Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

Yes, that's the President of the United States of America, kicking a guy in the nuts and punching an innocent-seeming woman into a car. Don't blame me, I didn't vote for him. Coming to the Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 on August 20, Saints Row IV weaves together two completely ridiculous storylines into one. First, a member of the spectacularly well-marketed Saints Row street gang becomes president. Then aliens arrive and trap the gang in a virtual version of Steelport, where they have superpowers. It's the leadership of the free world meets The Matrix. It's the Matrix of Leadership. Arise, Ridiculous Prime.

Bethesda Softworks has announced Wolfenstein: The New Order for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and next-gen consoles for Q4 2013.

"As fans of the series, working on this game is an honor, and our team is driven to create an unforgettable action-adventure experience that will make FPS fans proud," said Jens Matthies, creative director at developer MachineGames. The studio was founded in 2009 by a group of Starbreeze Studios vets.

Brad and Vinny get locked up for first-person shooting because their lawyer used the Tower Defense.

A 32 percent drop in sales isn't enough to keep Dead Island Riptide from surviving as the UK's No. 1. A quiet week bereft of major new releases means it's a largely familiar line-up; this week's top ten features nine of the entries from last week.

Injustice: Gods Among Us makes it three weeks in the top two, while Tomb Raider climbs back up to number 3 as one of the few games to hold steady sales. As ever, when FIFA and Call of Duty are on the up, chances are there's a new releases lull.

One game that was released last week was Soul Sacrifice, with the time ripe for it to make a strong impression on the charts. Keiji Inafune's Vita game only debuted in 26th.

And it's actually from a research group called "Crazy Labo". Geddit? Crazy. Given the female name "Kaori", which can also mean "smell" or "fragrance" in Japanese, the robot is able to discern if your breath stinks or not, reports Asahi News. Breathe into the female robot's face, and if your breath is okay, she'll say. "A somewhat tart, good smell—no problem." If it's not so good, she says things like, "Your breath is kind of stinky" or "This is bad; Unbearable". And when your breath is truly awful, Kaori will say, "Declaring a state of emergency; This crosses the permitted limit". Crazy Labo also developed a robot dog that's able to tell if your feet stink. Have a look in the above video. As noted previously, there's a small subset of Japanese researchers who...seem to be interested in creating humorous, or just odd, robots and devices. For example, there was a robot butt that could be spanked and a coat able to hug lonely people. Remember, this kind of stuff is hardly typical research in Japan! Crazy Labo explicitly states it hopes to create fun products that make people laugh. This isn't serious, m'kay? But it is, as this lab acknowledges, crazy. におい判定ロボット犬、足臭いと「気絶」　高専など開発 [Asahi via 気まま] 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.

