Kotakuite Charles stopped by a New York City Best Buy location this morning to pick up Modern Warfare 2, only to encounter the stuff of nightmares - Bon Jovi fans. Also, clowns.

"Went to best buy this morning to get COD. We were greeted by Ringling Brothers clowns waiting in line to buy the Ringling Bros. game from 2K. Also waiting in line were about 30 people waiting to get the new Bon Jovi album (they were even chanting Bon Jovi for a moment....wtf). Needless to say, Bon Jovi and Ringling won today's morning crowd as there were only about 2-5 people waiting to get COD. Just another NYC moment."

Just another NYC moment? I'll be staying on the Southern half of the East coast for the rest of my life then, thanks.

I've ruminated on it. Given it a couple of hours to sink in. I reserve the right to rescind my statement at any point between now and its American release. But I think Folklore might be the most beautiful game I've ever seen.

While many of you might disagree, it gets an automatic elevation in assessment by not being set in the future, nor a traditional high fantasy world. Instead each of its seven worlds—of which I saw two—are developer Game Republic's interpretation of Western fantasy ideas, with a pronounced lilt towards Celtic imagery, as filtered by English fairy tales. Like the elves with luminous skin and pink ears, haughty angular aliens, who live in each of the worlds and act as your guides. I would talk to each one in turn, even though I'd read their simple gameplay instructions already, just to see the camera zoom in on their models as they spoke.

Do you know how in older Japanese games it is common to have one really gorgeous character portrait that is referred to when someone is speaking, while the gameplay characters are usually smaller and less intricate? Imagine if someone made a game where every character model looked as good as one of those lovely manga watercolors. Because that's what Folklore looks like.

Part of what makes the art direction so sturdy are the two themes balanced against each other: stereotypical protagonists (one moody girl and a fey journalist) in a traditionally English fairy tale setting, with leering trolls and incongruously assembled mechanical hobgoblins clad in fluted metal armor and flying leather straps with clanking buckles. (The materials physics are top shelf.) And the thing that clutched at me, made me flush, was the male protagonist's default
gait: he sidles along with his hands in his duster pockets, barely concerned with the tromping circus of spiny enemies he'll soon be combating by evoking the captured spirits of other fairy tale creatures. It's a little bit steampunk and a little bit Alice in Wonderland, although I'm told it's set in the present day.

To capture those glowing spirits of the imps you dispatch (the better to wield their powers to your own end), you grasp them with a licorice rope of glowing energy, then whip back the Sixaxis controller, like some lasso-wielding Old West Ghostbuster. Once captured, you can map your new power to one of the four face buttons, expending mana to instantly summon the spirit. Some will attack, like the translucent giant who springs out of your back to lob an exploding mortar from his iron cannon, while others protect you in a sphere of energy. As far as I could tell, your only attacks come from captured spirits, but of course you start the game with at least one. (You'd be otherwise
offenseless.)

Folklore is the sort of action game that I rarely play.
(Although I am questioning if I should have spent more time with Devil May Cry, a previous Yoshiki Okamoto game.) But it is likely I will play it from start to finish when it arrives later this year, simply to see all of the art Game Republic has created, even if the gameplay itself is pedestrian.

Joel Johnson

Ubisoft quietly announced that they have penned a deal with Paramount to work on a game based on the upcoming Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf movie expected to hit this holiday.

The movie, and thus the game, will be based on the epic poem of the same name and stars Angelina Jole and Anthony Hopkins, both of whom have signed on to appear in the game as well. Better still, much better, is the fact that the adaptation of the adaptation will be developed by the same French team who worked on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.

Sounds like I'm going to have to dust of my Seamus Heaney copy of the book. I can't wait to play, not listen, to the lays of the victories of warriors. Brian Crecente

What's better than buying a PLAYSTATION 3? Paying to rent a PS3 and Japanese maid, that's what! Akihabara's maid cafe LittlePSX has apparently secured a handful of consoles for customers to enjoy. PS3-ing and then taking a Polaroid with a maid costs 400 yen (US $3.40). Eating a plate of curry rice while (yes, WHILE) playing the PS3 is 800 yen ($6.79). And just you and the machine is 200 yen ($1.70). Play is for one hour, and games include Resistance, Ridge Racer 7 and Gundam. Customers can bring their own as well!

To sum it up: BEST DEAL IN JAPAN. Brian Ashcraft

Nice PS3 Gimmick [MaidBlog]

An enterprising individual has figured out what to do with his damaged PSP. Make an omelet with it and put it up on Yahoo Auctions. The seller points out that the omelette was made with seaweed, and there is a "faint sweetness" to the dish because a dash of sugar was used. The seller adds:

Please know that it was the work of an amateur, but was made with heartfelt sincerity.

