1. Nov 3, 2012 10:51am

    GameStop’s Former PR Chief Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Almost $2 Million

    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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  2. Nov 3, 2012 10:01am

    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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  3. Nov 3, 2012 8:01am

    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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  4. Nov 2, 2012 7:01pm

    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.

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  5. Nov 2, 2012 6:24pm

    Leave Nobody Behind With This Awesome Mass Effect 3 Print

    Check out this rad Mass Effect 3 print by Courtney Billadeau, now available for preorder from the Bioware store here. It’s called “No One Left Behind.”

    -Patricia Hernandez

     
  6. Nov 2, 2012 6:15pm

    Five Year Old Girl One-Ups Making Her Own Game By Giving Her Own TEDTalk

    Remember Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure, the absurdly adorable game made by a five year old girl?

    Now she’s doing things like TEDTalks, which unsurprisingly touch on her experience making Ponycorn. Her dad also chimes in, reminding us of the importance of enabling children to become creators, not consumers. 

    Crazy to think the girl is so young and already so accomplished! Hopefully she keeps on making games.

    -Patricia Hernandez

     
  7. Nov 2, 2012 6:01pm

    Halo 4 Reviewers All Glad That The Fight’s Not Finished Yet

    Players jumped in by the millions to finish the fight in Halo 3, back in 2007.  And yet, like many a franchise before it, the one-time trilogy of Halo games finds itself with a new fourth sibling, years later.

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  8. Nov 2, 2012 5:48pm

    The Week in Gaming Apps: Rumbly Tumblr Edition

    Welcome to the first (and hopefully final) Tumblr edition of Kotaku’s Week in Gaming Apps, where we look fondly back at the mobile games that touched our lives during this trying time, except for the one from Monday that we can only link to via Google cache. 

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  9. Nov 2, 2012 5:39pm

    Here’s Shigeru Miyamoto Doing Gangnam Style

    Via TinyCartridge. Head over there for a few more gifs from Miyamoto’s trip to Spain.

    —Jason Schreier

     
  10. Nov 2, 2012 4:53pm

    Borderlands 2 Developers Bringing Back The Claptrap Webseries

    It’s come to the point where I’m getting excited about any opportunity to see more of the characters of the delightfully silly Borderlands franchise.

    And apparently Gearbox is heeding my call, because they’re bringing back the Claptrap webseries, which, if you’re like me and haven’t even watched season one yet, you can watch all of right here. Gearbox says that the first episode of season two will premiere on their Facebook page early next week.

    -Tina Amini

    (Source: facebook.com)

     
  11. Nov 2, 2012 4:39pm

    Don’t Underestimate The Treasures Found In Dumpsters

    Or a BLU soldier’s quest for murder.

    -Tina Amini

     
  12. Nov 2, 2012 4:33pm

    Look Out, It’s A Kung-Fu Dragon Baby

    Er, yeah, so, this video exists.

     
  13. Nov 2, 2012 4:04pm

    Making An Open-Ended Game For A Linear Audience

    The Hitman series has long been about choice—bald-headed 47 was set loose inside a semi-sandbox with a target or two, and players could come up with any of a number of ways to do away with them. 

    That style of play is becoming increasingly uncommon, at least in mainstream AAA console games, at least in part because it can be a challenge to communicate that kind of freedom to modern players. But lo, that’s what Hitman: Absolution makers IO Interactive are gonna try to do.

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  14. Nov 2, 2012 3:53pm

    Borderlands 2 drawn using Minecraft.

     
  15. Nov 2, 2012 3:52pm

    Treasure Isle and FishVille Are the First Zynga Games to Die

    Last month Zynga revealed that 13 of its lesser-performing Facebook games would be closed in order to make the social side of the company less of a massive disappointment. Yesterday players of FishVille and Treasure Isle were informed that those games would be closing up shop on December 5. 

    What, there was a FishVille

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