A Real Dragon Age Sword Can Be Yours

For just USD$399 (plus shipping!), you can get both your hands — and you’re going to need two – on these life-sized replicas of Dragon Age’s signature weapons, the Grey Warden’s Sword and Darkspawn Greatsword. Both swords are 52″ long (1.3 m), are made from stainless steel and are available to purchase right now. They’re…

PSP’s Father Is Tight-Lipped About NGP

Sony revealed a new portable yesterday, codenamed the Next Generation Portable. In the audience were pundits, press, developers and the former Sony brass who built their gaming empire. Ken Kutaragi spearheaded the creation of the PlayStation, the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3. He’s also the father of the PSP, the PlayStation Portable. During the…

A Visual Guide To Ii Niku

The Wild, Sexy World Of Japan’s Biggest Amateur Pin-Up

“I’m just a regular, amateur cosplayer,” says Ushijima Ii Niku, or Ushijima “Good Meat”, in a swish Tokyo hole-in-the-wall eatery. By day, she has an office job, photoshopping adult-related pictures, and in her free time, she cosplays. She’s anything but ordinary. (NSFW) Her fans range from the Akiba faithful to artists like Street Fighter II…

PS3 Hacker Has To Give Up His Computers

Sony is taking famed hacker George Hotz to court, claiming his contribution to jailbreaking the PS3 is breaking the law. As part of that case, the court gets access to all his computers. Yes, as part of the case, Sony has been granted a temporary restraining order, which is common in situations like this. It’s…

There Will Be More Than One Model Of The NGP

And not all of them will have 3G connectivity, it seems. Speaking after yesterday’s big PSP2 / NGP reveal in Tokyo, Sony Computer Entertainment’s chief Andrew House told game site Eurogamer “The first thing to clarify, which I’m not sure the presentation did a perfect job of doing today, is that all of the devices…

SOCOM 4 Dated For April

Sony tells us today that SOCOM 4, for the PlayStation 3, will be out in North America on April 19.

This Isn’t Really StarCraft (But We Like It!)

Earlier this week, StarCraft II developers Blizzard released three new custom maps for the game. Two of the three maps don’t play much like StarCraft at all, so we figured we’d show you what they do play like. The three maps – Aiur Chef, Left 2 Die and Star Jeweled – are attempts by Blizzard…

Image-ine This

You’ll have to. Technical difficulties are preventing some pictures and video thumbnails from hitting our front page. If pictures are worth a thousand words, we need to all pitch in and get a-writin’. The Onion gives the anarchy symbol a facelift; it’ll just be a little harder to spray-paint. Know those pork-barrel “bets” where politicians…

Nintendo 3DS Gets eShop, Browser And DSiWare Transfer In May

The Nintendo 3DS will get its eShop as late as May in Japan as part of a major software update, along with a web browser and the ability to transfer DSiWare titles, according to details coming from an investor meeting in Japan. Nintendo’s eShop for the 3DS will sell Game Boy and Game Boy Color…

A Comic Book Game Restores A Feeling Of Power

Finishing off Giganta in D.C. Universe Online this week, I was treated to this scene, and a reminder that no matter how much the medium matures, comic books’ emotional attachments are made in your youngest and most vulnerable years. For those not playing this video game, in D.C. Universe Online you create a super character,…

So I Went To A Hockey Fight And Punch-Out!! Broke Out …

Fighting in hockey is awesome. It’s more than tolerated – the NHL has no problem with fighting on the ice, nor in the video games it licenses. Know what makes a hockey fight more awesome? Punch-Out!! music. This is Zack Stortini of the Edmonton Oilers and Chris Barch of the Dallas Stars getting rough Tuesday…

Kotaku At (Nearly) 100,000 Facebook Fans, A Milestone In Our Social Lives

For months we’ve been running a Kotaku page on Facebook. Many of you have visited to chat about video game news, to call each other names, all that good stuff. Nearly 100,000 of you like us on Facebook. Thanks! There was a time in the lives of each of us who work at Kotaku when…

Is Minecraft’s Halo Homage A Remake Or A De-Make?

Super Mario Bros.? Check. Portal? Check. What’s next for Minecraft? Halo, inevitably. Here’s “Halocraft,” a PvP arena homage to Halo 2’s Lockout map. Modified textures and sounds, if not the graphics, complete the look and feel of the original. The World Of Halo And Minecraft Collide For Some PVP Action [Hot Blooded Gaming]

The Video Game Controllers You Might Not Want… Until You Use Them

The people who make unusual game products like a Wii Remote that can be customized with LEGO blocks—one of their more successful video game controllers—can sometimes make a controller better than Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft, I’ve learned. Power A is the company who makes official LEGO Wii Remotes, which unless you’re the creator of Final…

Minor League Team Parties Like It’s NHL ’94

Like Tecmo Bowl and RBI Baseball, NHL ’94 is a sports video game that transcended its genre. Anyone who played a Genesis or Super Nintendo in the 1990s remembers its goal celebration – every player rushing the scorer, sticks raised. Hardly unique to NHL ’94 – many other games signified scores in similar ways –…

Call of Duty For NGP ‘Will Set The Bar’ For Next-Gen Portables

PlayStation Portable owners haven’t seen a Call of Duty game on their platform since 2007’s Call of Duty: Roads to Victory. That will change with the arrival of the next generation PSP, the NGP, says Activision. Philip Earl from Activision took to the stage at Sony’s unveiling of the PSP2 to show the Call of…

The Dark Tower Video Game Rumored For 2013

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series of novels is being adapted for movies and television. Also planned? A “very ambitious game component […] that will further utilize elements from the books,” says an AICN source.

How Marvel Broke My Heart

It wasn’t their so-bad-they-were-good 80s movies. Nor was it their early, failed flirtations with video games. No Marvel broke my heart when they stopped printing this magazine-sized comic. The Savage Sword of Conan was my first “adult” comic, the first step I took beyond (please don’t laugh) the likes of Richie Rich, Casper and Archie.…

Nintendo ‘Traumatized’ By 3D Virtual Boy, But ‘(Laughs)’ About It Now

The Virtual Boy is one of Nintendo’s biggest flops, an experiment in stereoscopic 3D that left a bad taste in the mouths of some of the game maker’s employees, leaving them with hesitation that the Nintendo 3DS could succeed. In the latest “Iwata Asks,” the interviews conducted by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, he asks the…