Top Stories
Confirmed: EA Closes Pandemic Studios, Says Brand Will Live On
Rumour: RIP Pandemic Studios, 1998-2009
Layoffs Hit Star Wars Developers

Reviews, Previews, Hands-On and Impressions
Assassin’s Creed II Review: A Season For Masterpieces
Left 4 Dead 2 Review: We Don’t Care How You Did It Up North
LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues Review: Nuke The Mini-fig
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers Impressions: The Day After Christmas
Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron Review: Deja Vu in Space
Phoenix Wright WiiWare Preview: Throwing Out Objections
Torchlight Review: The Fate Of DiabloCraft
Frankenreview: Left 4 Dead 2
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks Multiplayer Preview: Spreading The Phantom
Art Style Digidrive Micro-Review: The Superiority Of Video Games
Frankenreview: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

News
Turbo: The Struggle To Make A Better Video Game Movie
Hey, It’s The World’s Fastest Graphics Card
Firmware 3.10 Update Is Live
How 2010 Is Actually Christmas 2009 (In Disguise)
Testing Ubisoft’s “Frequent Flyer” Rewards Program With Assassin’s Creed II
EA Talks Command & Conquer’s “New Digital Model,” Medal of Honor “Re-invention”
What Left 4 Dead 2 Boycotters Are Playing
Sports Authority Fitness Retailer Inks Deal to Sell Wii
New Kingdom Hearts PSP Fit For Japan

Features
In College, the Party Never Stops — for LAN

Sports
Leaked Survey Tips Off MLB 2K10 Cover Athlete

Columns
Well Played: All Out War (Games)
Stick Jockey: Maybe the Greatest of All Time, but not In Its Time
Notebook Dump: Excuse Time
Old News ‘90: Nintendo Says NES Final Fantasy Is Geared To Adults

Kotaku Talks to Reggie
Reggie: Wii 2 Theories Miss Key Point
Nintendo Talks Mario Multiplayer And Keeping Zelda’s Secrets
Nintendo Dissatisfied With Sales Of Some Games, Dates Vitality Sensor Showcase

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
New Super Mario Bros. Wii In-Game Tips
Nintendo’s Temporary Mario Museum, The Video Tour
Mario Vs. Bowser, Waged Through Chess

Top Stories
The Story and Gameplay of Final Fantasy XIII
Modern Warfare 2 Sells Nearly Five Million Copies In A Day
Rumour: EA’s Cuts Include C&C Team, Pandemic, Maxis & More
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review: This Means War
Wary, Publishers Respond To GameStop Breaking Modern Warfare 2 Street Date
Rumour: EA Guts Workforce After Big Playfish Buyout
GameStop Responds; MW2 Broken Street Date a Corporate Decision

Features
Head In The Clouds: Flying In Video Games

Columns
Notebook Dump: XIII Discs, Reggie’s DS And A Drone Update
NCAA Football and the Science of Subjectivity

Reviews, Previews, Impressions and Hands-On
New Super Mario Bros. Wii Review: Go Buy A Wii
Modern Warfare 2 PS3 Controller Faceplate Review: Cheap, But Does The Job
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex Review: Looks Aren’t Everything
LEGO Rock Band Review: Redefining The Rock Block
MW2 PS3 Combat Wireless Headset Review: Pain in Your Ear
LocoRoco Midnight Carnival Review: Up All Night
Star Trek Online Preview: Ignoring Regulation
Bright Eyes: MW2 Night Vision Goggle Impressions
Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 Combat Controller Review: Plugged In
Frankenreview: Modern Warfare 2
Modern Warfare 2 Throat Communicator Micro-Review: Comfy and Quiet
Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 Review: You Only Sing When You’re Winning
PSPgo Traveler Case Micro Review: Stylish and Sleek

