Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

Click on this article, you will. Many apps you will find. Talk like Yoda, you might.

Maybe, when you were a kid - or currently, if you are a kid - you used to draw your favorite video games. Maybe you designed your own levels, sketching them out on notebooks instead of paying attention in science class (sorry Mrs. Brown!). If you did, Pixel Press might be the most magical thing you'll hear about today.

Pixel Press is an application that works across computers and iOS devices to transform drawings into video game levels. All would-be designers have to do is print off a special sheet using a printer, draw detailed levels onto the grid (like graph paper), and scan the sheet using an iPhone or iPad. Once uploaded, the level can be edited using a computer, allowing designers to apply customized graphics and sound and, finally, share the level with other Pixel Press users. The simple platform game that the app creates doesn't appear to be very complex, but it also requires no coding skills, and it's designed to appeal to kids and families.

A Kickstarter for Pixel Press will launch on May 9. Check out a more detailed tutorial video after the break.

Gazillion Entertainment throws open the doors to Marvel Heroes this weekend, giving Iron Man fans across the country a chance to slip into a Stark suit and do some damage, Diablo-style. All a prospective hero has to do is register at the game's official website and they'll be in. The open beta event for the free-to-play PC game runs from tonight at 10PM Eastern time to 1PM Monday morning. It must be nice, gearing up for the launch of a game that has ties to the first blockbuster action film of the year. If Gazillion can't get at least that many folks playing during the height of Iron Man fever, then they're doing it wrong.

Snoop Dogg's rhythm/fighting game Way of the Dogg is now available on XBLA for 800 MS Points, which is far less than the cost of changing your name and becoming a reggae artist - believe us, we looked into it. The Elite Beat Agents-esque game is also "coming soon" to PlayStation Network, iOS and Android, according to publisher 505 Games.

In other Snoop Dogg related news, we recently found a horrible bootleg hip-hop mixtape that we bought nine years ago at a thrift store for like $0.48. Early reports indicate that it is still completely awesome.

La Mulana, Monaco, Crimson Clover, Tomodachi Collection, Mother 4 / Earthbound 2 (3?), Robot Unicorn Attack 2, Neo-Geo collecting, Wii U firmware updates, Nintendo's E3 show no-show, Famicom trivia, and NextBox scuttlebutt ('cause hey, we DO comment on rumors and speculation).

