Brian Ashcraft

Metal Gear Solid V‘s Face Tech Is Impressive

For face scans like this you need a bunch of cameras. A whole bunch. In the above clip, you can see a behind-the-scenes look at Metal Gear Solid V‘s scanning and motion capture tech. Kotaku recently checked out Metal Gear Solid V in action—and was there when Kojima addressed the game’s “sexiness.” Character making –…

First Details about Final Fantasy XIV Remote Play for the PS4

On the PS4, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is getting remote play. Square Enix’s Naoki Yoshida described what players might expect. According to Yoshida, in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn players can enjoy more than just MMORPG battles in remote play. They can harvest or produce goods while roaming the in-game world. This,…

One of the Rarest Pokémon Cards on Earth

This is the Pokémon Illustrator. The card is incredibly rare and valuable. If you have a hundred grand, it can be yours. According to Bulbapedia, there were apparently only six Pokémon Illustrator cards printed and awarded to winners of the Pokémon Card Game Illustration Contest, which began in late 1997 in Japan. The card was…

Hayao Miyazaki Explains Why He’s Retiring

There have been many questions concerning why famed animator Hayao Miyazaki is retiring. Today in Tokyo, he answered them. Best known for films like My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki spoke frankly about his decision to retire in a NicoNico streamed press conference, saying, “I know I’ve mentioned I’m retiring many times in the…

Freaky GIF Heads You Will Never Forget

This is the GIF art of 28 year-old Serbian artist Milos “Sholim” Rajkovic. His work takes seemingly bland, but ubiquitous individuals and packs their heads with mechanical parts. The result is surreal. “[The] models for my GIFs are politicians, corporate people, or just pretty faces from the commercials that we watched hundreds of times during…

Rumor: First Look at the Attack on Titan 3DS In-Game Graphics

There’s a Japanese magazine pic that’s rumored to be the first look at the upcoming Attack on Titan 3DS game. According to Japanese site Amaebi, the image is from an upcoming issue of Bessatsu Shonen Magazine In all fairness, this is a blurry magazine snap and often 3DS games look better in person. While this…

Vladimir Putin Is An Artist

While visiting a school in Russia’s Kurgan region, President Putin drew this. It’s not what you probably think it is. Apparently. When a student asked him what he drew, Putin replied that it was a cat from behind. Oh. I thought it was a vagina. Or a penis. Or a vagina penis. Just think of…

Oh the Ways Anime Changes

Just because your favorite anime finally aired on television, that doesn’t mean you’ve seen the final product. There’s still room to get better. When anime get DVD or Blu-ray releases, certain scenes or characters are tweaked—or even completely redrawn. There’s a variety of reasons for this, such as having more time to get everything just…

How Korea Is Making eSports More Inclusive to All Kids

In South Korea, eSports is big—big enough for large tournaments and endorsements. But it’s also big enough for the country’s government to sponsor a tourney for disabled students. Now in its ninth year, the Students With Disabilities Nationwide eSports Tournament recently wrapped up in Seoul, with 394 students competing in games such as Wii Sports…

You Sure Hayao Miyazaki Doesn’t Sign Autographs in Japan?

Here’s a whole room of people with autographs Hayao Miyazaki signed earlier this year in Japan. Fancy that! Late last month, there was an article on Japanese site R25 detailing how beloved anime director Hayao Miyazaki doesn’t sign autographs. (Kotaku reached out to Studio Ghibli regarding the R25 autograph story; however, the studio declined to…

South Korea Can’t Stop Showing How to Selfie

Last month, a young woman showed “the importance of angles” in a YouTube video that racked up a couple million views. It’s also inspiring others, too, whether they’re dudes, dogs, or plush toys. The clips highlight, as tipster Sang points out, ‘gaak doh eui joong yo sung’ (각도의 중요성) or “the importance of an angle.”…

PSO2 Update Brings One Nasty Bug

Earlier today, Sega launched a new Phantasy Star Online 2 update for the PC version. New areas! New bosses! New quests! Sounds great, huh? It also brought new headaches. Online in Japan (here and here), people are reporting that unrelated data was erased after downloading the update. Some users reported that their free HDD space…

Animal Crossing Sure Looks… Different in Manga Form

This is the Animal Crossing you are used to. The latest issue of CoroCoro Comics certainly isn’t. Yes, this is just a gag (notice how the character in the bottom corner is totally shocked), but it’s still fun to see a totally different AC in an officially licensed manga. And no, the manga apparently won’t…

Why Is There a Tattoo Stigma in Japan?

Public pools. Gyms. Resorts. It’s common to see “no tattoos allowed” signs at establishments like this. In Japan, there is certainly a stigma towards tattoos. But why? The easiest explanation, of course, is that Japanese gangsters (the yakuza) traditionally mark their bodies with tattoos. But not everyone who has tattoos in Japan is in organized…

Coca-Cola Spends 4 Years Developing a Warm Carbonated Drink For Japan

Is hot ginger ale a thing? In Japan, it apparently will be—or wants to be. Whichever. This fall, Coca-Cola Japan is rolling out cans of “hot” Canada Dry Ginger Ale. That’s right, they’ve figured out how to can warm carbonated drinks—something that took four years of research. Hot (well, warm) canned drinks are not new…

Stealing $5,000 with a Drill Bit

Not a drill. A drill bit. You know, the part you must stick in an electric drill. FNN and TomoNews report that early morning on September 1, a hooded man wearing a jumpsuit and a surgical mask entered a karaoke parlor in Higashiosaka City and started waving a drill bit at the staffer who had…

Guess who is publishing Diablo III‘s Japanese language version? Square Enix! The localized version is slated to be out next year in Japan and will be released under Square Enix’s Extreme Edges banner.

China’s Embarrassing Childhood Photos

Chalk it up to growing pains, but everyone has embarrassing photos. Some people’s are just more embarrassing than others. Here’s a proud look at some of China’s delightfully awkward childhood photos. Recently on Chinese micro-blog Sina Weibo, people have been uploading their most painful pics, using a tag which translates in English as, “showing off…

Oh, It’s Just a 17-Ton Robotic Bug

A Japanese engineer named Hitoshi Takahashi spent 11 years creating this huge, diesel-powered bug bot from nothing. And now, as he did recently in Ibaraki Prefecture, he shows up in parking lots and amazes everyone. Here, you can see Takahashi when he was 50 years old, starting work on the Kabutom RX-01 in 1998. Alone.…

How to Get Online for Final Fantasy XIV (Eventually)

You know the 1017 error? You do if you’ve been trying to play Final Fantasy XIV! It’s the message for a full server. YouTube user Beingbanana came up with an “easy fix.” Just make sure you have chopsticks, a battery, and your copy of Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. Very important! How to fix 1017 error…