Culture Archives - Page 1514 of 1552

Omega Boost’s Intro Might be the Coolest Thing 90s Video Games Ever Did

This is Omega Boost. It was an OK shooter released in 1999 on the PlayStation. I remember it, and pay tribute to it here today, not for the game, but for everything around it. Like the incredible FMV intro sequence, which goes from corny to amazing to “wow those aren’t bad props and costumes for…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Portal was First Released in 1986, and was an Activision Adventure Game

Portal may be the name for a contemporary series from Valve, about mad robots and jumpsuits, but it’s also the name of a video game first released nearly thirty years ago. That game, Portal – Valve got the trademark after the original ceased using it – was a strange adventure title for personal computers, and…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012

Culture

Speak Up on Snacktaku: What’s Your Favorite American Snack?

What, no Snacktaku review in this week’s Kotaku Off-Kilter? Let’s make it up with a Speak Up from commenter Cheese Addict, who is compiling a list of American snacks to have sent in a care package oveseas. What U.S. snacks could you not live without? My friend’s mom asked me to buy her something she…

Speak Up Published April 23, 2012

Culture

The Cast of Tekken, in Glorious Sketch-o-Vision

Japanese artist Shunya Yamashita is to thank for these sketches of the cast of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, used as promotional art for the 2011 arcade fighter. Interestingly, they’re also forming the basis for Kotobukiya’s fancy “Bishoujo” line of Tekken figures You can see the entire collection at the link below. Tekken Tag 2 –…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 23, 2012

Culture

Anti-Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find

The Prototype narrative picks up with James Heller in the lead role of Prototype 2 this week, smashing, slashing, and beating ass galore in New York Zero. Other highlights include the Euro 2012 mode for FIFA 12 and Xbox Live Arcade title Bloodforge Tuesday • Risen 2: Dark Waters (PC) • Prototype 2 (PS3, 360)…

By Owen Good Published April 22, 2012

Culture

Sunday Comics: Born to Kill

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published April 19.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published April 16.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by…

By Owen Good Published April 22, 2012

Culture

This Week in the Business: ‘Sony has Fallen Blindly in Love with its Brand’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Sony has fallen blindly in love with its brand.”—Tim Calkins, marketing professor at Northwestern University, talking about the huge problems Sony is facing QUOTE | “Batman’s greatest foes … were Bobby Kotick, Yves Guillemot and John Riccitiello.”—Russel Arons, SVP of Worldwide…

Steve Peterson Published April 21, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Mass Effect Music-Maker Remixes Mass Effect 1 Music, It Is Rad

A little while back, Jimmy “Big Giant Circles” Hinsen released an album of music that he’d written for Mass Effect 2 but that didn’t make the cut. Now, he’s put out a free remix album called Max Effect featuring music from Mass Effect 1, originally composed by Jack Wall, Sam Hulick, Richard Jacques and David…

By Kirk Hamilton Published April 20, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

The Geek Squad Who Rescued a Gaming Classic

At the end of March, Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner found the source code for the game years after he’d thought it was lost. But the data was saved on computer disks that were more than 20 years old—would they still be readable after all these years? Would it be safe to put them…

By Kirk Hamilton Published April 20, 2012

Culture

Beautiful Video Game Art, Direct From Korea

You probably haven’t even heard of the games Korean artist Kang Jin has worked on, let alone played them. But that’s OK. These Fine Art posts aren’t about what the game is, but how nice the art is, and Kang’s art is nice Now employed at online gaming powerhouse Neowiz, Kang has also worked at…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

What Computer Animation Looked Like in 1971

Us 21st century kids with our Unreal Engines and fancy computers think our animation is just so shit hot. And it is! But it had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere are these very humble beginnings. This 1971 Canadian documentary looks at the very early days of the practice of key frame animation. For…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

The Man Bringing Classic Arcade Cabinets Back

The 80’s were an awesome and bizarre time for arcades. Nobody knows this better than Gary Vincent, owner and operator of the American Classic Arcade Musuem in New Hampshire. For the past 3 years, he’s been shipping 30 arcade cabinets to PAX East in an attempt to recapture the feel of those classic 1980’s arcades.…

By Chris Person Published April 19, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Those Dudes in Castlevania are Pretty Intense

Unlike the Konami of today, which relies almost entirely on milking a couple of key franchises and selling mobile games in Japan, the Konami of the 1980s was a more exciting company. You could say, in fact, they were jammin

By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

There was a Good Super Mario Bros. Movie. Let’s Watch it!

When someone talks about the Super Mario Bros. movie, you’d be forgiven for assuming they’re talking about the 1993 live-action flick starring Bob Hoskins. But there are actually two Super Mario Bros. movies, the first one – a feature-length anime – having been released in Japan in 1986. It was called スーパーマリオブラザーズピーチ姫救出大作戦!…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012

Culture

Guns, Pretty Ladies & Street Fighters

Artist Arnold Tsang worked on APB before it died and was unceremoniously brought back. He’s also, as Capcom fans may soon recognise, part of the Udon crew, who are unrelenting in their ability to release coffee table books full of awesome Street Fighter art. Right now, he’s working at Blizzard. And right now, we’re going…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Yes, This is Andy Warhol Painting Deborah Harry on an Amiga

These days, we remember Commodore’s Amiga system for its games. Classics like Cannon Fodder. In 1985, though, the company had grander plans. In this bizarre live demonstration as part of the machine’s launch, artist Andy Warhol, only two years before his death, sits down and “paints” a portrait of former punk idol Deborah Harry using…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 18, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Um, Sega Once Made a Sonic Fighting Game

As promised, today we’ll be looking at Sonic the Fighters. Otherwise known as That 3D Fighting Game Sega Made That For Some Reason Starred Sonic The Hedgehog The story of the game goes like this: in 1995, Sega released an awesome (and sadly forgotten) fighting game called Fighting Vipers. One of the game’s character designers,…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 18, 2012

Culture

The Men, Women & Puffy Shirts of The Witcher 2

Polish artist Marcin Blaszczak is one of the men to thank for bringing the world of The Witcher 2 to life. A 3D modeller, Blaszczak has worked on both games in the series. In this gallery, you’ll see some of his work from The Witcher 2, which this week gets a welcome re-release on the…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 18, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Every Nintendo 64 Game, in One Giant Video

There were 296 games released for the Nintendo 64 in North America. Which is hardly any, I know. But it’ll still seem like a lot when you sit down and watch this movie which collects footage from every single one of them. I always forget StarCraft came out on the N64. Man, those were the…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 17, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

The Giant Alien Dick Machines of Space Invaders Pinball

In 1980, Bally released a pinball machine called Space Invaders. It was about as shameless a rip-off as you could hope for, as despite the opportunity to lift iconic imagery from Taito’s arcade classic of the same name, it instead stole designs from Ridley Scott’s 1979 movie Alien Given that was over thirty years ago,…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 17, 2012