Kotaku

City Of Heroes Celebrates Issue 13 With Free Weekend

Former City of Heroes and City of Villains players are cordially invited back for a free weekend in order to check out the new features introduced in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility.

Now through 11:59 Eastern on Sunday night, lapsed City of Heroes players in good standing will be able to log in and play the game for free in order to experience how far the game has come since they last stopped playing. All returning players will receive a total respec for each character, and a costume tailor token for each costume slot that will allow them to take advantage of new costume pieces.

With the sweeping changes made in the game over the past couple of issues, now is the perfect time to hop back on and see how your alter ego fares in this new, updated Paragon City.

Reactivation Weekend!! [City of Heroes Community Forums via Massively]

Trine Casting A Lovely Spell On PSN

Nobilis and Frozenbyte proudly announce Trine, a beautiful new fantasy action game coming to the PC and PlayStation Network next year.

Trine is essentially a 2D platformer that allows the player to create and destroy objects in order to solve puzzles and defeat challenges as they battle to save their kingdom from evil. You'll be able to play as an object-creating wizard, swift and agile thief, and a destructive warrior, swapping characters on the fly to fit the situation. Need a ramp? Use the wizard to create one. Barrier in your way? The warrior can bash right through it.

The game looks to be an absolutely gorgeous mix of 3D graphics and 2D gameplay. Hit the jump for a few more screens, along with a video of the game in action. Definitely a title to watch. More »

Gears Of War Gets Political

Or is politics getting all Gears of War? Who knows. Either or, take your pick. All we know is, there's an exhibition going down right now at the bakehouse art complex in Miami (as part of Art Basel), and this massive painting is part of it.

By Daniel Ortiz, it's called "Gridlock", and yes, that's the Democrats as the Gears, Republican party as the Locust. Not quite sure if that's a Dick Cheney Brumak, but that would be so awesome we're just gonna assume it is.

[thanks Alberto!]

Lips Holiday Songs A Bit More Multicultural Than Singstar's

While Singstar's holiday fare is fairly Christmas-centric, Microsoft's Lips takes the more politically correct path, offering up a little something made out of clay to help balance out the holiday cheer.

Kicking things off right we have that old standard, "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year", performed by Andy Williams, which your grandparents are bound to sing along to. For those seeking a soulful lip-curl with their holiday music, there's "Blue Christmas" by Elvis Presley, which just about begs for a microphone stand to lean on while you sing. Finally, representing the party people who celebrate for 8 days straight, we have "The Dreidel Song", performed by Sister Hazel? Well at least you guys got a song.

The three tracks are now available via Xbox Live Marketplace for 180 points a pop.

Lips Holiday Music [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

The Mysterious Project Origin Case Opens

Last week I received a mysterious case, delivered to a local storage facility with instructions to post a video in order to receive an unlock code. Now the case has been opened - what's inside?

The small metal case was found inside a storage locker a short drive from my home, following directions that arrived via a mysterious letter in the mail. For the past week I've been staring at this thing, idly running through the numbers now and then to see if I might stumble across the unlock code, to no avail. Now a post on the Project Origin community forums from a user named Caseman has revealed the combination. Anyone have money on 332?

Hit the jump for a video of the case opening, and more questions. More »

Activision's Big Cheese Nominated For CEO of The Year, Loses

Bobby "Hairhelmet" Kotick has a nice write up in Market Watch.

Apparently Kotick was a finalist for the 2008 MarketWatch CEO of the Year award, though he was beaten out by Hasbro's Brian Goldner. Still he was in good company. Other nominees included J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon, Southwest Airlines Gary Kelly, and H.J. Heinz Co's Bill Johnson.

The lengthy write up on Kotick includes some inordinately dry chestnuts about his early days as an Internet maverick, my favorite is this one: More »

Got Good Advice On Hiding Presents From Kids?

To: Crecente
From: Bashcraft
RE: Bad Week For Media

Yah, what's happening with the economy and people's jobs is some horrible, horrible stuff. But let's think of happy thoughts — like pink children and Christmas.

Spoiler: Those who still believe in Santa Claus, do not read from here.

Got a huge box today from my parents filled with Christmas presents for Mini-Bash and Micro-Bash. The timing was bad — the delivery man arrived right when Mini got home from school. So, a delivery man brings a huge box, and he's asking me what's in it. I tell him, oh, there's just a buncha copies of Arcade Mania, that's it. He believes it and goes on his merry way.

Reminds me when I was a kid and woke up in the middle of the night and caught my dad putting presents under the tree. I was wondering what exactly what was going on — my dad replied that Santa had left everything and told him to put the presents under the tree. Oh, I said, and went to bed.

Mini-Bash is 5 right now. Wonder how long he'll believe in Santa... Another thing I wonder about, where the hell I'll hide these presents. This tiny apartment doesn't have many hiding options. Any advice would be most appreciated. Right now, all I can think of is the trunk of my Nissan...

What you missed last night
Freakish GTAIV Fingers Fixed? Finally!
A Next Metal Gear Is... Green?
Interested In Microchip Implants For Arcade Gaming?
No Painted Nearly Naked Girls, But Girls
Gears of War 2 RC Centaur Tank Verdict? "Garbage"
Nintendo Nerd Wanted For Bank Robbery
Killzone 2 Officially Dated For February

Japan Finally Gets Its Xbox Live Video Marketplace On

The US video marketplace launched in November, 2006. In case you just joined us, it's now December 2008, and poor old Japan still doesn't have access to a store of their own.

Courtesy of the console's increased popularity in the country, however, that's about to change. Microsoft have announced that the service will be launching in Japan sometime during 2009. More »

Dragonball Movie Title Evolves

Everyone's favorite upcoming goofy Hollywood flick Dragon Ball is apparently getting a slightly reworked title: Dragonball Evolution. This isn't yet confirmed by studio 20th Century Fox, but URL DragonballEvolutionmovie.com redirects to FoxMovies.com. More »

If Django Reinhardt Composed The Super Mario Bros. 2 Soundtrack...

...it'd sound a little something like this. If you thought you'd get through 2008 without seeing the words "Django Reinhardt" and "Super Mario Bros 2" in the same post, sorry, you were dead, dead, wrong.

The Original Plumber [growabrain]