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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

Culture

This Week in the Business: ‘Sony’s Bad-Mouthing Microsoft at Every Corner’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Sony’s bad-mouthing Microsoft at every corner.”—Indie developer Guillaume Boucher-Vidal talks about his frustrations and why he lashed out at Sony and fellow developer Team Meat in an apology letter QUOTE | “Xbox Live Arcade’s health is flagging.”—Ron Carmel of 2D Boy…

James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published October 8, 2011

Culture

Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick. It’s Right There in the Title

Tearing into my first bite of Jimmy Dean Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick reminded me of an idea that came to me while I was unemployed. It also reminded me of being unemployed, but that’s another story. The idea was something called the Chicken Donut. Basically I’d take a shell donut like the kind…

By Owen Good Published October 7, 2011

Culture

The Fine Art of StarCraft II, Diablo III and World of Warcraft

Like another man who has done such fine work for Blizzard, Mathias Verhasselt, Chris Thunig is here for one reason and one reason only: his amazing landscape paintings for Diablo III, StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Thunig specialises in matte paintings, which are static, highly-detailed images used in the background of things like movies…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 7, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Rape, Racism & Repetition: This is Probably the Worst Game Ever Made

When you think about it, commercial video games are usually pretty harmless. Sure, they can be violent, but there’s rarely any larger controversy surrounding a game involving things like drugs, politics, or sex. Which only makes 1982’s Custer’s Revenge all the more interesting. And appalling. WARNING: Some slightly NSFW content follows. For those unfamiliar with…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 7, 2011

Culture

The Winner of the Sunday Comics Playoff is …

Kotaku readers have chosen Legacy Control over seven other contenders to be the new feature in our Sunday Comics roundup. Congratulations to Javis Ray, the comic’s writer and illustrator. Legacy Control will begin appearing this Sunday. Thanks to all who voted, and thanks to everyone for making Sunday Comics a popular weekend feature for more…

By Owen Good Published October 6, 2011

Culture

Dead Island’s Concept Art Isn’t Sexy, It’s Scenic

For a game that, when it wasn’t paying big bucks for moody trailers wasn’t afraid to use rotting chicks in bikinis to sell it, this Dead Island concept art is surprisingly free of buxom walking corpses. Sorry. What it does have, though, is a glimpse at a far more ambitious title, one that looks more…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 6, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Remembering Apple’s One Serious Attempt at a Video Games Console

Today is a day a lot of folks will be remembering the good, the bad and the downright inspirational from the company Steve Jobs helped found all the way back in 1976. So today’s Total Recall will be all about Apple’s one and only crack at the video games market: the Pippin. Sure, the iPhone…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 6, 2011

Culture

You may not Survive This Dark Souls Concept Art

To go with the Demon’s Souls concept art we showed you a few months back, today we’ve got a collection of art from its spiritual successor Dark Souls, out this week on the Xbox 360 and PS3. For a game that is about little but darkness, pain, brutality and despair, the art certainly gets the…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 5, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Enjoy This Badass 16-bit Title Screen Art

We’ve seen title art from modern games. And from NES games. Today, we’re hitting the ground somewhere in between with a collection of animated title screen art from the Genesis/Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. These images come courtesy of Title Scream, a site run by Kiwi interactive designer Cameron Askin which is looking to preserve…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 5, 2011

Culture

Brighten Up Your Morning With This Brilliant Tron Art

The latest Tron movie was a funny thing. And the game was just as funny as the movie. Forgettable content, but with art design just gorgeous to look at. Good thing we’re just looking at Tron art today, then, and not playing it. These pieces are all courtesy of Daryl Mandryk, a freelance concept artist…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 4, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

RAGE Has Been a Long, Long Time Coming

It’s not every day you get to play a new id game. If you’re not counting iPhone games (and we’re not counting iPhone games) or re-releases, the last new title the studio released was Doom 3. And that was in 2004 So this week’s release of post-apocalyptic buggy death simulator RAGE is something to be…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 4, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Before They Were Superstars: BioWare

Canadian developers BioWare are known today for blockbuster series like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic We don’t care about those today. Today, for our younger/newer readers that may only know them for those franchises, we’re going back to 1995, where it all began. Unlike most (I’d be tempted…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 3, 2011