Today is Valentine's Day, and this past week Kotaku went wookin' pa nub in all the video game places. Below are special links to all our Love Week stories, covering love in all its forms, from lust to matrimony.

Many have praised Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for its story and cinematics almost to the exclusion of its gameplay. But the latter is chiefly why it was one of 2009's finest games, argues one writer.

Brice Morrison, who writes The Game Prodigy, looks at Uncharted 2 and finds a triumph of action-oriented gameplay that gives players the kinds of things they want to and will enjoy doing, yet still advancing a story sensibly without requiring all players to actively participate in its incremental developments.

Some, myself included, had criticized Uncharted 2 for being a bit linear (hey, we had to criticize it for something.) But Morrison finds that to be beside the point. In a shrewd comparison to Indigo Prophecy, he argues that a good game serves what players want to do, not what designers want them to do. To that I'd add my personal perspective that Uncharted 2's use of linearity then is a marriage of both purposes - players shoot, run, fight, find treasures, while still being pulled in the direction Naughty Dog, and the story they wrote, need players to go.

But what Naughty Dog got right, Morrison said, is the gameplay, to which a video game's story will always be subordinate.

Gameplay is King: Story is Distant Second [The Game Prodigy, Jan. 29]

One of the easiest way to ruin a story is to try and haphazardly shove gameplay inside of it. The problem goes that if you have an interesting story, compelling characters, plot twists and allegory, that's all fine and good. But what you have are the ingredients for a movie or a book, not necessarily a game. It isn't a game until the player interacts with the story in some way. And even if the story is strong, poor gameplay will make it unbearable. Developers beware focusing on the story in your game to the detriment of gameplay. In games, gameplay is king. Always.

When you're making a game and need to have the player interact with the story in some way, then it makes sense to have them focus on the parts of the story they would enjoy. In a film, this means that you want to see the couple fall in love, fight, break up, and get back together. You don't need to see them use the restroom, get dressed, eat lunch, or turn up the air conditioning.

If designers don't pull this off correctly, the result is that the gameplay feels completely divorced from the story; the two have nothing to do with one another. Uncharted 2 did a fantastic job of this, which we will get to explaining in a moment. But before we get into how this is done right, let's first take a look at a game that did it wrong.

Back in 2005 a game was released for the Playstation 2 called Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit outside of the U.S.). It was a critically acclaimed mystery thriller where you played as a man who just came two after a murder. The game follows the footsteps of the murder, as well as the detectives who are trying to track him down. The production values were high: good voice acting, good visuals for the time, and the story itself was spot on.

However, Indigo Prophecy doesn't make a very good game. It sold fairly well, but that's not the point here. Out of all of the gleaming reviews, only one reviewer got it right. All the way at the bottom of its Metacritic, one reviewer gave the game a 33/100 amid 90's. I would argue that that reviewer was actually the most perceptive of the bunch.

The problem? The gameplay had nothing to do with what players cared about. What players cared about was the mystery, the moral choices the characters were making, the fight scenes and romance scenes. But what was the gameplay? None of that. The Indigo Prophecy designers realized that they didn't have any Base Mechanics to support these aspects of the story. So instead they force the player to perform mundane tasks. Want to speak to the police chief to learn about the killer? Well, first you need to walk upstairs and get the file. Want to woo your ex-girlfriend? First you need to get her belongings and put them by the door. The actual action was always a cutscene; the result makes the player feel like they're being robbed.

Uncharted 2 does right what Indigo Prophecy did wrong. Naughty Dog understood what players would think was exciting: the running, the jumping, the shooting, and the combat. They then built the Base Mechanics to support that. The controls were exquisite: you feel like you can do almost anything. Scale walls, find ways to climb up and down unreachable heights, sneak past guards, or take them out. You can actually get in the groove of the action and know that it is you who is deciding how to approach tactical challenges. These are action experiences that Hollywood movies dream of but could never implement.