Library Wars, a new live action movie based on the anime and novel series of the same name, was released in theaters across Japan just over a week ago. It is everything from a war story to a light-hearted romantic comedy. But at its core, it remains an excellent social commentary on the dangers of censorship while still giving the viewer an engaging story. Good – Fahrenheit 451 for a New Generation Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 novel that explores a society where books are outlawed and government censorship reigns. Library Wars presents a similar world, where after certain books become banned by the national government, local and regional governments created their own laws that allowed libraries the ability to protect any book, regardless of whether it was banned or not. After censorists begin attacking libraries and burning them, the libraries formed their own armies for the sake of protecting the books and knowledge within. Set in this world, Library Wars is not only a social commentary on the dangers of censorship but also a personal story about a strong woman living life, hunting for love, and striving to find her place in the world. On the other hand, it is a war story brimming with action. In many ways, it is the perfect way to introduce the social issues in a way that will entertain both young and old, male and female alike. Good – Positive Changes In comparing the live action film to the anime, there more than a few changes—the worst of which involves the classic, cop turning in his badge and going rogue shtick. However, the rest are all for the better when making a two-hour adaptation of the story. To start with, there is far more action. Not only are the war scenes longer and more climactic, a hostage situation that ends within seconds in the manga is spun into a tense action scene that serves as the movie's climax. The other major change is the “bad guy” of the story, which was little more than a mob in the anime, now has a face in the form of a terrorist leader responsible for the burning of a library, murder of civilians, and crippling of the Library Defense Force commander. The climax of the film becomes much more enjoyable as our heroes get to face down this villain and show what they are capable of on a more personal scale. Good – The Perfect Cast The most important thing when doing a live-action adaptation of an anime with well-known character designs is to make sure the actors match those designs. The female lead, Iku Kasahara (Eikura Nana), and the male lead, Atsushi Dojo (Okada Junichi), are particularly well cast. And despite being the same height in real life, the excellent direction always manages to accentuate a large height difference between the two (a plot point in the story). The supporting cast is also quite well done with the characters being instantly recognizable to anyone who has watched the anime. Bad – Military Issues I understand that despite being at war, the censorists and Library Defense Force, don't really want to kill each other. After all, it looks bad in the press if either side is doing lots of killing. However, even I, a person who only knows about war through games and history books, know that when you have literal ranks of men approaching behind bullet shields, chucking a grenade or flashbang into their midst is going to do a hell of a lot more than shooting the shields with a sub machine gun. The lack of any kind of explosive in the war scenes is further accentuated when a flashbang is used near the end of the movie—making viewers wonder why they weren't used many times before. More than that though, the battles are set up like trench warfare, where the enemies invade from barricade to barricade, pushing toward their objective. Of course, this is more than a little silly as all the defenses are set up to face the libraries’ main gates. But as we see numerous times that there are other, often unguarded entrances (not to mention the possibility of breaking down a wall), it makes both the censorist soldiers and the Defense Force seem laughably foolish—like two ranks of soldiers lining up to shoot at each other a la in the civil war. Final Thoughts Library Wars is a movie that manages the rare feat of being both deep and entertaining. On one hand, it addresses the implications and fallout of government-controlled censorship. On the other, it presents an entertaining movie filled with entertaining action, comedic moments, and deep characters. If you enjoy action movies, romantic comedies, or thought experiments centering around censorship, Library Wars will not disappoint. Library Wars was released in Japanese theaters on April 27, 2013. There is currently no word on a Western release. 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. To contact the author of this post, write to BiggestinJapan@gmail.com or find him on Twitter @BiggestinJapan.

Last Jungle In Sector 17 is a top-down shooter with RPG and tower defense elements currently in development. It stars spacecraft pilot Ryder and his AI buddy Johnny trying to survive against an overwhelming enemy on a deserted space station. Depressing! Gameplay looks fun, though. A prototype is coming "soon."

Professional Warcraft III player Seung Hyun Park (aka "Go)Space") passed away this Monday. He was 25 years old. As MyDaily previously reported (via tipster Sang), Park suffered from muscular dystrophy, but still went on to become a top ranked pro Warcraft III player. Park was diagnosed when he was 11, and doctors didn't think he would live over the age of 20. "There is nothing I can do," Park said in a 2008 interview (via TeamLiquid). "I cannot read alone and I cannot go out. At least I can move my fingers, so I can play games. But my health is getting worse as time passes, so I am uncertain until when I can do so..." In that same interview, Park's mother said that while other parents worry about their children becoming addicted to games, she was worried about her son's fingers getting paralyzed and being unable to play. During the past few months, English language threads have been popping up (here and here), expressing concern over Park's heath. "My dream is neither to become a pro-player nor be healthy," Park said in 2008, adding that he did not believe in miracles. "But I hope to be the best player in Warcraft III, which is the only thing I can do now to make my family proud." Park didn't just make his family proud. He made all gamers everywhere proud. Rest in peace, Go)Space. Rest in peace. ‘희귀병’ 프로게이머 박승현 선수, 6일 사망…애도 물결 [Daum] [MD인터뷰] 박승현 '소아마비도 막지 못한 게임 열정' [MyDaily Thanks, Sang!] 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.

GTFO, the documentary about the relentless abuse female gamers suffer in online multiplayer, reached its funding target of $20,000. Shannon Sun-Higginson is the film's director.

