Microsoft isn't the first American company to have trouble selling games to Japan. Jeremy Parish writes for the new USGamer about Atari's post-2600 woes.

Nintendo has stealthily released four new games into their 3DS StreetPass plaza, joining the built-in Puzzle Swap and Find Mii RPG. Another baby-step into DLC territory, each are a paid download and are exclusive to the UK and Japan... for now.

Richard Matheson presaged them in Real Steel. The Virtual Boy bathed them in red light with Teleroboxer. The BBC even got in the action with Robot Wars. So why aren't fighting machines the pugilists of the future? Behold, the dreaded Wedge.

RTX 2013 is coming to Austin, Texas, where the new anime series by Red vs. Blue creators Rooster Teeth will be unveiled. Apparently, four girls come together to fight evil. And yet somehow nobody complains about overused anime tropes.

Those of you across the pond can submit your proposals to Game City 8, a festival in Nottingham open to all creators, artists, or interesting folks that want to make meaningful play. Sounds like our kind of party.

To many, XCOM: Enemy Unknown was the Best Game of 2012. (Or the ninth best, but whatever.) If you missed it, you can check it out today on your favorite iOS device. Don't be afraid: the $19.99 asking price assures there'll be no in-app purchases or microtransaction shilling. Right? Please?

And as the Bruins and Blackhawks battle it out for the Stanley Cup, the team blogger reveals a little-known secret: The players are all actually Super Smash Bros. characters. I've been riding on Hawks goalie Corey Crawford this whole time...

Skate on!

Kotaku talks with our pink-haired friend Robin Arnott about how Soundself—the music game (maybe?) played by singing to amorphous theoretical universes—was inspired by acid. 

Mr. BioShock himself Ken Levine is penning the screenplay for the adaptation/remake of Logan’s Run. It’s more or less The Hunger Games meets Brave New World meets the occult scene from Eyes Wide Shut. Sounds like a good fit for Levine.

Gaming’s sarcastic swami and swell guy Ian Bogost throws down the gauntlet at the Games for Change conference, questioning if games for good are incompatible with good games.

In order to draw people to the card cabinet, the Seattle Public Library staged this, the world’s largest book domino chain! Is that a thing?

Vice has the most frivolous yet delightful E3 writeup we’ve seen, eulogizing all those lonesome DJs at the big event that no one bothered to notice.

The guy in charge of the Mad Max game says big-budget games are too short. I have to disagree! Ten hours is good for me.

Over at NeoGAF, user Mama Robotnik delves way too deep into the—count 'em—ten! Legacy of Kain titles that were canceled at some point during development. 

ARRGGG!

"I don’t think there are many people walking on this planet that have seen a naked woman inside a virtual reality before." Jeroen Van den Bosch, explaining the underserved market for Wicked Paradise, the first erotic title for Oculus Rift.

During an investor's financial briefing, Nintendo revealed a plan to turn McDonalds and Starbucks into StreetPass relay stations, opening up a major 3DS feature to the western's spread out market.

Brenda Romero's Síochán Leat, Gaelic for Peace Be With You, is not your normal board game. Part of a series of history-based analog works, this one about Oliver Cromwell's Invasion of Ireland, the game goes on display today at the National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.

Many of the games you play started as a doodle in a sketchpad. Shawn Smith, of Ninjatown fame, wants you to Resketch in his recycled journals.

More Real Life: Explore this fascinating "Wall of Resistance," an interactive blend of bathroom graffiti and social protest in Turkey.

Back to Fake Life: "We wanted the design to be something sleek, something people feel proud about." John Koller, Sony V.P. of Hardware Marketing, on the PlayStation 4's sleek black box.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon's Video Game Week began yesterday with Xbox One and a performance by Anamanaguchi. We like those guys.

See you soon!

Pole Riders, the fiercely-competitive, super-simple, mega-fun, zany “sports” game, is coming to PSN as Super Pole Riders in the Sportsfriends bundle. What makes it so super? It's up to four player, so it will have twice the chaotic energy of the pole-vaulting original. Cannot wait!

The up-side to getting stuck on Antichamber’s rather daunting puzzles was the hum and drift of its ambient score. You can now get drenched in its sound waves here.

Paranoia, psychosis, OOBE. Polygon previews a triptych of psychological Oculus Rift games about mental abnormalities, including The Recital, inspired by lucid dreams. 

