This Isn’t Japan’s Britney Spears Meltdown

Remember when Britney Spears cut off all her hair? That was disconcerting. This week, Minami Minegishi, a member of Japan’s biggest girl group AKB48, appeared in a YouTube video, apologizing and crying. Her head was shaved. Likewise, disconcerting. Online in Japan, however, people wondered if this was some kind of sick punishment for a tabloid…

Chinese Bootleggers Are Just Screwing Around

Pretty sure Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t in Star Wars: Episode I. That didn’t keep Chinese bootleggers from slapping his mug on this pirated box. It isn’t only Schwarzenegger. Many of the boxes either have incorrect descriptions or feature actors who are not in the film. It’s as though the pirates are just putting whatever is popular—whether…

Morgan Freeman. In Grand Theft Auto IV. Dressed As Gordon Freeman.

The world is bursting at the seams with Grand Theft Auto IV mods. You’d think there wouldn’t be room for any more. But there’s always room for wapeddell’s Morgan Freeman. Oh, sorry. Gordon Freeman. It’s just… it’s just so damn perfect. Especially since it reminds me of my old desktop wallpaper Morgan Freeman [GTA Mods]…

Brains Are Weird. Let’s Look At One Singing And A Different One Forming A Thought.

I’ve been jamming to Sivu today thanks to this intriguing yet eerie video up above. It’s data collected from MRI scans… while he sings. Weird contrast, too: heartfelt song, detached visuals. There’s also this video of a fish forming a thought by The Epoch Times, which, just… wow. What does our brain look like when…

This Isn’t The Monkey King I Remember From Childhood

Maria “Ketka” Trepalina is a freelance Russian concept artist who has recently worked for Blizzard (on the WoW card game), game design house Sibilant Interactive and casual developer G5 What’s great about her work is the life. No barbarian girls with overly-large chests, no dystopian sci-fi futures, no epic medieval battles… just strong characters and…

Bring On Outside Investors? Nexus Mods Owner Says ‘F That’

If you’re at all involved in PC modding, you probably frequent a Nexus Mods site. From Fallout: New Vegas to Skyrim, many games that allow for user-created mods have a Nexus site dedicated to organizing mods and bringing modders together. These sites are… incredible. And unless you want to pay for a premium membership, they’re…

One Way Into My Heart Is To Call Your Game “Leviathan Warships”

Announced yesterday by publishers Paradox, Leviathan Warships is an upcoming game by Pieces Interactive. It’s about… leviathan warships. Battleships, etc. With a cute art style and a simple, deathmatch-style pitch, what could be most interesting is the fact it supports multiplatform multiplayer, boasting that a PC gamer, Mac gamer, Android gamer and iOS gamer can…

Interested in perusing the achievement list for BioShock Infinite? Exophase has got you covered

Dueling In Chivalry: Medieval Warfare Looks Equal Parts Ridiculous And Hilarious

There’s a duel mode in Chivalry now, thanks to the latest update. And boy is it a doozy, or it was while in beta: take a look at Criken2 here, who shows us how to duel like a champion/idiot. For the presidents. You’ll even learn advanced tactics, like psyching your enemies out and tricking them…

Check out this great Rock, Paper Shotgun list of the 27 homages in the spy game Thirty Flights of Loving

These PlayStation 3 Games Are Running Out of Time

From the sound of it, Sony is unveiling the PlayStation 4 on February 20. Kotaku already ran a detailed look at what gamers can most likely expect. A PlayStation 4 reveal will make the console all official like. Then, expect a hardware race to kick off between Sony and Microsoft, with anticipation building for the…

Ni no Kuni‘s Jump Is Both Useless And Amazing

When playing video games, it’s easy to get caught up in the notion of utility. Is this ability useful to me, does this skill make my character more powerful, will it improve the ratio of my numbers to my opponents’ numbers, robot, robot, numbers, beep, boop, etc. And so it goes with Ni no Kuni,…

Check out the The Binding of Isaac soundtrack re-arranged and performed entirely on acoustic piano

Fighting Gamers Raise $225,744 For Breast Cancer Research

The folks over at Evo, a video game tournament organization dedicated to fighting-games like Marvel vs. Capcom and Tekken, raised a whopping $225,744 for breast cancer research last month. The money came from a competition designed to decide which fighting game would win a coveted spot in Evo’s annual Las Vegas tournament. The people at…

The Deadliest Predator: The Joy Of Being A Hunter In Crysis 3

I’m perched atop a crashed airplane, weapon at the ready. My eyes dart across the map, searching for a target. No, no. Not just a target. My prey They are not my equals, you see. They are CELL operatives with nothing more than laughable guns. Me, I’m a hunter. A predator. I use a bow.…

I Can’t Stop Staring At This Week in Gaming Apps

There are weeks when all the gaming apps that we review or play seem to follow some sort of loose theme. This is not one of those weeks. I’ve been staring at this week’s collection for an hour, and I’m not seeing a prevailing trend. There’s a two-player pinball game, which has nothing to do…

If You Think It’s Cold Where You Live, Spare A Thought For The Cast & Crew Of Game Of Thrones

Like they did in the second season, season three sees one Snow and a bunch of Wildlings return to the icy wastelands beyond the Wall. Those scenes are being filmed in Iceland. It’s cold up there. Not special effects, post-processing cold. Proper cold. Making Game of Thrones: Intensity of Iceland

The Funniest (And Worst) Engrish In Classic Japanese Video Games

Back in the day Japanese developers didn’t have the budget or the control to make perfect Japanese-to-English translations… although probably no one really cared. They had to translate and export their games to the West as fast as possible. So they can’t be blamed for this really—but the results are too hilarious. We collected some…

If Pixar Wants to Make a Street Fighter Movie, They Should Hire This Guy

We’ve shown some of the artwork and character designs that Brazilian artist Victor Hugo Queiroz has been doing for his quirky-cool fan film Street Fighter III – Fuurinkazan. And after a few years in development, he’s released a trailer that pits Ryu against Hugo. Be sure to watch until the very end for a special…

Gaming Cupcakes So Simple a Little Kid on YouTube Could Make Them

We’ve gotten out of the habit of posting gaming-inspired baked goods at Kotaku over the past few years, but here at KotakuMobile the subject is fresh and new. Besides, YouTube youngin’ AbesWorld2 isn’t just showing us Cut the Rope cupcakes, he’s showing us how to make them. I am going to save this video and…