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Hapless runner QWOP reached the end of the Android track this week, and is out now on the platform courtesy of Noodlecake. For 99 cents you can take on Bennett Foddy's popular frustra-thon, in which you try to steer an incredibly awkward Olympic sprinter forward and avoid the inevitable plummets to the floor. It's also an unerring snapshot of Joystiq's daily morning run, and by daily we mean that one day it happened.

Around the middle of this past anime season, I called Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet one of the five anime you should be watching—and with good reason. While it's not as action-filled or plot-heavy as some anime this season, it is filled with interesting themes and enlightening allegories for those willing to dive in. Good –A Struggle to Find Yourself On the surface, Gargantia is a fish-out-of-water tale following a mecha pilot, Ledo, who crash lands on humanity's long lost home world, earth. But instead of the abandoned, frozen world he was taught to expect, he finds a watery planet where the remnants of humanity live in giant floating cities. But it's not just a change in scenery that shocks him but a change in culture as well. While humans in space are 100% utilitarian (aka born and bred for specific roles and are killed if “defective”), the humans on earth tend to follow our modern day values. Thus Ledo finds himself in a society he can't understand—literally, at first, as he doesn't even speak the language. Moreover, he discovers that he is unsuited for life on earth—that even the most basic of jobs (unrelated to what he trained in) are outside his capability. And moreover, he learns that much of what he “knew to be true” was, in fact, not. Thus, behind the sci-fi plot, Gargantia is really just an allegory for growing up, leaving the controlled world of school, entering into the real world, and realizing that it's far different from how you were always told it was. On this level, it's a universal story about something we all must face and strikes a great emotional chord because of it. Good – A Messed-Up Twist [To avoid major spoilers, skip to the next section.] As the man behind Gargantia is Gen Urobuchi—the writer of Saya no Uta, Madoka Magica, and Psycho Pass—a messed-up plot twist was pretty much a given. And Gargantia doesn't disappoint. Eventually, Ledo learns that the enemy the humans in space have been fighting for generations, the whale/squid-like Hideauze, are actually just a race of humans who have genetically altered themselves to survive in harsh environments—like the ocean or deep space. Of course, he learns this after massacring not only hundreds upon hundreds of them but also their children. The scene is as shocking as it is horrible; but it not only serves to make a point about the dehumanization that often accompanies war but also serves as a catalyst for Ledo's personal growth into adulthood. Good – A Super Weapon Changes Everything Another diligently explored theme in Gargantia is how the existence of super weapons can rapidly and catastrophically change the world. The arrival of Ledo and his mecha, Chamber, on Gargantia destabilizes an entire region. Gargantia itself suddenly goes from a peaceful, non-threatening city, to a fortress capable of unparalleled destruction. Pirates, religious zealots, and even the various factions of Gargantia battle both overtly and covertly for control of the mecha and its pilot. Moreover, Ledo's burning need to kill the earth-based Hideauze potentially ends a peace that has lasted for generations. Just look to the history of the Cold War to see what happens in this situation on a real-world scale. Mixed – More About Themes than Plot In all honesty, the basic plot of Gargantia is rather cliché. After all, “a civilized human living among the savage natives—only to learn their ways and eventually side with them against his own people” is the basic plot of Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, and Avatar, just to name a few. But as you may have gathered from reading above, Gargantia is an anime where the plot is only the surface layer—a framework to explore various issues and themes. The characters are more developed than the plot, but they, too, are used as tools to explore these themes. Thus, if you are watching for plot alone, little beyond the two major plot twists will seem anything but predictable. Final Thoughts Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet is an anime that is far deeper than it appears on the surface. If you like to think about and dissect your anime, this is a must watch. And even if you don't, you may find the characters and the very world it explores make it more than worth a watch. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet aired on Tokyo MX in Japan. It is available in the United States with English subtitles on Crunchyroll. 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.

Yuri Seo is a voice actress for League of Legends. She's also a cast member of Saturday Night Live Korea. And recently, she conquered Facebook. When the fourth season of SNL Korea was getting underway, all the cast members were told to promote SNL Korea on Facebook—well, except her. Seo wrote on Facebook (via tipster Sang) that her feelings weren't hurt, because she didn't have that many Facebook followers and wasn't that well known on SNL Korea. She had just started the previous season and was never really given anything to do. So, perhaps, SNL Korea thought few people visit her Facebook page, so why bother? However, Seo decided to do a Facebook stunt of her own. She told her Facebook followers that if she got more than 10,000 Facebook likes, she would cosplay as Janna from League of Legends, one of the characters she voices in the Korean version. Well, not only did she get ten thousand Facebook likes, she got way more. Currently, her Facebook page has over 80,000 likes! And now she's appearing in a Hyundai ad with other SNL Korea cast members. All of this apparently makes Yuri Seo the first voice talent to crossover to the Korean mainstream. Voice actors and actress have never been mainstream celebrities in South Korea. Until now. 서유리 (yuri seo) [Facebook Thanks, Sang!] @yuri_voice [Twitter] 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.