Developer Backbone Entertainment planned to produce new entries in multiple classic Sega franchises, as evidenced in a gallery of images posted online by former Backbone artist Arvin Bautista.

Bautista's art showcases characters from Sega's Streets of Rage beat-'em-up series, along with a mockup screenshot from a proposed remake of ESWAT, a side-scrolling action game that premiered in arcades in 1989. The games were pitched as downloadable titles for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, though neither was officially announced. It's unknown if either game is currently in development.

Despite its Genesis-era popularity, the Streets of Rage series stumbled when it came time to transition to later consoles. A Dreamcast sequel was cancelled early in development, and though Crackdown 2 developer Ruffian Games pitched a downloadable Streets of Rage remake for current-gen consoles, a release never materialized.

Adding to the bodycount, Bionic Commando Rearmed developer GRIN was rumored to be working on its own Streets of Rage game prior to its closure in 2009. Sega itself hasn't forgotten the series, producing last year's Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage compilation for Xbox Live Arcade as a reminder, but at this point, you'd be forgiven for thinking that these streets are cursed.

The Theater 2013 packs quite a punch for a free one-man horror game—especially considering that it was made in 24 hours, and consists of walking through a corridor for five minutes. It really shows how important a good atmosphere is to the experience. It can be grabbed here, or you can watch a full playthrough above.

You are looking at what appears to be a publicity stunt. An awful, humiliating publicity stunt in which company employees in China had to crawl in public. The incident recently took place at the Chongqing People's Liberation Monument, and it was supposedly part of a training exercise for some Chinese cosmetics company. The goal was so that the employees could learn to handle stress. Or something. A crowd gathered to witness the humiliating spectacle, which eventually was broken up by the authorities. On news site Sohu.com, many readers seem to think that the whole thing was rather unsavory. "This company sounds good on paper but to do this kind of thing, disregarding employee dignity, is just down right bad," wrote one commenter. "This company should try better marketing strategies." Others were far more critical. "How dare this company do such a thing, using training and team building as a cover is just ridiculous," wrote another commenter. "Why don't these employees just refuse? Is this job really worth that much?" "This is the tragedy of Chinese companies: Chinese have to listen to their bosses," another reader chimed in. "There are no oversight or regulatory committees. This is one sad line of people." One commenter even went as far as writing: "Looking at this scene, it's really hard to disprove the statement that Chinese people have no human rights." 重庆一公司让员工绕解放碑爬行 [Sohu.com] Eric Jou contributed to this report. 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.