The first Iron Man movie uses Tony Stark as a metaphor for American power, with Tony's near-lethal chest wound signifying his remorse at spreading weapons around Afghanistan. The brilliant Iron Man 3 makes this connection even more explicit, giving us an elaborate fable of post-9/11 America and a paranoid-but-cocky Tony. Spoilers ahead... And as usual, by "spoilers," we don't mean anything major. If you've watched the trailers and stuff, you ought to be fine. The first two Iron Man movies gave Tony Stark physical damage as his hubris came back to bite him: a gruesome chest wound in the first film, and dark veiny lines of radiation poisoning in the second. In Iron Man 3, though, Tony does get his face torn up, but his malaise is mostly psychological: he's freaked out after he helped fight off an alien invasion and flew into a wormhole with a nuclear bomb in The Avengers. And then Tony's house, and apparently all his Iron Man suits, are destroyed by the Mandarin, a psychotic terrorist who's already committed tons of attacks around the world. Tony is first nearly drowned in the ocean, and then winds up flung in the middle of nowhere, in snowy Tennessee, with no friends and no help. One of the great miracles of Iron Man 3 is that despite going pretty dark — both with Tony's damage and with his downfall — it's one of the most feel-good movies in ages. Part of this is because of the spot-on humor in the film, with director Shane Black and star Robert Downey Jr. showing amazing comic timing. But also, this film takes the trope of a hero (apparently) losing everything and rediscovering his mojo as a result — and manages to make it feel new and shiny. Plus, for reasons that remain unclear, it's a Christmas movie. If the first Iron Man was about the guilt that Tony Stark (and America) feel for blowing up large parts of the world, then this new movie is more about feeling powerless. America can't track down the Mandarin, that intractable super-terrorist. And meanwhile, ever since Iron Man helped save the world, he's become something more than a celebrity: he's become a symbol and someone that everybody counts on. (Even though the United States government tries to create a more patriotic version by painting War Machine's armor red, white and blue, Iron Man is still clearly the most American armored hero because he's a rich, individualistic genius.) Iron Man's trauma is clearly related to feeling out of his depth in a world of thunder-gods and aliens — and a massive alien army would be way easier to locate than the elusive, taunting Mandarin. How do you defeat an enemy you can't even find? Iron Man 3 should be a model for all superhero sequels Where do you go after you've already saved the world/attained your heroic destiny/whitened your teeth? This is the perennial question that movie sequels grapple with — especially superhero sequels, where the first movie is an origin story. Iron Man 3 offers a pretty brilliant template, although it's by no means a perfect movie. And since most superheroes are, to some extent, avatars of American power — ever since they were punching Hitler — the real question any superhero sequel grapples with is, what do you do after you win the Cold War? Iron Man 3 avoids sequel-itis by doing a few things simultaneously: 1) It goes back to basics, showing us Tony having to cope on his own for a long stretch. 2) It's kind of an origin story redux, because Tony has to re-create himself or at least rediscover himself. 3) It's also an ending, giving this chapter of Tony's saga a definite conclusion that feels final and not cheap. In some ways, Iron Man 3 does some things similar to The Dark Knight Rises, except that Tony's spine doesn't get shattered and he doesn't hitchhike from Eurasia to Gotham in fifteen minutes. Plus one clever way that Iron Man 3 succeeds as a sequel is by addressing the insane success of The Avengers head-on — as famous as that film is in the real world, the fact that aliens showed up and trashed New York is an even bigger deal in the Marvel Movie Universe. People keep bringing it up, in ways that feel organic rather than like some sort of "hey, remember that other movie you liked?" way. But also, Iron Man 3 works as a sequel — way better than Iron Man 2 did — because it stays grounded. It's easy to keep an origin story grounded, because the hero usually starts out in the "real" world and then progresses into wonderland. Once you've told the origin, though, it gets harder and harder to keep anchoring the hero in the real world — and paradoxically, you don't get any escapism without that connection to reality. Most of all, Iron Man 3 feels deft — perhaps because Downey Jr. is reunited with Black, his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director, the film has a less lumbering gait than Iron Man 2. The movie feels pretty fast-paced and the laughs and action keep coming. Action movies and terrorism And that's the other thing — Iron Man 3 is a pretty neat action movie, in which the stakes are raised in a way that doesn't entirely feel like plot levers being moved around and the action sequences further both the plot and the characters. A good action sequence should feel unpredictable, but make sense in terms of the physicality and the geography of the action, so that you know where the players are in the scene. Probably the most bravura action sequence is the "Air Force One rescue" scene, part of which has been released as a clip — like the "bridge rescue" with the car and the family in last year's Amazing Spider-Man, it's a scene where the emphasis is on creativity and saving innocents, rather than the sheer number of casualties or amount of destruction. There's a huge emphasis on Tony Stark's famous ability to improvise, rather than on ready-made gadgets, and when the movie does bust out the power suits, it's ludicrously fun. Without giving too much away, a large chunk of this movie almost treats Iron Man's power suits the way Empire Strikes Back treats the Millennium Falcon's hyperspace drive, and the results make both Tony and the armor seem cooler. And then, the ending of the film is somewhat over-the-top, as if Black suddenly realized that he needed to pull out all the stops for a big bang-up sequence — but you've waited long enough for it, and the sequence is well choreographed and dazzling. Since 9/11, we've had tons of stories about terrorism. Just this month, we have Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness, which even sport similar trailers in which Ben Kingsley or Benedict Cumberbatch gives a menacing speech about our delusion of safety while things blow up. And Iron Man 3 winds up taking a somewhat postmodern approach to the idea of terrorism, in which the "war against terror" is won more by the sly, self-destructive Tony Stark than by the red-white-and-blue-painted enforcer, War Machine aka Iron Patriot. In all the best action movies, the battle is as much for personal redemption (or self-improvement) as to knock some hench-person down. In this movie, though, Tony Stark's character flaws turn out to be part and parcel of how he grapples with the Mandarin. The fact that Tony has been an insomniac wreck lately turns out to be key to his victory, but so does the fact that he's overreached and needs to be taken down a peg or twelve. But also, in keeping with the theme of the first two Iron Man films, we learn at the start of Iron Man 3 that everything we're about to see is all Tony Stark's fault — but this time, it's just because he was partying too hard and wasn't paying enough attention back in 1999. And that's really what makes this film such a satisfying action movie, as well as such a great superhero sequel — it finds a new way to talk about the age old themes of superheroes and the burden of fame and responsibility — and it finds a brand new off-kilter take on terrorism, at the same time. Most of all, the story of Tony Stark's fall, and his climb back up again, is an interesting take on how America's malaise, and how we might regain our footing. Just like the first Iron Man movie, it's hyper-political and yet shrewd enough that it can be read multiple ways, by multiple different audiences. And for those reasons, it's also a great superhero sequel, that's worth using as inspiration, rather than imitation.