It's Friday! Time to relax. Time to unwind. Time to giggle. Online in Japan, a collection of "awful" or "terrible" pics are amusing and delighting internet inhabitants. Previously, Kotaku posted some interesting Twitter images from Japan. Daily life in Japan is rather pedestrian and normal, but those Twitter images were anything but. Ditto for these! Some of the images were taken in person, while others were spotted on TV. Some are new, while others are internet favorites in Japan. Have a look: Photos: yucho_ri, arasifan02, kstmk2, naonoto, manaka_de_ikuno, Kataoka_k, kaaaaaaai, k_shijimi, pleist, 0G_Naver, saki8_jp, maikasung, yagitao, yunio_uniqlo, 8zz, moritakisetsu, Matome, 5mm4u, Matome 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.

Chinese television is pretty bad, being mostly propaganda mixed with some weird socially obnoxious reality shows, revisionist historical dramas and terribly butchered movies. But what seems to have drawn the ire of the Chinese State media this time around is the state of animation in China. Recently, China Central Television, AKA CCTV (poor abbreviation choice or genius decision?), began running commentary on the faults of China's TV animation. In their commentary, CCTV said that about two thirds of the animated shows on Chinese television were unsuited for broadcast and were teaching children the wrong things — whatever those wrong things may be. The only major animated series that (kind of) avoided scorn was Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, which gets a free pass due to it being a popular Chinese-made cartoon series. In one instance, CTTV's channel 2 (there are 15 CCTV channels) news anchor goes on a long tirade about how bad cartoons are for children and how the animators should be ashamed of themselves. She then posits her parenting theories onto her audience saying that children might emulate what they see on TV. China has long been on a quest to create its own animation industry. Japanese animation and Western animation (mostly from the US) have been the mainstay of Chinese television. Many young Chinese people grew up watching Doraemon, Slam Dunk, Ninja Turtles, Smurfs and the like. When KungFu Panda was released in China it sparked criticism against the Chinese animation industry. Many people were upset that China couldn't create a good cartoon about China (not that KungFu Panda was about China per se). So what is it that has the State media so riled up? According to CCTV, there are seven major "crimes" that animation is acting upon society. The following is the seven "crimes" and the corresponding animated series that CCTV used to depict the issue. Teaching violent behaviorAccording to CCTV, cartoons are too violent and have led to more children injuring themselves emulating what they saw on TV. As an example, CCTV brings up Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf (even though it was mentioned as one of the good examples of TV cartoons), where titular character Big Big Wolf is usually being beaten on the head with a frying pan whenever he fails to catch Pleasant Goat. Over simplifying bodily harmCCTV says that cartoons provide children with an unrealistic view on pain. Using Tom and Jerry as an example, they argue that children will risk hurting themselves because there are no consequences in the cartoon world. Improper use of fireCartoons don't impart any form of fire safety. It's very interesting that CCTV would use Tom and Jerry instead of Pleasant Sheep and Big Big Wolf considering that two children almost burned to death from emulating that show. Uncivilized languageSupposedly cartoons in China are teaching children to swear or talk like sailors. Using the Chinese word for "smelly/stinky" as a derogatory termThe Chinese word for smelly/stinky, 臭, also means bad. In common vernacular people use it to say someone is bad or something is terrible. CCTV says that cartoons are teaching children to use the term in the wrong way. Mischievous scenariosCCTV says that shows like Crayon Shin-Chan promote pranks. Dressing and looking too much like adultsThis message is a bit unclear; it almost feels like CCTV is trying to say something about sexualization in animation. They end this scene with the line "they're better off dressing like children."Sexual InnuendosCCTV doesn't really explain this one. It's actually quite interesting that right after making a point to say that Pleasant Goat and Big Big Sheep was a good show for children, the first slide for cartoon violence used the show as an example. In my opinion Pleasant Goat and Big Big Sheep is a terrible show, it's not even fun to watch when heavily medicated. On top of the blatant flipflop on what constitutes a good show, CCTV only lists two Chinese-created animation programs, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Sheep and Xiong Chu Mei. The bulk of the shows CCTV used as examples were from Japan and America. CCTV's absurd crusade to clean up Chinese animation has led some non-State media to point out that China doesn't exactly have a TV ratings system. One can argue that China doesn't exactly need one since everything is run before the State censors before broadcast but that doesn't really explain how Crayon Shin-Chan is shown to children. Chinese video game and entertainment news website 173173.com reports that China's lack of a ratings system is hurting the development of China's own animation industry, and that it's silly to denounce animation as just a medium for children. 173173 correctly points out that shows like Crayon Shin-Chan were originally meant for adults. Whatever the result of this crusade against animation may be, there is one thing I know will happen — Chinese animation and animation lovers will lose. A few months back I met a professor at the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts and we talked about the state of Chinese animation. He said that after decades of aiming to create something that is Chinese, China created Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. He said he found it very pathetic; almost as pathetic as saying Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf was morally good before using it as an example of animated violence. 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. Eric is Beijing based writer and all around FAT man. You can contact him @FatAsianTechie@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @FatAsianTechie.

