Vexed by Online Bigots' Language? Psychologists Say They Want You to Be By now it’s sadly a common experience, hearing racist, homophobic, even anti-Semitic slurs during online games. Often it’s for no apparent reason other than as a term of abuse used against competitors, that packs more of a punch than your standard four-letter word. But a couple months back, I had a different experience, and I’m sure it’s no more uncommon for others, too. In a game of Castle Crashers — cooperative multiplayer — this guy I was playing with completely proffered some rather ugly opinions of African-Americans, and needlessly heaped racial slurs on the foes we were battling. MORE »

Need for Speed: Undercover Review: You're Not Good, and You're Not Bad Scowly antiheroes and sexy, cleavage-packed molls return in live-action cutscenes for Need for Speed: Undercover, the sixth installment of the series since the franchise was reimagined in 2003 and taken underground. Following last year’s disappointing Need for Speed: ProStreet, Black Box and EA went back to a known winner, the cops-and-robbers formula of 2005’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted. You’re infiltrating a stolen auto ring, whose members are blissfully unaware of your cop credentials, and also the larger international ramifications of their car thievin’. Care to take a spin? Drop it into third and see our review. MORE »

Azure Palace Restored on LBP Azure Palace, which was moderated out of LittleBigPlanet's online play for reasons unnamed, is back up. Thanks to reader Michael B. for that tip. The takedown sparked much outrage among the LBP level-building community, as Azure Palace is one of the better-known levels and a favorite of many, and it was not at all obvious what the offending content was. Not sure if the negative publicity is what got the board back, but it's there. Perhaps moderators were reacting to grief flags without further inspection. That said, they still need to come up with a more transparent policy, because there's still a great deal of tension over the possibility of sudden and unexplained moderation. There's a petition for that still going on. MORE »

The Xbox 360 Gift Guide Admit it, the guilty pleasure of a gift guide is looking for things that you want to get, rather than get advice on what to give. Still, there are some kind considerate souls out there with Xbox 360 gamers on their holiday shopping list, and to them we say: Welcome to Kotaku's Xbox 360 Gift Guide for 2008. We've broken down the choices into four categories: The value picks that save you some dough, but are still very much appreciated by gamers; the essentials, the It games of 2008 that everyone's talking about; socializers, games that are more fun played among friends or online; and the epics, the whole worlds within a retail box that may take up to a month to fully explore. All prices quoted come from Amazon unless otherwise noted. Alright, bring on the gifts! MORE »

Xbox Live is Fixed. [Updated] Update: There may be a few orphans out there in the great Xbox Live power outrage of November. But Microsoft is stamping out the problems and rooting out the causes as we speak. I just got done with about three hours of very personal service over instant messenger, and I'm back online. If you still can't connect to Xbox Live, your best bet is to test the connection, get the error codes, and call customer service. They're not fooling around, this is a bigtime concern for them. But bottom line, I have it on reasonably good authority that everything will be cool for NXE's launch on Wednesday despite this. Kudos to the XBL team working through it all on a weekend. My original post is on the jump. MORE »

Week in Games: Reloading! This week, Valve's Left 4 Dead makes its grand entrance, ready to delight us with hours of blasting apart leprous, brain-eating zombies. But don't overlook Need For Speed: Undercover on the same day. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, also out today. Let's not forget Lips on the 360, although the only place I really sing is in the shower, and I don't think they've waterproofed the peripherals for that. The count for this week as we march onward to Black Friday: 26 titles on the Wii; 23 on the DS; 16 for the Xbox 360, 15 on the PC, 11 for PS3 and PS2; just two for PSP. The entire list is on the jump. MORE »

The PlayStation 3 Turns Two Two years ago tomorrow the PlayStation 3 had its North America launch. Remember November 2006? Ah, yes, the days of $3,000 machines being sold on eBay and beyond-the-pale mayhem in the midnight line-ups to get one. Sony Computer Entertainment America had a far more sedate affair on Wednesday, toasting the two year anniversary (don't call it a "birthday") of the console. There were no big announcements or proclamations at the event, but it did showcase Killzone 2 and Resistance: Retribution, kind of apt considering Resistance: Fall of Man was a console launch title. They also had a video depicting the evolution of the console's firmware, which is always sort of trippy to remember what you didn't have two years ago and what you take for granted now. And on that score, of course, PlayStation Home's open beta will hit sometime before the end of the year. Worldwide sales of the console stand at 16.8 million units at the year two mark. So, cheers and here's to year three. MORE »

