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Talk Amongst Yourselves
It’s Friday the 13th. Be careful as you head into the weekend, folks. Welcome to Kotaku’s official forum, known affectionately as Talk Amongst Yourselves. This is the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss all things video game and existential. Want to talk about new games, old games, games that aren’t even…
By Evan Narcisse Published April 13, 2012 -
UncategorizedWe Searched For A Single PlayStation Vita In A Room Full of Handheld Gamers
Two days into my attendance of the PAX East gaming convention last weekend, I finally saw a PlayStation Vita. Nintendo DS and 3DS systems were everywhere among the convention’s thousands of gamers. But the Vita, launched in February in America, was about as common a sighting at the show as an uncaged lion. On Sunday,…
By Stephen Totilo Published April 13, 2012 -
UncategorizedOur First Teasing Glance at DJMax Technika Tune for the PlayStation Vita
Korea’s charmingly difficult rhythm game series makes the leap to the PlayStation Vita this Summer with DJMax Technika Tune. Mmmm, touch the music. I’ve got a little love affair going with Pentavision’s DJMax series, greedily gobbling up the sexy style and smooth music of every version released in North America, and importing whatever else I…
By Mike Fahey Published April 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Xbox 360 Is Ridiculously Old And Now We Can Prove It
The Xbox 360 is very, very old. It’s older than the iPhone, which came out a year and a half after we got the 360. It’s older than Barack Obama’s presidency by three years. We got the Xbox 360 before three even-year Modern Warfares and the three Call of Duty games that came out in…
By Mike Fahey Published April 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
Getting the Bugs Out of QA Might Mean Better Video Games
When a video game ships with tons of bugs, one excuse that gets thrown out is that it wasn’t tested throughly enough. But what about the people who do the testing? Is there a way for them to get beyond filing bug reports and having a greater impact on development? That’s the question at the…
By Evan Narcisse Published April 13, 2012 - Kotaku East
Anime Mashup Heroes Phantasia is a Letdown
The PSP role-playing game Heroes Phantasia takes nine popular fantasy and sci-fi anime—Blood+, Read or Die, My-HiME, s-CRY-d, Darker Than Black, Slayers Revolution, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Rune Soldier Louie, and Sgt. Frog—and mixes them into one giant cross-over adventure. And while fans of these shows will no doubt be excited to play as their favorite…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published April 13, 2012 - Kotaku East
Just Look at All That Hair. All That Plastic Hair.
Milla Maxwell from Namco Bandai role-playing game Tales of Xillia gets immortalized in plastic with this collectible figurine. Lucky her! The figure is slated for a September release in Japan. It’s priced at ¥8,190—which is US$101. Not exactly cheap! アルター「テイルズ オブ エクシリア ミラ＝マクスウェル」の彩色サンプル 【宮沢展示会2012春】 [Moeyo]
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 13, 2012 - Kotaku East
The PS Vita Has Seen Better Weeks. Now, It Looks Kind of Screwed.
You know things are bad when your old portable is beating your brand new one. This week, Sony’s PS Vita sold only 8,931. The PSP sold 14,804 units. The good news, I guess, is that Sony makes both handhelds. The bad? The newly released PS Vita continues to nosedive in Japan. This week it sold…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 13, 2012 -
UncategorizedKorean People Cutting Vegetables on iPads, Smashing Nuts
While the iPad is roughly the same size as a cutting board, that doesn’t mean it is a cutting board. South Korea’s BuffLab shows off its series of “shock absorption” screen covers by cutting cabbage and smashing walnuts. As one would. If you need more stabby-stabby, the other videos feature a nail, a screwdriver, a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 13, 2012 - Kotaku East
How a Game Got Me Back Into Watching Anime
How I ended up living and working in Japan is a long and complex story, but like many, anime was a big part of it. In my highschool years, my friends and I were watching at least one 26 episode series a week by means of trading VCDs with strangers off of message boards, importing…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published April 13, 2012 - Kotaku East
Japan Claims the Most Expensive One-Bedroom on Earth
Japan is expensive. The yen is strong, food is overpriced, and, unless you know how to spend smart, you can blow through insane amounts of cash. And if Japan is expensive, then Tokyo is crazy expensive. Take the Tokyo neighborhood of Minami-Azabu, which boasts what’s apparently the most expensive one bedroom apartment (Jeremy Clarkson voice)…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 13, 2012 -
Kotaku EastIn This Fan-Made Brawler, You Kick Ass with Paper
While trying to learn more about all the anime characters in the PSP crossover RPG Heroes Phantasia, I became interested in Read or Die. After watching the 2001 anime, I found myself already hunting for a game from the series. But despite eleven books, a manga, and two anime series, no game has ever been…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published April 13, 2012 - Kotaku East
Hey Sega, Put This Lady in Your Games
Every year, Sega holds a cattle call to select a handful of women to appear in its latest Yakuza game. This year, there’s a porn star in the running—not a Sega first. The women typically play hostesses players can chat up in night clubs. But, Sega, why not pick the number one hostess for your…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 13, 2012 - Kotaku East
Beauty of China, Show the World Your Latest Kinect Copy
China already has a handful of Kinect inspired game machines. But that’s not going to stop it from getting more. The latest is the iGame Move, a console with the tagline “Beauty of China Show the World”. Sporting 32-bit graphics (32-bit!!), the iGame Move is a motion controlled game system and is priced at around…
Brian Ashcraft & Eric Jou Published April 13, 2012 - Kotaku East
Crazy Person Apparently Threatened to Chop Off Writer’s Head
Noboru Aoi was not happy with Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (“There’s No Way My Sister Is That Cute”). After learning the email address of the light novel’s writer, Tsukasa Fushimi, the 32 year-old Aoi sent email after email—over five hundred in total. In them, he threatened the writer’s life. The…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 13, 2012 -
Kotaku EastLady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, and the Rise of the Googly Eyes
The bigger, the better, right? For a generation of kids, doe eyes are all the rage. Photos of young women in both Asia and the West show that this trend isn’t going anywhere. Big eyes are here to stay. The look is a melding of both the real and the unreal. Eyes that existed only…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 13, 2012 -
UncategorizedClassic Video Game Moment Gets an….Anime Adaptation
Daigo Umehara vs Justin Wong, the EVO finals, 2004. It’s almost universally accepted as the single greatest moment in competitive gaming history And it’s now been immortalised forever. In an anime. This clip is from Acchi Kocchi, apparently. If you’re short on time/memory and need to see the original, here it is EVO moment 37…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
The REAL Reason Peter Molyneux Left Microsoft: Chair Lady
You’ve read the fluffy reasons Peter Molyneux left Lionhead, the studio he built, and Microsoft along with it. The general stuff. It’s important to know, sure, but I like the raw specifics a bit better. In another post-Microsoft interview, this time with Develop, Molyneux says it was all about the chairs. I had this unbelievable…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 13, 2012