Hitman 2 has a limited-time event, the Snow Festival, on the Hokkaido map from January 22-Feb 12. It includes a new mission and target. There’s also a free trial of the level for the course of the event.

Man Arrested For Allegedly Selling A Customized Anime Figure In Japan 

A 39-year-old man has been arrested in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan for allegedly customizing and selling an unauthorized customized anime figure. According to The Sankei Shimbun and Mainichi (via ANN), the man allegedly took the head from a Love Live figure of character Nico Yazawa and put it on the body of a Darjeeling figure from…

Pokémon Cosplay Has Gotten Easier For Cats

Now there are officially licensed Pokémon hats for your cats. Cute, right? The only trick is getting your cat to wear one! Each Pocket Monster hat is priced at 400 yen ($3.66). They are very, very cute. Here and here are the different cat hats for Pocket Monster cosplay. They are sold via capsule toy…

The Japanese Whisky Shortage Won’t Stop [Update]

Earlier this year, Suntory announced that it was pulling Hakushu 12 and Hibiki 17 off the market. Now the Kirin Distillery is yanking one of the best Japanese whisky deals from shelves: Kirin Sanroku Cask Aged Spirit. Update January 22 – 6:00am: The Japanese whisky shortage won’t stop! According to Asahi News, sales of Suntory’s…

Hacking 101

Cristiano Rinaldi is a concept and digital artist from Italy. You can see more of Cristiano’s work at his ArtStation page

What Made Pikmin Special

The Pikmin series was one of those bold moves by Nintendo that seemed to be going in a different direction than anything else in the gaming industry. It didn’t pay off quite as successfully as the herd-defiant Brain Age, Wii or Nintendo Switch, to name three of the company’s more radical creations, but it did…

Games Played A Big Role In Polar Exploration

Earlier this month, I went to Norway to live out my bizarre lifelong dream of turning a birthday in the Arctic Circle. I did a ton of cool stuff—drove a dogsled, met some awesome people, jumped in a very cold sea, and ate a reindeer hotdog (it was delicious). I also went to a polar…

Video Game Menu Music Gets Its Own Tribute Album

The music we listen to as we play our favorite games is nice, but what about the music we hear when we aren’t playing? The Materia Collectivecommunity celebrates the music of the start screen with Menu: An Homage To Game Title Themes, a 52 track remix album featuring music from Final Fantasy, The Witcher, Mario…

The Master Chief Collection Is What Happens When A Studio Doesn’t Give Up On A Game

It’s now taken as gospel that the future of a game isn’t written in stone when it first comes out. Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege rebounded from a lackluster launch, hampered in large part by its grinding, fragmented progression system, into one of the most successful shooters on PC right now. No Man’s Sky released bereft…

I Hate Deciding Where To Land In Fortnite

Lately, I’ve been playing squads in Fortnite, instead of my usual short-lived solo runs. I mostly play with strangers and keep voice chat off. Playing squads has definitely helped me get better at the game, but there’s one thing I still can’t master: choosing where to land. Because I’m not playing with voice chat, there’s…

Anime Movies Are Finally Getting The U.S. Theatrical Releases They Deserve

Just a couple decades ago, anime fans would pore over Japanese dictionaries to hand-translate subtitles for their favorite anime films, which they’d disseminate over IRCs and password-protected forums. Over the last couple of years, those same fans to see marquee displays for “SPIRITED AWAY” and “YOUR NAME” hanging above their local brick-and-mortar movie theater. More…

The Week In Games: Return To Raccoon City

Zombies! This week the long awaited Resident Evil 2 remake is finally released on consoles and PC. Plus a bunch of games are getting ported to Switch and other platforms after appearing elsewhere. Which is nice! Who doesn’t want more games for their favorite platforms?! Actually, I already have a huge back catalog and feel…