Torrent site Kat.ph has opened its databases to the download specialists at TorrentFreak, sharing with them the 50 most commonly searched terms for torrent downloads in 2011.
While it's not perfect, and doesn't include other major Torrent indexes like Pirate Bay, it's as good as we're going to get, and with Kat.ph one of the five biggest sites in the world for such things, it's still worth a look.
The top 50 is dominated by generic terms for language options and video quality (ie "720p"), as well as Hollywood movies and important pieces of software like Windows 7.
As for video games? Not there. There's not a single individual game on the list. Not even Modern Warfare 3. Indeed the only remotely video game-related search term was "PSP" at number eleven. No DS, no PS3, no 360.
With an onus on spectacle and selling you on a mood, instead of a stage or actual footage, video game trailers have become an artform unto themselves.
That being the case, we thought we would, as usual, look back on some of the year's best.
These aren't necessarily the trailers for the best games (though big ones do feature). Nor are they the trailers which best showed off what a game could do (though sometimes that's the case). They're just the best trailers, the most entertaining, the funniest and/or the most polished.
If there's one you think we missed, drop it into comments and it we'll see what we can do about getting it in the gallery.
In a statement just released, N-Control, maker of the "Avenger" accessory linked to the infamous marketer Paul Christoforo, has promised a $10 discount coupon for all who pre-ordered the device, as an apology for Christoforo's conduct toward a customer, which drew the wrath of the global video gaming community earlier this week.
N-Control's lengthy statement disavowed all contact with Christoforo, announcing that the accessory maker had retained a new "independent consultant" to "field press inquiries and oversee sales and marketing operations," in light of Christoforo and Ocean Marketing's disastrous handling of a consumer complaint regarding a product delay. The fallout, which rocketed to top-of-the-mind awareness thanks to Penny Arcade, became both the Internet's newest meme and top public relations scandal on Tuesday.
"I can't worry about the fact that there isn't a bus big enough for me to throw Paul Christoforo under" said," Moisés Chiulian, the Austin, Texas-based consultant now retained by N-Control to oversee its sales and marketing. "The Internet did that for me. I think they set him on fire, too."
Christoforo, a third-party publicist, was already known to have been fired by the maker of the Avenger, billed as a means of giving gamers—particularly first-person shooter players—a fast-response advantage. It released this summer for Xbox 360 but its PS3 configuration was delayed past Dec. 15, promulgating this embarrassing conflict when a dissatisfied customer wrote to complain and Christoforo responded with arrogance and condescension.
Wednesday night's statement from N-Control is comprehensive in its severance from Christoforo and his Ocean Marketing business, whose titular misspellings (and misspelled reincarnations) on Twitter have become a subject of lampoon.
"N-Control would like to publicly apologize to existing and potential customers, as well as the gaming community at large, for allowing Mr. Christoforo to abuse his power so unforgivably," the company said. "The Avenger was invented to provide greater accessibility to disabled gamers, and bullying tactics are the last thing that should be associated with this product."
N-Control promised that "All existing orders will be honored, and PS3 Avenger pre-order customers will all be extended the same $10 discount that some have already received.
"N-Control agrees with 'Customer Dave'"—to whom Christoforo originally replied, initiating this fiasco—"that all of our PS3 early adopters deserve to be rewarded for their trust in the Avenger."
The statement goes on to "publicly apologize to existing and potential customers, as well as the gaming community at large, for allowing Mr. Christoforo to abuse his power so unforgivably."
Indeed, much of the statement is devoted to separating N-Control from the online identities associated with Ocean Marketing, even spoof ones set up in the wake of the scandal. The company's official Twitter handle is @AvengerControl, it said; all other Twitter handles and representatives are nonofficial.
Further, "N-Control requests that customers discontinue use of the toll-free phone number displayed on the AvengerController.com website, as well as any other means of contact found there. Instead, customers should direct communication to AvengerDefender@gmail.com. They ask for patience due to the events of the last two days."
Regarding the actual product, "All PS3 Avenger pre-orders are currently slated to ship by January 15th at the latest," N-Control said.
