Weaselhammer of Vector Sigma Creations is the very talented person behind this magnificent-looking replica of the M-12 Locust submachine gun from Mass Effect 2 and 3. The overall creation process took about three months, during which Weaselhammer crafted the model piece by piece, attaching synthetic polymer components to a wooden frame, and then giving it all a nice coat of paint.

You can take a look at some in progress pics below, read a summary of what went on at Weaselhammer's blog, or follow the project from its inception at Vector Sigma Creations' Facebook page.

Weaselhammer Props - Mass Effect M-12 Locust SMG

For comparison, here's what the original weapon looks like.

Weaselhammer of Vector Sigma Creations is the very talented person behind this magnificent-looking replica of the M-12 Locust submachine gun from Mass Effect 2 and 3. The overall creation process took about three months, during which Weaselhammer crafted the model piece by piece, attaching synthetic polymer components to a wooden frame, and then giving it all a nice coat of paint.

You can take a look at some in progress pics below, read a summary of what went on at Weaselhammer's blog, or follow the project from its inception at Vector Sigma Creations' Facebook page.

Weaselhammer Props - Mass Effect M-12 Locust SMG

For comparison, here's what the original weapon looks like.

Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy is a title celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Macross series and is a crossover title between the five major Macross series: Macross, Macross Plus, Macross Zero, Macross 7, and Macross Frontier.

Of course, like all things Macross, it comes with transforming planes, love triangles, and more than a little of the trademark Macross missile spam. It also has a major focus on the excellent music of Macross, with many songs from the various series appearing in the game. But more than just hearing the famous songs in the background or in concert scenes, the singers and their songs become part of your arsenal.

After you befriend each singer as the overall plot of the game progresses, you are able to have the singers ride shotgun with you. Each of their songs can be used as a special attack. The songs do everything from boosting your defense and regaining your HP to freezing your enemies in place. In other words, you can destroy your enemies thanks to the power of rock.

Check out the video above to see (and hear) these powerful songs in action.

Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy was released on February 28, 2013, for the PlayStation 3. There are no plans for an international release.

Potato parties, which started in Japan and spread to South Korea, are definitely a thing. Groups of young people order large amounts of french fries and eat them. And bam, you have a potato party! Kids in China just turned these parties into a game. A player versus player, potato-eating battle, if you will.

Earlier this month, Zhao Yong (a pseudonym!) uploaded some photos to a Chinese social networking site. The photos depicted five trays worth of French fries for five french fry challengers.

Zhao and his five friends apparently purchased fifty bags of fries from what looks like Kentucky Fried Chicken in Wenzhou (you can tell it's KFC by the packaging and the fact that they are drinking Pepsi). The goal was to see which of the five could finish their fries.

"We didn't spend that much money," said Zhao. "The point was relieve stress and pressure."

Online in China, there's been speculation about how much all the fries cost. It's unclear if they ordered medium or large fries. If they ordered medium, then the fifty bags cost the equivalent of US$64. If they ordered large, then they cost around $72. That's way less than the $250 spent at a recent potato party in South Korea.

One of the five fry eaters, Zhang Fan (likewise, pseudonym) said they saw photos of potato parties online and decided to have one themselves, adding a game element.

"We've looked into other challenges these days, in our lives where we don't have control, we can change our attitudes by trying something different," said another one of the five.

Yang Jianhua, a research director at the Zhejiang Academy of Social Science says that this type of make shift recreation is good for young people. "It's a harmless activity," says Yang. "These youth have found a way to get together and have fun."

But, surely, with this fry battle even making the TV news in China, these fast food combatants are ready for their next potato battle? "I don't think I'll have any more French fries in 2013," said Dong Cheng (pseudonym), one of the five, with a sigh. He's young. Give him a few days.

温州薯条达人大PK 网友赞叹很强悍 [CJXTV]
80后创缓压薯条达人PK赛 专家称创意活动有益解压 [中国新闻网]

In January, hardware manufacturer Xi3 announced the Piston, a living-room-friendly PC built to play Steam games in your living room. The Piston, Xi3 said at the time, had received a financial investment from Valve.

