Otherwise this post would be about pre-order information, high-fives and strong hugs, not lustful gazes and dreams of commission builds.
These amazing models are the work of Pate-keetongu, with plenty more to see on their personal site here.
Pate-keetongu's photostream [Flickr, via Super Punch]
This year, anime that focus on games and game-related culture have been quite numerous. One of these, Btooom! (the onomatopoeic sound effect for a bomb exploding) ended its television run last week in Japan. Like Hunger Games and Battle Royale, Btooom! follows a group of people stranded away from civilization and forced to fight in a death game. And in a twist straight out of the The Last Star Fighter, the death game they are playing is based on the world's most popular game—in this case "Btooom!"a first-person bomber." But is this just another story of video game skills being used to save the day, or is there something deeper being done within this framework? [*Note: Minor spoilers ahead.]
Ryota sakamoto, the main character, is an unemployed, college-aged slacker who lives with his parents and does nothing but play games all day in his room. His game of choice is "Btooom!" and he is one of the top players in the world. So, of course, when he is suddenly kidnapped and stranded on an island and forced to play Btooom! for real, this turns out to be an amazing advantage—but only in the mental sense.
While he is a master of Btooom! in game, on the island he is limited by his physical skills. His aim is not as perfect nor is he as strong as his in-game avatar. His advantage is his knowledge of the tactics of the game—as well as his knowledge of the types of bombs and their strengths and weaknesses. Of course, his greatest weakness is that bombs are far from the only way to kill another person on the island.
One of the key points of Btooom! is why these people are on the island in the first place. Players of the game are chosen by someone—usually a close friend or family member—writing the player's name on a form that promises to make the chosen person "disappear." This in turn means that everyone on the island has a dark secret that has sent them to the death game—and 
they may not even be aware of what it is. This not only makes for interesting characters and great drama but also causes one to ask, "Have I ever done something that would make someone hate me enough to want to send me to my almost certain death?"
Of course, this is not the only dark question the anime explores. It also looks at the themes of murder and betrayal—and asks, "How long could you stick to your normal morals and values in a situation like the death game?"
Of course, as pointed out in the headline, Btooom! is far from the most original of stories. "Boy becomes hero due to game skills" and "kids enter a death game" are far from novel ideas in this day and age. And in a year where Hunger Games swept the world, it seems even less so in comparison.
But while the setting and most basic narrative have been done before (and better), the way Btooom! uses these well-known framing devices to explore our darker emotions is really where the show succeeds—well, for the most part anyway.
Rape is a constant theme in Btooom!—to an insulting degree. The other main character, Himiko, seems unable to escape it. Nearly every single man she encounters on the island tries to rape her at some point (or at least implies that such a rape is coming). Even Ryota is no exception.
After their first (explosion-filled) encounter leaves her unconscious, he actually has to stop and convince himself not to rape her right then and there. I found the implication that "all men want to rape women/will rape women if given the chance" to be insulting, to say the least. It takes an otherwise complex cast of characters, and makes the entire male gender completely one dimensional when it comes to their interactions with the opposite sex.
Btooom! is an odd anime. On one level it can just be looked at as a derivative knock off of other works of "death game" fiction. On the other, it does an adequate job of exploring how the darker side in all of us can come to the forefront in crisis situations. This means that in a lot of ways Btooom! is not really an "enjoyable" anime to watch—because after all, how easy is it to enjoy something that constantly bludgeons you with the dark side of human nature—but it is, nonetheless, an interesting one. So in the end, if you are interested in the themes it explores, or are just a fan of "death game" stories in general, this one is certainly worth a watch.
Btooom! aired every Thursday night on Tokyo MX. It can be watched in the U.S. for free and subtitled in English on Crunchyroll.
Toys coming out of China have long had a bad rap. There's often talk of lead paint, dangerous and sometimes exploding parts, but the overall argument against Chinese toys is that they're boring and low quality (not Western branded toys made in China). Despite all it had going against it, a small Chinese toy company has "made it", and for the past three years has been churning out some of the coolest toys available.
The almost appropriately named Dam Toys company, based out of Hong Kong, makes toys you wouldn't expect from Chinese company; they specialize in 1/6 scale action figures of the US Army. That's right, a Chinese company making US Army-themed toys.
