Ashcraft is the night guy, so I generally roll into work right as he is hitting bed, and have finished up by the time he comes to work, so I hardly ever get to spend the amount of time talking with him as Crecente, Luke, and McWhertor generally do, so it's refreshing for me to see so much background info about the process of writing Arcade Mania!. From where the idea first originated to how he picked Player 9, the adorable little scamp addicted to Japanese collectible card arcade games. I didn't even know mini-Bash's real name. That's how little our time coincides.

Having read the book and now this lengthy interview, I now have a bit more insight into Ashcraft's passion for gaming than our divergent schedules ever allowed me. Nice to get to know him!

GameSetInterview: 'The Turbo-Charged Making Of Arcade Mania' [Game Set Watch]

Eric Marcoullier and I were tonight embroiled in a riveting, yet wistful conversation about 70s/80s pop duo Hall and Oates. After reviewing classics such as this music video for the #1 hit title track of the 1981 album Private Eyes, it occurred to me:

Daryl Hall and John Oates look exactly like Kotaku editors Brian Ashcraft and Brian Crecente. See above, if you can imagine one pair smiling, or not smiling. Coincidence? Probably, but that's not enough of a reason for the two to form a cover band. Where's Rock & Soul Hero when you need it? I suppose it would have to include a peripheral moustache and hair extensions.

... I can see it. A little. I'm just amazed this came to Ian in a flash, since I'm not sure I would've made the nostalgic connection between our fearless leader, the second in command and 70s/80s pop icons. "You think Ashcraft has one of those grey leopard-y shirts?" he asked me. I'm not sure, but I'm sure we could rustle up one somewhere.

PRIVATE EYES / THEY'RE BLOGGING YOU ... blogging you blogging you blogging you [Ian Bogost]

"Hey Fred, you coming with us to march around TGS tomorrow in our Stormtrooper suits?"
"The fact that you even had to ask me questions your commitment to this project. I'll be there, but I hope that you won't."
"Today is the worst day of my life."

Also, while at TGS, we got hands on with a phone game, a phone game that had a peculiar way of saying "split." What was that peculiar way?

Howdy!

Save for one banning, the evening was pretty dang quiet with not much to report on my end. Not much at all! I headed out for a good chunk of the day to do research for a short Wired mag piece I'm working on. I headed over to Shinsaibashi, which is a young, trendy area of Osaka. Odd thing: At 2:00 PM, there are hoards of people on the train, wondering the street, buying crap. Who are these people? Don't they have jobs? This phenomenon is not exclusive to Japan. Just baffling. (Though, other people probably thought the same of me!)

What you missed during yer slumber:

• First Blue Dragon anime image! So gonna watch this on TV.


• Monster Hunter Portable 2nd is a huge PSP hit in Japan! Like, I mean HUGE.


• Sony Australia talks BC gimping. In Australian accents, perhaps.

One quick question: Are images still wonk? I haven't been using the wide field. Lemme know if you've heard anything from tech. Okay, off to watch the totally romantically phony Ai Nori and sleep, sleep, sleep.

Note: Just checked the TV guide. No Ai Nori this week. Bummer!

So! Craziness. You missed all the excitement, you are your sleeping. We ran a story about a "Gimped PAL PS3" as a rumor, because, well, we couldn't believe it. (And I mean, if the Washington Post is reporting it, then you REALLY need to watch out.) Well, turns outs it is true. Luke kinda freaked, which was funny, because he was so surprised.

What's else? Working on that feature, which should go live later in the day. If you could, give it a once over. See if it's ready for pub. There's a few more things I need to do when I wake up: A quick hands on, etc. Which I will do, like I said, when I wake up.

Bought a really bad bottle of safe sake that I know is dissolving my innards. Disgusting stuff, really.

What you missed during the night:

• PAL PS3 a little "different."


• New Sonic game's ending.


• Speaking of Sega, they've got a "secret."

Okay, I will crash, sleep and crash some more.

Back from Tokyo. Thanks for the time off. I got a lot of research done for that magazine feature I'm working on. Plus! I was able to knock out a Kotaku Feature. When do you want me to post that? Plunkett, it seems, didn't burn down the fort and posted a buncha stuff. Go Plunkett!

