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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 RecallThey 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
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 RecallWhy 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 RecallLet’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
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 -
Culture
This World of Warcraft Art Takes it to the Brink (I’m Sorry…)
Laurel D. Austin does some great work. Employed for years at Splash Damage, the team behind Brink, she’s recently joined Blizzard, where she’s working as a concept artist. Living the dream. In this gallery you will find: some of her amazing work for Brink (say what you will about the game, its art was awesome)…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 12, 2012 -
Culture
We Fear a World Without Twinkies as Hostess Files For Bankruptcy Again
Being a comic book fan in the 80s I grew up thinking there was no problem that couldn’t be solved by golden flaky crust or delicious cream filling. Apparently that doesn’t apply to financial insolvency, as snack cake maker Hostess Brands files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time. It’s hard for me to…
By Mike Fahey Published January 11, 2012 -
Culture
This Game Art Wages Total War On Robots, Dragons and Fast Cars
Swedish artist Andrée Wallin has quite the resume. Since getting into the business in 2008, he’s provided concept art for games like Oblivion, Dirt 3, DJ Hero, Napoleon: Total War, MotorStorm and Split Second. Right now, he’s working with 343 Industries on Halo 4 He’s also worked with clients like Universal Pictures and the Jim…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 11, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallLet’s Watch the Kick-Ass Dragon Quest Anime!
A few video games have had the honour of being turned into animated series. Zelda and Mario are two of the most prominent, if terrible examples, while Wing Commander is a rarity that got it right Another that got it right, and in a big, big way, were the anime series based on blockbuster role-playing…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 10, 2012
