Yes, You’re Going To Have To Go In There, Joel

John Sweeney is a concept artist at Naughty Dog who didn’t just get to work on The Last Of Us, but had one of his images from the game selected as a winner in this year’s Into The Pixel awards. You can see more of his work at his personal site and CGHub page To…

DJ Krush’s Crackdown Intro Is An All-Time Great

I have very fond memories of Crackdown, one of the earliest Xbox 360 exclusives and a game that, in many ways, still stands strong today. I’d love to say those memories are thanks to the collecting of orbs, of jumping over buildings and driving stupidly large trucks, but they’re not. They’re thanks to a single…

Kid Gets Crazy Mario Face Shaved Onto His Entire Head

It may not be forever in the way a tattoo is, but this is a kid. And as far as kid statements go, getting an enormous Mario head shaved onto the back of your noggin is about as big as they go. No idea who it is, or who the barber was, but as someone…

Microsoft Games Are Coming To Android, iOS Phones

You read that right. Develoepr Klab will be bringing a mobile version of Age of Empires to both iOS and Android devices later this year. A report on Nikkei says the game will be free-to-play, so it’s likely a port of the recent PC reboot of the series. It’s also merely the first in a…

Apple Is Now Refunding People Whose Kids Bought iPhone Crap

It’s a tale as old as the iPhone itself. Kid picks up parent’s iPhone, kid plays game, kid accidentally buys a ton of in-app junk without their parent’s knowledge. Parent goes bananas, complains to Apple. Those complaints got too loud to ignore for Apple, so in February it agreed to a large settlement. That settlement…

The Water-Repelling Spray That’s A Mix Of Science And Outright Sorcery

What. The. Hell. I’ve seen a video demonstration of NeverWet before, but never a demonstration as all-inclusive as this one, posted about a week ago. The product, which is arriving (or has already arrived) in Home Depot and Red Rose Commons, will turn anything it touches into a magical water-repellant material. More info here Watch…

Team Fortress 2 Brought Them Together. Now They’re Married.

It’s 2013—people meeting through online dating sites if not through video games is not rare, but in Redditor IdentityProductions‘ case, it’s tough to deny just how intense the love for their partner and Team Fortress 2 is. Even Valve sees it. Earlier today, a Reddit thread was posted with a link to a photobook sent…

Watch 16 Minutes Of The New Phoenix Wright And Get Mad Pumped

Jason’s already got me excited for the upcoming Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies, which is coming to 3DS this fall. And now that I’ve watched Nintendo World Report play through 16 minutes of the game, I’m looking forward to it even more. This video (as spotted by NeoGAF), is from Capcom’s E3 demo. It does contain…

Awesome Fire Emblem Tharja Figure Is Now Finished, Still Awesome

And here we have it; a final version of Max Factory’s ass-cheek happy 1/7th figure of Tharja from Fire Emblem: Awakening. You can find more detailed shots over at Mikatan’s blog. Believe it or not, I’ve played a lot of Fire Emblem and I’ve never even met Tharja. I never recruited her, and am pretty…

How To Compose A Great Town Theme Song In Animal Crossing: New Leaf

I am head over heels for the Animal Crossing: New Leaf soundtrack. Kazumi Totaka’s music is so graceful and sparse, relying as much on suggestion and space as it does on melody. But one of the best musical aspects of the game is the one you can compose for yourself. Early in the game, you’ll…

John Szczepaniak’s Kickstarter to tell the untold stories of Japanese game development is just a few yards away from the finish line. Here’s hoping he pulls it off.

Nintendo Fans Fight To Get 3DS And Wii U Region-Free

If 2012 was the year of Kickstarter, 2013 is the year of the fan petition. Following in the footsteps of the successful #PS4NoDRM campaign, a number of passionate Nintendo fans are setting out to get the Wii U and 3DS region-free. Nintendo’s current consoles are region-locked, meaning that you can only use each one to…

Sorry, Team Deathmatch. You’re Not As Good As Other Modes.

Slayer. Deathmatch. Arena. Free-for-all. The mode has many names, but your aim stays the same: kill everyone, as many times as possible. Maybe there’s a time limit or a kill limit, but it usually comes down to some variation of “the person or team with the most kills wins.” Simple, seductive…and kind of mindless. Now,…

This Real Life Version of Super Smash Bros. Looks Rad, Sounds Catchy

If you’ve ever wondered what brawling Smash-style would be like in real life, well, turns out it looks pretty dang fun. At least, it does in Screen Team‘s music video of the song “SMASH,” which includes not only franchise veterans like Mario, but also newcomers like Wii Fit Trainer and Mega Man duking it out.…

Six Critics Say Company of Heroes 2 Is More of the Same, Only Better

It took seven years for Company of Heroes 2, the sequel to Relic’s massively popular World War II-themed PC-exclusive strategy game, to hit the shelves. But was it worth the wait? Six reviews say yes. Even though CoH2 has its problems—a clunky interface, a problematic and at times suicidal AI, and a clichéd story—it builds…

Find Out How Many Creators of this Game Are Female Or Hate Peas

The credits in the new Nintendo game Game & Wario are as weird as the rest of the game, but they’re also possibly the best credits ever. They serve a serious, modern purpose. And they make some good jokes. The serious purpose: they break the team down by job focus (directors, programmers, producers, etc.) and…

What’s So Great About Xbox One’s Cloud? Titanfall‘s Devs Explain.

As amorphous, mercurial and intangible as its atmospheric namesake, the Xbox One’s Cloud is a feature that is hard to appreciate without a strong example. Luckily, Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment has one — dedicated servers. In anarticle on Respawn’s website, Cloud technology engineer Jon Shiring lays it out plain, echoing the sentiments expressed bycompany head…

Borderlands‘ Psycho and Handsome Jack Arrive In Time for Halloween

Commence to placing finger guns to your temple (or under your chin). NECA, makers of all sorts of plastic goodness for gamers, will have a latex Psycho mask from Borderlands 2—and another for insufferable baddie Handsome Jack, available in September. The quick-and-dirty cosplay deploys in time for the New York Comic-Con (and Halloween) for $26.99…

ArenaNet is live-streaming a run through a new dungeon coming in tomorrow’s Guild Wars 2 Sky Pirates of Tyria update. Head over to Twitch to check it out.

Pocket Mobsters Is An Ambitious Game. Ambition Is A Dangerous Thing.

In the whack-y world of the fictional mafia, right down the street from the jolly singing pirates, enthusiasm for climbing the corporate ladder is both good and bad. You need that hunger to stay ahead of the pack, but push too hard and you might find yourself riddled with bullets or, in the case of…