If you haven’t already read Tom Bissell criticism on The Last of Us, which calls into question how these high-budgeted single-player games can be masterpieces and yet so incorrigibly tactless, you probably should. 

Wow, Snake can truly be played on anything, even a solid oak nightstand.

We know which games we will be playing when the Xbox One arrives this fall. Still unconfirmed if PRISM comes preinstalled.

Also, a couple of thoughtful video game articles were among the floatsam we found on Longreads. First, there’s the breakup story of Activision and Call of Duty creators Vincent Zampella and Jason West (whose upcoming shooter Titanfall has giant mechs and looks none-to-shabby.)

At the other end of the spectrum, check out this memoir of a college student from genocidal Burundi who was frightened and baffled by American youths fascination with big guns in violent videogames. 

Cheers!

All done! After three days of deafening noise, shiftless crowds, errant zombies in the bathroom, E3 has finally pulled to a close. Here's the rest of our favorites from the week.

The Division

I know what you're thinking. Another Tom Clancy title? And yes that is true. But for people like me who find MMOs unenchanting, The Division offers promise. You play with friends to take on enemies in a virus-infected New York, one clan at a time. Better yet, you can use your iPad tag enemies with a drone. Just like real life! I generally find shooters boring, but this one piqued my interest.

If A Tree Screams In The Forest

I tend not to like horror games, because, well, I don't like being scared. But the temptation of using the Oculus Rift for the first time was too seductive, so I plopped on the headset and jumped into Aaron Rasmussen and Michael Astolfi's game. The premise is simple—you walk through a forest with only a flashlight to guide you. 

The catch: there are five very strange trees. Much like the ghosts from Super Mario Bros., these trees creep up on you when you've turned your back  and stop in place when you spot them. The tension is unbearable as every tree is a suspect at some level. Rasmussen pulled this together with less than a month, but it completely shows the promise of new (and terrifying) experiences on the Rift.

Contrast

Sony put a ton of games on the showfloor, more than any other publisher or developer. That meant that a lot was prone to slip through the cracks. Contrast was one of those titles that might have been lost in the shuffle, but Compulsion Games's clever take on light and shadow was a delight for the eyes. 

Spin the Bottle: Bumpie's Party

The team at KnapNok Games also worked on B.U.T.T.O.N., the high-stakes, high-impact game we showed at MoMA a couple years ago. So it's no suprise that their take on teenage classic Spin the Bottle shares that same physicality. Accomodating up to eight people with four Wii controllers, you are assigned a host of mini-games such as operating a virtual "seesaw" handcar, waltzing with a partner, and just general spinning in place. I danced hand-in-hand a bit with one of the game's creators, Lau Korsgaard, which was awkward, but ironically not the strangest scene at E3.

You can see more here.

Gravity Ghost

Canadian game designer Erin Robinson's new game pulls heavily from my favorite experiences in Super Mario Galaxy: jumping from one planet to another. Gravity Ghost is a puzzle game, and a frustrating one at that, but the pull of each of the small planets creates the illusion of ease. Spinning helplessly in space is an unmooring experience. That's the point.

Photo via Ricky Brigante.

We did it! We survived. Not saying there weren't casualties, as Sir Peter Molyneux points out. But for now we live to see another day. Now let's all go clean up and pour a finger or two into a highball tumbler. Clink.

When Movie Licenses Run Amok, Part #1: Mad Max has a new  game? Gallipoli offers the better plot, but we'll take whatever Mel we can get.

Lest we forget, E3 showcases not only the games but the artists behind them. Harold Goldberg highlights work from game art showcase Into the Pixel, including Mike and Vic Nguyen's piece for Capy's Super Time Force, seen above.

At least Xbox One's improved Kinect sensor will mean cooler music videos. Wait, what?

EA promises to not bring back their Online Pass system, where used game owners pay $10 to access multiplayer. Call us cautiously optimistic.

"We’ve got to put the player inside the experience, where no matter where you look you’re surrounded by a three-dimensional experience. That’s the future." Steven Spielberg inadvertently talking up the Oculus Rift at USC this week.

Or is the future at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, where Venus Patrol and MOCAtv presented an indie-focused conference called HORIZON. First looks included Kachina from Little Flag, Mutazione from Die Gute Kabrik, and this splendid tease below...

Happy Father's Day!