Kotaku

Sony: The PlayStation Vita Is Region-FreeWe're one step closer to world peace and universal harmony, thanks to Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios boss and recent Tokyo Game Show keynoter Shuhei Yoshida. Asked if Sony's new PlayStation Vita handheld would be region-free and capable of playing software from any region, Shuhei said "Yes."


Well, that about clears that up. Yoshida would know, what with the fact that he's near the top of the game development food chain at Sony.


That means you can feel a little bit better about your Japanese import pre-order for the PlayStation Vita, content in the knowledge that, like the PSP and PlayStation 3, you'll have a portable that's capable of playing the weirdest of Japanese video games and Call of Duty.



You can contact Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Kotaku

Shadow Complex 2 Has Been Designed. Can We Just Play It Already?Man, I still don't quite know what it was about Shadow Complex. I loved that game so much. So when Cliff Bleszinski told me that its sequel has already been designed, it just about made my day.


Shadow Complex came out of nowhere for me—it was 2009, and I was totally wrapped up in Batman: Arkham Asylum. But I found that I was playing both games at the same time, and they combined to form this incredibly potent cocktail of exploration, combat, and Metroidvainia-ish map tourism. Where Arkham Asylum was a complex 3D adventure, Shadow Complex was a nice, more low-key 2D side dish.


Two years later, and we're on the eve of the release of Arkham Asylum's sequel, Arkham City. And as much as I'm looking forward to that game, it won't be the same without a new Shadow Complex to accompany it. It'll be like having a delicious steak dinner without a fine red wine to wash it down.


Shadow Complex 2 Has Been Designed. Can We Just Play It Already?Chair, the Epic Games-owned development studio behind Shadow Complex, is currently quite busy with their breakout iOS hit Infinity Blade. Last week, I spoke with Epic's Design Director Cliff Bleszinski about Gears of War 3, and at the end of our chat, the conversation turned to Chair. I asked what had become of Shadow Complex.


"Shadow Complex 2 has been designed," Bleszinski said, "it just hasn't been match-lit and finished."


This makes me both really happy and really sad—happy, because the game exists (and "has been designed!") but sad that the success of Infinity Blade means that we probably won't get to play it anytime soon.


As Bleszinski put it, "The projects we do align with where we need to be as a studio, strategically. We knew we needed to be on iOS." In other words, it makes more sense for Epic to have Chair focus on making successful iOS games than to make an XBLA-exclusive downlodable game like Shadow Complex 2 (though it certainly sounded as though Shadow Complex 2 will still be released sometime).


Shadow Complex 2 Has Been Designed. Can We Just Play It Already?As much as I enjoy Infinity Blade (and I do enjoy it), it can't compare with Shadow Complex. Everything about Shadow Complex just clicks for me—the sound effects, the look and feel, the throwaway Airport-paperback story, the funky cutscenes, the slow-mo fadeout that happens when I get a new item. Argh, just writing this makes me want to go play it.


The closest thing that's been released recently was this year's arty Summer of Arcade game Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. But while I liked that game fine, some combination of its loneliness and floatiness didn't hit me in quite the same way as Chair's on-foot game did.


While we may not get to play Shadow Complex 2 anytime soon, we can at least rest secure in the knowledge that somewhere out there are design documents for a bigger, better, and no-doubt even more compulsively Metroid-tastic sequel.


Okay, gonna go try to get that speedrun achievement now.



You can contact Kirk Hamilton, the author of this post, at kirk@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Kotaku

Halo: Anniversary's Kinect Support Involves Voice-Switching the GraphicsWhen word spread this summer that Halo: Anniversary would include Kinect support, gamers fidgeted nervously, wondering just what the hell 343 Industries had in mind for the franchise. Calm down, they're not introducing motion control to the HD remake. They're letting you switch between the game's high-definition and standard-definition graphics using your voice.


343 was trying to keep the functionality under wraps but the development director Frank O'Connor told 1Up that someone accidentally blurted out the magic words during another demonstration. The words are "Classic" (for low-def) and "remastered" (for HD).


O'Connor said "there is some other functionality that we haven't talked about that is not core to the gameplay," that has yet to be revealed. 343 will probably discuss it sometime in October. "We dont want to oversell it," he said.


For more on the Halo: Anniversary high-definition remake of Halo: Combat Evolved see Luke Plunkett's impressions from Tokyo Games Show 2011.


Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary Will Let You Talk to it Via Kinect [1Up]



You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at owen@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Kotaku

We've recently seen two trailers for Battlefield 3, one with footage from the Xbox 360 version, one from the PC version, both showing gameplay from "Operation Guillotine."


While watching the recently released 360 trailer, I was struck by how much better the PC version looked, despite the fact that the clips in the 360 version are a bit different. I cobbled together the video above to let y'all take a look too. (Neither clip was incredibly high-res to begin with, and the mortar clip is pretty short for the PC—sorry, you work with what ya got!)


