Tekken Voice Actor Dead, Police Investigating Suicide

Daisuke Gouri passed away this past Sunday at around 3:00 pm in Tokyo after being discovered wandering the streets in Nakano ward, blood dripping from his arm, before collapsing face-down. He was 57 years old. Besides an impressive list of anime credits, Gouri also voiced Bass Armstrong in the Dead or Alive series, Mister Hercule…

Man Facing Prison Over R4 Cartridges

It’s not just the Japanese throwing people in prison over R4 flash cartridges; Britain is in on the act too, with a man sentenced to prison for importing R4 carts. Yun Can Meng, a British resident, will spend the next twelve months behind bars after importing 26,500 of the cartridges, with the intention of selling…

Ready To Booze It Up With Yakuza 4?

You can tell a lot about a game by its deluxe bundles. Some games, like BioShock, have figurines. Other games, like Modern Warfare 2 and its night vision goggles, have extravagant items. Yakuza 4 just wants you drunk. One of the goodies for deluxe version of upcoming PS3 exclusive Japanese crime drama Yakuza 4 (Ryu…

What To Do With Polyphony Digital?

Let’s play a game. Imagine you are not you. You are, instead, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai. And you have a dilemma on your hands. See, you are part of a massive corporation that for years now has been bleeding money. Meaning across the board, Sony has had to cut costs, trim the fat…

NSFW: Gladiator Begins Gets Sexy Time Slip Cover

That gladiator lady is back! This alternative slip cover for PSP game Kentoushi: Gladiator Begins was a freebie at an event in Tokyo’s Akihabara. The standard cover has a shirtless gladiator dude. The back of the cover reminds people on Japanese internet of one thing: a porno. This is not pornography, it is a video…

Chinatown Wars Spread To The iPhone

As is the way with most iPhone releases, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has been set loose upon the App Store with absolutely zero warning or pre-emptive fanfare. One moment, we’re busy getting on with our weekends, the next, we simply receive word that it’s out. Early reports say that the game is as…

Japan’s 2ch. Replies To RPG Complaints

Last week, website IGN published a list of ten ways to fix Japanese role-playing games. Japan’s 2ch., the largest internet forum in the world, has responded. IGN’s list criticized things in Japanese role-playing games like the lifeless environments, linear gameplay, stereotypical stories and traditional battle systems. (Read the full list here.) 2ch., where users post…

Mass Effect 2 “Super Elite” Console Bundle Announced

This is the Mass Effect 2 Limited Edition console bundle, announced today for the Australian market and selling for AUD$599 (USD$550). It includes a black Xbox 360 with a 250GB HDD, two wireless controllers, a headset and a copy of Mass Effect 2. No custom paintjob on the console, sadly, but the inclusion of a…

Guess Who “Loved” Avatar?

Have you seen Avatar, the James Cameron opus? One of gaming’s Twitterati has, but who? Who, who, who? The rest of the Twitterati kept themselves busy to boot. Glad to see that game designer George Broussard (of Duke Nukem Forever fame) is keeping busy! Halo composer Marty O’Donnell loved him some Avatar. Deep thoughts by…

Copperhead Road

To: Luke From: Owen Re: TK Can’t chat much; gotta hit the trail for California today. It’ll be nice to see some old friends back in the Bay Area, but it will be a working visit. One thing I’m contemplating, booze is stupid expensive in Oregon. Now, there’s no sales tax on anything, so in…

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom vs. Robot Chicken

If this pitch for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars looks Robot Chicken-inspired, well, it was. The spot will air on at least three networks. “Our ad agency had the idea to create this stop-motion short (a la Robot Chicken) to celebrate the zanyness of the game. Since it wasn’t something that I recall any other…

The Winning Faction of the Great MAG Beta War

Zipper Interactive compiled its final batch of statistics for the MAG beta, finding which among the three factions in the MMO shooter was the most popular among more than a million people downloading the beta. The winner: Valor, which took 38.7 percent of the population. Raven was a close second at 37.2 percent, with SVER…

Week in Games: Leaving on a Jet Pack

Capcom takes us to, or through, the Bermuda Triangle on Tuesday with Dark Void, releasing on PC, PS3 and the 360, with Dark Void Zero on the DS. Also, Silent Hill returns to the PS2 and PSP with Shattered Memories This week’s count: five for DS, two for Wii and PC, one for PS2, PS3,…

Kotaku’s Top 5 List of Top 10 Lists

Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What’s better? A list of those. Here’s a roundup of the rundowns out there. •The Nine Most Exciting Games of 2010 That Aren’t Sequels [The Game Reviews] Didn’t we just take this up? Given the industry’s propensity for sequels…

Link has Trouble Staying on Task

“Distúrbio de Déficit de Atenção” (“Attention Deficit Disorder”) by Ryot Iras. As seen on Tiny Cartridge.

BioWare: Mass Effect 2 Will Have Launch DLC, Won’t Charge for It

Little has spilled out regarding BioWare’s DLC plans for Mass Effect 2 but yesterday, via Twitter, the studio indicated there will be launch-day DLC and it won’t cost anything. “Addressing rumors: BioWare will not be charging extra for any new Mass Effect 2 content on launch day. More DLC details next week,” says the tweet.…

Questions of Faith: What is Religion’s Role in Games?

Unsurprisingly, many game developers and publishers would rather stick a fork in a live power outlet than discuss religion in games, much less write it into a game with a role more complex than archetypal good-vs.-evil belief sets. But GameSpy’s Julian Murdoch went in search of truth on the subject, despite the stonewalling and no-commentary…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Heavy Rain Edition

No doubt about it, Heavy Rain’s box art for North America is a train wreck, if two trains overcame their apathy long enough to crash into each other. Think you can do better? Here’s your chance. Opening Kotaku’s first regular Photoshop contest – which many have clamored for – is our call for submissions of…

Rumor: Leaked ‘Tech Demo” Footage of Final Fantasy: Fortress

This is a two-minute, 30-second video said to be of a tech demonstration of “Fortress,” the Final Fantasy project GRIN was said to have been working on when the Swedish studio closed. Click to view Few details accompany the video, whose visuals and action-oriented gameplay are very Western-oriented, to say the least. The video’s action…

2000: Recently transplanted from the Forth Worth Star-Telegram. I mange to juggle my full-time job as a police reporter with the Palm Beach Post and writing occasional pieces for the feature’s section of the paper about the real value of virtual real estate, and internet addiction. After much though, I decide to put my Playstation…