One Piece Creator Teams Up for Crazy Expensive Merchandise

One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda is joining forces with S.T. Dupont for a bevy of swank pens and lighters. They cost a lot of money. Oda did the design work, which is a Sleeping Mermaid motif. According to sister site Kotaku Japan, the goods will go on sale this December and can be divided into…

3DS game Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan is headed to North America in early 2013, said Atlus.

The Wild and Wonderful World of Japanese Scarecrows

Across Japan, it’s harvest time. In September, the rice turns a golden hue. The color—my favorite—is koganeiro (黄金色). Scarecrows stand watch over the rice fields. Most scarecrows in Japan are rather pedestrian—what you’d think a scarecrow would and should look like. Then, there the ones that don’t look anything like scarecrows, taking their look from…

Nintendo’s Killing Off Another 3DS Color (Sorry!)

Those wanting a “Flare Red” 3DS might want to act soon. Nintendo recently revealed that the color will soon be going out of production in Japan. The color was launched back in July 2011 in Japan. It was the third color launched there, after Cosmo Black and Aqua Blue. With the 3DS XL out (and…

The Legend of Zelda: Quest For The Amazing LEGO Shield

LEGO builder Remi Gagne’s recreation of Zelda’s Hylian shield is impressive enough at a distance, but the real treat here is in the detail. It’s where you get an idea of not only the scale of the project, but the amount of work that went into it. Like, it would have been easy to do…

Four Fired Over Game Studio Racism Allegations

Four of the staffers at the centre of some serious racism allegations at San Francisco developer KIXEYE have been fired, studio boss Will Harbin has announced. Harbin told Kotaku yesterday that he was taking ” substantial corrective action”, which he’s elaborated on today, revealing that “the manager of the team in question” and “three other…

The Biggest Transformer of Them All Returns in 2013

There is one Transformer that towers, quite literally, above all others. Fortress Maximus. Released just as the franchise was preparing to transform into something that jumps sharks, he was prohibitively enormous (not to mention expensive), making him unobtainable for most 80’s kids and thus also making it one of the most sought-after toys of today…

A Pretty Map That’s Making me Want to Travel Back to Skyrim

Just when I thought I was done with Skyrim, it goes and pulls me back in. This time, though, it’s no fault of the game, but this beautifully stylised map by Misty Manley It’s like something out of a theme park. Or a fast food restaurant. Two things Skyrim could do with, really. People gotta…

Halo 4’s Action Figures Are Looking Blue

Much like the game’s new guns, many of the new Halo game’s action figures have also ditched the trademark purple. For orange, yes, but also for a whole lot of blue I took a look at the first series of Halo 4 figures from McFarlane a few weeks back, but the second wave is due…

That Giant Statue Over There? It’s of the World’s Best Gamer.

Hey, it’s Athene, the self-styled (and partly accurate) “world’s best gamer”3. Hitting the streets in one of his “IRL” videos. It starts as though it’s going to be four-and-a-half minutes of painful trolling, but actually turns into a pretty neat “man on the street” interview with one serious World of Warcraft player. Athene IRL –…

This is What Assassin’s Creed III’s Connor Used to Look Like

Here’s what Assassin’s Creed III’s Connor looks like in the near-finished product. He’s got flowing elements to his outfit, and a nice touch of blue. It is, considering the constraints of the military dress of the time, a pretty sharp outfit. In this gallery, though, you’ll see some shots of what he looked like back…

Meet the Skaris, a Retro Console so Terrible I Wish it was Real

You and your retro console street cred. It means nothing, because all your consoles run on electricity, which is so damn modern your Atari 2600 may as well be an Xbox 360. No, you want to impress posers and collectors with your vintage machine, you pull out the Skaris, a machine so frighteningly primitive that…

You Can Get Banned From Battlefield 3 For Fixing The Game’s Colour Palette

Battlefield 3’s got some of the most realistic visuals on the planet, and a lot of that comes from the game’s use of lighting. It washes out colour palettes like the desert sun at midday. Some people like that, but others don’t, which explains why there’s now a little hack available that removes the game’s…

George Washington as a Bad Guy? It’s as Crazy as it Sounds

Ubisoft broke with tradition earlier today by announcing that its first substantial Assassin’s Creed III downloadable content won’t be an extension of the main game’s story. Rather, it’ll be an exploration of what would happen if George Washington hadn’t done one of the most extraordinary things in human history and given up his vast powers…

Watch Animals Start Fights With Themselves Because Mirrors Are Confusing, Ok?

I am offended that Kirk thinks I always post cat pictures and videos. Appalled, even. I never do that. So to make up for all the lack of cat and animal related things I absolutely never get away with posting here, allow me to introduce a video of a bunch of animals getting really confused…

Konami Jumps into Major League Baseball—but It’s on Facebook

For those wondering what publisher would pick up a Major League Baseball license this coming year, it’s Konami but, alas, it is not for any console title. MLB Dream Nine is now out on Facebook, and it’s about what you would expect—a rigored click-this player-management simulation that has very little to do witb the sport…

The Best Thing Cliff Bleszinski Ever Did…

… was be visible. “So what,” you might say. “Isn’t that part of his job?” Actually, it isn’t. In his role as Design Director at Epic Games, all the man sometimes known as Dude Huge really had to do was work on the developer’s games. He could have brainstormed, play-tested and guided the Unreal, Gears…

Hitman: Absolution‘s Many, Many Views To A Kill

One of the coolest (and okay maybe kinda darkest) things about Hitman games is the fact that you can kill your targets in any of a dozen or more possible ways. Real pros can pull off a “silent assassin,” sneaking in, killing, and sneaking out without being spotted. But as we can see in this…

U.S. readers: the presidential debate starts tonight at 9pm ET. Remember, you can watch on Xbox Live

This Guy Played Video Games on the World’s Largest High-Definition Screen. What’d You Do Today?

Brad Keselowski, the current No. 1 driver in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series, and winner in two of its first three postseason Chase for the Cup events, met his match on Tuesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. when Josh Bralley of Hickory, N.C. outgunned him to the finish in Activision’s NASCAR The Game: Inside…