So, it's hard to tell too much, but considering how incredible the PC version of the game has been looking, the 360 version actually isn't looking too shabby. Though of course, we'll have to wait to see a good deal more of the 360 version (and to see a daytime mission) to tell more.


I'm mostly curious as to why no one gets stabbed in the 360 trailer. Maybe stabbing is PC-exclusive.



You can contact Kirk Hamilton, the author of this post, at kirk@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Kotaku

NBA 2K12 Demo Arrives Next Week2K Sports just announced on the Facebook page for NBA 2K12 that the game's demo will arrive on Tuesday, for both PS3 and Xbox 360, two weeks before its Oct. 4 release.


The post offered no details about which teams would be featured but typically they involve last year's NBA Finals participants, which would be the Miami Heat and the world champion Dallas Mavericks.


The NBA lockout has effectively frozen all rosters as of June 30, meaning the teams will not be much different from what you played with at the end of the year in NBA 2K11. When the lockout ends, 2K Sports will publish a roster update that includes this year's rookies acquired in the NBA draft. They will not appear in the game until the labor issue is resolved and the league resumes play.



You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at owen@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Kotaku

Stand Back Everyone, It's the Week in Gaming Apps Five games in five days! After several weeks of four or less, we've finally made it back to five whole days of condo-eating, caterpillar-tilting, war-waging mobile goodness. Huzzah!


And of course our first week back is a week filled with iPhone apps; I'll say it so you don't have to. It wasn't for lack of trying or spending, I assure you. I spent at least $15 on Android apps this week, hunting for gems only to come up gemless. I blame a lot of that on Earth and Legend, seven dollars' worth of proof that most people that review games on app store pages are clueless, robots, or fucking clueless robots.


I'll try again next week. For now, eat your iOS apps.


If you have a suggestion for an app for the iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows Phone 7 that you'd like to see highlighted, let us know.


Stand Back Everyone, It's the Week in Gaming AppsCall Food Chain the Poor Man's Tetris Attack

iPhone and iPad owners will never want for colorful "match three" puzzle games. Nor will they be starved of clones (read: blatant rip-offs) of console and Flash games for their mobile devices. So why recommend Food Chain? More »



Stand Back Everyone, It's the Week in Gaming AppsTilterpillar Wants You To Tilt a Caterpillar

The thing about a very hungry caterpillar is that he's always very hungry. The titular star of Tilterpillar is no exception. More »



Stand Back Everyone, It's the Week in Gaming AppsThe Right War Game for the iPad

Anomaly: Warzone Earth HD is the rare kind of iPad game that feels like it was improved by Apple's tablet. More »



Stand Back Everyone, It's the Week in Gaming AppsHolding Out Against a Hero

You see the icon, you read the name, you boot it up, you think Tiny Heroes is about deploying a diminutive unit to plunder the gold from the dungeon laying out there before it. Wrong. More »



Stand Back Everyone, It's the Week in Gaming AppsMonsters Ate My Condo is Colorful Candy-Coated Kaiju Madness

Some folks might say that all a game has to do to make my Gaming App of the Day pick is contain at least one colorful cartoon unicorn. While that's probably true, Monsters Ate My Condo doesn't just feature a giant cartoon unicorn. It's also got a puppy-controlled robot, a killer crab, and a leder-hosen wearing mutated Japanese businessman. More »



Kotaku

Bit of a speed bump here in just the second week of what I'd hoped would be a regular feature. Our commentator is AWOL. I'm still uploading the video so you can see what Madden NFL 12 predicts for this week's marquee matchup between New England and San Diego.


Where's Demetry? Well, life is what happens when you're making plans to play Madden, let's say. I had to substitute in longtime reader Chewblaha to play in Demetry's place, and then at the last minute we just couldn't cut the audio track. You can still see the highlights of what Chewie and I wrought. It is 100 percent hit-yourself-in-the-face stupid.


Look for the Chargers' Philip Rivers to throw three utterly boneheaded interceptions and make the New England defense look a lot better than it actually is. Defending passes to the tight end continues to be a problem for me, as New England's Rob Gronkowski hauls in six catches for 152 yards and the game winning touchdown with three seconds left in a 14-7 Patriots win.


Because it was me and Chewie, there's a lack of stupid stuff in here, although he did defer the kickoff after winning the coin toss and I did try to pull a really dumb fake field goal pass. This game actually featured four punts.


Of course, it'd be a lot funnier if we had Demetry's commentary on top of it but, we don't. Anyway, enjoy. Don't know if we'll be back next week. If not, it was fun while it lasted.



You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at owen@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Sep 16, 2011
Kotaku

Lord of Souls


The Elder... Novel? - This Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion novel landed on my doorstep today. I'll have to read it after I finish up that StarCraft: Ghost book I'm chugging through now.


