Blog5 Games

Mad PC skillz just aren’t enough anymore, unless you have a pretty face or some painfully awkward talent, you just can’t hope to make it in the world of pro, or non-pro gaming.

This year’s QuakeCon, the bastion of hardcore gamers, is taping into that need with a little NVIDIA hosted talent show.

Do you want to show all of QuakeCon that you have talent aside from Fragging someone’s ass off? Well here’s your chance! Can you sing, dance - do you know magic or have a secret talent that you’ve been dying to share with your friends? Or, do you and your friends have a talent for singing a cappella? Well, NVIDIA and ID are looking for the most talented people at QuakeCon 2006. Here are just a few talents we might look for, and a few others we’re keeping secret:

Sign Language Dance Impersonator
Comedian Musician Model (walk the walk with flair)
Best Tattoo “Stomp”-style musician Best Looking Couple
Juggling Rap Artist Magician
…and many more

Come to QuakeCon, bring your hidden talent, and you could win big prizes, including your very own QUAD SLI PC from NVIDIA.

I expect to see plenty of embarrassing photos from who ever goes. Brian Crecente

Got a cool grand? Haute, French silversmith Christofle has designed silver Xbox 360 faceplaces for the super rich. These will go on sale later this year for €1000 (US $1,270). The faceplates are limited to only five in the entire world. Good, because that’s the same number of people who would actually buy them. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [VGB]

100,000,000,000 B.C. : And He was. Not born. Not created. Since always for always. Not light. Not dark. Not greysih either. Behold, Brian Crecente. A Gift to the universe!

1999: Nintendo announces a deal with Tommy Hilfiger to release a limited edition Tommyized GBC. Forgetting for a moment that this idea is essentially evil incarnate, wouldn’t it be fantastic if blinged out gaming gear could actually compensate for the rest of your appearance/wardrobe? It’d be PoloStationPortable, tighty-whitey time for everyone!

2001: Take-Two releases Rune: Viking Warlord for PS2. Not just a Viking. Not just a Warlord. You guessed it. Viking Warlord. Badass amongst lords of badass.

2003: Nintendo releases Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour for GC in the US - which is also the game’s first release worldwide. For as much as Nintendo whores out its trademarks, the sports games are actually refreshing. What other series currently offers non-simulation sports?

Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you’d like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com

Filed under: Culture, PC, Adventure, Strategy

Unless you are an avid French gamer completely sucked up into the PC mod world, you may have not been tracking the progress of this UT2K4 mod, Drawn to be Alive. According to the makers of this unique, and very interesting game, it is near completion. What started out as an unfinished class project is now on its way to becoming an experience as refreshing as it can get in today’s game market.

There are currently three levels done, with a fourth promised to be complete at the end of August. The game itself is slated for an October release, but considering the slow going thus far, that target month could be out of reach. Nonetheless, it’s nice to see new styles of gameplay wiggle their way through these great mods that designers keep producing. Makes us wonder what you readers think is the best mod that’s ever seen the light of day.

Check out the trailer here.

[Via Evil Avatar]

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Wow, Kotaku opens a speed contest with little to no reward, and what happens? Readers drop what they are doing, sprint for the nearest window, jump through the glass, land two stories down in a convertible, and race to the nearest computer with a most certainly non-pirated version of Photoshop. These Johnny 5-ified R.O.B.s are not just fanboy creations, they are Art in its fullest capacity. Congrats Kiel, Chris and Andrea for your quickdraws - you are officially immortalized into the pages of TDIG. Only the fastest three entries won, but check out all the entries below.

The import’s out, and so are the secrets.

Sony profits: Up! Games profits: Down! But don’t worry, Sony protests, waving its hands excitedly around its head as a throng of investors turns into a maddening crowd.

Although Sony’s games division posted a loss of over $200 million recently, Senior VP Takao Yuhara assured investors that the PS3’s costs will be recovered within five years.

But all good news comes with bad for Sony lately. Yuhara continued by warning that the games division is facing mounting losses, due to rising microchip costs. Florian Eckhardt

PS3 Launch Costs Rising [Next Generation]

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Business

Following yesterday’s doom and gloom from their Games division, Sony Senior VP Takao Yuhara had more bad news for investors today: the PlayStation maker expects significant losses for Q3. As manufacturing costs for the “too cheap” PS3 continue to put Sony in a financial hole, the electronics leader is becoming even more reliant on consumers’ willingness to plunk down $600 for the next gen console. In order to recoup losses within an estimated five year period, the cell processor must also be successfully incorporated into other consumer devices.

