Money, Exploitation, and Booth Models in China

Behind the glitz and glamour of China Joy allegedly lies a deep dark world of exploitation. The models that light up the booths and the cameras on the exhibition floor are both exploiting themselves and are being exploited by a system that is propagated by the very people that China Joy is for: the fans.…

Man Unsuccessfully Smuggles a Turtle in a Hamburger

A man in China loved his turtle so damn much that he tried to sneak it on an airplane by hiding it in a hamburger. According to Guangzhou Daily (via South China Morning Post), a passenger surnamed Li tried to get his “beloved” pet turtle through Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in a KFC hamburger. When…

2010’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow hits PC on August 27. If you’re impatient, or you just want to see how the game runs on your system, there’s a demo you can try out over at Steam. And if you missed it, you can also have a look at the trailer for the game’s PC version…

Korea’s Take on the “Virgin Floating Hand” Meme

You know hover hands? Those awkward photo moments that are called “instant virgin detectors.” South Korea has them, too, but they mean something else: Good manners. Behold, the “manner hand!” As tipster Sang explains, “manner hand” is basically when male celebrities don’t touch female celebrities while taking photos together. It can also be when celebs…

IGN reports that the lovely, meme-tastic PSN action-platformer Guacamelee! is coming to PC on August 8. For $15, you get the base game, two pieces of DLC, and, should you buy Guac during its first week on Steam, a copy of the developers’ earlier game, Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack

How To Turn Your Cat into Totoro

Have a cat? Like My Neighbor Totoro? Want to turn your pet into the titular character? Here’s how: This comes courtesy of Japanese Twitter user @bump_take, and the photo has been retweeted over sixteen thousand times. For good reason, too! It’s so adorable. In comparison, turning your cat into the Catbus seems way harder. Then…

Wii U Sales Are Really, Really Bad

It’s no secret that the Wii U is struggling. However, the extent of which the console is struggling might surprise you. According to Nintendo, between April 1 and June 30 of this year, the Wii U sold 160,000 units. Those are global sales figures. Over three months. Ouch. Simple math tells us that the Wii…

In Japan, Square Enix just announced Dragon Quest Monsters 2, a numeric sequel in its popular Dragon Quest Monsters spinoff series. As some commenters have pointed out, this is a remake of the original DQM2. The game’s “general director” is Yuji Horii, and it will feature monster designs by Akira Toriyama. It’s also being developed…

Unique Japanese Mail Boxes Are Wonderful in Rain or Shine

Japan Post mail collection boxes tend to look the same: They’re either large and red or large and orange-red. Boring! But then, there are some that are truly works of art. Here’s what post boxes look like in Japan. These are the Japan Post’s equivalent of those iconic blue U.S. Postal Service boxes. These are…

Sex App Bang With Friends Sued Over Its Name

Zynga, the social gaming company that owns the trademark to the title “Words With Friends”, is suing Bang With Friends Inc., a company founded to help Facebook users find “casual sex”. According to a report on Bloomberg, Zynga’s complaint is basically that the app’s maker “selected the name ‘Bang With Friends’ for its casual sex…

The Wonderful World of Video Game…World Maps

Thanks to Attract Mode for pointing out Are We There Yet?, a site that’s dedicated to collecting and showing off one of gaming’s most important – and often cutest – aids, the world map. It’s concerned mostly with older stuff, from the 80s and 90s, and covers everything from fighting games to old arcade titles…

Sweet Persona Figure Probably Forgets How Good It Is

About the only bad news here is that this is a garage kit, meaning it’s a custom piece built by a fan. So you won’t be able to buy it. But hey, you can look at it on the internet, which like most things in life is the next best thing. It’s of Persona 4’s…

There Is A Literal Use For The Term “Lady Killer”

We’re looking today at the work of OXAN, a visual development studio that does work for games, movies and magazines. Some of the stuff below is from Applibot’s Legend of the Cryptids, an iOS card game that is killingit when it comes to art. You can see more of their work at the studio’s CGHub…

How The World’s Biggest Ever Space Battle Destroyed Over 2500 Ships

The Battle For 6VDT-H may be in need of a snazzier title, but just about everything else about the engagement – the largest space battle in internet history (and by lame default world history) – is fascinating stuff. Now that the dust has settled from the tussle, the developers of the game, CCP, have provided…

Adventure Game Somehow Does The Sensible Thing On Kickstarter

Lioness is an indie adventure game that, I guess because its trailer makes it look pretty great, has easily blown past its Kickstarter goal. Instead of going bananas and promising MORE LEVELS and MORE PLATFORMS, though, the three guys behind it are keeping it cool. And the game should benefit as a result. “We disagree…

For One Day, Watch Dogs Looks Terrible

This isn’t a machinima video from 2008. It’s actually a trailer for Watch Dogs that Ubisoft released today. In 2013. The game’s looked great on PC and next-gen hardware, but this clip – showing what’s surely current-gen footage – suggests that more than a few concessions have had to be made to squeeze the game…

Please, Nintendo, Make A 3DS That Looks Like This

Nintendo’s made some killer hardware over the years, but my favourite of the lot is probably the Game Boy Micro they released done up in a Famicom colour scheme. It’s just…ungh. So gorgeous. This is something similar for the 3DS. It’s sadly just an external case, though, one made by Datel, and while it’s got…

Check out this cool article at Mental Floss about humble origins of Oregon Trail, which would go on to become the greatest dysentery and river-fording simulator of all time.

Somehow, This Fantastic The Last of Us Film Isn’t Official

Two days of shooting footage. One week of editing. It’s hard to believe that this small team was able to get The Last of Us so right as a film despite lacking the game’s huge budget, but they did. It’s curious, too, watching IRON HORSE CINEMA PRODUCTIONS‘s fan film. One of the biggest criticisms of…

Being An Adult Pokemon Trainer Must Suck

Imagine you’re an adult in the Pokemon world. You have a family, you have bills to pay, and you have a love for Pokemon. So you battle, even though it might not be the most “responsible” thing to do. You can swing it, right? Not when there’s a bunch of young punks going around who…