Met up with Jean Snow in the evening, and we checked out some video games together. I'll be posting two more in-store things I spotted later the in day. OH! If and when you come to Tokyo, you must buy Goma Tamago at Tokyo Station. "Goma" is sesame, and "tamago" means egg. The product name "Goma Tamago" can be spelled frontwards and backwards in Japanese. (I actually emailed Florian to ask him what's that called, and he said a palindrome.) Anyway, Goma Tamago is sooooo good. I ate half a box on the train. It goes well with beer, oddly.

What you missed while you were sleeping and while I was in Tokyo eating Goma Tamago:

• Luke's hands-on Aussie PS3 launch report.
• Crackdown, Japan-style.
• Is it sick to say I want to step on the snow Yoshi?

Okay, now I sleep. Cya in the morning!

Yah, I agree. We do need a San Francisco based-writer to beef up our US coverage. Got any one in mind or are we opening this up to the flood gates?

Speaking of flood gates, today's ban count: Two.

Just got back from the video store where I snagged a copy of the first two episodes of Lost: Season 2. They just hit DVD here and seem to be popular with the locals. Season one was a knock-out, though I hear the current season playing over there is in the States dips greatly in quality. Bummer!

What you missed while you were sleeping:

• Xbox 360 begins its great Japan crap-out.
• GameStop piles on the creepy.
• Here's info on how the 360 is doing in India.
• Retro gaming are a-lacking.

Odd thing. Remember that DS cookbook my wife was using? Thanks to its super healthy recipes, I'm actually dropping weight. Freaky, huh? Now, off to watch Lost, drink beer and put that weight back on!

Happy President's Day! In honor of this special day, I taught my son the names of all the presidents appearing on US currency. To which my wife replied: "Freak."

Because of the holiday, Luke and I might be slightly light on posts. (Though, going back and counting them, I think I am one or two short—due to presidental teaching, see above. Luke posted right along as if he didn't realize it was an American holiday. Has no clue, probably.)

Speaking of Luke, did you take a look at his feature? He knocked out a solid piece — Especially for it being his first. Can't wait for it to go live. OH, I banned no one today. FYI.

What you missed while you were sleeping:

• This Japanese shooting game is hog heaven.
• Reader hands-on is greeted by the creepiest first comment EVER.
• Wii-mote and classic controller mated.

Whew. President's Day this year was the best President's Day ever. Can't wait for next year! Alrighty dude, time for me to cash in. See ya tomorrow.

Yo yo.

Re: Your note yesterday and N'Gai's bet with Jallard. Here's what I would like to do: Stalk Jallard. Not in a really creepy way, but in a slightly creepy way. I was thinking of adding him to my friends' list in XBL. Send him messages daily, see if he responds. I'm totally serious about this! Just waiting for ya to sign off on it. (Also, kinda embarrassed about sending him messages, 'cause my Gamerscore is SO LOW.)

McWhertor had a good idea. He always has good ideas. He said we should have a JPEG image for the Day Notes and the Night Notes. Maybe have someone over at Gawker HQ whip one up? That would be bad ass. McWhert was saying a sunrise or a sunset would be good. I'd like to work in pirates and ninjas if possible.

Today was very exciting! Many things happened. I bought a new toothbrush. And then, I used it. Banned only one dude, and then I got a Mega-Mac, which is the most popular McDonalds hamburger in Japan. It is truly disgusting.

Here's what else you missed while you slumbered:

• Wii Fire Emblem is so generous with controller options!
• Tekken 6 website went live with images and preview stuff. You like Tekken, don't cha?
• First Silent Hill Arcade image looks so unbelievably rotten. Hope, really hope game play is better.
• Kojima has a wacky idea for a zombie MMO.
• Speaking of stalking,GameStop is bad shit insane.

Ah! Now I must unwind and switch from gazing at a computer screen to gazing at a television screen. Bring on the Excite Truck races with my 3 year-old. Woot! Brian Ashcraft

It's Thursday. Know what that means? Nothing! Well, I hope you had a nice Valentine's din-din. I know I did.

So! Today was actually super calm. Like if I was aboard the U.S.S. Kotaku (and you know, I am), my captain's log would be something like: "Stardate 2007. The end."