News
Thank You Mario, But Our Princess Is In Another Game, Getting Kidnapped Again
Nintendo Explains The Red Box, Dashes Hope For Yellow Ones
Was Modern Warfare 2 Really The “Biggest Launch In History”?
More Bang For Your Buck
Wii Price Drop Puts Nintendo Back On Top In US
What The Captains Of The Industry Said Today
Take-Two: Retail Stores Will Be Here For Awhile
Guess What Made Time’s 50 Best Inventions Of 2009 List
Care for a Ubisoft fighting game or RPG? They’re coming
Ubisoft: Prince of Persia Movie Could Outperform Pirates of the Caribbean
StarCraft II Expansions, Diablo III Coming in “Next Few Years”
The Mario Suits That Were, Are And Should Be
New Zune Game Revue, Coming Right At You
You Came, You Saw, You Critiqued
Brütal Legend Forges Unholy Union With Mishka For Brutally Metal Tees
Dragon Quest VI DS Dated For Japan
Can You Spot The Game Peripheral In This Lady Gaga Video?
Measuring The Hype: Modern Warfare 2
Something To Make Up For The DOA Gears’ Snuggie
New Super Mario Bros. Wii Already Standing Out Here
Terrifying Clown Army Invades New York Best Buy
Malaysia’s Wall of Modern Warfare 2
Nintendo Thanks People For Ratting Out R4 Retailers
Modern Warfare 2 Locked Until Thursday For Steam Customers
The Dangerous Video Game You Weren’t Supposed To Play
Mad Catz Modern Warfare 2 Range Unboxed

Yes, Mr. Plunkett, Kotaku’s editor for Oceania, got hitched today, and congrats and best wishes to him and his bride and to their families, and for their new lives together. Luke tying the knot was easily the biggest of big news for Kotakopolis this week, no mean feet considering the PSPgo launched and the team returned from Japan with a cartload of TGS09 copy.

So, like a big wedge of wedding cake that we’re lovingly smushing into your face, as the DJ cues up the Chicken Dance, here’s the week that was in Kotaku Originals.

Kotaku’s TGS09 Coverage

Top Stories
Of Weddings & Video Games
Electronic Arts Sues to Cancel Langdell’s Trademarks
PSPgo Review: A Peek Into the Future of Gaming
Square Enix Japan To Cut 200 to 300 Jobs

Reviews, Previews, Hands-On and Impressions
FIFA 10 Review: 30-Yard Screamer
Heroes Over Europe Review: A Flying Shame
Eliminate Preview: Transitive Verbs Are Cooler Than Nouns
Dead Space Extraction Review: Frighteningly Good
Madden iPhone Micro-Review: The Biggest Small-Time Football
Frankenreview: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review: Fortune Shines on Drake
Frankenreview: Gran Turismo PSP
DJ Hero Preview: Gonna Need A Bigger Lap
Zuma’s Revenge Micro-Review: Bridging The mum And Son Gap

News
Capcom Objects To Tax Issue
Gladiator Begins Won’t Begin Until January 2010
Classy Furniture For Gamers, For $US1000 And Up
Japanese Version of Fat Princess Will Have Blood
Professor Layton Animated Movie Stills

Features
Where Are All The “Next Gen” Games?
Why We Love To Hate Activision – And Might Be Wrong

Columns
Well Played: Tokyo Game Show Slump Casts Shadow Across Industry
Stick Jockey: What Makes a “Real” Sport in an Unreal World?

PSPgo
The PSPgo Launch Guide: It’s a Go
PSP: Attack of the Minis

Kotaku Approval Ratings:
Approval Ratings: No Motivation for Motion Control
Kotaku Approval Ratings: Issues of the Day

Please do hit that first link to peer at the voluminous report put together by Crecente, Totilo, Bash and McWhertor, with more coming. And check out the eight reviews and previews that ran stateside while Kotaku was in Japan, reporting on the games to be reviewed and previewed in the months to come.

The week in originals:

Kotaku’s TGS 2009 Coverage

Previews, Reviews, Impressions and Hands-On
Wii Fit Plus Preview: One Fat Slice Of Cheese
Need for Speed Shift Review: Switching Gears
Muramasa: The Demon Blade Review: Hot Springs Eternal
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes Preview: Split Personality Gameplay
LEGO Indiana Jones 2 Driving Segment Preview: Smash! Crash! Rehash!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up Review: Heroes And A Half-Smash-Bros.
Halo 3: ODST Review: The More Vulnerable Edition
Mini Ninjas Review: Hitman: Lunch Money
Persona PSP Review: This Time It’s Persona
Frankenreview: Halo 3: O.D.S.T.