Just a few days ago, Xi3 said this unofficial 'Steam Box' would be out this holiday season for $1,000.

But according to a new report, Valve may have nothing to do with the Piston at all, despite Xi3's claims.

"Valve began some exploratory work with Xi3 last year," Valve's Doug Lombardi told Eurogamer, "but currently has no involvement in any product of theirs."

We have contacted both Valve and Xi3 for comment, and will update if we hear back.

Valve-backed Xi3 Piston console starts at $1000 [Eurogamer]

Over this last year, the Macross series has been celebrating its 30th anniversary with concerts, movies, and even a new PlayStation 3 game.

But what exactly is Macross, and if you're looking to break into the series, where should you start?

To start with, what makes Macross "Macross" are three things: transforming fighter planes, a love triangle, and an exploration of the power of music. Other than that, Macross as a franchise reinvents itself with each iteration. Each series is largely self-contained and character crossover is minimal (with the exception of Macross 7 which has three supporting characters from the original return). This means you can really start with any of the series and not feel lost.

So with that in mind, let's go through each of the five main series one by one, see what they are about, what their strong points are, and if they are a good place to start the franchise.

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross

Contains: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (TV Series), Macross: Do You Remember Love? (Movie), and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Flash Back 2012 (OVA)

Synopsis: In the year 1999, an alien ship crashes on earth with no survivors. A city grows up around the ship (the SDF-1) as it is rebuilt and its technology is used to create transforming fighter planes and numerous other technological advancements. Ten years after the crash, the aliens come, looking to get their ship back. And when the aliens attack, the SDF-1 activates its space fold drives, accidentally teleporting the ship and surrounding city out to the edge of the solar system. Over time, the city is rebuilt inside the giant ship and the crew and 60,000 survivors begin their trip home as they are constantly hounded by the alien forces.

Good For: People who like old-school anime and those who like to see a story from the beginning.

Not For: People who hate old, hand-drawn animation, a slower-paced story, and 1980s J-Pop.

Should I Start With This One? Yes. Especially the movie Macross: Do You Remember Love? It is an abridged and fully reanimated version of the first story. It is also one of the most beautiful pieces of hand-drawn animation ever produced. If you watch it and like it, then you'll know if you want to watch the full 36-episode anime or move on to a different Macross series.

Macross Plus

Contains: Macross Plus (OVA) and Macross Plus: Movie Edition (Movie)

Synopsis: Macross Plus is the story of two rival test pilots competing to see whose transforming plane prototype will be picked up by the military for mass production. It also deals with the potential hazards of AI in the form of the singer Sharon Apple.

Good For: People who like beautiful, hand-drawn animation and those who like J-pop techno music.

Not For: People looking for a massive galactic space opera. This story is much smaller in scale.

Should I Start With This One? No. In a lot of ways, Plus is the odd duck out as far as Macross goes. There is no alien threat poised on destroying the entire human race and it's set on a much smaller scale. But what it lacks in scale and story is more than made up for in sheer beauty. And as for which version—OVA or movie—to start with, either is fine.

Macross 7

Contains: Macross 7 (TV Series), Macross 7 The Movie: The Galaxy Is Calling Me! (Movie), Macross 7: Encore (OVA), Macross Dynamite 7 (OVA), and Macross FB7 (Movie)

Synopsis: Macross 7 is the story of a human colonization fleet looking for a world to settle on that is attacked by a mysterious, soul-stealing enemy. It follows Basara, a man who believes that he can stop war through the power of music. Thus he interrupts battle after battle, shooting speakers into the mechs of friends and foes alike so as to sing at them—hoping the power and messages of his songs will get them to stop fighting. Eventually, it falls upon him and the rest of his band to protect the fleet from the alien menace using the power of rock.

Good For: People who love awesome J-rock and/or feel they must watch everything Macross.

Not For: Anyone else, really.

Should I Start With This One? No. Macross 7 is a show that lacks direction in many ways and thus meanders aimlessly through its own story. The main character, Basara, is painfully one-dimensional and not all that entertaining to watch. The rest of the cast is decent, but if it weren't for the amazing soundtrack, this anime would be completely forgettable.