Microsoft is currently accepting sign-ups for their public Xbox Live Update 2013 beta. "It will include updates to improve overall performance and the ability to conduct transactions with local currency," wrote Microsoft. If you're interested, you can apply via the Xbox Beta Program tile on your Xbox 360 dashboard.

Shadowrun Returns is out later this month, but Loserific here has his hands on the game's alpha, and has recorded half an hours' worth of footage for your enjoyment. You can get your hands on it yourself on July 25, because...well, that's when the game is out. Shadowrun Returns LP- Life on a Limb - Episode 1 [YouTube, via Pocket Tactics]

Canberra, Australia is a city of few highlights, but one genuinely cool thing it does have going for it is the Australian War Memorial. A place that now houses in its collection surely one of this century's greatest works of art. The image up top is a painting by Aussie artist Baden Pailthorpe, called Colour study (Top Gun). And while it looks like a gradient splosh of paint, it's actually the entire 1986 Tom Cruise movie crammed onto a single canvas. How'd he do it? He broke the movie down into frames, then collapsed those frames "into a single image, averaged according to the colour value of each frame". Once you know that, you can see it. Or...see the bits where they're flying in the desert and the bits where they're flying over the ocean. His website describes the result as "a condensed visual essence of the entire film. A reference to the true nature of moving images as illusory series of stills, this image is everything that Top Gun is not; slow, meditative, deeply rich and quietly intense." Um, excuse me, there is no scene more "deeply rich" or "quietly intense" in all of cinema than this. Top Gun [Baden Pailthorpe, via Canberra Times]

Joe Gloria is a freelance concept artist who most recently worked on Assassin's Creed IV. You won't find any art from that game here - most of it is still under lock and key since it's not out yet - but you will find some awesome fighter jets, future cities and fantasy landscapes. My favourite? The RPG tribute up top. Who knows, if we're lucky maybe one day a Western developer will take a page out of Okami's book and do something that actually looks that cool. You can see more of Joe's work at his personal site and CGHub page. 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!

Digital artist Little Miss Paintbrush drew and transformed all the major Studio Ghibli characters into the most charming form possible. They look spectacular together. Without Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind though—it was created before Ghibli—it feels a bit incomplete. Little Miss Paintbrush [Tumblr] To contact the author of this post, write to gergovas@kotaku.com

Maybe you want to bask in the memories of the openings of all the games you played back in the day but don't feel like digging out and hooking up your old systems, if you held onto them at all. Title Scream is here for you. This visual archive holds dozens (hundreds?) of opening screens from the old-school games of previous console generations. The interface is impressive as is the fact that some of these screens animate the way they used to on an NES or Genesis. Carve out some time for browsing because this is a black hole of nostalgia. You won't be able to resist its grip.

Forget paintball on the fourth of July/Canada day—today, hardcodedchannel uses fireworks for their forest warfare. Clearly, they're either feeling extra festive or extra awesome. Fireworks Warfare [hardcodedchannel]

