Dying in a video game was once as commonplace as running or jumping, so much so that not dying was usually the driving mechanic behind most releases. However, if you look at many games from the last few years, death has become less of an influential factor. In order to make games more accessible to players, many developers have opted out of including some kind of a consequence for dying (also known as "failing") in their games. Whatever way you look at it, death has become a bit of a taboo. However, Konami's latest release, NeverDead, makes no apologies for not allowing its lead character to die, in fact, it's a huge part of the story.

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Tags konami, NeverDead, rebellion

So today LucasArts officially announced the release of Kinect Star Wars! Here's the official details:

Xbox 360 and LucasArts announced “Kinect Star Wars” and the Xbox 360 Limited Edition “Kinect Star Wars” console bundle, available on April 3rd, 2012 in North America for $49.99 USD and $449.99 USD respectively. Star Wars fans of all ages will soon be able to bring the Star Wars universe home and become part of the films like never before with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360. Read more...

Tags kinect star wars

So in what will either be a brilliant piece of self-promotion and gamer outreach or a beautiful disaster, last night Double Fine launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce an old-school point and click adventure game, led by Tim Schafer, the first for him in 14 years. This comes days after Minecraft creator Markus Persson offered to fund a sequel to Psychonauts out of his own pocket.

With a goal of $400,000 set at the beginning of the campaign, Double Fine has already exceeded that goal by half, at $600k as of the writing of this post. And the campaign still has 33 days to go.

So why are they doing this? What's it all about? How might it end up being a tremendous disaster (I don't think it will be)?
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Tags double fine productions, Kickstarter, tim schafer

Catch up with The Darkness if you're playing the game (or even if you're not) and our friends at Merge Games (The Binding of Isaac) want to give you something.
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Tags 2k games, Image Comics, Marc Silvestri, Non-Gaming Game News, the binding of isaac, The Darkness II

Today, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced their list of nominees for 2011's game of the year, and it looks pretty close to most other GOTY lists you've seen up until now. Arkahm City, Modern Warfare 3, and Portal 2 top the list which has a slightly European twist with the nomination for FIFA 12. I wanted to comment on the lack of smaller, downloadable titles like Bastion, but Minecraft—although it's pretty much an institution—more or less fits that bill.

You can see the nominees after the break.
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Tags BAFTA, batman: arkham city, battlefield 3, call of duty modern warfare 3, fifa 12, la noire, legend of zelda: skyward sword, minecraft, portal 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, uncharted 3: drake's deception

[Update: In the original version of this post, I identified developers United Front as the team behind the Just Cause series. That would actually be Square Enix London Studios and has been corrected in the article.]

The True Crime series was Activision's answer to GTA: a somewhat tongue-in-cheek open world action game with a focus on melee combat, featuring real-world locations and a decent amount of above-tier voice acting (even if the gameplay itself wasn't much to write home about. For a while, the third game in the series, True Crime: Hong Kong was a thing before Activision chose to divest themselves of the franchise, handing it off to Square Enix two months later.

Well, Square has had the Just Cause collaborators at Square Enix London Studios along with United Front hammering away at the game for the last few months and it's been rechristened Sleeping Dogs.

Find out more after the break.
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Tags square enix, true crime: hong kong, United Front Games

Last week Warner Bros. and Monolith Productions offered up the online beta for Gotham City Imposters and today the full game, which puts players in the shoes of Batman and Joker impersonators for a first-person shooter rumble in the streets of Gotham, is officially available for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Read more...

Tags batman, dc, DLC, gotham city imposters, monolith productions, The Joker, Warner Bros. Interactive

Sony opts not to bring their PSP-to-Vita transfer program over from Japan for the U.S. launch.
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Tags PS Vita, PSP, sony

Are you ready for more Modern Warfare 3 DLC? I hope you said yes because things are just getting started with the next content drop for premium Elite members playing on Xbox Live scheduled to land on February 21st with the release of a new map called Overwatch. Read more...

Tags call of duty, call of duty: elite, DLC, modern warfare 3, Overwatch, Xbox 360

The first person to make World 1-1 loses.
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Tags bethesda softworks, PC, Steam, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim