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CultureTotal RecallThe Best Way To Stop Game Piracy Is With Silly Pirate Heads
Video game piracy is seen by the industry as a dire problem, so much so that many PC games these days are burdened with digital rights management (or DRM) systems. They suck. Pirate heads are way better. Today, DRM is a contentious issue in the world of PC gaming. Several high-profile titles in recent years,…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 25, 2011 -
Professor Layton’s Puzzles Paid For This Stadium
Well, it’s name. Fans of professional American sports will be used to seeing stadiums named after companies. Insurance companies, banking companies, telecommunications companies. It’s a shame, then, that unlike in Japan, none of them are named after video game developers. Hakata no mori Stadium, in Fukuoka, has that honour, as since 2008 it’s been known…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 24, 2011 -
LittleBigPlanet: Good On PS3, Better In Real Life
Give this Show About Games Show clip ten seconds to let you know what’s going on. Give it thirty to warm your heart. Then give it around sixty to blow your mind. It’s Sony and Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet if instead of being a video game, it was a delightful little hand-made adventure where you had…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 24, 2011 -
It Took Five Video Games To Make This Image
This image is called “Captain Lights Part 2: Electric Boogaloo”. Looks nice, but it’s not entirely the artist’s own work, seeing as it’s actually a composite of five video games, a movie and a toy gun. Call it an exercise in synthesising modern popular culture, call it a man with a desire to throw random…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 24, 2011 -
Only One Child Was Harmed Making This Angry Birds Video
Mobile sensation Angry Birds is one of the biggest games on the planet right now. It’s fun enough on a phone, but man, it’s way more fun when you’re pegging birds at small children instead of fat pigs. Did I say fun? I did? Well, add adorable to the list of things it is. Because…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 24, 2011 -
The Father Of The Fitness Video Game Passes Away
Jack LaLanne, who appeared in a fitness video game long before Nintendo and EA made millions off the genre, has sadly passed away over the weekend at the age of 96. A noted health club pioneer and TV salesman, LaLanne lent his name (and likeness!) to 1979’s Intellivision title Jack LaLanne’s Physical Conditioning, which you…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 24, 2011 -
PSP2 Will Have 3G Connectivity And A Very Fancy Screen
Sony is widely expected to formally unveil the PlayStation Portable 2 later this week, but ahead of this a major Japanese newspaper has spilled the beans on some of the new handheld’s specs and capabilities. According to a report on Nikkei, the portable will in Japan be able to link up with the NTT DoCoMo…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 23, 2011 -
The Art Of Halo Is Like A Postcard From The End Of The Universe
Isaac Hannaford is a concept artist at former Halo developers (and series creators) Bungie, who recently got the all-clear to post a ton of his work on his personal site. Good news for us! While there are character pieces and works of promotional art, the most numerous (and our favourite) are the environmental and action…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2011 -
Hey, These Guys Are Playing Gears Of War 3
A seemingly harmless report from UNCTV in North Carolina on the local video game business has an unexpected treat: quite a bit of footage of people playing Gears of War 3’s multiplayer. It’s scattered throughout the clip, so there’s no one single spot you can jump to and see it all, but there’s plenty of…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallBefore They Were Game Of The Year Finalists…
We have four finalists in our 2010 Game Of The Year awards. All worthy contenders, but as has been pointed out, all are also either sequels or continuations of older series. So let’s take a look at how far they’ve come. In case you’re only just joining us, the four games nominated by Kotaku editors…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2011 -
Whoah, Why Are There Boobs In This Tiger Woods Game?
Having spent “ages” working on a custom avatar for her Tiger Woods 11 character, Briton Jo Eley says she booted the game up to find that…well, her avatar was apparently playing topless. So says a report on the website of Britain’s The Sun, at any rate, where Eley says after discovering the “glitch” while playing…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2011 -
Let’s All Play This Adventure Game Together
Kaptain Brawe is a delightful little adventure game from Cateia Games. I played it earlier today, so why don’t you join me. OK, so as you’ll see, I’m not going to play play it. Watching a man solve adventure game puzzles is the very antithesis of excitement, especially when he’s playing the mode with the…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2011 -
Bus Shelters Turn Wait Times Into Neighbourhood Deathmatches
Web giant Yahoo has installed twenty large touch-screen displays in bus shelters across San Francisco. These displays are not for trailers. Instead, they’re to let people engage in some free multiplayer gaming. It’s called the Yahoo Bus Stop Derby, with commuters able to choose from four simple games to play. While they play, their results…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2011 -
GLaDOS, Your New PC Is Ready
OK, so since she IS a computer, Portal’s GLaDOS wouldn’t exactly need a rig of her own. If she did, though, it’d look exactly like this. This is the Hammerhead HMR989 from DARWINmachine. And aside from the fact it’s in a rather elegant, glowing “case”, its key point is that it’s not really a PC…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2011 -
A Brief History Of The First-Person Shooter
First-person games may be the at the top of gaming’s food chain in 2011, but it wasn’t always this way. Join us, then, on a guided tour of the genre’s history, from dark, wireframe beginnings to Call of Duty. This of course isn’t every first-person game of the last thirty years. If it was doing…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2011 -
The Illustrated Guide To Role-Playing Monsters
Not all role-playing games are played on a monitor or TV screen. Some are played around a table with words and numbers, and when you’re playing one of those, you’re not limited to the monsters a developer has designed. You’re free to make your own. While this would normally be the domain of a role-playing…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2011 -
There Is Real Death In This Video Game
Death, along with taxes, is one of only two certainties in life. Yet in games, death is never really death. Its just a speed bump. In this game, though, death is death, and it is final. Beloved niche PC publishers Paradox Interactive today revealed Salem, a free-to-play MMO that wants to make sure that players…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2011 -
Sorry, Justin Bieber, Even Nintendo Hates You
Obnoxious teen sensation Justin Bieber – or, at least, his people – wanted to use the iconic Super Mario Bros. theme in his upcoming movie. Curiously, Nintendo said “nothankyou.jpg”. Love him or hate him, this kid is one of the biggest things in entertainment right now, and “Never Say Never”, his movie/promotion vehicle due to…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Day The Mario Bros. Saved George Bush, Democracy And America
Despite the majority of their adventures taking place in the mythical Mushroom Kingdom, for one day in 1990, the Mario Bros. forgot about saving a princess and had to save the President of the United States instead. Between 1989 and 1990, Nintendo had two different Super Mario Bros. cartoons made, as part of the same…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2011
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