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  Silly Cosplay, Schoolgirls, and a Fake Monster

  Over the weekend, Monster Hunter 3G launched in Japan. Sister site Kotaku Japan was on hand for the festivities in Shinjuku. Members of AKB48 spin-off group NMB48 were on hand, along with Japanese comedians, a tricked out van, about 200 people, and Kotaku Japan One of the comedians, Ken Maeda, loves Monster Hunter and has…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 13, 2011
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  Revengeance is a Stupid Word, But It’s Also One the Klan Used

  Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. It’s a name Square Enix would be proud of, but before you go thinking some Japanese guy made it up by combining “Revenge” and “Vengeance” and nobody had the sense to tell him it was a stupid name, know that it’s a word that’s been used before. Metal band Soulfly, for…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 13, 2011
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  Yup, Ico’s Creator Has Officially Left Sony

  Fumito Ueda, the driving force behind both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, has confirmed that he is no longer employed at Sony. Having joined the company in 1997, and until recently overseeing his own development team at Sony (Team Ico), Ueda’s departure is a blow to Sony’s home-grown talent stocks, what with him being…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 13, 2011
• CultureTotal Recall

  Street Fighter V? Contra 6? These Games Exist (In Russia).

  Remember how last month we looked at some of the better examples of the unlicensed NES/Famicom clones that walked the earth during the 1980s and 1990s? One towered above all others like a colossus in terms of how successful it was, and that was Russia’s Dendy console. It’s my personal favourite of the bunch. Not…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 13, 2011
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  If Only Cartoon Network Took Its Games More Seriously

  Perhaps I was the only male over the age of thirteen to hope that Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL for the Xbox 360 was something more than a sloppy clone of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series of character-driven fighting games. What can I say? I love cartoons. I’ve loved them all my life, and…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 12, 2011
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  Meshell Ndegeocello: The Way

  I liked jazz growing up, but some of the intricacies of a tune’s “pocket” were lost on me. I was young then, and foolish, and I hadn’t yet heard Meshell Ndegeocello (whose official website no longer refers to her as Me’Shell Ndegéocello). But then I finally discovered her, and in so doing discovered what groove…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 12, 2011
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  This Video Shows Just How Gorgeous Battlefield 3 Can Be

  Watching Battlefield 3 like this makes me wish I had a PC to play it on. It looks great in slow motion. Watch it in full 1080p HD or else you will be losing half the beauty of the video.

  By Chris Carolan Published December 12, 2011
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  The Cuter Video Game Characters Are, The More I Want To Kill Them

  I swear I’m gonna murder Toad. I hate everything about him—his stupid smurfy hat, his dumb little smile, his goofy, perky body language. I despise his goddam Marge Simpson voice, and the way he yells “Rabo!” But most of all, I hate the way the little fucker keeps nailing me with blue shells in Mario…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 12, 2011
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  The Last of Us Trailer is Full of Hints, Says Naughty Dog

  They didn’t expect to be able to keep it a secret. They were worried it would leak. But the co-presidents of Naughty Dog managed to keep the fact that their Uncharted studio has been making The Last of Us for a while. Moments after the first trailer was revealed, the two chatted with the official…

  By Stephen Totilo Published December 12, 2011
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  Kind of Cool, Kind of Creepy

  Kind of cool, kind of creepy. I played Google Shoot View in front of Kotaku‘s NYC HQ. -Stephen Totilo For the Right Price These Gamers Will Die For You This story starts, as so many great ones do, with a classified ad: “I will take bullets for you,” it read. And he did. Contact made,…

  By Stephen Totilo Published December 12, 2011
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  Guild Wars 2 Only Thought It Was In Control of the Mesmer Class Reveal

  Mesmers are not controlled; a Mesmer does the controlling, which is probably why this video for the final Guild Wars 2 class slipped out a few days earlier than planned. Mind control! Master of illusion and control, the Mesmer class perfectly fits the promises made earlier this year by ArenaNet that the final class revealed…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 12, 2011
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  The New Game of Thrones Board Game Sounds Excellent, Diabolical

  I haven’t yet been able to track down a copy of the new Game of Thrones board game, let alone carve out four to eight hours to sit down and play through a game. But from the sound of things, that might be for the best. Not because it’s bad, but because it requires so…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 12, 2011
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  The Most Important Artifact in the Diablo Universe

  The Book of Cain is the ultimate guide to Diablo lore. It covers every aspect of the world of Sanctuary and its trials, beginning with the creation of the universe and leading right up to the doorstep of Diablo III, one of the most eagerly anticipated video games of 2012. Blizzard assembled a team top…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 12, 2011
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  Lost Winds, One of WiiWare’s Best, Looks Good on the iPhone

  Here is a trailer for Lost Winds, a ballyhooed WiiWare game that is coming to iOS devices later this month. It’s from Frontier Developments, who created this wind-blown platformer before becoming a leading Kinect developer for the Xbox 360 (See Kinectimals, Disneyland: Kinect Adventures.) We liked the game a lot when it was on the…

  By Stephen Totilo Published December 12, 2011
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  BioWare Co-Founder Gets Himself a Star Wars: The Old Republic Tattoo

  Can this month’s Star Wars: The Old Republic fulfill years of development effort and hype? Can the new massively multiplayer game from BioWare achieve World of Warcraft-like success? Will it survive as a subscription-based MMO or have to switch, as so many of them do these days, to Free 2 Play? These are old, tired…

  By Stephen Totilo Published December 12, 2011
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  Dustforce is, Thankfully, Not Really about Dusting.

  I played an early version of the upcoming computer game Dustforce about a year ago, when I was a judge for the Independent Games Festival. The beat-em-up—well, broom-em-up—was in need of a tutorial and/or a gentler learning curve. Otherwise, it was a lot of fun. Up top is a look at a new trailer for…

  By Stephen Totilo Published December 12, 2011
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  Sign Up for the Gotham City Impostors Console Beta Before Some Joker Gets Your Spot

  Now that November’s PC beta test has come and gone, Warner Bros. and Monolith are ready to get console players into the dopple-gangbanger fun of Gotham City Impostors The war between the madness-embracing Jokerz and stalwart-but-misguided Bats is heating up, and Gotham City Impostors is now inviting Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players to participate…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 12, 2011
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  She’s Level 35 in Skyrim. She Makes Villagers Kill Her Dragons.

  Some pacifists are nice people who wouldn’t harm an elf. Others would cast a spell on a town full of people and have the crowd beat the elf to a pulp. The second kind of pacifist isn’t really a pacifist, of course. She’s a manipulative monster who keeps her hands clean. That’s who 20-year-old vocal…

  By Stephen Totilo Published December 12, 2011
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  Everything You Need to Know About Final Fantasy XII-2 In Four Minutes

  After spending months handing out information on the follow-up to Final Fantasy XIII one snippet at a time, Square Enix brings the accumulated sum of Final Fantasy XIII-2 knowledge together in one handy-dandy four-minute-and-change primer video. We’ve got the story, the characters, the battle system in all its newfound complexity, and anything else that might…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 12, 2011
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  South Park: The Game is Sorta Like Paper Mario, Only With More Bleeding, Crying Children

  Given the paper cutout origins of South Park, it’s no surprise that Obsidian’s upcoming RPG South Park: The Game would take cues from the most famous paper role-playing game of them all. After selecting your character class in South Park: The Game (fighter, thief, mage, cleric, or Jew), you’ll enter a fantasy adventure filled with…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 12, 2011