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Culture
The Sexy, Colourful Art of DMC, Enslaved and Heavenly Sword
From the first time I saw Heavenly Sword concept art in an old copy of Edge, right through to their work today, I’ve been a big, big fan of the art team over at Ninja Theory. So it’s a pleasure today to present the work of the studio’s visual art director, Alessandro Taini. Born in…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 27, 2011 -
Culture
Doritos Creator Arch West Takes His Cheesy Legacy to the Grave
Orange-stained fingers around the world were clenched in grief last week, when the legendary marketing man credited with the creation of Doritos passed away. But take heart, snack fans; Arch West is taking his cheese powder-infused tortilla chips with him on his eternal journey. That’s right, West is being buried with Doritos. A marketing executive…
By Mike Fahey Published September 26, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Delightful Home-Made Maps of the Zork Series
Zork is one of the oldest adventure game franchises there is. The series is so old, in fact, that aside from a few rare instances you can only play the games using, and seeing, text. No graphics, no icons, no heads-up display, nothing. So how did you get around? How did you use a map?…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 26, 2011 -
Culture
We’re Taking Nominations for Sunday Comics’ Newest Strip
As you may have noticed, we’ve been down a comic in our Sunday Comics lineup ever since Rooster Teeth closed in August. I could have just filled it in with any of the submissions we frequently get from webcomic authors, but remembering how this feature was conceived, and given that everyone has such strong opinions…
By Owen Good Published September 25, 2011 -
Culture
Ready for Some Football
EA Sports’ FIFA 12 highlights this release week (Tuesday in North America, Thursday and Friday in Europe) along with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2011. Not diggin’ sports? X-Men: Destiny, the quasi-action-RPG by Silicon Knights, arrives on shelves, too. Monday • FIFA Soccer 12 (Wii) Tuesday • FIFA Soccer 12 (PC, PS2, PSP, PS3, 360) —A…
By Owen Good Published September 25, 2011 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Elitism Isn’t Free
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 Sept. 19.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Sept. 24.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good Published September 25, 2011 -
Culture
Elk Strips: The $35 Snack That Made a Great Nation Great
Funyuns, Doritos, Chikin-on-a-Biskit. They conjure images of stoners and the unemployed, but no one consumes those snacks to affect said lifestyle. Jerky, well, c’mon. It’s like a meat Marlboro. If you’ve ever torn off hunks of dried flesh, wrung them out on your molars, and not once narrowed your eyes and internally complimented this great…
By Owen Good Published September 23, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: ‘We’ll be able to squeeze more from Xbox 360.’
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “We’ll be able to squeeze more from Xbox 360.” – Epic design director Cliff Bleszinski notes that if Epic ships another 360 title this generation they should still be able to extract even more power from the console QUOTE | “We’ve learned…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published September 23, 2011 -
Culture
We may Never Play the Aliens RPG, but we can Look at its Concept Art
There once was a time Obsidian was making an RPG based on the Aliens universe. That game has since been cancelled, but today we’re looking at some art done for the project by Charles Lee. We’ll also be looking at some of his other stuff, as he’s also recently been involved in the production of…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 23, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
It’s the end of the World as This Game Knew it (and Nobody Felt Fine)
Our younger readers won’t have lived through it, but the 1980s were in in many ways a bleak time, the spectre of nuclear holocaust hanging over the world for much of the decade. For such a dominant political topic, however, few games chose to address the subject head-on. Ground Zero was one of the few.…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 23, 2011 -
Culture
This Video Game Art Is Entirely Off-Topic (Sorry, Darksiders Fans!)
Thought I’d try something a little different with today’s Fine Art. Instead of showing the art of a video game, I thought I’d show off some of the art of video game artists. Which aren’t always the same thing! On the night of Friday, Sept. 23, Vigil Games—developers of the Darksiders series—will be hosting a…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 22, 2011 -
CultureThe Beautiful Blizzard Paintings of Mathias Verhasselt
Mathias Verhasselt works at Blizzard. As a concept artist, yes, but he also does one of my favourite things in both cinema and games: Matte paintings. These are the exquisitely-detailed images that movies use for static, artificial backdrops and scenery, but you may not know that game trailers and cinematics use them as well (though…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 20, 2011 -
CultureTotal RecallThis Star Wars Game Was So Bad They Should Have Made More Of Them
Over the past thirty years there have been plenty of memorable Star Wars games, from the Super Star Wars series to X-Wing to Jedi Knight to Battlefront. They’re all classics, not just awesome adaptations of a movie franchise but awesome games in their own right. Star Wars: Yoda Stories is not one of those games.…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 20, 2011 -
Culture
What do Rez and Space Channel 5 Have In Common? This Guy.
Artist Jake Kazdal has been working in the video game industry for around 15 years now, for companies like Electronic Arts, Zombie VR and Big Boss. Perhaps of more interest to readers of this site, though, is that between 1999 and 2003 he worked at Sega. In Tokyo. Where he got to design stuff for…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 19, 2011 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Year E3 Went to Japan and Tried to Kill the Tokyo Game Show
With the Tokyo Game Show having just wound up, I thought today would be a good time to look back to 1996, when for the first and only time it wasn’t the only major gaming event held in Tokyo. For one year, and one year only, it had competition in the form of E3. An…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 19, 2011 -
Culture
Gears Up
The conclusion to Epic Games’ Gears of War trilogy arrives only on Xbox 360 this weel, joined by the HD remake of Resident Evil 4, another DLC extension for Fallout: New Vegas, the Rezurrection map pack for Call of Duty players on PS3 and PC, and the controversial fighter Supremacy MMA Monday • Dragon Quest…
By Owen Good Published September 18, 2011 -
Culture
Sunday Comics: A Fraction of the Price
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 Sept. 12.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Sept. 14.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…
By Owen Good Published September 18, 2011 -
Culture
This Week in the Business: ‘Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo.’
What’s happened in the business of video games this past week… QUOTE | “Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo.” – Satoru Iwata once again says, despite mounting pressure, that his company will “absolutely not consider” smartphone development, which goes against Nintendo’s philosophy. QUOTE | “Gears 3 is better on every level.” – Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski…
James Brightman | IndustryGamers.com Published September 16, 2011 -
Culture
Age of Empires’ Art is Like Free-to-Play Ice Cream
When opting for “cartoon” graphics, there’s a fine line between looking stylish and looking childish. Age of Empires Online, I think, gets it just right. The fact the recently-released online game doesn’t look like the old Age of Empires has upset some fans, and that’s unavoidable. Still, it’s a shame, as the new game looks…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 13, 2011