Kotaku

Terminator Salvation Promises To Be A Good Movie Tie-In

It's time for another stab at a Terminator video game, this time based on the upcoming film Terminator Salvation, due out in theaters next May. Developed by GRIN studios, Salvation will be an intense action game featuring John Connor fighting against the forces of Skynet in order to prevent the storyline from spilling over into the Matrix, causing no end of lawsuits.

“Building on the incredibly strong franchise, Terminator Salvation – The Videogame will be a cinematic gaming experience that complements the upcoming film,” said John Quinn, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Operations, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Working with Halcyon and Equity Games, we will expand on the Terminator universe on next generation consoles with action packed gameplay and detailed environments.”

Of course this is the same sort of spiel we hear every time a movie-based video game is announced, and we've all seen how that usually works out. Note the press release doesn't mention what consoles it is being developed for, which probably indicates all of them.

South Park Plays Call of Duty

This has got to be a new record. Call of Duty: World at War has only been out for a week and it's already in an episode of South Park. I wonder why they chose this particular game over all of the other big titles hitting now? I guess it best plays to Cartman's... unique comedy stylings.

South Park Studios

While last night's story from USA Today is all well and good, we prefer to get our news about the upcoming The Lost and Damned DLC for the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV directly from Rockstar itself. Why? Because the Rockstar official press release is free from any journalistic meanderings, and it comes with nice, lovely, giant-sized screenshots of the content and a nice white logo we can put on top of all of it. Completely loving the whole biker gang vibe these shots are giving off. Makes me want to hop on a hog myself, and then quickly hop off before I kill myself. Hit the jump for a gallery of the new screens.

Judge Bans Teens From Video Games For Cat Killing

An Edmonton judge banned two teens from playing video games for their connection in the microwave death of a cat, despite no direct link between gaming and the crime.

The judge later said that the video game ban was included in his probation for the teens because he wanted to mirror the sentence imposed in a previous judgment in the case.

A group of teens broke into a house in Edmonton last December, vandalizing the home and then grabbing the family cat and placing it in a microwave. No one tried to remove the cat as it screamed in agony for 10 minutes, according to the newspaper.

Jack Thompson Pays $42k Bar Tab

When we last left our intrepid Florida anti-gaming attorney, he was not only being permanently disbarred, but was also ordered to reimburse legal fees to the bar to the tune of some $43,675.35. Well never let it be said that Jack Thompson was a man who didn't pay his dues. Here's an email regarding the payment, since lowered to $42,525.27 by the Bar, sent to us for some odd reason from Thompson himself:

Dear Chief Justice Quince:

Please advise today what you and the Court have done with my check for $42,525.27 that was sent you on November 6 to be held in trust by the Supreme Court.

I find today, in talking with my bank, that the check has not been negotiated. I’m not paying any interest on this amount. You all had it from me on the date it was due.

Regards, Jack Thompson

Say what you will about the man, but I'm damn sure I don't have enough money in my bank account to cover that sort of change.

There's nothing quite as terrifying as hordes of hungry, screaming, mindless undead, roaming the streets in search of human flesh. Survival horror has known this for ages, yet most have failed to realize the key to truly horrifying zombie movies - togetherness. True zombie horror is taken from the way groups of humans deal with desperate situations, rather than the monsters themselves.

Valve's new co-op intensive shooter Left 4 Dead aims to capture the more human side of zombie horror, pitting a team of four disparate survivors against the hordes of the damned, which is nearly as frightening as a lone game facing off against an assemblage of video game critics. Turn the corner slowly...

Lich King Sells 2.8M in 24 Hours

WoW!

World of Warcraft’s second expansion Wrath of the Lich King is officially the fastest-selling PC game in history, breaking the last record, set by WoW’s first expansion Burning Crusade, by nearly half a million.

The Day's Events

To: Crecente
From: Luke
Re: Paternity

Serious paternity time? I imagine there's no other kind.

You know, when you don't have kids, it gets really hard to write these things. I mean, today, I woke up, played some Rock Band, wrote about video games, played some Fable II, wrote about video games, ate a great meat pie for lunch, wrote some more about video games then went to bed.

Exciting!

Here's what you missed while I was doing all that stuff!

GTAIV DLC Announced: "Lost And Damned", Out In Feb 09
Research Says 46% Of Shoppers Looking To Buy A Console On Black Friday
Please Don't Install Halo 3 On Your 360's HDD
Let's Watch Every Single MK vs DC Fatality
LittleBigPlanet Gets Resistance DLC To Celebrate...Thanksgiving
"Exclusive" MGS4 "Limited" Edition PS3 Winds Up At Walmart For $399
Unofficial Half-Life Remake Looking Prettier By The Year
PC Mirror's Edge Uses PhysX To Awesome Effect
"Volatile" Holiday Market Partly To Blame For LittleBigPlanet Sales

In The Pit Trailer - No Video Card Required

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:df61044d-75aa-4605-877b-7797abc6a58c&showPlaylist=true&from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Trailer for &quot;In the Pit&quot; for Dream Build Play 2008">Video: Trailer for &quot;In the Pit&quot; for Dream Build Play 2008</a>

We have mentioned In The Pit before - back when it was a 3-level Xbox 360 demo.

Described as "An 'audio-only' stealth action game", you are a monster hunting down unfortunate victims hurled into your pit by an evil king. It's a Grue simulator, basically.

The demo has been expanded into a full game, which will be one of the NXE Community Games launch titles. Check out the trailer. With your eyes closed.

In the Pit [XNA]

Sony Lose Patent Lawsuit, Have To Cough Up $18 Million

Waaaay back in 2006, Agere Systems sued Sony. Said that the PSP (and some other Sony devices) infringed on their patent for a "wireless local area network apparatus". A key difference in this and other cases we see like this is that Agere aren't patent trolls: they're a proper tech company, and the judge found in Agere's favour, stating that Sony's infrigements were "wilful". Meaning Sony knew full well that they were infringing on someone else's patents, bu went ahead and infringed on them anyway. For their troubles, the Japanese mega-company must now pay Agere a cool $18.5 million.

Sony fined $18.5 million in patent infringement case [PSPF]