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 
High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle Certainly looks that way. Swedish developers SimBin – the team behind the super-hardcore, super-awesome GTR racing series for the PC – have announced via press release that they’re working on an Xbox 360 game, the title of which will be revealed “soon”. Now, while we could keep an open mind about this, and speculate on whether this means they’ll be releasing a point-and-click adventure game based on the reign of the Holstein-Gottorp house, we won’t. Because all SimBin have ever done is racing games. So we’ll instead prepare for the inevitable announcement of a hardcore racing sim for the 360, whether GTR-branded or not.
While Fallout 3 producer Ashley Chung (not pictured) was impressed with the Diablo III gameplay footage, he was also “disappointed”. And not only with Diablo III, but also the new Starcraft. That would make his feelings, say, sadly bittersweet? On his personal blog, Chung blogged his personal feelings about:
I must say I am disappointed that Blizzard has stayed on the conservative side in terms of design with their updates to Diablo and Starcraft. Diablo will be interesting since World of Warcraft has a lot of Diablo-like qualities. I have no doubt, however, that they will be incredibly fun, addictive and polished games. Blizzard is the top of the class when it comes to game development – nobody does it better.
Man, why’s everyone so down Diablo III? There’s that rainbow petition and now this? Blizzard cannot win, like never ever ever. Hit the jump for Chung’s post in full:
Previously we’ve seen the Japanese countdown page, and Kotaku reader Frog did some digging and found what looks like the North American version of that supposed Chrono Trigger DS page with the URL http://na.square-enix.com/ctds/. (“na” apparently referring to “North America”.) Meaning? Meaning that if that “ctds” clock is indeed counting down to Chrono Trigger DS for North American peoples, too. That’s not good news, that’s damn good news.
Do keep in mind Square Enix has yet to officially announce the game or put out a press releaase about Chrono Trigger DS. But still.
Clock Counter For North America [Square Enix Thanks, Frog!]
It’s OK, everyone. Developers drink coffee too! While filming a vox pop piece in Seattle on the closure of 600 Starbucks stores across the US, local news channel KING5 inadvertently got the scoop on not only where Valve get their coffee, but who’s allowed out for coffee runs and even what everyone drinks. As you can see, Gabe Newell does not fuck around, clutching what looks like a Venti Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino. A mysterious “other guy” keeps things straight with a Grande Espresso Macchiato, while Doug Lombardi – who is surprised, but not shocked at the closures – doubles up on beverages, while lying on camera that it’s for a “co-worker” to make him feel better about his cheeky afternoon “seconds”.
Starbucks closing hundreds of stores [KING5, thanks Ryan!]
Back in late February, we brought word of a Dead Rising lawsuit. Capcom was being sued over the game by the MKR Group, which holds the rights to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead film. MKR claimed that Dead Rising was essentially an unlicenced adaptation of the Romero film. Over the weekend, George Romero appeared at the Chicago Horror Convention, and Kotaku reader Tyler was on hand to get his copy of Dead Rising autographed by the famed horror director. According to Tyler:
Guess that Minority Report reference cut a little closer to the bone than we thought! After we posted on the rumour of a new, alternative user interface for the Xbox 360, we’ve since heard from sources a little closer to the matter that the GUI (graphical user interface) parts are around “95% correct”. They tell us that design agency Schematic are working on the project, which is interesting when you consider two things. One, Schematic have worked on gaming interfaces before, most notably on recent EA Sports titles. Two, the Chief Creative Officer of Schematic is a Mr. Dale Herigstad. Movie and design nerds will know Herigstad as one of the the guys who designed the motion-controlled interfaces featured throughout Minority Report. If true, that’s equal parts promising and awesome.
Sure, you could play Doom 3 in its boring, by-the-numbers first-person mode, but why would you want to when there’s a mod to transform it into an isometric 3D shooter stuffed full of chunky excitement?
The mod Z-Hunter comes close to accomplishing this feat. While you can’t play the original game with an isometric view, Z-Hunter does offer “8 maps, 2 unique weapons, unique player animations [and]over 20 enemies custom designed for this style of play”, according to the description on the website. Slap in a custom soundtrack and you’ve got quite a package. There’s even a short back story to help get you in the mood. It mentions pussies and maggots, but it’s not what you think.
No co-op or deathmatch functionality from what I can see, but that doesn’t stop it from being infinitely awesome.
Z-Hunter [Official site, via Blue's News]
Say what you will about the quality of recent Star Wars games, you’ll be hard pressed finding a bad word to say about these. They’re official Nintendo DS styli, only with a bonus Star Wars licence thrown in, meaning, yes, these are proper DS lightsabers. What’s better is that they come in two variants: you can get a three-pack of regular, plastic ones ($US 8), or you can get a two-pack where the sabers/styli actually light up ($US 17).
Lightsaber styli [View From Heaven, via Go Nintendo]
I know. That sounds awfully vague. And it is! But heck, we’re talking BioWare’s mystery (KOTOR 3?) MMO, so even the vaguest of discussions are interesting ones. Speaking with MTV, BioWare’s Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have opened up – just a little – on what they’re looking at implementing in their own MMO. Discussing the pros and cons of Age of Conan, Zeshuck says an “important part” of getting an MMO right is balancing the singleplayer and multiplayer aspects. They believe that players should be able to choose how they want to approach the game, whether as a solo experience or a social one, and that’s what they’re going to try and implement in KOTOR 3 whatever it is they’re working on.
BioWare On MMOs: ‘Conan,’ Their Own And Maybe A Console One [MTV]
Simon Cottee has another video for us, one that doesn’t feature his significant other muddling her way through popular games. No, this clip mixes the cartoon gameplay of Animal Crossing with hardcore rap.
So while the images are work-friendly, the language is NSFW. Unless your boss has a special love for the F-word.
Animal Crossing Music Video [YouTube, thanks Simon]