Happy Fourth of July and welcome to Ask Kotaku, where I answer all of your random questions. Keep the questions coming in for next week, and don't be afraid to have fun with it! You can ask me anything. Who would win in a fight, a ninja or a zombified lion? What's the best hangover cure? Is eating baby food weird? Anything! Let's move on to this week's questions... Balancing A Busy Life With Playing Video Games Well... my whole life I've been this huge gamer. And recently I've met friends who play video games, but they aren't the video games I like. And their personal feelings towards the games I like is totally negative. They only like to play Guild Wars 2 and Battlefield. And I can't really stand those games. We do play Diablo 3, but that is the only game we agree on. They are also married with kids. We're all in our upper 20's too. I'm also moving soon. I'm going to Nursing school for my BSN and I have almost all the course work done for med school too. So that's an option. I'll get a BSN in 1.5 years. But here's my dilemma: I'm moving to my first real place, away from my good friends (who don't play the games I like), and I'll need to focus on my career. But at the same time I'm still a huge gamer. I love video games. And I wonder what should I figure out for myself? Since you guys work in the industry and I'm basically the guy who goes to like 50 or some odd release dates. I figure you guys know more of these philosophical/being a gamer type of thing. Should I just play the stuff I like when I have the free time? or should I just up and quit? If I become a Doctor I might not have time, but then again once I'm done as a nurse I can play on my free days. This is hard. I don't want to quit gaming, but I want my career and life to move on with itself. What would be your professional opinion? Most people I've met in college don't seem to love gaming as much as I do either. Any suggestions I would be most kind. Don't up and quit. Gaming is obviously an important part of your life, and there are always ways to make it fit within your schedule. If you have to downsize, so be it. Life shifts up and down, so some months or even years will be more hectic than others, and that's reasonable. Everyone goes through that. My suggestion to you is to play the games you're interested in when you've got some free time. Don't gamble too much on games you're not sure if you'll like, unless you have good reason to. Your time is about to become very precious, so treat it as such. Avoiding Spoilers *CAUTION: SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US IN THIS QUESTION* This is my first time asking a question, so bear with me. Anyways, recently with the release of games like The Last of Us and such, I've had a hard time dealing with spoilers. Trailers give away too much (I knew that she survived until winter because of a picture against a snowy background) and press releases can give too much information about plot. How do you deal with spoilers and new videos whilst remaining excited about the new game coming out? Even as someone who covers the video game industry, I somehow manage to avoid (most) spoilers. I'm truly amazed myself. A few things will slip through, of course, and a few trolls will manage to spoil some things for you, but for the most part you should avoid areas of the Internet where you know you might be most prone to those reveals. For instance, if I want to go into a game not knowing much of it, I usually avoid comments and threads discussing it because not everyone is as careful with the spoiler tag there. Reading sites like Kotaku, I will sometimes altogether avoid trailers and news if I see fit. I had to skip all of Kirk's The Last of Us stories until I finished just this last weekend. First thing I did after finishing was hop on our tagpage for the game to read everything we've written about it. Typically press releases and news outlets know better than to spoil the bigger details. Sometimes mistakes happen, or someone will reveal more than you personally wanted to know. I often watch movies without any idea of what they might be like. I don't watch many trailers and I certainly don't read up on them beforehand. I like it that way. You just have to do the same. If you see an article about The Last Of Us on Kotaku, for instance, just avoid it completely (if that's the game you want to keep unspoiled). It's better safe than sorry. When I see people tweeting about the Game of Thrones finale while I'm waiting to watch it with a friend, I'll just avoid Twitter that night. Gamer Pessimism I'm 25 years old, and as well as that makes me not necessarily an old timer I have been around games my entire life, to say it's something I enjoy is a complete understatement. Lately though, I feel as if a large portion of the gaming community has this strange sense of entitlement, that I don't remember the community having that I grew up with. I remember rushing through the store to spend my hard earned $7.50 on the latest Tips & Tricks or GamePro. Hardly ever would I open it to read the letters gamers sent in and see anywhere near the pessimism that is seen in such outlets today. Do you think it is soley the rise of the internet and anonymity that has led to the rather pessimistic attitude by the gaming community at large? I guess the short version is sometimes I feel that the gaming community has lost some of its ability to actually just play and enjoy video games. Perhaps I'm letting this get to me a bit much, but do you ever feel it's hard just to objectively enjoy your passion, especially with being at the brunt of the negativity? (By brunt I mean working in Journalism, I don't mean any negativity associated with Kotaku.) I think it's a general case of the Internet. It partially has to do with anonymity, but I think that veil creates a bigger issue of vitriol than just normal negativity. It's fine to have dissenting opinions. It's fine to disagree and argue, even. But you don't have to be a jerk about it. Hiding behind a computer screen makes it a lot easier to be a jerk. Half the things people say on the Internet they would never say to each others' faces. As to why there seems to be a constant air of pessimism on the Internet, especially within gamer communities, I think it's the result of misplaced passion. Ultimately, we do all love games. But everyone's got an opinion on everything, and they're always right and you're always wrong. We've slipped into this binary thought process that's incredibly damaging to the sorts of conversations we could be having in place of all the inflammatory wars that happen instead. That perspective—that each person wholly believes that they're "right" and everyone else is "wrong"—is where the entitlement comes into play. They feel entitled because they feel they're right. There's no room for discussion, and anyone who disagrees is an idiot and that's that. It's a very dismissive attitude. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think gamers as a whole are entitled or pessimistic or jerks. But the Internet sure does have a way of bringing those people out to the forefront. One of the most encouraging things to me, however, has been interacting with gamers in person. Playing games together. Hanging out with them at PAX. Everyone is friendly and wants to talk about all the things they love and are even capable of friendly debate. I kept this week's Ask Kotaku shorter, but I'll have plenty more next week. Keep emailing me those questions! And have a good long weekend. Thanks to my friend Black Lite Attack for the Titanic joke, and Shutterstock for the base image. To contact the author of this post, write to tina@kotaku.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.

