Bad Things Happen When Team Fortress 2’s Medic Loses His Bird

Zachariah Scott, a cinematic designer at BioWare, may have an unfair advantage when it comes to Source Filmmaker clips, seeing as he’s not exactly an amatuer, but whatever. If professional videos are what we get when professionals use the tool, then we’re all winners. In this clip, TF2’s Medic has an…episode after the loss of…

Zombie Iron Man Thirsts For Brains, Booze

I’d like to think that a zombie Iron Man, retaining at least some small part of Tony Stark, would shamble around searching liquour cabinets and bars. Any brains or human flesh he’d find there would be just a bonus. These images are the work of cosplay photographer Adam Jay, while the man—or what remains of…

It’s Like a Reference Book. Only, For Halo’s Spartans.

I have a long-standing love of old-fashioned reference books. Like, the ones where the whole thing, cover-to-cover, is devoted entirely to illustrations of, say, Napoleonic cavalry uniforms. One day I’ll sort out just what that fetish means, but in the meantime, I’m going to indulge it with these pieces of Halo 4 concept art by…

The Next American Flag Could Look a Little Different

The citizens of Puerto Rico have voted in favour of becoming the 51st State of the Union. It doesn’t mean they necessarily will soon, or will ever be granted such status, but it’s a sure step on the road to trying. If they succeed, as has happened a few times previously in American history, the…

There Was a Novel Based on 1994’s X-Com

I never saw this on a shelf as kid. I know this, because if I had, I’d have bought it RPS’ Alec Meer has just put down the paperback adaptation of Microprose’s 1994 strategy classic X-Com: UFO Defense (or UFO: Enemy Unknown), this year remade as XCOM, and while he reports it’s a bit of…

A GameSpot report says that GameStop’s Australian branch is “bullying” retailers.

The Future of Minecraft is You (and Your Mods)

Being a colossal smash and money printing machine, there’s not much more that can be done to Minecraft to make it more successful. So it’s good to hear it’s developers aren’t really trying. Instead of continually adding new stuff to the game from their end, Mojang has decided that the future of the game lies…

You Don’t Need a Multipass For This Incredible Cosplay

Fifth Element? Dissidia? A gender-bending Dragon Age outfit? What a week it’s been for awesome cosplay. Yup, below you’ll find a dude dressed as Dragon Age’s Morrigan. And it totally works. As does everything else in an unusually strong week for the feature. To see the larger pics in all their glory (or so you…

The Wii U’s Menu Music is New-Age Synthesised Bliss

Had a rough day at work? Too many bills to pay? Husband/wife been yelling at you for something/nothing? You need to relax. With your Wii U. And its menu music. The last few Nintendo machines, the Wii especially, were what I’d call “whimsical”. This, this is “scientifically engineered to calm you the f**k down”. Above…

Valve Mentions its “Next Gen” Game Engine (Again)

Valve’s Source engine has been running most of the company’s games for around a decade now, but despite some wizardry being performed on games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2, it’s starting to show its age. Which is probably why the company is starting to ramp up the number of times it mentions…

The Week in Games: Black is Back

Black Ops II is this week’s glamor release, and has been for a very long time. LEGO Lord of the Rings, Just Dance 4 and RIFT: Storm Legion make it a varied week for new video games. You’ll also notice a ton of Wii U titles hitting shelves. You can’t yet play them, but they’re…

The Original Doom 3 is Back on Steam

The release of Doom 3: BFG saw the disappearance of the original Doom 3 from Steam, notable for two reasons: 1) the game was rather cheap and 2) there were a bunch of mods for it. People were rightly pissed, Bethesda Softworks offered a hurried non-answer, and the whole thing looked like a cynical sales-protection…

Well done, world: Blur’s pitch for a Goon movie has been successfully funded

ChrisWarcraft’s Weekly NFL Quest, Level Nine: Take the Lions’ Share of Silver

Football is a role-playing game. That’s how Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings punter and noted World of Warcraft and RPG fan, is approaching it. Each week in the NFL, ChrisWarcraft characterizes his upcoming game in terms of an MMO quest. We’re going to chart his progress and see how fast he levels up. After opening…

Whatever Happens Now, Johnny Football is a Video Game Legend

By all rights, Johnny Manziel should have engraved his name on the Heisman Trophy yesterday. He quarterbacks one of college football’s most archetypal brands, the Texas A&M Aggies, and has had an outstanding season running the nation’s most demanding gantlet, the Southeastern Conference. On Saturday he and A&M deposed Alabama, the No. 1 team and…

Show Us Your Halo 4 Spartan

Master Chief ain’t special. I mean, consider his drab green—it clashes with everything! Cmon buddy, don’t you know orange is in right now? Your armor needs to match the new weapons you’re carrying around. This is basic fashion 101 right here. Luckily, our Spartans don’t have to be unfashionable. Thanks to the customization options available…

Warcraft-Playing Ph.D Candidate has Some Questions for You About Gaming Addiction

An East Carolina University doctoral student studying MMOs and video game addiction is looking for survey participants to help in a key component of his dissertation. Notably, the researcher conducting the survey is himself a World of Warcraft player. That would be Andrew Byrne, whom Joystiq’s WoW Insider noted is a shadow priest within the…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Icing on the Chief

Alright, we are back in business with the Kotaku ‘Shop Contest, and as I previewed last week, it brings an exploitable that should right the ship. Master Chief carving up his own head, even if it is a cake representation, is about a 9 of 10 on the shops-itself scale. Some of you may already…

The Angry Video Game Nerd’s Feature Film has an Official Trailer

The scourge of terrible retro games over the past six years, James Rolfe—the Angry Video Game Nerd—has been working on a feature-length film for some time; he announced plans for it back in 2010 and last year cut back production of the Angry Video Game Nerd series to focus on it. Yesterday, he uploaded the…

Sunday Comics: Assassin’s Critters

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. ActionTrip by Borislav Grabovic and Ure Paul published Nov. 5.—Read more of ActionTrip Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Nov. 5.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!!…