World of Warcraft with car jacking and hookers! Rockstar boss Sam Houser says that a Grand Theft Auto IV MMO "is very, very doable and is a very, very compelling proposition". What's more, Houser calls a subscription console-based MMO "the Holy Grail". Definitely, GTA does seem like fertile ground for a MMO. If Rockstar is plotting this, how it will keep the MMO from turning into pure anarchy should be interesting to see. And hey, if the game ends up as MMO chaos, that too will be interesting.
EGM Interview [1Up via Massively via Eurogamer]

Read More »

Smuggled off the set of the upcoming adaptation, and I must say, there's a pretty good likeness going on here! Not only is the movie's snow machine set to OVERKILL, but Mark Wahlberg's even sporting Max Payne's trademark "constipated" pinched face. Only niggle? I don't remember Max Payne's face being that...well, portly.
First Look At Mark Wahlberg As Max Payne [DarkZero, thanks Rav!]

Read More »

The first images of the PS3 and Xbox 360 Soul Calibur IV box art have popped online. Color schemes shouldn't come as a surprise. My question: Vader or Yoda?
SCIV Box Arts [Game Class Thanks, Stephane!]

Read More »

You've seen the trailer, now read words. Korean game site sends us what is apparently the official Blizzard Zerg fact sheet. Tk from Korean game site Game Shot sends us the sheet. We can't verify its authenticity one hundred percent. We can verify that it is after the jump. Read on!

Read More »

Earlier, we brought word of Imagination Is The Only Escape, a Holocaust DS game from British game dev Luc Bernard. The game follows a young Jewish boy living in France during the Nazi occupation during World War II. In order to escape the horrors around him, he imagines a fantasy land that becomes the basis of the game's world. The adventure platformer will attempt to educate players on the atrocities experienced by many children during the time of the Holocaust. Bernard previously told Kotaku, "The sad thing is that videogames are still considered toys and not art, I hope that this game can show that games can be just as important as films". Well, Nintendo's having none of that! According to Nintendo of America:

Read More »

The rumour was mostly right, if a little off on the size of the cuts: announced over the weekend by the German edition of the Financial Times, Microsoft will this week be slashing the price of two of their Xbox 360 console across Europe. The Pro unit, which currently retails for €339, will be reduced to €299, while an even bigger cut's in line for the Arcade unit, which will drop from €279 all the way down to €199. Which is a full €50 cheaper than a Wii. Can't see the rationale behind this, myself. Not like price has ever been the 360's problem in Europe.

PS - sorry, Britain, no idea if this means you as well. We'll let you know soon as we hear either way.
Microsoft macht Xbox billiger [FT]

Street Fighter IV doesn't have a street date yet, but we're pretty sure of two things: 1). It will be released in arcades before on consoles. 2). It will be released in Japanese arcades before in Western arcades. We could be wrong! We're just guessing! But, just in case, we're dead right and just in case you can't wait, there's this: A pre-order for the Japanese arcade cabinet. It'll set you back around ¥2,394,000 yen ($US 23,307). Pre-orders start this March, and it's expected to go on sale this August.
Order Here [Tops-Game via Danny Choo]

Read More »

Media Connect's ITJourno, an industry news site for Australian IT journalists, is reporting that publisher Derwent Howard may have lost its right to publish titles licensed from the UK-based Future Publishing.

For Oz gamers, the most prominent title in Future's repertoire is Official Xbox 360 Magazine. Painting with broader strokes, this news would also affect T3 and Official Windows Vista Magazine.

The article goes on to say that Derwent Howard will likely make a statement today regarding the future of its brands. There's also mention that Future may enter the Australia market.

I'd like to link to the story, but it's only available to journalists registered to the ITJourno site. Even though ITJourno is a credible source and there's no doubt in my mind about its validity, until this news makes its way to more accessible channels I'm going to mark it as a rumour.

Update: Smarthouse News has confirmation of the split.

This new StarCraft II trailer that just debuted in Korea gives a first look at the Zerg alien race. Great looking trailer! Just checked the news, and no, South Korea hasn't imploded. Yet.

I'm beginning to think Anthony over at Economical Gamer is just a highly-sophisticated robot that constantly scans shop brochures and the Internet for deals, bundles and price cuts on gaming hardware and software.

Oh, and knows how to write emails too, because he's once again put together a sweet list of gaming bargains for Kotaku AU readers. If your wallet is ready and waiting to disgorge its contents at unsuspecting salespeople, then I recommend - nay I demand - you hit the jump. If you don't, you'll just be doing yourself a disservice.

Economical Gamer [thanks Anthony-robot!]