Yuhara commented, “We might see valuation losses of a size that we cannot laugh away in the quarter.” Think this is stopping “Crazy Ken” Kutaragi from laughing?

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If you are playing an MMO, chances are it’s World of Warcraft, Lineage (I or 2), RuneScape or World of Warcraft. Alice at Wonderland points to this fascinating chart that shows the obvious: WoW is doing amazingly well (no duh), most other games ain’t. Kinda surprising to see that EverQuest is posting Star Wars Galaxies subscription numbers. Then again, maybe not. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Wonderland]

Filed under: Nintendo GameCube, PC, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

It’s only one month on top of the original September release date, but the news of Sam Fisher’s latest adventure in dark duplicity being delayed until the spookiest month of the year is not entirely welcome. Splinter Cell: Double Agent promises to take the series into new territory, allowing players to infiltrate the ranks of the enemy and experience the other side of global terror and insidious espionage. This dramatic addition to gameplay is characterized by the following exciting features (taken from the fake press release):

• Intricate pendulum level design: As a guard, you’ll be expected to patrol a set area, walking back and forth between point A and point B (at higher difficulty levels, a more challenging point C may be added). This path will be made very clear to the player, with potential exits blocked off by debris, locked doors, raging fires or piles of dead guards.
• Dynamic AI conversations: In an effort to create the illusion of intelligence in your fellow evil minions, non-player characters have been designed to frequently respond to your actions and engage in banter entirely unrelated to work. An extensive dialogue tree enables you to choose a response for any situation, be it relaxed (”Good morning.”), congratulatory (”Good work.”) or alarming (”Good lord, someone’s shooting at us.”)
• Positional sound muffling: In order to be truly successful as a guard, distractions cannot be tolerated. Thanks to an advanced positional audio algorithm, the game aids the player in correctly categorizing the sounds of gunfire, explosions, bloodcurdling screams, shattering windows and crashing helicopters as the unremarkable, nocturnal machinations of rats.
• Oblivious (TM) lighting engine: The next generation of HDR lighting better simulates the vision of an actual guard. All fluorescent lights appear to be flickering, darkness is entirely impenetrable and brightly lit christmas trees that strangle you from behind are entirely invisible. Note: This feature is only available in the Xbox 360, PC, PS2, Gamecube, PS3 and Xbox versions of Double Agent.

[Thanks Stephen!]

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While I’ve always preferred the Captain Lou Albano Mario voice, there’s no doubt that when we think of Mario, we think of a gibberish-spouting Castrati speaking entirely in burbles of Italian stereotype. Now meet the man behind the voice: Charles Matinet.

How did this saturnine-haired American get the job as the world’s famous, drugged-out plumber?

It all started around 15 years ago at the CES. Mr. Martinet reluctantly “crashed” an audition. The camera man was putting his equipment away and the group was getting ready to call it a night. After convincing the crew to begin taping again he heard about the role, an Italian plumber from Brooklyn whose visage is going to be used in an interactive demo. At first Mr. Martinet thought of a stereotypical Italian voice with a thick accent, the result was a voice that sounded like it was out of a mob movie. This voice just wasn’t fun so he switched gears into an older Italian man. Things changed when the camera was recording. He started speaking like the Mario we all know and love until the audition tape ran out. The only tape that was sent over for the role was Mr. Martinet’s and as we all know he got the job.

His homepage is something of a hoot, too. I particularly like the streaming movie which shows him in many strangely familiar informercials from the 80’s and 90’s. Mario’s that guy? Florian Eckhardt

It’s a me Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario [Silicon Era]

Filed under: Culture, Nintendo DS, Portable, Retro, Adventure, RPGs

Go Nintendo points us to a trailer taken from the official Japanese Final Fantasy III site that displays more of that beautiful CG you’ve come to know and love from the franchise.

Note the angelic look of the characters and the soft flowing music to coincide with the gentle breeze blowing through the trailer. Take a deep breath, and enjoy. Doesn’t that prerendered CG stuff get you all hyped up to finally play this DS remake?

