Kotaku

Kotakuite andrewd86 sends in this picture of his mom's latest cross-stitch creation, the history of Mario made with loving care as only a mother can do.

She's crazy about cross-stitching and old school Mario, so it didn't take much to get her to put the two together. We just picked out some pictures from Google image search, gridded them in paint, and picked out the colors. The Mario's span from Super Mario Bros. on NES thru Super Mario RPG. We didn't keep track but it took her well over 100 hours to complete.

Dang, a hundred hours, now that's some dedication to your craft. Cross-stitch just naturally lends itself to 8-bit art and this is a fine example of what you can do if you put your mind and fingers to work. Now, if only I could find the time in my day to pull something like this off. Sadly there is no time in my day, only Zuul.

Unlike some of my esteemed colleagues, I'm quite looking forward to RE: Umbrella Chronicles. I've been a fan of rail shooters since House of the Dead and my very favorite, Carn-Evil. I've played RE:UC a few times now at various events with and without the Wii Zapper and while I enjoyed it, I will admit that I liked it better in co-op mode. Something about standing side by side with a friend, taking out zombies right and left with a well placed head shot that just makes my heart light up.

Good morning. It's time to sign for your early Saturday delivery of Kotaku Originals. This week everyone got into the Halloween spirit, the launch of Manhunt 2 caused predictable uproar and Rock band continues to make us salivate.

"In Three Months, You Will Be Happy"

Wii Remote Rip-offs Spied At Wal-Mart

How Volition Celebrated Halloween

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

ESRB: Manhunt 2 is No Hot Coffee

Rock Band Rocks Sam's Club

Sweet Eye of Judgment Schwag

Who's Going to Lose: HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, or You?

Join the Super Mario Flight Team

NBA 2K8 Impressions

Sony Computer Entertainment Lost Chief Tech Officer?

Midway Having Some Wii Problems

Naruto: Rise Of The Ninja Stealthily Rocks

EA: "Content for Grand Theft Scratchy Has Not Been Removed"

Mario Once More Invades W. Hollywood Carnival

Uncharted's Non-Pirate ARG

Super Mario Galaxy Japanese Retail Copy

Arse Falling Kept for Mario Galaxy Booklet, Disc

Rock Band In House, Unpacked

Pumpkin Roundup!!!

Video Game Reviews Are Broken, Please Fix

The Totally Official Trick-or-Treat Bag

The Witcher: Loading Awesome, Please Wait

NBA Tip-Off Just Part of the Videogame Experience

Barbarians At the Game

Red Octane Has No Plans For Xbox 360 DDR Pads

Ninjabread Man Eats It

Commenting Borked

Pokemon Seat Cushion for Classroom Sitting

Fingers-, Eyes-On With Capcom's Art Book

We've also spent what feels like a lifetime listening to drunk people at bars - you'd be surprised what lives some of these people have led. Or at least what stories they come up with to cover it up. We wanted to create characters that are real. We've all seen and played our share of immortal action heroes. We wanted to get a couple of guys with some proper problems centered around themselves. No saving the world or anything. It helps if they´re a little older. They know that they´re not immortal and they know they don´t get a second chance.

Since we should not be telling these third party developers what they should do in terms of the game content per se, we are offering advice and cooperation in order to produce software which is accessible to users with the least possible stress.

This Week on Epic v SK...
Comment by baberg
Nominated by NunianVonFuch
Rabidsquirrel
Witzbold

Epic: You want the engine?
SK: I think I'm entitled to it
Epic: You want the engine?
SK: I want the truth!
Epic: You can't handle the truth!

Son, we live in a world that has textures, and those textures have to be generated by men with Photoshop. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Bungie Studios? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom.

You weep for Too Human, and you curse Epic. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that Too Human's delay, while tragic, probably saved money. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves money. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at GDCs, you want me making those textures, you need me making those textures.

We use words like tri-linear, polygonal, anti-aliasing. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent building an engine. You use them in a lawsuit. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very engine that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and bought Gears of War. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a compiler, and write some code. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

That's funny, could have sworn there was an RPG in here somewhere...no, seriously, this looks great. RPG cry-babies, your wailing will no doubt be heard across the seven internet seas as you bemoan the dumbing-down/action/shooting on display here, but really, who are you kidding. You're going to buy this anyway, if only for the guy-on-hot-alien-girl action, and deep down, you're going to love it.

Midway's first person shooter with nods to its arcade heritage BlackSite: Area 51 has finally gone gold. Well, the Xbox 360 and PC versions did. The PlayStation 3 version follows the current Midway release schedule formula, giving owners of Sony's console ample opportunity to weigh the review scores. The PS3 one should ship sometime in December. Mark and I found it surprisingly enjoyable, in an arcadey sort of way, when we played it at Games Convention this summer.

Blacksite: Area 51 ships on the twelfth of November, pitting it against Super Mario Galaxy, Assassin's Creed and Kane & Lynch, among many, many others. Good luck, boys!

The folks at Nintendo must be simply beaming with pride at the Tilt(?) company's ode to the famous Wii remote. These motion sensing handheld games are clearly the sincerest form of flattery, but at the humble budget price of $6.88. Reader Nick sent us a pair of low-fidelity shots of the trio of games—baseball, basketball and racing—which not only clearly rip-off Nintendo's design, they probably fly in the face of various patents. It's going to be a very sad Christmas for whomever is on the receiving end of these sad devices.

Crysis has some stunning graphics. Think we're all on the same page on that one. But its AI? In this instance, it can't seem to handle surprise and swimming at the same time. Which has disastrous results for this poor chap.

Not since Heather Locklear's turn in Return of the Swamp Thing have I been so turned on by a plant. For the rest of you flora freaks out there, I have something like 42 new screen shots of Devil May Cry 4 from Capcom. They're lusciously green and totally devoid of gothic architecture or ice demons. Proof of the Capcom Framework platform's ability to make things pretty in our gallery below.

Yes. This again. Just because Halloween is now a full two days expired doesn't mean our tips inbox has engaged it's costume and pumpkin filter. For those keeping score, we've got Blizzard, NCSoft, Bioware, EA and Nihilistic in the running for best Western developer in Team Fortress 2 cosplay. Tired of this schtick? I can understand, but I really need some more blue teams to restore order to the Kotaku force. Plus, I'm pretty sure that's The Office's Steve Carrell as The Medic.

Thanks, Mike!

I'm not sure what's more soul-crushing—that someone took the effort to write a web-based Pac-Man text adventure in the style of Zork or that I just spent fifteen minutes ensuring that it adhered to the maze layout perfectly. Regardless, your semi-daily reminder that someone has far too much time on their hands is at the official Pac-Txt site.

Pac-Txt [via Digg]