• Kotaku East

  Paper Evangelion Lantern Lights Up a Japanese Shrine

  Spotted at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu, the most important Shinto shrine in Kamakura, here is a paper lantern that features an Evangelion Unit-08, the latest Eva unit slated to appear in upcoming anime Evangelion 3.0 Evangelion 3.0 director Hideaki Anno drew this Eva Unit-08 as part of the shrine’s “Bonbori Festival” (“bonbori” is a Japanese lamp with…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 7, 2012
• Kotaku East

  When Anime Boobs and Baby Dingalings Must Be Changed

  Ask any anime fan, and they’ll tell you: cartoons in Japan are different from their localized counterparts. Last night on Japanese TV, the issue was explored for the Japanese viewing public, who was surprised to learn that English language versions of anime are edited. The show was Sekai Marumie! (世界まる見え！ or “The World Exposed!”), which…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 7, 2012
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  Hey, Go Check Out The New Attract Mode, OK?

  Once a cute little shop with a blog, Attract Mode has been reborn (after a lengthy hiatus) as a “video game collective”, made up of “game makers, film makers, designers, artists, and journalists”. If you need more specific information, some of the people lending a hand include artists Cory Schmitz and Maré Odomo, indie developers…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012
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  This RPG Will Star History, Not Orcs and Monsters

  When you think of an RPG, you think of dragons. Loot. Fireballs. Goblins. Worlds where entire ecosystems change every two miles. Basically, a whole load of stuff that’s make-believe, and despite the frequent “medieval” setting, about as far from actual history as you can get. So an in-development RPG at Czech studio Warhorse, which is…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012
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  These Guys Built a Fake Submarine to Play Submarine Games in

  Let’s say you want to play a Submarine game. No harm in that, it’s a classic genre. You could just sit in front of a monitor. Maybe, if you were feeling up for it, slip on some headphones. Which is fine, but it’s a little pedestrian. Especially compared to these guys, who built a replica…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012
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  LEGO Zelda, You Look So Good, Why Can’t I Buy You?

  Artist Wes Talbott combines two of his – and, well everyone’s – favourite things with this imaginary poster for imaginary Zelda LEGO. I look at this, and the more I look, the more it feels like a real thing. Then I look away, and remember it’s not, and I get upset. I should really blame…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012
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  A Game Where You Do Nothing But Design And Build Starships

  Is this a dream? Am I lying in a coma somewhere imagining this is the trailer to a game I fantasised about throughout my childhood? No! It’s Starship Corporation, a game where the design of big spaceships (and “planetary installations”) isn’t just something tacked on, it’s what the entire game is about. Players are tasked…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012
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  CultureTotal Recall

  Pelé and Pete Rose Should Have Stuck to Sports

  Athletes still do a pretty poor job in commercials in the 21st century. So as you can probably imagine, in the 1970s, they were terrible This Atari clip from 1978 featured baseball star Pete Rose, football legend Pelé and…Don Knotts. OK, so Don did just fine, but he was an actor, not a sportsman. 1978…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012
• CultureTotal Recall

  Taito’s Love Affair With Old Jackie Chan Movies

  What kind of developers have the peanuts to rip off Jackie Chan not once, but twice, at the same time? Taito have the peanuts, that’s who. This image is from Silent Dragon, a side-scroller Taito released in 1992. The blue dude on the left may look familiar to anyone who’s seen Jackie Chan’s awesome Big…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012
• Culture

  Exclusive: Killer Concept Art From The New Total Recall Movie

  Stephan Martiniere is a long-serving concept artist who has worked on some of the biggest (or best) movies of the past fifteen years, from the new Star Wars movies to Fifth Element to Tron Legacy. He also served as art director on id’s 2011 shooter Rage (Stephen interviewed him a few years back about the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012
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  A Diablo III Statue That’ll Probably Gross You Out

  While official statues based on Diablo III restrict themselves to more presentable characters, fan-made pieces are free to go after anyone they want. Like, oh, Azmodan, the Lord of Sin. It was built by master craftsman (and Art Director for Blizzard’s Diablo III: The Book of Cain) Jason Babler, and stands 17″ tall. Oh, and…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 7, 2012
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  DayZ Has Now Scared One Million People Witless

  In case you needed further proof of the strength of the PC market, or the importance of allowing mods in PC games, DayZ – a zombie survival sim for hardcore military shooter ArmA II – has just recorded its millionth unique player. Not bad for something that’s really only hit the big time in the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
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  Amazon Leaks Wii U Box Art Designs? [Update]

  Given the fact these may well be placeholder images, don’t read too much into them, but just in case they’re the real deal, what do you think of the splash? And the colour scheme? The yellow is a bit weird, but the “swoosh” design is something we’ve seen from Nintendo plenty of times before, from…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
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  The New York Times Puts The Fastest Olympians In History Into One Massive Race

  Here’s something for history nerds, Olympics nerds, and track and field nerds. The New York Times has put together a startlingly cool multimedia presentation that puts all of the past winners of the 100 meter sprint into a single virtual race together. (I’ll also take this opportunity to remind you to watch out for more…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published August 6, 2012
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  This Might be Three Minutes of Footage From the Most Anticipated Mod of All Time

  Were it not for the core Half-Life series itself, Black Mesa: Source – a fan-made remake of the original Half-Life – might well be the longest-running tease in video games today. Having been in development for around eight years now, and still not out, you’d be forgiven for thinking the project was never going to…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
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  The Cutest, Cuddliest Krogan (and Turian, and Asari) You Ever Will See

  There are some really cute characters in the Mass Effect series. Liara has charmed many a Shepard with her smile, as has Garrus with his. But there’s cute, and then there’s adorable. Like these handmade Mass Effect plushie characters. They aren’t for sale, sadly, because they simply take too much time to make. But one…

  By Kate Cox Published August 6, 2012
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  A Lovely New Musical Theme From The Composer Of Journey

  Even in a banner year for great game music, Austin Wintory’s living, breathing score for Journey stands apart. I’ve been looking forward to seeing what he’s been up to—as it turns out, he’s been working on the soundtrack to Horn, an upcoming game by Phosphor Games (that, yes, will be published by Zynga.) Wintory has…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published August 6, 2012
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  I Never Thought my Favorite Games Could Look so Good as Eye Make-Up

  I don’t ordinarily think of “makeup artist” and “gaming” as going together. After all: the characters whose stories we so ardently follow are virtual people, and they are as fantastic or as plain as any other set of pixels can be. Makeup artist Jangsara, though, has made me rethink that connection. She creates all sorts…

  By Kate Cox Published August 6, 2012
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  Assassin’s Creed III is a Little Longer on PS3

  The PS3 version of Assassin’s Creed III “includes 60 minutes of exclusive gameplay”, according to this Amazon listing

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
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  You Wouldn’t Like Hulk When He’s Angry About People Who Didn’t Like Mass Effect 3‘s Ending

  At this point, just about everyone has weighed in on the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy. But there is one gentleman, a certain gigantic, green-skinned guy in purple shorts, who has yet to make his opinions known. So when Hulk starts talking, people tend to listen, particularly when he’s sounding off about the people who…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published August 6, 2012