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Plastic surgery? That's an app for that! In South Korea, there are apparently many apps for that. And according to Korean newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun, their popularity is making some individuals worry. As The Economist (via KoreaBang) pointed out last year, South Korea is the most surgically enhanced nation on Earth, passing countries like Greece, Brazil, and the U.S. But plastic surgery apps are not a new thing—and they are not unique to South Korea (case in point). So what's the big deal? Some Korean smartphone apps like "Plastic Quote" (pictured) give price quotes for various procedures. Other apps, like, give prospective patients the ability to upload their photos and augment their appearances. Then, there are apps that show before and after photos. According to Livedoor News, popular plastic surgery apps rack up over 100,000 downloads. As previously mentioned, these apps exist outside South Korea—there was a big glut of them in 2011. The concern, however, is that these are part of a larger problem in South Korea. What's more, these apps make it seem like plastic surgery is all rather easy, and don't take into account things like patient counseling. 성형 권하는 ‘성형어플’ “수술 조장” 우려 목소리도 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun via Livedoor via 2ch] Photo: Podgate 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.

Frontiers, that "Elder Scrolls at a leisurely pace" game we showed you last month, now has an IndieGoGo campaign. If you saw the clip and felt like giving someone money to get the game finished, now's your chance.

Kiwi band Delete Delete and effects house Effective...Effects teamed up on this clip for the group's song What Do You Take Me For? It's not so much a thinly-veiled tribute as a flat-out homage, and makes me wish this was actually a Vita game so bad. Delete Delete - What Do You Take Me For? [YouTube]

Many companies have released many takes on the Predator franchise over the decades, but sadly, none has ever given us what we really wanted: little plastic renditions of the entire assault squad from the first movie. So thank you, djblizzard, for finally delivering the goods. The custom toy builder has made his own squad of misfits and Predator bait, taking the new NECA Dutch figure as a starting point before building out the entire outfit, right down to Dillon and Jesse Ventura himself. While the accuracy of the outfits and gear is great, it's the faces that really get me, how he's managed to capture each likeness right down to their expressions, even on such small figures. No guarantee, as nice as they are, that these figures will make you a Goddamm sexual tyrannosaurus. Custom NECA Predator Dutch's Team - DJBlizzard Customs [The Fwoosh, via Toycutter]

Once was a time you could actually play games that involved planning an attack against terrorists/criminals, then swiftly executing it. SWAT, Rainbow Six, they were good times. Times that were seemingly long gone as games like Rainbow Six become more about shooting than planning, but nope, Door Kickers is bringing them back. And using just about the perfect title in the process. It's a little more basic visually, but everything else is right up the alley of those former genre greats, as you set waypoints, breach doors and synchronise attacks to bring down bad guys and keep good guys alive. Door Kickers is currently up for voting on Steam's Greenlight, but you can also preorder and play the game (alpha) from the developer's website.

Reader Chris, who was kind enough to share with us some footage of Skyrim running on the Oculus Rift, has been kind enough to humanity to build Nintendo 64 game support for the virtual reality headset. He'll be opening a beta in July, but for now, check out some footage of N64 games like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and...Pokemon Snap running with full head-tracking, along with more surprise features he'll be announcing closer to the beta's release.

I don't normally showcase too many furries here on Fancy Pants, but I'm making an exception today. Actually, two exceptions. One for some amazing League of Legends cosplay (Charr), the other for what is easily the best Skyward Sword costumery you'll ever see. Also, that Zant? Spell-binding. 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. Fancy Pants is Kotaku's weekly round-up of the best in video game cosplay (costume play), where fans dress up as their favourite characters. As seen on temperance. As seen on MaiseDesigns. As seen on subitoallegra. As seen on Sherlockian. As seen on LilleahWest. As seen on DalinCosplay. As seen on VelaSama14. As seen on shinigami714.

It's one of the most iconic logos in all of pop culture, right up there with - ahem - Disney's branding, but for the longest time, Star Wars enjoyed a mish-mash of logos and title fonts, a mess that, believe it or not, wasn't locked down by Lucasfilm until well after the first film's release. Changing names from The Star Wars to Star Wars, changing fronts from Futura to Helvetica, anyone who's followed the history of the series will know that early promo material and posters for Episode IV could be sporting one of 3-4 title logos. It wasn't until Suzi Rice was approached by George Lucas to come up with something "fascist" - a fascinating story in its own right - that we got the logo we know today. You can see some of the major changes above, but for the full list, including some bizarre iterations used for stuff like novelizations, check out a big write-up at Tenth Letter of the Alphabet below. Anatomy of a Logo: Star Wars [Tenth Letter, via Boing Boing]

One of the best things about driving games on the PC is that they're not all about racing sports cars. There's stuff like Euro Truck Simulator. And now this, Spintires, which is basically a game about trying to keep trucks on the road on some of the world's worst roads. It's a hardcore all-terrain simulation, tasking the player with performing seemingly mundane tasks like navigation and...driving on a road, but which become tough thanks to things like weather, lighting and, most important of all, a ridiculously realistic driving model. The developers are currently looking to fund completion of the game on Kickstarter, but you can try it out now with a downloadable demo. Spintires — The ultimate off-road challenge! [Kickstarter]

This is far from the first idea for force feedback clothing we've seen over the years, but it is the most ambitious. What you're looking at here is the ARAIG Exoskeleton (As Real As It Gets). It's made up of three layers (a hardware decoder, undersuit and exoskeleton), and is designed to accurately provide feedback to the user depending on what's happening in a game, whether you've been shot, pushed or blown through a wall. The suit includes a microphone and surround speakers, and the way it's made the developers claim it'll work with "any console or peripheral, any genre or game". ARAIG is currently being kickstarted, and if it meets its $900,000 goal, the first suits are slated to begin shipping out in December 2014. ARAIG - As Real As It Gets [Kickstarter, via PC Gamer]

Bigs ideas abound in Capcom's dystopian vision of Paris. But can the game match its ambition?

