Japan’s Geeky New Trend: Strange-Looking Heads

In Japanese, they’re called “igyou-atama” (異形頭) or, literally, “strange-looking heads.” They are oddly wonderful. This trend is directly connected to a series of anti-piracy public service announcements that play in Japanese movie theaters. Over the past few years, cosplayers would sometimes dress as these anti-piracy characters. There was also the inevitable fan art. [Photo: kameeeeeeeeen]…

Gangsta Has Crime, Drugs, and Super Soldiers

What it doesn’t have is anything that even comes close to being called an ending. Gangsta is set in a world much like ours, but with one major difference: the Twilights. By using a special performance-enhancing drug, soldiers from the recent past were endowed with nearly superhuman strength and speed. The problem is that said…

Star Doge

Remember Menchi, the cute little Chiba Inu we featured last Halloween? Menchi is back, and this year he’s kicking ass as Fox McCloud Before you ask, yes, he can barrell roll.

Half-Eleven? Time For Horse-Drawn Fisticuffs, My Good Man

“We’ll no doubt have more stuff from Syndicate to show off in the weeks ahead as more of Ubisoft’s artists share their work on the game.” That was me, yesterday. Maybe “weeks ahead” was being overly-pessimistic. Because only a day later, here’s a bunch of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate work from Hugo Puzzuoli, a senior concept…

Microsoft just announcedthat both the “New Xbox One Experience” (ie, a new dashboard) and limited Xbox 360 backwards compatibility will start rolling out to all Xbox One consoles on November 12.

The Witcher 3 Mission That Just…Went To Hell

Heart of Stone, the new expansion for The Witcher 3, basically consists of three long, experimental and amazing new quests. Kirk spoke the other day about the first one, but I now want to talk about the second. USE YOUR WITCHER SENSES TO AVOID THE SPOILERS BELOW. The second major quest—Open Sesame—begins in the auction…

SXSW Cancels Online Harassment, GamerGate Panels Due To Unspecified Threats

Two gaming-related panels for the upcoming South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas have been unexpectedly cancelled because of “numerous threats of on-site violence.” In the week since both panels were confirmed for SXSW, they’ve been widely discussed in the context of GamerGate, as one was publicly supportive of it. Word began to circulate on…

Destiny Snuck Into The Simpsons’ Halloween Episode

You’d have missed it if you split before the end of the episode, but tucked away in the credits of Treehouse of Horror XXVI was a little shout-out to the most horrific game of all: Destiny As is tradition with the show, the cast and crew get their names shown with a dumb Halloween nickname…

Absolutely Perfect Big Lebowski Cosplay

Don’t agree? Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man. Taken at a DragonCon parade, The Dude is Jeff Lester, while Walter is Mac Baugher. For the record, nobody was cosplaying as Steve Buscemi’s ashes. (via imgur)

Well, That’s One Way To Get Out Of A Carriage

Today on Highlight Reel we have backflipping assassins, sentient floating hats, train loving NPCs, Queen, a legendary Destiny sniper streak and much more! Watch the video above, then link any of your favorite highlights in the comments, and be sure to check out, like and subscribe the original videos via the links below. Watch Dogs…

Tips For Hard Mode In Destiny’s King’s Fall Raid

Just as we were getting a hang of Destiny’s latest six-person raid, Bungie releases a new hard mode to keep us on our toes. Enemies are tougher, bosses have a few new tricks, and… well, everything else is pretty much the same. Still, some tips are in order. Launched this past friday, the “heroic” version…

An FPS Where You Can Invent Absurd New Guns On The Fly

When it comes to guns, Stack Gun Heroes does not fuck around. The game recently rock-and-roll knee slid onto Steam Greenlight, and its main hook is the ability to stack guns together to build… well, get a load of this madness: There will be tons of gun mods, and you’ll be able to stack them…

Atlus Keeps Hitting Tiny YouTube Channels With Copyright Strikes, Then Reversing Them

A player by the name of Linsneakers runs a YouTube channel with a humble 23 subscribers. A few days ago, they announced the channel was going on hiatus because of a copyright strike for a Persona 4: Dancing All Night video They aren’t alone. In the past week, Persona publisher Atlus has been on a…

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes: The Kotaku Review

You might suspect that The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes is skippable, an inessential spinoff that is more time-killer than legendary adventure. You would be… correct. The newest Zelda, out now for 3DS, is an unnecessary, forgettable installment in a series that usually maintains way higher standards. Even compared to other weak Zeldas like…

In Sex Criminals, There’s No Such Thing as Being a Pervert

When it started two years ago, Sex Criminals seemed like it was going to be a crime caper comic with a lot of semen-centric humor and a soupcon of bittersweet romance. It’s done those things really well, but has also morphed into something really special: an exploration of how we think about sex. Note: This…

Destiny‘s Halloween Celebration Is Incredible

Just when people were starting to get burned out on Destiny, a video game about the endless hunt for a decent ghost shell, along comes a set of Halloween festivities that made me giggle way too hard. Today in the world of Bungie’s space opera, you can go collect candy, buy masks, and use real…

Payday 2’s Microtransaction Nightmare Just Got Worse

Payday 2 developer Overkill Software has been eerily silent about the game’s controversial microtransactions, a move that’s had the community upset for more than a week. Over the weekend, Overkill finally spoke out. They apologized for bungling communication, but the microtransactions are here to stay. If you haven’t been following this story, here’s the quick…