A sequel to Eternal Darkness—long requested and long rumored—could actually be happening soon. IGN has a teaser for the upcoming game (embedded below), which the developers are calling Shadow of the Eternals, a spiritual successor to the 2002 GameCube cult classic. Eternal Darkness game director Denis Dyack is involved with the new one too, and they're going to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Monday. If you've read Kotaku's look at Dyack's company, Silicon Knights, you might be a bit skeptical that this will go anywhere, because the company has been a mess over the past few years. We don't blame you. Stay skeptical. It's worth noting, however, that Silicon Knights has been secretly working on a sequel to Eternal Darkness for a while now, and that work could be going into this new project. But thanks to the general dysfunction at Dyack's company, I'm not too optimistic that this will ever see the light of day, even if it does get crowdfunded. We'll see.

Maybe there's a little Borderlands in there for good measure, too. Comparisons aside, Tower of Guns is a twitch shooter with roguelike elements that hope to keep every playthrough fresh. This means random enemies, random powerups, random bosses, many unlockables and even random levels every time you play. Excellent. From the game's Steam Greenlight page: CRAZY POWERUPS: You've played first person shooters where you can double jump, but have you played any game where you can centuple-jump? You can in Tower of Guns, with the right items. GUN-MODIFYING MADNESS: A gun and its qualities aren't tied together in Tower of Guns. Do you like rocket launchers? You'll like them more if you're lucky enough to stumble upon a "shotgun" modifier. A rocket-launching shotgun is very satisfying. OLD-SCHOOL TACTICS: For the fans of the faster shooters, it's all back: circle strafing, bunny hopping, rocket jumping. Tower of Guns is all about moving fast! OLD-SCHOOL LEVEL DESIGN: Hate invisible blocking walls that keep you from exploring a cool vista? I do. They're outlawed in Tower of Guns. If you can see it, you can get to it...if you have the right items. It may just be that this combines two of my favorite genres—shooters and roguelikes—but I for one am excited to play this. According to Rock Paper, Shotgun, the game will be out "sometime before the next Thief game." The developer wants to be able to play Thief without guilt, which I guess means being finished with Tower of Guns first. For now, you can vote for the game on Steam Greenlight. (Via RPS)

If a Nintendo Entertainment System and a recording studio mixing board had a baby, it would look a lot like the Ming Mecca, which is very likely the weirdest piece of new video game hardware announced this year. Or maybe any year. This trailer teases the Ming Mecca, a console/game creation tool that uses discrete analog inputs to change up the experience dynamically. Here’s what creative collective Special Stage Systems says: The world is a patch, and you are its patcher. Ming Mecca brings voltage control to a comprehensive set of classic videogame design parameters, from details like object location and animation, to big-picture elements like game rules and level geography. Turn off gravity at the flick of a switch, or scroll through seasons at the turn of a knob. Populate your world with exotic creatures, then modulate their identities with random voltage. Set objects in motion and use their collision to trigger cosmological events elsewhere in your modular. Experiment with quantum position, step sequence destructible terrain, and patch wormholes into parallel dimensions. With Ming Mecca, your modular transforms into a reality synthesizer. I’m not going to lie: what I loved most about the clip above is how it channeled the visual language of early ‘80s music videos and game commercials. Darkly-lit spaces with unexplained fog? Check? Intense close-ups of eyes and TV screens with blocky, abstracted graphics? Yup. It harkens back to when games came into the world as weird artifacts with no explanatory context. Weird—including the weird made by people buying it—will live on this thing.

A new rumor suggests that Nintendo plans to release Wii U’s first 3D Mario game by October.

Grab your totally free, no-strings-attached copy of this award-winning action title while supplies last!

Gawker Guy's Drunk Wife Tells Him a Lame Joke; He Animates the Result | io9 The so-called 'health foods' that are probably killing you | Deadspin Reggie Miller Saying "Shit" On TV Is The Least Offensive Part Of This | Lifehacker Why I Gave Up Job Security to Go Freelance |

The first piece in that new gaming rig. Looking for the current full Moneysaver roundup? Click here. Come back at 2:15pm today for a brand new Moneysaver roundup. When I find a deal on the Titan I'll let you know, but for now let's go with fantastic value over phenomenal cosmic power. Amazon has the MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card for $184 after a $10 rebate. Even before the rebate, this is the lowest price ever for this card. Update: Newegg just one-upped them with an ASUS GTX 660 for $169 after $20 rebate and code EMCXRXT23 But that's not all. By purchasing this card, you're also getting a FREE download of Metro: Last Light. If that was a game you were planning on buying anyway, then this deal is that much more awesome. If you're planning on building a rig that does what you want it to do without breaking the bank, this is the place to start. [Newegg] Want to see more of our graphics card coverage? Click here. Keep up with Shane Roberts on Kinja and Twitter. Check out Dealzmodo for more great tech deals, and Deals.Kinja.com for even more discounts. This is a Moneysaver One-Shot, a post focusing on a single deal, sale, or category. Join us every weekday at 2:15pm EST for the full Moneysaver roundup, brought to you by the Commerce Team. We're here to bring Kotaku readers the best gaming deals available, and to be clear, we also make money if you buy. We want your feedback.