A week from today, the Giant Bomb staff, alongside pretty much the entirety of the greater video game industry, will descend upon Los Angeles, CA for the 17th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo. This will be my 13th trip to the show in 14 years. Granted, for the early chunk of that time, I wasn't really "covering" the show so much as I was "sneaking into the show with fake credentials," but even without a real need or purpose for being there, I still had the opportunity to witness numerous consoles, publishers, and franchises parade themselves in front of the gaming audience in the hopes of capturing just a bit more of the industry's collective attention.

My first E3 was in 1999. All I remember is the Dreamcast stuff, playing WCW Mayhem, and watching a friend win a Michael Buffer sound-alike contest.

This year's E3 promises to be an especially intriguing one. It's been eight years since the Xbox 360 first ushered in the last console generation, and seven since the PlayStation 3 and Wii essentially solidified it. For the first time in a long while, we are on the cusp of a "next-gen," and suddenly there is an electricity in the air that's been all but absent the last several years. While I feel bad sort of dismissing the Wii U's debut last year, it seems to me that most people are far more intrigued with the possibilities of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 right now, since those systems represent the kind of technological leap one associates with a proper console generation evolution.

New console E3s are totally different beasts from the rest. There is a palpable sense of heated competition prevalent in those years, one that generally cools off when there isn't new hardware to huck. Moments like the Kinect and Move bumping up against one another pale in comparison to the kind of heated rhetoric that tends to arrive once companies have to try to prove that their shiny new box is the most important of all shiny new boxes.

While all new console E3s are generally pretty exciting, there is an overwhelming sense of grave importance that seems to be hanging over this year's show in particular. All anyone seems to want to talk about lately is how dire the console market situation is right now, and while some of that is hyperbole, generally, there is cause for concern. Microsoft and Sony are butting heads directly with two boxes that may prove expensive and potentially alienating, depending on how each of their various services shake out. Meanwhile, Nintendo stands in the corner, politely smiling and pointing to its several-months-old system and all the new games it plans to have for it, simply hoping that anyone will pay attention to them.

In anticipation of the show, I thought it might be fun to dig through what we know about each of the major companies' E3 lineups, make a few predictions, and generally just discuss what we'd like to see at the show. So, without further ado...

Microsoft

Hey, everybody who freaked out that Microsoft hardly showed any games at its May 21 unveiling event, guess what? Microsoft's gonna have some games at E3.

Now, whether or not they're games you'll want to play or not, that's another situation entirely. We, in fact, know very little about Microsoft's E3 game lineup. Because of the delay in getting the Xbox One out there, developers were forced to keep their XBONE (nope, not dropping that abbreviation any time soon) games out of E3 judges week. What we do know is that there will be several games, and they won't all just be EA Sports titles and Call of Duty.

A new Killer Instinct game would be interesting to think about, but really, we all know what the world needs is a Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts sequel.

Remedy's Quantum Break will most likely be one of them, though given the studio's penchant for "extended" development cycles, they may not have a ton to show just yet. Forza Motorsport 5 will definitely be there, probably in playable capacity; but again, this is a known quantity. Crytek's Ryse will also be there, though I haven't seen a great deal of cause to get excited about that one, yet.

While I expect the remainder of the XBONE lineup will be peppered with various action games and Kinect-friendly family fare, I expect at least one or two loops to be thrown. We still have no idea what Rare is up to, except that it is working on a new version of a "historic" property. Depending on who you ask, that sounds like it could be a reboot of its Killer Instinct fighting franchise, or maybe even some new Perfect Dark thing. It's probably not a Viva Pinata or Banjo-Kazooie game, as much as the latter would delight me.

Just don't expect to see anything about TV or sports league partnerships. Microsoft is back on the offensive now trying to win over the people they inadvertently pissed off with their first conference. Now Don Mattrick is talking about investing "$1 billion" into new games for the system, and basically everyone over there is trying to Wayne's World ending their way into a totally different narrative for the system. We'll see if it pays off or not when we actually see the games.

Sony

We actually know a lot about Sony and its forthcoming lineup. Sure, we haven't seen the PS4 box yet, but if there's a more overrated piece of information out there when it comes to new consoles, I've yet to see it. Otherwise, we know of several games that will likely be shown in greater detail. Stuff like Knack, The Witness, Infamous: Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall, and DriveClub seems all but assured to put in some kind of appearance on the show floor, either in theater-demo, or possibly even playable form. Hell, it even sounds like we may get to see more of whatever Squeenix has cooked up for Final Fantasy on the PS4, and maybe if we're lucky, Capcom will even have more of Deep Down to show.

That, of course, doesn't leave a lot of room for surprises. There seems a likelihood that Sony will treat things like the box unveiling, tech involving the new and improved Eye, and other miscellaneous details left out of the first briefing with some importance. That might mean we're in for a bunch of games we've seen already in some capacity, which would be a minor bummer. Still, there's plenty of room for third-parties to swoop in and show off a few more projects. I'm not necessarily holding out any hope for a Last Guardian PS4 demo, though. Sorry.

Excited as I am about PS4 stuff, I'd love it if Sony had one more big push for original Vita games, before inevitably relegating it to the role of an expensive PS4 accessory.

This does, sadly, leave us with the gaping wound that is the current state of the Vita. We'll definitely get to see more of Media Molecule's Tearaway, and probably one or two other things we don't know about. Still, the total lack of chatter around that system right now is deafening. I'm not trying to discount the totally decent selection of indie games currently available for it, but in terms of the major publishers and developers, Vita versions of games recently sound like total afterthoughts, if they even exist at all.