Meet Vanilla Chamu. She greets fellow Japanese people with a "bonjour" and claims to be from the Palace of Versailles. She's not, of course. Recently, she was introduced on Japanese TV as "Osaka's Plastic Surgery Cyborg". This past April, Chamu appeared on Japanese variety show Watashi no Nani ga Ikenai no? (私の何がイケないの? or "Is There Something Wrong with Me?"). Until this appearance, Chamu was not well known in Japan. She's a little modeling work for fashion magazines, but nothing major. This week, Japan's largest forum 2ch, rediscovered the recent Chamu TV appearance, bringing her to the most net users' attention for the very first time. On the show, Chamu talked about spending in excess of ten million yen (over US$100,000) to have over thirty procedures done. To earn that kind of money, she's worked as a hostess to save money to change her looks. Above, you can see how her appearance has evolved. In the first image, taken when she was 17, Chamu was plastic surgery free. Ever since Chamu was a little girl, she wanted to look like a French doll, which have long been popular in Japan. On the show, Chamu explained why she wanted to become a living doll, why she's had over three dozen procedures, and perhaps why she'll never be content with the way she looks. Chamu continues to get what's called "character plastic surgery" (キャラクター整形 or "kyarakutaa seikei") in Japan. The goal is too look like anime characters or, in Chamu's case, like dolls. In the past few years, more and more "living dolls" have popped up online. Some of them, like Dakota Rose, use camera tricks to pull off their doll-like appearance. Others, like Valeria Lukyanova, seem to go under the knife. As a young girl, Chamu was teased for her appearance. She was called "busaiku" (ブサイク) or "ugly". When she talked to her father about the bullying, her dad replied, "Well, you are ugly, so all you can do is suck it up." The incident, Chamu said, traumatized her. Around that time, she saw a French doll and decided she wanted to look like one. "There isn't anyone who can look at a French doll and say they're not beautiful," Chamu said on the program. On the show, however, Chamu wasn't introduced as a doll, but as a "cyborg". The obvious nuance was that she no longer looks totally human. "I want to be a living doll," she asserted, however. After graduating from high school, she got plastic surgery for the first time. And ever since then, she's continued to get more and more work done. On "Is There Something Wrong with Me?", members of the show's panel seemed disturbed by Chamu's insatiable appetite for plastic surgery, pointing out that this could eventually kill her. After talking about a leg lengthening operation, Chamu said, "Under safe conditions, I want to become beautiful". That for her isn't limited to dieting or exercise, but also includes radically changing her appearance via surgery. According to Vanilla, she won't be content until she's a perfect French doll. Seeing how Chamu sayid she was emotionally traumatized by childhood experiences, she's unlikely to ever be content with plastic surgery and her ever-evolving appearance. But at what point do her doctors tell her she's had enough? 私の何がイケないの? フランス人形整形モデルはvanilla！ [トレぴちNEWS] 整形SP フランス人形になりたい女性。[醜形恐怖症な2人の体験談と治療法] 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.

Reader Kenneth Eaton likes Shadow of the Colossus and likes the films of Studio Ghibli. Put 'em together and you get this, which I would a million times, if only it actually existed.

While commercial influences in the original trilogy are non-existant, the prequel films saw fit to properly introduce the Star Wars universe to the notion of canonical enterprise. Namely, with giant advertisements and billboards. So this clip, bizarrely, isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. Mashing together several infomercials, it gives us a rare glimpse into the world of late-night Imperial TV. Star Wars Informercials! (parody) [YouTube]

The votes have been tallied, and the results are in — U.S. potato chip consumers are boring and disappointing. The Lay's "Do Us a Flavor" promotional contest saw folks voting for one of three user-generated flavors — Chicken and Waffles, Sriracha or cheesy garlic bread. I tasted them all, and the winner was as clear as bold italics. I can only assume the mafia is involved. I mean, congratulations to Karen Weber-Mendham and all — she's scoring either one million dollars or one percent of Cheesey Garlic Bread's net sales, whichever is higher. Her kids will have college tuition and braces. Braces that will never be clogged with the residue of glorious Chicken and Waffles syrupy, greasy goodness. Just watch her, subtly dropping hints that's she's connected to "Italian restaurants." "Her entire "family" loves Italian, after all. Clearly she's a made woman, smiling and waving to distract from the dark-haired, Tommy gun-toting men in her wake, stuffing the ballot boxes. Okay, so the vote took place on the internet. The imagery is still shocking, even if it's completely implausible. I guess this is the end, Chicken and Waffles potato chips. I fought for you, but ultimately the tweets and Facebook posts were not enough. I know we didn't have much time together — I only ever got the one bag — but you taught me so much. You deserved this. From humble beginnings you rose, fighting against overwhelming odds. You were unphased by the trendy Sriracha crowd. You looked the Cheesy Garlic Bread mafia in the eye and never once flinched. You paid the ultimate price for your strength of character and skillet-leavings taste. I will never forget. I may not have your taste on my lips, but I'll always have our song. Carry it with you to your eternal rest, my sweet and savory prince.

Dan LuVisi is a concept artist who has worked in motion pictures, advertising and comics. He's also done some video game work, for companies like Microsoft, Collission Games and Acony, the now-closed developers of Bullet Run. A reminder: Fine Art showcases not just an artist's professional work, but their personal projects as well (like his own graphic novel), so not everything you're seeing below is the result of LuVisi working on the comic or movie in question. Pro artists are allowed to do fan art too, you know! You can see more of Dan's art at his personal site, DeviantArt page and CGHub profile. To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the bottom-right corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!

