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Yo, It’s Day of the Tentacle, and it’s Flashing
Morning, Day of the Tentacle fans! Here’s a little something readers David and Sarah Cousens (of the excellent Cool Surface) whipped up to brighten up your Tuesday. If it brightens it up too much, well, you shouldn’t have come this far. It’s Day of the Tentacle fan art we’re talking about here. It was always…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
CultureThis Guild Wars 2 Art Can’t Stand Still
OK, so I’ve got a bit of a thing for Guild Wars 2 art. It’s a gorgeous game, shoot me. But before you do, you should check out both this concept art and, in a neat twist, some trailers made out of concept art. Horia Dociu, who worked as an artist on Half-Life 2, joined…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
Duck Hunt: The Movie is Surprisingly Terrifying
When you think about it, Duck Hunt is a pretty scary game. Get past the blue skies and cheery art design and that’s one evil dog lurking in the bushes. Something this horror movie based on the Nintendo classic knows only too well. The Hunt is the first of G4’s promised trilogy of short horror…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
Why Do Computers Always Have a Lady’s Voice?
Some of gaming’s most cunning foes have been computers. Think GlaDOS from Portal, or Shodan from System Shock 2. At least part of what makes them so memorable is that their artificial intelligence is brought to life by a cold, calculating, female voice. Friendly artificial intelligence usually skews female as well. Anyone who’s played Deus…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
The Amazing Nerd Art of Andrew Jones
British artist Andrew “Bones” Jones is a man after my own heart. In his works paying tribute to the video games of yesteryear, you won’t find much Mario or Mega Man. You’ll find Wing Commander, Zombies Ate My Neighbours and old Amiga games. In the gallery above you’ll see some amazing digital paintings by Jones,…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
Minecraft’s Creator is a God
This piece of fan art showed up on the Facebook page of Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson overnight. It is blocky. And strangely erotic. I know the painting it’s based on, Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, is not erotic in the slightest. It’s about God giving life to man. Which is what this picture is…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
This Guy Cheated to get an Achievement (But He Did It in Style)
There’s an achievement you can get in Gears of War 3 that can be earned by playing a piano 2000 times. That’s a lot of button pressing, so LEGO builder Guy Himber set to work on a less strenuous solution. He built this LEGO rig that would both hold his 360 controller and press the…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
PC Gamers, You Should Update Your Graphics Card Drivers This Week
It’s been a big month for PC games, and things are about to get even bigger, so if you’ve been lazy and forgotten to update your graphics card drivers, you’re going to want to fix that. Between big games having issues (RAGE) and even bigger games just being…big (Battlefield 3), both AMD and Nvidia have…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Game That Started the Battlefield Series
The first Battlefield game, Battlefield 1942, was released in 2002. Nearly ten years ago! Yet while it was the first game to bear the branding that lives on to this day with Battlefield 3, depending on how you look at it, it’s not really the first game in the series. That honour goes to a…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
EA Gives Hope to Original Syndicate Fans
The Syndicate of 1993 was a strange beast, part strategy, part action. The Syndicate of 2012 is all action, leaving those who preferred the strategy of the original wanting. And yet there is hope, no matter how small, in the following comments from EA’s Jeff Gamon, who told Eurogamer, “The original was such a classic.…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 24, 2011 -
This Week’s Cosplay is Out of This World (and Galaxy, and Universe…)
As usual, there was a lot of great cosplay on show around the world last week, but I’d like to specifically point out the Samara (Mass Effect) in the image above. Yes, that’s cosplay. Not a screenshot. The reason it looks so close to the “real” thing (and why this is so awesome) is that…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 24, 2011 -
TV’s The Office is Engaging In a Little StarCraft Dress-Ups
This Thursday night, what looks like an entire night’s programming on NBC is going to involve TV show characters dressing up for Halloween. And StarCraft is getting some love. Towards the end of the above clip you’ll see The Office’s Dwight Schrute wearing, of all things, a Sarah Kerrigan outfit (the star-turned-villain-turned-spoiler of the StarCraft…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 24, 2011 -
These Aren’t Video Game Screenshots, They’re Postcards
Iain Andrews’ site Steam Postcards has long been my wallpaper supplier of choice. Why? Because he plays games and takes screenshots that aren’t the kind of thing you’d find in a magazine or popular internet video game website. He instead takes, well, postcards. Scenic shots of the background, or the walls, or the sky, or…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 24, 2011 -
Three More Screenshots of the new Shadowrun Game
Shadowrun Online, the upcoming browser-based interpretation of the classic role-playing game, launched with a single, rather nondescript screenshot. So here’s three more to pad things out. OK, so one of them is an art shot of a shotgun, but the other two are most helpful, showing things like corpses, combat and the briefest hint of…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 24, 2011 -
I am Enjoying a World War II Game Again
It’s been a while since World War II games were much good. Been a long time since they were “the thing”. In recent years only series like Il-2, Red Orchestra and Men at War have been keeping the Nazi-killing dream alive. Yet it was with a little excitement I sat down with Unity of Command,…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 24, 2011 -
Comparing Battlefield 3 On 360 With HD Textures and Without
To recap, Battlefield 3 on Xbox 360 and PS3 has an optional HD texture install. The game’s developers DICE have said that without this, the game looks “standard def”. But why take their word for it when you can see the difference yourself? The video above compares the game running first with the pack installed…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 24, 2011 -
Kinect’s 3D Ball Game is Like Something From the Future
Now, granted, this gimmick doesn’t just use Kinect. It uses a fancy clear display and Kinect to achieve the effect. But what an effect it is. This clip from Microsoft’s research wing shows a user gently fondling and cupping some balls in a 3D space. Even though he’s looking through a 2D screen and his…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 24, 2011 -
I Just Bought a New PC for Battlefield 3. What About You?
Some people think this year’s big PC releases, particularly the “next gen” Battlefield 3, will spur around $1 billion in sales of PC hardware. Having just spent $1300 on PC hardware, I can see why. The last all-new PC I bought was in April 2008. There wasn’t a big game on the horizon then or…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 24, 2011
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