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It’s not only a Coca-Cola Whack-a-mole, but a World of Warcraft Coca-Cola Whack-a-mole! A sugary cocktail of retro arcades, enormous online gaming and whacking. The beverage company has latched onto WoW as a promotional tool in China, even using the game for television spots. Simon from GameSetWatch has been wandering the streets of Shanghai, doing things like visiting the ChinaJoy game show. Swing by GSW for more, equally caffeinated photos. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [GSW]

You knew it was coming: The Sims are getting pets The Sims 2 Pets expansion pack hits this October and will allow you to create your own little companion by customizing body shape, color and markings. Once created, the pets can be trained to do tricks and can be used to unlock bits of accessories.

The pets will be coming to the PS2, GameCube, GBA, DS, and computer. They also hit the PSP in November. Hit the jump for all of the details on the animals. Brian Crecente

EA Announces The Sims 2 Pets
Fans of the Popular Video Game Series Enrich The Lives of Their Sims With The Addition of an Animal Companion

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - (July 27, 2006. 9 a.m. PST) - Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that the popular video game franchise, The Sims™ 2, is going to the dogs–and for that matter, to the cats, guinea pigs and birds too! The company is releasing The Sims™ 2 Pets on current generation console systems, handheld platforms and as a PC expansion pack. The Sims 2 Pets will build on the celebrated The Sims 2 experience that allows players to create and control digital characters throughout their lives while determining the outcome of their relationships and choosing their destiny. Each version will feature customized content tailored to the platform.

The addition of a new friend is guaranteed to enrich the daily lives of your Sims! Not only will players have the opportunity to choose from a variety of existing breeds, and hot designer mixes, but they’ll also be able to personally design their new friend with the Create-a-Pet feature. The ability to customize gives fans the opportunity to create their ideal pet by choosing their body shape, unique markings, even their pet’s personalities! With so many different animals to choose from, there’s no telling what unpredictable experiences could occur!

Players will also be able to teach their pet new tricks, take them for a romp in the park, outfit them with new pet accessories and even give them a job! As in real life, your Sims’ pet will require care and training. A neglected cat with an urge to scratch might claw up your new couch if you aren’t careful, and leaving your dog unattended near a freshly planted flower bed probably isn’t wise!

“The Sims 2 Pets captures the magic between pets and their owners,” said Executive Producer Rod Humble. “A dog gnawing at his chew toy, a cat jumping at a dangled feather, a toddler stroking the chest of a big dog who sits by patiently–even a frisky dog getting caught rolling around in the trash. These special moments all come to life through the lifelike animations and artwork of The Sims 2 Pets. There is something delightful about your Sim, a little pet person, having a pet of their own. Pets allows players to tell more stories with their Sims and helps create more emergent anecdotes within the game.”
The Sims 2 Pets will be available on the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Nintendo GameCube™, Game Boy® Advance, and Nintendo DS™, and as a PC expansion pack* that builds on the original The Sims 2 PC game experience. A version for the PSP® (PlayStation® Portable) system will follow.

KEY FEATURES
All Platforms
· Sims Have New Friends - Pets! Sims can share their lives with their new pets and add more fun to the Sims experience. From dogs, cats, caged animals and more, your Sims share new friends to experience life’s precious moments. With so many different animals to choose from, there’s no telling what unpredictable experiences could occur!
· Create-A-Pet: Choose from dozens of dog and cat breeds or customize features for a one-of-a-kind pet. You can even modify your pet’s body shape by choosing from specific colors and unique markings. Don’t like the way they act? Change their personality - from smart and sweet to silly and sloppy - anyone can create their ideal animal friend in The Sims 2 Pets.
· “Sit, Spike, Sit”: Your Sims can encourage and discipline pets, training them to shake, roll over, play dead, and more. Unruly pets might dig in the yard, claw the sofa, or topple the trash. Thankfully, a little training can go a long way.
· Classic Sims Open-Ended Gameplay: Create and control digital characters over a lifetime, setting their goals in life from popularity and romance, to fortune and family- their stories are in your hands.
· Share unique Pet unlocks: Use special codes to share unlockable pet accessories, fur types or markings with other The Sims 2 Pets players.

Unique to PC*
· Friends for a Lifetime: Your Sims’ pets are members of the family and share all of life’s great moments - whether it’s kids training puppies, teens playing fetch in the park, adults watching TV with their cats, or elders enjoying a sunny day in the park with their long-time companion!
· Create a designer breed: Your Sims pets have genetics, allowing you to create the latest designer pet, including popular hybrid breeds like the Labradoodle, Puggle and Schnoodle! Like what you’ve created? Register them to appear in Create-A-Pet as a unique pedigree!
· Bring Home the Bacon: Sims aren’t the only ones with careers anymore! Skilled pets can earn a living from three career tracks - Show Business, Security, and Service - and work their way up through five job levels.

