Kirk Hamilton

My Xbox Dashboard Features People Eating McDonald’s Wraps On A Loop

So, this is happening. I booted up my Xbox 360 to snag some DLC and make sure Django Unchained was indeed available for rent, and then I sort of just left the dashboard sitting there. It wasn’t too long before I noticed… This ad has now been looping into my apartment for the past 30…

Kicked Out By His Parents, He Played League of Legends To Make Rent

This new documentary short from Machinima shares the story of Peter “Doublelift” Peng, a professional League of Legends player who was kicked out of his home and relied on pro gaming to pay his rent. (Thanks, Ryan and Zach.)

So What’s The Oculus Rift Really Like?

We’ve seen plenty of video demos of the new Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, from the exciting to the heartwarming to the pointless to the motion sickness-inducing. But I’ve been waiting for someone to sit down with it and, in clear language, answer all the questions that I’ve had about the thing. Ben Kuchera at…

The Monaco Soundtrack Is Gonna Be A Whole Thing

The soundtrack for the upcoming co-operative heist game Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine is a rowdy, somewhat tongue-in-cheek collection of piano bangers from Journey composer Austin Wintory. But those tunes really only tell half the story. In addition to the music you hear when you’re playing the game, the downloadable soundtrack will include a second…

Here’s violinist Taylor Davis performing a two-parter of “Elizabeth’s Theme” and “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” from BioShock Infinite. You may remember Davis from such performances as Epically Playing Epic Journey Music While Wearing Gloves on the Beach and Super Emotional Music from Naruto

And there was much rejoicing, for Janelle Monae posted a mysterious gif hinting the first single from her much-anticipated follow-up to The ArchAndroid It sounds like the first single will be called “Q.U.E.E.N.” and will feature… Erykah Badu? Be still my heart. The album itself will be called The Electric Lady, and it sounds like…

The Amazing Fake Websites Of Law & Order

Law & Order is enjoyable in its way, but it’s no secret that the long-running crime show has a… spotty relationship with the internet. When they’re not slamming video games, they’re painting the web as some booga-booga monsterland filled with the weirdest, most ridiculous websites a person could imagine. This outstanding supercut from Slacktory assembles…

Our friends at io9 have taken an exclusive closer look at Tom Cruise’s futuristic motorcycle from the upcoming movie Oblivion.

BioShock Infinite vs. Dishonored: The Comparison We Had To Make

A beautiful city with a seamy underbelly. A girl in danger. Weird magic. Beheadings. Junk food. Am I talking about the recently-released BioShock Infinite, or am I talking about the just-updated Dishonored? Could be either one. We’re now a few weeks out from the release of BioShock Infinite, and folks have really begun to analyze…

Good news, Mac users: The dark, charming, and surprisingly emotional game Little Inferno is now available on your platform of choice. You can buy it through Steam or direct from Tomorrow Corporation. (Via.)

Check out the first track from from FZ: Side F, the Fez remix album from the game’s composer, Disasterpiece. The album will be out on April 20, and you can pre-order through Bandcamp. The actual soundtrack is pretty good times, too

Farewell, Skyrim

Yesterday, with minimal pomp and circumstance, Bethesda announced that there will be no more official expansions for Skyrim. Just like that, the era of the Dovahkiin drew to a close. This is a good time to end it. It may have been somewhat unexpected that, a few months after releasing the Dragonborn DLC, Bethesda would…

What Did You Think Of Last Night’s Game of Thrones?

Another week, another step along the long and winding road of Game of Thrones season 3. Another step on the “Walk of Punishment,” if you will. Because that was the name of last night’s episode. Get it? You get it. Last night, stuff happened! Lots of stuff. Dark, dark stuff, mostly. Some funny stuff. I…

Want to see something cool? Check out Do Not Touch, a (briefly NSFW) “crowd-sourced music video” for the tune “Kilo” by the band Light Light. (You can download the track here.) The video was created by the Dutch design studio Moniker. It’s a trip, and something of an interactive musical experience. It’s actually better if…

In light of the AI wonkiness of the new SimCity, the same guy who accurately modeled his hometown’s traffic problems during the SimCity Beta has made an attempt to do the same thing in SimCity 2000. The results are… pretty interesting.

If you liked the first Syndicate, you may have been less than satisfied with the first-person shooter version that came out last year. Perhaps you’d like a version that’s a bit truer to the original, like Firaxis’ take on XCOM? In that case, you might enjoy Black Annex, a new indie game that’s more or…

The slow-paced (but excellent) multiplayer strategy/diplomacy game Neptune’s Pride now has a sequel, which you and your friends can play for free right now. Warning: They may not be your friends after you’ve finished betraying a weeks-long alliance.

Get Your Barf Bags, It’s Mirror’s Edge In Oculus Rift VR

It’s finally happened. The ultimate first-person game has met the ultimate first-person gaming machine: Someone’s modded Mirror’s Edge to run on the Oculus Rift VR headset. Just watching this dude gave me vertigo, but I can’t say that I don’t want to play this a whole, whole lot. The video was made by Cymatic Bruce…

Hey Look, It’s A Dude Blowing Up A Wii U With C4

The headline says it all—the guys at Rated RR have gone ahead and blown up a Wii U using C4 plastic explosive. (Though first, they shot the Wii U controller with a Barrett MRAD sniper rifle.) They’ve filmed it all in slow-motion. Enjoy. (Thanks, Richard.)

The Many Musical Tributes To Mass Effect

No doubt about it: the Mass Effect games had some great music. Over the run of the trilogy, a collection of composers and songwriters came together to create an iconic, unmistakable sonic identity. (Sometimes, they even hid their music in the game itself.) But just as remarkable as the music in the games has been…