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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 6. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published June 9. – Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published June 12, 2011 -
CultureShop Contest
Smackdown vs. 3DS Winners
The strange appearance of an Aqua Blue 3DS capturing the action at a pro rasslin’ event provided the grist for our latest Kotaku ‘Shop Contest, in which the Nintendo handheld makes 20 cameos just as bizarre. Getting things started, Bet@ (2) calls back to our L.A. Noire contest with a shifty-eyed Sheamus. BigMike McCarthy’s joke…
By Owen Good Published June 11, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Agony and the Ecstasy of the Electronic Entertainment Expo
E3 is almost upon us! It’s a time of great excitement for video game fans the world over, but yet, it is also a time to be wary. Because not everything you’re about to see is going to be awesome. Some of it will suck. Worse, some of it will suck so bad it’ll be…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 6, 2011 -
Culture
E3 Musketeers
While everyone is in Los Angeles talking about next year’s games, three big ones will drop this week: Red Faction: Armageddon, the PS3-exclusive inFamous 2 and the tactical shooter Operation Flashpoint: Red River. Should the 3DS eShop come online as planned, goodies are in store there, too. Monday • 3D Classics: Excitebike (3DS eShop) •…
By Owen Good Published June 5, 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 May 30. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published June 3. – Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published June 5, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: “These attacks will continue to happen.”
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “These attacks will continue to happen.” – Security expert and former hacker Gregory Evans makes his case for why PlayStation Network (as well as all of Sony and other companies) is still not secure QUOTE | “Sometimes it’s emotional.” – THQ CEO…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published June 3, 2011 -
Culture
The Desolate Video Game Art of Nicolas Ferrand
Nicolas Ferrand is a French concept artist currently working on Thief 4 at Eidos Montreal. Previously, while at Ubisoft, he contributed to franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia Today we’re looking at his pieces from Far Cry 2, Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed II, all of which are great It’s a…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 3, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Great Gaming Franchises Locked In EA’s Dungeon
A common complaint levelled against big publishers like Activision and Electronic Arts is that they milk their franchises for all they’re worth. It’s an easy allegation to make, but in EA’s case, it (sadly!) doesn’t hold much water. Because if EA really wanted to milk its franchises for all they’re worth, we’d be drowning in…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 3, 2011 -
Culture
Before They Were Heroes: the Art of Team Fortress 2
Unlike perhaps any game since the 16-bit era, Team Fortress 2 has a look that is almost timeless. To get characters looking that good takes not only years of development, but years of concept art as well. The pieces in this gallery are all taken from those years of art and development, some of them…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 2, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallWarhammer Games Have Rarely Been Darker, or Better, Than This
The Warhammer 40K universe has been a happy hunting ground for game developers over the years, with over a dozen games having been released based on the storied sci-fi franchise. For all their technical and story-telling advances, though, one remains as many people’s favourite 40K game of all. And it was also one of the…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 2, 2011 -
Culture
These Fighting Game Ladies Will Kick Your Face In [NSFW]
Dan Howard is an artist who has worked with both role-playing game companies and, a little closer to home, Udon Entertainment, they who turn Capcom artworks into coffee table books. While he does all kinds of work on all kinds of subjects, today I’m only interested in one thing: Dan’s amazing paintings of video game…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 1, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallBehind the Scenes of The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
For the past few years, Nintendo has run a series of interviews on its website called “Iwata Asks”, giving us behind-the-scenes looks at some of the company’s most important games and pieces of hardware. This interview, though, does not involve Iwata. And was never on Nintendo’s website. Because it was conducted in 1991, and involved…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 1, 2011 -
Culture
The Forgotten Art of the Video Game Title Screen
Back before games had cinematic intros, and many of the biggest titles were still in arcades, the video game title screen was often one of the most important “lures” for a customer. Featuring big artwork and even bigger titles, it had to capture everything the game stood for. Everything it was about. Everything it was…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 31, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallRemembering Capcom’s Great Nintendo Promise / Betrayal
Capcom and Nintendo have always had a rather close relationship. In 2002, though, the pair became blood brothers. Or so people thought. That was the year the infamous “Capcom Five” were announced by the Osaka-based publisher, a range of titles seemingly designed to give Nintendo’s fledgling GameCube a shot in the arm, and which ended…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 31, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Origins Of Pokémon
As the creator of Nintendo’s Pokémon series, Satoshi Tajiri is one of the most important (if not well-known) developers working in video games today. Like another Nintendo legend, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Tajiri’s most popular work has been directly inspired by his childhood experiences and hobbies. While Miyamoto’s Zelda was the product of boyhood explorations,…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 30, 2011 -
Culture
A Quiet Week for Games
Holiday weekends and the period around E3 typically are slow, and this coming week fits both bills. The big drops: Hunted: The Demon’s Forge; BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II comes to PSP and 3DS; PC players get the BioShock 2: Minerva’s Den and Call of Duty: Black Ops-Escalation expansions. Tuesday Hunted: The Demon’s Forge (PC, PS3,…
By Owen Good Published May 29, 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 May 23. – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published May 24. – Read more of Nerf…
By Owen Good Published May 29, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: “Soften the difficulty a smidge when you return.”
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Put the screws to Sony in next console war.” – Panoptic Management Consultants analyst Asif Khan’s thinking that Microsoft may gain the upper hand against a PlayStation 4 next round. TWIST | Modern Warfare 3‘s big reveal came and went this week…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published May 27, 2011 -
Culture
The Sweet, Yet Slightly Creepy Art of Alice: Madness Returns
A PC cult classic returns (and on consoles this time, too) next month when Alice: Madness Returns hits shelves. The first game was batshit crazy, and beautiful to boot. So it’s little surprise, then, that the sequel looks to be continuing that tradition. In these pieces of concept art for the game (some you may…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 27, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallIt’s OK, Everyone, It’s Time to Talk About the Wing Commander TV Series
Yesterday, we waded through a lot of painful memories talking about the awful (and mercifully forgotten) Wing Commander movie. So let’s make amends today, and cheer everybody up by talking about the awesome Wing Commander cartoon series instead. A few years before the movie, and right about the time the game franchise was coming off…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 27, 2011