- Brice Morrison

Weekend Reader is Kotaku's look at the critical thinking in, and of video games. It appears Sundays at noon. Please take the time to read the full article cited before getting involved in the debate here.

Happy Valentine's Day, dear readers. We have a sweet 'Shop Contest candidate for you - dear old NECCO Conversation Hearts, a staple of the holiday which I'm sure you'll pervert with your own crude sayings.

At least, that's the intent. NECCO, the maker of these things, says it threw out all of the Sweethearts sayings and took submissions from the public for this year's line of candy. Well, nobody asked us! Probably for good reason. That's where you 'Shoppers come in.

Let's keep this as game related as possible (I'm really hoping "Guided First-Person Experience" can fit on one of these), but as you can see in this gathering of Sweethearts, there are at least eight blank ones for you to draw on and a ton more to emboss. Pics, words, go to town. Except for you, Mr. Fap Fap.

Source Image: Valentine's Sweethearts [via Stock.xchng]

Post your submissions in the comments. Remember, folks, this is a great way to get approved as a Kotaku commenter if you aren't already. I and the starred commenters (hint hint) will promote as many as I can periodically, and next week post a gallery of the 20 or so best.

Several Canadian news outlets report that a gamer in British Columbia thwarted a school shooting by alerting authorities after hearing a failing Texas high school student discuss his plans and targets over Xbox Live. Microsoft's enforcement division also was involved.

The Vancouver Sun says the unidentified gamer, of Port Alberni, B.C., was in an unspecified game with five other teammates on Feb. 4 when one, apparently distraught and nihilistic over being a failing student in his senior year, started talking about gunning down classmates at his high school. Authorities say the suspect spoke of his plans at length, listing also the names of individual targets.

The suspect disconnected when the gamer questioned him further, which was alarming enough for the gamer to alert his local office of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They began an investigation and located the suspect with the help of Microsoft Law Enforcement, who traced the suspect console to San Antonio. Authorities there made an arrest, and a teenage suspect faces charges, reports say.

While I can't find any report of this through any San Antonio media, it seems to have been picked up by the publications of the Canwest media conglomerate (including the Vancouver Sun, which illustrated its story with an original Xbox). The reports don't say how capable this suspect was of pulling off his plans, but imply he sounded serious enough.

The moral of the story, don't even joke about shooting kids at school over Xbox Live, or the Mounties will get you.

Edit: Because the original headline offended so many people, it was changed.

B.C. Gamer Alerts Police to Prevent U.S. High School Shooting [Vancouver Sun, thanks James C.]

Sonia Im, Square Enix's North American spokeswoman has said the company is investigating a batch of suspicious screenshots purporting to compare Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 and Xbox 360, yet are apparently the same image with different control overlays.

Update: Square Enix has released this official statement on the matter:

Unfortunately we did mistakenly include screenshots taken for pre-production (non-promotional use only) in our latest release of assets. Screenshots from the final game intended for the press kit will be released shortly. As shown in our recent demo tour and Microsoft's X10 event, there is no material difference between the two consoles.

Our original post follows.

Via Twitter late yesterday evening, Im said, "We are looking into how the #FFXIII altered screens ended up in our presskit & will update asap. This was obviously not intentional ..."

In a subsequent message, she adds: "..Aside from easily being proven as altered, and this method not being one we use, we don't feel there is a need to enhance the X360."

Square Enix should have known it was tiptoeing into a minefield by doing a screen compare. Especially for this game, and especially given what it represents. To blow it with this kind of foul-up is about the worst outcome imaginable. The admission of the mistake is a good start, but it would have been better not to make the decision that led to it in the first place.

