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Old World of Warcraft Servers Raise Over $300,000 for Children’s Charity
Last year, Blizzard decided to auction off a number of “server blades” from World of Warcraft, which were literally the physical locations where people’s online lives were stored and played out. Seems it was a sound idea, since the grand total of all blades auctioned has reached $330,000. Best part? Every cent raised goes not…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 13, 2012 -
There Will Always be a Baggins Under LEGO’s Bag End
LEGO today released the first official image of the Bag End playset, from the company’s upcoming line of Hobbit pieces. Though, yeah, no reason it can’t also be used with the existing Lord of the Rings minifigs either!
By Luke Plunkett Published July 13, 2012 -
CultureSee How Much Work Goes Into Making a Fancy Video Game Trailer
Cinematic trailers are everywhere in games marketing these days, so much so it’s rare to see a title shown off for the first time any other way. As we become more familiar with them, though, we start to take them for granted. Which is a bit of a shame, considering how much work actually goes…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 13, 2012 -
A Surprisingly Beautiful Valve Video
To date, most people have been using Valve’s Source Filmmaker for comedic purposes, but let’s remember, comedy is but one genre. So it’s nice seeing this clip that’s reminding us the tools can be used for more serious stuff as well. This is amazing. The effects here rival those of all but the finest in…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 13, 2012 -
NVIDIA Hacked, Usernames & Emails Stolen
Another day, another hack of a large online community, this time PC graphics specialists NVIDIA. The company’s forums were hacked last week, with culprits making off with usernames, email addresses, public information in their profiles and “hashed passwords with random salt value”. NVIDIA has closed its forums down while it investigates, and is urging registered…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 13, 2012 -
Man Stabbed in the Chest After World of Warcraft Argument
Canadian man Jordan Osborne is lucky to be alive after an argument over World of Warcraft left him with a stab wound in the chest. The worst part is that Osborne (pictured) wasn’t even really involved; he overheard his neighbours arguing on Wednesday, and when he went to investigate, found they were upset over something…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 13, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Nintendo’s Official Super Metroid Guide Featured Transparent Samus Armour
This is the cover to the Japanese edition of the official guide to SNES classic Super Metroid. I can see what they’re trying to do with the idea, maybe, but in execution it just looks weird. Like a Nintendo console getting on in years, re-released in a transparent colour scheme. [via VGJunk]
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Weird, Wonderful and Sometimes Secret History of Nintendo
While other video game companies are happy to celebrate 10th, 15th or even 20th anniversaries, Nintendo is over 100 years old. Founded in 1889, the company has enjoyed a rich video gaming tradition dating back to the 1970s, releasing some of the most successful gaming consoles and franchises of all time. Which is great for…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
Video Games Remind Us That Cigarettes Will Kill You
Ukrainian designer German Ljutaev has come up with this design that uses traditional video game imagery like life hearts and drops them on a cigarette. The further down the cigarette you smoke, the more hearts you burn though until you hit the inevitable “CONTINUE?” screen. It’s cute, but yet, urgh, so morbid at the same…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
BioWare is Making a New Ultima RPG. I’m Serious.
Not content with digging up the corpse of classic RPG series Ultima once, EA – who now hold the rights to the franchise – are doing it all over again. The publisher has tonight announced Ultima Forever, a cross-platform, free-to-play RPG that’s being developed by BioWare and which will be published under EA’s Play 4…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
FarmVille Guys Publishing a Serious, Hardcore Game, With Swords and Monsters and Stuff
If I say the word “Zynga” to you, you probably think stories of shoddy work practices, of ruthless non-games like FarmVille, or allegations that they essentially rip other people’s games off So it’s understandable that the social games juggernaut is looking to broaden its horizons a little, and move into more serious territory. That’s why…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
When X-Com Meets Star Trek, Wonderful Things Happen
Star Command has long been my most-anticipated iOS game. It may now also be one of my most-anticipated PC games, especially since this planned bigger edition will feature more content. Get past the corny intro and there’s a ton of gameplay footage to sift through. STAR COMMAND: Kickstart Part 2 – The PC/Mac Space Adventure…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
A Beautiful Mech Commemorates the Greatest Robot Movie of All Time
If you haven’t seen 1990’s Robot Jox, well, stop reading. Go get a copy. Because it’s just about the best thing ever. A combination of Cold War politics and stop-motion giant mech combat, it told the story of a future in which international disputes were settled not with wars, but with gladiatorial battles between…giant mechs.…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
Culture
Luscious Game Art Makes Robots and Beasts Look Great Together
Markus Neidel is a German concept artist who most recently worked on Black Prophecy, a sci-fi MMO. You won’t find too much sci-fi in this gallery, though. What you will find for the most part are some epic fantasy images that look so delicious you’d be forgiven for thinking you could slice them off your…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
A Wonderful Interview With a Disabled Japanese Gamer Flown Out to the World’s Biggest Fighting Game Tournament
In one of the most touching stories of the year, the fighting game readers of community website Shoryuken banded together to help disabled Japanese gamer Osamu Ichikawa get to this year’s EVO tournament in Las Vegas. Ichikawa, who suffers from cerebral palsy, only just got to play Street Fighter in an arcade for the first…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
Become an Aperture Test Subject With Your Very Own Portal Jumpsuit
Toy company NECA, who recently released an official replica Portal gun, is letting people kick their Aperture fantasies up a notch with an entire licensed outfit Going on sale soon will be a pair of long socks fashioned to look like the game’s Long Fall Boots and, for those who really like to get in…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
What Kind of Man Sells Over $1,000,000 Worth of Rare Video Games? This Kind of Man.
A few days ago, an eBay auction offering thousands of video games was listed at over $1.2 million. An obscene figure, but when you consider it included the complete catalogues of every game released on the NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Virtual Boy, Master System, Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast (just to name a few), it seemed…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
That Game Where “Hulk Hogan’s” Chest Nearly Exploded
Wrestle War is a Japanese wrestling game that was released in arcades in 1989 (and on Japanese and PAL Mega Drives a couple of years later). Despite not carrying a single official license, it decided to rip off a number of high-profile wrestlers of the time, like Hulk Hogan (who was awesomely renamed “Titan Morgan”)…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 11, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
A History of Video Game Movies That Haven’t Been Made (And Probably Won’t)
As video game fans, it’s easy to get excited about movie adaptation news because, as video game fans, you expect this means the movie will one day actually get made. It doesn’t. That might be how video games work, but it’s certainly not how Hollywood works. This week has seen three big announcements in the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 11, 2012 -
This Giant LEGO Bridge Looks Photoshopped (But It’s Not)
Street artist MEGX painted this bridge in Wuppertal, Germany to look like it was made out of LEGO. His use of colour and contrast makes the thing look like a hideous Photoshop job, but nope, it’s real. The guy got busy with paintbrushes and, after four weeks on the job, left the world with the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 11, 2012
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