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 Further proof that Sega Sammy is going through rough financial times? As of last Friday, SEGA subsidiary, Sega Korea Ltd. is no more. According to SEGA, “The said dissolution will have not significant impact on the Company’s consolidated operating results.” What about Sega Korea employees? They’re shit outta luck. This comes hot on the heels of Sammy Europe Limited closing late last month and abandoning plans for a Sega Sammy amusement park in Yokohama. Last year, the company lost approximately $US 250 million, laid off 400 employees and shuttered over 100 arcades. Not a very good year. Bye Bye Sega Korea [Sega Nerds]
Crackdown devs Realtime Worlds – founded by GTA series creator David Jones – have secured for themselves a spot of funding for their promising-looking MMO shooter APB (and potentially other projects). Like, $US 50 million in funding. Nice. It’s rare that console games receive venture capital, even multiplayer ones, so it looks like somebody over at Realtime’s doing a good job of selling the game. Montgomery & Co. Raises $US 50 Million For Realtime Worlds [TechCrunch, via VentureBeat]
According to early sales figures, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G did monster business, selling over 670,000 copies in Japan at launch. That means the sequel out sold the original Monster Hunter Portable, which moved 512,000 copies at launch (497,000 individual copies, plus 15,000 bundles). The breakdown this time around is apparently 652,000 copies of the game and 17,000 PSP game bundles. We’ll get official sales data later in the week, but with MHP 2nd G sold out at pretty much every store I’ve been to, willing to bet these early numbers are pretty accurate. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G [Sinobi Kore Enmachou][Pic]
Australian RPG fans would be hard pressed not to check out EUO, an online and free-to-play hack’n'slash developed by Sydneysider Max Breedon. If you’ve heard of EUO before, no big shock, it’s been out since April 2003.
Max however has let us know that EUO will be celebrating its 5th birthday by gifting players with goodies. As part of the festivities, experience gains will be quintupled, new bosses add and loads more. He also mentioned that work on the game has been firing on all pistons since its release, and EUO is much, much improved from the version that came out all those years ago.
With 2D graphics, player versus player combat, quests and dungeon crawling, EUO doesn’t get more old-school – except for the online bits. There’s even a 3D version in development, a picture of which is available after the jump.
EUO [Official site]
Microsoft have just signed a deal with the Safran Company, whereby the Hollywood production team will put together a series of 10-minute original, scripted (ie not reality TV) programs for the 360′s video marketplace. Sure, Peter Safran himself has produced some shitty, shitty movies (Meet the Spartans, My Baby’s Daddy), but he’s got his own company now, so hopefully he won’t be the one personally involved. And hey, even if they do suck, Microsoft’s Scott Nocas has said it’s only “the first of many” such deals. So, what can we expect? The New York Times reports:
March was a huge month for game releases. Huge. Crisis Core, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Condemned 2, God of War: Chains of Olympus—it looked more like October than March, as far as game releases go. April? It starts with but a whimper. This week sees practically nothing new in the way of marquee titles. A few Dreamcatcher Interactive numbers, a dusting of super-hardcore RPGs, but not much else.
It’s unbelievable, I know, but the Attorneys-General have decided to give us a chance to voice our opinions on the need for an R18+ rating for games in Australia. The agreement was made at last week’s SCAG meeting.
If you think this is odd (seriously, it’s right up there with pineapple on pizza) you’ll be even more wigged out by the duo that’s against the move.
Bored at lunch and have five minutes to spare? Then you might get some enjoyment out of this Flash game on the UBD Surf website. UBD is sponsoring this year’s Australian Surf Life Saving Championships in Perth, and part of the promotion includes this game. Apparently it’s based on an actual event at the Championships, but I doubt that has anything to do with hitting sunbathers or knocking down kids’ sand castles with beach balls. Cause that’s just mean.
There’s also a competition to win a surf board, if you’ve seen the ocean or sun before and love their company. All you have to do is complete a survey.
Hit the Beach [UBD Surf, thanks Sugar Hush]
To: Ash & Luke From: Maggie Subject: Cooking without a sink is hard to do.
So yesterday afternoon, I broke out the Cuisinart, the KitchenAid, and supplies for making gratin dauphinois and kolach. We had a potluck lunch for our research seminar today and I’d promised to bring two food items. The gratin went swimmingly, and I was all prepped to commence with making bread when I noticed that my sink was backed up. Really, really backed up. And the garbage disposal sounded distinctly unhappy. When my landlord’s handyman showed up this morning, I was lectured for five minutes on why I shouldn’t put anything down the garbage disposal. ‘But it’s a garbage disposal! I just put potato peelings down it, not wood chips!’ I said. I was then lectured for a few more minutes on how the garbage disposals don’t work and I shouldn’t be using it for its intended purpose. Wouldn’t it be smart to tell people this when they move in instead of chastising them months down the line? It’s just one of a multitude of problems I’ve had in this apartment. Here’s hoping the next place we rent is a little better on the maintenance side of things.
Things you might have missed this weekend:
Blizzard vs. Glider is really heating up; The Video Game Name Generator Competition entries are silly and kinda fun; In unsubstantiated reports, the GTA IV achievements may have been leaked; Puma has created some really hideous Tetris sneakers.
Since my sink’s back in commission, I’m off to make some bread, smush in some Crisis Core, and get some work done. It’s back to school tomorrow (boo). Hope y’all have a good week.
Hyper Multi-Tap Is Dead. Galactic Multi-Tap Lifts Off!
Announcement time! That’s right, Hyper Multi-Tap is changing its format. Up until, say, last Friday, the only reward those commenters nominated for Multi-Tap got was a happy feeling. Ditto for those kind enough to nominate them! But, we’d like to do more. You know, repay you for making brilliant comments and nominating them as well. So! Here’s what we are going to do: Award a Kotaku Star (see above) to those commenters who make Multi-Tap, plus one to those who nominate. Keep in mind, that we are only doing seven comments for Galactic Multi-Tap. (Hopefully, the best ones!) What happens to those who repeatedly nominate or make it into Multi-Tap? They won’t get extra Kotaku Stars, but rather, a warm place in our cold, bitter hearts.
Galactic Multi-Tap launches this Friday.