Monster Hunter conquered Japan on the PSP. Monster Hunter 3G is coming to the 3DS. For a brief second, the game totally forgot that.

In one portion of the game's online instruction manual for the Nintendo demo, instead of referring to the 3DS's buttons, it refers to the triangle button, the circle button, and the X button.

You can see a close-up in the upper right corner.

While the X button features on both the 3DS and the PSP, the triangle and circle buttons do not. They're PSP only. Doh.

Online, Japanese commenters wonder if this means the game is a multiplatform (read, Vita) title. The page is not corrected, and the reference to Sony face buttons were erased.

The rest of the page doesn't suffer similar brain farts. Hey, Monster Hunter's on the 3DS, too. Eagerly anticipated Monster Hunter 4 is also a 3DS title. Let's not forget that!

移植フラグか？ [はちま起稿]

It's no Neverwinter Nights, but the upcoming Neverwinter online game is still Dungeons & Dragons and it's still Neverwinter. So a first decent look at the game's engine since E3 (albeit via a rather cinematic trailer) is still in order.

There are few things on Earth more agonising than Americans failing to pull off a British accent. Few, but not many.

Neverwinter is an upcoming online game for the PC that can be played either with friends in your party or solo (with AI help). It's being developed by Champions Online studio Cryptic, and is due out towards the end of next year.

With 2008 survival horror third-person shooter Dead Space, EA created a hit title. Dead Space went on to spawn a sequel, a rail-shooter spin-off and a puzzle game, animated films, comic books, and a novel. But according to one insider, EA is just getting started.

EA is looking at new ways to expand Dead Space, an insider told Kotaku. The Dead Space team was apparently told that it must look at ways it can make the series bigger and better. Thus, according to the source, EA is working on a Dead Space first-person-shooter. That's not all.

This would not be a first. Back in 2009, EA released an on-rails Dead Space shooter for the Wii called Dead Space: Extraction. The game, a prequel to the first Dead Space, was ported to the PS3 earlier this year.

EA's desire to expand Dead Space is also apparently why there are plans to make a Dead Space flight game—in short, it's Dead Space, but you're flying ships.

The insider added that after these titles are completed, the Dead Space team is moving forward on "an Uncharted-like game". Work on this game has not started yet, and the title is still supposedly in the early planning stages.

Dead Space's expansion comes as a management shuffle at EA brought in new brass that nearly killed off Dead Space 3—the reason being the Dead Space games don't sell like games like Uncharted games do. This change also means that there are likely to be fewer risky new big titles, such as Mirror's Edge.

Dead Space 3, however, is apparently not cancelled. The insider told Kotaku that the game will feature co-op and is set on an ice planet. That backs up earlier rumors that Dead Space 3 will be trade pitch blackness for a blinding, frozen tundra. As Kotaku previously posted, the next entry takes place on the planet Tau Volantis. The planet's "white-out blizzard conditions" may trade the blackness of previous Dead Space games for pure white, a new method for keeping the beasts of the horror franchise well hidden from view.

The third entry will also supposedly be the last Dead Space to feature engineer Isaac as the protagonist, thus ending a trilogy.

After that the Dead Space franchise is, as previously mentioned, moving on to an action-heavy Dead Space game. Think Uncharted in space.

None of these Dead Space games are yet official. Even Dead Space 3, which was apparently outed in September, hasn't been officially announced. Considering how often game titles are killed off in production, if true, a similar fate could await some of these games. Or, it's entirely possible that EA pushes them out the door and releases them.

If so, Dead Space the FPS, Dead Space the flight sim, and Dead Space the adventure game would only dilute what makes Dead Space, well, Dead Space, diluting it.

Kotaku is following up with EA and will update this post should the company comment.

Cosplayer Necoco, who Kotaku has featured before, checks out Studio Gossip with cosplay blog Asagawo. Located in Tokyo's Shinjuku, the studio features several different themed rooms, providing backdrops for cosplay snaps.

In the last year or two, cosplay studios have become increasingly popular, giving photographers and models a more controlled—as well as a more photogenic—photography space. There's even a cosplay theme park in Niigata.

There are a couple of "variation" rooms, offering a variety of backdrops, as well as a "girl's room" and a "man's room". Here's a map of the different rooms.

Studio Gossip is not cheap by any means. Renting the space for six hours costs, wait for it, ¥65,000 or US$833. Twelve hours costs ¥105,000 ($1,347).

Steep! But if wearing skimpy costumes isn't for the feint of heart, neither is taking photos of them in frilly bedrooms.

【割引あり】スタジオ紹介　"STUDIO GOSSIP"(高田馬場) [アサガヲBlog]

Zombie paradise action game Dead Island may have been out since early September, but it's only now that the Germans at the wonderfully-named Federal Department of Media Harmful to Young Persons have got around to banning it.

