You'll like what you get. Especially if you've ever wanted to see what your APM is outside of an actual StarCraft game!

GG, Google. GG.

[Google, thanks everyone!]

Portal 2's creation suite is coming to the PC and Mac this May. To celebrate, here's a trailer, starring JK "Cave Johnson" Simmons himself.

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Artist Kinman Chan has done a lot of work in the movie business, lending his talents to animated films like Mars Needs Moms and A Christmas Carol. He's also, though, been an artist in the video game industry, where he's worked for companies like Rockstar and Sony, on games such as Resistance and Red Dead Revolver.

None of his work featured here is from those games, which makes this as good a time as ever to say I'm expanding the scope of Fine Art a little. We'll just be focusing on the work of artists. Too much awesome art from some very talented men and women in this industry has gone unposted because it's not related to a game, and that's got to stop. Because we're here as much for the awesome art as the games!

Though, that said, included is a few pieces of fighting game fan art. Just for kicks.

You can check out more of Chan's art at his personal site.

Sony has tonight confirmed the worst-kept secret of 2012; namely, that it will be releasing a first-party PS3 fighting game, and that it'll actually be called PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

In addition to first-party characters, the game will feature mascots from third-party outfits as well.

It's due on the PS3 this holiday season. You can read Mark from Kotaku Australia's first hands-on impressions of the game here.

From the official announcement release, here are the two most pertinent lines:

With PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, we set out to make an experience accessible enough for all PlayStation fans to enjoy while also creating something deep enough for the serious fighting game aficionado. We think this "accessible yet deep" strategy is the perfect way to bring PlayStation fans of all stripes together.

and...

The game features a number of cool game modes for both single and multiplayer, with a focus on online play which features a robust tournament mode. Players will be able to compete against each other as well as play cooperatively. We can't wait for you all to try it for yourself.

If you were thinking it might not actually be a Smash Bros. rip-off...well, take a look at the trailer above.

UPDATE - Updated with official trailer and screenshots.

There are years between the time we last see Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode III and the first time we see him in Episode IV. Enough for him to transform from a strapping young Scottish man into an elderly English Academy Award winner.

If you've ever wondered what he looked like in that time, Sideshow's got a new statue line that aims to tell the story of Star Wars' characters between the stories we already know about.

First up is Obi-Wan, kitted out for his early years spent on Tatooine, where he first learned valuable things like where the nearest hives of scum and villainy are, and just how great a number sand people return in when they return.

Because it's still a work-in-progress, there are two heads (both unpainted prototypes, obviously), one looking like an older Ewan McGregor, the other a younger Alec Guinness.

Joining him is Darth Maul, in a pre-Episode I outfit that's based on the expanded universe comic Nameless.

The statues won't be out for a while, but damn, that Obi-Wan looks great.

Star Wars Mythos [Sideshow]

It's Freddie Wong. And OK, he's cheating by making a movie out of it, but if he wants to go to all the trouble, he gets to reap all the kudos.

The upcoming, and very lovely-looking Dragon's Crown, has two websites, one for Japan, one for the US. Both are almost identical in design except for one thing: character art.

On the Japanese site, you can see nice, big pieces of art for each of the game's playable characters. On the US site, though, two of them are missing. The first is Amazon (pictured above, left), a "fearless warrior". What's funny/strange about this little piece of censorship is that she's not particularly sexual. Sure, there's a bit of cleavage on show, but if her cleavage is the first thing you notice, well, you're a perv. Because her cleavage is the smallest thing in that image.

(Aside from her head.)

Also missing on the US site is an image of the Sorceress character (pictured right), who on the Japanese site is portrayed as a magic user with enormous norgs.

Sure, this is just character art, and not in-game models, but this is a Vanillaware game, a studio whose titles basically look like moving character art. If something is too risqué for a website, there's every chance it'll be too risqué for the game.

Since the US version of the game is still "rating pending", maybe Atlus just wants to get it down as low as possible so it can sell the game to as many people as possible. Even if that means those kids will be missing out on certain things.

We've emailed Atlus for comment, and will update if we hear back.

Update - Atlus tells us "the two character images were cropped on the website at the behest of the ESRB."

Dragon's Crown [Japan]

Dragon's Crown [US, thanks Beta!]

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, video game publishers and their cohorts in the marketing world thought it would be a good idea to use rap in their commercials. It was not.

This clip takes us on a tour of some of the worst, and while some are stretching the definition of hip-hop, others are entirely accurate. And excruciating.

Patrick Scott Patterson [Site]

Almost a year ago to the day, I wrote a piece on Sony's Net Yaroze, a kit which allowed PS1 users to make their own video games. Well, anyone who was interested in the subject, please check out this enormous feature over on Gamasutra, which even has in-depth interviews from the men behind it. [Gamasutra]

After I posted those amazing old Zelda images from Nintendo Power the other day, I got an email from reader Yannick, who just so happens to run a blog that collects all kinds of awesome old Nintendo Power artwork by Katsuya Terada.

Double Dragon, Contra, there's all kinds of old NES games Terada has brought to life over the years, and which look just as good today as they did in the 1980s.

You'll find a selection of some of the best stuff here, but really, if you like old magazines, old games and/or great artwork, Yannick's site below has a ton more.

Cartooniste Robuste [Tumblr]