There are times I want to explore near photo-realistic ancient temples, battling terrifying enemies with the aid of powerful magical artifacts. I have moments where all I want to do is spend hours building armies, evaluating troop strength and capabilities and devising strategies to take advantage of my findings. Sometimes I just want to find a pair of white spaceships on blue backgrounds. In times like those, Reuben Goulart's Mind Blitz is exactly what I need. Simple and clean, it's a memory match game that flirts with action puzzle elements when no one is looking. Initially, all the player has to do is match a pair of Symbolicons until all of the pairs are gone or the timer runs out. Once three boards have been passed the player may spend accrued power up points on special boosts that add time to their session, multiply socre or give players a penalty-free peek under the table. There are also penalty cards that show up on the board post-level three — time loss, card shuffles and one that resets the entire playfield. And that's it. That's all there is to Mind Blitz. No combos, no deep strategy, no explosions — just your memory versus a pleasantly stark screen. Perfect. We spend a lot of time praising mobile games that verge on console-quality experiences. Let's not forget about the mobile games that embrace the platform they are built on and don't clutter up the screen trying to be something else. Mind Blitz Genre: Match GameDeveloper: Reuben GoulartPlatform: iOSPrice: $.99 Get Mind Blitz in iTunes To contact the author of this post, write to fahey@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter@bunnyspatial

