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 Chin up, contest losers! Bandai has decided to console all the contest finalists with prizes. That means that every finalist not only gets internet fame, but also a freebie. Don’t expect this for future contests! Here’s how it will work: All finalists will get a copy of Culdcept Saga. The top six finalists will get a signed poster (Sorry, no unsigned ones). The top finalists will get the signed posters and the signed CD. But since, we’re really mean, you’ll need to jump through an extra hoop to get your stuff. So, here’s how you claim your loot: Count up ALL the votes for each finalist and send them to kotakucontestATkotaku.com. Don’t forget to include your name and address and which finalist you are. Failure to do this by midnight tomorrow night will result in ME getting your FREE STUFF. Congrats everyone, hugs!
While neighboring Japan farts in the Xbox 360′s general direction, Korea is a bit more welcoming. 360 Live Attack is a Xbox 360-centric progam on Korean TV network MBC Game, which typically shows things like reruns of Korean Starcraft matches. The show has a news portion that shows clips from new 360 games. There’s apparently also a segment where the show’s host logs on to Live and talks to fellow players with the Xbox Vision webcom chat. Any sort of Xbox 360 success in Korea shouldn’t be a surprise: The 360 does have a lot in comment with PC gaming. What’s more, Xbox 360 kiosks always use SAMSUNG monitors. So, there ya go! Xbox Centric Show [Siliconera]
An article over at the Courier Mail (no, not that one) has an update on the current state of Brisbane-based studio Auran. Both Tantalus CEO Tom Crago and Auran co-founder Graham Edelsten share words with the newspaper.
It was only a few months ago that Auran Developments, which managed the company, went into administration, resulting in a downsizing of Auran’s healthy 85 employees to a skeletal 15.
According to the article, Auran hasn’t thrown it’s multi-million dollar MMO Fury to the sharks just yet (as evidenced by the release of the Age of the Chosen expansion late last year), and is looking to sell the underlying tech it used to create the game.
Graham Edelsten also had this to say about the Oz industry:
Mr Edelsten says Auran will stick to less ambitious projects, saying until the investment dollars match those of their overseas counterparts it is too risky to take on the giants.
The comment sings very true. Until Australian developers receive more financial support from the government, it’s going to be hard to convince investors to spend big bucks locally.
Game still on for Auran [Courier Mail, via Sumea]
Cops are smart. Well, some of them are. The police in UK’s West Yorkshire seem pretty bright and have figured way to track down the owners of a stolen Wii: The console’s Miis. The Wii was stolen by a 32-year-old man arrested earlier this month. It contains 16 Miis with names that include Seb, Pheebes, Nicks and Evie. Says Officer Neil Johnson:
The Nintendo Wii looks new and is thought to have been stolen before January 1. It may have been a Christmas present. If anyone has devised these characters listed and the Wii has gone missing, then please contact us urgently.
Very clever! Guess that’s why they’re cops, eh? The police have the console’s ID number and ask that anyone who might be able to claim the console telephone them. Wii Clues [Huddersfield Examiner via VideoGamesBlogger][Pic]
Like Mike said, Nintendo have, via their financial reports, announced some release dates for the coming year. Scrolling down the list of first-party games due in the Japanese market sees familiar titles like Metroid Prime 3, Mario Kart Wii, Battallion Wars 2 and…oh. Animal Crossing! Yes, the mythical, maybe-MMO Animal Crossing. What’s encouraging about this news is that Nintendo are at least trying to get it out this year, so we should be seeing/hearing something about the game soon. What’s not encouraging is that the game only appears on Japan’s schedule, not Europe’s or America’s.
Civ Rev is the upcoming version of Civlization that, from all accounts, may actually manage to successfully transplant the Civ experience from PC to console. And if you own a 360, PS3 or DS, that may still happen! If you own a Wii, though, sorry. Your versions been delayed. Indefinitely. Development for the Wii version of Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution is currently on hold. We are focusing our attention on creating the best possible Civilization experience for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS platforms.
What they’re trying to say is, the Wii version wasn’t the best possible Civilization experience. Sorry. Civilization Revolution Stalled on Wii [IGN]
Update: EB Games Australia has commented on the rumour.
Microsoft has gotten back to us regarding the rumour we posted earlier today that suggests EB Games Australia may have $10 million worth of busted 360s that it can’t sell, and the manufacturer is unwilling to compensate it for.
You might be a bit disappointed by the reply:
We’re not going to comment on this.
Luke Plunkett for Kotaku US was kind enough to buzz all the EBs in Canberra, and like me, he got the same “out of stock” line for the Xbox 360 Premium.
Should Microsoft pick up the bill for the damage its apparently poor QA has wrought, or has EB Games dug itself a massive hole for issuing the recall itself mid-last year? Let us know.
Earlier, we brought news of a minor Super Smash Bros. Brawl bug. The screen goes black and displays an error message that the game cannot be booted. However, the bug doesn’t actually effect the game and can be ignored. Another retail-minded site Game no Urabanashi confirms this rumour, point out that the error message occurs when the game is first started up. Game no Urabanashi doesn’t see the bug as a huge problem, but does point out that it could be an issue if not all customers are aware of it. The Nintendo flier that stores will apparently be giving out has popped up online. This looks like pretty good confirmation, but we’re still going to call this a rumour until we’re able to verify for ourselves when SSBB drops this Thursday in Japan.
For a game that’s been delayed repeatedly, this seems, well, pretty shitty. If this is true, why is Nintendo, known for its impeccable quality, willing to ship its biggest title with a bug? Then again, Paper Mario had a bug and the DS Lite had hinge cracks, so. One thing you can bet, Nintendo would’ve never shipped Wii Fit with a bug. No way in hell. SSBB Bug [Game no Urabanashi Thanks, Muu!]
The Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl‘s intro movie has made its way online, a clip sure to induce tears of joy and fanboy frothing. It might also contain one or two minor spoilers, as one potential character return is revealed, as is a heretofore undiscussed stage. Megaton surprises they are not, but for those hoping to remain Brawl virginal, a “move along” is suggested. Still, I would think that the teaming up of Pikachu and Samus as shown in the trailer will make have hearts aflutter.