Columns
Well Played: Bakugan: Contender to the Pokemon Throne?
Stick Jockey: Where Madden Plugs a Gap, Another Sees a Running Lane
Top Stories
Wii Price Drop Timed to Wii Fit Plus Release
Sony Nixes Plans For UMD Conversion Program For PSPGo

News
The Voice Of A Master: James Arnold Taylor
Tsumuji Bring Ninja Sneaking To The DS
Hope On The Horizon For Aion’s Server Woes
Asia’s Other Game Convention: Singapore Shines in September
Left 4 Dead 2 Demo Coming Next Month
The Lusty Screenshots of Dante’s Inferno
A Development Studio That Doesn’t Put Out Many Games Might Be Busy
Justify Your Giant Bakugan Truck
Bakugan: The Truck
Metroid Prime Team Discusses Their Decade Of Samus, Ponders Series’ Future
Aion’s Early Start So Far

Ruh Roh
Why We Moved Our Party, And Can’t Recommend Trump House

The Kübler-Ross model of grief proposed in the 1969 book Death and Dying is actually a theory about dealing with death and terminal disease, both of which are way worse than just calling it quits with your special someone.

But breakups – even the mature, amicable kind where you know even before you split that you’re going to be better off – still suck and sometimes you’ve got to let yourself go through the five stages in no particular order just to adjust.

1) Denial – Lord of the Rings: Conquest – “This can’t be happening to me.”
Here’s a game that’s very good at denying that anything is wrong. It’s got a blockbuster movie licence behind it, a dream team in development and publishing and the gameplay is based on the Star Wars: Battlefront series. Conquest had it all… so how could anything be wrong?

Even after reality set in for everybody else when the reviews came out, the the game kept right on denying with a big, fat downloadable content pack.

But no matter how many big-name characters are included from the book, sometimes you just have to face facts and move on.

2) Anger – Prototype – “It’s not fair!”
Life isn’t fair – particularly when it gives you body-morphing, people-absorbing powers that send the whole US Government after you as a terrorist. But there’s no time to be sad when they send in the helicopters and the tanks. Sometimes you just have to get mad and Prototype is the game to do it with.

Between flinging pedestrians into helicopters and elbow-dropping tanks, you’ll get rid of a lot of bad feelings and find healthy ways to entertain those revenge fantasies about your ex. Way better than boiling bunnies.

3) Bargaining – The Sims 3 – “Just one more, hour, minute, whatever… please, just one more!”
It’s natural to feel like you could make things right if you just had a little more time or could do something with the departing loved one just one more time. But the reality is, no matter how many “just one more” times you get, there’s always going to be more – more you want to do, more you want to say, more skills you need to raise before you can get that next job promotion.

In The Sims 3, you’ll never run out of “just one more” things to do – one more trip to the mausoleum, one more Try for Baby, one more hour toward earning lifetime achievement points so you can buy the steel bladder perk. Maybe, eventually, it’ll hit you that no matter what kind of deals you make inside your head, no matter how many ingredients you get for the Ambrosia recipe, sometimes it’s just time to stop.

4) Depression – Bionic Commando – “I can’t go on… it’s just too sad.”
It’s okay to be bummed when a long-term relationship ends. It’s even more okay if the relationship ended against your wishes.

*Spoilers* It’s especially okay to be bummed if the relationship ended against your wishes and your loved one winds up embedded in your arm. *End Spoilers*

Just sit back and ride out the angst with a good, long play through of a game that truly gets it when it comes to being sad.

5) Acceptance – Street Fighter IV – “You can’t fight it. Just take it.”
The final stage of grief is sometimes the longest one coming – maybe even 12 years in coming. But as this game demonstrates, when this stage of grief finally arrives, it has improved graphics, flashier combos and is generally a better experience than you thought to hope for. Sure, everything feels a bit different and maybe you miss the way things were. But Street Fighter has moved on – why shouldn’t you?