Macross Zero

Contains: Macross Zero (OVA)

Synopsis: As the name implies, Macross Zero is a prequel to the original Macross. It is set during the final human-only war on earth and shows the genesis of the franchise's famous transforming planes. It follows a pilot who crash lands on an island where the natives nurse him back to health. He then tries to protect the islanders from those hoping to steal mysterious alien artifacts hidden across the island.

Good For: People who love Dances With Wolves, prequels, and mystical alien stories.

Not For: People who want space battles and epic stakes.

Should I Start With This One? No. While Zero is the first chronologically, it's more a side story than anything else. It is indeed cool to see the origin of the transforming fighter planes, but most of what makes it interesting are its subtle connections to the original story. So while it is worth a watch, if you start with it, you will miss most of its charm.

Macross Frontier

Contains: Macross Frontier (TV Series), Macross Frontier The Movie: The False Songstress (Movie), Macross Frontier The Movie: The Wings of Goodbye (Movie), and Macross FB7 (Movie)

Synopsis: Macross Frontier, like Macross 7, is the story of a colonization fleet encountering a group of unknown aliens. However, instead of humanoids, these aliens are giant insects that seem to be attacking without rhyme or reason. The plot follows a kabuki star turned pilot, a popular singer visiting from a nearby fleet, and a young girl who seems to have an unknown connection with the aliens.

Good For: Modern anime fans, classic Macross fans, and anyone who likes the music of Yoko Kano (Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Cowboy Bebop)—so pretty much anyone, really.

Not For: People who dislike joy.

Should I Start With This One? Yes. Macross Frontier walks the seemingly impossible tightrope of being both a great stand-alone story and an homage to everything that came before. If you want to get a sense of what Macross is, Frontier is a great place to start. It has everything—a gripping story, interesting villains, awesome mecha, and incredible music. The latest series chronologically, Macross Frontier has only one downside: First-time Macross viewers will miss out on the many in-jokes and callbacks to past series. If you want to give it a try and 26 episodes seem too long, the two movies Macross Frontier The Movie: The False Songstress and Macross Frontier The Movie: The Wings of Goodbye retell the series' story—though with more than a few major changes—in just over four hours.

Forget people acting like morons on Twitter. That's not scary. It's stupid. What's scary is just how pervasive—meta, even—Twitter has become.

Case in point: The above photo was snapped and posted onto Twitter. Some hardcore figure collectors like to take photos of their plastic friends outside. This is not mainstream at all in Japan. It's not really scary, either. Let's not judge! Well, let's not judge too much.

Regardless, we have a Twitter user posting a photo of his Hatsune Miku figure at the train station. Got it. But that's not the freaky part!

Then, we have another person who sees this, and tweets out, "At Shibuya Station during rush hour, there was this idiot putting out a doll."

And, there was another person who tweeted out a photo of the same individual with the Hatsune Miku figure. The difference is that the tweet was a photo of a photo on his digital camera. Oh, and that this Twitter user hoped that the figure photographer would die. That's... not nice.

(While writing this post, I kind of hoped that someone on Twitter would take a photo of me writing it, and then tweet it out. But, alas, that did not happen. Sadly.)

These days, seemingly everyone is using Twitter. Everyone. They're watching you! Like Big Brother, but with only 140 characters. So, that's right, you cannot take photos of plastic figures in the privacy of Shibuya Station anymore. What is the world coming to?

ツイッター怖すぎワロタ [オタク]

As previously reported, Japanese manga artist Mari Yamazaki of Thermae Romae fame is doing a biographical manga series on Steve Jobs.

Last month, when discussing the upcoming series, Yamazaki said she felt sympathy towards Jobs—which might provide insight to the angle she'll be taking with the series. Below is Yamazaki's take on Jobs. It's a drawing!

And here's how real Steve Jobs compares to Japanese manga Steve Jobs.

The Steve Jobs manga will begin appearing in female geared comics magazine Kiss starting March 25. The name of the manga series is Steve Jobs. I have no idea how they came up with that title.

