The Local News Discovers HIGH-INTENSITY EXER-GAMING

Remember when local news channels across the country discovered that HOLY SHIT WOMEN PLAY VIDEO GAMES??? Today they’ve had another revelation: HIGH-INTENSITY EXER-GAMING!!! Brought to you by the same trite, recycled local news press release copy that brought you this fantastic report about the world of girl gamers, check out our supercut of local news…

Clearly, This Woman Should Be A Character In Street Fighter

Marawa is the “world conquering hoola hoop master”—according to her website. She can hoop up to 133 hoola hoops at the same time, and is basically kind of amazing with hoola hoops. She also likes Street Fighter. Hence…this kind of absurd video. Dat mega hoop combo at about a minute in. Wow. Wow. And hey.…

Big Layoffs Hit The Studio Behind Defiance And Rift [UPDATE]

We’re hearing of big layoffs at Trion Worlds, the company behind big online games like Rift and Defiance One person connected to the company tells us that the layoffs have affected over 100 people, and that they were triggered by the underwhelming performances of both Defiance and Rift‘s first expansion, Storm Legion The layoffs affect…

How To Turn Your Android Phone Into A Gaming Powerhouse

Your Android phone isn’t just for widgets, talking, Google Now and photos. It can also be one of the world’s best gaming platforms, if you’re willing to spend a little time on it. Once the domain of tinkerers and super-nerds, Android devices have exploded in popularity over the last couple of years, spurred on by…

He Took The Ultraball From Pokémon And Turned It Into A Gear Shifter

Well, you know how things are out in the road. Sometimes you just, uh, really need to catch them all? … Listen. Having an Ultraball for a gear shifter on your car is awesome, okay? And Redditor browner87 made one for his car by a modifying a cue ball and aluminum. You can see the…

Sorry – no Random Encounters today! I’ve been ill and bed-ridden and haven’t had a chance to put together a column this week. But please feel free to talk JRPGs right here.

Team Fortress 2’s Latest Update Was Created Entirely By The Community

Check out the Robotic Boogaloo update on Team Fortress 2—it just launched, and it includes 57 new items. These items were all made by the community, which is awesome. The Team Fortress blog writes: This update is 100% created by the TF2 community. And when we say everything, we mean everything—the in-game content, the update…

The Greatest Comic Book Cover Ever Printed

Pretty sure I just had a heart attack. Coming exclusively to Transformers Botcon in San Diego from June 27 – 30, this variant cover for issue five of IDW’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic micro-series is artist artist Tony Fleecs’ way of reaching into my chest and grabbing hold of my heart with his…

That new PS3 Metal Gear Solid collection got bumped back to July 9, Konami just announced. It’ll retail for $50.

The Moneysaver: All The Borderlands Are Belong To You

It is a far, far lower price I pay now, than I have ever paid before. If you haven’t gotten your hands on the Borderlands series yet, today is absolutely the day. Our buddies at Green Man Gaming and Amazon are running a killer sale on the series. • Borderlands 2 ($11) | Use GMG20-LLASD-D8WBQ…

Snails Smoke Fast And Furious In The Battle Of The Mobile Movie Racers

This movie season sees not one but two different racing films hitting theaters — one aimed at a younger, less-mature audience, and the other an animated snail movie from the folks at DreamWorks Animation. One of the two scored a rather entertaining little mobile game tie-in this week. The other just adds drifting to CSR…

Virtual Same-Sex Marriage is Thriving in This Online Fantasy Game

You can play as an orc or dark elf in loads of massively multiplayer online games. But you can’t marry someone of the same gender in most of them. That’s not the case in Nexon’s Mabinogi. The marriage guide for the cartoony role-playing game explicitly states that “a wedding can take place between two players…

The First Time I Played The Last of Us…

… was a year ago, but it was brief, just to prove that it was a real game so I could vote for it for a pre-release E3 game critic’s award… The second time I played the game was last night. And, as you can see above and below, it really does look that damn…

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: It’s crossover craziness as GiantBoyDetective begins a new feature where he looks at games inside cartoons. And his opposite number TinyManCriminal runs down TV shows inside video games. Great entries, both of ‘em. And you can always go join the voices talking about video games…

If Nintendo Did Ever Make A Phone, Maybe It’d Look Like This

Now, I don’t think Nintendo will make a smartphone, nor do I think Nintendo should ever make a smartphone. But this concept video is too cool not to share. Created by the folks at T3, this video shows what a Nintendo Phone (WiiPhone?) could look like. And… it looks kind of awesome. I kind of…

Moneysaver One-Shot: Studio Ghibli Friday

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art cheaper. Our coverage of Amazon’s Mayhem Sale on 1500 games has been our most popular post ever. The sale is still going, so get in there. Looking for the current Moneysaver? Click here Amazon’s Gold Box deal today features many of Studio Ghibli’s films at…

A Much Deeper Look at Pikmin 3

You’ll be using the Wii U gamepad in a different way to control to the three new characters in the third installment of Nintendo’s too-cute strategy series. Alph, Brittany and Charlie are all astronauts trying to save their home planet by bringing food back. Pikmin 3— which comes out on August 4th in North America—looks…

As part of their partnership with Sega, Nintendo will release a whole bunch of Game Gear games on the 3DS Virtual Console. Full list below.

Nintendo Re-Writes Rules of E3, Letting the Public Play…At Best Buy

Nintendo will make several of their unreleased Wii U games playable at more than 100 Best Buy locations during the week of E3, according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. Details are scarce, but it appears to mean that, instead of squeezing into the Los Angeles Convention Center during the week of June 10…

Here Are All of Today’s Nintendo Direct Announcements In One Video

In case you just missed Nintendo’s latest stream of Direct To You announcements, you can check out the full video here. The gist? There’s a little bit of Sonic. A little more of Sonic plus some Mario. Some old school Zelda, thanks to the Virtual Console. Luigi gets the spotlight. Japan gets another thing we…