A Sad Day for StarCraft as One of the Best Players Quits

One of the most iconic and best non-Korean members of the StarCraft II eSports scene, Evil Geniuses’ Stephano thinks it is time to move on. He says he’s not enjoying the game as much as he used to, so he put an end to his career as a StarCraft pro. His last match was played…

What Video Games Actually Sell: Greatness

Video games today are no longer part of the entertainment industry. They’re a new industry, yet one as old as history—the Myth Industry. Games are about greatness. In games, we can become world-saving heroes. In fact, it’s assumed that we will be. It is the very structure of games to place each player into the…

Witness the legendary longbowmen of England, capable of firing intracontinental arrows in Civilization V through the English Channel, right into French territory. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest,funniest game-related screenshots and art that we can find. Send us suggestions if you’ve got them.

Warts and All, a Look at the South Korean Game Industry

Have you ever wondered about what it’s like in the Korean game industry? Like, the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly? Recently, a poll of over one thousand (1,203 people to be exact) folks working in the Korean game industry was collected in “A Report on Game Industry Professional Working Condition.” The poll…

Chinese Store Displays Are the Best

Toothpaste tanks. Slipper birds. Flowers made from bras. Welcome to the world of Chinese retail, where in-store displays can get wonderfully creative. In the West, there have been a number of impressive soda can displays—and China has seen those, too. But it’s also seen suits of armor made from pots and pans as well as…

Japanese game company 5pb has ateaser site up that reads “Shield Energy.” Make of it what you will.

No Bethesda Games Coming To Wii U Anytime Soon

In a recent interview at QuakeCon, Bethesda’s Pete Hines explained to Joystiq why they’re not bringing any of their upcoming titles—The Elder Scrolls Online, Wolfenstein: The New Order and The Evil Within—to Nintendo’s console in the near future: None of the games we’ve announced are being developed for the Wii U, so it’s guaranteed that…

Well, Project Eternity Looks Pretty Hot

This fresh screenshot the devs at Obsidian released for their upcoming RPG Project Eternity is just too damn awesome. Looks like Planescape: Torment mixed with the first dungeon from Baldur’s Gate 2. And that’s not a bad thing at all! To contact the author of this post, write to: [email protected]

Cramped Or Not, I Want To Live in These Tiny Japanese Houses

Land can come at a premium in Japan, especially in big cities. For urban dwellers, sometimes the only option is to build small. Real small. In Japanese, these cramped abodes are called “narrow homes” (狭小住宅 or “kyoushou jyuutaku”). Typically, they’re built on plots of land that are less than 50 square meters. The notion is…

According to this image, which is apparently from an upcoming Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, popular anime Attack on Titan is getting a 3DS game this year in Japan from Spike Chunsoft. To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture,…

Don’t Use Smartphones While Walking, Warns Tokyo Staircase

In Tokyo, mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo just unveiled a huge yellow warning plastered all over a Shinjuku Station staircase. It reads, “Walking while using a smartphone is dangerous.” Under the warning, in parenthesis, it reads, “But those people probably didn’t see this announcement.” Oddly, this kind of reminds me of health warnings you see…

These Bass Players Look Like They’re Petting Dogs, And It’s Amazing

Okay. Yes. Okay. Let’s talk about Bass Dogs. You all probably know that sometimes I like to put some fairly out-there stuff in the nightly off-topic spot. Sometimes that stuff involves music. Sometimes that stuff involves animals. And SOMEtimes, that stuff involves dogs photoshopped into band photos so that it looks like bass players are…

If you’re deep into The Last of Us, check out the now-complete four-part Dark Horse comic series American Dreams, which tells Ellie’s backstory. Also, check out this cool new Wired interview with series illustrator/co-writer Faith Erin Hicks.

An Inside Look At How That Awesome Comic-Con Mech Was Made

No, robot overlords didn’t make the awesome Comic-Con mech that tried to befriend kids this year. Humans did! Hence why the mech needs someone to pilot it—not that it’s immediately obvious that someone is in the suit. Kind of begs the question: how did they pull it off? Here are a couple of inside looks,…

Nintendo’s Latest Plan To Explain The Wii U: Jokes!

Nintendo’s latest stab at improving the messaging around the Wii U involves jokes. Everyone likes jokes! Here we see a new Nintendo UK ad featuring British comedian Rufus Hound. Nintendo seems to have seen Sony’s pitchman Kevin Butler and thought, “You know what, we need someone like that!” The results are mixed, though it’s good…

Want to write about video games for a living? Freelancer Nathan Meunier has just published Up Up Down Down Left Write, a guide to all things games writing. There’s a sample chapter up on the website.

I’ve been looking forward to playing a finished version of the tabletop/deck-building tactical RPG Card Hunter since I first played it at PAX last year. If you’d like a new in-depth look, check out this video, in which one of the game’s developers takes on Alec Meer of Rock, Paper Shotgun

This Hilarious Cartoon Is Like Adventure Time, But Way Cuter

Bee and Puppycat returns, this time continuing where the last amazing episode—which you should definitely watch—left off. It seems that there’s way more to Puppycat than meets the eye, and I’m not just talking about how it might be either a cat or dog (or both?) If this seems familiar in some ways, it’s probably…

We’d Be Happier People If We Lived In This Colorful, Blocky Paradise

What could possibly be more welcome than colorful geometric shapes with corners gently rounded for virtual safety? How about if they had googly eyes? What if they could come to life? What if you breathed life into the inhabitants of this bright and innocent Blocksworld? Doesn’t that sound like a pleasant sort of god to…

Check out this great feature on Jason Rohrer, maker of the controversial new game The Castle Doctrine