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The Medal of Honor Cat Needs His Own Video Game
Courtesy of Freddie Wong comes another special-effects laden internet video, this time about the horrors of war. Oh, and cats. I sometimes fear that our age will be remembered in history not for its achievements in science or the arts but for…internet videos about cats.
By Luke Plunkett Published July 11, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
In 1983, Donkey Kong Nearly Died
As we celebrate what’s (probably? maybe?) Donkey Kong’s 30th birthday, let’s today take a look at the 1983 court case which nearly brought a premature end to Nintendo’s big ape. Our story begins in 1982, with the first of many idiotic decisions made by Universal Studios. The studio’s president at the time, Sid Sheinberg, had…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 11, 2011 -
Culture
The Manly Video Game Art of Ville-Valtteri Kinnunen
Barbarians. Knights. Tribal warriors. All very manly men with their armour and swords and scowls, all very much a speciality of Finnish concept artist Ville-Valtteri Kinnunen. Now employed at BioWare, Kinnunen has worked on games like Dragon Age 2, Age of Conan and the criminally under-appreciated Warhammer 40K: Squad Command Working on a Conan property…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
This is How Games are Made (and It’s Beautiful)
Making video games is an incredibly lengthy, detailed and technical process. It would be impossible to visualise all the code that goes into one without being some kind of omnipotent being. Unless you’re watching this video. Put together by LittleBigPlanet developers Media Molecule, this is a “code swarm”, a graphical representation of the work of…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
Monkey Island Remakes Coming Back Once Again
The high-def remakes of Lucasarts’ first two Monkey Island games are being combined in the one box and sold at retail. Included as a sweetener will be concept art, soundtracks and, best of all, material from an abortive attempt at making a Monkey Island animated movie.
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
Sony is Making a Bollywood Sci-Fi Game for the PS3 (and PS2)
A Sony development team in the UK is working on a game adaptation of upcoming Bollywood sci-fi flick Ra.One The film, which stars Shah Rukh Khan, will see its game appear on both PS2 and PS3, the latter as a downloadable PSN title. Players can take control of Ra.One, the movie’s hero, or G.One, who…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
Nintendo Might Send you Demos, Even if you Didn’t Ask for Each One
Since the dawn of time, game demos have been a largely proactive experience. You hear about them, and you have to go out and get them yourself. Nintendo might have a better idea. During a recent Q&A session with investors, company president Satoru Iwata said, “When Nintendo would like to ask users to try a…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
EVE Online Thinks It’s “Real”
After a little, let’s say, negative publicity of late, EVE Online developers CCP have released this trailer as a reminder of why people play the game in the first place. Well, OK, one of the reasons. Back-stabbing and political intrigue don’t make for great trailers, though.
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
Here is Fourteen Minutes of BioShock Infinite Gameplay Footage
It wasn’t shown to the public at the time, but at E3 last month there was a BioShock Infinite demo that blew people’s socks off. You may now watch that demonstration. Below you’ll find the entire fourteen-minute demonstration, which kicks in at the second “chapter” (around 4:20 in). You can read our complete BioShock Infinite…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
Let’s Watch Solid Snake Read Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Well, technically, let’s listen, since the video features only the voice behind Snake (David Hayter) and not the game character’s digital self. You will really want to skip straight to the Hamlet passage itself, which begins 5:00 in. It’s a fair effort by Hayter given he’s both in character and taking the piss, but it’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
Is This Where Gears of War 3 Was Leaked From?
Months ahead of its release, Epic’s Gears of War 3 has been leaked onto the internet, a security breach so severe law enforcement has gotten involved. Maybe, though, the cops won’t be needed. A French developer has told the world about this site, which is currently hosting a range of Xbox promotional material for the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallRemembering the Great, Last Ninja
Today, we’re looking at The Last Ninja. The first “badass” game I ever played, and still one of my all-time favourites. The Last Ninja was first released in 1987 on the Commodore 64, and was developed by Hungarian outfit SoftView and legendary 80’s studio System 3. It was, and remains to this day, one of…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 8, 2011 -
Culture
The Undying Video Game Art of Toshiaki Takayama
Depending on your gaming tastes, you may not have seen much of the work of Toshiaki Takayama. Which is a shame, because his work is incredible. Takayama’s work in the video game field (he’s contributed to anime, trading card games and books as well) has turned up in Japanese arcade titles like Lord of Vermilion,…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011 -
Sure, Let’s Watch Twelve Minutes of Deus Ex Footage
We’ve been talking a bit recently about all the leaks and legal matters surrounding Deus Ex. It’s enough to get you down! So let’s change the pace this morning and watch twelve minutes of gameplay footage. Note this is “proper” gameplay footage. Not a compilation of prostitutes being punched in the face
By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011 -
Too Many Shooters Would Make Nintendo Sad
Looking at the company’s back catalogue, and the fact it had to get an American studio in to do a first-person Metroid series, it’s clear Nintendo is not a big believer in the West’s genre of choice. A point Nintendo president Satoru Iwata addressed during a recent investor Q&A session in Japan. While acknowledging that…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011 -
The Loving Embrace of a Darkstalkers Statue
Toy company SOTA will be taking quite the exclusive to the San Diego Comic-Con later this month: this statue based on fighting game series Darkstalkers, showing Morrigan and Lilith in what they call a “loose embrace”. “Morrigan and Lilith fall, together, in a loose embrace, unaware of how much longer they have together” reads the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011 -
The Man Who Has Every PS2 Game In America
Ahans76, a PlayStation collector, is apparently more of a PlayStation collector than most, because he claims to now be in possession of every single North American PS2 game ever released. Having picked up a console on its launch day back in 2000, he began his collection with Ridge Racer 5. In the beginning, he simply…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011 -
A Collection of Wiis Gathering Dust
As more and more seasoned gamers let their consoles fall by the wayside, the jingoism “my Wii is gathering dust” became common. These Wii controllers? They’ve literally gathered dust. They’re part of a neat feature on Wired examining the whens and whys people stopped using their Nintendo Wii, mostly from gamers who just never really…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011 -
Square Enix Pushing For Valve’s Help In Catching Hackers
While pursuing those responsible for leaking a preview build of Deus Ex Human Revolution onto the internet, publishers Square Enix discovered that the game (well, part of the game) had been a copy they’d hosted on Valve’s Steam service. This happens all the time; often with PC preview coverage here at Kotaku, for example, we’re…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011 -
The Mass Effect Movie Will be at Comic-Con
Hollywood studio Legendary Pictures will be holding its first ever “standalone panel” at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego. Why do we care? Because they’ll be talking about the Mass Effect movie, that’s why. Yes, tucked away at the bottom of the press release announcing the studio’s showings is the news that the film’s writer…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011
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