I know how it is. You've got a house to expand, public works to develop, stuff to buy—whatever your reason, you need bells, and you need bells bad. No worries. I'm here to help you make bank in New Leaf. The Basic Stuff When you start out—before you have the island unlocked—the best you can do is to rely on old-school methods. You'll want to make sure you bang every rock you come across with a shovel, because there's a daily money-spawning rock and a gemstone rock—as I mentioned in my original tips article. Sometimes you might even get a rock that spawns multiple gemstones instead of multiple bags of money, which is great. And, naturally, you'll want to search for fossils—these can fetch some decent bells, too. In addition to that, any fruit that's not native to your town will sell for 500 bells each at Re-Tail, meaning that every tree of non-native fruit nets you 1.5k bells each. It's dependable (non-perfect fruit regrows every few days), and you don't really have to do anything after the initial fruit acquisition and planting. Not bad. If you manage to get a "perfect fruit," you can sell these for 1,000 each—but the trees have a very limited harvest. Then, of course, there's basic fishing and bug hunting. It's in your best interest to get acquainted with the prices that stuff sells for—the easiest way to do that is to simply look it up. The Animal Crossing Wikia is a good resource for that; eventually you'll start remembering the stuff that's worth good money and the stuff that's not. You'll probably want to avoid stuff like sea bass, horse mackerel and the common butterfly—heck, if you're meticulous, you might want to avoid catching anything that's under 500-1,000 bells. It takes up valuable space in your inventory that can be taken up by something else! Note that you can make fishing easier on yourself by unlocking the silver and gold fishing rods—these rods attract fish better than the standard one does. The silver fishing rod is available for sale at the museum gift shop, which is a public works project that you can eventually unlock. The Stalk Market If you're willing to take a chance, there's always the stalk market—Joan, a boar, appears in your town every Sunday morning to sell turnips. They're not cheap, but you can resell them at Re-Tail; the resell price fluctuates every day—which means you could get lucky and get a lot of money back if the price gets high enough. If you do go this route, make sure to visit your friend's towns and see what the turnip prices are there, too. Some people like to mess around with turnips, but I personally don't like to have to wait for a return, or that I have to make an investment. Beetle Hunting And that's why I think the next method is the best method: beetle hunting at the island. Beetles, on the whole, give you a fantastic return. The only thing you need is 1,000 bells, which is the price of transportation to the island. That's easy to make back, it usually only takes one beetle. You'll want to head over to the island at night, which is when the beetles like to come out and play. To give you an idea of how many bells we're talking about, here are some prices: Scarab beetle: 6,000 bellsDynastid beetle: 1,350 bellsMiyama stag beetle: 1,000 bellsSaw stag beetle: 2,000 bellsGiant stag beetle: 10,000 beetlesRainbow stag beetle: 10,000 bellsGoliath beetle: 6,000 bellsAtlas beetle: 8,000 bellsGolden stag beetle: 12,000 bellsHercules beetle: 11,250 bellsCyclommatus beetle: 8,000 bellsElephant beetle: 8,000 I said you were going to make bank, didn't I? Yeah. Imagine an inventory full of these babies—you can take 40 items back with you. Anyway, these beetles like to spawn on tree trunks or palm trees—you'll want to shoo out any lesser bugs, like roaches, fruit beetles and the like so that something better can spawn. You might also notice that the beetles are huffy and will fly away if you shuffle too much from far away, so you'll want to get into the habit of walking on the island. Once again, this game hates running! Additionally, you'll want to make sure you approach beetles carefully; if you hold the A button down while holding a net, you'll go into the closest thing the game has to sneak mode. You'll hold the net up and approach stuff cautiously, which makes it easier to get close to bugs and line your net up. Stuff spawns rather quickly on the island, but you'll still want to walk around the entire island to make sure new stuff appears. This'll also give you a chance to check if there are any sharks in the water—these also net you lots of bells (so do moths, lantern flys, and generally, big butterflies.) If stuff seems to slow down and few beetles appear, you might want to head back inside the building on the island, and then come back out—it'll respawn everything. If you're meticulous, you'll want to make sure that what you bring back with you is all high-priced. I don't have the patience for that, and tend to come back with a load that's worth about 150,000 bells after about 15 minutes of work. If you're willing to put in the time and effort, weeding out anything that's not expensive, you can easily come back with a load that's worth up to 400,000 bells. You might want to set the town ordinance to "Bell boom," which will give you 20% more bells on anything you sell, in order to ensure you'll get a lot of money for your efforts. You'll want to sell at Re-Tail, too, not the Nook's shop—Re-Tail tends to give you more bells. Keeping all this stuff in mind, you should be able to make lots of bells easily. Just don't get carried away—stuff is less fun when it starts to feel like a chore! Now get out there and make some bells.