I use that term loosely, though, because while the day-to-day operation of it will certainly save you valuable time and effort, designing and building it must have taken some work! Built by Finn zwenkka over the Winter, the LEGO contraption uses Mindstorm kit and an Android app to control a 20-disc carousel that can spin, insert and remove discs from the system. Where was this for Mass Effect 3? Or Lost Odyssey? Lego NXT Xbox 360 Disc Changer "The Carousel" [YouTube, via Reddit]

It's my favourite time of the year. The time when, like clockwork, Japanese indie gaming store Meteor holds its annual Famicase exhibition, which brings together artists from all over the world and asks them to design fake Nintendo games. The label art they design on old Famicom cartridges can be political, funny, realistic, attractive or all of the above if they want. The only point is that the game be fake, and that it look awesome. While most submissions are in Japanese, there's a sprinkling of Western contributions as well. Since each piece of art has to be accompanied by a "pitch" summary of the game, they're worth checking out. Congrats to reader (and comics artist) Vittorio Giorgi, too, who took part with a submission of his own, which he says was "an inside joke about an old Famicom game, Hokkaido Serial Murders". It's the first image below. Famicase 2013 [Meteor]

The news that EA has locked down the rights to Star Wars games has, understandably, been met with a fair amount of backlash. Electronic Arts is far from people's most trusted and beloved publisher of video games, and fans are worried this will somehow be bad news for the future of Star Wars video games. But is it all bad? Not at all. In some ways it's the best outcome we could have hoped for in, given the realities of big business, a fairly awful situation. Here's why. Disney was never going to break this up. As the owners of Star Wars, Disney was never going to offer the rights off individually to various publishers on a per game basis. It was only ever going to sign a bulk deal like this, lock somebody in for the long haul, and given the popularity of Star Wars, only a handful of publishers would have been able to afford it. Maybe even two. The other being Activision. Would you have preferred that?These are good teams. EA is a terrible publisher, and for the most part, I'll agree with people who mistrust them and straight up dislike them. But at the same time, the specific studios named to be working on Star Wars games today have some of the best track records in the business in spite of that. There could be a lot worse developers out there working on new Star Wars games than the companies behind the various Battlefield games and Dead Space. Indeed, put it that way and it almost seems like a best-case scenario. Almost.Think about those studios. They have specialities. If DICE don't end up making some kind of Battlefront replacement, using their Battlefield experience, I'd be very surprised. Or, if not that, then at least a decent shooter from the Bad Company team. Ditto for Visceral; we've had loads of quality Star Wars games over the years, but a quality survival horror experience hasn't been one of them. The benefit of the deal being such a big one looks to me like Disney is seeking to cover multiple bases with multiple projects catering to different genres and markets. So we'll get a shooter, yes, but other games like RPGs and horror games as well, hopefully.It's not like Star Wars games have been setting people's pants on fire lately. When was the last time you played a truly great Star Wars game? Force Unleashed was OK. Republic Commando was pretty good. Before that, well. It's been a very long time. How is EA getting the rights to these games any worse than the situation we had previously, where Lucasarts sat on the license and either farmed it out for shovelware or released shoddy sequels?These aren't kids games. They're not Facebook games. Disney will be handling the lighter stuff on their own. This deal is specifically for "core" games, the kind you'll play on an Xbox, a PlayStation or PC. Since that's a section of the market Lucasarts mostly ignored over the last decade - and since it's likely the section of the market you belong to - that's good to hear. Of course, I'm a hopeless optimist. I always hear about deals like this and hope for the best because, well, that's how my mother raised me. I'll grant you, though, that there are also potential pitfalls ahead. DRM. Always-online. DLC. Rushed annual releases. Ceaseless microtransactions. In-game advertising. You know, the bad stuff people associate EA with. The company has surely learned valuable lessons from recent disasters surrounding SimCity and Medal of Honor, but you can never be sure. If we start seeing Lightsabers® powered by Energizer™, it's time to bail.BioWare. Five years ago, news BioWare were working on a new Star Wars game would have made fans go bananas. But the BioWare of 2013 isn't the BioWare of Knights of the Old Republic. The company is spread - perhaps too thinly - over multiple teams, all of which have had a few black marks against their name lately, from Mass Effect 3's ending to Dragon Age 2's step backwards to Old Republic's colossal waste of resources. That makes going bananas a less immediate inclination.Movies. It's easy to get carried away and start hoping for strong new takes on the Star Wars universe, or true continuations of series like KOTOR, but at the same time, there are new Star Wars movies coming. Lots of them. For every decent/good/awesome game we get, we're just as likely to get a movie tie-in. Call me naive, call me a hopeless optimist, but as someone who's played a ton of Battlefield and Dead Space over the last few years, and who has yearned for someone to stand up and start making serious Star Wars games again in the absence of any real drive or ambition from Lucasarts, I'm quietly pleased - if not ecstatic - with today's news. (top image by MasterChef_117)

