Gather a bunch of 50- and 60-year-olds in a focus group, show them Black Ops II’s violent, self-regarding trailer, and ask them what they think. Recipe for incomprehending outrage and comedy gold, akin to the infamous “Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2,” stunt EA pulled, right?.
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Jordan White, the founder of StreetPass NYC (a 3DS meetup organization) sends along these four Mii QR codes from Wreck-It Ralph, which released on Friday. If you want to trick out your Mii like one of the film’s characters, there’s Ralph and his adversary Fix-It Felix, plus Sgt. Tamora Calhoun from Hero’s Duty and the kart racer Vanellope van Schweetz.
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There Are At Least 4,294 People Playing Halo 4 Multiplayer Right Now, Three Days Before Launch
We’re up to 4,294 people playing Halo 4 online right now—at least. We can’t co-op, but we do have the breakdowns for competitive multiplayer and the story based Spartan Ops. Yesterday, there were at least 495 people playing the game online. This is a nine-fold increase.
Halo 4 will be officially released on November 6.
This is how it goes for pretty much every popular video game. If you’re playing Halo 4 on release day on the Xbox 360, you’ll be meeting some players online who’ve got a few days on you.
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Here’s the Next ‘Shop Contest Image, If You Want to Get a Head Start
Some of you probably are wondering about the Photoshop Contest, a weekend staple for nearly three years now. Our inability to accept comments here (or retrieve last week’s) means we won’t have either update this weekend.
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Texas Patent Firm Asks Judge to Shut Down Magic: The Gathering: Online
A Texas intellectual property firm has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Wizards of the Coast—but, intriguingly, not parent company Hasbro—alleging that Magic: The Gathering’s online version violates patents it holds on a video game you’ve probably never heard of.
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Is Someone Starting a League of Legends Fantasy League?
I suppose this was inevitable. When you have eSports, with all the markers of professional sports—superstars, commentators, million-dollar prizes—at some point you’ll wind up with fantasy eSports. Domain watchdog Fusible spotted three registrations on Thursday and, combined with their owner, it suggests someone’s looking to create a fantasy League of Legends league.
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The “Bondurant Car Pack” for Forza Horizon arrives on Nov. 6 and offers six new rides: The 2012 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Spyder Performante; the 2012 Shelby 1000; the 2010 BMW M3 GTS; the 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C, the 1993 Nissan 240SX SE, and the 2012 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. It’s 400 Microsoft points.
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Court Rejects Claim that ‘San Andreas’ Hero was Based on Cypress Hill Backup Dancer
Unless he wants to try his luck before the U.S. Supreme Court, a backup dancer for Cypress Hill won’t be getting $250 million—or any money—from the makers of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A California appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling against the dancer’s claim that the character of Carl “C.J.” Johnson, the game’s protagonist, was based on him.
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GameStop’s Former PR Chief Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Almost $2 Million [UPDATE]
Chris Olivera, formerly the vice president of corporate communications for GameStop, pleaded guilty on Thursday to an embezzlement scheme that netted him $1.9 million over the course of two years.
Olivera, according to his guilty plea, set up a fake PR agency (“Cloud Communications”) in Nevada, with a nonexistent person (“Jennifer Miller”) as its boss, and proceeded to bill GameStop for work never performed, from July 2009 to April 2011.
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Skyrim’s ‘Dragonborn’ DLC Gets a Trailer on Monday
Bethesda dropped this image via its Twitter yesterday afternoon, telling everyone to expect full details on Monday. This is in all likelihood the reveal trailer for Dragonborn, the game’s next round of DLC.
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A Game So Frustrating I Can’t Stop Playing It
When I was 16, in an effort to improve my feeble hitting, I sawed off a broomstick, taped both ends with grip, and would spend hours in the back yard hitting driveway gravel at the galvanized roof of our horse barn. I was quite good at it. Still am.
Unfortunately, pitchers my junior year did not lob gravel at me. I would have killed that. Despite being a completely useless skill, and counterproductive to actual hitting mechanics, this has continued to be a favorite pastime. I love any aspect of pretending to swing a bat without facing the dreadful public embarrassment of a swing and a miss. I thought that’s what Home Run Stars, a Kinect game newly available on Xbox Live, intended to deliver, but here I’m still missing, even when there’s nothing to hit.
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This Week in the Business ‘PS3 has a Great Future Ahead of It Over the Next Few Years.’
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week …
QUOTE | “PS3 has a great future ahead of it over the next few years.”—John Koller, Sony VP, talking about the holiday season and future prospects for the PS3, as well as how it’s a “marathon, not a sprint” for Vita.
QUOTE | “There is a deep and fundamental lack of professional ethics in the games media.”—Rob Fahey, former editor of GamesIndustry.biz, talking about the pervasive influence of game companies on game journalists.
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The Moneysaver: Aprés le Déluge, le Deals
What are we calling it, is it Hurricane Sandy still? Technically that wasn’t a hurricane when it started smashing into things and bringing down power and flooding out datacenters and spawning the Kotumblr and canceling a marathon. Hurricane Sandy, Superstorm Sandy, whatever, it can’t bring a halt to the engines of video game commerce, and we’re not going to let anyone pay full MSRP, or not get anything free with it, just because a storm brought down our site. Nearly 80 deals in all await you in The Moneysaver!
Software
• Nov. 6 release Halo 4 (360) for $59.99 comes with a $25 coupon from Microsoft Store and a $20 Gift Card from Dell. It’s $47.99 after coupon from Newegg today and Sunday. Amazon has it for $59 and throws in a $10 instant video credit. GameStop only has a “frost” armor bonus. [Dealzon]
• Tuesday’s release Assassin’s Creed 3 (360, PS3) is $47.99 with coupon through Monday at NewEgg. Elsewhere $58 and up. [Dealzon]
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The Best of Kotumblr, This Week
Welcome to The Best of Kotak…Kotumblr! Our temporary digs while we wait for our sites to turn back up.
That’s right, Hurricane Sandy. Flood our servers, take down our sites, strip us from power and chase the NYC writers out of our city, and we’ll still be posting great content. In your face, storm! Video games! Yeah!
Unfortunately we don’t have a Best Comment From The Community, but we do have an amazing image from our favorite deviantARTist, Patrick Brown. Kudos yet again, you magnificent bastard. That should give you something to stare at pleasantly this Saturday morning.
On that note, let’s move on to the good stuff.
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Wreck-It Ralph: The Kotaku Movie Review
By Matt Hawkins
Wreck-It-Ralph is, without question, one of the most highly anticipated video game movies ever produced. It had a shot at being the best one ever. The reasons are obvious and numerous.
