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Xbox Japan’s Tweet From Last Week Seems Pretty Embarrassing

Japan has never been an easy climb for Microsoft’s game console. Xbox Japan never seems to catch a break. And this recent E3 tweet shows exactly why. The tweet from Xbox Japan’s official account reads: “Here is the photo spot for Destiny, the latest FPS made by Bungie of Halo fame.” Less than a week…

The Music of Mario Kart 8

“The music used throughout the Mario Kart series isn’t intended to be just background music,” says Kenta Nagata. “Instead we aim to produce pieces that will stick in players’ minds. We consider it a great success if the other production staff start unconsciously humming the tunes as they’re racing.” This post originally appeared on Kotaku…

The Timeless Beauty Of Studio Ghibli’s Movies

There are so many things to love about the movies of Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli, but the one I’ve always admired the most is the worlds they take place in. Those worlds, so often based on European and Japanese landscapes, are brought to life in a way that makes them look like the most…

Midora is basically Minish Cap, only with a female lead. And some crafting. I love the pixel art, I love the character design. Back it on Kickstarter

Game Of Thrones Has CGI In The Weirdest Places

Modern CGI is strange. Sure, you can spot it in obvious places. If there’s a ruddy big dinosaur or a skeleton warlord, you can be pretty sure it’s CGI. But nowadays, CGI is being used in ways you could never possibly spot unless you were in the business. This Game of Thrones video proves that…

Kim Kardashian’s Video Game Is The Stuff Of Nightmares

Kim Kardashian is coming to video games. In exactly the manner you would expect. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is on its way for iOS and Android. Note that the objective of the game is to “create your own aspiring celebrity and rise to fame and fortune”. Why become famous for something you’ve actually done when you…

What if the Tenchu series had learned some new tricks from games like Dishonored and Mark of the Ninja? Well, it would have looked a lot like Twin Souls, which is currently up on Kickstarter

Rage Sure Looked Nice

I never could get all that excited about Rage (this was at least partly due to that terrible name), but I did appreciate how good it often looked. Especially those nice, oddly bulbous character models—not everyone liked them, but I did. Duncan Harris at Dead End Thrills has spent some time putting together some high-res…

Meet The World’s Most Useless RPG Character

An RPG party member who can’t attack or even move, who spends every turn being the butt of more than a hundred jokes? Yes, he’s real, and I learned all about him at E3. Candy Corn is his name, and he’s a small yet rather funny part of Double Fine’s Halloween-themed RPG sequel, Costume Quest…

A Game About War With No Guns (Because You’re The Housekeeper)

Forget Call of Duty—it seems like the era of unique, fascinating games about war is underway. Case-in-point: Sunset, an exploration game that puts you in the role of a nosy housekeeper. As the housekeeper, you look after an apartment belonging to someone involved in the war that has broken out around you. From the game’s…

I Think I’m Getting Bored Of Virtual Reality

I strap on an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to try out Lucky’s Tale, the candy colored platformer that had Kirk in love at first hop. It’s nice, pleasant, and I do enjoying leaning and looking around the environment. But before long I realize something: I’m kinda bored. This was my general feeling during my…

Watch The Newest Team Fortress 2 Short

Following a lengthy countdown teaser, Valve unveiled this new Team Fortress 2 short today, along with news that the free-to-play game is getting some new taunts like conga dancing and flipping. This is their longest short yet. Fifteen minutes! Watch it all here:

A Beautiful Video Game That’s Not Like Other Video Games

Lumino City is a video game, but it’s unlike almost any other video game you’ve ever played. There aren’t any “graphics” here (well, aside from the character), just a real, miniature world made of “paper, card, miniature lights and motors”. It’s a visual trend that lived and died briefly in the 1990s with games like…

How You Rated E3 2014: Yesterday we polled our readers on how they rated each major publisher’s E3 performance out of ten, as well as what they thought of the show overall. After 25 hours of voting, the results: Microsoft: 7 Ubisoft: 7 EA: 5 Sony: 8 Nintendo: 10 E3 Overall: 8 Who “Won”: Nintendo…

Now You Too Can Program Like Arnold Schwarzenegger

Thanks to an intrepid programmer named Lauri Hartikka, we now have ArnoldC, a programming language where basic keywords are replaced with things Arnold has said in his many fine films. Where a “normal” program would say something like this: main() { printf (“Hello World”) } ArnoldC says this: IT’S SHOWTIME TALK TO THE HAND “Hello…

Shigeru Miyamoto Hears This Left-Handed Gamer’s Pain

Nintendo’s top game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, is going to talk to his development teams about making Nintendo’s games a little more left-hander-friendly. It’s not a huge issue, but it’s one I’d been meaning to ask him about. Most Nintendo games play fine for lefties, but the company’s systems, particularly the Wii U and 3DS, sometimes…

​Reminder: Your PC Is Gross And You Should Probably Clean It

Yesterday I finally began the long process of upgrading my gaming PC. I opened ‘er up, excited to finally install that new hard drive I’d bought, and I came face to face with grim reality: Ah yes, the inside of my PC is gross and covered in dust and grime. I set about cleaning it—swiping…

The New $80 Arkham Knight Batmobile Toy

The too-long, too-squat, too-dull Arkham Knight Batmobile is probably my least favorite Batmobile design ever, and the action feature makes it look like a dead frog: The Arkham Knight Batmobile will be $85 at SDCC and presumably available at Matty Collector sometime thereafter: The tires can do a complete 360-degree spin, allowing the vehicle to…

Dash Rendar’s Ride Is One Of The New Star Wars Spaceship Toys

Two new spaceships were just revealed for the X-Wing Miniatures Game. Shadows of the Empire fans will recognize Dash Rendar’s Outrider right away: YT-2400 Freighter Expansion Pack A fast and resilient light freighter, the YT-2400 features no fewer than thirteen weapon emplacement points, making it an attractive vessel for smugglers, mercenaries, and other individuals looking…

Far Cry Saviors: here’s a great Joystiq interview with Far Cry 4’s narrative director, Mark Thompson, which makes me optimistic about FC4’s story. Basically, they recognize that Far Cry 3’s white savior framework was kind of whack, and they’re not going to do that with again with 4. Yay!