Culture Archives - Page 1564 of 1593

If Only Driving Games Actually Looked This Cool

The ATV series of driving games have always had their following, but there’s never been much to make the really stand out from the crowd. Which is the great thing about looking at concept art, because it’s here that you can see that, at some point in their development, the ATV games looked (or at…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 31, 2012

Culture

Back From the Dead

The first big release week of 2012 gives us Final Fantasy XIII-2, NeverDead and SoulCalibur V. Downloadable content includes an extension for Dead Island Tuesday • Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3, 360) • NeverDead (PS3, 360) • Puddle (PS3) • SoulCalibur V (PS3, 360) Wednesday • Dead Island: Ryder White (PC, PS3, 360) • Rhythm Party…

By Owen Good Published January 29, 2012

Culture

Sunday Comics: Better With Kinect

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. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published Jan. 23.—Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Jan. 23.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…

By Owen Good Published January 29, 2012

Culture

This Week in the Business: ‘PlayStation is the Most Powerful Game Brand in the World’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “PlayStation is the most powerful game brand in the world.”—Jack Buser, Director of PlayStation Home, gives his obviously biased opinion on Sony’s gaming brand at a CES panel on the future of consoles QUOTE | “I think it’s over, and Zynga…

Steve Peterson Published January 27, 2012

Culture

One Does Not Simply Design Badass Lord of the Rings Characters

Well, actually, one does if one is Wes Burt, concept artist at Massive Black, whose recent work for Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online is well worth sharing. We’ve featured Wes’ work before here on Fine Art. If you haven’t seen it, you really should Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 26, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Cock’in. This was a Real Game, Once.

Cock’in. For the Commodore 64 and Spectrum. You take the eggs, and then the fish bites you on the elbow, and then you wear chicken hats, and what? Oh, that’s just the box art. The actual game had you playing as a cock, protecting your brood of eggs from things like rats and foxes, and…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 24, 2012

Culture

Some Burly Dudes From Mass Effect 3 (and Some Mass Effect Guns)

As a principal artist at BioWare, and before that EA, Rodrigue Pralier has built (and dressed) some pretty badass game characters over the years, up to and including a certain Commander Shepard. Working on the Mass Effect series Pralier has helped build some cool models and costumes, including Shepard in some Mass Effect 2 DLC…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 24, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

They Don’t Make Games Like Strike Commander Any More

Before Chris Roberts went crazy and started making terrible movies, he was the genius behind some of the greatest PC games ever made. Some, like Wing Commander, are still remembered fondly today. Others, like Strike Commander, sadly are not. So successful was Roberts’ Wing Commander series, and/or so intent was the man on telling story-driven…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2012

Culture

Sunday Comics: What’s Your Favorite Activity?

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. Virtual Shackles by Jeremy Vinar and Mike Fahmie published Jan. 18.—Read more of Virtual Shackles Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Jan. 16.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…

By Owen Good Published January 22, 2012

Culture

This Week in the Business: ‘PlayStation 4 Must Look Beyond Games’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “PlayStation 4 must look beyond games.”—Chris Morris, veteran game journalist, on what Sony should and shouldn’t do with the PS4 QUOTE | “Free-to-play games can’t be high quality.”—Oliver Comte, Senior Vice President for Namco Bandai Europe, speaking at Cloud Gaming Europe…

Steve Peterson Published January 20, 2012

Culture

Project Zomboid’s Concept Art Also Blows Up Aircraft Carriers

French artist Remi, aka Afekay, has landed a rather pleasant little gig doing the concept art for work-in-progress zombie survival sim Project Zomboid Coming out of mobile games, which is where the decidedly non-Zombie stuff you’ll see here comes from (specifically Gameloft’s Dungeon Hunter 3 and Modern Combat 3), Afekay’s art for Zomboid lends a…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 20, 2012

Culture

Building BioShock, StarCraft & God of War Characters

We usually feature the work of men and women on Fine Art who design characters. Today, we’ll look at someone who actually builds them. Johnny Xiao has worked on series like StarCraft, Killzone, The Witcher, BioShock, God of War and even Fallout, turning a whole bunch of polygons into characters you love, hate or just…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Why Conker Went From Cute to Crass

Rare’s Conker used to be a nice little squirrel. He was cute, he had polite friends, and he was going to be starring in a very Nintendo platformer for a Nintendo console. Yet as you probably know, that’s not how things ended up. In the late 90s, as Rare was following up their success with…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 18, 2012

Culture

Christian Bravery’s Concept Art Kills Zones, Borders Lands

Christian Bravery, who founded and still works at concept art studio Leading Light, has been in the business for over two decades In that time, he’s helped shape the appearance of franchises as diverse as LittleBigPlanet, Killzone, Borderlands, Fable, NBA Jam and XCOM Sadly much of that good stuff is, as is typical in the…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 18, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Let’s Watch the Intro to Syndicate, Circa 1993

The single best piece of video game news today is that the original Syndicate is this Thursday going on sale over on Good Old Games for $6. You’ll get more fun out of that game than you will most games costing 10x as much. So let’s celebrate. Here’s the intro to the original 1993 game,…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 17, 2012

Culture

Game Art From Star Wars, Command & Conquer, Call of Duty & More

Thomas A. Szakolczay is a video game concept artist. With twelve years experience across some of the biggest franchises in the business, if you can’t tell me you’ve played a game he’s worked on, you’re probably lying. He’s been employed by the likes of Activision, Capcom, Epic, EA, Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Warner Bros., Lucasarts and…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 17, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

My First Nintendo “Console”

I may have explained this a few times already, but growing up in Australia in the 1980s usually meant growing up without Nintendo. The NES was here, and people bought it, but it was never the sensation it was elsewhere. Most kids/adults played on computers or Sega machines. That didn’t stop me wanting one, though.…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 15, 2012

Culture

Sunday Comics: Blow Me

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 Jan. 9.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Jan. 11.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…

By Owen Good Published January 15, 2012

Culture

This Week in the Business: ‘Xbox 360 Exclusives are Becoming Fewer’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Xbox 360 exclusives are becoming fewer.”—David Cole, analyst at DFC Intelligence, talks about Microsoft’s overall entertainment and apps focus taking away from the company’s securing game exclusives QUOTE | “Consoles are in trouble.”—Gene Hoffman, CEO of Vindicia, in an industry panel…

Steve Peterson Published January 13, 2012

Culture

Daarken’s Fantasy Art Has Shades of Mass Effect

The mildly-bizarre partnership between Mass Effect 3 and…Kingdoms of Amalur was announced with a wonderful piece of art. That piece was the work of Mike “Daarken” Lim, a freelance games artist whose stuff we’ll be looking at today. Beginning his career in 2004 creating monsters for Wizards of the Coast (creators of Magic: the Gathering),…

By Luke Plunkett Published January 13, 2012