Yesterday we ran a piece exposing the scare tactics media like to use when discussing video games and violence. Flashy edits, buzzwords, complete ignorance, that sort of thing. Today Katie Couric, the host of the particular segment we analyzed, reached out to her Twitter followers to ask for the "positive side" of violent games. When I noticed her tweet, I went to look at the replies. Some were decent! Others...not so much. I decided it had to do with her particular brand of audience. She wasn't getting the full scope of the gamer audience, and that wouldn't be fair. So I retweeted her on Kotaku's official Twitter account. And boy, you guys did not disappoint. But first let's look at the disappointing replies: @katiecouric It keeps millions of morons out of contact with the general public for hours at a time — William Toner (@pithyopine) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Movies aren't the same. Nobody spends 6 hours a day at a movie like people immerse themselves in games. — Diana (@diana_ellsworth) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Positive side? Sorry, can't include positive & violent in the same sentence. To Answer the ?... None.Cant wait to read answers — Michelle (@mlunamart) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Positive side? Sorry, can't include positive & violent in the same sentence. To Answer the ?... None.Cant wait to read answers — Michelle (@mlunamart) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric nothing ok about violent games. I would Love to see what they write as a positive. Idiots! My friend died because of a gamer. — Cindy Harcar (@GrandmaHarcar) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Sorry there is none!!!Violence of any type is never good!!!!! — Karen DerMargosian (@Karenlynn0423) May 3, 2013 I'm happy to say these...misguided responses were few and far between after Kotaku's community (and gamers in general) got there. Good job, guys! Here are some insightful, supporting comments: @katiecouric I'm a 40 YO college professor & dad. I play all games for mental stimulation and good stories. Violence is part of our world. — Caspar Neickel (@casparnic) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Games, violent or not, are something my son and can share. We have just as much fun w/ Gears of War as we do w/ Wii Sports. — Jennifer Amlie (@jenniferamlie) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric @kotaku imagination, creativity, friendship, accomplishment, wonder, passion, romance, escape, learning, emotion, sportsmanship — Silver Fox (@PatrickFlorio1) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Games can make the players engage with highly creative and abstract forms of thinking again and again across the many genres. — Jonny Wick (@spookyview) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Games can offer deeper human introspective+commentary through story+theme. Like books+film, not all do that, but many games do. — Russell Lee (@RJ_Lee) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Studies have shown that certain games can help establish quicker reflexes, better vision, and also think faster. — Bruce Banner (@SidtheKid323) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Friendship and Comradery. The people I played those games with as a child remain some of my closest friends. — Kyle Harrison (@DeathbyHappy) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric A lot of them involve a good deal of strategy; teamwork in multiplayer mode. And they're fun. Clean way to relieve stress. — Kara Renee (@UVaKareBear) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric the worlds I inhabit in games/books/movies/tv are my passion. They give me balance and enhance enjoyment of my daily life. — ZephyrSP (@ZephyrSP) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric You know what is the greatest factor in whether or not a person is violent? Their parents. Or the lack of parental guidance. — Brity (@BrityBytes) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Many excellent stories do involve death and pain to add to the realism and emotional drama - why should games be any different? — PixelBlock (@TinyPixelBlock) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Games are rated for content more clearly and descriptively on the package than movies. Its up to parents to monitor for content — Matt Mosher (@mtmosher) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Look at the pictures of actors on your twitter profile. Did you quiz them on what's positive about the violent films they make? — James Filus (@Syph79) May 3, 2013 @katiecouricBoth of my kids play violent video games. They're 15, 13, both staight a honor students with no history of violence =PARENTING — derrickgott (@derrickgott007) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Some games explore really deep themes that make you think about your morals and ethics. If you look deep enough and think. — Kayla McHale (@AH_Kayla) May 3, 2013 .@katiecouric conflict drives story, violent-ish experiences in safe environment are stress relief, violent images create intense emotion. — Anjin Anhut (@anjinanhut) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric To the people who say "video games perpetuate violence"; please tell me what video games were being played 500 years ago. — Dave Jewitt (@IrregularDave) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric they've been proven to help treat PTSD, especially among our nation's troops — Corey (@FiascoKnowsNYC) May 3, 2013 It warms my heart to see so many people rally against the inexcusable ignorance in the media's coverage of video games. This will continue to be a thing if we don't speak up, so good on all of you who did. And, of course, there were some jokes, snarky replies and, er, maybe some questionable ones, too! @katiecouric The positive side is that gamers don't destroy their bodies the way football, baseball, and basketball players do. #esports — Roy Isaac Johnson (@toastymow) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric it keeps creepy gamer people sequestered in their parents' basements until their 30's — SWOLE WRESTLING BRO (@DogFlotilla) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Do you know how cool clockwork guns look, bro? That's also a reason I like violent games. — Roo Stark (@BehindTheHorns) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric I can use swords in violent video games — Roo Stark (@BehindTheHorns) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric If you play through #xenogears and you don't cry at the end u have no #soul Lost #otaku scene — Old Black Nerd (@OldBlackNerd) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric @kotaku I play violent games and, despite your absurd, irresponsible sensationalism, I have no urge to hurt you. So, there. — Moshe Siegel (@moshesiegel) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric RE: Video games: Misanthropic, college educated, unemployed southern male seeks socially acceptable outlet for frustration. — Ned Lesesne (@DrNed) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric what are the positives of bad talk shows? — Joe Howard (@JoeHoward17) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric if you have never played super smash bros with friends (where u battle to the death) then u will never know joy and bonding — Michael Harley (@pwrlftrHarley) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric @redbullgaming I get to own nerds lol — Rhys Farnhill (@rhysizm) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric blood looks cool! — Saleem Noorali (@bingbangboom) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric it's not the video games, it's the lag. — Ben Jahnke (@FA_Jahnks) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric one positive is Ive mastered killing mass amounts of thugs & pimps & shooting down helicopters and getting away with it in GTA — Cody (@ForceRumbly) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric people dont drive over the walkways at 80 miles an hour after playing need for speed — lazors just for U (@Ewout_TurboSwim) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric or start hitting trees with their bare hands after playing minecraft — lazors just for U (@Ewout_TurboSwim) May 3, 2013 .@katiecouric Video games, vis a vis violence, enable mentally cripple white males to *FART NOISE* — Jeff Grubb (@JeffGrubb) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric I think you meant to say Thanks! Not Thanx! Easy mistake to make. — toddhunter (@toddhunter) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric I get to stab up bitches — James Humphries (@Humpy1988) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric Helps me improve my aim for greater killing efficiency. — Roland (@rabelford) May 3, 2013 @katiecouric @kotaku i don't want to beat u up in real life because i can super impose ur face into a violent game and beat u up virtually. — TEef (@teefonline) May 3, 2013 .@katiecouric they are the only thing suppressing my urge to hunt Matt Lauer and take his skin for my own — Griffin McElroy (@griffinmcelroy) May 3, 2013 Lastly, let's all remember to bring this up when people try to make a correlation between violent games and real-life violence. Because I'm honestly sick of people thinking they can ignore the facts we do have. To contact the author of this post, write to tina@kotaku.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.

Jagex has unveiled Runescape 3 is on the way, bringing with it a massive graphical overhaul and the possibility of new platforms.

NYU's fourth annual No Quarter exhibition of new indie games takes place tonight in downtown Manhattan and is well worth attending if you can get in. Learn more and/or RSVP here. Going there ensures you'll be able to play some interesting new games. (Like this one from the 2011 No Quarter.) As a bonus, you'll be able to look at and even buy some excellent-looking prints that celebrate previous No Quarter games such as Hokra and Nidhogg. The image atop this post is of Mark Essen's Nidhogg and was illustrated by Hamlet Machine. (Full version below.) See the rest of the very excellent No Quarter-inspired art over on the website of our friends at Attract Mode. Tonight's No Quarter exhibition will include new games from Bennett Foddy, Sophie Houlden, Matthew LoPresti, Nik Mikros, and Josh DeBonis. If you go, you might even see some Kotaku people lurking around!