Greetings, Kotaku cadets, and welcome to a mid-week open thread. It's a down week for us, and there hasn't been too much new news. Did you get any good games over the holidays? Did you get anyone else any good games? Are you looking forward to 2012, or dreading it? Can you believe that we Americans are going to have another stupid presidential election already? God, I can't.
Here, as usual, are a selection of conversation starters and general random things from around the internet.
Adam Larson, the artist behind the three custom covers for NBA 2K12, has also supplied the base art of the Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander for the cover of MLB 2K12.
2K Sports released the game's official pack shot yesterday. Verlander, whose 24 victories, 250 strikeouts and 2.40 earned run average led the American League for the so-called pitching triple crown, became just the third starting pitcher to win the A.L. MVP since Denny McLain won 31 games (also for the Tigers) in 1968.
Fifty-three days until pitchers and catchers report. Sixty-eight until video game baseball returns.
The people who brought you such fantastic headlines as "Burrito Eaten As If Someone In The Room Wasn't Crying" and "Brief Reprieve From Mariah Carey's Christmas Song Comes To Resounding End" have selected their Game of The Year, and it's not ironic at all: Bethesda's Skyrim has edged out the competition to take top honors.
More specifically, the list belongs to The Onion A.V. Club, and it is a cool list with a lot of uncommon (yet deserving) choices like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and Shadows of the Damned.
A.V. Club coordinator John Teti's game of the year? You Don't Know Jack. An inspired choice, if you ask me.
Every popular video game has its following of wishful thinkers, wannabe designers, and straight-up trolls. None has more hard at work on the next title than Half Life 3. And they've been very busy lately.
There is, of course, this total fakey-fake-mcfakerson website, a goldmine of cognitive dissonance that's not even registered to Valve. Then there was this brilliantly unconfirmable pile of horse dung, later debunked and then disavowed by the friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend who heard from a friend at Valve that Gabe Newell had "authorized" certain people to start leaking about Half Life 3.
That hasn't stopped the I-Want-to-Believe Crowd, so late last night, Valve's Chet Faliszek, co-writer on the last two Half-Lifes (and of Portal 2) did the humane thing and took everyone's hope out behind the woodpile and shot it.
"You are being trolled. There is no ARG," Faliszek wrote. "There has been no directive from Gabe to leak anything. That is all false."
Faliszek also specifically debunked the idea that this speech by Wheatley, the Portal 2 AI, in the Spike Video Game Awards a couple weeks ago, contained all sorts of hints and clues and teasers that Half-Life 3 was coming in 2012. "Wheatley's speech was set in Portal 2 fiction—that is all." he said.
Yeah, well, maybe Gabe authorized him to say that, right? Right? Well, Gaming Bolt pinged Gabe about it. (You can too, I guess; he answers his own email). Answer: No.
People have got to realize how far they've sunk to self-parody here—and I'm not talking about the trolls, I'm talking about the believers. Every year, it seems, we have some crackpot troll tell us he's parsed some new sample of numerology and derived the date of the end of the world; and every year it never fucking happens. Not that I want it to, unlike Half-Life 3. But this process has an analogue in Half-Life 3. Every year people create bullshit websites and issue phony proclamations that the day is coming. And it never does.
"I just want to say this so there is no confusion," Faliszek wrote. "This is the community trolling the community nothing more. While it is nice to see people excited about anything HL, I hate seeing people be trolled like this."
Bastion snuck up on me—I had heard a lot of friends and fellow critics hyping it after seeing it at PAX East and GDC, but I didn't actually play it until it was released. For the first hour or so, I wasn't sold, but as the story snowballed and the levels stretched out, I fell increasingly under its spell.
It was a remarkably holistic game, especially in its presentation. Everything was of a piece: Jen Zee's breathtaking painterly artwork, Greg Kasavin's mysterious, ever-unfolding story, Logan Cunningham's throaty, Tom Waits-y narration. And tying it all together, Darren Korb's wonderfully trippy, six-string-fueled musical score. Bastion had one of my very favorite video game soundtracks of the year.