Sonia Im on Twitter [Twitter]

Penny Arcade

published Feb. 8

PvPonline

published Feb. 8

ActionTrip

published Feb. 8

EXTRALIFE

published Feb. 10

GU Comics

published Feb. 12

Dotgif

published Feb. 8

Ctrl+Alt+Del

published Feb. 9

Dueling Analogs

published Feb. 8

Nerf NOW

published Feb. 12

Rooster Teeth

published Feb. 11

Monday Night Crew

published Feb. 12

Virtual Shackles

published Feb. 10

2P Start!

published Feb. 11

Little Gamers

published Feb. 10

That's what I call short-track speed skating, something we only pay attention to every four years. I also want to pronounce "Apolo Ohno" as "App-oh-low" for some reason. Second L please!

And the Olympics are underway. This is one of the largest global television sports properties, which means we get two weeks of ads featuring rich people bitching about how rich they are. So before day two's events get going, here's some non-video game topics that you'll hopefully find hilarious and/or thought-provoking.

• Original ad: "**** Disguisable weapons wanted ****" Alright, here's a shotgun stuffed through a Kleenex box. $1500 for the weapon, $5 per box of tissue. Check out that Glock disguised by a Solo cup.
• Chatroulette's creator reveals himself. Turns out a 17-year-old Russian kid is responsible for thousands of exciting encounters like this one.
• Director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Zack and Miri Make a Porno) allegedly thrown off a Southwest Airlines flight for being overweight. The episode unfolds over Twitter, naturally
• Thieves steal treasured San Francisco landmarks - made out of LEGOs. A $500 reward is offered.

[Image via wikipedia]

I received a special Saturday delivery package from Capcom today.

Inside a blue boxing glove clutching a red rose. Sound familiar?

Either Capcom is trying to tell us something about Dudley coming to Super Street Fighter IV, or they have a wicked mad crush on me. I'll take either. :D

Last week's picture of a strangely sentient-looking Project Natal camera drove a flood of entries to our fourth 'Shop Contest, with multiple mentions of Sauron, RRoD, Geordi LaForge, and at least one semi-NSFW entry.

My favorite, if a bit small, is the fact Dr. Zaius saw the camera and somehow thought of Gov. Schwarzenegger yanking the tracking booger out of his nose in Total Recall. Puns/anagrams on the word Natal also were to be expected and, given Mr. Fap Fap's name and profile status, "Project Anal" is not entirely unsurprising.

So have a gander at this week's double dime of delights, and we'll have a new contest and source material tomorrow morning.

Android_Seb
bouchart
CrizzleG
danocamera
Dr. Zaius
Etheris
gviper
jamboix
Mark Fletcher
metalbeersolid
mingthemagnificent
Sigh ... Mr. Fap Fap
neuroned
rymas1
solaris-assassin
supertongue
thirzalepidus
tinsweep
VILlink
Wolfnave

It's hard to tell who's good, who's bad, who's corrupt and who's just incompetent in this brief profile of law enforcement in the lawless land of Red Dead Redemption.

Red Dead Redemption rides to town April 27.

newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http:\/\/www.gametrailers.com\/remote_wrap.php?mid=61798","customParams":[],"width":500,"height":408.5,"ratio":0.817,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"gametrailers"} );

If you are just now making Valentine's Day plans, son, you are hosed. But these cutie-pie cards from Valve and Capcom might - if minimally - defray the ass-beating you've got coming.

Alexandra Neonakis has followed up last year's splendid Left 4 Dead Valentine series with another five featuring the special infected of Left 4 Dead 2. And Capcom-Unity's got your back with another six starring the cast of Super Street Fighter IV.

The Left 4 Dead Valentines are available as a free .pdf at the Valve Store. Capcom-Unity's series is accompanied by a new trailer featuring Juri, Chun-Li, and Cammy.

Five new MLB 10 The Show screens sent our way from Sony highlight some of the special animations for this year's game, including a bang-bang play at second and an attempt to throw out a would-be base thief.

