Call it going full circle. Back in 2004, a Japanese game show called Run for Money appeared on FujiTV. The show had flourishes of The Matrix and a central premise that seemed more like a video game than a game show. Now in 2012, Run for Money has finally been turned into a hit 3DS…
Making it in the Japanese entertainment industry ain’t easy. You need to stand out! And being cute is no longer enough. Just ask BiS. The group’s name stands for “Brand-new Idol Society”, and the girls have been doing an array of publicity stunts to build a fan base. Their latest? Auctioning themselves off to be…
According to the unpublished issue of this week’s Famitsu, Sega is launching a sequel to last year’s role-playing game 7th Dragon 2020 (pictured). The game will be out next spring. The sequel is apparently called 7th Dragon 2020-II and is set in the year 2021. The PSP game will feature a new job class (idols!)…
The morning commute in Tokyo (or Osaka, or Yokohama, or any other huge Japanese city) can totally bite. As if you already didn’t know that. Photographer Michael Wolf documents that in his latest volume of Tokyo Compression. For years now, Wolf has been snapping photos from a train platform, capturing the cramped conditions of the…
It’s called Monster Monpiece, and it’s a card-based game. That’s fine and all until you realize that it’s from Compile Heart, the folks behind Hyperdimension Neptunia. Oh, and that you have to stroke your PS Vita to play it. Developer Compile Heart loves making deliciously subversive games, and Monster Monpiece looks to be no exception.…
A generation of Japanese girls (and, yes, boys) grew up watching the original Sailor Moon anime and reading the manga. No wonder Sailor Moon has become so iconic. No wonder people love dressing up as the characters. What made Sailor Moon so revolutionary when it debuted in the early 1990s is that it reworked both…
Heads up! Hulu Plus is now live on the Wii U. More here
Battlefield 3 has some pretty realistic physics, but let’s not get carried away here. It’s a video game. Meaning those physics exist solely so people can do cool shit like flip a tank onto the roof of a building. I don’t want to know how much planning and trial-and-error went into this, but I don’t…
Supremely talented custom toy builder Jin Saotome is back with another masterpiece, this time featuring the Half-Life series’ most sharply-dressed bad guy, the headcrab zombie. Standing 7″ tall, the headcrab comes off to reveal a zombified skull inside. He’s also got a busted-open chest and some great blood detail. The good news? He’s for sale!…
You’re in for a treat today. Today, we’re looking at a collection of Halo 4 art by Nicolas “Sparth” Bouvier, aka one of the most talented concept artists in the world, regardless of the industry. Sparth’s ability to convey not just the look of a sci-fi setting but its mood is legendary, so it was…
A lawsuit that began with spam emails and an investigation into slot machines has turned its great all-seeing eye to the world of video games, with Tolkien’s estate claiming that some of Warner Bros’ recent titles violate the company’s licensing agreement. Arguing that the licenses for merchandise granted to companies like Warner, New Line and…
That’s the gist of a question put forth to Mass Effect fans today by BioWare’s Casey Hudson, who wants to know whether series fans want the next game in the franchise to take “place before the trilogy, or after?” How closely they’re going to be listening is anyone’s guess, since for all we know those…
The video game industry isn’t all fast cars and trips to Japan. For every studio head basking in the glow of media attention there are 100 developers lower down the food chain whose job can be a little more mundane. Like the guy/guys/gals who had to paint some butts for a trailer. Speaking with GI.biz,…
Artist Andrew Ryan has been working on this crossover for a while now, but today he let us know that he’s done. Finished. The worlds of Dragon Age and Mass Effect are now one. In the epic image below, you’ll see just about every major character from the Mass Effect series dressed up as a…
An unnamed Dutch man has been sentenced to six months’ prison for threatening police officers with a heavily-modified Wii controller back in May. Dutch news outlet De Volksrant says the man, 29, had transformed the remote into a “sniper rifle”; whether it was a custom job or he was simply using an off-the-shelf accessory is…
Who knew that heart transplant surgery could be so romantic? I did not. And yet this video for “I Have Your Heart,” by artist Molly Crabapple, musician Kim Boekbinder and animator Jim Batt, is one of the most delightfully romantic things I’ve seen in a while. The whole project was funded by a Kickstarter campaign,…
4A Games’ Metro: Last Light is coming to the 360, PS3 and PC. It won’t, however, be coming to the Wii U, because its developers say they are far from impressed with the new console. Speaking with NowGamer, 4A’s Oles Shishkovtsov explains the reason pretty bluntly, saying “[The] Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU.”…
Oh boy Deadline is reporting that Disney has approached both Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg to see if they’re interested in writing subsequent Star Wars sequels (Michael Arndt is handling Episode VII). Kinberg’s written X-Men and Sherlock Holmes movies, which is fine, but Kasdan wrote (well, finished) Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.…
Far be it from me to only harp on Hitman: Absolution’s less admirable qualities. The game is also frequently funny, and often very well-written. The overheard dialogue is often worth sticking around and listening to, and the crowd chatter is among the most convincing I’ve ever heard in a game. (The game itself is a…
Dear Esther not funny enough for you? Try Dear Esteban instead (via Eurogamer).
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