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. A. Contest. Talk about some incredible finalists for out Culdcept Saga sign contest. The voting was so close — too close, actually! We don’t do this often (so don’t ask in the future!), but it really is too close to call the winner. There are only a few votes that separate Finalist #1 and Finalist #5. Asking for a Kotaku Editor vote didn’t help much either! So, tell you what Finalist #1 and Finalist #5, send me your address to kotakucontestATgmail.com, and we’ll try to either A). Divvy up the prizes or B). Get more prizes from Bandai.
Nice work and congrats!
To: Ash and Luke From: Flynn Subject: I hate wet socks
Ahoy gents! It has been a rainy weekend here in San Francisco. Every time I’ve gone out I’ve come home with my pants soaked to the knee and I think I’ve gone through about six pairs of socks. Something about wearing wet socks and shoes just sucks my soul. Most of the rest of my weekend has consisted of watching episodes of Trailer Park Boys and more tedious unpacking of boxes. There were however some interesting things going on this weekend. For instance:
I got a triple vibrating hands-on with Rez HD Cooper Lawrence took back what she said about Mass Effect on Fox News A Metal Gear Solid Collection for PS2 has appeared for pre-order.
Now I am off to have some dinner and play No More Heroes which has been sitting unopened on the plastic box that is serving as my desk for the last four days. Hope you guys have a great week. Goodnight!
It’s a rather lean list of titles coming out this week. It’s a good time for Bomberman fans with two games coming out on three different platforms. We also get handheld police pursuit action with Pursuit Force for the PSP and the Sims continue their quit overtaking of the planet. Anything strike your fancy this week?
Bomberman Land (WII, PSP) Bomberman brings hot bombing action to the Wii and PSP.
Bomberman Land Touch! 2 (DS) The follow up to the popular Bomberman Land Touch for the DS.
Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice (PSP) Fight gang warfare in Capital City.
The Sims: Castaway Stories (PC) It’s like the Sims version of LOST except you actually know what’s going on.
From way back in 1990 (can you believe that was already seventeen years ago?) comes this odd Dr. Mario commercial courtesy the fine folks at RetroGameVideos.com. It features a young teenager fighting the evil forces of some sort of bizarre voodoo witch doctor with a game of Dr. Mario. While it might not tell us a lot about the gameplay, it certainly teaches us a valuable lesson: Never play Dr. Mario against a witch doctor or you will find yourself looking like that creepy raisin headed guy from Beetlejuice and being forced to listen to a bastardized version of an Alvin and the Chipmunks song. Terrifying.
From the hallowed halls of Sexy Videogameland comes the SVGL Official Metal Gear Solid drinking game (remember kids, you have to be 21 and over to play, at least in the US). Inspired by Polybius’ Final Fantasy X-2 drinking game, Leigh Alexander has her own take featuring the world of MGS, and the cost of entry is pretty low:
You will need: A copious portion of American beer. A bottle of Russian vodka, well chilled. Six pack of Red Bull, probably sugarless, since you don’t want to get sick. Some good, coarse salt. Either lemon juice, lime juice or sour mix. Calorie-Mate. Or something edible, to keep your stomach steady.
Ready to kill your liver? You can find the full (and funny) rules over at SVGL’s Official Metal Gear Solid Drinking Game.
Kotakuite matthewpaul93 sends in this pic of the toothy pre-order gift he got from his local Game Crazy for pre-ordering Turok. If I had to choose I would probably take the $US 10.gift card for pre-ordering the game from Circuit City but the large silver fang does have its charms. So, if you have a penchant for metallic orthodontia or need to fill in that gap in your smile, head over to Game Crazy and pre-order your copy of Turok now!
Ok, not Build-A-Bear as such, but the idea of personalisation and adding value because of the personalised nature. An opinion piece at Gamasutra on the issue of game piracy uses Webkinz and Build-A-Bear – and the continued decline of DRM in the music business – as a starting point to talk about what could be done to discourage pirating. Stuffed bears an answer to piracy? What? Well, it’s all about the customisation and personalisation in the author’s view. Fine for stuffed bears, but what about games?
So what would it mean to build a game *for a specific customer*? I’m not sure. But I’m not talking about binding it to the user’s machine with DRM. No, people will find a way to strip it out anyway. No, the personalisation has to add value in some way. DRM doesn’t add value for the customer, it adds inconvenience at best and outrage and resentment at worst (one need only to look as far as the numerous postings about the PC release of the otherwise-wonderful BioShock for an example).
It’s an interesting thought. Clearly, it’s just an idea and while I think the Build-A-Bear-esque customisation idea is an interesting one, I’m at a loss as to how designers could implement such a thing in your average game of whatever stripe.
Can A Stuffed Bear Hold The Secret To Game Piracy? [Gamasutra]
Rumors have been flying about for some time that we here in the US would be getting a cobalt blue DS and it looks like they might well turn out to be true. GoNintendo reported seeing a pre-order page on CircuitCity.com displaying a cobalt and black DS Lite similar in style to the red and black that came out not too long ago. The listing has since been removed but the memory of it has DS color junkies champing at the bit. Word on the tubes is that the new color will be landing in the US sometime in the first part of February. Rumour? Fact? Cruel joke? Only time will tell!
I do adore Rock, Paper, Shotgun – I actually got hooked with an article they published on the ghostly eroticism of The Sims – and last week, they put up an interesting interview with Will Wright on the making of The Sims. I’m not a Sims player myself, but regardless of your feelings on Will Wright and/or his games, it really is an interesting tale of game development. OK, the go get ‘em tiger positivity is a little grating:
The Sims is the ultimate story of a triumph of a game designer: being proved right when almost everyone else thought him wrong. So what advice would he give to a fellow developer when considering trying to bring their own, unique, dream project into existence. “Never underestimate the value of persistence,” he states, “Even with SimCity, I spent several years trying to convince people that SimCity would be a good game. Around that time it just seemed that it was a battle that could not be won. If you’re incredibly persistent, and you really believe, then persistence can overcome any number of barriers.”
But besides making my teeth hurt in parts, it’s an interesting look at the process of getting a game into development from idea to production.
Making Of: The Sims [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
Don’t forget that today is the last day to download your personal apology game from XBLA for free. For the uninformed, I will encapsulate the situation as best I can. Xbox Live had dicey service over the holidays and in an attempt to make up for it, offered Xbox Live Gold members a free game called Undertow. For those who have already downloaded the game, Microsoft will be pleased to offer you 800 MS points if you can traverse the mine field that is their customer service line.
Now that you are all caught up you can use the remaining hours of today to download your free game or attempt to get your free points. You have until midnight, so get crackin’.
