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Culture
The Pretty Ladies, Mutants & Busted Old Cars of RAGE’s Wasteland
Today’s Fine Art features two men who worked on RAGE, id’s recently-released desert shooter. One helped design (and build) the game’s cars. The other, the game’s mutants. Both somehow found the time to draw pictures of pretty ladies as well. Which, given the amount of tiny shorts on display in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, shouldn’t be…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 26, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallSee how 1993’s NBA Jam was Made (and Sold to the NBA)
We rarely get to see the process by which a video game is pitched to a publisher, even today in an age of developer diaries and all-access marketing. It’s even rarer we get to see how a game was pitched all the way back in the early 90s. Yet that’s what we’re getting a look…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 26, 2011 -
CultureThis Guild Wars 2 Art Can’t Stand Still
OK, so I’ve got a bit of a thing for Guild Wars 2 art. It’s a gorgeous game, shoot me. But before you do, you should check out both this concept art and, in a neat twist, some trailers made out of concept art. Horia Dociu, who worked as an artist on Half-Life 2, joined…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Game That Started the Battlefield Series
The first Battlefield game, Battlefield 1942, was released in 2002. Nearly ten years ago! Yet while it was the first game to bear the branding that lives on to this day with Battlefield 3, depending on how you look at it, it’s not really the first game in the series. That honour goes to a…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 25, 2011 -
Culture
Love is a Battlefield
Battlefield 3 releases on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on Tuesday. Other titles include Kinect Sports Season Two for the 360 and Kirby’s Return to Dreamland on the Wii. Downloadables this week include Daytona USA on XBLA and PSN, a free table for Pinball FX 2 and The War of the Worlds on Xbox 360.…
By Owen Good Published October 23, 2011 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Subjective Objective
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 Oct. 17.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Oct. 18.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good Published October 23, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: ‘Wii U is Not Quite Next Generation.’
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Wii U is not quite next generation.” – Michael Pachter, Wedbush Securities analyst, talks in a new Q&A about the Wii U, Microsoft vs. Sony, NBA 2K12, and how Xbox Live TV might be a competitive edge against Sony. QUOTE |…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published October 21, 2011 -
Culture
An Ode The Candy That Just Won’t Quit
In our still-young Snacktaku series, we have been focusing mostly on new snacks. The exotic, the colorful, the strange and the bizarrely delicious. But for my first Snacktaku, I felt like before I venture into the new, I should first discuss the classic snack that is nearest and dearest to my heart: Milk Duds. I…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 21, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
Where Are They Now? Diseases That Killed You in Oregon Trail
You have died of dysentery. These are five words familiar to anyone who has attempted to caulk a wagon and ford rivers en route to the Willamette Valley. Oregon Trail not only taught generations of kids about Western migration in 19th-century America, it also familiarized them with various strange-sounding diseases. Let’s catch up with some…
Laura Turner Garrison Published October 21, 2011 -
Culture
This Beautiful Art is From…Call of Duty: Black Ops? Huh?
Yup. And don’t look so surprised. There’s more to the Call of Duty series than military hardware, moustaches and door hinges The environments in which the games take place are rarely 100% authentic, which means someone had to dream them up. In this case, it’s artist Michael Zimmerman, who takes us on a tour of…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallWhen Street Fighter met GI Joe, the World Suffered
The year was 1993. Street Fighter was one of the biggest things on the planet, and venerable toy franchise GI Joe…wasn’t. In an effort to boost Joe’s sales, Hasbro figured creating action figures based on Street Fighter would be a really good idea! It wasn’t. Between 1993 and 1994, Capcom and Hasbro teamed up to…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 20, 2011 -
Culture
The Spies, Soldiers and Sexy Ladies of Splinter Cell: Conviction
Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction lived two very public lives. The first had Sam Fisher looking like the sexiest homeless man on the planet. That version was binned. The second version, the one that was actually released, was more “traditional”. This art, from Ubisoft’s Bruno Gauthier Leblanc, is of this second Sam Fisher. And loads of…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 19, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
Vietnam was Hell, not a Series of Green Corridors
Vietnam is a war that still looms large in the American psyche, both in terms of its impact on modern history and its portrayal in popular culture. Yet for all the protests, rock n’ roll and classic films that came out of the war, good Vietnam video games are hard to find. This is mostly…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 19, 2011 -
Culture
The Cartoon Concept Art of Mass Effect & Dragon Age
Matt Rhodes is an artist who has worked on two of BioWare’s biggest games in recent years, namely Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 What I love about his style, and why we’re featuring it here today, is that it’s often not as “realistic” as other pieces of concept art you’ll see. It’s more…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 18, 2011 -
CultureAmerica, This Is Why You’re Fat!
Our lives have become increasingly sedentary. Take me. For hours and hours on end, I sit in front of a computer screen. I try to exercise, but I work long days, producing content like this for you to read. To make matters worse, there’s the crap we eat and the crap we drink. It’s delicious,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 18, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
How to Find a Classic American Arcade
Forget many of the more modern “arcades”, full of skill-testers and UFO catchers. Sometimes you just want to play something old, vintage, with wood-panelling and a faded marquee. An arcade game with history Sadly, classic arcades are hard to come by these days. So here’s how to find one. Carly Kocurek’s detailed map seeks to…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 17, 2011 -
Culture
The City That’s Never Sane
Batman: Arkham City dominates this week’s new releases, but there are alternatives. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure already is out on five platforms, Professor Layton arrives tomorrow on the DS and Ratchet & Clank returns on Tuesday, too. Today • Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (PC, 3DS, 360, PS3, Wii) — Activision’s ambitious melding of video game and collectible…
By Owen Good Published October 16, 2011 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Upright and Locked
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 Oct. 10.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Oct. 12.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good Published October 16, 2011 -
Culture
The Taste of Modern Warfare in a 12 Ounce Can
Me and Johnson crept through the underbrush like we’d be born there, natural predators in our element, the scent of blood luring us further into enemy territory. Further into a trap. One minute the jungle was quiet, the next it erupted in the roar of gunfire and the triumphant shouts of the enemy platoon as…
By Mike Fahey Published October 14, 2011 -
Culture
How Long Did It Take For Bethesda’s Marathon Men To Finish Skyrim?
You’d be amazed at how fast a game developer and a quality assurance tester can burn through The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim when there’s pie on the line. It’s a Bethesda tradition: When the company gets close to wrapping up development on a big title, one QA tester and one developer face-off to see who…
By Mike Fahey Published October 13, 2011