Here are five of my favorite tracks from the soundtrack, along with some backstory and technical details from Korb himself.
"Bynn the Breaker"
Bastion is a slow burn, a gradually building game that begins with a mystery and layers information and narration until it reverse-engineers a remarkable narrative tapestry. Each level is possessed of a steady, heavy momentum—the game marches forward, an inexorable drive towards an unknowable future.
This track is one of the first (maybe the actual first?) to play in-game, and it matches that sense of inexorable drive. The descending string line is probably my favorite part, recalling nothing so much as the hook from The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." (No, seriously! Listen and tell me I'm wrong.)
Here's Korb on crafting this recording, which, like all of the tracks from the soundtrack, he did largely using sampled music within Logic Pro:
This is one of the more sample/MIDI heavy tracks on the soundtrack with almost no live instruments (that aren't samples). I use some Harp, some Oud, and some Electric guitar for the melodic instruments. This was one of the earlier tunes I wrote for the game while I was still experimenting with getting the right mix of live instruments, samples, and MIDI. I think this piece was helpful in defining the boundaries of what kind of music I wanted to make for the game.
"Slinger's Song"
I dig "Slinger's Song," because it captures the gut-blues open-string thing that much of Korb's music does so well. It calls to mind other soundtracks like Firefly and Deadwood by conjuring a sound that captures the iconic nature of the west without necessarily kowtowing to the time period's instrumental traditions. I was joking with Korb that I wanted to guess the primary instrument, but that I was going to guess "Dobro," which was my default guess when I hear a non-guitar guitar. I'm usually wrong. But this time, it actually was a dobro!
He elaborates:
I played some bluesy electric stuff [on Dobro] over the top of this one, along with some heavily reverbed harmonica samples. I was looking to make something more frontiersy for this piece, as it occurs in our "wilds" portion of the game. Oddly enough, I hadn't really watched any Firefly or Deadwood when I was working on Bastion, but a lot of people have mentioned the similarities. My main influence for the more bluesy stuff in Bastion was mostly Led Zeppelin, actually! In each song I tried to include something that made it feel a little "nasty," whether it's contrasting rhythmic parts, or 3 over 4 bass, or distorted ukulele!
"Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)"
Awww, yeah. This song was the moment the game won me over; it was a bit of a "Far Away" moment a la Red Dead Redemptin. One minute you're playing, the next minute, someone is singing! And yet, it was far more organic than in Rockstar's game, mainly because in Bastion, you were rescuing Zia, the singer who performs the song. (The actual singer is Korb's friend Ashley Barrett.)
This was very much Bastion's "Get on board or GTFO" moment, and I personally got right the hell on board. I also loved the bit later on when narrator Logan Cunningham gives a rough, half-remembered a cappella rendition of the same tune.
Here's Korb on the story of the song, and how it tied in with the world of the game:
We had planned to include some sort of vocal piece in the moment when you meet Zia for a while, so I knew basically how the piece would be used while I was writing it. I wanted to make it mournful and lonely to reinforce the tone of that moment. The singer is my friend Ashley Barrett and we recorded it like I recorded all the sounds, music and narration for Bastion: in my closet. For this piece in particular I looked at a lot of old Southern spirituals and proto-blues stuff. Generally, Jeff Buckley and Radiohead are big influences on my songwriting as well. The lyrics of the song are all based on the deep backstory provided by the game's writer, Greg Kasavin. It's written as a wartime song from the point of view of the Ura. For the level with Logan humming it, we wanted to have a place in the game where he didn't have anything to say, and we thought that players would get a kick out of the narrator humming this. So for the melody on that, I wanted him to do it sort of like Tom Waits, who approximates most melodies. We figured that's how Rucks would sing.
"Mother, I'm Here (Zulf's Theme)"
Not too much to say about this one, really, particularly since I'd rather not spoil the bit it plays during for those who haven't played the game. But here's where we get to hear Korb do some singing, a soft, mournful tune that stands in sharp contrast to the segment it accompanies. The second fully voiced song on the soundtrack, it is as effective as "Build That Wall" if not more so, and provides a degree of emotional catharsis that almost outdoes the entire narrative setup leading up to it.
