The Most Blatant Utada Hikaru Ripoff I’ve Ever Seen

Stealing from Utada Hikaru is not cool. But, I guess, if you are going to do it, then dammit, be incredibly obvious like one Korean singer was. Obvious is funny! Back in March 1999, Utada Hikaru released her debut album First Love. It was a smash hit, selling over ten million copies worldwide and spawning…

How Microsoft Could Be Jumping Over China’s Console Ban

In China, video game consoles are banned. Recently, there’s been chatter than the ban will be lifted. But who needs home consoles when there’s already a workaround: Ditch the game machines completely. This week, Microsoft announced (via WSJ.com) that it was partnering with China’s BesTV to create “family games and related services.” According to Reuters,…

Dragon Ball Z in the Best Hair Wax Promotion Ever

One of the most iconic elements of Dragon Ball Z are the orange Dragon Balls. The other is unruly hair. Now you can have both. Japanese cosmetics company Creer Beaute is rolling out Dragon Ball Z Hair Wax in three styles: Natural, Hard, Super Hard. How hard is Super Hard? Over 9000, no doubt! Each…

How To “Ruin” A Grand Theft Auto V Launch With “Spoilers”

Here’s Mega64 trying to ruin a Grand Theft Auto V launch with a very special kind of spoiler. Stick with it. The escape is better than the crime. GTA V MIDNIGHT LAUNCH RUINED BY ME!!!!!!!! [YouTube, via ALBOTAS]

Hope You Like Playing F-Zero Until Your Eyeballs Puke

GameCube games can run on a PC. The Oculus Rift works for the PC. What comes next? White knuckles and sick bags. While the framerate stutters a bit on this particular footage, the fact it’s working should give hope – or fear – to F-Zero fans the world over. If we can’t get a new…

Your Childhood Wishes Its Model Kits Were This Good

Did you make models as a kid? I did. Plastic cement and messy decals were a weekly duo on my kitchen table. I got better as I got older, but even by the time I stopped (at around 14), I could only dream of putting together kits like this. This is the work of Japanese…

Rich Maniac Still Wants To Build A Real Rapture

He’s been trying to get this off the ground for years now, but last week PayPal founder Peter Thiel took one step closer to his dream of building an aquatic utopia populated solely by rich/smart/weird folks “who wish to demonstrate new ways of living together”. So, yeah, Rapture. And we all know how well that…

Awesome Art From A Man Responsible For EA’s “Orange Soldier Glow”

It’s been a design mainstay for some EA games since Bad Company 2, the “orange glow behind a soldier dude” effect about as iconic as modern game art gets. If you want someone to blame/thank for this trend, then Robert Sammelin is a good place to start. You could also, more practically, blame the fact…

A Sad Farewell To The Coolest Fighter Jet Of All Time

Anyone who grew up watching cartoons, or playing video games, or just taking an interest in large, expensive vehicles will be saddened to hear today that the US military has indicated the end is nigh for the fabled A-10 Warthog. Incorrectly labelled “ugly” by some detractors, the fact is the A-10 is the coolest damn…

Idiot Steals Car, Blames Own Crime On Grand Theft Auto

Normally, it takes a third party to blame a crime on a video game. A sensationalist tabloid, or a stuffy politician. Not in Zachary Burgess’ case, though, the 20 year-old only too happy to blame his own actions on Grand Theft Auto Police report that early on Saturday morning, Burgess jumped into a car in…

What It’s Like Meeting A Cosplayer Who’s Cosplaying As…You

Natalie Dormer plays Margaery Tyrell on the Game of Thrones TV series. She recently went to her first ever nerd convention, so was suitably warned: there will be people cosplaying there. As you “That was my first convention, my virgin convention experience,” she tells Entertainment Weekly. “Other members of the crew and cast said, ‘Someone…

The Handwritten Blueprint For A Musical Masterpiece

Before music becomes music—before it’s played by musicians—it’s just ink on a page. Some compositions require a great deal of ink and a lot of pages, hundreds of carefully-drawn notes bound into massive tomes of score-paper. And yet it’s worth remembering that some of the greatest compositions of all time were born of simple ideas…

Keiji Inafune Is Taking Your Questions Right Now [Q&A Is Finished]

Mega Man. Onimusha. Dead Rising. These are just a small sample of games from Keiji Inafune. Now, he’s working on a new title, Mighty No. 9. Oh, he’s also answering your questions, right here! For the next hour, Inafune will be on hand for a reader Q&A, with Tokyo-based game localizer 8-4 doing realtime translations.…

He Forged The Meteor Sword From Avatar. Then, He Cut Stuff With It.

For a long time, young Sokka was the Xander Harris of Avatar: The Last Airbender. He didn’t have any sweet bending powers and he wasn’t the Avatar; he didn’t have a great, noble destiny. He was just a dude with a boomerang. Then, he got the meteor sword. More precisely, he met Fire Nation swordmaster…

Guns for the Call of Duty generation: here’s documentary by Motherboard about “smart weapons,” or guns with scopes that incorporate HUDs that help even novices pull off one-shot-one-kills. The gun does all the accuracy calculations for you. Fascinating stuff, and yes, they do talk about people who play games.

Maybe Avengers Alliance Can Make Sense Of Marvel’s Infinity Event

Marvel’s universe-spanning “Infinity” event is coming to turn-based social RPG Avengers Alliance, where it will hopefully make more sense. I am so lost in space right now. There’s just something about the Infinity series (“Infinity Gauntlet”, “Infinity Crusade”, “Infinity War”, “Infinity Bucket”) that makes my brain turn off. I’ve read each series and its crossovers…

Data Leak Hints At Microtransactions In GTA Online

The upcoming Grand Theft Auto Online may let you buy in-game money with real money at some point—files found on a Rockstar server hint at the possibility, and it’s an interesting one. A Redditor says he found the files, which you can read here, by trying to access the store section of the game’s pause…

2013’s Best Graphic Novel Is All About Killing in the Name of God(s)

Don’t let the appealingly cartoony look of Boxers & Saints fool you. Terrible things happen in this graphic novel. Old men get beaten up. Women and children get killed in rather heartless fashion. And, worst of all, the senseless death that happens in the 500-page opus is based on actual events. But, goddamn, is it…

Let’s Talk About Multiplayer Games

A short The Multiplayer column today, because I’ve spent the last 3 days getting destroyed by a cold. So! I’ll turn it over to you guys: 1) What multiplayer games are you playing lately? What games are you looking forward to? Feel free to talk about anything and everything multiplayer in here, think of it…

Arby’s Smokehouse Brisket: The Snacktaku Review

To make the new Smokehouse Brisket sandwich, Arby’s starts with quality beef brisket, smoked for at least 13 hours for that falling-apart-in-your-mouth texture. Then it covers it in unnecessary junk, because that’s what Arby’s does. Note that in the video I say 24 hours several times. This is because 24 is a better number than…