Last October peripheral maker Power A made a bid for the Android gamepad market with the MOGA, a pocket-sized controller with a flip-up clip for holding your smallish Android gaming device. The idea was that this odd little controller, paired with a smart phone, was effectively its own handheld gaming system, a Google-powered Game Boy. The basic MOGA is a fine little piece of equipment, though at the time I felt it could be a little wider, and the list of games supporting it had to grow much bigger than the initial 40 or so. Seven months later, the compatible game list has grown to 64 — a number I'm positive would be larger if Power A had released the MOGA Pro first. Take a look at the original MOGA. It's a flat, small thing that only nominally resembles today's console game controllers. It functions well enough, but the average gamer wandering through a Toys 'R' Us sees this set up in a kiosk and goes, "huh." Now look at the MOGA Pro. It's an Xbox 360 controller. A strange-looking Xbox 360 controller, but there's no mistaking it. In fact, it shares a bit of design with Power A's Fus1on controller, which I actually prefer over the standard wired Xbox controller for PC gaming. When exploring new territory, like mobile gaming with a controller, it helps to give folks something familiar to ease them into the idea. Nyko understood this with its PlayPad Pro, though a flaky utility app sapped much of the momentum from the product. Now we have the MOGA Pro, and it's a fine controller for the Android games it supports. The textured rubberized grips uncomfortable, but they're actually quite pleasing to the hand. The buttons and triggers are responsive, the analog sticks smooth and satisfyingly clicky. With a smart phone mounted in the unit's signature clip, the MOGA Pro is very nicely balanced — I tried it with both my HTC One and my Samsung Galaxy Note II. Used with a bigger Android device (the unit comes packed with a tablet stand) the controller is a bit light — the option to weigh it down for phone-free use would be welcome. I used to think the success of an Android game pad would come down to game support — the more the better. Over the past year I've come to realize that a lot of game developers feel the same way Apple does about controller peripherals — the touch screen is enough — and as long as major players are creating games that rely solely on touch for controls, there isn't going to be an Android controller standard. So check out the MOGA-supported game list, and see if there's anything that strikes your fancy. Then ask yourself if the addition of a traditional controller would make the games you want to play more enjoyable or easier to play. If the answer is yes, and I'm not expecting many of those, then you should consider dropping $50 on a MOGA Pro. It gets its incredibly specialized job done like a champ, and looks good doing it.

If you've been on the internet, I dunno, ever, you've probably seen those Expectations vs. Reality pictures. Well, Japan has them, too. In Japan, the meme is "Risou to Genjitsu" (理想と現実). "Risou" (理想) means "ideal", "to" (と) is "and", and "genjitsu" (現実) is "reality". The meme works in the same way as its Western counterpart, and, inevitabily, there are also lots of food packaging pics and being people lonely examples. They're universal! Not every meme in Japan has a Western counterpart. Likewise, not every Western meme has a Japanese one. It's fascinating to see which ones exist in both and how they show, despite cultural differences, internet lulz are internet lulz no matter the language you speak. Photos: ガルカのシッポ, シナモン, 田原, RainbowDevilsLand, たべたべ, ねたたま, 心理学ステーション, seiyu fan, ロケットニュース, まとめ To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Yu-Gi-Oh! is fun. The trading card game from Konami is fun, too. So why is Korea's version an out-of-the-blue bummer? Recently on 2ch, Japan's largest forum, one member uploaded photos of a Korean Yu-Gi-Oh! pack. Let's have a look. Here's the pack (obviously). Okay. Alright. Business as usual, until... You get to the missing child card. Yeah. This is truly sad and makes opening a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards an unexpected downer. (Of course, this is not even vaguely near to the terrible sadness the parents of these missing children must feel, and I am most certainly not implying such.) This has been going on for a while now, it seems. And others have noticed this as well (here, here, and here). On these cards, there is a URL for www.missingchild.or.kr, which is the country's National Center for Missing Children. I'd imagine parents of missing children would do anything to get their children back—and my heart goes out of them. And, in a way, this is kind of like putting missing children on the back of milk cartons. That being said, are the kids who buy these Yu-Gi-Oh! cards really supposed to look for other missing kids? Does that happen? Honestly, I'm not sure, but I do hope it's working, though, and that missing kids are being found. 韓国のトレーディングカード恐すぎワロエナイ [2ch] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