My approach for this one was to write a song that might be sung at funerals in the world of the game. Again, the goal here was just to reinforce the emotion of the in-game moment. This is the only version (aside from the mash-up version in Setting Sail, Coming Home).
"In Case of Trouble"
Perhaps the most iconic of Korb's pieces for the game. That's partly because it plays during the opening menu and while in the Bastion itself, but also because it contains all of the various aspects that make this game's soundtrack so good. The dramatic western tinge of open-tuned guitars, pulsing electronic beats, all set off by dramatic, melodic strings. It's funny that Korb mentions Jeff Buckley as one of his influences, since the harmonic minor string line he uses here very much reminds me of the incredible string arrangements (that final melodic line!) on Buckley's "Grace."
Here's Korb talking about his guitar tunings and general process writing this song (guitarists, I recommend that "Dad-Gad" tuning, it's way fun):
I played all the live instruments on this track (and all the tracks in the game). For this song I used a DADGAD tuning (but for most of the rest of the game I dropped it down another step to CGCFGC). This is a very early piece (probably the 2nd one I wrote for Bastion), and the piece that eventually lead me to the term "Acoustic Frontier Trip-hop," which I used to thematically connect all the music in the game. Rather than having musical themes that I returned to over and over, I decided to make it like an album, where all the pieces are connected by genre and arrangement.
We'll be back tomorrow with the final post in this series. It's been a lot of fun! If you haven't, be sure to submit your own nominations for our Readers' Choice collection, which will run on Friday.
This Wednesday edition of Kotaku's The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can't wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon.
Software
• ICO and Shadow of Colossus Collection (PS3) is $19.99 from Kmart. Next best is $38. [Dealzon]
• New low on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3) for $39.99, free shipping from Amazon, matching Best Buy's sale this week. Has been $50 and up the past couple weeks. [Dealzon]
• Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) is $39.99, free shipping from Amazon, matching Best Buy's price this week. New low by $5 and has been selling at $50. [Dealzon]
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations (360, PS3) is $29.99, free shipping from Best Buy. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]
• Wednesday only, GameStop offers Buy 2, Get a 3rd free on pre-owned games. [Dealzon]
• Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (360, PS3) is $34.99 from Best Buy. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]
• Tekken Hybrid (PS3) is $29.99, free shipping from Best Buy. Next best is $37. [Dealzon]
• Warhammer 40K: Space Marine (360, PS3) is $29.99, free shipping from Best Buy. Next best is $40. [Dealzon]
• L.A. Noire (360, PS3) is $19.15 from Amazon. Next bests are (360) $24 and (PS3) $32. [Dealzon]
• Dragon Age 2 (360, PS3) is $9.99 from Best Buy. Next best is $20. [Dealzon]
• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (360, PS3) is $8.74 from Amazon. Next best is $19. [Dealzon]
• Supreme Commander 2 (PC Download) is $2.99 from Amazon. Steam is $10. [Dealzon]
Hardware
• Xbox 360 320GB Console Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Limited Edition Bundle plus $75 Gift Card is $399.99, free shipping from Best Buy. [Dealzon]
• Xbox 360 4GB with Kinect Bundle plus $75 bonus credit is $299.99, free shipping from Amazon. [Dealzon]
• Xbox 360 4GB Slim Console plus $75 bonus credit is $199.99, free shipping from Microsoft. [Dealzon]
• PlayStation Move bundle with Deadmund's Quest and Sports Champions is $79.99, free shipping from Amazon. Normally $100. [Dealzon]
• Asus VK278Q 27-inch 1080p 2ms LED Monitor is $309.99, free shipping from SuperBiiz. Next best is $329. [Dealzon]
• Samsung S23A750D 23-inch 1080p 120Hz 2ms 3D LED Monitor is $299.99, free shipping from TigerDirect. Next best is $400. [Dealzon]
• LG 50PV400 50-inch 1080p Plasma HDTV is $599, free shipping from NewEgg. Next best is $700. [Dealzon]
• Alienware M17x 17.3-inch Laptop with Quad Core i7-2670QM, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD 6870M 1GB is $1,399.99. That's cheapest ever by $150. [Dealzon]
• Dell XPS 15 15.6-inch laptop with Quad Core i7-2670QM, 6GB RAM, GeForce GT 540M 2GB is $849.99, a new low by $50. [Dealzon]
• HP dv6tqe Quad Edition 15.6-inch laptop with Core i7-2670QM, discrete AMD Radeon 1GB, 8GB RAM, Blu-ray is $724.99. That's $50 less than Cyber Monday. [Dealzon]
• HP dv6z Quad Edition 15.6-inch laptop with AMD Quad-Core A6-3400M, 6GB RAM, discrete AMD Radeon hit a new low of $479.99 after coupon. That's $10 less than Cyber Monday. [Dealzon]
As always, smart gamers can find values any day of the week, so if you've run across a deal, share it with us in the comments.
