-
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 -
Culture
Calader’s Art Takes Star Wars to the Brink
Based in the UK, Georgi “Calader” Simeonov works at Splash Damage, meaning he had a hand in the lovely “nothing but blue skies” art design of multiplayer shooter Brink So we’ll be showing you some of that, but also some of his other stuff on titles like Sony’s MMO Star Wars Galaxies, along with something…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 13, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Greatest Arcade Cabinet That Never Was
Around the turn of the millennium, Namco showed off an arcade game that looked like it had fallen out of the 22nd century. Housed in a giant cabinet called O.R.B.S., it was a sequel to old-school shooter Star Blade, and could have been just the kind of thing the dying arcade scene was in need…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 13, 2011 -
Culture
The Sandy, Chest-Free Art of the Prince of Persia Movie
An acclaimed motion picture artist, Joseph Mclamb has helped shape the creative vision of movies as big as Avatar and Clash of the Titans He also, a few years back, got the chance to work on Jerry Bruckheimer’s Prince of Persia movie. Mclamb does both straight-up concept art as well as matte paintings, and you’ll…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallLife in a Video Game is Tough, but in Avalon, it’s Also Awesome
The Last Starfighter is my favourite video game movie of all time. But it had to fight, almost to the death, to claim the top spot. Because at number two is Avalon, a 2001 flick that’s part-Japanese, part-Polish, all awesome. It’s a strange movie. But I love it for the same reason I love Last…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 12, 2011 -
Culture
The Art Of Gears Of War
There’s an established, if corny description of the art of Gears of War: “destroyed beauty”. I don’t like typing it, I especially don’t like hearing it. Beauty doesn’t need to be defined like that because even the most smashed up thing in the universe can be beautiful if someone simply thinks it is Take the…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 11, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallClive Owen’s Embarrassing Video Game Past
British actor Clive Owen is a badass. A man’s man. He’s got a deep voice, a heavy face, and is usually in movies where he kills things, or is at least around things being killed. Did you know, however, that between leaving the UK and making it big in Hollywood he appeared in one of…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 11, 2011 -
Culture
A Forza to be Reckoned With
High-performance automobiles return to the Xbox 360 with Forza Motorsport 4 this week. Not a car guy? Take to the skies with Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, on the PS3 and 360, or head back to the casino with Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. There’s also DLC releasing for Dragon Age II Monday • Red…
By Owen Good Published October 9, 2011 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Meet the New Strip
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. 1.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Oct. 7.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good Published October 9, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: ‘Sony’s Bad-Mouthing Microsoft at Every Corner’
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Sony’s bad-mouthing Microsoft at every corner.”—Indie developer Guillaume Boucher-Vidal talks about his frustrations and why he lashed out at Sony and fellow developer Team Meat in an apology letter QUOTE | “Xbox Live Arcade’s health is flagging.”—Ron Carmel of 2D Boy…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published October 8, 2011 -
Culture
Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick. It’s Right There in the Title
Tearing into my first bite of Jimmy Dean Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick reminded me of an idea that came to me while I was unemployed. It also reminded me of being unemployed, but that’s another story. The idea was something called the Chicken Donut. Basically I’d take a shell donut like the kind…
By Owen Good Published October 7, 2011 -
Culture
The Fine Art of StarCraft II, Diablo III and World of Warcraft
Like another man who has done such fine work for Blizzard, Mathias Verhasselt, Chris Thunig is here for one reason and one reason only: his amazing landscape paintings for Diablo III, StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Thunig specialises in matte paintings, which are static, highly-detailed images used in the background of things like movies…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 7, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallRape, Racism & Repetition: This is Probably the Worst Game Ever Made
When you think about it, commercial video games are usually pretty harmless. Sure, they can be violent, but there’s rarely any larger controversy surrounding a game involving things like drugs, politics, or sex. Which only makes 1982’s Custer’s Revenge all the more interesting. And appalling. WARNING: Some slightly NSFW content follows. For those unfamiliar with…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 7, 2011