- Kotaku East
Junior High Kid Arrested in a Great Condom Caper
Earlier this year, four junior high school students apparently broke into a shuttered love hotel. Love hotels are the Japanese equivalent of “no tell motels”, where couples can meet for trysts. They typically offer complimentary condoms. These four junior high students supposedly stole a huge amount of unused rubbers from a shutdown love hotel. One…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 - Kotaku East
Is This the World’s Youngest FPS Player? He’ll Snipe Your Ass. Maybe.
Don’t you hate it when you’re online playing a first-person shooter and the person on the other end that kills you is a young kid. Well, in China, that player could be younger than you’d ever imagine. In a video posted last December, an unnamed 2-and-a-half year-old, is shown playing a Counter Strike clone, Mercenary…
By Eric Jou Published March 12, 2012 - Kotaku East
Japan’s Greatest Manga Artists Offer Encouragement
This Sunday was the one year anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake. Around the country, people paused at 2:46pm—the moment the quake first hit. On Saturday, I noticed a display at a shopping mall of manga art from some of Japan’s most famous manga artists. Each of them drew pictures and wrote encouraging messages. The result…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku EastTurns Out Siri Isn’t Fluent in Japanese
Apple has the personal assistant Siri. DoCoMo, a major mobile service provider in Japan, has the Syabette Concier. With the Japanese version of Siri being recently introduced, one man on YouTube tested the two voice controlled assistants to see how they differ. The man speaks out in Japanese to both Smarthphones at the same to…
By Toshitaka Tachibana Published March 12, 2012 - Kotaku East
Will Apple’s iPad Trademark Become China’s?
Just last week, Apple announced a new iPad. It’s already become an object of desire in China. But, unfortunately for Chinese Apple fans, Apple has not announced a launch date for the Mainland market. Even if Apple does announce a Mainland launch date, its on going legal troubles with Chinese tech company Proview might hinder…
By Eric Jou Published March 12, 2012 - Kotaku East
A Truly Bizarre Metamorphosis. This Female Character Looks Totally Different!
Newly released Blades of Time is a spiritual successor to X-Blades, a hack-and-slash game noteworthy if only for its risqué Japanese style character design. Blades of Time is the game’s spiritual successor. Kotaku has covered the title before (here), but honestly, this title hasn’t been on my radar. At all. It stars Ayumi, who appeared…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 - Kotaku East
Crazy Women, Stay Away from This Dude
You think only male nerds are scary? Wrong! Japanese voice actor Shinnosuke Tachibana is so freaked out by some of his female fans that he actually asked them to stop tailing him. As pointed out by Japanese site OtaNews, late last week Tachibana, who does voice work for Inazuma Eleven and Konami dating games, uploaded…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 - Kotaku East
This Lady Loves Dressing as Fighting Game Characters
She really does! This is Rui, and she’s done a myriad of cosplay, including a handful of fighting game characters. Her gaming father instilled a love of video games in her from a very young age. Besides Street Fighter Zero 3, favorites include Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, and many, many others. Rui is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku EastThis Banned PS3 Owner Looks Bonkers
Anyone who films himself or herself ranting about a ban and posting it online might have issues. Anyone who does that while wearing a plastic bag might be nutso. In this video, a PS3 owner, who was apparently banned from the PlayStation Network, bitched and moaned—while wearing a several snuggies and a plastic bag on…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 - Kotaku East
Time To Ride the Giant Wooden Penis!
This weekend the Hodare Festival got underway in Niigata, Japan. Hodare means “male genitals”, and the centerpiece of this Shinto fertility festival is a giant wooden penis. Measuring 2.2m and weighting 600kg, the wooden penis in enshrined and carries religious significance. People believe praying to it or touching it can bring marital bliss and fertility…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 - Reviews
Can this Metal Arcade Stick Breathe Fire into Your Gaming?
Fighting game players are particular about their sticks. They have every right to be considering how important it is to play with a sturdy stick and tough casing. That’s what the Drop FireDragon stick aims to deliver—something tough, sturdy, and metal. But does it? Right out of the box, so much of the FireDragon hits…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 - Uncategorized
My, Shepard, How You’ve…Changed
Reader Sgt.LulzJager has kept the same female Commander Shepard model across all three Mass Effect games. That’s a lot of time spent with the same character. So it didn’t take long for him to notice something different about her in Mass Effect 3 Beside a few tweaks to her face, he didn’t make any changes…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 12, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Witcher Developers Abandon DRM Forever
The developers behind The Witcher series are done with DRM for its PC games. Seriously. It says that no game the company releases going forward will have any kind of DRM whatsoever. “Every subsequent game we [release] will never use any DRM anymore, it’s just over-complicating things,” CD Projekt Red CEO Marcin Iwinski said during…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 12, 2012 -
UncategorizedMagic Card Freakouts are the Best Kind of Freakouts
Internet comedian Francis, who by now has his nerd shtick almost perfected, leaves his webcam and bedroom behind and takes to the streets for a Magic Card tournament. Before you ask, yes, there’s a gif available. Buzzfeed is one step ahead of you on that one Francis Plays Magic the Gathering [YouTube, via BuzzFeed]
By Luke Plunkett Published March 12, 2012 - Uncategorized
First Look at Art From the Mass Effect Animated Film
In addition to a Dragon Age anime, EA and BioWare also have a Mass Effect anime in the pipeline. It’s been pretty low-key until now, but at SXSW we’ve finally got our first look at the project. Sadly, it’s not a trailer, or even finalised art, but what we do have is concept art for…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 12, 2012 - Uncategorized
There was a Portal Gag in Tonight’s Simpsons Episode
The Simpsons in 2012 is a largely irrelevant force. Still, from time to time it at least tries to appear relevant. Which is why, in tonight’s episode, there’s a fairly obvious Portal reference. While Portal 2 came out almost a year ago, these shows aren’t exactly made overnight, so I guess this is timely? It’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 12, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Many Unused and Unseen Faces of FemShep
Before the default female Commander Shepard received her very public and slightly drastic makeover, artists had to come up with a ton of ideas on just what she could/would look like. While those designs were eventually whittled down to six, which were voted on by fans, artist Jason Chan (who we’ve featured on Fine Art…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 12, 2012 - Uncategorized
Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kicks Pac-Man in the Face
If you play Pac-Man by running around controlling a yellow blob eating pellets and either chasing or running away from ghosts, you’re doing things the hard way. Chuck Norris doesn’t do things the hard way. He does them the Chuck Norris way. Y esto pasaría si chuk fuera pacman…[Random Weas!, via Gamefreaks]
By Luke Plunkett Published March 12, 2012 -
UncategorizedYou Can’t Look Forward to Mass Effect Blowjobs, Apparently
This is an excerpt from the official livefeed last week of the line outside a GameStop in Los Angeles. All these guys are waiting for Mass Effect 3 One of those guys is Harley Morenstein, star of Epic Meal Time. Harley is understandably excited at the possibilities inherent in a BioWare game. Less excited is…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 11, 2012