Recorded inside the ArmA 3 beta, this video gives us an insight into what would happen if Bohemia Interactive lost their minds. In a good way. RabbitZ | ARMA 3 ZOMBIE RABBIT APOCALYPSE [YouTube]

He fights for freedom wherever there's trouble, G.I. Joe is here, on iOS and soon Android devices. Without the support of this top secret fighting force, multiple fictional universes would have been crushed under Cobra's fashionable heels, so I celebrate our U.S. Independence Day by playing a game released by a Japanese company that hopes we're so heavily invested in nostalgia that we'll heavily invest in virtual currency. G.I. Joe: Battleground is developed by the folks at Mobage, owned by Japan's DeNA, the same company that brought us Rage of Bahamut, one of the highest grossing free-to-play mobile games of all time. Whenever I write about a Mobage game, readers recoil at the mention of the name, as if in fear of their very wallets. It's quite possible to play and enjoy a Mobage game without spending a single dime. The aversion, I think, comes mainly from the more competitive gamers, who realize the only way to top the leaderboards is to top-off your in-game currency. It's no different with G.I. Joe: Battleground. I've been playing regularly since the game appeared in iTunes early Wednesday morning, and I've not dropped a dime. I've only collected 49 of the 275 characters included in the game at launch, and very few of those are rare, and when I get into a PVP battle against a player who has invested, I am demolished. But PVP is a mere sliver of what's going on in the game. I can handle a little failure. What kind fo game is Battleground? Anyone who has played Mobage's popular Blood Brothers, will be instantly familiar with it, as it's pretty much the same game with a G.I. Joe makeover. It's a variant of the collectible card genre, where instead of tapping on a static screen to complete missions, players' Cobra or G.I. Joe squads actually traverse levels laid out like a board game. There's a stamina meter, which dictates how many moves the player can make. Should the step into the same spot with an enemy, a battle ensues. Characters in the player's party attack and unleash special attacks automatically — there is no direct control during battle. Once a battle is won (knowing factors heavily), each character in the party earns experience points, as does the player. Sometimes they'll be given the chance to capture enemy units, adding them to their collection. Missions are a means of collecting loot — money, consumable items, and objects used to recruit new characters. Collecting these characters, culled from multiple series starting with the original Real American Hero cartoon, are the prime reason for playing the game. Or at least that's the case for me. I don't care much about player rankings. I'm not too worried about merging cards to power-up my characters, or sacrificing lesser units to increase the special skills of more powerful ones. I understand the allure, but I'm really in this for the nostalgia. I want a collection of G.I. Joe biographies at my fingertips. Sure, they're are plenty of online databases filled with such things, but where's the collectible fun in that? Again, this is a Mobage game, which means I'm not going to complete my collection unless I spend money on acquiring rare cards. It also means frequent updates packed with fresh(ish) characters, new adventures, and special events that really drive the nostalgia home. I think I've got the self-control to stick with this without terrorizing my wallet. I leave you all with the unmistakable, inspiring battle cry of the finest fighting force ever assembled. COBRA-LALALALALALALALALALALALA! G.I. Joe Battleground Genre: Collectible Card RPG Developer: Mobage Platform: iOS, Android (Coming Soon) Price: Free Get G.I. Joe Battleground on iOS