"This isn't unexpected," Techland, the developers of the game, told Eurogamer. "Germany has its unique regulations regarding video games and violence and the industry can only comply.

"Both Deep Silver and Techland were aware of such a possibility from the very beginning."

The game has been put on the organisation's "List B", which is normally where you find games featuring "extreme torture or Nazi content".

The exact reasons for the game's belated banning have not been made publicly available, so I'm just going to assume it's for the worst intro song ever forced upon mankind.

You can read Crecente's Dead Island review here.

Techland not shocked by Germany's Dead Island ban [Eurogamer]

Some things sound better in Japanese. Take the Disney ride Star Tours. It sounds better in Japanese. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride, however, does not. What about Skyrim?

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is getting released in Japan, where the game is receiving rave reviews. This is the game's Japanese language trailer.

スカイリムの世界 日本語吹き替え [YouTube]

Later this week, the PS3 will update to a nice, clean, round number: v4.0. Those hoping for something drastic will be disappointed, but there's still some important work being done under the hood.

When it's pushed live, the PS3 will be able to communicate with the PlayStation Vita, a mildly necessary function since the new handheld will be able to swap games, music, photos, and videos with your PS3, along with stuff like save games and system update files.

While it may sound like Sony is getting in a little early, remember, the Vita is out in Japan in two weeks. And with the handheld being region free, there'll be enough importers in other parts of the world to make the update worthwhile.

UPDATE - And BAM, just like that, the update is already live for some users.

PS3 System Software Update (v.4.00) [Sony]

This must be weird. Nerd starlet Felicia Day, who stars in not just a Dragon Age web series but some Dragon Age II DLC, sits down here to play...Dragon Age II. As herself.

Nice to see she has about as much trouble keeping a straight face over the premise as I did. Also nice to see her Dragon Age II wandering experience was about as enjoyable as mine. Least she got to edit the boring parts out for the clip.

Felicia Day Playing Dragon Age of the Day [TDW]

Forget the woeful American cover for a minute, and instead let's focus on the Japanese and European box art for PS2 classic Ico. It's as memorable for many as the game itself, with its bold art style and rich colours.

So I thought for today's Total Recall we'd look back at the artist, and one of his paintings in particular, which inspired not only the cover, but the game itself.

The Japanese/European art, which was thankfully also used for the recent American re-release, was directly inspired by a painting called The Nostalgia of the Infinite by Giorgio de Chirico, one of the great artists of the early 20th century.

De Chirico, considered the founder of the Metaphysical art movement, was born in Greece in 1888. A surrealist, his early works inspired the likes of Dali and Max Ernst, and while he would continue painting into his nineties, his efforts around the time of the First World War are considered his strongest.

Completed sometime between 1911 and 1914, The Nostalgia of the Infinite (left) features two small, dark and lonely figures dwarfed by an enormous tower. It's a theme that runs through many of De Chirico's other works as well, like The Anguish of Departure and The Red Tower, which also show large structures looming over small, lonely people.

De Chirico wasn't just the starting point for the cover art, either (which, as you can see, has a lot in common with Nostalgia). Ico creator Fumito Ueda has cited his entire body of work as a big inspiration in the development of the game (alongside Eric Chahi's Another World), as that loneliness they capture so well, that feeling of being almost trapped by an overpowering building, carries through into Ico and is present from the moment you start playing until almost the very end.

De Chirico passed away in Rome on 20 November, 1978, at the age of 90. You can see more works similar to The Nostalgia of the Infinite at his WikiPaintings page.

Greetings, fellow travelers. Welcome to another night of smooth sounds and smoother conversation. That's right, it's the evening Kotaku open thread.

Some possible conversation-starters for you this fine evening:

• This guy gave his cheating girlfriend a crappy tattoo - literally! See what I did there? Wow actually, this would really suck.
• Teddy the (talking) porcupine isn't a big sharer - Ha. He loves corn alright!
• Some outstanding fashion predictions from the 1930s - I want to dress like these people!
• A breakdown of TIME Magazine covers - the ones from the US are a liiittle bit different from the international ones. Hrm.
• What do you even do with something as awesome as "Hatoful Boyfriend?" - It's a J-dating game about birds. Just... click the link.
• I like sharing jazz with y'all, so today I polled Kotaku to get some suggestions. Whaddya know? Several of our writers are also jazzheads:
• Here's Clifford Brown's quintet playing "Delilah" - as submitted by Brian "Straight-Eighth Swing" Crecente and
• Here's Sonny Rollins live with Jim Hall - as submitted by Evan "Motivic Development" Narcisse

• That's all I got. Have good chatting!

  
  

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  You can contact Kirk Hamilton, the author of this post, at kirk@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.