Unexpected Chaos Makes Japanese TV Fun

Westerners often say Japanese TV is “odd.” It’s not, really—even less so once you understand what people are actually saying. That doesn’t mean that peculiar or unexpected things don’t sometimes happen. The Japanese word “hapuningu” (ハプニング) uses the English loan word “happening” to refer to unexpected events. It could be the TV producers who don’t…

Chrono Trigger In 1080p Looks Great

Reader Rick has been hard at work recreating the intro to classic RPG Chrono Trigger in high definition. He’s now done, and it looks like it was all worth it. He recommends you make sure you’re watching in 1080p. I concur.

Cut Off Some Noses And Lord Of The Rings Gets Funnier

Not that the trilogy is lacking in lighter moments starring hobbits, whether intentional or not, but lop off their noses and suddenly things get lighter You’ll find more noseless gifs at the link below. They are the best way to spend a tea break. [Noseless Gifs]

A Video Game That Simulates Being Completely Wasted

Combine a difficult surgery simulator with a virtual reality headset and a fancy control system and you get…the physical effects of being super drunk, sans the bravado (and the hangover). Yes, this is nothing more than Surgery Simulator 2013 paired with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and Razer Hydra motion-control system. Three things that…

Activision Blizzard used to be owned by media giant Vivendi. Not anymore. It’s now a free company, having bought Vivendi’s stake out. You could say it’s gone indie, but that joke’s going to wear pretty thin over the next 24 hours. Fun fact: Activision boss Bobby Kotick and co-chair Brian Kelly paid $100 million of…

It’s Late. Let This Computer Buy You A Drink.

Darren Bacon is a senior concept artist at Bungie, where he was part of the team that designed the world of its upcoming shooter Destiny. Before that, he’d had experiences both in games and with TV, working with EA on the Command & Conquer franchise and with Disney on the gorgeous Tron: Uprising animated series.…

A Cyberpunk Weapon That (Almost) Exists Today

Harrison Krix, from Volpin Props, has shared some images of the build for one of his latest works, replicating the Militech Crusher from CD Projekt’s upcoming Cyberpunk 2077. This isn’t a cosplay piece; he was commissioned to make it by the game’s developers, and to help get it looking perfect was given reference materials from…

Remember, Mario Kart’s Arcade Version Lets You Drive A Tank

For around a decade now, while it’s been a smash hit on consoles, Mario Kart has also been an arcade racer, thanks to a partnership between Nintendo and Namco Bandai. The latest version of the game, Mario Kart Arcade GP DX is out this week in Japan, and this clip shows what it looks like…

Oh, Star Wars, Your Problems Are Nothing Next To Game Of Thrones

People in Star Wars think they got problems. Dead parents, missing limbs, bad weather. Huh. Westeros scoffs at your problems. Perhaps inspired by the equally-wonderful Arrested Westeros, a Reddit forum has sprung up comparing the worlds of Star Wars and Game of Thrones. The basic gist being that Stars needs to man up. Warning: mild…

It’s 2013, Let’s See How Good Water Can Look In A Video Game

Forget human faces, one of the hardest things to do in game development is get water right. It’s fluid, it’s messy, it’s always been a problem for games to simulate the wet stuff accurately. But hey, it’s 2013, so let’s see how things are coming along. NeoGAF user -SD- has shared a collection of videos…

Everything The Third, Worst X-Men Movie Got Wrong

Earlier this week when I posted this video from CinemaSins nitpicking the first X-Men movie, a bunch of you made the observation: “Why on earth nitpick this movie and not X-Men: The Last Stand? That one’s way worse!” Ask and ye shall receive. To be honest, I’d forgotten a lot of this film, and reliving…

Twilight Princess Looks Incredible Redone In Skyward Sword’s Style

Here’s a neat project by disbala, who is retexturing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to look likeSkyward Sword—the newer Zelda game in the franchise, which features visuals which aren’t as realistic. The project has been going on for a couple of months now, with the video teaser appearing earlier this month. No word on…

Shadowrun Returns Is The Start Of Endless Amazing Adventures

Shadowrun Returns is not simply a PC game based on the popular pen-and-paper cyberpunk-meets-magic role-playing game. It’s a digital sourcebook geared at harnessing the imagination of thousands of fans in order to power the creation of an entire universe of interactive adventures. It’s a player’s handbook, introducing the gamer to the professions suitable for survival…

Here’s more of Platinum’s Wii U superhero game The Wonderful 101 in action. I don’t know what the hell is going on half the time, but I do know that I’d very much like to play this game.

Yup, These Are The Types of People You Meet In Online Games

Once you log enough hours into a multiplayer game, you start noticing patterns. Things people like to do in games, sure—but also what kinds of people you’re likely to find in any given game. This image by CANADIENxBOSS summarizes everyone from Halo and Minecraft and just about every game in-between perfectly. Click on “expand” to…

The latest playthrough demonstration of Total War: Rome II takes a wide view, dipping into the diplomacy and campaign overview bits of the upcoming strategy game.

72 Hours Of YouTube Uploads Every Minute, And More Internet Stats

I bet at least 2 of those hours are Let’s Play videos. Also happening every sixty seconds on the internet: 11,000 LinkedIn searches, 278,000 tweets, and $83,000 in sales at Amazon. That’s according to this infographic from Qmee, with design by and mycleveragency. I do wish they’d included Steam in this, but I guess you…

Watch Us Play…Killzone Mercenary. It’s Ender’s Game Minus The Bugs

We played through a preview build of Killzone Mercenary, just for you. Turns out it’s not half bad if you’re looking for a way to stab some necks on your Vita. Check out the video to see how to touchscreen swipe someone to death. Killzone Mercenary hits Vita September 10th in North America, September 4th…

Phoenix Wright DLC Lets You Defend A Whale Charged With Murder

Okay, yes, Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies isn’t even out in the West yet, so it’s a bit early to talk about DLC, but I mean, a WHALE. Charged with MURDER. Come on. Announced today in Japan, this first downloadable chapter for Dual Destinies tells the story of Phoenix’s first case as an attorney since (spoilers)…

Metal Gear Solid 4′s Story Summarized, Impressively, In One Minute

These “Lore in a Minute” videos are always fun, but lately they’ve been mostly for games that don’t have all that much lore to begin with. So it’s nice to see them take on a monster like Metal Gear Solid 4 and manage to succinctly capture the entire narrative setup in so little time. I…