In Japan (and most of Asia), business cards are a big deal. You need business cards! There's even a correct way to exchange them. So no wonder many Japanese cosplayers have business cards, too. Cosplayers having business cards is not new—and it's not limited to Japan by any stretch. I've met plenty of Western cosplayers with cards of their own. However, as Nikkei Trendy and ShiftEast.com point out, there are business card services in Japan that are aimed directly at the country's cosplaying community. Japanese printing company Choei, for example, has a cosplay centric business card service called Proof, which, as ShiftEast.com explains, allows cosplayers to order several sets of business cards, each of different outfits, for a reasonable price. One hundred cards cost around the equivalent of US$26. Instead of company names and job descriptions, cosplayer cards feature photos, character names, and website info. The cards look more like glossy trading cards, with full color pictures, than business cards. What's more, since many cosplayers have multiple characters in their cosplay repertoire, they might carry multiple business cards for their cosplay networking purposes. And those who are looking for the perfect background for their cosplay cards, they can always rent space at one of Japan's cosplay studios. Cosplay Business Cards [ShiftEast] コスプレイヤーは「名刺」が命！ [Nikkei Trendy] (Top photo: Cosplay.exblog) To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Google has hired industry legend Noah Falstein (Sinistar, Fate of Atlantis) to be its "Chief Game Designer". And won't say why. Google Glass games? First-party Android development? Bigger/better search engine tie ins?

Speaking with Edge, former Lionhead boss and Microsoft exec Peter Molyneux wins some brownie points for his hopes on what the next Xbox will offer. Peter Molyneux on the next Xbox: “I don’t want another way of looking at Facebook” [Edge] To contact the author of this post, write to plunkett@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @lukeplunkett

Um. Literally? ...yeah, sorry about that. But pun aside, this fan's usage of Street Fighter characters is genius, no? Even Blanka could playfully be said to be fulfilling a role: he's powering the fan while E. Honda does his hundred hand slap and Ken does his hurricane kick . Clever job, BL1TZEN. Now all this needs is Guile's theme playing over the footage and it'd be perfect. Pimp My Desk Fan: "Street Fighter" Hyper Turbo Edition [BL1TZEN]

John Drake joins us as we play Monaco, but something much more sinister awaits his tender hands.

There's quite a lot of extra content available for purchase in Haunted Hollow, the spooky new iOS strategy board game from Firaxis, creators of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Between new creatures to add to your arsenal and special item unlocks, you could spend upwards of $17 on the free-to-play game, but that'd be stupid — the season pass is only $7.99. Every monster and all of the items currently available in the game for one flat rate. It's a notion that flies in the face of practices established by other big-name publishers in the mobile market. Those guys are here for profit. 2K and Firaxis want their players to party. Right, it's not quite that revolutionary, but it's enough to make me feel like I got a bargain, instead of establishing me as a customer who will purchase each additional season pass that comes out, regardless of content. I will, but I don't want to feel like I would. Every time a free game arrives on iTunes or Google Play overflowing with egregious in-app purchases, I have the same thought — "Why don't they just let me pay a fee to unlock everything at once?" With Haunted Hollows answer to the question casting an even more unfavorably light on common practices, it's going to get harder and harder for me to accept anything less than what's been done here. I don't even mind the ads, because... ...that. Memorize that, EA, Gameloft, DeNA, Zynga and friends. If you build that, they will pay. Of course it also helps if the game you're building it for is as brilliant a digital board game as Haunted Hollow. Accessible strategy is what Firaxis does best, and that skillset shines in the darkened mansions sending out famous monsters to do their evil bidding. There's a town you'd like to capture in a vice-like grip of terror, and you've got the tools to get the job done. Tools like Frankenstein's monster, ghosts, vampires, werewolves — the whole of General Mills supernatural cereal line is represented here (well, Yummy Mummy might be in the next batch, but no one likes him anyway). Some of them are there to frighten villagers. Some are there to fight your opponent's fiendish forces. Two players (pass-and-play, turn-based online or player-versus AI) take turns deploying their forces and collecting fear from the Hollow's luxurious-ish town homes. The more real estate you control, the more scare points you have at the beginning of each turn to perform actions. Scare too much and the church in the middle of town vomits up and angry mob, which slowly moves about the board between turns, burning buildings and destroying creatures on either side. When a turn ends with one player controlling all the town homes on the board, the dominating side is crowned the winner. Each monster is essentially a hero unit from a traditional real-time strategy game, with special powers activated by spending fright. The zombie, for example, may spend one fright in front of a town home to scare the resident and earn a zombie minion. Once he has enough minions, he can spend three fright to summon a horde, transforming into an attacking unit. Meanwhile, in the mansion, players add one new wing per round, unlocking new troops or expanding upon an existing wing to craft more powerful minions. Simple enough, but as with most Firaxis strategy titles, if it seems simple that just means there's a ton of depth lurking beneath the surface, waiting for you to dig your way down. I'm not sure which is more clever, really — using cartoon renditions of classic monsters to lure new players into a genre they might normally avoid (the XCOM tactic), or getting me to spend $8 on a single iOS game without batting an eyelash. Either way, well done. May all of mobile gaming steal your idea and run with it. Haunted Hollow Genre: Strategy Board GameDeveloper: FiraxisPlatform: iOSPrice: Free Get Haunted Hollow in iTunes

This is awe-inspiring: what happens when players are hell-bent on finding a secret which may not even exist? Eurogamer has a piece on Shadow of the Colossus and players who hoped they could find its 'last big secret'. Definitely worth a read.