Read More »

To: Ash & Luke
From: Maggie
Subject: Wacom tablets are kinda sexy as far as peripherals go

So I've got one of those tightly-wound, high-stress personalities, the kind that's constantly worried and/or in a state of panic about something. One of the upsides of this is that I find repetitive, low-stress tasks (writing footnotes, cross-stitching, Harvest Moon) really soothing, which means I also think organizing things is great fun (a bonus in a field where you acquire astonishing amounts of paper, books, and notes on a near-daily basis). This year, I've been trying to organise my academic life: I've finally started taking class notes on my laptop, use a nifty program called DEVONthink that organises everything without me having to do much, and my boyfriend just got me a little Wacom tablet so I can take notes on books while reading without having to transfer them to digital versions later. It's currently sitting on my coffee table, practically begging me to take notes on it. I just want to pet it — it's so cute and wee and slim! Now I have to get started making a padded case for it, since it'll be traveling to archives and libraries with me.

It was a slow weekend around here, but here's some stuff you might have missed:

Blueberry Garden looks like a bizarre, yet intriguing, upcoming indie release;
SSBB isn't playing nicely with some Wiis;
The crocheted version of our own Witzbold is available on eBay;
In more shocking news, 'X-Box Live' lies to parents about nude pictures.

I'm off to pon-pon-pata-pon my way through some more of Patapon (See? There I go with the low-stress repetitive tasks again) and get some reading done. Hope y'all have a good week.

With the Dreamcast resurfacing recently in the news, the Escapist's interview with the guys behind Cryptic Allusion — one of the pioneers of the Dreamcast homebrew scene that is waning — is pertinent. Even though Cryptic Allusion has shifted away from Dreamcast homebrew, the interview is taken up with talk about what they did do for the scene, where it's at now, and where it may be in the future. On the question of whether they'd like to see Sega try and re-enter the hardware market:

Read More »

We still have our first batch of three tickets to give away for the Game On exhibit, so if you haven't entered already, or have another retro gaming experience you'd like to share, put fingers to keyboard and email us! Then, be sure to check the site this Wednesday when we announce the winners.

For specific info on how to enter, hit up the original post.

The exhibit opened mid-last week and has a few months of excitement left to go. The official site has everything you need to read to convince you of its awesomeness.

Thanks again to the ACMI for supplying the tickets for the comp.

Week 1: Win Tickets To Melbourne's Game On Exhibit [Kotaku AU]

I love promotional music videos for games, since they're usually so wonderfully terrible they're fantastic. It's even better when there's a weird story attached: GameSetWatch turned up a NeoGAF post regarding the fate of Irrational's cancelled release, The Lost. The game has resurfaced (with reworked graphics, but with core mechanics and story relatively intact) as an Indian release for PCs under the title of Agni: Queen Of Darkness. As GSW neatly sums up, "... evidently this title went south, Irrational got bought by 2K and turned their attention to BioShock, and FXLabs managed to rejigger it for a Bollywood PC release." But that's not all! It even got its own music video featuring Bollywood star Malaika Arora. I'm entranced.

Irrational's 'The Lost' Turns Up... In Bollywood?! [GameSetWatch]

If you missed the news, Nintendo Australia has confirmed that Mario Kart Wii will hit our sandy, irregular-shaped shores on April 24. The pack has an RRP of $99.95 and will include the racing wheel.

"Damn," you might think "that's a long time to wait!" But when you take into consideration it's only two or so weeks behind Japan and Europe, and four full days before the US release, it doesn't look so bad. One might even be tempted to say it's good, or tasty like a chicken.

A cooked chicken, of course. Which you'll find none of after the jump, because there's a press release there instead.

Read More »

CDC Games, one of Mainland China's heavy hitters, sent out a press release last week detailing some metrics for their Mainland games, plus info on how Lunia has been doing in the US. Lots and lots of metrics to be had, but I guess that's why CDC's Ron Williams talked about how to compare apples to oranges. Williams says that CDC is "excited about the game's potential to be a top online game in North America this year" and is hoping to leverage Lunia fans for future releases. Pertinent parts of the release after the jump, plus a link to the full release:

Read More »

New Condemned 2 Screens
Damn, do I love creepy. And scary. It's a good thing then that I liked the original Condemned and the sequel's just around the corner, because it has both of these in spades.

Kotaku Originals: From Gygax to Our First Review
Yes, it's time for your stories. Original stories. Great reading material for a Monday morning.

Yes, Guitar Hero: On Tour Is A DS Game
The Office of Film and Literature Classification - the only website where you can confirm a rating and the existence of an unreleased game!

