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CultureTotal RecallThank You, Shigeru Miyamoto, For These Awesome Games
Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto may not be leaving Nintendo or the games industry entirely, but the news that he’s soon to step down to a less prominent role on smaller games and with young developers has still sent a bit of a shock through the industry. UPDATE – Phew! Nintendo has denied he’s doing any…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 8, 2011 -
Your Teenage Son Who Seems Pretty Normal But Who You Don’t Talk to
He gets OK grades in school. He has a few friends. They seem passable. He eats at the table every night and sits in the back seat of the car every weekend, but really, he’s a teenage boy. You don’t know him. You think you do, but you don’t. He’s a mess. Underneath his skin…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
Those Guys Who Only Play Sports Games
Let’s say you know a guy. Could be a lady, but it’s most likely a guy. This guy owns a video game console or two, but he only uses for one thing: to play sports games. It’s like he has a complex or something. He’ll play a ton of video games, and spend a good…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
A Half-Life Gravity Gun That Exists In the Real World
Master craftsman Harrison Krix has built himself a replica of Gordon Freeman’s Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2. It’s really something. Made internet famous by similar projects based on the weapons of series like Mass Effect and World of Warcraft, the gun has that post-apocalyptic finish you’d expect, along with some amazing lighting effects that bring…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
Culture
Who are you to Resist This God of War Art?
With over a decade’s experience in video game concept art, Carlo Arellano has worked on some of the industry’s biggest franchises, including World of Warcraft, Resistance and God of War More recently, he’s been involved in designing characters for Insomniac’s Overstrike, that sci-fi game from E3 that was announced and then promptly slid into the…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
Batman’s PC Version Fixed, But Also Kinda Broken
Arkham CIty’s had some DX11 problems since its delayed PC release. A new patch from Rocksteady tries to fix this, but only if you don’t have Windows Vista or 7 32-bit. If you do, it makes things worse. Oh dear. [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
Zelda’s Song of Storms, Recreated
Artist Erik Schumacher didn’t paint this striking image of Link atop Epona. It’s not a photo either. It’s a little bit of both, something called “photomanipulation”. What that means is he took dozens of existing images and smashed them together. Like a collage, only, seamless. Then he joins them all together with trimmings like Link’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
These Game of Thrones Screenshots Are Dark and Full of Terror
Cyanide’s upcoming Game of Thrones RPG promises to let players explore the world of Westeros, rather than just be led around it by an author and/or a TV show. Since nobody has played the thing, or even knows that much about it, we can’t vouch for how good it is. We can vouch for how…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
StarCraft II Might be Better Than Chess (For Science!)
Researchers looking at cognitive science have long studied chess. But a story on Scientific American shows that chess’ days could soon be numbered, because a superior model is emerging: Blizzard’s StarCraft II Scientists are hailing the game for its ability to help them study “attention, multitasking, and learning”, the game’s quick speed and reliance on…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
Hope You’re Ready for a New Tony Hawk Game
Activision’s Tony Hawk franchise took its first ever year off in 2011 because it had been run into the ground. Too many games in too many years with not enough new ideas. With the Spike Video Game Awards coming up, it appears that one year off is all Activision felt it could afford. “I’ll be…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
Now Microsoft Wants to Stop You Taking Them to Court [Update]
It’s one of 2011’s more troubling, if less sexy developments: that of major publishers and platform holders finding ways to stop customers taking them to court if something goes wrong with their product or service. Sony was the first company to introduce a “no sue” clause as part of its terms of service in September,…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
Xbox Live Service Buckling Under Weight of Finally Welcomes New Dashboard [Update]
After a slight delay, the new Xbox Dashboard has begun rolling out to 360 owners around the world. Or, well, it would be, if Xbox Live wasn’t down for many of them. So be patient! Those of us at Kotaku still awake can’t connect to Xbox Live at all, and Microsoft’s support website carries a…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
This Shitty Developer Has No Brains (Or Giant Balls)
Top Best Adult Entertainment. It’s not a name that springs to mind alongside the likes of Nintendo, Blizzard, Valve or BioWare, and there’s a reason for that. This is one of the worst developers in the world. Not because they put out bad games, though that certainly helps. It’s because of the lies they dress…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011 -
Um, Link Doesn’t Just Absorb Those Fairies…
So Link walks into a Fairy cave, stashes some in a bottle, then just kinda…absorbs another to refill his health. Wait, absorb? That’s a little vague. Wouldn’t he need to…yeah. It’s horrible. The next time you crack open a bottle and top yourself up in a Zelda game, just think about what you’re actually doing,…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011 -
Skyrim Now Works With Kinect (On PC)
Look at this guy. He’s rigged up a copy of Skyrim to work with Kinect. And it doesn’t just work. It works well Stuff like menu juggling looks like a bit of a pain, as it’s slower owing to the necessity for voice control. But movement and combat? It looks way less horrible than it…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011 -
Scott Hates Pokémon More Than You
If the world was overrun with Pokémon, how would you handle it? Probably better than Scott here. It goes for a bit too long, but then, if poor Scott has to put up with Pokémon, we have to put up with a good joke that overstays its welcome. It’s only fair.
By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011 -
Culture
The Fanciest Video Game Art You’ve Ever Seen
Today’s Fine Art is something different. Rather than look at one game, or one studio, we’re looking at a loose collaboration of artists from all over the industry brought together by one thing: a very fancy art dealership. Cook & Becker, based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, has opened a gallery for “unique and limited edition…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011 -
Old Republic Already Has More Players Than Most Finished Games
Upcoming Star Wars MMO Old Republic isn’t even out yet. It’s still in a beta. Yet over the Thanksgiving weekend in the US over 725,000 people logged on and played the thing. What’s more, they didn’t just log on, play for three minutes and log off. The average user played for 12 hours over those…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011 -
Space Looks Too…Damn…Cute…
Want some new desktop or phone wallpaper? You’re covered. So covered. Here’s some rad new artwork from Capybara’s upcoming Super TIME Force. A 1920×1080 version is above, while iPhone 4, iPad, 1600×1200 and 1280×1024 resolutions are available here HERE, TAKE THESE PIXEL ART WALLPAPERS [CAPY]
By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011 -
What’s Ubisoft’s New MMO? A Wii U Game?
Yesterday, Ubisoft’s Emile Gauthier posted a seemingly innocent Twitter message, asking for people to come work on Ubisoft Quebec’s “NEW AAA MMORPG Game”. Turns out the actual advertisements are a little more descriptive. While some simply say MMO, or AAA MMO, others say it’s a “WII U AAA Game”, which suggests the game may well…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011
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