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A Quiet Week for Games

Holiday weekends and the period around E3 typically are slow, and this coming week fits both bills. The big drops: Hunted: The Demon’s Forge; BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II comes to PSP and 3DS; PC players get the BioShock 2: Minerva’s Den and Call of Duty: Black Ops-Escalation expansions. Tuesday Hunted: The Demon’s Forge (PC, PS3,…

By Owen Good Published May 29, 2011

Culture

Sunday Comics

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 May 23. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published May 24. – Read more of Nerf…

By Owen Good Published May 29, 2011

Culture

This Week in the Business: “Soften the difficulty a smidge when you return.”

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Put the screws to Sony in next console war.” – Panoptic Management Consultants analyst Asif Khan’s thinking that Microsoft may gain the upper hand against a PlayStation 4 next round. TWIST | Modern Warfare 3‘s big reveal came and went this week…

James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published May 27, 2011

Culture

The Sweet, Yet Slightly Creepy Art of Alice: Madness Returns

A PC cult classic returns (and on consoles this time, too) next month when Alice: Madness Returns hits shelves. The first game was batshit crazy, and beautiful to boot. So it’s little surprise, then, that the sequel looks to be continuing that tradition. In these pieces of concept art for the game (some you may…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 27, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

It’s OK, Everyone, It’s Time to Talk About the Wing Commander TV Series

Yesterday, we waded through a lot of painful memories talking about the awful (and mercifully forgotten) Wing Commander movie. So let’s make amends today, and cheer everybody up by talking about the awesome Wing Commander cartoon series instead. A few years before the movie, and right about the time the game franchise was coming off…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 27, 2011

Culture

When Japan Does Star Wars, Things Change

In 1987, Namco released Star Wars in Japan for the Famicom, a title that took more than a few liberties with the movie trilogy’s storyline. Sounds outrageous, but one look at the game’s manual art and everything was suddenly OK. Why? Because the lizards, scorpions and pterodactyls you’re fighting—and that aren’t exactly canon —are so…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 26, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Sorry, Everyone, It’s Time to Talk About the Wing Commander Movie

When people look back on films based on video games, they tend to skew towards the good (Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia) or the bad (Mario, Double Dragon). They don’t talk about the greats because there haven’t been any. And they don’t talk about Wing Commander because it’s just too damn painful. Wing Commander, if…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 26, 2011

Culture

The Epic Video Game Art of Young-june Choi

As you may have noticed, Fine Art is a new feature here on Kotaku where we celebrate the work of video game concept artists. Today, we’re looking at the very talented Korean artist Young-june Choi, and his work on the upcoming Kingdom Under Fire II The game, which has been in development for over three…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 25, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

Before They Were Famous: Bungie

Today is the first in a new “Before They Were Famous” series here on Total Recall, where we look at the games some of the world’s biggest developers worked on before they became some of the world’s biggest developers. First up is Bungie, creators of the Halo series. While most got their introduction to Bungie…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 25, 2011

Culture

The Man Who Creates Pokémon For a Living

Ken Sugimori may not be a household name, but the monsters that have flowed forth from his sketchbook certainly are. You see, Sugimori designs Pokémon He’s been involved with the mega-popular franchise from day one, having forged a friendship with Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri in the 1980s, when the pair both worked on a gaming…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 24, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

What Do Warcraft, Optimus Prime and Zelda Have In Common?

Before its realm of Azeroth was brought to life in 2004’s World of Warcraft, Blizzard had tried once before to add a little depth to their fantasy franchise with a game that sadly never saw the light of day. That game was Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans In the late 1990’s, and seeking to…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 24, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

This is Why You Don’t See Many Games Based On Soap Operas

Think games based on movies, action-oriented TV shows and classic works of literature are a bad idea? They’ve got nothing on games based on soap operas. This is Neighbours. It’s a game based on the mega-popular Australian soap of the same name, which has been shown in over 50 countries since its first episode in…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 23, 2011

Culture

Dealt DiRT

Codemasters’ rally-racer DiRT 3 is the lone major console release this week, bringing a new gymkhana mode to its menu of off-road offerings. Tuesday DiRT 3 (PC, PS3, 360) Also: Cake Mania: Main Street (DS); Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS); Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale (PC, 360); Emily The Strange (DS); Kung Fu Panda 2: The…

By Owen Good Published May 22, 2011

Culture

Sunday Comics

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 May 16. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published May 18. – Read more of Nerf…

By Owen Good Published May 22, 2011

Culture

This Week in the Business: 200 Million

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “We know we owe a great deal.” – Sony’s statement to its “valued” PSN partners as the company began to restore the PlayStation Network in some countries. QUOTE | “Derivative, uninspired, narcissistic.” – Former Ubisoft developer and Splinter Cell and Far Cry…

James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published May 20, 2011

Culture

Guild Wars 2, Your Art is Simply Beautiful

I usually don’t play MMOs. Never played Guild Wars, may never play its upcoming sequel either. But boy, I could look at this concept art for Guild Wars 2 all day long. These are all the work of artist Levi Hopkins, who has been toiling away on the series and its various campaigns for a…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

My Favourite Nintendo Console Wasn’t Even Made by Nintendo

We’re going to get a little personal today on Total Recall, and take a look at my favourite Nintendo console of all time. Not the best, not the biggest-selling, just…my favourite. And that console is the Panasonic Q, a machine sadly never made commercially available in the West. The Q, a very fancy version of…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 19, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

When Mario Had a Best-Selling…Book?

Mario has gone through three distinct phases of super popularity. One in the early 90’s. One is seemingly just on the wane, born of the success of his games on the DS and Wii. The other, though, was in the mid-80’s. The fat plumber was so popular then that he didn’t just have a best-selling…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 18, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Atari Games That Became Comic Book Heroes

While we normally associate multimedia cash-ins as a recent phenomenon, the practice of spinning games off into other mediums dates back decades. One of the earliest examples of this is the Atari Force line of comic books. While most adaptations of games are expected to be based on the events or characters in the actual…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 17, 2011

CultureTotal Recall

The Beautiful Art of Arcade Video Games

Since for most of arcade gaming’s heyday graphics weren’t exactly easy on the eye, to lure customers in companies often had to rely on artwork to make a sale. The biggest, grandest works were reserved for the side of the cabinet, but since they usually weren’t seen (with machines stacked side-by-side), it was the “marquee”…

By Luke Plunkett Published May 16, 2011