テルマエ作者新作はジョブズ、月刊へリニューアルの「Kiss」で連載 [ナリナリ]

Late last week we took a look at the phenomenon of "undubbing": the act of hacking a game and replacing the English voice track with the Japanese one. This, in turn, got me me thinking about some of the games most deserving of an undub—and let me tell you, there are many to choose from.

What follows are four games that—while perhaps not having the worst dubs ever—have one major flaw each that elevated their dubs from "bad" to "terrible."

So prepare yourself and click through the gallery to make your ears bleed!

Mega Man 8

Mega Man is a big-name series, which makes it all the more puzzling why the voice cast in Mega Man 8 is just so terrible. By far the worst of the bunch is Dr. Light. Not only does he pronounce all his Ls and Rs as Ws, but also he speaks with an odd accent. Worst of all, the voice acting seems like it was recorded all in one take as stutterings and mispronunciations are left in the final product. This is a dub so bad that anyone with a few hours and a microphone could make a better one.

Chaos Wars

The voice acting in tactical RPG Chaos Wars is generally stilted and unemotional. But what makes the dub really bad is the voice actor for Tonaty. Unlike in most games where kids are voiced by talented adults, the dubbers of Chaos Wars opted to use a real child to voice the part. That the result is so bland and unemotional that it sounds like it was being read right off the page (which it no doubt was) is a given. But what really drives this dub home is how the kid speaks in nearly unintelligible baby talk. Chaos Wars is the poster child for why you should never hire a real kid to play a kid (unless you pay the big bucks and hire a really good child actor).

Trouble Witches Neo!

Some of the characters in the SHMUP Trouble Witches Neo! are pretty normal for your average bad dub: that is to say bland and stilted. But where Trouble Witches Neo! transcends from "bad" to "worse" is in the characters who are clearly voiced by non-English speakers. Layla and Sakurako, for example, are clearly Japanese people reading English. It's also apparent they have no idea what they are saying or where they should be putting their inflections. Thus they are constantly putting the em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble and adding pauses where there should be none.

Michigan: Report From Hell

Suda 51's Michigan: Report From Hell was never released in America, but it did get a European release. And the English dub is just plain terrible. But instead of sounding bland and lifeless like most bad dubs, the script in Michigan is insanely overacted. The game is clearly designed to be a horror game along the lines of Fatal Frame (but with a video camera). But the voices are so over-the-top that they make the horror into comedy. Though oddly, that makes this game playable: You keep on playing just to see how bad the acting is going to get.

Members of 4chan's /vp/ board are teaming up to make their own Pokémon game. Because how often do you get a Pocket Monster trainer named "Doucherado"? Not often enough!

So far, there's a lot of concept art, a finished Pokédex, and sprites—all of which look quite impressive. Over on Reddit, Redditor Atheism4tw linked the game's Wiki as well as the playable demo.

As with most files found online, download at your own risk! Kotaku was able to check out the demo, which seemed promising, but obviously still early in development. The game seems to have been made with Pokémon Essentials, which is a group of scripts and resources designed to make your own Pokémon game.

The game is supposedly set in a South America-inspired region called Urobos. The trainers are Simon and Sofia, and their rival is Richardo. Hardly a friendly rival, he's also known as "Doucherado" and "Dicks".

Many of the Fakémon designs in the Pokédex are surprisingly good, which helps make this fan based effort stand out. On Reddit, some Redditors are even saying they're better than official designs. For some of the Pocket Monsters, I'd be inclined to agree.

A few of the names are clever, too. For example, there's Icetope, which evolves into Chillnobyl. Another favorite is Fettlekish, which, according to the 4chan created Pokédex, "can regulate their temperature to float or sink in the water. They can even boil the water around them. Prefers coffee over tea." Fun stuff.

There are loads of fan-made Pokémon games. Loads. But this 4chan-created unofficial Pokémon game does seem promising. And it could turn out well. Don't forget that 4chan does have a good track record with fan made games: Katawa Shoujo, which was created by 4chan, turned out fantastic. Who knows, maybe this will, too. That is, if Nintendo doesn't try to stop it first...

4Chan is working on their own Pokemon-game and they make good progress. [Atheism4tw@Reddit Thanks, Patrick!]