We've gotten glimpses at Cello Fortress before, but it'd be understandable if some readers still had questions about how the game works. Four players with controllers take on… an improvising cellist. Okay, that's amazing. But how does it work? Here's how. The cellist can choose from a number of pre-set options like "High, fast notes" or "Low Chords" to get the red enemy on screen to adopt a different tactic. The players have to work around what he's doing, coordinating with their teammates while also listening to the music to anticipate his next move. I particularly like that there's a special melody that clears out half of the screen. The Melody of Doom! The game, created by Proun creator Joost van Dongen, is only playable in installations on a tour. You can find more information, including tour dates, at cellofortress.com. To contact the author of this post, write to kirk@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @kirkhamilton.

What if video games were drugs? Then we'd all be screwed. Dorkly seems to have the answer for the closest parallels of what games would be which drugs—and they're on-point and effin' hilarious. Check it out. Minecraft Pokémon World of Warcraft Civilization Dance Dance Revolution Temple Run Half-Life Videogames Are Drugs [Dorkly] Image credit: Shutterstock

If you should wind up in the custody of the CIA and withhold information during an interrogation, expect to be strapped to a chair with your eyes pried open and this video running in an endless loop on all four walls. YouTube insane person The Pixeltripper took all 65 episodes of the first three seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and compiled them into one video. Seven rows of eight, one row of nine. Fifty hours of rendering. An eternity of suffering.

…well, it'd look something like this. This video comes to us from GameBill Studio, who combined assets from Mario and the classic Neo-Geo series Metal Slug as well as some other classic games, to come up with Super Mario Slug X. I'd play it. To contact the author of this post, write to kirk@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @kirkhamilton.

