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CultureTotal RecallRemembering the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of MS-DOS
If you think messing around with the user-interface of a modern console, or even a modern iteration of Windows is hard, spare a thought for anyone involved in PC gaming during the 1980s and early 90s. Those hardy pioneers didn’t need icons, or dashboards. They used letters, and arcane commands, which were the bread and…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2011 -
Culture
There’s a Half-Life On Viktor Antonov’s Video Game Art
Artist Viktor Antonov has worked on a number of high-profile projects over the years. He’s recently published his own book, The Colony. He’s helping on a live-action adaptation of classic manga (and anime film) Cobra. He also did some nice art for shelved (yet promising) multiplayer shooter The Crossing Oh yeah. And he was also…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Game That Really Was Out of This World
It was 1992. I was at my friend Paul’s house, playing games on his mighty 486 PC, and we’d just finished a complete playthrough of Monkey Island for probably the 100th time. Bored, he turns to me and says “Oh yeah, my brother got this new game. Let’s play that.” He fires it up, and…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2011 -
Culture
This Concept Art Flies Right Into the Danger Zone
In 2008, publisher THQ shitcanned a project called Stormbirds, an aerial combat game that was looking to take on the likes of Ace Combat and HAWX While the game died, its surprisingly colourful art lives on, and today we’re looking at concept artist Stuart Jennett’s wonderful contributions. Jennett, formerly a comics artist with Marvel, is…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 26, 2011 -
Culture
More Amazing Guild Wars 2 Art to Kickstart Your Working Week
As we’ve seen previously, with Levi Hopkins’ art, there’s some outstanding work being done at ArenaNet on Guild Wars 2. An impression that’s only reinforced looking at the contributions of Kekai Kotaki. Serving as Art Lead on the project, Kotaki – who not only has a fine last name but also worked on the first…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Great Half-Life 2 Robbery
Hacking attacks and digital theft have been in the headlines a lot lately, whether it be the loss of user details on the PlayStation Network or a preview build of an upcoming game. So let’s look back today on a crime both more brazen and impressive than any we’ve seen in the past few years:…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2011 -
Culture
Catherine the Great?
Journey into the twisted dream world of a man smitten with a beautiful girl named Catherine in the eponymous game arriving this Tuesday. Dragon Age II also gets an expansion, From Dust arrives in Xbox Live’s Summer of Arcade, and PC and PS3 players get Black Ops‘ Annihilation map pack. Tuesday Catherine (PS3, 360) —…
By Owen Good Published July 24, 2011 -
CultureShop Contest
Photobombed Cosplay
OK, team, if you’ve been paying attention, we’ve been hinting at this week’s ‘Shop Contest subject for the past four days. We’ve rounded up a dirty dozen of the most exploitable cosplay pics so far from Comic-Con 2011. It’s up to you to bring the more-funny! Your mission awaits inside! Our theme begins with an…
By Owen Good Published July 24, 2011 -
Culture
Sunday Comics
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 July 18. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published July 18. – Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published July 24, 2011 -
CultureShop Contest
Chillin’ with Chell Winners
Last week’s ‘Shop Contest served as a warmup for the cosplay explosion of San Diego Comic-Con 2011. We’ve got several entries that will be hard to follow. This week’s top 20 awaits you inside! Off the bat, Koda89 (12) came up with another animated entry that we have to present as a YouTube video. Go…
By Owen Good Published July 23, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: ‘Relic of the 20th Century’
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Superior.” – Xbox CFO Dennis Durkin contends that Microsoft’s first-party games this console cycle have been better in quality and sales than the first-party efforts of Nintendo and Sony. STAT | 40% – The percentage of the games industry that consoles now…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published July 22, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallSegata Sanshiro, the Greatest Video Game Ad Man Of Them All
Sony’s fictional executive Kevin Butler has won himself a legion of fans. Which is great! Kevin Butler, though, ain’t got shit on Segata Sanshiro. In the late 90’s Sanshiro was concocted by Sega to help sell the Sega Saturn. And there’s never been a more entertaining ad mascot for a video game company. For pretty…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 22, 2011 -
Culture
This Concept Art Has a Demon’s Soul
In addition to a bunch of other stuff, Hong Kong artist Michael Ting Yu Chang has also done some video game work with Japanese developers From Software. That means he provided concept art for the sucky Ninja Blade, yes. But it also means he’s provided concept art for crushing RPG Demon’s Soul and its upcoming…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 21, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Real History of the Triforce
It’s one of the most iconic designs in the history of video games: three golden triangles combined to form a single larger one. The Triforce. The object that lies at the heart of The Legend of Zelda The thing is, Nintendo didn’t come up with the design. It’s been around for almost 1000 years The…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 21, 2011 -
Culture
This Video Game Art Packs Twice the Infamy
We featured the art of Bjorn Hurri (Total War, Steampunk Star Wars) only a few weeks ago here on Kotaku, but since then he’s been given the all clear to release a ton of content from his most recent project, inFamous 2 Like Wesley Burt’s art for the same game (which we’ve also shown you),…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallYou Could Actually Download Atari 2600 Games (on an Atari 2600!)
Xbox Live Arcade is credited with popularising the notion of downloading console video games. Other consoles, like the Genesis, offered them a lot earlier, albeit with limited success. The CVC GameLine did things even earlier. We’re talking 1983 earlier. And while it all ended in disaster, the ashes of the venture would bizarrely lead to…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2011 -
Culture
The Video Game Art of Christian Lorenz Scheurer
You probably don’t know him by name, but you’d know him by his work: Christian Lorenz Scheurer has provided concept art for movies like The Matrix, Titanic and The Fifth Element Which is all well and awesome, but we’re more interested in the work he’s done for video games. Scheurer has been involved in a…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 19, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Greatest Mario Rip-Off of Them All
Like any other artistic medium, most video games “borrow” content and ideas from other titles. That’s how inspiration works. There’s a line between inspiration and copyright infringement, though, and in 1987 Time Warp Productions jumped over that line (then into a warp pipe). Their game, The Great Giana Sisters, wasn’t a homage to Nintendo’s Super…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 19, 2011
