- Kotaku East
Learn How To Make Swords, Guns, and Other Weapons from Japanese Video Games
Usually, when there’s a geek event in Japan, cosplayers show up in droves. Somewhere between the folks in skimpy outfits, there are always cosplayers carrying enormous swords and guns. They’re not real weapons, of course, but they can really help complete the cosplay. Want to learn how to make those awesome custom weapons? Like, yourself?…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 25, 2013 -
Kotaku EastIt’s the year of the snake, and this snake drawing will blow your mind. Promise.
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 25, 2013 - Uncategorized
Chinese Gamer Almost Dies After Gaming Marathon
Long gaming sessions are excruciatingly hard and tiring. They often require a superhuman constitution to endure, but gamers beware, all that stress can lead to terrible things. One gamer in Fuzhou, China had a gaming marathon during the Chinese New Year and is now in the hospital. Thirty-six year old IT administrator Xu Yi spent…
By Eric Jou Published February 25, 2013 - Uncategorized
One Way Sony Could Fight Piracy: Load Times
Piracy is bad news! That is, if you are a big game company. If you are a pirate, then, I’m sure, it’s all gravy. But big game companies like Sony are hoping to put an end to that freeloading gravy train. A Sony Computer Entertainment patent from August 2011 that was published this month and…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 25, 2013 - Kotaku East
Pikachu Used To Be Way Cuter (and Fatter)
Pikachu, the iconic Pokémon from Pocket Monsters, looks slightly different these days. Adorable, sure, but not nearly as adorable as in 1997, back when the Pokémon anime first debuted. Not nearly as fat, either. Over the weekend, a thread called “Pikachu in the early days was way too cute” (初期のピカチュウかわいすぎ) appeared on 2ch, Japan’s largest…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 25, 2013 - Kotaku East
This Japanese Popstar Has Truly Insane Gaming Hours
If someone played a video game, any video game, for a couple hundred hours, you’d say, wow, that person must really like that game. If someone played a video game, any video game, for a couple thousand hours, you’d say, woah, that person is hardcore. How about seven thousand hours? Popstar Maki Goto is taking…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 25, 2013 - Kotaku East
Japan Lists Its Favorite Studio Ghibli Flicks from Hayao Miyazaki
Do you have a favorite Studio Ghibli film? You know, the anime house behind such wonderful movies as Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and Castle in the Sky. In Japan, kids and adults alike love Ghibli films. But is there one Ghibli film—rather, Hayao Miyazaki-helmed Ghibli film—that the country likes best? According to Shunkan News,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 25, 2013 -
UncategorizedOne Of The Most Underrated Racing Games Of Our Time Might Be Making A Comeback
Both the series and the studio kinda lost their way eventually, but for a while there, Bugbear’s FlatOut—which combined ugly racing with brutal damage—was the most interesting thing in racing games. So it’s nice to see them returning to their roots. With what, exactly, I have no idea, this is just a teaser trailer, but…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 25, 2013 - Uncategorized
Sometimes, You Need To Build A Video Game House In The Real World
Death Inc. is an upcoming strategy game where you play as Death. Not the badass one like you see in Darksiders. More like, the one who’s running his business from the basement of his gran’s house. It’s a quaint setting, especially when you consider the fact his “business” – and the aim of the game…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 25, 2013 - Uncategorized
Persona 4’s Chie Is High-Kicking Onto Your Desktop
Oh look. Just in time for my delayed-thanks-to-a-late-PAL-release playthrough of Persona 4 Golden. It’s a terrific figure of Chie, the game’s loud-mouthed ass kicker. She comes with two outfits and glasses, but also a strangely absurd pricetag; ¥9,400 (USD$100) is a lot for a 1/8 scale figure that doesn’t really do anything.
By Luke Plunkett Published February 25, 2013 - Uncategorized
This Is Not A Borderlands 2 Screenshot. It Is, Somehow, Cosplay.
And not even that heavily-photoshoped kind, either. I mean, outside of the obvious effects, that is just one absolutely incredible costume, right down to the smallest detail. It’s a great photo by Jesús Clares, too. It shares the spotlight this week with a bunch of other cosplayers who, whether it be Zelda, Skyrim, Star Wars…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 25, 2013 - Uncategorized
It Will Blow Your Mind To See How Much It Costs To Add ONE New Character To A Fighting Game [Update]
Lab Zero Games, the guys behind 2D fighting game Skullgirls, want to add a new character to the game’s roster. To do this, they’re going to set up an IndieGoGo on February 25. And ask for $150,000 This has, understandably, led to some puzzled looks and unkind words being hurled their way. If all they’re…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 25, 2013 - Uncategorized
Custom Interactive GIFS Will Make/Ruin Your Day
The Gifmelter takes an animated GIF file and can, through the powers of dark magic, transform them into interactive images. Imagine that “moving” part of the file as a paintbrush, and you’re on the right track. It works for any GIF—just bookmark Gifmelter and click on it when you’ve got an image open—but it really…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 24, 2013 - Uncategorized
In The Video Game Alphabet, Link Is Crushed By The Moon
Comic artist Brentalfoss has come up with a video game alphabet that I would buy as a poster in a heartbeat. Oh, it’s available as a poster? Wonderful. Based on vintage child-death catalogue The Gashlycrumb Tinies, the temptation is there to put it on a kid’s wall, even some of these are actually pretty dark.…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 24, 2013 -
UncategorizedSkyrim Mod Videos Look Like A Next-Gen Elder Scrolls Game
It’s one thing to look at screenshots and gape, but video of Skyrim looking like a next-gen game is something else entirely. Austrian PC gamer SkyrimTuner runs a YouTube channel where all he does is post footage of the game running with all kinds of mods, sometimes with over 150 going at once. It’s basically…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 24, 2013 - Uncategorized
No, the Government is Not Paying $1 Million for People to Play Video Games
Did you know the government is spending $1.2 million to pay people to play World of Warcraft? I didn’t either! Maybe that’s because it ain’t true, but truth is a relative thing when you’re one of the assclowns leading an intellectually bankrupt legislature that can’t go two months without a self-inflicted hostage crisis. That describes…
By Owen Good Published February 24, 2013 - Uncategorized
Ready for Some Football? On the PS4, Not Really …
David Halberstam was killed in a car wreck the day I bought my Xbox 360. I don’t mean to trivialize the death of a great writer—October 1964 is one of my favorite books, in any subject—but it’s God’s honest truth that his death is the only reason I remember anything about the day. The rest…
By Owen Good Published February 24, 2013 -
UncategorizedWhat If Sony Hired Leonard Nimoy to Pitch the PlayStation 4—in 1981?
Hats off to IGN for making the past into a prologue with this PlayStation 4 hype video demake starring a pornstached Leonard Nimoy from 30 years ago. My God, I think the last time I heard that opening synthesizer anthem was in a Raycom highlight show before Maryland and Duke played in the 1984 ACC…
By Owen Good Published February 24, 2013