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Culture
Sunday Comics: The Bad Old Days
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. Legacy Control by Javis Ray published July 25.—Read more of Legacy Control Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published July 23.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by…
By Owen Good Published July 29, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallEA’s Best Game of the 1990s Also Had the Worst Acting
People bug EA all the time to bring back vintage old series like Wing Commander, Road Rash and Jungle Strike. All great games, and all worthy of t least a token attempt at mmodernisation. But there’s one game that, for whatever reason, is always left out. Forgotten. And that’s EA’s Crusader series. The first game…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Awkward Charms of a 1984 TV Show About PC Gaming
This is an episode from Computer Chronicles, a dusty old TV show about…computers. This one is all about games, and features appearances from guys like Atari legend Chris Crawford, EA founder Trip Hawkins and even a guy from Activision. What’s great is that, being a show that’s normally about computers anyway, it doesn’t have the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2012 -
Culture
Fantasy Art so Beautiful it Should be Painted on a Crumbling Old Church
Michael C. Hayes is a fantasy illustrator whose work may be familiar to fans of Magic: The Gathering. He’s also worked with Sony Online Entertainment on the Legends of Norrath franchise. Hayes’ work is, well, beautiful. Unlike most other artists we feature here on Fine Art, who specialise in dark environment pieces, basic character art…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Mario’s First Kart Was, Well, a Little Crap
I’m guessing this is an advertisement of some sort for NES Open Tournament Golf or, as it was known in Japan, Mario Open Golf, a Nintendo Entertainment/Famicom golf game first released in 1991 One of the earliest attempts by Nintendo to shoehorn its platforming characters into a console sports game, it’s perhaps notable these days…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 26, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Let’s All Read This Terrific 1992 Star Fox Comic
If you think everything Nintendo did in the early 1990s outside actual video games sucked, well, no! Sure, there were some awful TV shows, but not everything was bad. This Star Fox comic, for example, was great. It ran in Nintendo Power magazine in 1992, and had – considering the scale of the project –…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallGamers “Really Loved Killing” Lara Croft, Because She Was a “Strong” Character
There’s an interesting interview with Toby Gard, the creator of Tomb Raider, over on Critical Path’s site. And it reminds us that, for all the platitudes heaped on the series for portraying a strong female character, the fact is a lot of men enjoyed playing as just such a woman for the wrong reasons. Eerily,…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2012 -
Culture
How The First Death Star Was Built
You see the Death Star being built in Revenge of the Sith, but only from a distance. You see the second Death Star under construction during Return of the Jedi, but you don’t actually see it being constructed. There’s no extended footage of imperial workers swinging space hammers, popping galactic rivets or doubling their efforts.…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Hey Link, It’s Also Dangerous to do Business With Men Who Look Like Toothless Hobos
Link really is the hero of time, because here he is, in the 1980s, with a take on the Resident Evil 4 merchant meme years before Resident Evil 1 was even a twinkle in Shinji Mikami’s eye. [via VG Junk]
By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallStar Wars Used to be Uncool. Pinball Helped Bring it Back.
This Star Wars pinball machine wasn’t released in the 70s, or 80s. It was released in 1992, which makes it very special, because that makes it part of the great Star Wars renaissance. After the hype over the original trilogy died down after the mid-80s, as weird as it is to imagine now, Star Wars…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012 -
Culture
The Futuristic Landscapes of Concept Artist Josh Kao
Josh Kao is a concept artist and illustrator who over the years has worked with studios like EA, Irrational (BioShock Infinite) and Microsoft (Halo 4). He’s also contributed to Firefall, God of War: Ascension, Playstation All Stars Battle Royale and Black Ops II so, yeah, he’s very good at what he does. In addition to…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012 -
Culture
Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself
Wreckateer, the second offering in Xbox Live’s “Summer of Arcade” rollout, highlights an otherwise slow week in the dog days of summer. Tuesday • Adidas miCoach (360, PS3) • Prototype 2 (PC) Wednesday • Wreckateer (360) Thursday • Planet Crashers (3DS) • Decathlon 2012 (DS) Friday • Inversion (PC) Sources: GameStop, GameSpot
By Owen Good Published July 22, 2012 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Don’t Stand So Close to 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. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published July 16.—Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published July 16.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…
By Owen Good Published July 22, 2012 -
Culture
Nazi Explosions Meet Beautiful Landscape Paintings in This Video Game Concept Art
Geoffroy Thoorens is a French concept artist who currently works at Quantic Dream, the developers of Heavy Rain and the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls. He’s also done stuff for movies, TV shows and even board games, so the gallery you’ll see here is a mix of all kinds of work, ranging from landscape painting to…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallIt Took Japan to Add a Little Style to Alien vs Predator
It’s been over twenty years since some bright sparks decided it’d be cool to see Aliens fight Predators. Since then we’ve had good comics, good video games, bad video games and terrible movies based on the idea. When people talk about the games, though, they almost exclusively remember the three first-person shooter titles. While the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Dangers of Using Wikipedia for Video Game History
When I put Total Recall stories together, I use a ton of sources. My memory/brain, for one, but also specialised history and collector sites, weird blogs, books, all kinds of places. Wikipedia is, sometimes, one of those places. It’s also not always the most reliable. A great piece this week over on Hardcore Gaming reminds…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Total Recall, Kotaku’s History Section, is Moving
Just a quick public service announcement to let you know that Total Recall, Kotaku’s history feature, is changing timeslots. It’ll now appear between 1am and 2am Eastern, Tuesday through Friday.
By Luke Plunkett Published July 19, 2012
