Oh Japanese, you so crazy!

In video game Dream Club Zero you can dress up your nightclub hostess in CAUTION tape.

Best. Outfit. EVAR?

Found on Kotaku.

Cosplay: When it's right, it's right

Given: cosplay can be awesome when done properly.

O Raptorjeebus, I haven't even seen Valkyria Chronicles, but I know this turned out just fine.

Crystal Graziano as Selvaria Bles was found via Kotaku on Deviantart.

The problem with Gawker

It used to be that I had a handful of Gawker Media sites to faithfully visit, and often post articles here in The Mine; Jalopnik, io9, Lifehacker, Kotaku were among the list of "Daily Patrol" bookmarks.

But then they recently did a redesign of all of their sites, and my experiences with those sites turned, quite frankly, to utter and absolute shit. No longer could I simply scroll down through a day or so of posts -- or further, if I wanted -- and easily select something interesting to share here in The Mine. Instead, there's a shitty Flash interface that includes a shitty sidebar of selected stories into shitty GM-decided categories. Because of this, there's no way I can easily tell the chronology of posts; there's only what GM feeds me, including ads. And oh, the ads...

They're really, really prominent now. Before, ads were beautifully insidious and looked like other articles. Instead, ads now throb into view and chop up the look of the sites. I'm surprised GM doesn't have them SCREAM on rollover.

In short, unless one of the GM sites has an exceptional article I happen upon, don't count on them being back here anytime soon. It's sad, really. The content is good, but the presentation makes it fucked up to even chew on, much less attempt to digest.

I hope SF is paying attention

In Japan, McDonald's Happy Meals are known as "Happy Set," and kids apparently go screaming apeshit for them. Behold!



Now imagine this times a thousand at San Francisco City Hall after the Board of Supes ban "Happy Set." Rabid banshees keening their way into the meeting and shrieking the everlasting souls out of everyone. I would pay to see that outtake from "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King."

Found on Kotaku.

Dressing Jill Valentine

From Kotaku:

Chinese toy company Hot Toys is working on another Resident Evil 5 toy. This one's another Jill Valentine, only this time, she's looking ready for a midnight swim.

This 1/6 scale figure — which actually depicts Jill in her "battle suit" — will be out later this year. As is expected with Hot Toys figures, she's incredibly detailed, and as is expected with Hot Toys figures, she'll most likely be prohibitively priced (most likely around the $150 mark).

In a nod to the kind of demographic expected to purchase this, it not only includes a range of weapons and interchangeable hands, but...you can also unzip the front of her suit. Stay classy, Hot Toys!

GT5 Reality Check

Unless you have the cash to match your desire to be driven around the Nordschleife by Sabine Schmitz, there's always Gran Turismo 5. From Kotaku:

For great justice!

When my father was in the midst of purchasing some new HD televisions, I told him to inform me at once if the salesman ever uttered the phrase "Monster Cable." Sure enough, he paused a discussion at "Big Box" in midstream, and I zoomed down to dissuade the salesman from that particular upsell.

It rhymed rather with, "Thou shalt not rob my father, period."

More from real experts via Kotaku:

Technical experts Digital Foundry sought to find out, pitting four HDMI cables — a cheap one, the two official cables sold by Microsoft and Sony and a ludicrously expensive Monster brand — against each other to see which ones gave the best results.

The findings? That in the vast majority of circumstances (excepting very cheap and very long cables) a sub-$2 cable bought over the internet gives as good a signal as the $130 Monster cables. While of course the price differences result in varying degrees of material build — expensive cables will "fit" better and feel sturdier — at the end of the day you're paying for picture signal, not looks or feel, so it's clear the gulf in prices just isn't worth it.

Breakfast Granola for 12/31/10

This WIN speaks for itself; found on Kotaku:

Korea: It's big in Japan!

This is Girls' Generation, an engineered, Korean pop group, and they're insanely popular in Japan, it seems. Since there are nine of them, I guess that makes them the Spice Girls x2, plus one.

