Google Has Been Watching What You Search For, Gamers

Google has published a report detailing everything it’s learned about gamers and their online search habits. As you’d expect; the company thrives off its advertising, so understanding how searches can be tied to ads is important for business! The results have been published in a paper called “Understanding the Modern Gamer”, which reveals things like…

Blowing on Cartridges Didn’t Help Them, It Hurt Them

Millions of people grew up worldwide convinced the way to get a busted Nintendo cartridge working was to blow on it. It may have worked sometimes, temporarily, but experts say you were actually doing a lot more harm than good. How? Well, as Mental_Floss writes, the common theory as to the cause (and success) of…

EA Hired a Man Just So You’d Stop Quitting

Valve is far from the only video game company hiring total outsiders to come in and help make them money. Electronic Arts has done something similar, with Forbes reporting they’ve hired Danish data analyst Jonas Lygaard, despite the fact he has absolutely zero experience in the games industry. What he did have experience in was…

This NES Zapper is Now a Real, Dangerous Laser Gun

It may have looked like something out of a more safety-conscious Star Trek episode, but Nintendo’s Zapper was about as harmless as fake plastic guns can get. Oh, except for this one. Which North Street Labs has turned into an actual laser gun that can set things on fire. It’s not an easy process –…

Good news, classic adventure game fans: Beneath a Steel Sky 2 is now in development

A Closer Look at Meet the Pyro’s Psychotic Fantasy Land

Laura Dubuk is an artist and designer employed at Valve, where her most recent public work was her contribution to the studio’s terrific Meet the Pyro trailer She’s also worked on games like Portal 2, and in this gallery you’ll see a collection of some of her best stuff, both from personal projects and from…

Looks Like Someone Has Already Hit Level 90 In World of Warcraft

Wow. That didn’t take long. World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria isn’t even out yet for most people (it unlocks in the US a few hours), but already it looks like we’ve got someone breaking through to hit the game’s new ceiling of Level 90. According to data-mining site Guildox, that someone is FS,…

There Are Two Types Of People: Those Who Love Movies Clichés, And Those Who Don’t

There really are two types of people in this world. A dichotomy, if you will. Okay, a lot of dichotomies, but dichotomies nonetheless. This amazing supercut pulls together clips from movies when a character says that “There are two types of people in this world.” Or, as Evan said when he showed me this: “There…

Japanese FemShep Statue is Surprisingly Unsexy

Kotobukiya, one of the world’s top collectible companies, has a line of pieces it calls “Bishoujo”. What that normally means for fans are statues of female characters rendered in anime style and with, um, disproportionate proportions There’s a market for that kind of thing, I’m sure, but for many it’s a little much. Which is…

Here’s Cloud And Sephiroth Doin’ It Gangnam Style

This might be my favorite of the many Gangnam Style parodies to be released so far this fall. It’s just so well done (nice work, Christian Wright). Enjoy. Final Fantasy Gangnam Style [YouTube via GamerSpirit]

Has Inflation De-Valued The Mario Coin?

If you’ve heard anything at all about the latest Super Mario Bros. game, you know that it has a lot of coins. So many coins. The diligent player can collect a million of the shiny little guys. An article over at Scripted Sequence ponders whether the ongoing inflation of coins in Mario games has led…

A Hand-Painted Panda On A Hand That’s More Than Ready To Play Mists of Pandaria

I have known many artistic World of Warcraft fans. I have known many women who like to get their nails done. I even have several friends who fit the overlap of the two categories. This, though… this is something else. Algae Veronica is a nail art expert who also happens to be a World of…

DOTA 2’s Official Replica Weapons Are Blowing My Mind

Unlike some of its other series, Valve isn’t going for massmarket appeal with its official DOTA 2 merchandise. Instead, it’s teamed up with special effects house WETA for a range of statues and replicas that is very fancy. Available for pre-order from WETA’s online store, there are two swords, a shield (all life-size) and a…

Yes. XCOM: Enemy Unknown Is Really Good.

I’ve lost video game troops before. I’ve sent virtual men bravely to their digital deaths. In StarCraft, in Company of Heroes; in Warcraft and Civilization, I’ve sent heroic men and women to the front lines, never to return. Sometimes I feel a pang at an unnecessary loss, but most video game troops are just numbers…

Well, That’s One Way To Make Aeris’s Death Funnier

I saw this over the weekend and felt like it was a must-share. Jenova: “Hey Cloud, the puppet store called, they’re running out of you.” Aeris dies to Seinfeld theme [YouTube]

There’s A Mysterious City Hidden Beneath The Water In Borderlands 2

We all know that Borderlands 2 contains a ton of secrets, references and easter eggs. But I’ve found something that’s not on any “best secrets” list… it’s something truly mysterious and perplexing that may change the way you feel about the world and your place in it I’ve become enamored of Borderlands 2‘s reflections—in standing…

Pandas Everywhere, Two Minutes After Pandaria‘s Launch

This shot of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria was snapped by Dutch Twitter user Nederob just two minutes after the game was unlocked in Europe. He says there’s been no server troubles. But Blizzard has also sent this out (26 minutes after the expansion went live), so… good luck! We’ll have impressions tomorrow.

Blizzard Just Held This World of Warcraft Parade For Itself in London

Straight from the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria launch in Europe (the game went live 34 minutes ago), here’s the parade Blizzard put on just before that. It’s a themed parade. Notice?

Watch Francis Pump Himself Up For World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

Channeling Mel Gibson’s Braveheart in this new video, Francis gets totally psyched for the next World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Totally. Psyched.

I Finally Uncovered The Mental Map Of My Own City, Thanks To A Game

Like so very many of my neighbors, I may live more-or-less in Washington DC now, but I’m not really “from” here. I relocated from points north in 2008, for a promising relationship and a good job. (Both of which, happily, worked out well.) That’s four years now that I’ve lived here, though, and my mental…