• Kotaku East

  This Is the Olympics of Cosplay

  Just as the Olympics in London kicked into high gear, the annual World Cosplay Championships came to a close on August 5. The event, which drew participants from twenty countries, duke it out in colorful outfits for the title of cosplay champ. Held every year in Nagoya, 2012 saw new countries, such as the UK,…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 6, 2012
• Kotaku East

  China Bans TV Shows Based On MMOs

  Currently Chinese TV viewers (myself included) have very limited options when it comes to what to watch. The government run China Central Television (CCTV) currently offers 22 channels of mindless drivel, revisionist historical dramas. The other twenty-odd provincial Satellite channels only offer mildly entertaining reality TV shows. But with the new guidelines that leaked out…

  By Eric Jou Published August 6, 2012
• Kotaku East

  This Olympic Medal Winner Has a Dream. She Wants to Voice Video Games.

  Twenty-one year-old Satomi Suzuki won two medals at the London Olympics: a silver for the 200m breaststroke and a bronze for the 100m breaststroke (she also scored a team bronze medal for the relay). Winning three medals is the stuff of dreams. But Suzuki, has another dream entirely. She wants to voice video game and…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 6, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Man Sells Family Fortune To Play MMO, Then Claims He Was Robbed

  A Chinese man in the northern Shandong province of China sold off 38 kilograms worth of gold bars to fund his online gaming habit. In order to explain why the family fortune was suddenly missing, he went to the police to report that he was robbed. Midday on July 30th, the man, surnamed Yan, reported…

  By Eric Jou Published August 6, 2012
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  Kotaku East

  First Look at the New BlazBlue

  Here’s the latest entry in the BlazBlue fighting game series. It’s called BlazBlue: Chronophantasma and features new characters Amane Nishiki, Bullet, and Azrael as well as new moves for your favorite BlazBlue characters. Chronophantasma begins arcade location tests in Tokyo this month, and it will be released at game centers across Japan this winter.

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 6, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Why Eating Sushi Off a Naked Person Is a Bad Idea

  Nyotaimori— often translated as “female body arrangement”—is the practice of eating sushi off a woman’s naked body. It is not mainstream in Japan by any stretch. Yet, as sister site Jezebel points out, the tradition survives in the West. During the 1990s, thanks to Hollywood movies like Rising Sun and a flurry of media coverage,…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 6, 2012
• Kotaku East

  If You Don’t Use Your Dragon Quest X Character Online, It’ll Get Erased

  Unlike previous Dragon Quest games, Dragon Quest X is an online MMO. So far, the game’s online experience has been surprisingly painless. But here’s one thing that some players *might* find painful. According to Square Enix, if you do not log in for online play for over three months, it’s possible that the game’s server…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 6, 2012
• Kotaku East

  How a Judo Olympian Spawned an Anime Meme

  Nearly a week ago, Japan’s Kaori Matsumoto took Olympic gold after defeating UK judoka Sarah Clarke Romanian judoka Corina Caprioriu. Matsumoto’s spirited judo and her ensuing Olympic win have spawned a meme online in Japan that compares the gold medal winner to Neon Genesis Evangelion Unit 01—the unit piloted by Eva hero Shinji Ikari. This…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published August 6, 2012
• Uncategorized

  Valve Getting Ready For Its “Next Gen” Source Engine?

  Valve’s Source Engine has been powering the company’s games for nearly a decade now, having made its debut all the way back in 2004 with Half-Life 2. While it’s done an admirable job in recent years for games like Left 4 Dead, updates and revisions can’t mask the fact it’s getting a little long in…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
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  Uncategorized

  Nyan Cat? No, This is Nyan Pokémon

  And so we come full circle. First, Chris Torres creates the Nyan Cat. Then he turns 151 Pokémon into cats. Now artist Simon Johnson has turned the original cat video into one starring said Pokémon, a feat he says took him 150 hours and over 4000 individual images. Nyan cat – All 151 Pokemon [YouTube,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
• Culture

  One Man’s Terrific Art for Assassin’s Creed, Prometheus and More

  Here’s another awesome Fine Art to get your week started on the right foot: a collection of works by David Levy, aka vyle, aka another of my very favourite concept artists in the whole wide world. David has worked on a number of big video games like Assassin’s Creed (we’ve actually shown some of his…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
• Uncategorized

  Mars Rover Survives Seven Minutes of Terror, Lands Successfully on the Surface

  Well, the little rover that could has gone and done it. Having survived an epic voyage and a convoluted, dangerous descent, NASA’s Curiosity Rover has successfully landed on the surface of Mars, and is already transmitting images back to Earth. Nice job, little guy. And nice job all the men and women who designed and…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
• Uncategorized

  See What Actually Happens to Your Dirty, Broken, Pre-Owned Video Games

  As we found out last week, not every game you sell to GameStop ends up on that store’s shelf. Sometimes games and hardware are sent to an enormous facility in Texas for testing, cleaning and re-assignment. Want to see what that process actually looks like? These images show you exactly what happens when the games…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
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  Uncategorized

  I’d Kill to Play Games on This 72-Screen, 36-Computer Virtual Reality System

  Later this year, the University of Illinois at Chicago will take the wraps off something it’s calling CAVE2. You, however, will most probably call it “that badass virtual reality system”. CAVE2 is big. It’s 24-feet in diameter and 8 feet tall. But then, it needs to be. It consists of 72 screens and 20 speakers,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2012
• Uncategorized

  Atari Founder’s Favourite Game Was Kicking Competitor’s Asses

  Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari and…other things, chats with Eurogamer’s Simon Parkin (Top photo by Johannes Simon | Getty)

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 5, 2012
• Uncategorized

  The Amazing Cosplay of an Otaku Convention

  Kotaku reader and talented photographer man Mike Kowalek, whose Anime Expo work we showcased a few weeks back, was also at the recent Otakon, held in Baltimore between July 27-29. Billed as a celebration of “anime, manga, and all facets of Asian pop culture”, it’s also a great excuse for people to get up to…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 5, 2012
• Uncategorized

  Was the $30,000 Video Game Sale a Fake?

  The strange story of a collector buying a very rare Neo Geo game at an airport for $30,000 just got a whole lot stranger: there are now accusations that the cartridge is a fake. A forgery. A hoax. Members of the Neo Geo collector’s community have been picking at the story for a while now,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 5, 2012
• Uncategorized

  For NBA Live, an Uncomfortable Silence Speaks for Itself

  Let’s be candid. As a licensed sports video game, when your series hasn’t been on shelves in three years—a gap not seen since the days games were played on cartridges—you really face just one expectation and it’s a pretty low bar: Just come out. Launch. Release on time. Somehow, over the past week, NBA Live…

  By Owen Good Published August 5, 2012
• Uncategorized

  Final Fantasy VII Quietly Re-Released, Then Taken Down

  The upcoming PC re-release of Final Fantasy VII was accidentally made available for sale on Square Enix’s online store over the weekend, then very quickly pulled. Not before some people managed to buy the game, though, which led to some disappointed customers, as Square Enix’s DRM protection wouldn’t let them actually play it, since their…

  By Luke Plunkett Published August 5, 2012
• Culture

  The Week in Games: Short and to the Point

  Persona 4 Arena arrives in the west this week, accompanied by the funky rhythm game Sound Shapes. On Xbox Live Arcade, the third-person multiplayer shooter Hybrid continues the Summer of Arcade. Tuesday • Sound Shapes (PS3, PS Vita) • Persona 4 Arena (PS3, 360) • Deponia (PC) Wednesday • Hybrid (XBLA) Friday • The Amazing…

  By Owen Good Published August 5, 2012