Luke Plunkett

So, How Much Do Video Game Composers Make?

Video game soundtracks can often be the most iconic element of a game. Take Halo, for example. Or Zelda. So it begs the question: how much do game composers get paid? Variety sat down with four of the “top names in the brave new world of game scores”, and found that the composers are paid…

The WoW Pod Is A Suicide Booth For Warcraft Fans

This is the “WoW Pod”. It does everything. It’s a crapper, it’s a computer, it’s a kitchen and, most important of all, it’s a shield against the outside world. The brainchild of artists Cati Vaucelle & Shada/Jahn, the pod – based off real World of Warcraft “architecture” – is “real” (in the sense that it’s…

Brütal Legend Throws Up The Horns This October

Brütal Legend – produced by Tim Schafer, starring Jack Black, published by EA – will be out this October, Electronic Arts have announced this morning. In North America, the game will be released on October 13. Europeans can get their hands on the game three days later, on October 16. Tim Schafer is understandably chuffed:…

Game Over

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How Modern TVs Ruin Old Games

Big, fancy LCD and plasma TVs are just wonderful for 360 & PS3 games. But for older games (and some new ones!)- and by old, we mean old – they’re not so hot. And this is why. This write-up by NFG (of the selectbutton forums) goes into astonishing detail on just why fixed-resolution displays aren’t…

Britain Gets A New PSP Bundle

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have today announced a new PSP hardware bundle for the British market, which will include a PSP-3000 console, a memory stick and some free TV service hours. As it stands, anyone signing up for Go!View – Sony’s pay-TV partnership with Sky, which sees content made available for the PSP – gets…

Magna Carta 2 Debut Trailer

Here’s the first trailer for Softmax’s 360 JRPG Magna Carta 2. It was announced at Microsoft’s press event in Tokyo today that the game will be out in Japan on August 6.

Stephen Fry Doing Voice Work For “2nd Edition Of A Video Game”

Warning: this comes from Twitter. If you’re sick of hearing about Twitter, well, you have been warned. Anyway. Stephen Fry is spending the day doing voice work for a game. As he “Tweets” (sorry): Morning all. In studio today voicing 2nd edition of a video game. Will check when I’m there if I’m allowed to…

This Is How You Get Me Interested In A Transformers Game

I didn’t want anything to do with the last Transformers game, partly because I’d heard it was awful, but mostly because it featured “movie” Transformers. Which are terrible, spindly things. Call me a purist, call me an asshole, I don’t mind, but when a Transformer looks like a Bionicle with a bone disease, it’s not…

Muramasa Loses Its American Publisher

What is it with Wii games losing publishers? First Fatal Frame, now Muramasa – which was about the best-looking thing due on the console in 2009 – finds its American release up in the air. Vanillaware’s gorgeous 2D side-scroller was supposed to be released by XSEED in North America later this year (it was released…

Left 4 Dead Survival Pack: April 21

Tonight, it’s still April 20. But when you open up those sleepy eyes and greet April 21? Left 4 Dead’s Survival Pack will be there waiting for you. Valve announced today that the free content – which will introduce new gameplay modes and open up two campaigns for versus play – will be released on…

New Madden Screens Bring The Wildcat

Last year, the Dolphins shook things up a little by breaking out the “Wildcat”, an offensive formation rarely used in the NFL. To sum up, it worked. So it’ll be available in Madden 10! And to ram that point down your throat, EA Sports have released three new screens for the game, showing RB Ronnie…

British Sales Charts: Keep Calm, Carry On, Wii Fit

The British charts are beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Rather than having toys in every store (or other prettiest sights to see), however, it’s just Nintendo games, wall-to-wall. Four of the top five games for the week ending April 18 were published by Nintendo. And really, Britain, we’re going to have to have…

Global Nuclear War Should Come To The DS

Talented British developers Introversion have announced that, after a previous deal with a publisher fell through, they’re looking for somebody else to publish nuclear war “simulator” Defcon on the Nintendo DS. The grim, bare-bones PC hit is a perfect fit for the handheld, so the team are justifiably confident of finding somebody. But on the…

Exquisite Mother 3 Statues

Since Americans can’t even get their hands on an official version of Mother 3 the game, there’s no hope of seeing much official Mother 3 merch. But unofficial merch? Knock yourselves out. These Mother 3 clay statues were crafted by Camille Young, the wife of Reid Young, of Starmen fame. They were made for use…

How Many Copies Does A WiiWare Game Need To Sell?

Last week, Gamasutra heard whispers about Nintendo placing sales criteria on WiiWare games. If developers didn’t reach them, they wouldn’t get paid. Well, we now know just how many they need to sell. Courtesy of a developer “familiar” with the subject, these are the targets a WiiWare game has to meet before the creators start…

GPS For Your DS Lite

If you’re ever packing your DS Lite and end up lost in the jungle/emerging from a crashed plane in the Andes, you’ll be thankful if you bothered to purchase the “Ranger”. This unofficial Chinese…dongle, I guess we’ll call it, brings a full suite of global positioning capabilities to the handheld, featuring Google Maps support in…

Nintendo Shares: So, So Oversold

According to financial experts Barron’s, shares in Nintendo are now “oversold”. Sounds bad! “Oversold” basically means that shares in a company have fallen too far, too fast. Like a knee-jerk reaction. Or, like what’s happened to Nintendo shares over the past few weeks, as falling sales data (particularly in Japan) has led many bandwagon jumpers…

Dead Space Figure: Aim For His Limbs!

We caught a glimpse of this guy at the New York Toy Fair, but that was just a glimpse. Here’s a good, hard look at NECA’s Player Select take on the star of Dead Space. Yes, that’s Isaac Clarke, and he features “over 20 points of articulation”. He also comes in two variants: the one…

Fallout 3 Soundtrack Just Wants To Set Delta Air Lines On Fire

Here’s a cute story. Reader Josh was taking a little trip the other day on Delta Air Lines when he threw on his free headphones and heard something familiar. Flipping open the airline’s “Sky” magazine, Josh noticed that, on channel 6A, they were playing “The Music of Fallout 3”. The classic songbook of the ’40s…