I do not want this. I like the Vita a great deal. Technologically, it's the best handheld system I've ever owned. It just doesn't have enough games to justify spending much time playing with it. I'm all for these PS3/Vita split games, and while the "mandatory" PS4 remote-play support thing is a nice, if slightly beside-the-point kind of gesture, that isn't necessarily what I had in mind for the system when I bought it. If I really wanted a system with remote play, I'd have invested in a Wii U by now (I haven't).

Nintendo

And then there's Nintendo. With no new console hardware to show, and no press conference to tout, Nintendo is perhaps in the strangest position of any company this year. The Wii U continues to flounder, though on the horizon there are several major games headed for stores this year. Unfortunately, many of them are hitting this fall, during a time when they will be forced to vie for limited holiday dollars against two new mammoth pieces of hardware.

Granted, at least several of those games look good-to-great. Pikmin 3 has never looked anything but delightful, though it's not the sort of game that will likely move units on its own. The same goes for other familiar games like The Wonderful 101 and Game & Wario. More likely, it's going to be the stuff we sort-of-know-about-but-haven't-really-seen-yet that's going to have to make the case for the Wii U. Whatever's next from the Mario Galaxy team, the new Mario Kart, and Sonic Lost World will have to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Other big games, like Smash Bros. and whatever the new Zelda ends up being, will undoubtedly churn some excitement out of the audience as well, but there seems to be little expectation that we'd be seeing either of those until 2014 at the earliest, which doesn't really help Nintendo's immediate problems.

Nintendo has plenty of big, familiar brands ready to appear at E3, but I'm personally hoping for at least one surprise, out-of-left-field debut. Perhaps something from Retro?

Nothing from that list depresses or worries me. Those are all known quantities in one way or another, and all those games should be expected to do well (or, at least, as well as a Wii U game is capable of doing). My worry is the total, utter lack of surprise in any of it. We all know Nintendo is primarily a nostalgia marketer, but that isn't really enough anymore. If people still bought Nintendo consoles just because they were Nintendo consoles, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. The expected no longer translates to automatic interest, and while I expect that Mario, Zelda and Smash Bros. will all do very well, short of insane overhauls that I don't think will happen, we'll still be experiencing some version of that which we already have.

My hope is that Retro's new game, which is purported by some to be an all-new IP, will be a solid kick in Nintendo's creative junk. New IPs are always risky and don't always engender huge sales relative to the initial interest they tend to draw, but Retro's a damn good studio, and there's reason to hope that whatever they have cooked up will be of interest. This, of course, assumes that what they're working on will even be ready for E3, which is anything but confirmed at this point.

As for the 3DS? It's fine, and Nintendo doesn't seem terribly panicked about it. While I'd love to see some diversity in lineup there as well, I expect we'll be getting a lot more of the expected stuff for the system from both Nintendo and third party publishers. Again, with no reason to worry about that system's health at the moment, there's not much reason to diverge from the current path.

Third Parties

With the consoles taking center stage, third-party publishers are a bit more in the background this year. Some, like Take Two, have chosen to skip the show entirely. Most everyone else is on-hand, albeit with perhaps fewer games to show overall, as we make the transition into a new console generation.

EA is maybe the most interesting of the bunch. Not necessarily because of their lineup, which will assuredly be heavy on both sports titles and Battlefield 4, but more because they're in the most unique position. Having just announced the acquisition of the Star Wars license, EA won't have anything to show for those games except for perhaps a bit of explaining about what directions each studio assigned to the games (DICE, Visceral, and BioWare) will be heading. Need for Speed: Rivals will almost assuredly be there, as apparently will Dragon Age 3, and perhaps even the still-rumored Mirror's Edge 2, which apparently EA inadvertently put up a help page for last week. Hey, stranger things have happened.

A new Mirror's Edge at E3? That's no less believable than any of the other rumors floating around right now.

There is also the matter of that Respawn game, which EA is publishing. Most recent rumors have that title, reportedly codenamed "Titan," appearing potentially as a Microsoft exclusive, though little has been learned since those rumors first popped up. It seems likely that the game would appear at one of the major conferences, but whose, and in what context, we most definitely do not know yet.

Ubisoft will come with its expected lot, showing off more of Rayman Legends, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Assassin's Creed IV, and Watch_Dogs. Presumably they will also have more of South Park: The Stick of Truth to show, which hopefully will also come with a release date (finally). There is also reportedly a new game from the studio behind Driver: San Francisco, rumored to be called The Crew. That could be cool.

Beyond them, it seems like it'll be a lot of one-and-two-game showings from other publishers. Warner will have Batman: Arkham Origins and Techland's new zombie parkour thing, Dying Light; Activision will have Call of Duty: Ghosts; XSEED will have Killer Is Dead; Square Enix could have Thief on-hand in addition to its Final Fantasy stuff; Konami will have the one-two punch of Metal Gear Solid V and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2; Deep Silver will have more Saints Row IV to show; and Capcom will have a few different things, though it's highly unlikely that any of them will be Resident Evil 7. Maybe that's for the best right now.

Beyond all of that, there will most certainly be a few surprises, a few disappointments, and a few curious no-shows. Everything we do and do not know roughly adds up to a show that should be very exciting. I have hope for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to impress, and even some hope that Nintendo's fortunes could be turned around with a strong showing. It's going to be hectic, brutal, and, with any luck, a whole lot fun. Even after all these years of attending E3, I still can't wait to get there and get going. I expect this year's show to be the good, the bad, and the weird all wrapped up into one, and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

As always, you'll be able to follow along with us at home through our live coverage, video interviews, and yes, even written coverage (*gasp!*) from the press conferences and show floor. Hopefully you're looking as forward to our coverage of the show as we are to actually covering it.