Unique to PlayStation®2, Nintendo GameCube™ and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system
· Stroll the Central Town Park: Take your Sims and their pet for a romp at any of the nearby park areas, or head to the Central Town Park which is a favorite of pet owners. While there, watch your pet play well with others while your Sim can meet others and socialize with fellow animal lovers.
· Shop ’til you drop: Visit the adjoining Town Center, a great gathering spot for Sims that evolves over time. Once you’ve seen the latest styles and decided on a purchase, deck your pet out in the latest clothing and accessories around. From geek to chic and cool to casual, your Sim can customize their pet’s look with one stop in the Town Center. It’s sure to be the coolest pet in town!

Unique to Nintendo DS™
· Manage a Pet Care Center: Pamper, preen, and nurse all the neighborhood pets at your new Pet Care Center that you create and customize.
· How Much Is That Doggie in the Window? In a pet store that you own and operate, you can help other Sims pick out the perfect pet. Earn extra Simoleans by selling the pet products that include the latest pet fashions and accessories!

Game Boy® Advance
· Give Your Sim a Career in Pet Care: Take care of the town’s pets by being a veterinarian, a world-class pet trainer and more. Players can even choose from a variety of cat and dogs to adopt as their very own. Whether they are healing pets or just taking them for a stroll, there is always something to do in the pet-friendly town of Barkersville.
· Toys, treats and tricks!: Sims can teach their pets cool and amazing tricks and then compete in the World Championships to be the best in show!

Product Specifications
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts Redwood Shores
Ship Date: October 17th, 2006:
· PlayStation®2
· Nintendo GameCube™
· Game Boy® Advance
· Nintendo DS™
· PC expansion pack*
Ship Date: November 2006:
· PSP® (PlayStation®Portable)
Category: Simulation/Strategy
ESRB Rating:”RP-T” (Rating Pending - Teen)

Filed under: PC, Driving, Online, RPGs, MMO, Business

Fear not Joystiq faithful, for our little MMO that could is still chuggin’ along despite barely scratching through the crowded field of competitors. It appears the team at Auto Assault is still trying to nail down that certain aspect that will not only keep its hundreds if not thousands of players from staying put, but also attract those who have all but dismissed the game entirely.

NCsoft has released a preview at just some of the new things we can expect with a second major update for AA. While they state that some of these features may not make it in the final product, most should be a real possibility. Have a look at just some of what could be in store for you (that is if any of you actually play the game):

• New maps, missions, weapons, and tricks
• Improved performance on starter maps
• Pet Balance Improvements

We know all of you just can’t wait to hop on board and test out those “new tricks.” We continue to feel bad for AA and feel that perhaps it’s time for the little guy to pack it up and call it a day. But hey, who knows? Maybe this update will show some of us the light we never saw at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Check out the full release after the break.

Happy Friday editors!

We have been working hard to add new content, improve PvP, polish the game, improve frame rates, balance skills andracial missions, and address issues raised by the Auto Assault community. I wanted to take a moment and provide some information on what is coming soon in the official “Update 2″ patch release. This list is subject to change, but we wanted to get you some information on what we were working on.

Here is a high level summary of what you can expect:

- New Arena Map: Emergence. Emergence is the evolution of Auto Assault deathmatch. Gameplay is more fast-paced, and contains new, more exciting power-ups. Beware the jump ring!

- New Colliseum Map: Coliseum. Coliseum is a new instance map attached to Ground Zero. OCD built the Coliseum to test the most elite drivers with unique, ever-more-difficult challenges.

- New missions in Ground Zero. More than 20 new missions have been added to Ground Zero.

- Improved Performance on starter maps: The Wastes, Malachite, Fort Logan, Tocado, Upside

- Increased Capture Time on Outposts in Ground Zero. This will encourage group play and give defenders more of a chance to react to changing battle conditions.

- Adjusted repair consumables to have 1 less cooldown timer group than before.

- These changes should improve support class desirability, team play, and improve conditions in Ground Zero.

- Increased all Mutant mission XP payouts from levels 6-59 by 10% and increased Biomek mission XP payouts from levels 6-59 by 5%.

- Outpost Token Store with new “Battlemaster” set of items. Remember all those tokens you collected capturing outposts in Ground Zero? Now you can spend them on amazing new items. The Battlemaster set of items is brutal, embedded with skulls and glowing with the blood of your enemies.