The bottom line is we all have different ways of coping with loss. Some are more effective than others, just like some games really are better than others. Whatever you choose to do to handle your feelings in the wake of a breakup, just make sure you’re taking care of yourself.

And make sure you’re playing on your own Xbox Live account because you cannot recover Gamerscore points earned on an account you shared with your ex.

We spent this week strapped with digital pedometers from Nintendo’s Personal Trainer walking to see who would actually take the most steps from Sunday until Thursday.

The results may surprise you:

Despite getting only 12 percent of the vote, Luke Plunkett topped the charts with 48,446 steps during the show. I took second place with 45,617. Stephen Totilo grabbed third place with 39,881 steps.

Rounding out the list were Mike McWhertor with 38,319 and Mike Fahey with 37,272. The real winner of the contest, though, was Gizmodo’s Chris Mascari who busted his arse all week taking pictures and shooting video for us, and walking. He took 50,703 steps.

And now for the excuses: I forgot to bring my pedometer with me for much of Monday, slipping it in my pocket that night. Fahey points out that he got his late on Sunday, took a cab to a party, takes mammoth steps because he’s a giant and that he has only half a face.

E3: The Great Walk-Off [Kotaku]

It was kind of a bummer not to see any Tales games whatsoever – not even screens of Vesperia for the PS3. But last year, Tales games practically dominated the show floor alongside Souldcalibur IV, so it’s only fair to give other games the spotlight. Especially when some of them just look so pretty.

Check out what we got to see:

Previews
Tekken 6 Preview: When Pigs Fly
The Munchables Preview: Eat It!
Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao Preview: An Eyes-On Experience
We Cheer 2 Preview: Now With 40% More Male
Klonoa Wii-make Challenge Preview: Yep, It’s Challenging

Impressions
Katamari Forever Now In 1080p… Forever
Dead to Rights: Retribution “Embraces the M” Rating
Food Network Gets In On Nintendo Cooking Sim Craze

Screens/Announcements
Naruto Grows Up On The PSP
Namco Bandai Bringing Manga Carta II Stateside
Tekken 6 Is Also Coming To The PSP
Soulcalibur Is Also Coming To The PSP
Here Are Your Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny Screens

Swag Report (Pictured)
1 Naruto T-shirt that might actually fit me
1 pleather Dead to Rights notebook (plastic cop badge not included)
1 Tekken 6 Xbox 360 faceplate to celebrate the series’ debut on Xbox 360
1 sassy Food Network tote my grandmother would kill for
1 flashy Tekken 6 print

Today kicks off Stanford University’s Play Machinima Law Conference with panels of machinima artists, copyright lawyers and legal representatives from Blizzard, EA and Microsoft.

Machinima is one of those hazy areas of artistic expression not quite covered by copyright law and not quite insignificant given how many people have jumped on the bandwagon. Kotaku first covered the topic back when the New York Times Magazine did a piece called “Xbox Auteurs” that loosely touched on successful ventures like Red vs. Blue and Strangerhood. Since then, we’ve seen everything from filmmakers to Family Guy writers getting in on the machinima scene.

Stanford’s gathering of legal people, law professors, game studies students and machinima artists aims to address some of the grey areas in this emerging art form. It’s also an opportunity to screen some bitchin’ machinima. And, for me, it’s a chance to earn some extra credit in my Game Studies: Issues in Design, Technology, and Player Creativity class since I’m ditching next week to make the Namco Bandai Gamers Day event.

Here’s what I learned:

Machinima is more than just Red vs. Blue
For the longest time, I thought “machinima” was limited to fan made videos people posted to YouTube. I didn’t realise that the word also includes serious documentaries like HBO’s My Second Life: The video diaries of Molotov Alta and licensed advertisements like the World of Warcraft SlimJim commercial. Pretty much any endeavor that uses in-game content to create original narratives or otherwise creative works counts as machinima – even if it’s dumb music videos.