About images: Are they still wonky? Should us night people start posting them as before or continue as is? Make that "knight." Bwahahahahaha.

Regarding our conversation yesterday, I will include the number of people I banned today. Surprisingly, it was only one person. I tried to ban Plunkett, though. Ya know, for shits and giggles.

While other Gawker sites do public executions, I agree that the silent, but deadly approach is most fair and will help keep the comments section readable. And those banned folks can always come crawling back, tails between their legs (or go off bitching about how much they hate Kotaku at other message boards). Know that 99.999 percent of our night readers are really good people. Actually, it's 99.998, but I was being polite. So, I'm passing along a couple posts with very active comments going in hopes that our day people can offer their two cents.

What you missed while you were snoring:

• An article about Canadian piracy. Sadly, there is no "Crecente Is A Pirate" tag on it. Please fix.
• Rabbids go nutso on that 360 camera. NUTSO, I say.
• Sega guy uses the word "rubbish" in a sentence, misses rumble in SIXAXIS.

Okay, kiddos, it's everybody's favorite part of the show: When Bashcraft collapses on his keyboard. See ya in the morning!

So yes, today is Valentine's Day! And here in Japan, there's a slightly different spin on the holiday. Women buy men chocolates. Men, we do nothing. Well, not nothing. We eat the chocolates.

But! Next month is White Day. What is White Day? Hohoho, I shall tell you! Sometime during within the last thirty years, marshmallow makers decided that they needed a holiday to sell marshmallows. And that holiday was March 14th, AKA White Day. Originally, men bought marshmallows for women who gave them chocolate. Today, no one buys marshmallows. Hell, do non-campers even eat them? But, the name stuck. So I hafta think of something to purchase for Mrs. Bashcraft next month. Marshmallows?

What you missed while you were sleeping:

• V-Day story to get you all in the mood. Well, not "the mood," but "the mood." Ah, fuck it. Just read it.
• When talking to Alex Ward, be careful what you say, because he's likely to cut nutso and cut you.
• Movie studio bitchfest about the Halo movie pricetag.
• Now, THIS is a stained-glass casemod

In case, you're keeping score. Today's DS din-din was not green. In fact, it was noteworthy for its lack of green. Remarkable, huh?

Okay! Hope you are feeling better. I'm off to bed. See ya in the morning.

Today's been about playing catch up. Went to the law office to get my wife and kid's name changed. It should've been a thirty minute drive, but gobbled up several hours. Got back when the sun was setting and only have a few hours to haze Plunkett. And get this, for my wife and my kid to change their names, we have to be interviewed. After the interview, someone (dunno!) will then decide if they can change their names. Ah, bureaucracy!

Dinner was courtesy the DS. However, today I was instructed not to take pictures of the food as it was all green. Or rather, it had green stuff in it. It was delicious. But, like I said, green.

What you missed, while you slumbered:

• God of Jubblies Part II, Electric Boogaloo, NSFW, blah, blah, blah.


• Old ladies pull a Crecente and rock out to Guitar Hero


• Capcom dude gives his honest opinion on the Wii, people freak out.

Okay, so this Gizmodo Gears of War challenge is freaking the crap outta me. Namely, going against Giz's Jason Chen whose Gamerscore is around 26k. (For those keeping score, that's 26 thousand times bigger than mine.) I say since Chen has written for use before that he is property of Kotaku. Dude, we need a ringer. (AND DON'T SAY YOU ARE THAT RINGER!)

Now. I sleep with the last thought racing through my mind just before I hit the pillow: I am thinking about growing a beard.

Today is February 12th. Know what February 12th is in Japan? Absolutely nothing. But today, it was a national holiday. Rather, it was the carry-over of a national holiday on the 11th. That day was "Kenkoku Kinenbi" or National Foundation Day. On this day, 660 BC, the first emperor was crowned.

How was this day celebrated? There were little Japanese flags on the train, and that was about it. Though, I spent a good portion of the day making fun of my wife for not knowing the Emperor's first name. Oddly, few people in Japan seem to know his name as everyone simply calls him "Emperor."