Dalan Musson, who did the writing for the video game based on The Golden Compass, sat down with Gamasutra to discuss the challenges of writing for movie-based games, and what's different between writing for film and writing for games. It's a short and illuminating interview — considering the plethora of bad adaptations out there (book to film, film to game, game to film ...), it's interesting to get perspective on what goes into writing for both mediums:

Read More »

With Eidos' decision to move their production headquarters to Canada, Tiga (a trade association representing European developer interests) is asking the British government to ensure that developers aren't bailing ship for lower-cost, subsidised locales:

"UK games developers can compete successfully against games developers all over the world where market conditions are fair," said Tiga CEO Richard Wilson.

"The UK is the fourth largest developer of games in the world in terms of revenue generation. Games developers contribute 30 per cent of the country's media exports.

"However, Canadian government subsidies for games developers mean that the playing field is increasingly tipped against UK based games developers."

Beyond the short-term fix of tax breaks, Tiga is agitating for a World Trade Organization investigation into whether Canadian incentives are breaking WTO rules on fair trade. Wilson said "If they do, as seems likely, the Government must take action via the World Trade Organisation against Canada at the earliest opportunity." Who's ready for a gaming industry redux of the Seven Years' War?

Tiga urges government to create competitive environment [GamesIndustry.biz]

I've been playing (replaying parts) of God of War: Chains of Olympus on the Playstation Portable for a week or so now and so far it strikes me as one of the best games to hit the system to date. I'm about five hours in, nearing the end of the game, I believe, and there's really not much to complain about. Sure, it's God of War on a PSP, but what more would you expect? Yes, a review is coming Monday.

If you didn't get the free Demo on UMD when it came out, you can still grab it directly over on the Playstation Store. I point this out because the downloadable demo isn't exactly easy to find and some of you may not have realised it's out there.

God of War: Chains of Olympus Demo [PS Story, thanks Brad]

2D/3D platformer and IGF winner Fez is more than just a little bit of awesome, and now you can own Gomez the game's hero. Site A Little Bit of Awesome points out that these Gomez plushies can be had for just $US 10. They can be found over on the Etsy page of the site's girlfriend.

YaYaLuvsCupcakes [Etsy, via A Little Bit of Awesome]

Grab your oxygen tanks, it's time for some breathless news.

Lansing, Michigan television station WLNS reports on how online games, in particular the Xbox Live, have become a magnet for sexual predators.

Thursday night a woman identified only as Jennifer said that her two children (whose ages were also not listed) were playing a game on "X-Box Live" when they were "exposed to nude pictures sent from someone on the other end."

Jennifer immediately turned off the system and then "called Xbox Live", the faceless online service apparently told Jennifer there was "nothing they could do about it".

Oh X-Box Live, you lie! We all know that you can block individual gamertags, report them for abuse and even set up parental controls to limit access online for children. Why would you lie to Jennifer X-Box Live? Why?

Children Targeted Through X-Box Live [WLNS]

GameCareerGuide has an interesting interview up with Steve Schnur, worldwide executive of music and marketing for Electronic Arts, on the interplay between games and pop music. Schnur contends that being part of a game soundtrack isn't just one more stop on an upward career trajectory, but can (and has) launched careers:

Read More »

Kotakuite BrynnFlynn let us know that there's an eBay auction going on currently for a Disagea Prinny ... or is that a Witzbold?:

I was looking for something new and unique to crochet, and so I thought "Hey, why not make a little Prinny?" A few hours of mad crocheting and accidents later, I had a Prinny from the popular video game series Disgaea. Then I thought, "Hey, why not make it into a Witzbold?" Another hour of messing around with different yarns later, and I had a little replica of the infamous "Banhammer Wielder" from Kotaku.com, the most popular gaming website on the internet.

And there's even a crocheted ban hammer to go with it. Awwww. It can be yours for the current low low bid of $US 5.99, which is way, way cheaper than most of the crocheted curiosities we post.

Crocheted Prinny/Witzbold - HANDMADE!

MTV Multiplayer tapped a number of industry folks to judge their latest stop on the road to their naming the Greatest Animal in the History of Video Games.

In January they named the greatest horse of videogamedom, Epona, from the Legend of Zelda series. This month they selected the best dog, PaRappa the Rapper, of course.

The judges this time around were Leigh Alexander, of Gamasutra and Sexy Videogameland, Tofuburger of I Can Has Cheezburger, Evan Wells of Naughty Dog, and myself.... of here.

Hit up the site to read everyone's reasoning and their number two and three spots. I picked the dog in Duck Hunt and the zombie dogs of Resident Evil as my runners-up.

And The Award For Greatest Video Game Canine Goes To... [MTV Multiplayer]