It’s Not Always Fair Use
Parody law in the United States gets kicked around a lot, especially when something offensive but funny hits the Internet. However, because most games require users to sign terms of use agreements, parody law doesn’t protect Red vs. Blue from Microsoft (that, and Red vs. Blue is satire, not parody). There are some exceptions to this, though, depending on the developer. For example, Second Life “owner” Linden Lab didn’t feel the need to sign a release for the HBO documentary because to them, their game should replicate real life conditions for documentary filmmaking. You wouldn’t have the mayor of New York City sign a release before filming the streets of New York, right?

Blizzard and Microsoft Actually Aren’t Opposed To Machinima
You’d think the two biggest playgrounds for machinima artists would be annoyed at all these artists cashing in on their product; but actually, both publishers have reached out to machinima communities. They’ve set up (and revised) guidelines for machinima creators to allow would-be artists some control over their creations and some freedom to distribute them. Here’s Microsoft’s and here’s Blizzard’s. Compare and contrast.

The Big Question: Can You Make Money On It?
One of the main torts of copyright law and the defining issue for machinima to address (at least in this conference) is whether or not these productions are for profit. Both agreements from Microsoft and Sony draw a definite distinction between noncommercial and commercial use of their games to create machinima.

This is kind of a problem for machinima artists because many of them would certainly like to profit from their hard work (and some of them definitely do). There are ways to do it without provoking a lawyer-storm from publishers, such as securing licensing agreements or even just asking permission to submit a machinima film to a contest that’s not affiliated with the game before actually doing it. But many machinima artists are under the impression that if they just stay off the radar, they can get away with selling t-shirts, DVDs and other items that tie into their work and (sort of) trade on the game’s popularity. Or, they think, they can play the Fair Use card if they satisfy at least one aspect of copyright law and escape litigation.

The lawyers here at the conference today say that this is not the way to go. Fair Use is ambiguous even outside video game land – and even if the “actual damages” threat doesn’t sound so scary, it is still a serious legal problem, especially if you’re just a gamer who wanted to make a fan video of Master Chief rocking out to Jesse McCartney’s “Right Where You Want Me.” The legal rights for machinima haven’t been spelled out yet, even with the few case laws on the books for Second Life – so do not assume anything, or at least try not to act surprised when the lawyers call you up.

The Stanford Machinima Law conference is going on now at Stanford University. You can check out the agenda here at this website that really seems to hate Firefox. Audio and video of the event will probably be posted at some point, too – but because it’s Stanford, I wouldn’t bet on it happening for another month or so.

Yes, I’m in sunny Melbourne today. Why’s that? I’ll be listening to the guy who designed Planescape: Torment give a talk.

I’ve flown down from Sydney to attend Framework, an industry event where people talk about games. One of the speakers is Chris Avellone, now of Obsidian Entertainment and formerly of Black Isle Studios. He’s worked on games such as Fallout 2, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights 2 and its Mask of the Betrayer expansion, Knights of the Old Republic 2 and of course Planescape: Torment. As the latter is in my top ten games of all time, I’m quite excited to hear what he has to say.

I’ll be writing something up about it when I get back, so stay tuned.

I’ve been playing Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena this morning. Except I haven’t. Instead I decided to check out the remake of Escape From Butcher Bay that developer Starbreeze has generously included on the same disc.

To my shame, I hadn’t played the Xbox original of Butcher Bay. I’d heard it was good, so I was keen to see what the fuss was all about. Two aspects immediately stood out: the sheer quality of the voice acting and the fact there was so much character interaction.

Having gone in expecting a first-person shooter/sneaker, the opening prison sequence came as a huge – but welcome – surprise. You spend much of your time unarmed, just wandering around talking to fellow inmates and prison guards, picking up “quests” and working out how to escape, almost like a town or hub section in an RPG.

Combined with the excellent voice acting, this section serves as a great way of establishing a sense of place. By allowing you to explore and backtrack and just generally soak up the atmosphere – all before throwing you into the shooting and neck-snapping action – Starbreeze presents Butcher Bay as a real prison rather than just a game level to pass through.

I’ve just escaped via the infirmary and am keen to experience more. Did you play Riddick back in its original incarnation? Are you looking forward to the re-release and the new Dark Athena content?