For the purposes of The Mine, they're pretty and have long legs, and will be popular until the next post nudges it southward.

Found on Kotaku.

Gran Turismo 5 vs. Real Life

GT5 is going to be pretty and shiny, of course, but it's pretty darn close. From Kotaku:

GT5 = highly accurate

How do we know this? Because the classic Fiat 500 has trouble with hills in real life, too. From Kotaku:

Derezzed

Found on Kotaku, this video includes a look at the forthcoming Tron: Legacy.

Reason #4080 why GT5 must hurry

This car is a virtual dream. But it's pedigree is very real.

The XI Prototype is designed by Adrian Newey, one of the giants of Formula 1. Now at Red Bull Racing, Newey previously designed for Williams and McLaren.

When designing the XI Prototype, Gran Turismo 5 creator Kazunori Yamauchi encouraged Newey to create a virtual racer that could take motorsports to the edge.

"Every race conforms to some sort of regulation, and every racing car is built to fit within those various regulations," Yamauchi tells RedBull.com. "However the X1 is something new, created from a 'what-if' dream. We want to inspire racing fans and the industry alike by exploring the realm of possibilities for the future of motorsports."

According to Newey, that dream can only be explored in Gran Turismo 5 and on the PS3. "We all have a dream about pushing the boundaries," the famed F1 designer added, "where the performance of the car and the experience of the driver take precedence over the rules."

The XI Prototype is the embodiment of that. But how does it drive? Racer Sebastian Vettel drove the virtual car, which boasts a top speed of 249mph, around Japan's Suzuka Circuit in GT5. In his first lap, Vettel set a world record. Says the German F1 driver, "Adrian's dream car handled brilliantly."

From Kotaku.

Let's make a nuclear family

But first, we need nuclear babies, and I call dibs on hot redheaded nerd Felicia Day, shown at some function for Fallout: New Vegas.

Found on Kotaku.

Standard issue Hawkeye?

Will Saito's cybernetic implant become standard issue equipment?

Last week, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded Lockheed Martin a $6.9 million contract to continue development of the company's One-Shot Program, a research project begun in 2007 that aims to develop an advanced sniper scope that is able to calculate things like crosswinds, GPS location, range to target, temperature and even humidity and almost instantly update the sights to ensure an "automatic" kill.

Found on Kotatku.

Happy birthday, Mario

Get some-a pasta to go-a wit-a youz birthday cake-a; according to Kotaku:

Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan on September 13, 1985 and on October 18, 1985 in North America.

Courses and karts, oh my!

Don't expect too much of me once November 2 -- and the release of GT5 -- rolls around.

The course count for Polyphony Digital's real driving simulator Gran Turismo 5 is now approaching infinity, thanks to the game's just revealed Course Maker, shown off today at Gamescom in Germany.

Series creator Kazunori Yamauchi demoed the Course Maker feature today, showing that it's not the type of tool that will let players build a custom course from scratch, but something different. A fully featured track editor, Yamauchi says, "really requires a complete CG tool, which would limit the number of users who could use it."

Instead, Gran Turismo 5's Course Maker lets you build a custom racetrack based on a set of parameters. Players can select a theme, choose the number of sections and course type (one way or loop), weather, time of day and length. Two of the themes shown off were Toscany and the Belgian High Fens.

The Course Maker lets you edit that track section-by-section, choosing the frequency of curves, course width, sharpness of corners, degree of topography tracing, and bank angles. Those choices are set by sliders or drop down lists. Yamauchi created a pair of custom tracks, both with the same theme but with different parameters. He quickly took each for a test drive, illustrating how quickly a player could create two very different courses.

Yamauchi also offered a look at Gran Turismo 5's newest vehicle, karts. The Polyphony Digital head honcho said that it was planned to be a feature for the next game in the series, but after the feature was apparently "leaked," the team decided to include it earlier.

From Kotaku, brought to my attention by Jack Naples.