s Get Ready collection and the other – for Parachute – from KoG’s own Game & Watch series. If you want to know how to order them, King of Games has an English site. If you need to know how much it’ll cost you, you probably shouldn’t bother. [King of Games]
To: Ash and Luke From: Flynn Subject: So that’s what my bed feels like…
Ahoy gents! Well it’s finally happened, I went and found an apartment. Last night, for the first time in five months I actually slept in my own bed. Now I get to attend to the exciting task of unpacking all my stuff, some of it I haven’t seen since I got blown out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina over two years ago. Now that I’m settled in SF, it feels like I have finally come back home for good.
Some things you might have missed this weekend:
These guys played 48 hours of Zelda for Charity.
McWhertor talked to John Kolle about the future of the PSP.
It’s time to get fat!
And now my fair fellows, I depart to unearth more forgotten about knick knacks. Hell, I might even lay in bed and read a book! Hope you have a great week, goodnight.
It’s a bizarre mix of games this week and seeing as I am busy unpacking a myriad of boxes, much of this week will be devoted to that rather than gaming. Although I’m sure I’ll be able to sneak some in here and there. Are any of this week’s releases going to make on your shopping list?
FlatOut: Head On (PC, PSP) Crash cars and blow stuff up.
Samurai Warriors: Katana (WII) Swing your katana in this Samurai Warriors spin off.
Rail Simulator (PC) You can make trains too, just like the big boys.
Furu Furu Park (WII) More mini games for the Wii.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Hard Evidence (WII) The TV show comes to your Wii in game form.
Nanostray 2 (DS) Part two of the trippy shooter
Nitrobike (WII) Rocket bikes! Need I say more?
Miami Nights: Singles in the City (DS) Virtually explore the hot, hot hot Miami singles scene.
Corvette Evolution GT (DS) Race car driving on your DS.
Games have content cut from them all the time, usually due to time constraints. If you’re willing to spend a few hours digging around in any game’s data files, you’re likely to find bits and pieces of features, creatures, items or other miscellany that couldn’t be implemented before release.
Crytek’s FPS Crysis is no exception. In fact, it seems the developer left quite a lot more than just a half-finished rifle or textureless tree.
Tipster Brendan sends word that the folks over at inCrysis forums have discovered what looks like some unused levels in the shooter’s resource files. From the post:
I’ve found something really interesting in Crysis’ resources. In Demo, open Data/Gamedata.pak with Rar. Then open folder Libs/GameTokens. You’ll find the following files Act1_M01_Island Act1_M02_Village Act1_M03_Rescue Act1_M04_Harbor Act1_M05_Tank Act1_M06_Mine Act2_M01_Armada Act2_M02_Camera Act2_M03_Airfield Act2_M04_Capture Act2_M05_Fleet Act3_M01_Crater Act3_M02_Storage Act3_M03_Maintenance Act3_M04_Operations and also – Ascension (which was added really late to the game) It seems that Act 3 was completely removed from the game?
If you look closely – well okay, not that closely – you’ll notice an entire third act that wasn’t present in the original game.
Is it content waiting to be used in an expansion, or even a sequel? We’ll just have to wait and see, though I think the hackers might beat Crytek to the punch.
Original Crysis’ 3-act structure discovered [inCrysis, thanks Brendan]
And by “popular demand”, I mean “one person”.
Anywho, if you happened to miss the mega post from the US with photos of not only the desks of famous game developers, but the ever-so-lovable crew over at Kotaku US, here’s your chance to check it out now. It makes my post just a little less random.
This is my paltry contribution. That ViewSonic monitor on the right is half-buggered. It’ll only display a resolution up to 1024×768 (used to be 1680×1050 native). It’s not an ideal second screen, but it’s better than nothing.
Condemned was one of the first games I got for my 360 a few years ago and to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t terribly impressed. As a matter of fact I sold it back to the store only a few days after purchasing it. Perhaps I should have given it another chance, but I had already moved on. This new trailer for Condemned 2 however has piqued my interest and looks to be much more up my alley. Hopefully the gameplay will be a bit more interesting than the original.
Actually, I can’t begin to imagine how hard it is to balance nine different sides – seven from the original games and previous expansions, plus the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Elder that come with Soulstorm. Madness.
You can grab the 1.2GB monstrosity from Internode Games Network, among other sites.
The game proper is due out sometime in March this year.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm Demo [Internode Games Network]
As we reported a few days ago, the fate of Capcom’s Bionic Commando on the Wii rests squarely on the shoulders of the players. GoNintendo’s RawMeatCowboy has decided to take the matter into his own hands and has started an internet petition to get the ball rolling. Generally, internet petitions don’t seem to lead anywhere (I’m speaking from experience here) but Capcom sounds like they are ready to hear what you have to say. So let your voice be heard and put your digital John Hancock on this petition!
Bionic Commando on the Wii Petition [GoNintendo]
I’m generally a fan of convergence, but it does sometimes rub me the wrong way when we start talking electronics or electronic media. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? Both? And what does electronic media convergence spell for games? Leigh Alexander makes the case for the positive points of the industries colliding this week, with enough links to keep you clicking for a while (lots of CES round up talk). So, what’s the crux of the argument for why media convergence could be a really, really good thing?
We’ll play a role in the way entertainment media is shaped, because the game industry is pleasantly surprised at the way the mainstream has begun to embrace it in new ways, and film, television and music have realised that we’re one of the cool kids, too. Neither camp expected this, and neither camp is quite sure, beyond the abstracts, how to address their evolving audiences. So they’ll be listening, and watching, letting us declare how we want to play, how to reach us, and taking close notes on what makes us tick. That can only be a good thing.
It’s an interesting read touching on a number of current issues, and while only time will tell how all the convergence stuff pans out, it’s interesting to contemplate potential collaboration and cross-pollination.
Entertainment Media Convergence: The Case In Favor [Sexy Videogameland]
Hold Me Tight, Ban Monday Begins
For those of you ready to clean house, have we got a day for you! Today is our favorite Kotakuday, Ban Monday. Our willingness to ban increases twenty-fold as Witzbold helps clean up and clean out. We want to keep the comments section readable (AKA thin the herd), and we want you to help. Here’s how it works: Send tipsATkotaku.com commenter pages for anyone you think should get the boot. Our ban threshold is going to be way lower (hello fanboy trolls!). Nothing is definite, but ban requests from longtime commenters will be given great authority with the hammer. So be sure to include your own commenting profile! Ban Monday ends in exactly 24 hours. Tuesday’s comment section will be lighter, faster, better. Oh yes.