--A

Note: There will be no Guns of Navarro next week as the staff prepares for E3. However, if you would like to participate in the following week's edition, send your post-E3 questions to alex@giantbomb.com, and he will amass them for a big ol' after-E3 blowout.

Shortly after opening their Steam Greenlight campaign for the game Paranautical Activity, the two-man studio Code Avarice got a phone call that would have made any indie's day: It was Adult Swim, offering to publish their game on Steam. Yeah, well, not so fast. As Code Avarice's Mike Maulbeck and Travis Pfenning explain in that video above, when Adult Swim—taking a chance on a PC title after dealing mostly with flash and mobile games—went to pitch Paranautical Activity to Steam, they were told no dice. "[Steam's] response was basically, 'We don't want to send the message that indies should seek out publishers to get around Greenlight,'" the duo recalled. Valve, through spokesman Doug Lombardi, confirmed the gist of the statement to PCGamesN. "Our message to indies regarding publishers is do it for your own reasons, but do not split your royalties with a publisher expecting an automatic ‘Yes’ on Greenlight.'" Maulbeck and Pfenning are not happy. "We've got a Greenlight campaign that we haven't even touched in months, and now we have to resurrect it from the ashes," they said. They asked Adult Swim if it would work to promote their Greenlight campaign to get the game on Steam and the response was, more or less, no, because Adult Swim doesn't want to get sideways with Steam/Valve. "We haven't officially decided if we want to go with them," the said. "The fact we have to get on Steam with our own two feet," after getting this kind of an offer from a publisher, "is really a kind of bummer." Valve to indies seeking publisher deals to bypass Greenlight: "do not split your royalties with a publisher expecting an automatic ‘Yes’." [PCGamesN]

IGN's favorite NFL linebacker returns to give his take on the Xbox One reveal.

Maybe I was a little hard on the "X-Box," a cozy, if insane, contraption being sold for $2,500 in Youngstown, Ohio. It does come with an A/C unit, though I'd be glad to ditch that for a wet bar (and just open the fridge if it got too hot.) Anyway, I know how I can make amends with the seller: 'Shop Contest! That thar's your exploitable, so my advice is to go in the direction of kart racers and Need for Speed. Obviously, hilarious cameos on the inside are a useful angle, too. (Cool Hand Luke hint hint spends a night in the box hint) But anything you want to put it in, put it on, or put in or on it, go to town. Go forth and bring me funny. Source Image: The "X-Box." While most of you are smart enough to figure out how to upload images, here are some simple steps to take for those less familiar with the practice. 1. Create your 'Shop and save it to your desktop. 2. Go to the bottom of this post and click "Discuss." 3. This brings up a comment window. Click the icon that looks like a picture. 4. This brings up another window called "Insert Image." Click "Choose file" if you're uploading your 'shop from your desktop 5. Alternatively, you can upload the 'Shop to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. Then paste the image's URL into the field that says "Image URL." Note: this must be the URL of the image itself, not the page where it is displayed. That means the URL ends in .jpg, .gif, .png, whatever. 6. Add editorial commentary and hit submit and your image will load. If it doesn't, upload the image to imgur and paste the image URL as a comment. I promise I will look at it. 7. I'm not sure if we still have file size restrictions under Kinja but it's probably a good idea to keep your image size under 1 MB. This is especially true for animated .gifs. If you're still having trouble uploading the image, try to keep its longest dimension (horizontal or vertical) under 1000 pixels. Alright! Have at it. Thanks very much for your participation. To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.

This behind-the-scenes video for Castle of Illusion shows the developers at Sega reflecting back on the original game and how some of its elements will translate to the remake currently in development. Castle of Illusion is coming to PS3, PC and Xbox 360 this summer.

Welcome to Kotaku's Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published May 27. Read more of Corpse Run Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published May 27. Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published May 27. Read more of Awkward Zombie Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull. Published May 30. Read more of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things Brawl In The Family by Matthew Taranto. Published May 31. Read more of Brawl In The Family Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published May 30. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Brentalfloss the Comic by Brent Black, Andrew Dobson and Dan Roth. Published May 27. Read more of Brentalfloss the Comic Virtual Shackles by Jeremy Vinar and Mike Fahmie. Published May 29. Read more of Virtual Shackles Nerd Rage by Andy Kluthe. Published May 31. Read more of Nerd Rage To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.

Andrew Scott Reisse, an accomplished developer at Oculus VR, the company behind the virtual-reality Oculus Rift headset, was killed in Santa Ana, California on Thursday. He was an innocent victim of a police chase gone horribly wrong. Reisse was apparently out for a walk when an alleged gang member, fleeing the police in a Dodge Charger, allegedly barreled into the intersection of Flower Street and MacArthur Boulevard, hitting and killing the 33-year-old developer. The driver may face murder charges, according to ABC News. Oculus CEO Brenden Iribe and chief software architect Michael Antonov issued the following statement to Kotaku about Reisse on behalf of all of their company : Andrew was a brilliant computer graphics engineer, an avid photographer and hiker who loved nature, a true loyal friend, and a founding member of our close-knit Oculus family. Some of us have known Andrew since college, and have worked with him at multiple companies beginning with Scaleform in Maryland which he helped start at age 19, then at Gaikai in Aliso Viejo which brought him out to California, and finally at Oculus where he was a co-founder and lead engineer. Andrew's contributions span far and wide in the video game industry. His code is embedded in thousands of games played by millions of people around the world. Words can not express how sorely he will be missed or how deeply our sympathy runs for his family Andrew will always be in our thoughts and will never be forgotten. We love you Reisse. We at Kotaku would also like to wish our condolences to Reisse's family and friends. To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo.