A little more than two weeks after its big, albeit imperfect 2.0 update to SimCity, EA is preparing to roll out a new update that's full of even more tweaks and fixes. Update 3.0 is coming this week. Will this be the one??? Patch notes, straight from EA-owned SimCity development studio Maxis: Update 3.0 Notes• New: Added more Hotel models to increase hotel variety. • Traffic: Updated routing system to improve traffic. Routing system now understands more information about u-turns, required vehicle stops, and vehicle behavior on certain road types. This should make traffic smarter. • Traffic: Commercial and industrial buildings stagger their work shifts to start throughout commute hours instead of at the top of the hour. This should reduce traffic. • Traffic: Fixes one issue where a car won't move causing traffic to back up behind it. • Traffic: Vehicles can now make right turns on Red. This should improve some cases of traffic. • Traffic: Trading polish that will improve regional traffic when one city has a lot of jobs and its neighboring city has a lot of workers. • Air Pollution: Fixed more issues where cities that placed air polluting buildings received large amounts of air pollution from unknown sources. • Service Vehicles: Fix for disappearing service vehicles on cities that whose vehicles had disappeared before update 2.• School Buses: Fix for issue where school buses were getting stuck at neighbor's city or arcology. • Audio: Tuned audio on French Police Station. • Trading: Fixed issue where fire servers were not trading consistently between Brakeman's Folly and Twain in Whitewater Valley. • Trading: Sewage trading: Sewage will now take a more direct route to regional sewage plant instead of throughout the city. • Trading: Made gifting more reliable. • Ferry Terminal: Ferry Terminal can now send its sewage to the output pipe and treatment plant. • RCI Tuning: Fixed issue where sims going to a park via transit would sometimes lose their money or happiness on the way home. • RCI Tuning: Bulldozing abandoned or rubble buildings will now prevent new developments for 6-12 hours. • RCI Tuning: Less Happiness is taken from wealth 2 and 3 buildings when rent is due when no money is present. • RCI Tuning: Fix for issue some users experienced where buildings would stay abandoned because moving trucks would not be able to move in. • Trees: Trees now last longer, but also do not eliminate as much ground pollution. • Radiation: Radiation causes less ground pollution than previously. • Transit: Changed thought bubble suggestion to add more trains to deal with crowded passenger trains to suggest that you add more train stations. • Transit: Improvements to lights to make rail look better at night. • Transit: Streetcar stops can now be placed directly on standalone streetcar tracks, and passengers can walk along the tracks to them. • Transit: Tuned the chance buses or streetcars will go to high-traffic stops first as a minor traffic improvement. • Roads: University pedestrian paths can now cross streets. • Manufacturing Trucks: Fixed issue some users experienced where manufacturing trucks left the city and were lost permanently. • Delivery Trucks: Fixed issue where some users would experience a loss of resources is their delivery trucks returned to garages without proper storage. • Sports Parks: Tuned the amount of skateboarders and neighborhood athletes at the sports parks. • Data Layers: Zones are now visible in heavy data layers. • Edit Mode: Added more valid snap points in edit mode. This improvement is most noticeable on Parks. • Buildings: Addressed some cases where buildings would stack on one another. I really hope the right-on-red thing is the big change that will fix traffic. Crossing fingers...

Playing a horror game as a toddler already sounds, well, kind of scary. Know what could potentially make the experience even scarier? Virtual reality. Here's Krillbite Studios, walking us through what Among The Sleep is like on the Oculus Rift VR headset. While it might look silly to play like this, it seems as if experiencing the game with the Oculus Rift might be the best way to go. Among The Sleep Update #2 - Oculus Rift [Krillbite Studio]

Funny you should ask! He is element number 91, abbreviated to Go. That comes via the "Periodic Table of Middle Earth," an amazingly thorough creation from the LOTR Project. The project, headed up by Swedish chemical engineering student Emil Johansson, is dedicated to assembling an exhaustive amount of data from J.R.R. Tolkien's worlds and creating detailed timelines, maps, genealogies, and, well, a periodic table. You can order the periodic table as a poster to hang on your wall. I'd love to see someone rewrite a passage from one of the books like the Breaking Bad opening credits, highlighting the element abbreviations in all the names. Check out the whole thing below (click to embiggen), and head on over to LOTR Project to check out the other stuff Johansson is up to. Via Geeokologie. To contact the author of this post, write to kirk@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @kirkhamilton.

I've always wanted to headline an article "Box Catches Cat." Now, finally, my moment has arrived, thanks to YouTuber SirAshquatch. It's nice to see someone else agrees that many of life's most triumphant moments deserve their own victory music. Thanks to io9's own Meredith Woerner for sharing.

Newly formed Precursor Games is seeking $1.5 million to make its episodic horror game come to life.

You can now watch the "Hotheaded Developers Rant Back" panel from the Game Developers Conference. Panelists like Eric Zimmerman, Anna Anthropy, Kellee Santiago, Anna Marsh, Naomi Clark and Mitu Khandaker all talked frankly and often rousingly about issues ranging from poor planning to crunch time to racial and gender inclusivity in games. Rant-panel veteran Chris Hecker gave an outstanding guest rant in which he didn't say a word, and the whole hour captured this year's GDC's overarching push for change.