That view of cover man Joe Mauer throwing down to second isn't from Road to the Show (because it's Mauer, not you), but it's a good reminder that this year's simulation will have your created catcher calling pitches. That means the career events won't be so telegraphed (fast forwarding to your team in the field usually meant a foul popup or a stealing attempt.)

As for that shot of Ben Francisco flipping Robinson Cano, looks like that's a message that The Show doesn't do too badly with its player collisions, either.

MLB 10 The Show shows up March 2.

Although hardly a shock, the demise of the NCAA Basketball series is still on some level surprising. It's a publisher with an uncontested, major team sports title throwing in the towel, after all.

NCAA Basketball was not a poor game, but nor was it exceptional, and as such it didn't have either the sales figures or the motivated community to save it from the firing squad. But one thing I can't get over is the feeling that sports gaming is in, if not its own recession, a rather stark period of contraction.

Look at what's been cut going back to 2008, when 2K Sports walked away from NCAA Basketball by discontinuing its superior College Hoops 2K series. Later in that year, EA Sports BIG effectively vanished. It had been a source of spinoff titles like the NBA and NFL Street series but hasn't produced anything since 2008. Then last year, EA Sports confirmed it was no longer developing its NASCAR series, which ended in 2008 after a 12-year run. There are also serious questions that 2K Sports will continue its NHL series. It's confirmed nothing.

Meanwhile, sports simulation gaming on the Wii has turned out to be a very short lived concept. EA started the retreat by canceling its All-Play branding and axing Wii versions of NCAA Football and NBA Live, although FIFA and Madden did survive. 2K Sports, by designating NBA 2K11's platforms as "TBA" has raised speculation that its one-year run on the Wii has come to an end. MLB 2K10 will release for that console, but it's received practically no marketing and is probably through after this year too. Everyone seems to have found out that, for reality-based sports gameplay, this type of console is best suited to individual sports like tennis or golf.

Then there were the spinoffs, titles meant to help a publisher reach audiences beyond the hardcore simmer, or getting other studios into the sports business without building a full-scale version. Management sims like NFL Head Coach and Front Office Manager had short lifespans. The niche overall appears to be headed for the downloadables market rather than continue as full retail releases.

Finally, the PC is in a real transitional period, losing traditional boxed titles but gaining browser-based online games like FIFA and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Madden last appeared on the PC in 2007. NBA 2K10 appeared on the PC last year but is not yet confirmed for this year.

What could be the next to go? NBA Live is perhaps the biggest name. As sales become increasingly important, having a presence in a major team sport becomes less and less so. 2K Sports hired back Mike Wang, whom EA Sports lured away to its NBA Live team, and who is credited with much of that game's improvement in the past year. But Wang's departure was attributed to the philosophy differences with the team, and with 2K selling two million copies of NBA 2K10, Live probably has to justify itself this year or face the gallows. It still is listed for its customary October release in EA's latest filing.

Where does all that leave us now? No college basketball of any kind, a sport that commands an 11-year, $6 billion television contract. No motorsports series simulation. No meaningful PC presence. Only two consoles fully serving the genre. Exclusive agreements further limiting choices, and only one head-to-head competition in a major team sport on all consoles - NBA Live and NBA 2K.

In 2004, the last year before EA Sports' exclusive deal with the NFL, a turning point in the history of sports video games, I counted 30 licensed sports games - the big four North American team sports, soccer, tennis, golf, boxing/MMA, motorsports, pro wrestling - available on three consoles. In 2009, I counted 22 (add-ons like NBA Draft Combine or the March Madness edition of NCAA Basketball were not counted.)

The number compares well, but bear in mind it includes the canceled Front Office Manager and NCAA Basketball, new releases like NHL 3 on 3 and Madden NFL Arcade that probably won't get a second version this year, and titles like Fight Night Round 4 and Grand Slam Tennis that are not annual releases. Based on what we know now, I only count 14 for 2010, maybe 16 if the online versions of FIFA and PGA Tour are included, plus the World Cup edition of FIFA.