Without a doubt, Call of Duty Dog stole the show at Microsoft's big Xbox One reveal, and not for all the right reasons. The law of unintended consequences dictates that one of them is appearance in the Kotaku 'Shop Contest. Who's a good 'Shopper? Who's a good 'Shopper? Yes you are, Sciteach! Yes you ARE! For starters, this week's contestants were working from these images. Source Image: Who's a good doggie? Who's a good doggie ...? Source Image: CoD Dog doing mocap (closeup) Source Image: CoD Dog doing mocap (longer shot) And now, the finalists! Archonios arniejolt Atomrocker Bino556 GiantBoyDetective HampstaSandwich HarrdeeHarrHarr jaepro JulesGM nicp1112 Pedro Silva Phaydii punkpolitical sciteach uscg_pa To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.

MIT's OpenRelativity engine, designed to model Einstein's special theory of relativity in a video game, now is being released as an open-source toolset. It is available for download here.

Regular TechSpot readers will have no doubt spotted several mentions of Haswell on our front page this year. In the past few months we have covered everything from model names to performance and battery life claims. A key focus has been Haswell's graphics, with rumors suggesting its performance is set to be 2 to 3 times that of current HD 4000 integrated graphics. So what is Haswell exactly? It is Intel’s 4th generation Core architecture which will see a major refresh of the entire Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 product lineup in 2013. Whereas last year’s Ivy Bridge was a "tick" release, Haswell is a tock and traditionally that's meant a more significant advance forward. Efficiency and graphics have remained key areas of focus for Intel in the last couple of generations and Haswell is no different. Intel did claim that Ivy Bridge was a "tick+" due to the more significant overhaul to the graphics side of things. Even so, despite providing up to twice as much graphics performance as Sandy Bridge under certain scenarios, it was still very underwhelming 3D rendering power when compared to discrete solutions. And the time has finally come. Haswell is ready to be unveiled, along with Intel’s latest on-die GPU solutions. Today we'll only be checking out the new HD 4600 Graphics which comes as part of the high-end Core i7-4770K desktop processor. Faster HD 5000 Graphics and Iris Graphics 5100 and 5200 solutions will also become available starting today. As expected, the most powerful integrated graphics solutions are being reserved for processors designed for mobile devices, such as Ultrabooks. 4th Gen Intel Core CPU Family The Haswell lineup is comprised of several desktop and mobile Core i7 and Core i5 processors that will effectively replace most of the current offerings under those series. Core i3 variants will make it to market later in the year. The new Core i7 desktop processors include the Core i7-4770K, i7-4770R, i7-4770T, i7-4770S, i7-4770 and i7-4765T — all selling for $303 except for the i7-4770K that sells for a slight premium at $339. The Core i7-4770K and i7-4770 are identical in almost every way with a few exceptions. The K version comes with an unlocked multiplier and is 100MHz faster out of the box. The Intel vPro/TXT/VT-d/SIPP technologies have also been removed from the K series. The Core i7-4770S and i7-4770T are members of the low power series and as such the TDP has been reduced from 84w down to 65w and 45w, respectively. A determining factor in achieving this lower consumption is a lower CPU base frequency, reduced from 3.50GHz to just 3.10GHz for the i7-4770S and 2.50GHz for the i7-4770T. All Haswell Core i7 desktop processors feature 4 cores with 8 concurrent threads when using Hyper-Threading. The Core i7-4770K operates at 3.50GHz with a Turbo Boost frequency of 3.90GHz, while the non-K version features the same Turbo Boost frequency with a base clock of 3.4GHz. They are designed to work with DDR3-1333/1600 memory and feature an 8MB L3 cache. The most interesting of the Core i7 range is the 4770R, which operates at 3.20GHz with a Turbo frequency of 3.90GHz and uses the BGA package. This model dumps the HD 4600 Graphics used by all other desktop Core i7 processors and instead opts for the more powerful Iris Pro Graphics 5200. The only downside to this chip is the L3 cache reduction from 8MB to 6MB. Intel is also offering a lower clocked model, the Core i7-4765T which has a TDP of just 35 watts and comes clocked at just 2.0GHz with a 3.0GHz maximum Turbo frequency. Then there is the new Core i5 series which features the i5-4670K, i5-4670 and i5-4570 processors priced at $242, $213 and $192, respectively. There are also the Core i5-4670T, i5-4670S, i5-4570S, i5-4570T and Core i5-3450S low power models. We know, it gets very confusing, so let’s talk about the standard processors first. All standard Ivy Bridge Core i5 processors carry an 84W TDP and feature four cores and four concurrent threads. The only Core i5 processor to differ from this configuration is the i5-4570T which features two cores with Hyper-Threading for four threads. The Core i5 range is clocked aggressively: the i5-4670K and i5-4670 operate at 3.40GHz with a Turbo Boost frequency of 3.80GHz. Meanwhile the i5-4570 is clocked at 3.20GHz with a Turbo frequency of 3.6GHz. All Core i5 processors feature a 6MB L3 cache, with the exception of the i5-4570T, which has been downgraded to 3MB. All desktop Core i5 processors use the HD Graphics 4600 engine without exception. The low-power Core i5 range is equally confusing. The four models available at launch are different, though many of them occupy the same price range. The Core i5-4570T is essentially a Core i3 processor with Turbo Boost added. This processor operates at 2.90GHz with a Turbo Boost speed of 3.60GHz. However like the Core i3 processors, the i5-4570T features only two cores with Hyper-Threading support and a smaller 3MB L3 cache, it is said to cost $192. Then there is the Core i5-4670T and i5-4670S (both $213). The i5-4670T features a thermal design rating of 45w and works at 2.30GHz with a Turbo Boost frequency of 3.30GHz. The i5-4670S is actually faster, working at a base clock of 3.1GHz with a Turbo Boost frequency of 3.8GHz. As you would expect the i5-4670S has a higher TDP rating of 65w. Finally, we have the Core i5-4570S and i5-4570T processors (both $192) which feature a TDP rating of 65w and 35w, respectively. Both CPUs have a base clock of 2.90GHz with a Turbo Boost frequency of 3.60GHz. 4th Gen