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CultureTotal RecallThe Amazing 1979 Song About Computer Games
There have been plenty of songs written about video games over the years. You have your favourites, I have mine One that lingers in my memory, though, comes from a time before I was even born: 1979’s Computer Games, by the Australasian band Mi-Sex. What’s so memorable about this song isn’t the fact that it’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 7, 2011 -
Culture
The Fantastic Character Art of Akihiko Yoshida
Akihiko Yoshida has been at Final Fantasy developers Square Enix since 1995, when he joined Squaresoft, one of the companies (along with Enix) that merged to create the RPG powerhouse. In that time he’s worked on a ton of Final Fantasy games, the most prominent of them being Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics and…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
A Man Did Not Make This Beautiful World. A Computer Did.
Procedurally-generated worlds, in which the computer is able to randomly design an entire area on the fly, are the future of game development. They already exist in the games of today, of course. Minecraft, for example, procedurally-generates a new game world every time you begin a new game. But Minecraft doesn’t look as pretty as…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
The Sweet Little Music Video Made With a Nintendo DSi
Artist Justin Wallis has taken Gecko’s chiptune track 1988 and made his own music video for it, using little but his drawing skills and a Nintendo DSi. The video, about a “small talk with a girl”, uses his illustrations laid over a series of photos taken with the DSi’s crummy little camera. Which, in this…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
Duke Nukem Forever is Suddenly All About the Rainbows
Nyan Cat, which is either the best or worst thing to happen to the internet in 2011, is certainly the best thing to happen to Duke Nukem Forever in this clip from the game’s opening stage. Having seen (and, admittedly, drawn) a dick or two on that whiteboard in my time, it’s great seeing somebody…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
And Just Like That, Oblivion Looks Amazing all over Again
It’s aged a little now, but when Oblivion was first released, it was breath-taking. This new mod, Andoran, restores a lot of the game’s swagger. Andoran is a complete overhaul of Elder Scrolls IV. Conceived as a prologue to events in the core series, and true to the canon, it’s basically an entire new game,…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
The GameFAQs of 1994 Was Way Cooler
These days, if you’re stuck in a game, you hit the internet. YouTube and GameFAQs are your best friends. Back in the 1990s, things weren’t so simple! Your options were more complicated. You could ask your friends for help, but they were likely to either not know or be full of shit. You could call…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
Would You Play a Game Called Chad Ochocinco’s Barely Legal Thigh Master?
No? How about Scottie Pippen’s Battle Typing? Mormon Drop? Nurse Party? Those are just four of the combinations you’ll get when you waste minutes of your life clicking on the Video Game Name Generator, which throws together random celebrities, verbs and the word “Chronicles” to give us names that are only so absurd because they’re…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
Hope You’re Ready For Some New PlanetSide
We already know Sony Online Entertainment is working on a new Planetside game. That’s…about all we know. We should know more come July 8, though, as that’s when a countdown clock on the series’ website expires. Yes, a countdown clock. I am truly sorry for drawing attention to the laziest and most frustrating marketing ploy…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
Deus Ex Hackers Hit With Lawsuit (and Here’s how They Got the Game)
A preview build of Deus Ex Human Revolution, containing a rough version of the early sections of the upcoming game, was leaked onto torrent sites in late May While publishers Square Enix have publicly been cool with the release, even quietly encouraging of it, behind the scenes they’ve been hunting down those responsible. Now, believing…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
When South Park Got an EA Sports Game Pulled off the Shelves
Long before golfer Tiger Woods thought it’d be a good idea to go sticking his dick in anything with a hole and a pulse, his video game franchise was embroiled in a scandal of a different kind. The harmless kind. Involving Jesus, Santa Claus and a cartoon. In 1998, a young Tiger Woods was bursting…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
Kiss Your Life Goodbye With Tiny Tower
On the one hand, Tiny Tower is like so many countless iPhone games before it. Lure you in with a free game, then charge you real money as you tap, tap tap away at a menial and pointless task. On the other hand, Tiny Tower is freaking amazing. In the game, you take control of…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011 -
Culture
The Renaissance Art of David Alvarez [Update]
David Alvarez is a 2D and 3D artist employed at Ubisoft, who has worked on games like Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Test Drive Unlimited Today, we’re looking at his work on the Assassin’s Creed series. Since Alvarez is able to work in both 2D and 3D, we get a…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011 -
Turn Call of Duty into a New Star Wars: Battlefront Game
Hey, remember that mod that was going to turn Modern Warfare into a Star Wars game? It’s finally out. In development since 2009, it’s called Star Wars Mod: Galactic Warfare, and is the product of a team of German coders called BlackMonkeys. You can grab it at the link below. Since it’s a mod for…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011 -
If Only Mass Effect’s Toys Were Actually This Good
For a series with such great characters and great visual design, Mass Effect has sadly been neglected on the action figure front, DC Unlimited only just releasing its first line of Mass Effect 2 figures in April 2011. Even then, those are pretty hit-and-miss, some fine detail on Grunt let down by Shepard’s train wreck…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011 -
Finally, Chesty Jake Meets Half-Life 2
Source Code is a 2011 thriller starring Chesty “Jake Gyllenhaal” Jake. So it’s fitting that when somebody made a replica machinima trailer of it, they made it using Half-Life 2’s Source Engine. Compare it to the original here [thanks everyone who sent this in!]
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011 -
Report: LA Noire Was Development Hell, Rockstar No Longer Working With Team Bondi
Andrew McMillen, who published the original report on IGN claiming poor work conditions at LA Noire developer Team Bondi, has now published on GI.biz what’s claimed to be a series of leaked internal emails that don’t exactly paint Bondi’s boss, Brendan McNamara, in a good light. Amongst the bad blood between Rockstar and Team Bondi…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011 -
Despite Hacks, Sony Is Still Asia’s “Most Valued Brand”
It’s lost billions over the past few years and been publicly shamed by one of the world’s biggest ever online security breaches, but according to a survey across ten markets Sony is still Asia’s “most valued brand”. The results are part of the TNS Top 1000 Asia-Pacific Brands survey, which polled 3,300 people between the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011 -
Microsoft Thought About Buying the Guys Who Make Crysis
Crytek are the developers behind the original Far Cry, Crysis, Crysis 2 and the Cryengine. They could also, but for the grace of God, have been bought out by Microsoft. IN an interview with Official Xbox Magazine, Microsoft’s corporate vice-president Phil Spencer says “The first time we met with [Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli] and the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011 -
Where Final Fantasy VII and LittleBigPlanet Meet
It’s been a while since we took time out to look at a LittleBigPlanet costume pack, but today we do that with very good reason: you can now dress your little sackpeople up as Final Fantasy VII characters. On July 13, PS3 users will be able to download LittleBigPlanet 2 skins for Sephiroth, Cloud, Aeris…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011
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