None of this is meant to suggest publishers bear some kind of obligation to ramp up their production of sports titles. But it is a pretty clear indication that the landscape has changed significantly in the past two years with a bad economy only part of the picture. In some cases, we're simply seeing the market at work. Bad or uninteresting titles don't sell, and don't get continued.

But there are fewer choices overall, thanks to the era of exclusive licenses and the high barrier represented by development costs on the current generation. And, as NCAA Basketball found out, it's a climate that can easily offer gamers fewer choices than the only one they had.

Stick Jockey is Kotaku's column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays at 2 p.m. U.S. Mountain time.

And the weekend parade of free stuff keeps marching on. PC gamers can now get all three original Command & Conquer games free through the official website. The freebies are a promotion for the release of Command & Conquer 4 next month.

The free games include Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun with Firestorm and Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, promising "the epic conclusion to the Tiberium Saga," is due out March 16.

Command & Conquer: Classics [EA site]

Some of you might have noticed that in the latest edition of Nintendo Power, which is someone holding a Wiimote labeled "Wii 2." We contacted the editor and were told it was a straight goof-up, not a surprise leak.

The story behind the error sounds a little familiar. Nintendo Power's editor, Chris Slate, said the image - in an item touting Netflix's arrival on the Wii - is a photoshop-job that came from the web, and that staff put it in their files back before Nintendo contracted with Future US to handle the magazine's publication (which was early 2009.) Explains Slate:

Someone (it may have been me, I don't remember) gathered a bunch of Nintendo-related images from wherever we could find them (such as the web) since we didn't have access to Nintendo's press site at that point, and I think we took the "Wii 2" one without noticing it had been altered. It was forgotten and left on our server, where it later got mixed in with our library of real assets once we started doing the magazine.

Slate says Nintendo Power is "positive that we've deleted all the copies [of the image] for good this time," and expressed embarrassment at the screw-up, which echoes another Wii-related gaffe from a couple years back. The cover art designers for Okami on the Wii used an image, also pulled from the web, that featured an IGN watermark. And I've fallen victim to this myself in a way, taking a fan-made 'shop of a PS3 Slim as confirmation of the console's existence before it was officially announced.

Slate assures us that "if Nintendo has a new system in the works - whether it's called 'Wii 2' or otherwise - I have absolutely no knowledge of it."

[Thanks to reader Iron Punkle for the image]

Remember that profile we ran Thursday about the newly launched reselling marketplace? The one that got, as we say around here, Kotaku'd by all the traffic? All's well now and they've thrown our readers a coupon as a goodwill gesture.

Glyde, the site that's been a big hit with gamers since well before its official launch in November, is offering $3 off any single game purchase with the promo code KOTAKU. You'll need to create an account there, of course. This is important: There's gray text that says "Have a coupon code?" underneath the total price. Click that and enter the code there and hit "apply code" before you hit the big blue "buy" button. Otherwise, you'll have 30 seconds to cancel the transaction, then go back and enter the code to get your discount.

And with that, let's get to the rest of the deals:

Hardware
• The plain, yet still mysterious Final Fantasy XIII 360 console bundle is now up for sale at Amazon. Comes with a 250GB drive, 2 controllers, and the FF13 game for $399.99. Release date is March 9. [Dealzon]

Software
• Trine is $9.99 (usually $19.99) on both PSN and with a download code bought from Amazon. Not sure how long that sale will last. [Cheap Ass Gamer]

• This Saturday is the last day of Amazon's "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" sale on Xbox 360 Platinum Hits. Includes original titles that spawned recent hot sequels like Bioshock, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, and Army of Two among 36 total - mostly priced at $20, $28, and $30. [Dealzon]

• The coupon code FEB10OFF at GameStop gets you strong savings on a couple of games. With it, Darksiders is $35.99 with free shipping - and a $10 store credit. And use it on Valkyria Chronicles to get it for $17.99 plus $2.99 shipping. These are new games, not used. [TechDealDigger]

