Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: Full Burst Brings Naruto Battles To PC

Announced yesterday during the Japan Expo in Paris, Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is getting an upgrade this winter, with fresh missions, enhanced visuals, a new playable character and — most importantly — a PC version. Namco Bandai is calling this enhanced version of the last installment of CyberConnect2’s long-running franchise Naruto Shippuden Ultimate…

Hollywood’s Long History of Mostly Failing to Make Video Games

As mainstream video games strived to be more cinematic and as gaming emerged as a major source of entertainment revenues, it was only a matter of time until the talent from the film industry would attempt to get in on the action. Such a thing has indeed happened numerous times. For whatever reason, it typically…

DARK Seems Nice, For A Vampire Game With A Dance Soundtrack

Okay, it doesn’t really have a dance soundtrack But for some reason, developer Realmforge Studios thought it appropriate to go with a somewhat nightclubby mood for their stealth-action game’s release trailer DARK is, obviously, a vampire game. It stars Eric Bane, a fledgling vampire who’s trying to hunt down his sire (ie. the vampire who…

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: GiantBoyDetective declares that Japan, not the U.S., made the most American game ever. NotGoodForYou theorizes why Killing Floor: Calamity could wind up being great. And, FrogFro wants to know what you’re listening to. And you can always go join the voices talking about video games…

Microtransactions? In World of Warcraft? It Could Happen.

In-game purchases? In World of Warcraft? Could happen, says a Blizzard community manager. Earlier this week, World of Warcraft players on the game’s public test server discovered an item called the Enduring Elixir of Wisdom. The item description: “Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 100%.” In other words, it makes grinding…

The Latest New Pokemon Is A Cold, Dead Thing

In the interest of appeasing those who would rather keep all of the new Pokemon coming in X and Y later this year a surprise, we’ve employed a time-tested technique of obscuring the latest reveal. It’s a Ghost type. It’s also a Steel type. And it’d be right-at-home in the hands of a DC Comics…

Japanese Gamers and Retailers on the Next-Gen Consoles’ Pricing

This year’s E3 turned out to be one of the more interesting and exciting conventions in recent memory. Unfortunately for yours truly, I was stuck across that pesky barrier, commonly referred to in geography classes as the Pacific Ocean. But that didn’t keep me and other interested peoples here in Japan from checking in on…

Day Z, the horror mod for Arma, is frightening enough as it is, and then horrific glitches like this pop up. This thing would make the zombies run for their lives (deaths?). 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.…

How One Korean Actress Conquered Facebook with Cosplay

Yuri Seo is a voice actress for League of Legends. She’s also a cast member of Saturday Night Live Korea. And recently, she conquered Facebook. When the fourth season of SNL Korea was getting underway, all the cast members were told to promote SNL Korea on Facebook—well, except her. Seo wrote on Facebook (via tipster…

Gargantia is Far Deeper than It Appears on the Surface

Around the middle of this past anime season, I called Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet one of the five anime you should be watching—and with good reason. While it’s not as action-filled or plot-heavy as some anime this season, it is filled with interesting themes and enlightening allegories for those willing to dive in. Good…

Pokémon’s Creator Talks French Inspiration, Reveals New Pokémon

In Paris, France, the Japan Expo, Europe’s largest public event related to Japanese pop culture, is currently taking place. Junichi Masuda, Game Freak founder and both director and composer for the Pokémon games, recorded a video message to mark the occasion. After introducing himself (in French, no less!), Masuda talks about his own travels to…

In This Game, You Date Slabs of Meat. Seriously.

The Bacon Lettuce Biographies (ベーコンレタス列伝) is, according to its tagline, a “school-based boys’ love, fairytale adventure.” However, this is a little misleading because it is actually a visual novel where you date meat. Big, giant slabs of meat. The Bacon Lettuce Biographies is a free visual novel about a boy—who believes he hears the voices…

Are These Twitter Images Awful or Awfully Funny?

It’s Friday! Time to relax. Time to unwind. Time to giggle. Online in Japan, a collection of “awful” or “terrible” pics are amusing and delighting internet inhabitants. Previously, Kotaku posted someinteresting Twitter images from Japan. Daily life in Japan is rather pedestrian and normal, but those Twitter images were anything but. Ditto for these! Some…

China Thinks Cartoons Need Ratings

Chinese television is pretty bad, being mostly propaganda mixed with some weird socially obnoxious reality shows, revisionist historical dramas and terribly butchered movies. But what seems to have drawn the ire of the Chinese State media this time around is the state of animation in China. Recently, China Central Television, AKACCTV (poor abbreviation choice or…

Microsoft is currently accepting sign-ups for their public Xbox Live Update 2013 beta. “It will include updates to improve overall performance and the ability to conduct transactions with local currency,” wrote Microsoft. If you’re interested, you can apply via the Xbox Beta Program tile on your Xbox 360 dashboard.

Neptunia PP is an Amusing Parody of iDOLM@STER

It’s looking to be a big summer for game industry parody series Neptunia—despite the worrisome event from a few weeks back. Not only is it getting its own anime and a remake of the original game on the Vita, but it also recently got a new spin-off game: God Dimension Idol Neptunia PP Good –…

Well, This Farming Simulator Trailer Sure Is… Different

Here, we get to witness a rather extreme approach to farming (at least compared to the Farming Sim 2013 trailer). Heck, even the video title on YouTube is in all caps. Must be the effects of making the console leap. In any case, Farming Simulator is hitting PS3 and Xbox 360 in “the first week…

World War II Battleship Game Angers Players in South Korea

At this year’s E3 gaming expo, Wargaming.net showed off its latest PC title, World of Warships. The game’s new trailer pissed off some gamers in Korea. Here’s why. In the trailer, you can see the Japanese Rising Sun Flag, which was flown during World War II. Obviously, because of what happened during the war, the…

Bandai Namco is thinking about charging 500 yen (about US$5) for one hour of play at its arcades in Japan. Currently, one play is 100 yen.

In Japan, Nintendo Was Hacked

Nintendo’s Kyoto-based HQ just announced that Club Nintendo, its member rewards site, has been hacked. This was discovered when a large number of access errors began appearing on July 2. That’s when Nintendo began investigating the issue. According to Nintendo’s investigation, there were 23,000 unauthorized log-ins (with 15 million attempts) between June 9 and July…