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Introducing the Melodic Mailbag
I’ve been having a great time writing about music and games for you guys every Thursday. I’ve also been happy to hear from many of you about different music you’re into, what you’d like to see covered here, and to generally nerd out about all things musical. So I asked myself, why not make some…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012 -
Rest In Peace, Levon Helm
It’s a funny thing, my relationship with The Band. They were a band that I wasn’t super aware of for a long, long time—that era of rock was something of which I was mostly ignorant for most of my years growing up. A few years after college, I watched Martin Scorsese’s phenomenal film The Last…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012 -
All Of The Coolest Instruments In The World Unite For A Single Album
Here at Kotaku Melodic, we sometimes talk about music that doesn’t turn up in video games. This week is no different! When I was writing about Botanicula earlier this week, I mentioned my well-documented bass clarinet bias; it’s one of my favorite instruments, though I don’t own one myself. And okay, yes, my headline here…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012 -
If Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’ Was Actually About Video Games. And Was Hip-Hop.
Back when I first heard all this buzz about this singer Lana Del Rey and her song “Video Games, I wondered if it was actually about video games. Turns out, nope! It isn’t really about video games. Talking to Kill Screen, Del Rey described the song’s inspiration thusly: I would consider it a hopeful song.…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012 -
Getting Lost In Super Mario RPG‘s Forest Maze
I’ll admit it: I’ve never played Super Mario RPG. But when I heard its music played in that amazing medley FreddeGredde did earlier this week, I thought “Wow, that is a great melody!” And so I looked it up. And so it is, a very good melody. Composed by Yoko Shimomura, it holds up despite…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012 -
Meet The Man Who’s Making The Music For Halo 4
It’s no small thing, the Halo music. In fact, it’s kind of a big deal. As I wrote last week, Martin O’Donnell’s music for the first five Halo games evolved to become one of the most iconic soundtracks in modern video games. While many chiptune anthems have been enshrined in gamer consciousness, O’Donnell’s Halo score…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012 -
If Your Favorite Websites Were Made Into Fabulous Dresses
If Wikipedia were a dress, would you wear it? How about Google? I don’t actually wear dresses, for I am not a lady. But I would wear the heck out of these garments from Victor Farentina. Each one is a design sketch that takes the sensibilities and color schemes of popular sites like Yahoo, Twitter…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012 -
Pay Whatever You Want For The Lovely Botanicula, Get A Bunch of Other Free Stuff Too
I think that Botanicula, the new game from Machinarium indies Amanita Design, is freakin’ wonderful. I already wrote about why I like it, so read that if you’re wondering about the game. Short verzh: If you have a heart and like lovely and funny things, you should play it. Botanicula comes out today, and as…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012 -
How To Get Skyrim Looking As Awesome As Computationally Possible
I’ve been playing Skyrim again recently, and thanks to the wonders of modding, it is lookin’ damned fine. That’s not to say it ever didn’t look fine—when the game was released last November, it was a perfectly okay-looking game. A little rough around the edges in places, not the hottest textures in the world, but…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012 -
The Worst Thing In The World
Hello, Kotaku. It’s the middle of the week. It’s 10:30 PM. Do you know where your open thread is? Oh right, it’s here. You’re flippin standing on it. Here are some things from the internet: 10 Aliens Cunningly Disguised as Celebrities – Yep, Summer Glau is on here. Apparently many aliens are attractive brunettes with…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 18, 2012 -
Crash-Testing The Hell Out of GTA IV‘s Most Lovely Automobiles
Because, well, that’s what you do in Grand Theft Auto IV. You wreck cars. YouTuber InsaneGaz has one heck of an enjoyable channel, featuring hundreds of videos in which he takes modded cars and crashes the living hell out of them. He even hits the Optimus Prime mod! Some highlights are above, but you can…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 18, 2012 -
Too Bad About That Arrow In The Knee, Doomed Game of Thrones Kid
As this shot from last Sunday’s Game of Thrones shows, NCIS isn’t the only show to feature a reference to Skyrim‘s now-famous “Arrow in the Knee” joke. Well okay, it’s probably the only one to feature it consciously Thanks to commenter Kryle01 for pointing this one out. Poor little guy. To think! He could have…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 18, 2012 -
The Splendid Botanicula Overflows With Weapons-Grade Joyfulness
Joy is a terribly underrated commodity in video games. Most of the games I play inspire all kinds of feelings—stress, tension, exhilaration, frustration, even less-celebrated but still mentionable sensations like “comforting routine” and “empowering murder-fantasy.” There aren’t all that many games that make me feel really, truly joyful. Botanicula is one of them. Argh, this…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 18, 2012 -
Well… A Voice of A Generation
Hello Kotaku, and welcome to Tuesday’s open thread! I’ve been off for a couple days, so I hope that my fellow writers have been keeping you entertained in my absence. Here, gathered from around the internet, are some things you may wish to read and/or discuss. Six rules for dining out – these are very…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 17, 2012 -
I Don’t Usually Like ‘Guy With Instruments Playing Video Game Music’ Videos, But This Shit Is Amazing
I think we’ve all seen our fair share of “guy with instruments playing video game music” videos on YouTube. This one is different. No, seriously. Multi-instrumentalist FreddeGredde (who in the past has made triumphant sitcom and cartoon medleys, and whose name I cannot seem to spell right for the life of me) goes on a…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 17, 2012 -
Watch That Cool-Looking Skyrim Tower-Defense Mod In Action
A couple weeks ago, I posted about a tower-defense mod for Skyrim that looked surprisingly cool. You know, given how often grafting tower defense onto a non-tower-defense game… y’know… sucks. This new video from the mod’s creator (YouTube: ATittyKitty, heh) shows some in-order gameplay that supports my belief that this mod is going to be…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 17, 2012 -
Why Is Mitsuru So Hot? (And Other Burning Persona 3 Questions)
Yeah, sure, fine, there are a lot of great new games out right now. But for some reason, Persona 3 has captured the hearts and minds of not one but two Kotaku editors: Me (Kirk) and our resident JRPG expert Jason Schreier. We’ve been talking about the game pretty much every day, most likely to…
Kirk Hamilton & Jason Schreier Published April 17, 2012 -
Tips & Guides
Before You Start… Tips For Playing The Witcher 2 The Best Way
Today marks the release of The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition on both Xbox 360 and PC. Sure, those of us with a powerful gaming PC probably played through this game one or more times. But everyone who picks it up on the Xbox will be playing it for the first time. So, first of all:…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 17, 2012
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