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Culture
The Fantastic Character Art of Akihiko Yoshida
Akihiko Yoshida has been at Final Fantasy developers Square Enix since 1995, when he joined Squaresoft, one of the companies (along with Enix) that merged to create the RPG powerhouse. In that time he’s worked on a ton of Final Fantasy games, the most prominent of them being Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics and…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallWhen South Park Got an EA Sports Game Pulled off the Shelves
Long before golfer Tiger Woods thought it’d be a good idea to go sticking his dick in anything with a hole and a pulse, his video game franchise was embroiled in a scandal of a different kind. The harmless kind. Involving Jesus, Santa Claus and a cartoon. In 1998, a young Tiger Woods was bursting…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 6, 2011 -
Culture
The Renaissance Art of David Alvarez [Update]
David Alvarez is a 2D and 3D artist employed at Ubisoft, who has worked on games like Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Test Drive Unlimited Today, we’re looking at his work on the Assassin’s Creed series. Since Alvarez is able to work in both 2D and 3D, we get a…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 5, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Great Games of a Great American Hero
There have been plenty of video games made featuring American heroes. Day of the Tentacle, for example, is full of them. One that doesn’t get enough credit (at least as a gaming “character”), though, is legendary pilot Chuck Yeager. Born in 1923, Yeager enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces just two months prior…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 4, 2011 -
Culture
Welcome Our New Insect Overlords
There’s probably a reason everything and its brother went on sale this weekend. That’s because there are next to no new releases for the coming seven days. Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, on 360 and PS3, is your big highlight. Tuesday Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (Xbox 360, PS3) — The followup to Earth Defense…
By Owen Good Published July 3, 2011 -
CultureShop Contest
Board Game Box Art
This week we learned of World of Fourcraft, a game that turns New York into a giant game of real-life Risk. That got me to thinking about the box art that predated today’s video game packshots, and thus our latest Kotaku ‘Shop Contest challenge. Somewhat open-ended yet plainly straightforward: Take a video game and give…
By Owen Good Published July 3, 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 June 27. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published June 27. – Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published July 3, 2011 -
CultureShop Contest
Caught ‘Em: Winners
Our latest ‘Shop contest took inspiration from the capture of the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger. We’ve got a list of the 20 most wanted ‘shops inside. Their crime? First-degree hilarity. Given the go-ahead to use Asshole Dog, Cilixblade (3) struck first. Companion Cube (5) followed with a quick ‘shop. Everyone knows how I love that…
By Owen Good Published July 2, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: “Brilliant strategic move.”
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Push out the lifespan of PS3.” – DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole responds to rumors that Sony is actually preparing to unveil and PlayStation 4 sometime next year STAT | $4.27 million – How much Sony CEO Howard Stringer earned for the…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published July 1, 2011 -
Culture
The Baggy Pants and Silly Hats of the Fable Universe
Mike McCarthy, of Lionhead Studios, has for many a year now been working on the Fable series, bringing us some of the weirdest and most wonderful characters going around. In a world where angry bald space marines are the norm, and brown and grey the extent of most colour palettes, Fable‘s bright, comical character designs…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 1, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallIn Memory of the Original Castle Wolfenstein (the one That Wasn’t In 3D)
It’s a slightly sad quirk of video game history that id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D is lauded as a masterpiece of gaming while the title it was heavily inspired by – name and all – is afforded no such honour. Yet id’s comic blaster owes everything to a stealth game released in 1981 called simply Castle…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 1, 2011 -
Culture
The Monstrous Art of Shadow of the Colossus
Enormous monsters. A haunting landscape. Mysterious figures. All hallmarks of classic PS2 game Shadow of the Colossus, all the stars of this batch of concept art for the game. While there’s been art floating around for a while now (the game was released in 2005, after all), courtesy of promotional material and books from Shadow’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 30, 2011 -
Culture
Tony Holmsten’s Video Game Art Is a Final Fantasy
Tony Holmsten, formerly of Sweden now living in Japan, has been working as a video game artist since 2002 at two of Sweden’s biggest studio’s, Battlefield developers DICE and the now-defunct Grin. In that time, he’s done concept art, level art, promo art and lighting for games like Battlefield 2142, Bionic Commando and Fortress, the…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The PlayStation Controller You Never Got to Use
Yesterday, we looked at the PlayStation controllers that Sony has released (or in the Boomerang’s case seriously intended to release) to the public. Today, we’re looking at one that never made it. Before the PlayStation was released in 1994, development kits had to be sent to studios to ensure games would be ready for the…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 29, 2011 -
Culture
The inFamous Video Game Art of Wesley Burt
Wesley Burt is a professional concept artist who works for Massive Black, one of the world’s biggest and most successful concept art studios. In his time there he’s worked on games like inFamous, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Borderlands, Red Faction: Guerilla, inFamous 2 and Kane & Lynch 2 This gallery showcases some of his…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 28, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Evolution of the PlayStation Control Pad
It’s perhaps the most iconic design in the world of game controllers, and definitely the longest-serving. Today in Total Recall, we look back at over 15 years of PlayStation control pads. The primary PlayStation controller’s basic appearance has survived with only minor changes since it accompanied the first console to the marketplace all the way…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 28, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The World’s First True Shooting Game
While Nintendo was a pioneer of video game light guns, first for its elaborate shooting parlours and then its Zapper for the NES, it didn’t create the first home version of the technology. That honour goes to the aptly-named Shooting Gallery, a hardware/software combo for the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first home video game console.…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 27, 2011 -
Culture
Summertime in the Arcade
The Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter IV arrives for Xbox 360 and PS3 this week. Another anticipated drop is the “Annihilation” map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops; it delivers another five maps, one of them a zombie level. After that, you’re looking at maybe Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 Tuesday • Super Street…
By Owen Good Published June 26, 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 June 20. — Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published June 25. — Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published June 26, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: “Itching for a while.”
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Wouldn’t want to trade hands.” – Xbox COO Dennis Durkin talks about Microsoft’s position in relation to Sony’s and Nintendo’s. Referring to the PS Vita, he expresses his belief that launching a portable into a red ocean market is not a good…
By Drew Cohen Published June 24, 2011