Noa Torigoe, star of adult films like Max Orgasm and Ultimate Gold, really loves video games. I guess you could call her "hardcore"? But she doesn't just love Japanese video games, she loves Western video games.

"The console that I play the most is the Xbox 360," Noa told Kotaku Japan. "Recently, I've been playing Mass Effect and Fallout."

Noa checked Dead Rising 2 at this year's Tokyo Game Show with Kotaku Japan. Sure, it's not a Western game, but it was made by Western developers. When asked what she liked about the game, she said, "I like how if you slice the zombies from overhead, they split in half." Continuing, she added that she said she was impressed with the difference in cutting the zombies diagonally and horizontally.

"I love games that show the tiniest details," Noa added.

In the past, Noa has done things like name-dropped Fable creator Peter Molyneux and talked about the differences between Fable I and Fable II. She imported the English-language version of Call of Duty: World at War and had reached Level 50 in World at War multiplayer two weeks after the game's original release.

"I think because more and more Western games are getting Japanese releases," she blogged in 2009, "it seems like we're in an age where the game world is shared."

[ #tgs2010 ]「鳥越 乃亜」ねえさんとTGSでデートしてきた、うひょ～　[Kotaku Japan] [Pic]

Developer BioWare has revealed some fascinating statistics mined from players of Mass Effect 2. Unsurprising may be the fact that 80% of players chose a male Commander Shepard for their avatar. Perhaps unbelievable is how long some played the thing.

According to a report from IGN citing data from BioWare, some Mass Effect 2 players spent upwards of 66 hours meandering through a single playthrough of the sci-fi RPG epic. Impressive, if somewhat mysterious, but not as impressive as the folks who played through Mass Effect 2 an astounding 23 times.

Four Xbox 360 players did that, according to BioWare. They were out-hardcored by two PC gamers who dedicated their lives to beating Mass Effect 2 an outstanding 28 separate times.

There are a handful of other interesting stats culled from the Mass Effect 2 crowd, such as a shockingly low number of conversations skipped and a higher than expected number of Mass Effect save imports. More about how BioWare is using this data at IGN's interview with executive producer Casey Hudson.

Crazy Mass Effect 2 Stats and What They're Used For [IGN - thanks, dracosummoner!]

It's a strange thing to be getting excited about Mass Effect 2 in September, eight months after most of us first played it.

Yet a constant stream of downloadable content, some of it OK, some of it pretty damn good, has kept people hooked on the continuing adventures of Commander Shepard, something BioWare are hoping to continue with the game's latest piece of DLC, Lair of the Shadow Broker.

As you can see from the trailer, this looks like a sizeable chunk of content, including not just ground combat but some vehicular sections as well. It'll also be nice dealing with something that relates to the story of the series' core characters, rather than some peripheral series of events.

Lair will be out September 7 on Xbox Live and PC.

The Shadow Broker expansion for Mass Effect 2 will be available on September 7 for $10, according to the game's official site.

Sure, she's no Yvonne Strahovski, the actual actress behind Mass Effect 2's Miranda Lawson, but Polish model Jessika F is doing a pretty good job nonetheless in this cosplay photo shoot.

Put together by Dark Stars Photography, this is a great shoot. And I'm not talking about the lady clad in spandex. I'm talking about the effort that's gone into the role-play, the photoshopped combat and even the fact they found a location that looks like somewhere Miranda and Commander Shepard could actually share a quiet lunch.

You can see a few of the shots here, but the full gallery over on Dark Star's Flickr page is definitely worth checking out.

Miranda Cosplay [Dark Star, via Super Punch]

During the EA press conference at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, BioWare's Dr. Ray revealed that the second game in the Mass Effect series would hit the PlayStation 3 in January.

Is there anything else to say? It's Mass Effect, and it's coming to the PlayStation 3. Let's hear us some cheers, PlayStation 3 owners!

UPDATE: The official press release for the PS3 edition includes the line: "The PlayStation 3 edition will include the full Mass Effect 2 game and hours of bonus content." We've asked an EA spokesperson for clarification about whether that refers to new gameplay sequences or what.

Watch the Mass Effect PS3 trailer here.

For more good news, be sure to check out our EA GamesCom presser liveblog!

Japanese role-playing games are different from Western ones. And by "different" some would say, "not as good".

During the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese role-playing games flourished, but some now say that the current JRPGs seem trapped in time. Fans of the games believe that if something is not broken, then why fix.

You are looking at the Japanese ad for American role-playing game Fallout: New Vegas. A group of young Japanese hold protest signs that read:

• "I think it would be good if the hero had missions that weren't only about destroying evil."
• "The player is weak, the enemy is weak. That's way too convenient."
• "When did games become something you watch?"
• "Because the story doesn't change, what's the point of playing it again?"
• "Games nowadays are focusing way too much on photorealism."
• "What's a game that's moving in accordance to the scenario? It's the same as living on rails."
• "Levelling up is time for motivation down!"
• "The stage has been set. After that, you're free to do whatever!"

This ad is arresting, eye-catching. It is, without being too blunt, a publicity stunt.

That doesn't mean the messages on these signs hold any less true.

Games like Fallout and Mass Effect are doing their best to make the vast majority of Japanese role-playing games look horribly dated and worse yet, stale.

Japanese developers might want to take heed of these signs — not to copy Western role-playing games, but to rework the elements of their games that, well, no longer work.

4Gamer.net - 「Fallout: New Vegas」予約＆初回特典が明らかに。グラフィックノベルや限定アイテムを手に入れよう（Fallout: New Vegas） [4Gamer]