Intel HD Graphics Intel debuted on-die HD graphics with the Westmere architecture, although to be precise it wasn’t actually on-die but on-package, meaning the graphics engine was separate from the CPU. Furthermore, it was built using the 45nm process and not the same 32nm process used by the actual CPU. Then the second generation graphics (Sandy Bridge) changed all that by including the GPU on-die. Even though both processing units were under the same roof, the GPU was still independent of the CPU. It featured its own clock domain that could be set independently and could be powered down as needed. This same design principle was used for Ivy Bridge, Intel simply added more horsepower. There were two versions of the Intel HD graphics with the Ivy Bridge processors using either the HD 2500 or the faster HD 4000 engine. The shaders, cores and execution units are what Intel calls EUs (Execution Units) with HD 2500 featuring six and the speedier HD 4000 getting sixteen. Interestingly, most Core i5 desktop processors used the slower HD Graphics 2500 engine, while all mobile processors received the 4000 engine. Haswell offers many more flavors of built-in graphics. Starting at the bottom of the food chain we have the Intel HD Graphics 4600/4400 and 4200. The next level up is the Intel HD Graphics 5000 and then Intel Iris Graphics 5100 and Iris Pro 5200. Now because we only have the Core i7-4770K today we can show you how the Intel HD Graphics 4600 performs. This is the choice of built-in graphics that a wide majority of Core i7 (all except one) and all Core i5 desktop processors will receive. The HD 4600 gets 20 EUs, a 25% increase over Ivy Bridge. The clock speed has also been increased from 1150MHz to 1250MHz, a mild 9% bump in frequency. The Intel HD Graphics 5000 and Iris Graphics 5100 receive 40 EUs awarding them twice the power-performance of HD 4xxx. Then the Iris Pro Graphics 5200 which still features the same 40 EUs gets a large embedded DRAM cache to improve bandwidth performance. Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H The Z87X-UD3H is one of Gigabyte’s more affordable Z87 motherboards featuring the Ultra Durable 5 design. The board itself is a standard ATX model which features a matte black PCB with black and gray connectors. Adding a little flare are a number of large heatsinks which feature some blue highlights. The motherboard layout and design is similar to what we have seen from Gigabyte in the past and it features the typical range of enhancements. The board features all IR Digital Power Design (IOR International Rectifier) with IR digital PWMs equipped with IR Powerstage ICs. Meanwhile the PCB itself is a 2-layer copper design and is equipped with Durable black solid capacitors. Other features include Intel Gigabit LAN with high ESD protection using the new Intel I217-V controller. The famous UEFI and DualBIOS support exists and Gigabyte has added an LED indicator to signal any problems. The second generation On/Off Charge feature is included for quick charging mobile devices via USB. Gigabyte has also included a gaming headphone amplifier for enhanced audio quality, while audio is provided using the Realtek ALC898 HD audio codec. While the Z87 chipset provides six USB 3.0 ports and six SATA 6Gb/s ports, Gigabyte has upgraded both. The Z87X-UD3H offers a total of ten USB 3.0 ports thanks to the inclusion of the Renesas uPD720210 controller and eight SATA 6Gb/s ports with the help of the Marvell 88SE9172 controller. The Marvell 88SE9172 controller can be switched to provide either two extra onboard SATA 6Gb/s ports or two eSATA 6Gb/s ports, but not both at the same time. Along with the ten USB 3.0 ports the board also provides eight USB 2.0 ports, two on the I/O panel and the rest via onboard headers. Overclock friendly features include a Debug display near the DIMM slots and Quick buttons to allow Power On/Off, Reset, CMOS Clear, Dual BIOS, Smart Voltage and much more. The Z87X-UD3H supports 2-way Crossfire and 2-way SLI technology using two PCIe x16 slots. As is the case with Ivy Bridge the Haswell processors only provide enough PCIe lanes for a x16/x8 configuration when using two graphics cards. There is a third full length PCIe x16 slot, though it is only wired for x4 bandwidth. Meanwhile there is two PCIe x1 slots positioned between the primary and secondary PCIe x16 slots, followed by a traditional PCI slot. Around the back on the I/O panel we have six USB 3.0 ports, a PS/2 port, optical digital audio, six audio jacks, Gigabit LAN and dual eSATA ports. There is also a VGA, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort for utilizing the integrated video. Read More... Asrock Z87 ProfessionalAsrock H87 PerformanceAsrock Z87E-ITXSystem Specs & Memory BandwidthSynthetic BenchmarksApplication PerformanceEncoding PerformanceIGP PerformanceGaming PerformanceSystem Power ConsumptionFinal Thoughts Republished with permission from: Steven Walton is a writer at TechSpot. TechSpot is a computer technology publication serving PC enthusiasts, gamers and IT pros since 1998.

Two weeks ago, priests in Georgia (the <s>former Russian state</s> independent republic, not the US state) led a mob that attacked about 50 gay rights demonstrators, hurling rocks and, if this YouTube video is an indication, swinging furniture. Someone's cooked up a nearly unplayable side-scroller lampooning the chaos. This is Call of Taburetka, the latter word meaning 'stool,' which is what a black-robed priest from the Georgian Orthodox church was swinging as the mob descended on the marchers, ending the rally before it could begin. The game's creator, on its Facebook page, insist that the game is not homophobic. "Dear friends, this game it not anti-gay. it just describes what happened on May 17," he says in one post. "i wanna say that this game isn't anti-gay this is for funny," he says in another. I suppose I could believe that if the satire involved is how idiotically uncontrollable the priest is, and how he fails in his mission to assault within about 10 seconds of beginning a game, exploding into what looks like a fart cloud. People are lobbying Facebook to take down the page as a violation of its anti-hate speech policies. Assuming it's not taken offline altogether, the game's creators are considering "disabl[ing] this game for foreigners because they can't understand meaning of this game." Fend Off LGBT Activists in ‘Call of Taburetka’ [Gay Gamer] To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.

