No One Knew This Vita RPG Was Coming Out. Tecmo Koei is Working to Make Sure It Doesn’t Happen Again.

Fans of Japanese developer Gust’s long-lived series of alchemy-based Atelier role-playing games are a little miffed with Tecmo Koei. First the latest PlayStation 3 installment of the game — Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk — hit store shelves earlier this month to very little fanfare. Then the PlayStation Vita port of Atelier Totori: The…

The Second Half of Psycho Pass Isn’t Perfect, But it’s Still Worth a Watch

Psycho Pass is a cyberpunk police story in the same vein as Ghost in the Shell. But instead of being centered on the theme of cybernetics, Psycho Pass explores the concept of a society where your mental health is constantly scanned as a matter of public safety. Those with even the slightest case of mental…

This Ninja Music Video Is Bizarre, Wonderful, and Has a Cool Mega Man Reference

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, the uber popular Japanese popstar, has a new music video out. It’s called “Ninjya Re Bang Bang”. You can watch it right up there! If you are familiar with Pamyu Pamyu’s previous music videos (like “PonPonPon”), this latest visual extravaganza is as mental as ever. It has ninja dancing and Mega Man…

Siliconera reports that Square Enix Europe has trademarked the name “Lara Croft: Reflections” in the US.

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix Makes Kingdom Hearts Look Better and Play Better Than Ever Before

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix is the newest in a long line of last generation titles being remastered for the current generation of HD consoles. Like many of these remasters, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix is a collection of several games—in this case, Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories. It also…

For These Amazing Cosplayers, The Stage Is Their Laboratory

Team C.S.L. doesn’t only feature some of the best cosplayers in South Korea, but the entire world. The cosplay collective has represented its country at the World Cosplay Summit (think: “Cosplay Olympics”) several times. And for good reason. Team C.S.L. is great. “C.S.L.” stands for “Cosplay Stage Laboratory”. What makes this collective so interesting is…

Chinese internet company Tencent now owns 48.8 percent of Epic Games. [GI]

Why Mini-Skirts Could Become Illegal in South Korea

In the 1970s, the dictatorship controlling South Korea stipulated the length of women’s skirts. Now, due to a new law, some in South Korea worry that those days are returning. Last year, a law was passed in South Korea regarding, among other things, indecent exposure. Today, it goes into effect. According to website Korea Bang,…

Double Fine and Capy’s New Game is a Blast from the Past

This is Capy Fine Racing GP, from Psychonauts and The Cave developers Double Fine, and the people behind Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Capybara Games. It will be released at PAX East, on floppy disks. Yes, floppy disks. “The game will be released on the 3.5″ floppies that come inside the Capy and Double Fine…

The Creepiest Fruit China Has To Offer

Apparently spotted at a Sam’s Club supermarket in Beijing, these pears have been shaped so that they resemble babies. Because that’s so not creepy. The image of the pears first popped up on a Chinese social networking site. According to MIC, a journalist followed up, but couldn’t find the pears. The supermarket staff supposedly said…

Japan’s Cute and Nerdy Stone Statues Will Delight You

Stone statues play a prevalent role in Japanese life. You see them at Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines, and you also see them in front of houses and businesses or in gardens as decoration. Ditto at cemeteries. Japanese stonemasons are called “sekizaiya-san” (石材屋さん) or “sekizaiten” (石材店). They primarily focus on carving grave stones. The vast…

Playing Kingdom Hearts in Japanese is Just Kinda…Different

As I’ve been working my way through Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix this past week, it occurs to me just how much I dislike the Japanese cast of the games in the collection—which, given how bad English dubs can be, is pretty surprising. But it isn’t that the Japanese voice actors aren’t good, rather it’s…

BioShock Infinite: The IGN Review: The Kotaku Review

We’ve been playing BioShock Infinite, but we can’t tell you about it just yet. In order to get our early copy, we agreed to stick to the embargo set by publisher 2K Games, which is up on Monday. But we can tell you about IGN‘s exclusive review of BioShock Infinite, which went live tonight. So…

Quentin Tarantino’s Movies, If They Were Classic Paperbacks

Long have I been contemplating a QT marathon, and this illustration from Sharm Murugiah, which re-imagines the famous filmmaking foot-appreciator’s oeuvre as classic Penguin paperbacks, is gonna tip me over the edge. It’s been ages since I last watched Jackie Brown, and I only saw Inglourious Basterds the once. I recently re-watched Kill Bill Vol.…

Here’s One Big-Budget Game That Won’t Have A Gun-Toting Character On The Cover

If it’s a big-budget game, you can (cynically) count on at least one thing: a stoic-looking guy incorrectly holding a gun on the cover. It’s a trend in the same way blue-orange movie covers are a trend. Covers rarely break that mold, but according to Gamespot, Quantic Dream is doing it with Beyond: Two Souls.…

Like L.A. Noire two years ago, Beyond: Two Souls will have a special showcase at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival

Get A Load Of This Criminally Cool Red Dead Redemption Monopoly Set

There are several cool video-game themed Monopoly sets out there, but I’d be hard-pressed to think of a cooler one than this homemade Red Dead Redemption set put together by Redditor inspirermeg From the imgur description: This was a 2-week project at school, so though I’m happy with the result – I wasn’t able to…

The Most Beautiful Cartoon-Style Adventure Games

After LucasArts’ brilliant 1993 game Day of the Tentacle, cartoon-style point-and-click adventure games slowly became their own sub-genre. Although the genre has had its ups and downs, these games are still around: Think Gemini Rue or the new Broken Sword Here’s our collection of the most beautiful cartoon-style adventure games. Broken Sword II: The Smoking…

Another Serious Game Falls to Apple’s Anger-Inducing Approval Process

Proven countless times over the past several years alone, video games are a form of entertainment uniquely suited to communicating serious subjects in an interactive fashion — far more effectively than reading a book or watching a documentary. Unfortunately Apple wants nothing to do with that sort of communication, so UK developer Littleloud’s Sweatshop HD…

Sony has announced a partnership with Unity that’ll let the popular dev tools work with their platforms, including PS4.