Continuing, the seller mentions how happy a child would be to find this in his or her lunch box, and that it should be okay to eat because it was made without the memory stick or the battery. Bids started at 2,000 yen (US $17), and approx. 30 bids later, the PSP omelet went for over 8,000 yen ($67) earlier today. The winner shall be sent this this delicious portable in an ice pack, along with presumably the box, memory stick and battery.

*Round of applause!* Brian Ashcraft

Best Japanese Omlet Auction Evar [Yahoo]

You get your hands on a Wii nunchaku and what do you do? Well, if you don't have a Wii, you take it apart and snap photos. Grisly, but oh-so fascinating pic after the jump. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Ruliweb] Thanks, Torokun!

Collectors of large breasted figurines have always had one gripe: The jubblies feel like hard plastic. Ever in tune with the dorky pervs, the good people at Sega have released Neon Genesis Evangelion Moter Riders Figure prize toys with, get this, squishy chests. I'm not totally up-to-date with the giant boob toys, but you'd think this would have been introduced long, long ago. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Sega] via Ota Road

Our capitalistic little brother site The Consumerist kicked us out of bed, sending word of a panel at the upcoming Austin Games Conference with Michael Dell. The young CEO's company has been feeling the heat of late as Dell laptops continue to explode and burst into flames. Regardless, Mike will be in Austin, bravely facing the masses. And what's his talk called? Yep, "Fireside Chat." Brian Ashcraft

More Here [The Consumerist]

Ever wonder what kind of lives Japanese cosplayers lead? Meet "Isamu Itsuki" (not her real name). By day, she's a mother and housewife, and by day (these game/manga conventions don't happen at night), she's a hardcore cosplayer. For the past ten years, Isamu has been playing dress-up and making her own costumes. She's currently has seventy different outfits! What's the fun? She says that if you are wearing a character's costume, then it's easy for folks that like the character to strike up a conversation. Ridiculous clothes just breed small talk. Brian Ashcraft

Thanks, Go

Please feel free to move about the cabin, and come up with new acronyms. Joystiq is live at the scene of the crime:

As we opened up this month's Wired magazine and flipped through the various pages, something interesting suddenly popped up and caught our eye. It wasn't some new gadget, but instead an ad for Dell's gaming PC lineup. Hijacking the 1337 speak of gamers everywhere, Dell has adopted "FTW" (For the win) to push their PC gaming rigs.

And while we're cleaning house, please shut up about: snakes, bases, chuck norris, and especially any negative connotations stemming from homosexuality. In case you're out of the loop, George Takei just made gaybashing obsolete.

Optimum catchphrase ripeness occurs when about 40-60% of the audience is in on the joke. After that it becomes stale, and before that you just get a lot of blank looks.

I proffer that it's still okay to say "owned" and various derivations thereof, because Leo LaPorte says it on every TWiT. And it's adorable. How old is he? In his fifties, yeah?

Catchphrases that haven't quite hit the mainstream yet and still could use a little exploitin': NEDM (not even doom music), TWAJS (that was a joke, son), and the term "old meme", which seems to have had its heyday on Jameth's LiveJournal without really making the rounds elsewhere.

"Series of tubes" riffs are okay only as long as they show some creativity. I mean, just look at how much mileage we got out of ROFL and LOL. The best I've seen so far is "AROFLYPSE LMAO", but Bashy and Crecente are still chugging along with plain old "lol" in place of quotation marks, commas, semicolons and full stops. Me, I never touch the stuff.

"Internets" is encouraged as long as Dubya is in office.

I would like to see a return of the Fifty Hitler Post.

"POOLS CLOSED DUE TO AIDS" needs a few minutes in the sun.

But back to the gaybashing thing for a sec. My second-favorite webcomic, Jerkcity, has a vast lexicon of nearly untapped, dong-related material that, like NEDM, has seen little use outside of its home territories (namely IRC). I would like to see HUAGALHGUAH, T (name of addressee), and a good deal more dick jokes start making the rounds. You can start in the comments. Ready? Go. Eliza Gauger

Dell Goes FTW [Joystiq]

In our effort to record every abnormally large Gundam statue, we bring you this 7 meter high, 3 meter wide Gundam. For a size comparison, take a look at the humans in the lower right corner. This statue is quite famous here in Japan, and I've seen it on TV a couple times. It took some dude over ten months to build. There's a cockpit and hydraulic pistons, because the thing moves. That's right, it friggin' moves! Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Dark Diamond] Thanks, Abraham!