Brad enlists Ryan as they storm into battle for some genre-mixing medieval mayhem.

What's happened in the business of video games this past week ... QUOTE | "I think, candidly, people are way, way under-indexing how hard we're punching."—Don Mattrick, head of Microsoft's Entertainment Division, talking about how Microsoft is ready to invest $1 billion in exclusive Xbox One titles. QUOTE | "The optimistic part of me is thinking that [Microsoft is] holding off on announcing their new, indie-friendly platform policy and they're going to tell us all about it at E3."—Tim Schafer of Double Fine, describing why he's taking a cautious approach towards Xbox One. QUOTE | "The next-gen look is more about lighting models and shaders than the size of your textures and number of polygons."—CD Projekt Red's lead character artist on The Witcher 3, Pawel Mielniczuk, talking about the impact of next-gen on video game visuals. QUOTE | "A piece of hardware is only a piece of hardware, it's what you do with it that's important."—Richard Lemarchand, former Naughty Dog lead turned educator, talking about the importance of game design and next-gen consoles. QUOTE | "They're really hard to do well, and as a result, there are a lot of really bad ones out there."—Jesse Schell, keynote presenter for the Serious Play Conference, discussing why serious gaming carries a stigma. STAT | 1 billion—Number of total next-gen consoles that Microsoft thinks will be sold from all companies combined; that's way up from the 300 million sold of the current generation of consoles. QUOTE | "Eventually, games need to generate more sales, otherwise we see the end of these smaller games on console platforms."—Developer Ilari Kuittinen, talking about why more downloadable games need to sell at least 1 million units. STAT | 8.45 million—Number of people who watched the Xbox One reveal in the first 24 hours; the reveal was the most-watched event in streaming partner Akamai's history. QUOTE | "There's a sense of mischief in reaching onto your opponent's board and taking what's theirs. Players love to cheat."—Developer Alistair Atcheson, talking about shared-tablet multiplayer games. QUOTE | "If we go out there with a shitty product, then people don't have to look at it twice."—PlayJam CEO Charles Tigges, talking about the company's GameStick Android-based console. STAT | 3.5 million—Number of anti-piracy takedown notices the ESA sent out in 2012; they were able to remove 96% of the 5.4 million infringing files found. This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International Image by Shutterstock

Who needs a gun when you can use your opponent as a human pillow after a three story drop?

Welcome to the weekend, Kotaku. Which means I've got a round-up of all our best content on Kotaku Selects. While Microsoft and Sony still aren't talking about the online and other details for their newest consoles, others are talking. So while we wait for news from E3 in roughly a week (oh god one more week), you can peruse out round-up selections. Oh, and, that image up there is some Mario street art, a la Banksy. From Trust icon street art found by Pxlbyte. To contact the author of this post, write to tina@kotaku.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.

It's time to breakdown everything for E3! Sounds like the perfect time to get unprofessional.

A teaser video for the upcoming GameTrailers.com documentary about the popular gaming message board NeoGAF finally puts some faces to the screen-names. These people don't look anything like their avatars! I quite like the GIF-generating, news-aggregating, secret-finding, incessant-games-journalism-analyzing NeoGAF. I even post there from time to time. But I've not met many other people who post there. I've mostly been left to imagine what the fine folks there looked and sound like. Now, we can all wonder no more. Behold: SHIFT The full documentary will air on GameTrailers.com and their affiliated apps on June 1 at 4pm ET/ 1pm PT. I've seen a rough cut. There's some fun stuff in there. To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo.

I'll see you this summer, buddy.

We’re about to enter a period of the yearly gaming cycle where the regular flow of releases is going to slow down. For some, this is a bummer, since it means there aren’t any (or few) new games. For me, it’s one of the most exciting times of the year, since I can hack at my backlog.

What are you guys looking forward to playing with the extra time?

For me, it’s Eternal Darkness and System Shock 2. Waiting until Halloween might make more sense when it comes to timing, but there will be other horror games (where you at, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs?) coming throughout the year, and I must strike while the iron is hot. Both have have such cult followings, and have obviously influenced those that came after. It’s one thing to know something is influential, it’s another to experience it yourself.

I can’t have the summer just be about horror, though, and so I leave the possibilities elsewhere to you. Valkyria Chronicles is an interesting strategy game that many recommended once I’d put Fire Emblem: Awakening to bed, and I intend to actually play (and finish) Dark Souls before the sequel comes out.

Hey, You Should Play This

• NothingElse by Ivan Zanotti (PC, Free)

NothingElse is coming with an unfortunate caveat: I haven’t finished it. The first 15 minutes have hooked me, but enough is going on at work that I haven’t been able to see where it all goes. The reason NothingElse is commands this space, however, is because NothingElse comes from imscared designer Ivan Zanotti. If anyone’s earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the unsettling, Zanotti has.

And You Should Read These, Too

• "On Consuming Media Responsibly" by Jenn Frank for

When I wrote about Amnesia: The Dark Descent, one of the motivations was coming to grips with why I continue to enjoy horror. When my father passed, I wondered whether my exploration of death in a safe space would mean the genre no longer meant anything to me--that hasn’t been the case. Jenn Frank discusses her fascination with horror and other media in this piece, set behind the backdrop of the dialogue around Anita Sarkeesian and her videos exploring tropes about women in games.

