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  Ten Officially Sanctioned Guild Wars 2 Screenshots

  As I mentioned in my questions and answers post, I’m not allowed to share my own screenshots of the Guild Wars 2 beta weekend with you folks, so Arenanet and NCsoft provided me with ten official screens vaguely connected to this weekend’s experience. How vaguely connected? The top shot here shows an Asura thief, a…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 26, 2012
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  Everything You Wanted to Know About Guild Wars 2

  Last month I shared what I learned during the first Guild Wars 2 press beta weekend. Now the student becomes the master as I tackle the questions Kotaku posed had about the eagerly anticipated massively-multiplayer game after spending another beta weekend adventuring in the world of Tyria. The second Guild Wars 2 beta weekend has…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 26, 2012
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  Epic Mickey 2 Needs the Power of Two… Development Studios

  Junction Point—the development studio founded by legendary game designer Warren Spector and later acquired by Disney—made 2010’s Epic Mickey all by themselves. That technologically ambitious and mostly pretty game came out exclusively on the Wii. But, now that Mickey and Oswald’s next outing will be a multiplatform affair, Junction Point’s getting some help. Via e-mail,…

  By Evan Narcisse Published March 26, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Taiwanese Weather Girls Ripped Off By Chinese Weather Girls

  Last December, Guangdong Satellite TV Station introduced a change to their regular weather broadcasts. Instead of stuffy meteorologists or on-air reporters reporting the changes in the weather, they hired a group of undergraduate Chinese girls. The group, called Pin-Ko Pie, is made up of nine college girls who have “modeling” experience. These nine girls take…

  By Eric Jou Published March 26, 2012
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  Kotaku East

  When Your Daughter Thinks She’s an Anime Doll and Talks to Creepy Guys Online

  Online, 15 year-old Venus Palermo is “Venus Angelic”. With her huge anime eyes and pale skin, she plays up her doll-like appearance with special contacts and make-up. And this London-based teen is starting to gain followers in both Japan and the West. “Mommy cooks Japanese, thinks Japanese, goes to Japan with me,” Palermo wrote on…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 26, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Let’s Check Out China’s Team Fortress 2 Clone, Final Combat

  Whenever I visit an internet cafe in China, be it Shanghai, Beijing or wherever, it always surprises me how many of the games available are MMO’s or bad rip-offs of western games. Normally I would scroll past the Chinese fare and move onto something a little more domestic like Call of Duty or Ages of…

  By Eric Jou Published March 26, 2012
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  This Person Went Kid Icarus Scratching Insane

  Kid Icarus: Uprising is a stylus controlled 3DS game. Unless you are press down as hard as you possibly can while using the stylus, your 3DS should be fine! Nintendo builds its products to be tough; it builds them to last. Some players, however, get way into their stylus play. Check out this screen guard…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 26, 2012
• Kotaku East

  In China, Hire Your Online Fans and Internet Defenders—Cheap!

  I listen to This American Life a lot, and for the longest time at the end of each show Ira Glass would say, “This episode of This American Life is bought to you by Reputation.com.” For long have I pondered what exactly what it is that Reputation.com does. Do they Google-bomb Google or do they…

  By Eric Jou Published March 26, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Namco Bandai Puts a Giant “X” on a Website

  Another teaser website. Sick of them yet? This latest one from Namco Bandai is for a new title. The teaser site has a giant “X” on it. Fascinating. New Title [Namco Bandai]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 26, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Area Ravaged by Japanese Earthquake Gets…a Cute Character

  To help lift the spirits of Tohoku, Japan, the area hit by March 2011’s earthquake and tsunami, illustrator Ninico Edomura created Zunko Tohoku. Named after zunda mochi rice cakes, she’s a 17 year-old, who excels at archery. And she’s copyright free. The idea is that the character will go viral via fan art and whatnot—thus,…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 26, 2012
• Kotaku East

  The Korean Subway to Nowhere

  You step off the train. You head through the immaculate blue and white terminal and make your way to the surface. It’s like you’ve arrived in the future alright—only, a post apocalyptic one. These photos are making their way around Japanese forums and blogs, with some saying they resemble Fallout 3. According to Andy Tebay…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 26, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Phantasy Star Online 2 Will Also Be on on Smartphones

  On March 26th, SEGA has officially announced that the online role-playing game Phantasy Star Online 2 will be released not only on the PC, but on the PS Vita and smartphones as well. The game is planned to be released early summer of 2012, and will be free to play with certain purchasable in-game items.…

  By Toshitaka Tachibana Published March 26, 2012
• Kotaku East

  A Woman with Gundam Models in Her Hair Is Not Japan’s Craziest Hairstyle

  Oh no. Japan can do better—or rather, the girls at fashion magazine Koakuma Ageha can. How about a headphones hairdo? Or a glasses hairdo? Or cat ears? Or Tokyo Tower? You got it! While Koakuma Ageha is popular with hostesses (who, infamously, have big hair), I’ve never actually seen anyone, hostess or not, in Japan…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 26, 2012
• Kotaku East

  Are You An Average Dude? You Might Make Good Husband Fodder in Japan.

  During the 1980s, the stereotype for Japanese women was that they wanted three things in a marriage partner: high education, high salary, and a tall man. These days, Japanese women are content with things that aren’t nearly so sky-high. For marriage partners, they’re fine with “average”. In Japanese, “sankou” (三高), or what would be localized…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published March 26, 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 March 26, 2012
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  A My Little Pony Xbox 360. Just in Case you Needed One.

  I am not Michael Fahey. I do not understand the appeal for grown men of My Little Pony, a franchise my little sister thought was rubbish when she was nine If you are Michael Fahey, though, you may go bananas for this custom My Little Pony Xbox 360, with hand-etched plexiglass, paint scheme and fancy…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 26, 2012
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  Argh, the Bad Guys in The Last of Us Look Just Horrible

  Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us is taking the old zombie stereotype in a different direction, substituting hordes of ravenous flesh-eaters for…a global population that’s been infected by some kind of fungus and now looks really gross. While we’ve seen the monsters before, this statue of one was posted on Twitter over the weekend by…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 26, 2012
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  The Art of the Death of the Manual

  This piece by artist Maskull Lasserre takes the impending demise of the printed computer manual quite literally, pressing a number of old pieces together and then carving a skull out of it. Morbid, but also quite lovely. [Maskull Lasserre, via Boing Boing]

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 26, 2012
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  Awesome Lady Turns Nerf Guns into Video Game Guns

  Nerfenstein – more boringly known as Aesthetic Nerf Mods Australia – takes regular old Nerf guns and, with a little customisation and paint work, turns them into replica weapons based on those found in video games, movies and comic books. Replica weapons you can shoot a kid in the face with and not feel that…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 26, 2012
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  How Assassin’s Creed III Will Work on the Wii U

  As bizarre as it seems to be thinking of a proper Assassin’s Creed game appearing on a Nintendo console, it’s going to happen later this year when Assassin’s Creed III is released on the Wii U. Leading many people to wonder, how’s it going to take advantage of the console’s unique control pad? The latest…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 26, 2012