Lord of Souls


Tokyo Game Explosion Day 2: Faux Fights, Real Hostesses, Monster Hunter and Testicular Fortitude

The Tokyo Game Show rolled on today. There were boats, booth companions, news and gamplay. There was even a fake fight. And all of that before the Tokyo Game Show opens its doors to the masses over the weekend.
Here's a complete round up of Brian Ashcraft and Luke Plunkett's coverage from Day... More »



Lord of Souls

There are Voice Actors for Dogs. And Horses.

Hard-working professionals (who usually stand on two feet) are paid to sound like dogs and, now horses in the video game series The Sims 3 Pets. Today, we present footage of some of their work. More »



Lord of Souls

When Video Games Are Grasshoppers

Woody Allen once said that the reason why he makes a new game every year is so that his movies don't become events. A steady stream ensures that the hits don't become that big of a deal. More »



Lord of Souls

Is the Awesome Power of the Weather Lost on Game Developers?

Waking up to find his town enshrouded with thick fog, commenter Nimzy wonders if game developers have fully harnessed the power of the weather in today's Speak Up on Kotaku. More »



Lord of Souls

Persona Punches Out Arcade Gameplay Footage

Persona 4 The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena brings the stylish pizazz of Persona to the face-kicking 2D chaos of BlazBlue creators Arc System Works.
The game is arcade bound and then headed to consoles. More »



Lord of Souls

An Eloquent Apology for Geek Misogyny to a Woman That Doesn't Exist (Yet)

Geek men like to believe that we're the sensitive, thoughtful, and caring men that attractive women often pass over for asshole alpha male types. Recently male geek culture as a whole proved that not to be the case. More »



Lord of Souls

Dead Island: The Kotaku Review

This is the part where I'd try to artfully describe how I meticulously took apart a zombie with an electrified fire axe on a pristine beach, sky-blue waters lapping at my knees.
I even took notes. More »



Lord of Souls

Halo Anniversary is Exactly how I Like my HD Remakes

It's the flavour of the show at this year's TGS. It seems everywhere you turn there are HD remakes of old games, just waiting for the chance to get you to pay for the same game twice.
As I've said with one such remake, MGS2, each is taking a slightly different approach to renovating an old game. More »



Lord of Souls

Insane Unreal Tournament 3 Modders Weaponize Nyan Cat

Modder Scott Coxhead lives up to his Cr4zyB4st4rd handle by merging Unreal Tournament 3's player-guided Redeemer with that scourge of the internet, Nyan Cat. More »



Lord of Souls

Surely Someone Wants To See Virtual Felicia Day Splattered With Lizard Blood

Ripped from the trailer for Dragon Age II's Mark of the Assassin downloadable content, two screenshots of a blood-splattered Felicia Day in action and a picture of a courtyard. More »



Lord of Souls

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The PlayStation 3 at Kotaku HQ Los Angeles will be working overtime this weekend, thanks to a little bit more time spent with Resistance 3 multiplayer and another title that, well, I can't talk about just yet.
Anyone want to take a guess what that title might be? More »



Lord of Souls

Watch Ten Minutes of Uncharted: Golden Abyss for PS Vita

You know, that PlayStation Vita is capable of some lovely looking video games. Uncharted: Golden Abyss, for example, is one of the lovelier ones and not just because that Nathan Drake is so damn dashing.
Golden Abyss is more than just a pretty face, however, as Bend Studios' John Garvin kindly... More »



Lord of Souls

The Best, Brightest, Sexiest, and Strangest Selected as IndieCade 2011 Finalists

From a bowling game controlled by kissing to a four-year-old's Ponycorn epic, every one of IndieCade 2011's 36 finalist fully deserves their moment in the spotlight, except for maybe The Bridge. More »



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You've seen DICE's visually stunning war game Battlefield 3 on the PC. You've seen it on the PlayStation 3. Now see—with EA's official blessing this time—what the Xbox 360 is capable in the second trailer for Battlefield 3's "Operation Guillotine."


(You can watch the previous "Operation Guillotine" trailer right here.)


From what we can pick out in this dark, chaotic trailer, it's a clear visual step down from the eye-popping PC version, with a decrease in environmental detail—but we're working with six-year-old console hardware, people!


For more Battlefield 3 console coverage make sure to read Kotaku's latest dual hands-on impressions of the PS3 version from gameplay sessions in New York City and this year's Tokyo Game Show.


Battlefield 3 heads to the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 25, 2011.



You can contact Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Kotaku

Smash Bros. PC Demake Super Smash Land is Out, Free Super Smash Land, the PC 'demake' of the beloved Super Smash Bros. series is here in full, free of charge and looking faithfully Game Boy-esque.


Last December, we showed the game's demo release. Now, the complete version of the game is live and, as the statement on the site guarantees, it will always be free. So go check it out!


Download Free! [Super Smash Land via Piki Geek]


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