"I think what I’m getting at is, especially with the horror genre, it’s less important what a movie says and more important that you, the viewer, understand why you’re enjoying it. I believe in judicious self-awareness; a director like Nicolas Winding Refn knows exactly why he makes the directorial choices he makes, and he works those kinks right out onscreen. Or, if you aren’t enjoying a piece of work—if ultraviolence isn’t your thing, or if you’re suffering a visceral reaction—it’s every bit as important that you identify what about the piece is making you uncomfortable."

• "How to not hate Anita Sarkeesian" by Colette Bennett for blow in the game slot

Colette Bennett has some recommendations for Sarkeesian’s critics, and how to separate the argument from the author. I’m including two pieces that touch on Sarkessian’s series because the second one premiered this week and is featured below, and I know how the comments sections on those articles tend to go. You are allowed to disagree with Sarkessian, even aggressively so, but do so with a sense of class. Articulate your response, explain yourself. Stooping to name calling, derogatory remarks, and childish attitudes only undermines your point.

"Let's just say, for a moment, that instead of watching Anita's video series, you're reading the same ideas in a book (and there are dozens on the subject of feminism, and a handful on women's role in games as well). Are you still angry about them? You may be. If so, you can focus your hatred on the author of that book, or any of the other books. But notice how you feel when you're angry: insulated, seething, closed. If that feels bad, consider that there are other options, and other ways to react."

If You Click It, It Will Play

Crowdfunding Has Promise, Hopefully Developers Don't Screw It Up

• Unrest wants to see what it would be like to set a serious RPG in ancient India.
• Yeah, I'm definitely on board for Armikrog, a new game from the developers of Neverhood.
• The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers is a fascinating, ambitious project.

Tweets That Make You Go "Hmmmmmm"

Iwata Asks does this include the tip then?

— Satiru Iwata(@IwataAsks) May 31, 2013

Iwata Asks what have I done?

— Satiru Iwata(@IwataAsks) May 24, 2013

Iwata Asks who is this guy and why is he touching my shoulder?

— Satiru Iwata(@IwataAsks) May 17, 2013

Iwata Asks why won't they sell me the animals?

— Satiru Iwata(@IwataAsks) May 15, 2013

Iwata Asks is anyone else sick of eating?

— Satiru Iwata(@IwataAsks) May 14, 2013

Oh, And This Other Stuff

• You bet your ass we'll be looking at this chemical spillage simulator.
• Ashly Burch opens up about some personal turmoil in her life recently. Heartbreaking.
• Did you know Donkey Kong 64 shipped with the expansion pack because of a BUG?
• Games writer Susan O'Connor on the difficulty of writing for video games.
• Digital Foundry tries to figure out if the cloud can make games better on Xbox One.
• An outsiders perspective on the prospects of next-generation from John Siracusa.
• These old posters for Konami arcade games are the friggin' best.
• Find out why Penny Arcade Report couldn't go to China to cover League of Legends.
• How MOMA chose which games should appear in its current exhibit.
• Michael Abbott waxes on and off about the advantages of working in genre.
• Are Sony and Microsoft doing enough to convince us to buy new machines?
• The advantages of having a plan.
• I remember Weaponlord, but I sure can't remember if Weaponlord was any good.

Look, we all make mistakes. None of us are infallible. Sometimes I forget to pay my cable bill until after the due date, Stephen Totilo thinks Majora's Mask is one of the best Zelda games ever, and the Week in Gaming Apps plotted your demise. Let's all just make up and move on. Look, Week in Gaming Apps is sorry, okay? It was so choked up over subtly suggesting you might perish and then actively plotting your demise that it didn't even show up last week. It may have looked like I decided to skip it in favor of starting my long weekend early, but I assure you, it was pure guilt. The Week in Gaming Apps is really a nice weekly feature, when you get to know it. Just look at the games we reviewed in its name this week. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic! A zombie game about riding and shooting! A zombie game about shooting and sometimes riding! An old school arcade beat-em up, mobile-style! The game with the pee! These are not the games of a feature that wants to cook you and feed you to the cast of TV's The Hughleys while playing They Might Be Giant's "Nanobots" over and over again on a children's xylophone. Look, it's just its disturbingly-specific way of saying you're safe here. The Week in Gaming Apps loves you, no matter how much of your body remains covered by skin. What We Played This Week After Earth - Android, iOS - $.99 Based on the Will Smith movie of the same name, this is a mission-based endless runner with some rather neat ideas. There's a little combat, some free-falling, and every now and then things go sideways. Not too shabby for a movie tie-in! The Regular Show: Best Park In The Universe - iOS - $2.99 This is, oddly enough, an old school beat-em up starring The Regular Show crew. Unexpected. Interesting. Dude. Dots - iOS - Free It's connect-the-dots as a color puzzle game. Fiendishly addictive, and I hate saying that. Directional Dash - iOS - $.99 Clear groups of colors by flicking them in the direction of the arrows on their faces. It's incredibly simple, but satisfying. Pixoban - Android, iOS - $1.29, $.99 Crate-pushing puzzles with a sleek pixel feel. Starts off simple, then makes me very angry. This is a plus. Little Luca - Android, iOS - $.99 A lovely little phsyics-based puzzler with retro graphics? That's something you don't see every day. Makes me want to go back in time and show those NES devs how to party. Warhammer Quest - iOS - $4.99 Such a good turn-based dungeon crawler I want to spend the weekend with it before dropping a full review. Excellent use of the Warhammer license. Zombie Fish Tank - iOS - $.99 You know those fish games where you eat smaller fish to get bigger so you can eat bigger fish? This is that, only you're an undead fish, and there are boss fights against scientists' fingers. Hyper Breaker Turbo - iOS - $1.99 All the Breakout-style ball-busting you could ever want. Wonderful variety here.