Chinese Government Pledges To Support Game Developers

In an almost “weird that it didn’t happen sooner” kind of way, Chinese state media reports that two Chinese ministries will join together to help develop and support burgeoning animators and game developers. Economic Daily, a state-funded paper in China, reports that the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance have set up a…

Microsoft Korea has *finally* announced a release date for the Xbox One in the region: September 23. [Thanks, Sang!]

Getting a Job at Studio Ghibli Could Involve Fresh Fruit

Recently, When Marnie Was There director Hiromasa Yonebayashi talked about how he got his job at the famed animation studio. The application process might surprise you. Maybe not! As part of his application, Yonebayashi had to submit two drawings. Then, he had to go to Ghibli and take a rather simple examination. Then, at the…

Unusual Japanese Bank Commercials Feature Magical Girls

These are commercials for Bank of The Ryukyus, an actual bank in Okinawa, Japan. Like, a real bank. Here, you can see one of its loan ads from earlier this year. The virtual idol animation is all kinds of awful! Apparently, this was made for broadcast television. And here is the bank’s latest commercial, for…

City 17: Through War, We Remember is an essay on Half-Life 2’s architecture. If you take anything away from it, it’ll be a better appreciation of the work of Lebbeus Woods

You Can Buy The Secret History Of The Sega Genesis

Last year, I fell in love with a very fancybook about the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Well, that book is now ready to buy (for everyone, not just those who backed its Kickstarter), and it looks amazing It’s not just a coffee table book full of pretty photos and technical diagrams, though. There’s a book book…

Wait, The GameCube’s Pikmin Could Run In Windows?

Huh. In today’s installment of “things I wish I’d known in 2001” comes this page on The Cutting Room Floor, via Brandon Boyer, which both outlines the fact the original Pikmin on GameCube could run on a PC, and shows you howto do it. Turns out there’s a Windows executable file on the wee disc,…

Mod Is Bringing League Of Legends To DOTA 2

It’s like mixing Coke and Pepsi. A brave, perhaps slightly mad modder is working on bringing as much of League of Legends as he can to Valve’s DOTA 2, from LoL’s champions to its creeps. Those champions are being imported “1:1”, meaning its not just the 3D models being brought over (though these are being…

The Week In Games: Trippin’ Out

This week PlayStation 3 and Vita owners get to tour Tokyo’s famous Akibahara district, where they’ll find action figures, awesome gadgets, cosplayers, and vampires feeding off of their life energy, transforming them into undead thralls. Man, Japan has everything. Akiba’s Trip: Undead and Undressed is the highlight of this week’s releases, at least as far…

Finished Divinity: Original Sin, finally. Kirk was right, it’s awesome! Did it with two wizards, a ranger and a fighter aaaaaand I almost started over after messing up one minor quest in the second map.