Yet Another Violent Video Game Study Releases Findings Fresh from the "Study finds violent video games do X to kids" pile, we now find — shock — playing them results in "a greater variation in Heart Rate Variability." This isn't straight out one's pulse quickening. HRV is "the oscillation in the interval between consecutive heartbeats" — more or less, a measure of minute changes in heart rate. The research concludes that violent video games can have effects on your body's autonomous systems, without you even being aware of it. In this instance, kids who played violent games had a greater HRV during sleep but still reported they'd slept fine. Makes sense. Games can have effects on your voluntary systems beyond your control, too. Like Dead Space making you shit your pants. There's debate on whether HRV means anything, but the researchers indicate they're going to use this research to study links between violent video games and aggression and, of course, "video game addiction." Study Says Violent Games Affect Boys' Heart Rates [Wired] MORE »

More Details Emerge on Chinatown Wars A Spanish-language magazine (picked up and translated by Nintendo Everything) has more of what you can expect when Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars releases for the DS, whenever that is. This is in addition to news that the game will feature most of the map from Grand Theft Auto IV (all the boroughs except Alderney). Here's what they say to expect:

• Camera can swivel 360 degrees
• Trains will pass overhead in the city, cars will circle, pedestrians will be walking, etc.
• GPS seen on the touch screen while you move through the city
• PDA allows you to gain access to the map with more details as well as the goals of missions
• You can mark points that you want and the GPS will always tell you the shortest legal route to the destination with yellow or blue arrows
• New discoveries (such as gas stations) are added to the map
• Top screen brings you all the action, while the lower screen will let you control elements like the PDA, GPS, the radio, access to the people on the map, or using Motolov cocktails and grenades.
• Drugs have a big importance in the game
• Drug system can be compared to Drugwars
• You have to control the stock of drugs, buy them in one neighborhood and sell them in another • Good way to make money in the game
• You are given a map so that you know what people demand and at what prices
• Like other GTA games, in Chinatown Wars, you can catch a taxi - whistle into the microphone so the taxi will stop

All sounds cool. That thing with the taxi, better watch it if you're playing in public. I can see that having some unintended consequences. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [Nintendo Everything]
Chinatown Wars to Feature Almost the Entire Map from GTA IV [NIntendo Everything] MORE »

Play Left 4 Dead on Team Fortress 2 Maps
Not much of a surprise this is a possibility, the two games do use the same game after all. But Left 4 Dead hasn't even launched and someone's already modding it (probably the demo, anyway.) Here's nine minutes — reloading! — of Left 4 Dead gunplay on TF2's Dustbowl map (slightly customized). Warning, the volume on this sucker is hecka loud for some reason, with tons of — reloading! — gunfire. Left 4 Dead Meets Team Fortress 2's Dustbowl [CS-Nation, thanks AproposOfEverything] MORE »

Microsoft Exec: It Never Pays to Bash Nintendo Shane Kim, the VP for business development in Microsoft's game division, was down in Berkeley, Calif. this weekend to show off the new Xbox experience at the University of California's Play conference. Venturebeat's Dean Takahashi writes about Kim's wide-ranging discussion, of NXE, the economy, the development cycle. But we like it when people start commenting on competitors, so let's pull out some choice quotes there. MORE »

Rare Tips New Games in Banjo?
Is it guerrilla marketing when you're doing it in your own game? Cranky Gamers UK noticed that Easter egg in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, which declares we've got "new Killer Instinct, Battletoads and Jet Force Gemini games," on the way. "Even Ghoulies 2!" Whoa. But then they say, "Oh, you'll never believe that." Screw it, I will. This qualifies as an announcement and I am committing Rare to this, even though there's nothing on the Rare Web site yet, and a Killer Instinct sequel has long been involved in cat-and-mouse rumor games. Rare Drop a Massive Bombshell Hidden in Banjo Kazooie! [Cranky Gamers UK, thanks Jordan, Maze, and many others] MORE »