Nothing much else happened. I did some research for a magazine article I am working on and drank "royal" milk tea all day long. In honor, you know.

What you missed while you were sleeping:

• Japanese people still totally love the DS and will go to great lengths to get one.
• EA dev kicks dirt in PS3's direction
• More strange cat crap I found.

Oh, and my wife starting her DS cooking tonight! I figure I'll do a round up at the end of the week for all to compare. She says worrying about getting the Lite dirty is a pain in the ass. Perhaps, we should find a plastic baggy for it? 'Cause Saran Wrap looks junky.

P.S. Brian Lam at Giz wants to know why we don't talk about him more in our daily notes.

So I get on a plane, hardly sleep, walk through the freezing NYC streets looking for Gawker HQ and do not get sick. I get back to Japan, sit on my ass and work all day and get a sore throat. Go figure.

But! No biggie, and I even took a long overdue drive. Since buying a car, things like riding a bicycle or taking the train suddenly became bleh. That is, until recently. With the odd, Spring-like weather here, I've been riding my bike, taking walks and trains. My car just kinda sat there for a few weeks, but we, like I said, took it out today to see a lawyer about my family taking my crazy name. Weaving through teeny-tiney Japanese streets, I realized one thing: I suck at driving.

Here's what you missed while you slept.

• Jack Tretton sticks his foot in his mouth. Has a lot of money. Wants to give it away.
• Here we go: Manhunt Murder media field day gearing up
• A list of ten cool video game characters to argue with
• A cat post so brave that it compelled Brian Lam from Gizmodo sent me a late night IM

Sadly, I sold off my copy of Resistance to my local used shop. I mean, I liked Resistance, but felt it was a little unbalanced. The second half of the game got hard real fast. Still, liked it, but am done with it. The end.

My wife bought a DS "non-game" called Kenkou Ouen Recipe 1000: DS Kondate Zenshuu. It basically creates a dinner schedule for you. It tells how long it takes to prepare each meal, number calories, etc. She's planning on using it next week and see how it goes. Dunno if anyone in Kotaku would be interested in how it goes, but I'll be taking pictures of the dishes. Whaddaya think? Daily updates in our notes to each or a gallery at the end of the week?

Enough! All this typing is making my throat sore. Nite, nite.

Know what you mean about stretches of not watching television. Me, I don't usually watch it, though it seems to be constantly on. There are about three Japanese shows I watch religiously. The rest are DVDs of either 24 or Lost. Because I don't live in America anymore, things like TV (and to a lesser extent, music) help keep me connected with pop culture over there. And I don't have cable so I feel like whenever I'm back in the States, I'm playing catch up. It's like studying, ya know? And when I'm back here in Japan, I'm studying as well. It's non-stop. Anyway, maybe it's just me, but games, for some reason, just seem more international. Then again, it's probably just me.

What you missed while you were sleeping

• McWhertor Storms DICE, Listens To Some Dude


• FF12 Revenant Wings Flies Into Magazine


• Stupid Crook Foiled By MS Tech Support

Talked to McWhertor briefly. I sure hope he's able to locate Jallard. Locate Jallard and take multiple unflattering pictures of him. Do you think Microsoft will ever let us ("us" being me) interview him?

Oh, there are two more stories you should probably take a look at. Scroll down a tad to find 'em. One of them is about how Japanese Wii-motes are being imported into America, which I hadn't heard about. Kinda odd. Another is about the sluggish 20GB PS3 sales are in Japan and a small retail resurgence of the Xbox 360. This might be isolated to a single store (prolly is), but it's interesting. Sure the PS3 seems like it's hurting here, but I do think that the Sony console will eventually pull through. Just needs more solid games, which it will get in good time.

Think I'm going to make some hot chocolate and settle in for the evening. Until tomorrow!

Bummer to hear about your 360! Lucky that it's a debug unit and not retail one. Imagine paying to get the damn thing fixed. Ugh. Microsoft might want to take a page or two from the Nintendo product playbook so that they can start making stuff that, you know, doesn't break.

Talked to McWhertor, and he said he's driving to Vega$ for DICE. How bad ass! He's not ready now, he added. But he should be ready once he gets there. (And by "ready", he either means "ready" for craps and hookers or hookers and craps.)