Many of the figures produced by Dam Toys are based on different soldiers, everything from regular infantry to marines, but they also make their own line of gangster figures, which are relatively new to their catalog. These gangster figures look almost as if they've stepped out of a Rockstar game.
Perhaps the most awesome thing about these toys is that they're so detailed. For instance, the 12-inch US navy seal corpsman has a medical supply set in its backpack, which opens up. In the medical supply set, there are miniature bandages and tools—the scissors actually work!
While they're currently focusing their toy lines on the US military, Dam Toys says they're looking into expanding their gangster line, as well as designing a Chinese military figure.
Old Nintendo hardware and cartridges may last forever, but the batteries inside some games (used to save progress) do not. With an expected lifespan of only ten years (though they can last much longer), we're obviously well past the point where you can expect all save games to work for a console like the SNES.
So if you're still dabbling with older consoles, you'll need a fix. And this handy guide at Motherboard is just that. With handy pictures and practical tips, it shows you how to crack open a SNES game and replace the watch battery that powers the cart's ability to save games.
While the cart in question is Link to the Past, it should work for just about any SNES game that needs a tune-up.
Note that swapping out the battery won't salvage your old save games; once that battery is gone, they're gone. But with a dead battery you can't save at all, so this fix lets you get back in the game. Well, back in a new game, which you can then save.
How to Replace an SNES Cartridge's Save Game Battery [Motherboard]
You've seen Grand Theft Auto V's real trailer, starring Grand Theft Auto V's real characters.
Now see Grand Theft Auto V's trailer starring Grand Theft Auto IV's characters. And yes, there's a point. The point being, comedy.
GTA V Trailer with Niko Luis and Johnny [Jantsuu, thanks Adrian!]
After millions of dollars, a ton of excitement and a spoonful of trepidation, the first Ouya consoles begin shipping to developers today.
Yup. Today. Meaning this thing ceases to be a wispy project existing only on your monitor, and becomes a real console. One that'll soon be jostling with all kinds of products for attention and money.
Above, you can see an unboxing of the device, giving the world its first real good look at an actual Ouya. Boy, it's tiny.
It might not have been as saucy as a collection of sexy images, but it still makes for a tale of Christmas heartbreak: according to a report on Fox, a boy from Talladega woke up on December 25 to find a Nintendo 3DS box waiting for him. Only there was no 3DS inside.
Instead, it was... a box full of rocks. Wrapped in tissue paper. While you might think it's a Craigslist scam, it's not; instead, the boy's mother bought it from Walmart, where it seems this is a thing, with scammers buying goods, taking them out, stuffing the boxes with heavy substitutes then returning them, busy/lazy staff not even bothering to check the contents of the goods.
All's well that ends well, though, as once local Walmart staff were informed the boy was quickly given a real 3DS to play with.
Talladega mom buys Nintendo 3DS, gets a box full of rocks [Fox]
I've lost count of the actual number of times Aliens have been pitted against someone in a comic. It's surely enough that it doesn't matter any more, and we can just throw them in the ring against anyone. I mean, if they can fight Batman and Robocop, then surely Master Chief—who fights in space for a living—is on the cards.
That image up top is by Martin Houlden, an artist who currently works at Frontier Developments, the studio currently trying to scrape together enough cash to make a new Elite game.
You can see more of his work at Martin's personal site.
Next year, collectible company First4Figures—who basically do nothing else but specialise in video game statues—will be paying tribute to a Dreamcast icon, Shenmue's Ryo Hazuki.
While it doesn't look like it comes with a forklift, it does have his trademark jacket and band-aid.
No word on price or specific release date just yet.
We've joked about its refusal to die before, but today, finally, the console begins its march into the history books. Having sold over 150 million units since its release in 2000, the PlayStation 2 has today ceased shipping to Japanese retailers, meaning once remaining stock is gone, it's gone.
The console was first released in Japan on March 4, 2000, and in those twelve years has become—by a longshot—the biggest-selling home video game console of all time.
While the end was inevitable—it was nearly 13 years old!—it's a little sad the old warhorse couldn't survive just a little bit longer, and live to see its grand-child, the next Sony PlayStation.
プレイステーション2の日本国内での出荷が本日（2012年12月28日）で完了 [Famitsu]
