NetCafe Offers Free Transport to Gamers… In a Limo

Shuttle services are a great way for business owners to attract customers. In China, Carrefour and WuMart offer free transportation for grocery shoppers, but for internet cafes to offer a shuttle, that’s a first. Spotted outside of the Nanjing Institute of Technology today was a stretched Lincoln Town Car, with a banner that welcomed students…

Japanese Games “Just Suck” Target Has a Message for Phil Fish: Thank You

I didn’t know what to say. I thought the mild-mannered Japanese man in glasses, perhaps, wanted to talk to me about a game he had made. But no, it was about an article I wrote about him. His name was Makoto Goto. And at last year’s Game Developer Conference, Fez creator Phil Fish (above) trashed…

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 sure is pretty! Here’s a show demo. [KHInsiderVideos via ゲーム情報！]

Chinese Company Offers House Call Maid Service… To Play DoTA

My apartment is a mess, my many online game accounts are in terrible disarray and need attention, but with two jobs and a dog, I really don’t have time to do everything I should. However, according to a post on Sina Weibo, a Chinese IT company is offering a service that can change all that;…

You’re Not Worthy of this Avengers Thor Figurine

As people may have realized from my previous few reviews of figures from Hong Kong collectible toy company Hot Toys, I have been slowly gathering the Avengers team (among other cool figures). I suppose I’ll get to my reasons as to why eventually. Anyhow, I received an email shortly after my Joker 2.0 review informing…

Man Eats Burger King Burger with One Hundred Slices of Grilled Onions

Remember the dude who ordered a Burger King burger with a thousand slices of bacon? Well, he’s back! This time he’s ordered a hamburger with a hundred slices of grilled onion. Because a thousand slices would be insane. After unwrapping the tower of sliced onion burger, it promptly toppled over, leaving Mr. Sato from Japanese…

Chinese Gamer Shuts Self In Home For 6 Years

Last week, a post broke out on the Chinese Twitter clone Sina Weibo about a young a man who hasn’t left his home in 6 years. The post, an impassioned plea for help, was written by the man’s father in hopes that someone could help his son return to his normal life. The post on…

Japan’s Indie Games Are an Untapped Resource of Cool

The entire room was packed. This has to be a fire hazard, someone said. It probably was, but no one cared. They were too busy looking at cool games they had never seen before and meeting game creators they had heard of and never heard of before. “I had no idea there were so many…

Sand, Smog, or Something Covered Japan in a Yellow Haze

This weekend, sand storms blew through Japan. Cities like Tokyo were covered in an unreal yellow haze. Every year, yellow sand from the deserts of Mongolia and northern China blow over North and South Korea as well as Japan. The sand is called “kousa” (黄砂) in Japanese and “Asian Dust” in English. The winds also…

Here’s the trailer for Gero Blaster, the upcoming iOS game from Cave Story‘s creator.

Confessions of a Female Cosplayer’s Secret Boyfriend

I have a confession to make: I am dating a cosplayer. You’ll never know exactly which one, because I am a secret boyfriend. And because I am a secret boyfriend, I can’t tell you my name or hers. This is probably an issue that most of you know nothing about because—like me—it’s a secret. Yet…

You Can Download 700 Free Marvel Comics Right Now [UPDATE: Offer postponed]

Between now and 11pm ET on Tuesday, March 12, you can download some 700 first issues from Marvel Comics for free. And… it’s legal! The ComiXology Comics app for iOS and Android is offering 700 Marvel comics as part of a Marvel promotion announced at this weekend’s SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. You could probably…

SimCity Makers Say Crashes Dramatically Reduced, No ‘All-Clear’ Yet

SimCity may have gotten more stable over the weekend as the game’s creators at Maxis have added more servers, but the game isn’t quite out of the woods yet. In a new update to the EA blog, Maxis head Lucy Bradshaw says that they’ve reduced game crashes by 92% since launch day, but that lingering…

Modders Keep MVP Baseball 2005 Alive With the World Baseball Classic

There is no game-action simulation of baseball on the PC this year, whatsoever. Management sims like Out of the Park Baseball or Sega’s MLB Manager are your only current options in a role that MLB 2K had filled—but the rush job it put in on MLB 2K13 left out that platform. At any rate, no…

Someone Put an Assassin’s Creed Screengrab In a TV Report on Syria

Ah, the dangers of Google image search. On Feb. 26, Denmark’s TV2 needed an over-the-shoulder shot for a report on the conflict in Syria, and some production assistant gave the control room a screengrab from the original Assassin’s Creed (which features Damascus prominently) Apparently it’s this one, from the game’s unofficial wiki site. That’s supposed…

The Best at Tecmo Super Bowl Settle a Claim Made by Everyone

MADISON, Wis.—Most of us are realistic about our shot. We are going to get our asses kicked, and then go to the bar. But we’re in March, we’re in a tournament, we’re all sports fans and if anybody in the 224-man field of Tecmo Madison, the largest Tecmo Super Bowl event in the nation, didn’t…

The Week in Games: God Amighty

The prequel to the God of War series arrives Tuesday, along with the long-awaited StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Battlefield 3‘s final DLC extension. Tuesday • God of War: Ascension (PS3) • StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (PC DLC) • Battlefield 3: End Game (XBL, PC DLC) • Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2…

If you pick up God of War: Ascension, you can play the demo for The Last of Us early, on May 31.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The Emperor Has No Pants

Though SimCity says it’s adding servers and stabilizing the situation, the game’s launch week will forever be remembered as a disasterbacle. That makes the image above of comedian Adam DeVine—a frame from this video advertisement—rather appropriate. The game was completely pantsed by its always-on DRM, and while I know a lot of you are upset…

Cool Dad Hacks Donkey Kong So His Daughter Can Play It as Pauline

This is pretty sweet. Mike Mika’s daughter is three years old, and the two of them play a lot of video games together. “She’s played as Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2 and naturally just assumed she could do the same in Donkey Kong,” he wrote. When it bummed her out to learn she couldn’t…