Might not look like it from the site, but was a pretty hecktick night! My wife and kid are going to change their names. Finally! Currently their last name is "Ueda," a super common Japanese name much like "Johnson." And I had to pick up some papers to start the process of giving them my totally bizarre katakana last name. Wonder if it'll be hard on my kid when he gets older... We've decided to still use the name "Ueda" while ordering pizza. Saying "Ashukurafuto" only confuses the Pizza Hut guy.

And let's see, oh, site stuff.

While you were sleeping

• Blind Item: Why Sony's Not Funding Huge PS3 Sequel


• Badass Twilight Princess Figures


• First Look At Manhunt

Almost forgot! We've got the last question for that super great TGS contest coming later today. I'll put that up at around 10 or 11 am Kotaku time. If you've got a sec, could you check and see if the coding is right? Last two times I've put them up, they've been all mucked up.

Looking forward to reading that Warcraft feature. And yes, accepting bottles of liquor from people who make adult videos is wrong on so many leaves. I mean, geez, what if it's a left over prop? GROSS. I've got a few features I need to talk to you about. Will do so via email tomorrow. 'Till then, ta.

Yo yo. "Saucy" is way better.

So where to start? With the news, of course! Here's what you missed why you were sleeping.

The night in a nutshell

• Rumor: Sony's Halo-Killer Coming Soon(ish)


• Differentiating Between Resident Evil And Silent Hill


• What's Wrong With You?

The first post, the Killzone one, comes directly from Luke Smith. We chatted a bit. He seems in good spirits, playing Crackdown and a bit of WoW. Which doesn't seem like the best idea knowing Luke Smith, but oh wells! Think he said he's gonna be at DICE, so. Let's see... That Silent Hill post has a lively discussion in the thread that's worth checking out.

In other news, Jack Thompson wrote us about your feature. Something about suing us, contacting his attorney, I forget. Didn't really read it. Jack Thompson's lawyer, can you imagine?

The hamster that powers Kotaku ate my commenter log-in, but comments seem to be working fine for me right now. Good for when I hafta get in the trenches.

Oh, I'm sitting on a few more Blind Items, one of which I'll post tomorrow. It's an interesting one and sadly doesn't involve Miss Lohan. Everything site wise should be good to go. 'Kay, I'm off to have a late dinner, something dead perhaps. See ya in a few.

For some reason I can't get Highlander out of my head.

Thanks to the wonderful largess of Gawker Inc. all of Kotaku's writers will be descending on New York City next weekend. Yes, that includes Luke Plunkett from Sydney and Brian Ashcraft from Osaka.

This will be the first time I come face-to-face with many of these guys, which is really weird considering how much time I spend working with, and talking to them.

Since it has the feel of one of those things that doesn't happen very often, we've decided to host a little party. Or, as I am apt to call it, Par-Tey.

So we're going to be taking over the Barcade in Brooklyn next Friday night and paying for a considerable bar tab. Besides the drinking, retro gaming and chance to touch McWhertor's hair or call Brian Ashcraft, Briana (he loves that), we'll also be giving away a few bits and pieces to you our wondrous readers.

I've already started throwing crap into a pile and Ashcraft promises to fill his knapsack with tons of that priceless game toy minutia that the Japanese take for granted. I might even ask Luke to bring some Oz-themed gaming nik-knacks like, I don't know, Vegemite flavored Nintendo candy. So far I've rustled up a World of Warcraft Collector's Edition of Burning Crusade, an unbelievably cool Resistance Fall of Man winter jacket and some PS3 games.

If you're interested in joining us, just swing by the Barcade next Friday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m. We'll be the ones grossly intoxicated. Oh, and make sure you are at least 21.

More to come. Brian Crecente

Someone's taken the scans that poor Ashcraft slaved over and added a hilarious voice-over. Of them, I think I like the Buzz Lightyear bit best. Brian Crecente

Not news in the least, but regular Kotaku reader Dustin sent us his drawing of our E306 crew. We're flattered beyond flattered (and Crecente no doubt loves his sparkling pearly teeth). Thank you. — Brian Ashcraft

Our E306 Coverage [Kotaku]