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…

The Evolution of Japanese Schoolgirl Uniforms

Ch-ch-ch-changes. Over the years, Japanese schoolgirl outfits certainly have evolved. How much have they changed? See for yourself. The image spans from the Meiji Era (1868 to 1912) to the modern day. While the 1950s and 1960s didn’t didn’t see huge jumps in style, the last few decades certainly have! This image appeared on Twitter…

Inside Hayao Miyazaki’s Former “Retirement Place”

Did you hear Hayao Miyazaki is retiring? Bummer! Thing is, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard that Miyazaki is retiring. In fact, he’s officially quit Studio Ghibli before, only to return. As a couple Japanese Twitter users have pointed out, Miyazaki has “retired” several times—five times by somepeople’s count or once every three years…

Ever want to open a game bar in Japan? Matt Bloch talks to Japanator about doing just that with his Osaka-based watering hole Space Station. It’s apparently the only foreign-run video game bar in Japan!

Go Forth, Space Knights, And Shoot Blue Lasers

Brandon Liao is an artist at League of Legends developers Riot Games, but today’s Fine Art isn’t about lanes or monsters. It’s mostly about space guns and some incredible sci-fi architecture. You can see more future soldiers and fancy castles at Brandon’s personal site (thanks Concept Art World!) To see the larger pics in all…

Cliff Bleszinski project sneak peek number four. No name for the thing yet, so I’m just going to give it the working title of “The Last of Them”. As shared on Twitter.

Team Fortress 2 Characters Wish One Lucky Guy A Very Happy Birthday

Well, here’s about the best birthday present a boy could wish for. Reader Kevin was at Valve’s DOTA International tournament last month, and while there got in line for some autographs from the game’s voice actors. While waiting for his turn, he had a flash of inspiration His brother Robin, whose birthday was coming up,…

Okay Yeah, Final Fantasy XIV‘s Relaunch Is A Disaster [Update]

From an unfinished mess that no one wanted to play to a highly-polished gemthat nobody can access in just under three years. Way to relaunch, Square Enix. Update: Added information on this week’s coming server expansion and free game time credit. I’ve been incredibly patient. During theearly start last weekend, when Americans and Europeans were…

Stop The Presses: I Think The Next Halo Game Will Be Called Halo 5

Everyone, you won’t believe this. This may come as a shock. I’d like you all to be sitting before I deliver this news: it looks as though the next Halo game is going to be called ‘Halo 5′. I know, crazy right. Halo 5 follows Halo 4, which followed Halo 3, which followed Halo 2,…

PAX Cosplay: Near-Naked Sims Dude, a FemShep Team-Up and Dark Phoenix

It’s been three days of PAX Prime so far and the cosplay greatness just keeps growing. This latest batch of pictures has a great Fallout survivor, two flavors of FemShep and Lady Deadpool. Enjoy these folks’ hard work, folks!

There’s A New Homeworld Game Coming

Did you think PC strategy game Hardware: Shipbreakers looked a lot like Homeworld? Good. Because the developers have been given (or returned) the keys to the franchise. While Gearbox works on re-releasing the original Homeworld games in HD, Blackbird Interactive, comprised of some of the team behind the old Homeworld classics (including art director Rob…

Don’t Scream During Zombie Games. The Cops Might Turn Up.

Reader Mathue sent us this clip over the weekend, captured while he and his friends were playing some DayZ. It shows, he says, the kind of language – shrieked at the top of her lungs – that caused the cops to reportedly turn up to one of his pal’s houses, fearing MURDER. From 0:56 onwards,…

If You Grew Up in the ’80s, Your Soul Cries Out for This Space Shooter

Nerds and geeks of a certain age fondly remember Macross/Robotech, Star Blazers and other spectacle-filled, emotionally overwrought animated space operas from the 1980s. These Japanese series remain touchstones for a generation and some folks miss them quite a bit. Jake Kazdal is one of those people and the game designer decided to make a game…

It’s a Kitty Collision as Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub Finally Meet

This is the one we’ve all been waiting for, friends. Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub, two of the biggest celebrities in the feline world, have finally met. To be fair, there’s no actual collision. Bub mainly wags her tongue around like a little weirdo, while Grumps just does what she does and appears generally unhappy.…

StarCraft‘s Locusts Are Deadly, Cute in This Animated Short

Episode 16, season 2 of StarCrafts, the animated YouTube series that turns everything and anything StarCraft into something adorable, deals with the problem of locusts. Spawned intermittently by swarm hosts, locusts are persistent and deadly in large numbers. And in this episode of StarCrafts, they’re deceptively cute. (Favorite YouTube comment: “The locusts look like cupcake…

Double Fine’s Adventure Stars Commander Shepard, Jack Black

Picking up where he left off with Brutal Legend, it’s been announced that comedy actor Jack Black will be appearing in a sort of “cameo” role in Double Fine’s upcoming adventure game, Broken Age. Joining him will be Jennifer Hale – aka Commander Shepard – and a range of other actors, some of whom have…

This May Be the Kookiest Game to Reach Its Kickstarter Goal Yet

Octopus City Blues is the kind of game in which an enormous, bloody millipede is used for public transportation and the protagonist is married to a pink octopus named Daisy. And it just reached its Kickstarter funding goal of $7,000. The developers at Ghost in a Bottle describe it as “a surreal adventure game about…

Here’s That Sherlock Footage. It’s Kind of Disappointing.

I sort of regret talking up this new footage from Sherlock season 3 yesterday, because with all said and done today there’s not really that much to it. Still, a little Cumberbatch is better than no Cumberbatch at all, right? There are a few shots of Holmes looking smug and contemplative (his typical moody M.O.)…

Minecraft Xbox 360 Getting Mass Effect Mash-Up DLC

Minecraft is generally about exploring your very own world, hollowing it out, hoarding its resources, and building a utopia for yourself and your farm animals. That’s about to change, though, with the expansion announced today. Microsoft, Mojang and BioWare revealed in a press release this afternoon that the Mass Effect “Mash-Up Pack” for Minecraft on…