- Pet Balance Improvements. Nearly every summon across all races/classes now lasts for over an hour in duration at the highest ranks, and have had their accuracy and hit points greatly improved and normalized.

- Improved statistics of Epic mission rewards, including the addition of the best auto-repair in the game.

- Many new weapons to improve drops and damage type availability.

- There will also be a wider selection of non-energy based and high refire-rate weaponry.

- Also, new tricks coming soon after Update 2 to improve your customization options.

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Thank God it’s Friday (and my Birthday btb) and with the end of the work week comes our weekly list of original stories. From Nintendo’s secret, cross-country Wii tour to Sony’s poll on PSP TV, to Microsoft’s PGR3 Xbox 360 bundle it has been an interesting week.

Cross-Country Tour to Bring Wii to the People

Oblivion PSP Under Development by Climax Studios

Think the PS3 is Expensive go to Isreal

The Animal Crossing Movie Poster Out and About
Word of Datecraft Hooks up Lonely WoWers

This Day in Gaming

Artist Sells Hand-Painted Xbox Faceplates

MySpace Scratches Horny Mal Gamers Where They Itch

Sony’s PSP TV Poll

AP Stylebook Gets Game (Boy)

Suit Filed Against Take-Two…Again

PGR 3 Xbox 360 Bundle Confirmed?

Clinton Planning Video Game Tax, Looks for Martyr

Getting to Know My PSP (Again)

Brian Crecente

Despite being Kotaku’s “Associate Editor, Europe”, I don’t read Swedish. Oh, I can bork bork with the best of them, but when it comes down to parsing them in diareses, umlauts and those funny bisected Os, I’m clueless.

So I will have to take Kotakuite Andre’s word for part of his much appreciated tip. I can neither confirm nor deny that the page also contains “evil rumors” saying that the game may very well be delayed until 2007 because of “quality problems.” If true, I wonder what those quality problems might be? Problems nailing the Wiimote control? Post E3 reports were so promising that they’d fixed its loosey-gooseyness.

Delaying a Wii launch title also seems ominous. The line-up just doesn’t look nearly as good without Red Steel in it. Florian Eckhardt

Red Steel Screens and Evil Rumors [Game Reactor]

Commenter Altima wins yesterday’s contest with his comments on our story aboutNintendo launching a cross-country tour to promote Wii directly to gamers..

R. Kelley brought wii to the people, but they didnt like it so much, and he got in trouble.

Don’t forget to post away today for your chance to win. I will be randomly selecting a post tonight, as I will every day this month, and then deciding which comment about the post was the funniest, most insightful or interesting and hand out a prize to the poster.

Today’s prize is a 360 Memory Unit and a 360 wireless controller. Prizes cannot be changed. Brian Crecente

Filed under: Culture, Retro

MTV News has a fun story up looking at some of the popular gaming videos that have infested YouTube of late. Videos like this one, and this one … oh, and don’t forget this one! The best part, however, is on the “Nintendo Amusement Park” (see it here).

There’s not much we didn’t already know, but MTV News’ Stephen Totilo took it the extra mile. He visited the facilities, donned the ceremonial Mario outfit, got footage of it, and plopped it in front of the vacant stares permanently attached to the faces of millions of TRL devotees. Bonus points for making them listen to intellectual game designer Frank Lantz talk about “the return of the body to the games space.” Oh, and bonus points for not barfing, Stephen. We weren’t sure there for a second.

“Uh, whatever, where’s my music videos?”

No music videos here, but we do have a really quiet video embedded after the break, or follow the (craptacular, Windows-only) Overdrive link on the MTV News site.

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The Man is trying to keep otakus down. Every Sunday, the main drag in Tokyo’s gaming/geek center Akihbara is closed to only foot traffic so that bands can play and maid cosplayers can hand out fliers for various nerdy things. That is, until the coppers pissed all over that parade. A police spokesperson explains:

Even if the street has been turned into a temporary pedestrian’s mall, the rules say that it’s still a street and can’t be used for anything other than walking over. Handing out pamphlets and putting on shows breaks those rules. If we see that kind of thing going on, we ask people to stop it.

Critics of the crackdown equate the restriction on maid activities and a deliberation attempt by the fuzz to squash otaku culture. Shame the police don’t understand that tourists visit the area to see precisely the stuff that’s being stamped out. Tokyo’s boys in blue making Japan safer and duller, one maid at a time. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Mainichi]