Yesterday, Katie Couric did an hour-long exposé on the dangers of violent, addictive video games. While at times it attempted to be sympathetic and contained actual moments of pathos, it was essentially a maudlin, fear-mongering and clichéd piece of television meant to provide easy answers and scapegoats to very real, complicated problems. Here’s the whole thing in a nutshell. Two Stories Katie brings out two legitimately tragic stories. One of Daniel Petric, the teen who murdered his mother and shot his father in 2007 after they took away his copy of Halo 3, and Quinn Pitcock, the ex-Indianapolis Colts draft pick that gave up his career in the NFL after falling into a bout of depression and compulsive game playing. In the case of Daniel, Katie interviews his father and sends a correspondent to prison to interview Daniel himself. “The more I thought about it, the more I became angry. I just became very, very angry,” Daniel’s father, Mark, reflects. You can feel his anger, his loss, and more importantly you can also feel his confusion. He’s a pastor and a good father. How did he go wrong? Both stories, divorced of the structure of the show and taken on their own merit, are compelling and tragic. Mark goes on to talk about how he has forgiven his son. Quinn talks about how he took his life back. Both stories raise issues of depression, escapism and how people manage their time. Both stories could have become springboards for serious, adult discussions on parenting, mental health and compulsive behavior. Unfortunately, we got this instead: Steering the Narrative You’re probably familiar with the formula. “He/she was a good kid/student/athlete/spouse. He/she loved sports/school. Then something changed. But now he/she is repentant and here to spread the word." That’s been the cautionary tale narrative since Go Ask Alice — only the subject material has really changed. What’s so fascinating about that framework here is how many times the narrative is purposefully forced. Both Daniel and Quinn suffered from depression, but that fact is barely mentioned compared to the games themselves. There is little discussion as to the root cause of their depression. Practically no time is spent discussing the gun that Daniel’s father had in the home, Daniel's school life or the fact that Quinn also suffered from other addictions (online poker and internet auctions). At all times, the goal is simple — maintain the narrative, and keep it simple. Spooky, Scary Music and B-Roll of Angry Hands Katie’s video editors use every trite, played out editing trick in the book — Spooky, pensive music, flash edits, oddly framed shots of gameplay obliquely showing a gun and (my favorite) B-roll of angry, moodily lit hands holding game controllers shot through vaseline. They even show a flash of the box of Halo 3: ODST (a game that came out well after Daniel Petric was sentenced) and get one of their younger producers to give a brief, two dimensional explanation of ‘Halo’ and ‘Call of Duty’. If the goal of this piece was to help people with video game addiction, it fails to do so on a massive level. Not only that, it fails to even understand the games its purporting to expose on a very basic level. I Want You to Get Mad Then, of course, there are the ‘experts’. There are always experts. In this case, it was Forensic Psychologist Michael Welner and Coleen Moore, a councilor from the Illinois Institute for Addiction. At one particular moment, Katie speculates that maybe video games cause a release of dopamine and suggests that, maybe, more research is needed. Welner smugly smiles and says, "Well, sometimes research isn't needed," going on to say that Quinn's case speaks for itself and that game makers must be held responsible and regulated like the tobacco lobby. They also trot out Jim Steyer from Common Sense Media who scoffs at the Supreme Court's claim that video games are protected speech, claiming that the science in this case is as black and white as climate change. This is the actual endgame. Not compassion, not harm reduction, but blame. Why We Should Care The natural response to something like this is to ignore it in the hopes that it will go away — I know I've had that response. But the real tragedy here is that so much of this could have been good. I really do feel for Quinn Pitcock and Mark Petric. Depression and addiction are real, crippling issues for so many people, and to diminish the cause by simply looking at the symptom is blatantly irresponsible. These kind of scare stories — with their spooky clichéd music, dramatic editing and one sided thinking — will only go away if we demand something better. We need, as gamers, to expect to be treated like adults by the mainstream media, even at its lowest common denominator. We need to demand basic, competent research and an adult discourse. Because if we don't, we're going to be ignoring this stuff for the rest of our lives.

So...when? Three experts flew to Iceland to provide us with some answers. EVE Online Fanfest 2013 was host to three "Make EVE Real" panels, in which leading scientists broke down how some of EVE Online's technology may show up sooner than you think. Technobabble, ahoy!

Does Disney have another Where's My Water-sized hit on its hands with Mittens? Or does this kitten physics puzzler fall flat?