American developer Insomniac revealed that its upcoming FPS Resistance: Fall of Man will clock in at a whopping 22 gigabytes. Note that the music and vocal tracks in the game take up a measly 1 gig of disc space, the level data, programming code and graphics hog the remaining 21. And what has Insomniac crammed into those 21 gigabytes? An array of cool weapons to shoot up crap. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Suicide Girls]

We've seen the cracks. No sweat, they don't interfere with game play so suck it up, right? And if you're really worried, Nintendo has acknowledged the problem and offered free repairs. Granted, the crackage sucks, I never though it was a huge problem. Until now.

Kotaku reader Marty dropped us a line, recounting what happened to his Lite:

My DS Lite didn't have a scratch, crack, dead pixel, anything, until I was playing it this afternoon and the corner broke off. Now the only thing holding the top screen to the bottom is the wire. I'm still a fan of the DSL. I take great care of it, but I'm not fanatical. I justed wanted to let my fellow fans of the DSL know that the system is not perfect, and if you get one that seems perfectly fine be prepared for something like this.

Eek! That's like the super crack. This is the first I've heard of this kind of damage. From today, I shall commence handling my Lite wearing velvet gloves, not in direct sunlight and only under room temperature. Another not-for-the-faint-of-heart pic after the jump. Brian Ashcraft

GameSetWatch/Game Developer Magazine/Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield was minding his own business around the office when he got a phone call out of the blue. The lady on the other end asked Brandon if he knew the Nintendo 64 kid. He said he did. Turns out the lady was his aunt. Here's the bizarro conversation that followed:

N64 kid's aunt: So his video has gotten something like 2.5 million views since it went up, and his myspace gets over 70,000 hits daily, and there are tons of parodies over on YMTD...

very confused brandon: I believe it!

N64ka: So this is kind of a shot in the dark, but do you know if anyone would be interested in making a game about it?

vcb: Like...a videogame? I don't see how...

Bat shit insanity continues after the jump.

N64ka: Well if you look at those YMTD things, a lot of them use game art, and seem very game-like.

vcb: I mean, to be perfectly honest, it's just an internet fad.

N64ka: Oh, I know.

vcb: And games need to be a little more...sophisticated than that.

N64ka: Sophisticated...right.

vcb: You might be able to get someone to make a flash game about it or something, but someone would probably only want to do that for fun.

N64ka: Do you know anyone who would want to?

vcb: I can't say I do, personally. You could try Newgrounds, they do a lot of flash work over there.

N64ka: Oh, newgrounds...that's like the name of my favorite radio program in los angeles. New Grounds on KCRW.

vcb:...well alright!

Knowing Brandon, I don't doubt this happened. Just look how he's cashing in on his internet fame. But, getting his aunt to do the dirty work?! Brian Ashcraft

More Here [GameSetWatch]

This must be one of the signs of the apocalypse. Wrestler Hulk Hogan hosted Pokemon Day in New York's Bryant Park. The event featured playable demos of upcoming Pokemon DS games and adults wearing funny costumes. What's next Hulk Machine, birthday parties? Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Joystiq]

I do not think it means what you think it means.

I have a soft spot for internet meta-humor. YTMND.com is infinitely fascinating to me, as is Encyclopaedia Dramatica, LJDrama.org, and Netmodelreview.

So when I saw this pop up over on Aeropause I just had to propogate it. Here we see the actual translations for the myriad acronyms you see bandied about in game chats the world over. Eliza Gauger

Read more [Core77, via Aeropause]

Forget video games and anime. If someone ever asks you if Gundam is popular in Japan, laugh in their face and show them this gianormous plastic model. Pricing at 350,000 yen (around US $3,200), the 1.5 meter tall and 35 kilogram (Yanks, get metric!) statue comes with a large black gun, a shield but no smiling lady. There are also 14 parts that move, sound effects and even an infrared remote! Bandai's press release calls this a "Hyper Hybrid Model" and notes that it is targeted towards 20-40 year-old males. Otaku in their 50's are evidently sensible enough not to make this sort of purchase. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Insert Credit]

Eliza put out a call, and reader Chris answered. Unfortunately. Here is the ugliest DS case mod on this planet Earth. This oddly duct-taped DS was created by altometer1337 (oh, boy), a member of the Pocket Heaven forums. As soon as he finished wrapping his portable in duct-tap and coloring in the DS symbol with ball-point pen, altometer1337 posted this on Pocket Heaven, where everyone with eyes declared this case mod as truly hideous. Note that altometer1337's post signature is:

I'm really not all that 1337. I just screwed up my first acount.

Your DS, too. Oh, and you also misspelled "account." Brian Ashcraft

More Horror Here [Pocket Heaven] Thanks, Chris!

More Moore Here [UK:R]