LBP Moderation Remains Inscrutable, Unaccountable Do not take this as precedent, that Kotaku is going to get involved in every level taken down on LittleBigPlanet. But the demise of Azure Palace seems newsworthy for a few reasons — one, it's well made (a little too fly-and-grab for me, but still a good level); two, there seems to be no apparent reason for it; and three, it's the big stink in any forum now discussing the heavy-handed moderation on LittleBigPlanet. MORE »

Spore Programmer Writes in Defense of Secondary Market Soren Johnson — who wrote the code for Civilization 3 and 4 and is now a designer for EA Maxis, working on spore — spoke a few words of charity on behalf of used games and resellers on his personal blog this week. It puts this emerging debate in several thoughtful contexts. Notably, the resale of games increases the perception that they have monetary value, and that is a powerful concept that connects more gamers to games. Especially in times like these. MORE »

Blu-Ray Goes from Christmas Casualty to Christmas Savior? On Tuesday, the economy was gonna kill Blu-Ray. As of Friday, Blu-Ray might save Christmas. Right now, the only difference between our economy and a back-alley crapshoot is the informed punditry of the former. But anyway, a bunch of studio executives met on Friday to say, more or less, if Blu-Ray can roll that hardway four we're totally gonna make the car payment and get out of this. MORE »

New ESRB Ratings Tread Into Spoiler Territory This week, when the ESRB reported new ratings guidelines, and two senators seem pleased, but if you're curious how a game like Fallout 3 gets treated in the more descriptive write-ups, be warned, because they can be so specific they give away huge parts of the story. In the rollout of the new ratings, we gave a Call of Duty: World at War writeup that completely described most everything that someone might find objectionable about it, without giving away the story. (Besides, I think we know how World War II turned out, right?) GameSpot, however, notes that:

The ESRB write-ups can also include details of plot twists and other spoilers. One line from the Resistance 2 write-up omitted in the quote above reveals a significant plot detail from a climactic moment of the game. Fallout 3 is another title with a key revelation included in the summary.

It's at this point where my interest as a gamer triumphs over my responsibility to you as your weekend editor. I have both, I intend to play both, and I don't want to ruin the big reveal of a $60 title. But like Brian, I do wonder who is going to be handling these writeups and how, if at all, publishers will try to manage spoilers that are of a nature that must be revealed under the new rules. ESRB Gets Descriptive [GameSpot via Ars Technica] MORE »

Walmart Calls in the Lawyer-Mans in Black Friday Ad Fiasco The infamous Sam's Club Wii mega-bundle ad has been rumor smashed into oblivion — we're actually pretty good about self-policing certain things out here in the Wild West — but that doesn't mean it's too late for Walmart's lawyer posse to ride in and help the situation. TechCrunch got a C&D from the retailer's attorneys, demanding they take down the fake ad and, furthermore, help them find out who shooped it and sent it around. Um, no. Besides, they already linked to their source. TechCrunch is righteously touting the two-page threat and telling Walmart to suck it. I think a great resolution to all this would be for Walmart to go ahead and sell the Wii, the three Wiimotes, three Nunchuks, three games, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree for the super-fake price, so we can all flip them for about 60 percent more on Craigslist. There's your economic stimulus. Just to be clear, so I don't get a nastygram from some poor bastard associate (that was redundant) chained to his desk on a Saturday, this will cost $425. You read it anywhere else that it's less, that is fake. Walmart Wants it Both Ways, We Say No [TechCrunch via BoingBoing Gadgets] MORE »

Epic Games Wins Major Award News out of my home state: Epic Games has been recognized by the North Carolina Technology Association as the state's "Top Industry Driven Technology Company of the Year." I guess that means "the balls" in the industry-driven technology world. The award specifically cited the contribution Unreal Engine 3 has made to the gaming industry at large. “We’re honored to be recognized by the NCTA as an industry leader in technology,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games. “The other nominees are trailblazers in their respective fields — for a game company like Epic to be singled out as the award winner is very flattering.” Indeed. Epic Games Wins 2008 NCTA Award [GamersHell] MORE »