Nintendo plans to kick off a two day video New Year's telethon starting the last day of the year and running until the morning of Jan. 2, the company said in a note sent to 3DS owners.
"Mark your calendar for the first-ever Nintendo Video New Year's Telethon," the note reads. More »
Perhaps these Dr. Zoidberg modded Skyrim mudcrabs aren't as freaky as the contorted spider Spider-Men, but their screams of agony when you kill them are pretty spot on.
Also, thanks to XtremeScope we get to see the two doing battle. More »
Viacom is fighting an order to pay Rock Band makers Harmonix Music Systems $383 million, or a bit more than half of the money sought by the former shareholders in a long-running legal dispute over unpaid bonuses.
The arbitration decision is the latest in a legal fight between former Harmonix... More »
When the original DS launched Nintendo gave us Pictochat, a decent local wireless program for chatting and exchanging pictures with our friends. When the 3DS launched, casual chatting was nowhere to be seen. More »
We're coming to the conclusion of our Best Game Music of 2011 series-there are only two games left! I've been having a lot of fun writing these, and thanks to Luke and Evan for their entries as well.
As I've been doing the posts, I've been getting lots of notes from readers about game... More »
We're coming to the conclusion of our Best Game Music of 2011 series-there are only two games left! I've been having a lot of fun writing these, and thanks to Luke and Evan for their entries as well.
As I've been doing the posts, I've been getting lots of notes from readers about game... More »
"I want to clear my name. I want to get these people to stop bothering me."
That was the main message from Ocean Marketing's Paul Christoforo, a former representative for N-Control's Avenger controller attachment. He gained immediate infamy among the Internet gaming community after a hostile... More »
What happens when a crazy Smuggler is joined by, a Jedi Consular, a Trooper, and a Sith Warrior in week two of Kotaku's Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO Log? More »
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Torrent site Kat.ph has opened its databases to the download specialists at TorrentFreak, sharing with them the 50 most commonly searched terms for torrent downloads in 2011.
Dead Island
Star Wars: Old Republic
Portal 2
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Prey 2
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Grand Theft Auto V
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Last Of Us
Overstrike
Forsaken World
Battlefield 3
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
Diablo III
Tomb Raider
Team Fortress 2
In a statement just released, N-Control, maker of the "Avenger" accessory linked to the infamous marketer Paul Christoforo, has promised a $10 discount coupon for all who pre-ordered the device, as an apology for Christoforo's conduct toward a customer, which drew the wrath of the global video gaming community earlier this week.
Greetings, Kotaku cadets, and welcome to a mid-week open thread. It's a down week for us, and there hasn't been too much new news. Did you get any good games over the holidays? Did you get anyone else any good games? Are you looking forward to 2012, or dreading it? Can you believe that we Americans are going to have another stupid presidential election already? God, I can't.
Every popular video game has its following of wishful thinkers, wannabe designers, and straight-up trolls. None has more hard at work on the next title than Half Life 3. And they've been very busy lately.
Holiday Bonus Stage | An 
