Kotaku Watch

[Kei]

This has got to be the strangest video game trailer I've ever seen. (VERY NSFW)

[Stilts]

Seems Crytek is more than a little irritated with Germany's stance toward video game violence. I understand that Germans have to live with the fact that people are always going to associate their country with the atrocities of WWII, and that really sucks; however, there is such a thing as overcompensation.

[Kei]

Germany is a nice place to visit... but not to live in.

[Stilts]

Oh, look, it seems NCsoft has finally decided to give some more information about Guild Wars 2.

Well, not really. It's basically just the same "Oh man, guys, this is gonna be so awesome, we swear! Just keep waiting a liiiiiiittle longer!" crap Guild Wars players have been getting for two years now. This is NOT how you convince people to pay attention to you instead of, say, a Star Wars MMO being made by one of the best RPG developers in the world.

[Kei]

Guild Wars is almost dead to me. It's going to take something HUGE to convince me that Guild Wars 2 is worth buying... and I doubt Arenanet, with their micropayment schemes and mind-numbingly slow development team, is capable of delivering. Tell me, how can a company that takes THREE MONTHS to fix a major ingame bug (I'm looking at you, Zaishen tournaments) be capable of delivering an MMO experience on par with Bioware's upcoming project?

[Stilts]

An indie visual novel has been banned on Xbox Live. Since the network is owned by Microsoft, they do have the right to ban games, so freedom of speech really isn't the issue in this case; the real question is if this action is hypocritical.

Personally, I don't think it is. Microsoft specifically said "sexual violence." So despite what Brian Ashcraft implies, I doubt they're picking and choosing; there is, after all, a difference between sexual assault and a fighting tournament.

Of course, there's also the problem of the game being banned across all regions, which is an entirely different (but still relevant) issue. In this case, I do agree with Ashcraft; the different regions should set their own tolerance levels, just like how it works with physically-distributed games.

[Stilts]

It can be tricky to find good uses for the PS3's Sixaxis motion-control unless the game is specifically designed around it. So what is Team Ninja going to use it for in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2?

Manual boob jiggle, of course. No, really. I couldn't have made that up if I tried.

[Stilts]

Interested in the new MMO called Star Trek Online? Cryptic has recently created a closed beta registration page. I'm definitely signing up.

[Kei]

Final Fantasy XIII gets a release date.

[Kei]

It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code.

[AzgalathQ]

It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code.

Brilliant!

Besides, and this is just between you and me, but Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the best games this year, and the developers at Rocksteady deserve to be rewarded with our wallets.

I can't agree more.

[Stilts]

A character from Final Fantasy XIII looks strangely similar to a Bible Black character.

This may be a coincidence, but I honestly wouldn't blame them for swiping designs from ero-games. They are, after all, meant to be as attractive as possible; it's only natural that some designs are too good not to take a little...inspiration from.

[Stilts]

Now that Jonathon Coulton is on Rock Band, what other nerd-favorite group should get a shot? How about Flight of the Conchords. Sub Pop Records, the Conchords' label, said three songs from their self-titled album would become DLC.

Eliminating the ones that wouldn't work in Rock Band (such as "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" and "Prince of Parties"), my three choices would be: "Robots", "Think About It", and "Bowie".

[Joel]

Now that Jonathon Coulton is on Rock Band, what other nerd-favorite group should get a shot? How about Flight of the Conchords. Sub Pop Records, the Conchords' label, said three songs from their self-titled album would become DLC.

Eliminating the ones that wouldn't work in Rock Band (such as "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" and "Prince of Parties"), my three choices would be: "Robots", "Think About It", and "Bowie".

Flight of the Conchords are a nerd-favourite group? All the cool kids in the streetz love them... y'know? But yeah, the songs'd need drums to make them worthwhile. Going on funnyness, I'd want Think About It, Mutha'uckas and Business Time. Can't remember whether they have all the instruments needed though. I wouldn't really care about difficulty on them songs though so it doesn't matter.

[Kei]

Kate Mulgrew discusses Dragon Age: Origins.

[Ryu]

A creepy marketing ploy by 2k:

http://kotaku.com/5373995/theres-something-in-the-box-

[Stilts]

A creepy marketing ploy by 2k:

http://kotaku.com/5373995/theres-something-in-the-box-

Now that's pretty darn clever.

In news that's a bit more catered to the tastes of our forum members, Project DIVA, the PSP game starring Hatsune Miku, is getting an arcade sequel.