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  This New Borderlands 2 Trailer Trades Wub Wub For Lion King

  The newest trailer for Borderlands 2 emphasizes the first-person, role-playing game’s sillier side. But even while sporting a South African-bred song that later moved on to The Lion King licensing, the action-packed trailer manages to showcase just how exciting combat can be in Gearbox’s upcoming sequel. This is partially due to some fancy assassin moves…

  By Tina Amini Published July 12, 2012
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  Kotaku East

  The Halo 4 Release Date Is Easier to Remember in Japanese

  Ha, this is pretty funny—if you understand Japanese and even if you do not. Released earlier this spring, this is the Japanese language version of the “Red vs. Blue: Remember to Not Forget” clip that was supposed help you to remember to…not forget Halo 4‘s release date. Rooster Teeth started their popular Halo-based machinima comedy…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 12, 2012
• Kotaku East

  You Can Drive A Cab, Shoot A Deer, Dance On Stage, And Hit A Ball In Yakuza 5

  In the Yakuza series, the protagonists do many things: Lead mobs, beat each other up, meet porn stars in clubs… Now, in Yakuza 5, it looks like we’ll be offered another perspective on the multiple protagonists where they’ll partake in other activities while they don’t pursue suspects, solve mysteries, or uncover conspiracies. Yakuza 5 will…

  By Toshi Nakamura Published July 12, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Motion Controlled Angry Birds Are Flinging onto Samsung TVs

  Samsung will be home to a motion-controlled version of Angry Birds. This July, the Angry Bird app will catapult itself onto Samsung’s Smart TV, complete with motion and voice controls. As depicted in the above photo, players can pull back their hands to get the feeling of launching one of those birds. Put a plush…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 12, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Hideo Kojima Never Expected Metal Gear Solid To Do Well In The West

  The Metal Gear series is 25 years old this year. From its modest beginnings on the MSX2 console (the what?), to its big break on the Playstation with Metal Gear Solid and now with the highly anticipated Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Metal Gear has come a long way to become a globally popular series. But…

  By Toshi Nakamura Published July 12, 2012
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  Kotaku East

  The Greatest “He Looks So Damn Guilty” Interview Ever

  This news clip is in Japanese, but the guilty look on this man’s face is universal. On the early morning of July 9, a 16 year-old was slashed in the face. When TV Asahi arrived on the scene that same day to cover the incident, reporters happened to find a man out on evening bike…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 12, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Japanese Poll: Most Gamers Plan To Buy A 3DS XL, Even Though Most Already Own A 3DS

  The Nintendo 3DS upgrade, the 3DS XL (“3DS LL” in Japan) will be hitting stores in Japan later this month and in the US in August. Looking at what will hopefully be a bigger launch than the launch for the original 3DS (Granted, they had to deal with a weak launch lineup and a major…

  By Toshi Nakamura Published July 12, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Phantasy Star Online 2 Hacked as an Alleged Prank

  Free-to-play online game Phantasy Star Online 2 was hacked, and non-playable characters were moved about as, it seems, some sort of prank. In the game’s Ship02 location, non-playable characters were moved out of players reach, making it impossible to interact with important NPCs. As you can see in the screenshots, the non-playable characters were placed…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 12, 2012
• Kotaku East

  The Porn Star Had a Perfect Name, But She Still Didn’t Win

  Sega’s Yakuza gangster games and porn stars are no strangers. A few years back, adult film star Rio made it to the final selection process to see which hopefuls would appear in the game. Then, there was the Yakuza hostess who starred in an adult movie after appearing in Yakuza 4… This go round another…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 12, 2012
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  Kotaku East

  Your Anime Eyes Are Freaking Out Japan. Stop It.

  Back in 2009, Lady Gaga’s eyes got huge in her “Bad Romance” video. That, along with a Hello Kitty photo shoot, helped spawn a series of YouTube videos on anime eyes make-up tips. Not sure where Japan was during all this, but it clearly was not paying attention. This week, a Japanese site posted some…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 12, 2012
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  This Sega Arcade Is Ridiculously Over the Top

  Sega’s Tokyo Joypolis is not Sega’s best arcade. That does not matter. What it is, however, is Sega’s biggest spectacle. It’s less a game center and more a video game inspired theme park. Still, for a hyperbolic arcade experience, few can compete. And as of this week, Tokyo Joypolis has a new coat of paint.…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 12, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Kotaku East Starts Now!

  Kotaku East runs from 4am to 8am Eastern. For more info about Kotaku East click here

  By Brian Ashcraft Published July 12, 2012
• Uncategorized

  I’m in Love With the Sexiest Woman at San Diego Comic-Con

  So Sideshow Collectibles’ half-scale Catwoman statue isn’t technically alive. I’ve dated worse. She’s not available for preorder. She’ll likely cost you or me an arm and a leg once she is up for sale, but when you’re dealing with Batman’s finicky female counterpart, a certain amount of financial loss is to be expected. You pay…

  By Mike Fahey Published July 12, 2012
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  Video Games Remind Us That Cigarettes Will Kill You

  Ukrainian designer German Ljutaev has come up with this design that uses traditional video game imagery like life hearts and drops them on a cigarette. The further down the cigarette you smoke, the more hearts you burn though until you hit the inevitable “CONTINUE?” screen. It’s cute, but yet, urgh, so morbid at the same…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  BioWare is Making a New Ultima RPG. I’m Serious.

  Not content with digging up the corpse of classic RPG series Ultima once, EA – who now hold the rights to the franchise – are doing it all over again. The publisher has tonight announced Ultima Forever, a cross-platform, free-to-play RPG that’s being developed by BioWare and which will be published under EA’s Play 4…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  FarmVille Guys Publishing a Serious, Hardcore Game, With Swords and Monsters and Stuff

  If I say the word “Zynga” to you, you probably think stories of shoddy work practices, of ruthless non-games like FarmVille, or allegations that they essentially rip other people’s games off So it’s understandable that the social games juggernaut is looking to broaden its horizons a little, and move into more serious territory. That’s why…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  When X-Com Meets Star Trek, Wonderful Things Happen

  Star Command has long been my most-anticipated iOS game. It may now also be one of my most-anticipated PC games, especially since this planned bigger edition will feature more content. Get past the corny intro and there’s a ton of gameplay footage to sift through. STAR COMMAND: Kickstart Part 2 – The PC/Mac Space Adventure…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  A Beautiful Mech Commemorates the Greatest Robot Movie of All Time

  If you haven’t seen 1990’s Robot Jox, well, stop reading. Go get a copy. Because it’s just about the best thing ever. A combination of Cold War politics and stop-motion giant mech combat, it told the story of a future in which international disputes were settled not with wars, but with gladiatorial battles between…giant mechs.…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
• Culture

  Luscious Game Art Makes Robots and Beasts Look Great Together

  Markus Neidel is a German concept artist who most recently worked on Black Prophecy, a sci-fi MMO. You won’t find too much sci-fi in this gallery, though. What you will find for the most part are some epic fantasy images that look so delicious you’d be forgiven for thinking you could slice them off your…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  Uncategorized

  A Wonderful Interview With a Disabled Japanese Gamer Flown Out to the World’s Biggest Fighting Game Tournament

  In one of the most touching stories of the year, the fighting game readers of community website Shoryuken banded together to help disabled Japanese gamer Osamu Ichikawa get to this year’s EVO tournament in Las Vegas. Ichikawa, who suffers from cerebral palsy, only just got to play Street Fighter in an arcade for the first…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012