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Culture
From StarCraft to WarCraft, This Concept Art Certainly Knows its Crafts
Concept artist Graven Tung has, in over a decade working in the field, provided pieces for clients such as Blizzard, where he worked on both StarCraft II – right down to Gabriel Tosh concert posters – and World of Warcraft’s three major expansions. He also did some work on SOCOM II, as well as driving…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 11, 2012 -
Culture
Chainsaw Reaction
Racy themes and racing games lead the lineup of the coming week of retail releases. Reissues of Metal Gear Solid and Pikmin 2 also come to stores. Today • Nintendo Selects: Pikmin 2 (Wii) Tuesday • Lollipop Chainsaw (PS3, 360) • DiRT Showdown (PS3, 360) • Gravity Rush (PS Vita) • Krater (PC) • Metal…
By Owen Good Published June 10, 2012 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: What’s My Motivation?
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 June 6.—Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published June 3.—Read more of Awkward Zombie…
By Owen Good Published June 10, 2012 -
Culture
From Sci-Fi’s Future to Japan’s Past
Mitchell Mohrhauser works as an artist at CCP, the developers of EVE Online and the upcoming Dust 514. Which means, yeah, there’ll be art from their dark sci-fi future in this gallery, but also other stuff of a more bright and cheerful nature. Well, maybe just bright. Men with guns, samurai and epic sci-fi vistas…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 8, 2012 -
Culture
At Least Final Fantasy XIV’s Art Isn’t Drowning in Buttons
Final Fantasy XIV as a game certainly looks nice, but it’s also – like most MMOs – a little too cluttered with buttons and bars for my liking. Which is why I like its concept art a little more. It’s all the pretty, none of the buttons. To see the larger pics in all their…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 6, 2012 -
Culture
The Art (and Guns) of Halo 4
Fine Art doesn’t stop just because E3 is going down. It just gets a little more poignant. Today we’ve got some official art from Microsoft’s Halo 4, some of it previously seen but much of it brand new. It’s a mix of content, some of it concept art, some of it in-game objects, others character…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 5, 2012 -
Culture
The Most Delicious Hardware Is Deep Fried Hardware
Can’t get enough food porn? Want more gadget porn? Well then, munch on this. This is “Deep Fried Gadgets”, a series of photos by photographer Henry Hargreaves. The series was inspired by Japanese kids who fried a PSP—and then ate it. Hargreaves, however, didn’t fry the actual devices, but rather, made foam models and fried…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 4, 2012 -
Culture
New Games Up Against the Next Games
E3 is always a tough week for anything to release, which is why we’re probably seeing the likes of Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats and an old-school six-platform movie adaptation. Inversion is the week’s big name. Tuesday • Inversion (PC, 360, PS3) • Rayman Origins (3DS) • Bang Bang Racing (PSN) • Virtua Fighter 5 Final…
By Owen Good Published June 3, 2012 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Quit Staring at My Chest
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. Brawl In The Family by Matthew Taranto published June 1.—Read more of Brawl In The Family Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published May 28.—Read more of Awkward…
By Owen Good Published June 3, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Falling-Out and Heartwarming Reunion of the Guys Who Made Space Quest
Plenty of adventure game developers have recently reunited to create new games, usually funded via Kickstarter. At first glance, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe are no different. The two men created the classic Space Quest PC games, and eventually parted ways. Now, they’re on Kickstarter raising money for a new game called Two Guys from…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 2, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallI Watched This Kingdom Hearts Lore-Primer And I Still Have No Idea What The Hell is Going On in Kingdom Hearts
I’m a fan of Lore in a Minute!, a site that breaks down a game’s lore and story in easily digestible, humorous movies. It’s great for if you want to hop into a series midway through without going back and slogging through long, older games. I headed over there to check out their fun new…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 1, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallBefore He Fought Dominatrix Nuns, Agent 47 Took On Mardi Gras
Purposefully vulgar marketing isn’t the only thing controversial about the new Hitman game Hitman: Absolution; plenty of folks are worried that the game itself will be a big departure from the slow-paced, careful gameplay of the first games. The Splinter Cell: Conviction to Blood Money‘s Chaos Theory, if you will. Reading Stephen’s hands-on preview from…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 1, 2012 -
Culture
Tonight’s Helping of Giant Robots and Exploding Spaceships
William Smith works at Timegate Studios, who have previously been responsible for titles like Section 8 and who are now helping Gearbox out on Aliens: Colonial Marines He’d previously worked in advertising, for respected international firm Saatchi & Saatchi X. And his artwork is just lovely Enormous killing machines are normally shown as being dreary,…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 1, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallUnboxing an Atari Computer From 1983
Continuing my dust-covered crusade against modern unboxings, here’s another vintage unboxing, in which an Atari 800XL from 1983 is transferred lovingly from the packaging to the outside world. The 800XL was essentially a cheaper and nastier version of the Atari 800, albeit with fancier packaging. It couldn’t even run some Atari 800 programs natively, requiring…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 31, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThis Man Stole $318,000 From Namco Before the Cops Caught Him
In 1985, Namco America employee Steven Drake was arrested by police and found with $32,000 cash on him, with even more hidden in the trunk of a car parked at San Francisco airport. Turns out he’d been buying up gold coins from South Africa and Canada using Namco’s money. The scoundrel. In total, Drake siphoned…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 31, 2012 -
Culture
Beautiful Video Game Art, All the Way From China
Tonight, we’re checking out the portfolio of Chinese artist Ming zhu Yang, who works for Gameloft’s pre-production studio Redsteam. Specialising mostly in character art, you can see more of her stuff at her personal site. To see the larger pics in all their glory (or so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on them…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 31, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallA Fascinating Look at the Factories Where Old Video Games Were Made
Mommy, where do video games come from? They come from factories, dear, factories like these, from the 1980s. This awesome video shows the factory floor at companies such as Midway, Atari and Taito, where vintage arcade classics like Pac-Man were put together, while also giving us a glimpse behind the scenes of Nintendo circa 1988.…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 31, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
All I Ever Wanted, Konami, Was a Little Congraturations
It’s perhaps not as famous as other hatchet jobs on the English language perpetrated by Japanese developers in the 1980s, but it’s one of my favourites nonetheless. This is from the MSX version of Salamander, which you may know as Life Force, a shmup first released in 1986. He just…he just doesn’t look that happy…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 30, 2012