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If This Is The Future Of Space Games, Sign Me Up
For all its political intrigue and gorgeous player models, EVE Online is still, like all other MMOs, a little stale. This concept trailer shows how developers CCP are planning on spicing things up a little. To complement the EVE Online MMO, a first-person shooter called Dust 514 is due for release sometime in the next…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
Even Street Fighters (And Tekken!) Are Helping Japan’s Quake Victims
In a cute piece of national solidarity, Osaka-based Capcom has released a pair of supportive wallpapers for Japanese (and other!) fans to help parts of Japan get back on their feet following the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
First PlayStation Phone Is “Buggy”, Has Partial UK Launch Delay
The Xperia Play, Sony Ericsson’s first mobile platform making use of the PlayStation Suite, has seen part of its UK release delayed after a telcom provider found several bugs in the phone’s software. “We’ve been testing the phone non-stop for several weeks,” says O2’s lead tester Stuart Hibberd, “and have found some bugs in the…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
China Gets 3D Street Fighter For Arcades
Taiwanese arcade distributor Wahlap Technologies will be releasing in the Chinese market something of a novelty: a Street Fighter IV arcade cabinet that lets you play the game in 3D. This isn’t the existing 3DS version of Super Street Fighter cleaned up and re-released. In fact, it’s not Super Street Fighter IV at all. What…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
Is The 3DS Suffering From A “Black Screen Of Death”?
Now that the 3DS is in the hands of customers across the Western world, people are finally playing the thing in large numbers. Large enough, it seems, to have found a “black screen of death” error affecting the handheld. It doesn’t seem terribly widespread, so don’t panic. But those who have encountered the error have…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
Mortal Kombat’s Final Roster Leaked
If you think looking at a character select screen for a fighter is a spoiler, move right along. If you’d like to see what looks like the final roster for the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot, though, please continue! There is of course no way to verify the select screen at this time. If you’re working…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallOnly In The 80’s Would They Put Video Games On A VHS Tape
Video games have made their home on any number of storage mediums over the years, from compact discs to cassette tapes to plastic cartridges. Someone even, in the 1980s, thought it was a good idea to put them on video tapes. It wasn’t. In the mid-to-late-80’s, three companies began working on consoles designed to use…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 28, 2011 -
Like Cherry Blossoms, The Force Is All Around Us
No, Luke, I Am Your Gardener | Bought these a while ago on my honeymoon and only just got around to putting them up. Looking good! (Photo: Luke Plunkett) Wake Up, Kotaku Let’s Play Left 4 Dead 2 ‘Cold Stream,’ The New, Outdoorsy Zombie Campaign Earlier this week, Valve released the beta version of “Cold…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
Report: Amazon Screws Up British 3DS Deliveries
There are some very unhappy Nintendo fans in the United Kingdom today, with mega-retailer Amazon reportedly failing to deliver 3DS consoles to many customers who paid extra for “expedited delivery”. It’s 11:30am in the UK at the time of posting, and Amazon’s forums are filled to the brim with customers complaining that not only had…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
The Monsters Of Minecraft Shed Their Blocks For Flesh And Bone
Indie darling Minecraft is a scary game! Scary in tone, though, not appearance. In appearance it’s adorable. To help the tone match the look, then, some artists decided to paint Minecraft’s monsters as they’d actually appear. The results? Let’s just say I’m glad the game only deals in bright, colourful blocks. The artists featured here…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
Lady, Don’t Touch That Coin Block, Or You’ll…Oh, Never Mind
You see a mysterious coin block from another realm floating around the streets of Germany, you don’t just touch it. You call the Landespolizei! They’d have told this lady, for example, that touching it would put the people of Offenburg in grave danger OK, so this university project takes more than a few cues from…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
Where Do Your Video Game Bad Guys Come From?
Here’s a hint: they don’t come from countries where people speak English. Complex sat down with a number of recent shooters and plotted where on the map the game’s villains (or at least opposing force) came from. And, this may shock you, but they nearly all came from either former communist states, communist states or…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
StarCraft’s Developers Have Been More Influential Than You Might Realise!
Want to see just how influential World of Warcraft developers Blizzard have been to other video games? Check out this chart which shows where a legion of ex-Blizzard employees have ended up. While, understandably, you can see a lot of employees leaving to go work on other MMO games – at least after the release…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
The Colorful Concept Art Of Bulletstorm
Gears of War is a very brown video game series. Bulletstorm, a new game that was co-developed by the same team, is a lot more colourful, something that began right back with the game’s early concept art. Polish artist Maciej Wojtala drew these pieces of environmental concept art for People Can Fly and Epic, and…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
Screw Madden 12, Go Back To Making Indie Games!
Some men and women working for big-name developers got their start toiling away on indie games. Do you think they ever wish they could go back to those carefree days? Seeing what those carefree days involved, courtesy of comedy troupe Mega 64, the answer is “probably not”. Suck it up and get that next Call…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
The US Navy Has The Coolest Flight Simulator In The World
This is the T-45C “visual simulator” at the Naval Air Station in Kingsville, Texas. It makes my 50″ plasma look like a Game & Watch. It’s part of a US Navy pilot’s earliest stages of training: this is a simulator not of something badass, but of the humble T-45 Goshawk, a small jet the US…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
So, How Much Does It Cost To Make A Nintendo 3DS?
Unless you’re reading this from the accounts section of Nintendo, we may never know. But experts in the field can estimate, and they estimate that the 3DS costs Nintendo $101 to manufacture. If that’s correct – and even if it’s not, it’s likely to be damn close – there’s a big gap between the handheld’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
Nintendo’s First Console Is One You’ve Never Played
So Nintendo’s first home console was the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom, right? Nope. The company’s first foray into home video gaming actually dates back to 1977, six whole years before the Famicom was released in Japan. That “home console” was actually a series of machines called “Color TV”, which were living room versions of popular arcade…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2011
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