Freddie Mercury as an Angry Bird Is Both Wonderful And Weird

I’ll be honest, I like Angry Birds. And of course I like Queen. But I’m really not sure how I feel about the two of them together. Rovio evidently envisions the late Queen front man as a yellow bird, complete with fabulous crown and mustache. The king pig is right to wilt in sad shame…

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is now in closed beta. You can opt in on your Battle.net account. Good luck!

The Extraordinary Quest to Put All the Super Mario Games On One Timeline

There are at least two timelines on the Internet that put the major Super Mario games in chronological order, as if they happened to one guy named Mario who has been living an extraordinary life. These timeline don’t present Mario as a real man. The people who make these timelines aren’t that free-thinking. But the…

Talk Amongst Yourselves is where you should go to talk about games. And life. And how to deal with post-PAX sickness.

Here Are a Bunch of Portal Turrets Being Cute

BioWare cinematic designer Zachariah Scott tinkers around with Source Filmmaker quite a bit on his personal YouTube channel. But this week, it’s turret week. And he’s already made a bunch of really short videos of turrets being really adorable. Enjoy the released ones all rounded up for you below.

YouTube Trolls Turn This Into One of The Game Trailers of The Year

Indie outfit Big Men Games are currently working on a strategy RPG game called GUTS, which would otherwise be unremarkable if not for the fact one of the three men in the team – Chris Haga – used to work for Blizzard. On Diablo III. Once word of this got out trailers for GUTS, which…

Cosplay Plus “Gangnam Style” Equals This

You sick of “Gangnam Style”? No? Up for watching this DragonCon 2012 Gangnam Style mash-up?

Europeans can now play Ico and other games on the Vita via Remote Play. The PS3 update should be coming soon to the U.S.

11 New Dates and Cities for Nintendo’s Big Zelda Concert Series

Nintendo’s big fall Zelda “Symphony of the Goddesses” concert will be touring through the following cities, according to a press release the game maker just sent out: Sept. 15: Toronto; Sony Centre for the Performing Arts Sept. 22: Minneapolis; Orpheum Theatre Oct. 12: Dallas; AT&T Performing Arts Center Oct. 18: Boston; Wang Theatre Oct. 25:…

Japanese Game Developer Gets Brutally Frank on Twitter

Japanese people have the reputation of not saying what they mean. That’s not exactly accurate. Plenty of Japanese people are very good at saying exactly what they mean. Yet, the Japanese game industry—and the country’s corporate culture—often bent on stifling that. So people are happy to tell you how they feel in private, but worry…

Let’s Make Our Pantyhose All Nerdy!

Got your pantyhose on? Sure ya do! After Japanese nerds began covering their cars, motorcycles, and bicycles with geeky images, it was only time before they moved to stockings. “Ita” (痛) refers to “pain” in Japanese, and the cars covered in geeky stickers were originally called “ita-sha” or “painmobiles” due to the pain they inflict…

All the Lara Croft You Can Possibly Handle

She’s one of gaming’s biggest action stars. She’s iconic. She’s Lara Croft. How many video game characters can say Angelina Jolie played them in a movie? While gamers might argue over whether or not said Hollywood movies were any good, they cannot dispute her mark on popular culture—and more importantly, that’s she’s appeared in some…

Raiden, You’d Make a Wonderful Teenage Manga Character

Japanese manga artist Hiro Mashima (Rave, Fairy Tail) was blown away by Raiden at the recent Metal Gear Solid event. So, he decided to do his take on the character—see above! The result looks younger—like a manga character should—and quite different from the way Konami’s in-house artist and character designer Yoji Shinkawa draws the character.…

A Video Game First: Urine Play Testing!

Game localizer and co-author of the newly recently released Yurei Attack! Matt Alt took one for the team and filmed himself by playing (peeing?) Sega’s toilet video game, Toylet. See the footage that dribbled out, above. Spray and Pray [AltJapan] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points…

Relax, Snake Isn’t an Old Man in the New Metal Gear

We’ve already seen Old Snake—heck, we had a whole game with him. While the promotional artwork for Metal Gear Sold: Ground Zeroes shows a younger looking Snake (Naked Snake), the game’s debut footage seems to show an older looking one. Or does it? Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima attempted to clear up the confusion on…

Disappointed by Toys, Fan Made His Own…Transformer

A gentleman surnamed Liu of Jinan, Shandong Province loves Transformers. But, he always felt that all the Transformer toys didn’t really transform or really move. So he decided to build his own. Six month and 70,000 yuan (around US$11,000) later, Liu created his own Transformer. Outfitted with hydraulics, the machine can lift itself up, transforming…

The New Final Fantasy Sounds Interesting and in Need of More Time

Square Enix has a very bad habit of showing games way too early. Its latest reveal, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, is only thirty percent finished. Meaning? It’s 70 percent unfinished. So unless Square Enix works faster than it has in the past, it could be a while before, wait for it, Lightning strikes again.…

Japan’s Meme Monster Is Somewhat Cute and Totally Offensive

There’s a new Japanese meme in town. It’s a four-legged critter that’s hardly innocuous. Some might even call it offensive. Say hello to the crawler. In Japan, the meme character doesn’t quite have a name yet—it’s that new. In a pure visual sense, the character is cute, but this isn’t a purely visual character. It’s…

Finally, a Battlestar Galactica Game Worthy of the Name

Actual Battlestar Galactica games have been pretty awful. Most fan-made mods never end up being finished. But Diaspora, one of the more promising attempts to put players in the cockpit of a Viper (or a Raptor), has actually made it to the finish line, and is now available for download. You should get it. Now.…

Ubisoft Gives Up On Its Stupid PC DRM

For the last few years, Ubisoft’s attempts at battling piracy have been something of a running punchline, seeming to achieve little but annoy the company’s actual paying customers. Looks like all the protests have finally sunk in, because the publisher has told Rock, Paper, Shotgun it’ll be rolling back most of its most offensive methods.…