Culture Archives - Page 1530 of 1552

This Beautiful Art is From…Call of Duty: Black Ops? Huh?

Yup. And don’t look so surprised. There’s more to the Call of Duty series than military hardware, moustaches and door hinges The environments in which the games take place are rarely 100% authentic, which means someone had to dream them up. In this case, it’s artist Michael Zimmerman, who takes us on a tour of…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

When Street Fighter met GI Joe, the World Suffered

The year was 1993. Street Fighter was one of the biggest things on the planet, and venerable toy franchise GI Joe…wasn’t. In an effort to boost Joe’s sales, Hasbro figured creating action figures based on Street Fighter would be a really good idea! It wasn’t. Between 1993 and 1994, Capcom and Hasbro teamed up to…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011

Culture

The Spies, Soldiers and Sexy Ladies of Splinter Cell: Conviction

Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction lived two very public lives. The first had Sam Fisher looking like the sexiest homeless man on the planet. That version was binned. The second version, the one that was actually released, was more “traditional”. This art, from Ubisoft’s Bruno Gauthier Leblanc, is of this second Sam Fisher. And loads of…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 19, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Vietnam was Hell, not a Series of Green Corridors

Vietnam is a war that still looms large in the American psyche, both in terms of its impact on modern history and its portrayal in popular culture. Yet for all the protests, rock n’ roll and classic films that came out of the war, good Vietnam video games are hard to find. This is mostly…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 19, 2011

Culture

The Cartoon Concept Art of Mass Effect & Dragon Age

Matt Rhodes is an artist who has worked on two of BioWare’s biggest games in recent years, namely Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 What I love about his style, and why we’re featuring it here today, is that it’s often not as “realistic” as other pieces of concept art you’ll see. It’s more…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 18, 2011

Culture

America, This Is Why You’re Fat!

Our lives have become increasingly sedentary. Take me. For hours and hours on end, I sit in front of a computer screen. I try to exercise, but I work long days, producing content like this for you to read. To make matters worse, there’s the crap we eat and the crap we drink. It’s delicious,…

By Brian Ashcraft Published October 18, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

How to Find a Classic American Arcade

Forget many of the more modern “arcades”, full of skill-testers and UFO catchers. Sometimes you just want to play something old, vintage, with wood-panelling and a faded marquee. An arcade game with history Sadly, classic arcades are hard to come by these days. So here’s how to find one. Carly Kocurek’s detailed map seeks to…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 17, 2011

Culture

The City That’s Never Sane

Batman: Arkham City dominates this week’s new releases, but there are alternatives. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure already is out on five platforms, Professor Layton arrives tomorrow on the DS and Ratchet & Clank returns on Tuesday, too. Today • Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (PC, 3DS, 360, PS3, Wii) — Activision’s ambitious melding of video game and collectible…

By Owen Good Published October 16, 2011

Culture

Sunday Comics: Upright and Locked

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. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Oct. 10.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Oct. 12.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…

By Owen Good Published October 16, 2011

Culture

The Taste of Modern Warfare in a 12 Ounce Can

Me and Johnson crept through the underbrush like we’d be born there, natural predators in our element, the scent of blood luring us further into enemy territory. Further into a trap. One minute the jungle was quiet, the next it erupted in the roar of gunfire and the triumphant shouts of the enemy platoon as…

By Mike Fahey Published October 14, 2011

Culture

How Long Did It Take For Bethesda’s Marathon Men To Finish Skyrim?

You’d be amazed at how fast a game developer and a quality assurance tester can burn through The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim when there’s pie on the line. It’s a Bethesda tradition: When the company gets close to wrapping up development on a big title, one QA tester and one developer face-off to see who…

By Mike Fahey Published October 13, 2011

Culture

Calader’s Art Takes Star Wars to the Brink

Based in the UK, Georgi “Calader” Simeonov works at Splash Damage, meaning he had a hand in the lovely “nothing but blue skies” art design of multiplayer shooter Brink So we’ll be showing you some of that, but also some of his other stuff on titles like Sony’s MMO Star Wars Galaxies, along with something…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 13, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Greatest Arcade Cabinet That Never Was

Around the turn of the millennium, Namco showed off an arcade game that looked like it had fallen out of the 22nd century. Housed in a giant cabinet called O.R.B.S., it was a sequel to old-school shooter Star Blade, and could have been just the kind of thing the dying arcade scene was in need…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 13, 2011

Culture

The Sandy, Chest-Free Art of the Prince of Persia Movie

An acclaimed motion picture artist, Joseph Mclamb has helped shape the creative vision of movies as big as Avatar and Clash of the Titans He also, a few years back, got the chance to work on Jerry Bruckheimer’s Prince of Persia movie. Mclamb does both straight-up concept art as well as matte paintings, and you’ll…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Life in a Video Game is Tough, but in Avalon, it’s Also Awesome

The Last Starfighter is my favourite video game movie of all time. But it had to fight, almost to the death, to claim the top spot. Because at number two is Avalon, a 2001 flick that’s part-Japanese, part-Polish, all awesome. It’s a strange movie. But I love it for the same reason I love Last…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2011

Culture

The Art Of Gears Of War

There’s an established, if corny description of the art of Gears of War: “destroyed beauty”. I don’t like typing it, I especially don’t like hearing it. Beauty doesn’t need to be defined like that because even the most smashed up thing in the universe can be beautiful if someone simply thinks it is Take the…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 11, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Clive Owen’s Embarrassing Video Game Past

British actor Clive Owen is a badass. A man’s man. He’s got a deep voice, a heavy face, and is usually in movies where he kills things, or is at least around things being killed. Did you know, however, that between leaving the UK and making it big in Hollywood he appeared in one of…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 11, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Gorgeous Background Art of Lucasarts Adventure Games

From Monkey Island to Full Throttle, Fate of Atlantis to Sam & Max

By Luke Plunkett Published October 10, 2011

Culture

A Forza to be Reckoned With

High-performance automobiles return to the Xbox 360 with Forza Motorsport 4 this week. Not a car guy? Take to the skies with Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, on the PS3 and 360, or head back to the casino with Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. There’s also DLC releasing for Dragon Age II Monday • Red…

By Owen Good Published October 9, 2011

Culture

Sunday Comics: Meet the New Strip

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. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Oct. 1.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Oct. 7.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…

By Owen Good Published October 9, 2011