Unlike previous Dragon Quest games, Dragon Quest X is an online MMO. So far, the game's online experience has been surprisingly painless. But here's one thing that some players *might* find painful.

According to Square Enix, if you do not log in for online play for over three months, it's possible that the game's server will delete your character data. (No doubt, this is to keep from overworking servers, so in that regard, it might make sense.)

If you do not want to shell out for a DQ X online subscription, you can play online for a few hours each day during a predetermined "kid's time". You don't have to be a kid to play during this free period as there's nothing that checks your age. You do need to log in at least once every three months if you want to keep your character data.

利用券を購入せずに時間がたっても、また再開できますか？ [Square Enix]

Nearly a week ago, Japan's Kaori Matsumoto took Olympic gold after defeating UK judoka Sarah Clarke Romanian judoka Corina Caprioriu. Matsumoto's spirited judo and her ensuing Olympic win have spawned a meme online in Japan that compares the gold medal winner to Neon Genesis Evangelion Unit 01—the unit piloted by Eva hero Shinji Ikari.

This will be Matsumoto's last Olympics, and Matsumoto is deciding whether she should become a judo coach, an astronomer, a pastry chef or go on to her life's true calling: Saving Neo Tokyo-3.

松本薫 [JAMぐろ Thanks Alex!]

Valve's Source Engine has been powering the company's games for nearly a decade now, having made its debut all the way back in 2004 with Half-Life 2. While it's done an admirable job in recent years for games like Left 4 Dead, updates and revisions can't mask the fact it's getting a little long in the tooth.

A replacement was always going to be needed, then, but when? It might be soon, if these snippets of code found in Valve's recently-released Source Filmmaker are to be trusted.

One such snippet reads:

'''Return an str with the current engine version.
If key doesn't doesn't exist, assume 'Source', otherwise invalid — assume next-gen 'Source 2'.'''

Along with mentions in code, there's also apparently some icons hidden away in the Source Filmmaker for "Source 2 tools".

Interestingly, in September of last year Valve made a very quiet change to its website, adding the line "And it's about to get even better" to its description of the Source Engine.

Since Valve's last "generation" of titles (HL2, Left 4 Dead, TF2) made appearances on consoles like the 360 and PS3, could a newer version of Source be on the way soon that's better suited towards the next generation? Or is this just some handy future-proofing for a tool that'll likely still be in use long after the original Source Engine is done and dusted?

And while we're on the subject of speculating, I wonder what games Valve could possibly be working on that would debut alongside a new engine...

We've contacted Valve for comment and clarification, and will update if we hear back.

EXCLUSIVE: Next-Gen Source 2 Engine Is In Development [ValveTime]

And so we come full circle. First, Chris Torres creates the Nyan Cat. Then he turns 151 Pokémon into cats. Now artist Simon Johnson has turned the original cat video into one starring said Pokémon, a feat he says took him 150 hours and over 4000 individual images.

Nyan cat - All 151 Pokemon [YouTube, via Laughing Squid]

Here's another awesome Fine Art to get your week started on the right foot: a collection of works by David Levy, aka vyle, aka another of my very favourite concept artists in the whole wide world.

David has worked on a number of big video games like Assassin's Creed (we've actually shown some of his art from this franchise before) and Prince of Persia, but in recent times has also lent his talents to major Hollywood projects like Tron and Prometheus.

He's now part of Steambot Studios, along with Sebastien Larroudé, whose work we featured here last week.

You can see more of David's amazing pieces at his personal site.

To see the larger pics in all their glory (or so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on them below and select "open in new tab".

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Well, the little rover that could has gone and done it. Having survived an epic voyage and a convoluted, dangerous descent, NASA's Curiosity Rover has successfully landed on the surface of Mars, and is already transmitting images back to Earth. Nice job, little guy. And nice job all the men and women who designed and built the little guy.

You can follow live coverage of this event over at Gizmodo, where Jesus is live-blogging from inside NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Below is one of the first images transmitted back to Earth from Curiosity, showing the rover's rear wheel on the surface. The surface of Mars.

And below is what it looks like when you're one of the dudes who managed to send something to another freakin' planet.

As we found out last week, not every game you sell to GameStop ends up on that store's shelf. Sometimes games and hardware are sent to an enormous facility in Texas for testing, cleaning and re-assignment.

Want to see what that process actually looks like? These images show you exactly what happens when the games and consoles are being scrubbed and put through the wringer. From iPhones to PlayStation 3s, you can see cleaning stations, testing stations, and a whole lot of Xbox 360 controllers without their clothes on.

I don't know about you, but I find this fascinating. It's like a repair shop meets a butcher's shop. Only, with less blood.

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Later this year, the University of Illinois at Chicago will take the wraps off something it's calling CAVE2. You, however, will most probably call it "that badass virtual reality system".

CAVE2 is big. It's 24-feet in diameter and 8 feet tall. But then, it needs to be. It consists of 72 screens and 20 speakers, and takes 36 computers to run. That gets you a 320-degree view with visuals that can be displayed in 74 megapixels (or 37 if you're using its 3D capabilities). The system has been designed to allow people to become truly immersed in "worlds too large, too small, too dangerous, too remote, or too complex to be viewed otherwise".

It's main goal is of course in the fields of science and education, which its creators repeatedly emphasise. As they would, since that's why they've got funding for it. So why post about it here? These are the same guys who made that enormous, touch-screen Star Wars game we showed you a year ago.

If that was what they could whip up in their spare time for a flat screen, imagine what they could do with this.

Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari and...other things, chats with Eurogamer's Simon Parkin.

Kotaku reader and talented photographer man Mike Kowalek, whose Anime Expo work we showcased a few weeks back, was also at the recent Otakon, held in Baltimore between July 27-29.

Billed as a celebration of "anime, manga, and all facets of Asian pop culture", it's also a great excuse for people to get up to their eyeballs in awesome cosplay, including a ton of great video game outfits.

You can see more of Mike's great photos from the event here. You can even buy some if you see yourself/someone you know/someone who looks awesome.

Otakon 2012: On The Storm's Edge [ELEVENTHPHOTOGRAPH]

To see the larger pics in all their glory (or so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on the "expand" icon on the main image above and select "open in new tab".

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