• Assassin's Creed II: Discovery for iPhone, iTouch, and (soon) Pad has been slashed 30 percent in the App(le) Store. Usually $9.99, now $6.99, so I guess that's just three dollars. Free shipping, though! [Dealzon]

• Steam's weekend deal: The RPG Mount & Blade is $4.99 (normally $29.99) Reader Jump4816 also reminds that the entire Total War series is 66 percent off until Monday, and the THQ Complete Pack is half off through Friday. [Steam]

• PC gamers: Newegg has Street Fighter IV bundled with the Mad Catz "FightPad" for $34.99 (plus free shipping). That's $20 off the next lowest (GoGamer). [Dealzon]

• Direct2Drive's deal (ends Feb. 19): Hammerfight, for $4.95 (normally $9.95). [Direct2Drive]

• Pitchers and catchers report in a week and the Super Bowl was last Sunday. But if you've still got a football jones, Blitz: The League II on PS3 is $9.99 shipped from Newegg. Next best is $21. [Dealzon]

As always, smart gamers can find values any day of the week, so if you've run across a deal, share it with us in the comments.

Headline says it all: Sony's made Fl0w, the acclaimed indie hit adapted by thatgamecompany for the PS3 in 2007, free for today only over the PlayStation Network, so run go get it.

The offer's good in the North American PlayStation Store (if the deal's active in other regions, let us know in the comments.) The download clocks in at 125 MB. You can queue it up for your PS3 at the link below.

fl0w [PlayStation.com]

Who better to guest star on Kotaku in Valentine's Week than porn star Ron Jeremy? His opinion on sex versus violence in video games was one top story in a week that saw major reviews and news from X10.

Kotaku Talk Radio

Top Stories
Activision Shutters Guitar Hero Creators, GH: Van Halen Developers [Update]
The Day The Gamers Took Over Reselling
Prototype Developer Radical Cut In Half
Married By Master Chief, One Year Later
World of Warcraft: No Growth Since 2008
Activision Narrows Music Focus To Guitar And DJ Hero
Ron Jeremy: Sex, Not Violence, Is Beautiful and Natural
Report Mentions Nintendo's New Hardware, Miyamoto's New Game
Pirate Ordered To Pay Nintendo $1.5 Million
Dead Space Extraction, Planet Cracker Coming To XBLA, PSN?

News
Perfect Dark XBLA Could Get More New Maps, Weapons
Microsoft: This Will be the Biggest Year In The History of Xbox
Original Survivors Get Chatty In Left 4 Dead 2's The Passing
Left 4 Dead 2's "The Passing" Coming March, Followed By Comic, More L4D DLC
Alan Wake Slated For May 18, Looks Good
We're At X10, In The Shadow Of Apple?
Dev Eyes Call of Duty: World at War for iPhone
iPhone's World at War: Zombies Getting Verruckt Tomorrow
Playing The Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom Credits
Mass Effect 2's Yamm Isn't So Bad, Yo
Hey, Little Sister
Mad Catz Is Making Mad Moneyz
Final Fantasy XIII Gets An Xbox 360 Bundle In North America
Star Trek MMO Log, Stardate 2010.09
Silent Hunter 5, Anno Headed to iPhone
Reviewing the Reviewers: Or How To Break A Broken System
Pocket God Leaps From iPhone to Comic Book
Final Fantasy's Angry Australian Motorbike
Diablo III's Female Monk Has The Cutest Haircut
Finding The State Of The HD Generation
EA: "Something Far-Reaching Coming From Mass Effect" In 2011
Relax, Square Enix Is Doing Just Fine

Sports
Check That - Check Swings Are Back in MLB 2K10
Hold the Phone, NHL 2K11 May Not Be Dead After All
The Madden Sim Bags Its Sixth Victory in Seven Years
EA Sports 2010 Releases Do Not Include NCAA Basketball
Grading Madden's Preseason Predictions