If you want to look at how much things have changed over the last decade and a half of gaming, look no further than the tutorial level. I love tutorial levels. Everything's new and exciting, and there's a new trick or move to learn around every corner. And there were no more glorious tutorials than during the rise of the PC FPS in the late 90s and early 2000s. One of my favorite tutorial levels is above. It's the introduction to Monolith's 2000 first-person shooter The Operative: No One Lives Forever. Longtime Kotaku readers will know that this game is near and dear to my heart, and after a lengthy Twitter digression last night I decided the time had come to dig up my old copies of it and its sequel and play through them again. (I know, I know, I've already listed a billion games I'm playing during the July doldrums. But these ones need to be played.) I'll have more on both NOLF games soon on Kotaku, but for the time being, I just wanted to reflect on this glorious introduction tutorial. First, the game shows you how to open a door. Then, how to talk to a dude. Finally, how to skip a cutscene. That's it! End tutorial! While recent games have gotten some mileage out of tutorial-humor lately (I'm looking at you, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon), I can't imagine a modern game doing something like this. Even No One Lives Forever 2 embedded its tutorial within its opening level. But I'll always love the tutorial training gauntlets of old. Especially when they feature NPCs wearing Groucho glasses.

Killer Is Dead is the next game from Goichi "Suda51" Suda, the Japanese designer best known for stylish action games like No More Heroes and Killer7. It'll be published by XSEED in North America, and it's out on August 27 for PS3 and 360. Those are the basics. I got my hands on Killer Is Dead a few weeks ago at E3, and although I didn't spend much time with it, enough Kotaku readers seem interested in the game that I felt like I should share some basic impressions. Some things you should know about the game, based on the few minutes I spent with it: It's an episodic game, and there are 13 chapters. Each takes place in a different location, XSEED tells me. The last one is on the moon.You play as a nerdy Japanese businessman with glasses and a robot arm. He is a composed killer. He is very good at slashing things with a katana, and he's rather different than your average dudebro action hero.When your guy defeats enemies, he sucks up their blood and fills up what's called the blood meter. When that meter is full, he can go into overdrive and kill enemies faster.In many ways Killer Is Dead reminds me of 2011's very-underrated El Shaddai—the stylized cel-shading, the crunchy hack-and-slash battles, limit-break-esque special powers. It's neat.The level I saw was set in Japan, and there were cherry blossoms everywhere. We had to find a bunch of scrolls, beat up a bunch of baddies, and then assassinate a boss.This boss was a Japanese gangster—or yakuza—on a tiger. First we had to chase him down and slice him down in a FFVII-motorcycle-like mini-game, and then we had to beat him down, but not before he... well, you know what, I won't spoil it for you. It's a fun experience. That's Killer Is Dead. I'm digging what I've seen so far, and I'm looking forward to playing more next month.

It's not all about Fang, certainly. The trailer is themed around Lightning's appointment as the world's savior and her "divine mission" to save its inhabitants, but Fang's few-second cameo is certainly a pleasant surprise. Square-Enix will release the final part of Lightning's story for PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 11, 2014.

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: JollyBootsOfDoom deeply regrets the way he treated the citizens of three video game towns; BattleBorn talks about his favorite video game villains, and AstroKid248 looks into what kind of real-world skills one can pick up by playing video games. And you can always go join the voices talking about video games and life in TAY Classic and in the TAY: Open Forum.

King's Quest. Space Quest. Leisure Suit Larry. Quest For Glory. What do these classic PC adventure games have in common? They were all published by Sierra On-Line. Now, a group of filmmakers want to look beyond the games and examine the legendary publisher's people and history in a feature-length documentary. The catch, because there's always a catch, is that Molotov Angel Productions, the creators of Heroes, the History of Sierra On-Line, need a little bit of help. Via Kickstarter, the group is currently attempting to raise $125,000, which they're planning to use to turn the interview footage they already have into a professionally-edited documentary. They're also planning to hire a composer to create an original score and, when the documentary is done, to initiate a marketing campaign to spread the word about the film. With thirty-two out of thirty-five days left, the project so far managed to collect a meager $5,500. If the short clip up top piqued your interest, or if you're just a fan of classic adventure games and want to know more about how they came to be, you can take a look at the project here. The History of Sierra On-Line through a Documentary Film [Kickstarter] Questions? Comments? Contact the author of this post at andras-AT-kotaku-DOT-com.

Welcome to Earth, so long as said Earth isn't simultaneously clipping into a black hole.

If you were wondering how long it would take Disney to really grab the Star Wars franchise by the neck and start squeezing, the answer is: not long! This (admittedly slick) clip is a tease for a Star Wars "takeover" of Club Penguin, Disney's kid-centric online game. Yup.

Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is known for iconic anime like My Neighbor Totoro. He's also known for telling it like it is. If he thinks using the iPad looks like masturbation, then he's gonna damn well say that. But this time, he's talking about voice acting—cutesy voice acting that he finds "unbearable". Recently, Miyazaki divulged his thoughts on voice actors. According to the director, the animators must rely on the skill of voice actors. They're necessary! "But, of course, at times it can be frustrating in some respects," Miyazaki added (via Excite). In particular, Miyazaki explained, it can be frustrating when the voice actors want their presence to be felt by others. (It sounds like Miyazaki is frustrated when the voice actors don't try to sell the character, but try to sell themselves instead.) "Especially the young women's voices," Miyazaki continued. "It seems like they're all speaking with an 'Aren't-I-so-cute?' voice. That's unbearable. I always want to do something about that." And for much of his career, Miyazaki has, sometimes choosing non-voice actors to star in his films. And when he does use voice actors, whether they are male or female, Miyazaki is able to get natural sounding performances from them. His upcoming picture, Kaze Tachinu, looks—and sounds—to be no exception. 宮崎駿は、声優のスキルについてどう考えているのか [Excite] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.

After an official release announcement, followed by a long day filled with server crashes, bug fixing and careful testing, Picroma's online store is officially back online, and Cube World, their voxel-based adventure-RPG sandbox, is available to purchase. Still, developer Wollay maintains in his blog post that in case of overly high traffic, the shop might be disabled again. He also posted a list of frequently asked questions to help out with any issues people might be having with the game. So, there you have it. Cube World is out, go get it—but not all at once, for goodness' sake. Cube World: Demo & Alpha out now! [Cube World Forums] Shop open again [Picroma] Buy Cube World [Picroma] Questions? Comments? Contact the author of this post at andras-AT-kotaku-DOT-com.

A duel between Mr. Fantastic and Dhalsim would be interesting, thanks to their similar elastic abilities. Maybe we'll see them both in a future Marvel vs. Capcom fighter. Until then, it's Flyingmouse365 who's playing with the idea of their meeting. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and art that we can find. Send us suggestions if you've got them.

Does Giant Bomb's 2012 Game of the Year work on a telephone? Well, yes... technically.

Stilton Armor... The flying city of Grana Padano... These are just a few of the ideas for an RPG being posted on Japan's major internet billboard, 2ch. The title of the thread started out as little more than a musing, "Don't you think a lot of names of cheeses sound like they'd show up in an RPG?" (チーズの名前ってRPGでありそうなのが多くね？). The original poster started the random brainstorming session with the idea for the "Evil Lord Gorgonzola" and the other commenters just took it from there. From items and cities like the Magic City of Camembert, the Legendary Sword Roquefort, or the Sunken City of Danablue, to individual characters such as the Pirate Captain Monterey Jack, or the Traveling Performer Pecorino, things got pretty creative. The Spirit Spear Parmesan, the Rod of Mimolette, Cantal the Moving Fortress, the spunky villager Ricotta, are just some of the more interesting ideas that were brought up. Said one commenter: "What the Hell is this thread? I really want to play this game." One commenter replied to the idea of a Blue Cheese Forest saying: "Seems stinky." Yet another lamented: "What the heck can you do with Brie?" Another one remarked: "Why do you all know so many different types of cheese?" If you think about it, a lot of cheeses DO have names that sound like they could show up in a fantasy RPG... Orda, Esrom, Brunost... You can almost see a game where the hero travels the Oscypek road from the ruins of L'ami du Chambertin to seek the aid of Provolone, the Mermaid of the West Sea in a quest to defeat Edam, the All-Creator... Somebody needs to make this game. But would it age as well as some good cheeses? チーズの名前ってRPGでありそうなのが多くね？ [2ch] 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 cogitoergonihilATgmail.com or find him on Twitter @tnakamura8.

Douglas Engelbart, one of the great pioneers of computer science, has passed away at his home in Atherton, Calif. He was 88 years old. While he's credited with helping bring about several fundamental computing innovations, from graphical user interfaces to hyperlinks, his most lasting achievement was the work that led to the invention of the computer mouse. In the video below, you can see the first mouse in action, shown off as part of a 1968 demonstration. This demonstration, part of the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, was one of the most important in computing history, as it marked the public debut of hyperlinks, text editing and windows. Engelbart is survived by his wife and four children. Douglas C. Engelbart, Inventor of the Computer Mouse, Dies at 88 [NY Times]

According to the official site, it looks like famed anime director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor, etc.) is involved with the live-action Patlabor movie. That's good news! The movie is due out in 2014.