Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
Why Robin Makes Batman Better 
Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review 
Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending In a comment filed to Slashdot, id co-founder John Carmack says that his company is looking at iPhone development. Sega’s on board, as are EA and Gameloft, and it appears we may be seeing an accelerometer controlled Orcs & Elves if Carmack has his way. Although Carmack apparently didn’t have nice things to say about iPod dev tools, pissing of Steve Jobs, he was up on iTunes distribution and its 70% royalty rate.
Take-Two Interactive tonight disclosed an email they sent out to their employees about a change in their severance plan which was triggered, it appears, by Electronic Arts offer to buy them out.
The “Change in Control Employee Severance Plan” will give “minimum levels of compensation” to all employees in the event that they are fired as a result of a change in control of the company. While Take-Two goes to some lengths to point out that this has nothing to do with the possibility of a buy-out, they also note that the plan was created to address the “understandable concerns” that some employees have about the possibility of an EA buy-out.
We hope that this benefit will alleviate some of the concerns you may have, and allow you to remain fully focused on your responsibilities. You are critical to the success of Take-Two. The most important contribution each of us can make during this period is doing our jobs with the same focus, skill and creativity we always have.
We remain committed to open communication with all of you, and will continue to update you when and as we can.
Creativity is at an all-time high at Take-Two — this is an incredibly exciting time for all of us and also for our customers who depend on us for cutting-edge innovation and the industry’s most exciting games. We know we won’t disappoint.
Sincerely, Strauss and Ben
Was that the sound of stockholders announcing their intentions? Hit the jump for the full email.
A man who goes by the handle MobileTone, a reader of Sony’s semi-official blog ThreeSpeech, has decided that permanently tattooing “PS3″ on his right forearm was a good idea. Odd that he didn’t go with the official typeface for the “world’s first PS3 tattoo”, but also quite understandable. I’m sure that PS3 text can be gracefully re-inked into something else, should he grow tired of it. The tattooed man says “I doubt i’ll ever regret it” but speaking from the experience of having a 3DO tattoo on your left calf and never knowing the comfort of shorts for fear of ridicule, I’m fairly certain a tinge of regret will hit one day.
He’s Only Gone And Done It – World’s First PS3 Tattoo [ThreeSpeech]
In reaction to the rumors spreading about a new Xbox 360 with a 60GB hard disk, super analyst Michael Pachter decided to take a break from using his immense powers of precognition to make a simple, obvious observation. 20GB is too small. “I think the console [manufacturers]all misjudged the quantity of downloadable content and the opportunity to actually download meaningful content, and so what sounded like a good idea in 2003 or 2004 in the design stage with the 20GB hard drive on the 360 was just not sufficient. Frankly, the surprise to me is that the new SKU is [purportedly]60GB. I mean, I would think they’d introduce a 200GB or 500GB and eliminate the 20GB and make the 120GB the standard cheapie one.
Brilliant idea, Michael! The only problem of course is that using standard Microsoft pricing, a 500GB hard disk would cost a million dollars, give or take. Personally I’d rather they just let us use our own, but that’s just me.
Pachter: 20GB Xbox 360 No Longer Sufficient [GameDaily]
Dr. Derek Smart, the outspoken and controversial designer behind space sims Battlecruiser 3000AD and Universal Combat has released his latest venture, Galactic Command Echo Squad SE – Episode 1, proving that brevity and marketing ain’t his thing. The frequent e-dick is typically proud of his new game, promising at least one potential Galactic Command player a full refund if he’s unsatisfied.
The latest StarCraft II Q&A has hit Battle.net. While that generally means a slew of answers regarding unit abilities that uberfans will pore over with a fine tooth comb and many, many “we’re still debating that internally” responses, this time we get some fresh media. Four new screens, loaded with units and packed with pixels, have been released. No, there isn’t a Zergling in sight, but they’re just so pretty, we had to pass them on. The full Q&A is right here if you’re so inclined.
When Steve Ballmer isn’t profusely sweating to the musical stylings of Gloria Estefan, shouting at the top of his lungs or throwing chairs at things (allegedly!), he’s steering the good ship Microsoft. The CEO recently took part in the Microsoft-sponsored internet conference MIX, fielding questions about Google, Yahoo, the Seattle Supersonics and the Sony-backed Blu-ray format.
Japanese publisher Taito is going all out for the Space Invaders thirtieth anniversary. In addition to the rock solid Space Invaders Extreme for Nintendo DS and PSP (which I quite liked) and a suit of new Invader-branded products, Taito has announced it’s dragging out the property for another go on the Wii. In Space Invaders Get Even, you’re in control of up to 300 of the pixelated aliens, raining death and destruction upon the humans. Take that humans!
