Saturday, August 9, 2008
NFL Player Moonlights As Guitar Hero
3:30PM Luke Plunkett | Being a punter, Minnesota Vikings specialist Chris Kluwe has a lot of spare time on his hands. Sure, he could spend that time practising extra hard, or going over his playbook, but that’s boring. Instead, Kluwe plays Guitar Hero. A lot of Guitar Hero. To the point where he “estimates that he is one of the top 100 Guitar Hero players in the world”, a feat he backs up with claims of victory over the “Guinness World Record holder” in a versus match. And while some of his burlier teammates are prone to give him a little shit over his obsession, he gets nothing but praise from Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell. Kluwe is Longwell’s holder, and the kicker says: He works hard at it, that’s for sure. He never lets a moment pass where he’s not either thinking about it or working on it. I think it actually helps his holding (on field-goal and point-after attempts) because his hand-eye coordination’s got to be phenomenal to do that on expert level. Professional football player, expert GH player, million dollar smile…truly, a renaissance man. Punt Rocker: Vikings punter Kluwe is a Guitar Hero [TwinCities, thanks Tom!] More »
Do You Think Gaming Should Be In The Olympics?
3:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Here we go! Talk time. That’s right, it’s Friday. Time for another round of Tell Us Dammit. No, make that TELL US DAMMIT. And here’s how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn’t some marketing survey or whatever. It’s an emotional investment in you. Yes, we’re interested in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know fucktons about us — more than you even want to, we’re sure. But, hey, we’d like to know about you. That way you won’t be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your arse. Or not, because really we’re incapable of human emotion. We think. The Olympics have started! And we all oh so very excited!! So much so that Gawker Media is aggregating all the network’s Olympic coverage in one place on sister sports blog Deadspin. That place is right here. ANWYAY, here’s my question: Do you think gaming should be an Olympic sport? And why? More »
What’s New On The PlayStation Video Store This Week
2:30PM Luke Plunkett | As we now know, Sony don’t update the PS3 video marketplace in one swoop. They tend to it, like a pensioner hovering lovingly over their vegetable garden, a little snip here, a little weeding there. Which also means they’re constantly adding to the store, and this week, they’ve added “new video content” to the following TV series: * Combat Zone * Cops * Deadliest Catch * Intervention * Nip/Tuck * Xam’d: Lost Memories PLAYSTATION Store Video Content Update [Sony] More »
Here It Is, Your PSP Phone (Oh, It’s DIY?)
2:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Yep, that’s a touch-screen HAIER cell phone crammed into the PSP’s UMD. The phone works, but this PSP mod loses the UMD drive. That’s okay, we hear some people don’t even use it. PSP Phone Mod [cngba via Just Another Mobile Blog via Gizmodo] More »
LittleBigPlanet Will Shift PS3s, Sony Say/Hope
1:40PM Luke Plunkett | LittleBigPlanet has every one of us excited. And no doubt many of you as well. But what about the average punter, who doesn’t even own a PS3? Sony reckon it’ll get them excited too, and so damn excited they’ll want to rush out and buy the console just to play the game. Associate Producer Eric Fong: It’s going to be a hardware seller. Not only do you have the platforming experience that a lot of other games will have, you have this creativity that really is exclusive to LittleBigPlanet. Hmm. Can’t help but wonder whether the console’s still a liiiitle bit too expensive for a game as “accessible” as LBP to really shift hardware. Maybe in a year or so! No reason it can’t be a slow-burning system seller, like that other Sony game, SingStar. LittleBigPlanet will be “hardware seller” claims Sony [GI.biz] More »
More Guitar Hero World Tour Tracks: Survivor, At The Drive-In
1:20PM Luke Plunkett | IGN have confirmed an additional seven tracks that will form part of Guitar Hero World Tour’s initial lineup. No fallen rock gods or deceased master artists here, just a song that’ll please ATDI fans, and a song that looks great on paper, but is really better suited to SingStar (”Eye of the Tiger”). The seven tracks are: Airbourne – “Too Much Too young…” At the Drive-in – “One Armed Scissor” Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – “Weapon of Choice” Bob Seger – “Hollywood Nights” Dinosaur Jr. – “Feel the pain” Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye” Survivor – “Eye of the Tiger” You can’t help but look at this and wonder: when they’re not throwing around the big bucks to get hold of Metallica or Hendrix, Activision just can’t compete with Harmonix’s song selecting finesse. Guitar Hero World Tour Rides the Crazy Train [IGN] More »A Week In Comments
1:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Does Brain Age Actually Work? No, Apparently. Comment by Kuraudo Nominated by geekgrrl This is why there’s no class division in high school between the intelligent and the sporty. The Cake Goes to Portal’s Commentary Comment by BolognaFire Nominated by sethmad Imagine: BABIES – Commentary “A big issue we had with starting off development was deciding who our target audience would be.”
Street Fighter Online Gets Naughty, Nearly Naked
12:40PM Michael McWhertor | These new “rare items” for the hideous Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation from Daletto are too hot for TV… and Japanese online gaming publications. They’re so sexy, so revealing, even we can’t show you what they’re wearing. And that’s mostly because the new downloadable items for Street Fighter Online in question — Chun-Li’s “Virgin White” and Baichoufu’s “Wild Panther” underthings — were mosaicked out before we got to ‘em. It wasn’t an editorial decision. We like that Daletto is pandering to the SFO player. We’ve always wanted to see an oddly jointed, low polygon Chun-Li prancing about awkwardly in virgin white something and appreciate that the developer went the extra yard. Oh yeah, they added Guile, too. Street Fighter Online [Game Watch] More »
Why Bionic Commando On PC Is More Expensive
12:20PM Luke Plunkett | When we posted the European and PC release info for Bionic Commando Rearmed yesterday, the more observant amongst you will have noticed that the PC version of the game carries a heftier price tag than the PSN or XBLA versions. Why the bump-up? Capcom explains: It has nothing to do with Piracy concerns. It has to do with different business terms/expectations in that sector and more importantly, generally prevailing pricing of PC digital games versus their console counterparts. The typical downloadable price for digital-only games on PC is actually $US 19.99. Not the answer you were expecting, then, but it’s the answer you’re going to get. Capcom: Piracy Not a Factor in Higher PC Price for Bionic Commando Rearmed, $US 14.99 Is ‘Appropriate’ [Shacknews] More »