Opinion
Those Who Play Video Game Tic-Tac-Toe Will Be Judged
What Games Could Be Shooters?
Something's Not Quite Right About Nintendo's Aussie Pirate
Speak-Up On Kotaku: Damaged Packages, Missing PS2s, Bad Science, And Cheating
Is Love Plus Better Than Love?
The Daddening Of Video Games

Columns
can videogames make us happy?
Stick Jockey's Super Sim Spectacular
Love In Hell: Dante's Inferno's Take on Romance

Reviews, Previews, Hands-On and Impressions
SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Fireteam Bravo 3 Review: Fire In The Hole!
Sins Of A Solar Empire: Diplomacy Micro-Review: Talk Is Cheap
Frankenreview: Heavy Rain
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars Review: FanFic Comes to Life
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Impressions: The Tougher Battle
Alpha Protocol Impressions: Looks Deceive
Frankenreview: Dante's Inferno
Heavy Rain Review: No Wrong Conclusion
Dante's Inferno Review: Big Ideas, Small Problems
Frankenreview: BioShock 2
White Knight Chronicles Review: Workin' On Our Knight Moves
BioShock 2 Review: In Case Of Rapture
Infinite Space Preview: Seems Vast And Charty

Numbers
Japan Is Still Big Portable Country
New Super Mario Bros. Wii Was January's Biggest Game In The U.S.

Love
Will You Be My Player 2?
Love - Exciting and New
The Emotion, And Humor, Of Mass Effect 2's Romantic Interludes

Road to the IGF
Mile Marker 27: Super Meat Boy!
Mile Marker 28: Trauma
The Road to IGF Is Paved With Good Games

Fun
Left 4 Dead: The Movie Is A Dominican Republic Exclusive
Kotaku 'Shop Contest: Proto-Natal Edition

I got like five e-mails asking me that question after the last WTAY. Hopefully this clears it up. BTW, Totilo always posts the painting's name and creator when he changes these in the first TAY of the month.

Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.

Yesterday, Microsoft drew a green line in the sand, showing off much (but not all!) of the platform holder's lineup for the remainder of the year. There were screenshots, trailers, even interviews. Here's the pick of it all.

What most excited you? For me, it certainly wasn't Peter Molyneux's promises. While I admire what the guy has done in the past, and think he still makes interesting stuff, I hear him talk about one of his games prior to its release now and all I hear is white noise.

No, I actually enjoyed that Dead Rising 2 trailer the most. I love it when developers release raw footage of a game; it may suck as entertainment, but as a source of information - in this case, what DR2 will look like when you actually play it - it's priceless.

Stay tuned for Monday when we have plenty more coming from our time at X10.

Alan Wake Slated For May 18, Looks Good
Exclusive Dead Rising 2 Prologue Coming To Xbox Live
360 Scores The Only Final Fantasy XIII Bundle Outside Of Japan
Left 4 Dead 2's "The Passing" Coming March, Followed By Comic, More L4D DLC
More Alan Wake Footage, More Flashlights In The Dark
First Screens Of Left 4 Dead 2's "The Passing," New Infected, New Weapons
New Crackdown 2 Screens Show Off Shiny Preorder Armor
Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta Starts May 3
Fable III's Three Big Innovations: Touch, Weapons And Kingly Responsibility
Halo 2 Maps, Original Xbox DLC Returns To Xbox Live
Box Art Shootout: Halo: Reach, Crackdown 2 & Alan Wake
Some Dead Rising 2 Gameplay
First Fable III Screens: Child-Catching & Musketry
Your First Look At Fable III In Action
Halo: Reach Is A More Human Halo Story
Microsoft: This Will be the Biggest Year In The History of Xbox
Perfect Dark XBLA Could Get More New Maps, Weapons
Marcus, Dom, And Wesker Party In Lost Planet 2