Watch as Dead Keyboards Become Portraits of Celebrities

My last keyboard that broke, I gave it to my kid. It’s now being used for tea parties. The one before that ended up straight in the bin. How wasteful I’m being! Instead of disposing of dead hardware, I could have been recycling it all this time, turning the keys into awesome portraits of celebrities…

When The Future of Video Games Was…Tape Decks

This is a commercial for Hitachi’s H2 model of the MSX, Microsoft’s unsung hero of Japan’s gaming past. The soothing tones, the brilliant whites, the computer-generated animal…this is the future, people. The distant, star-gazing future! Where video games are so advanced they’re sold not on discs, or downloaded over communications networks, but put on cassette…

Miyamoto’s Worst Game Idea Ever. Or Maybe The Best. Not Sure.

In 1989, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii for an interview. The two spoke about practically everything, from game design to their latest titles (like Link to the Past) to the future, but what I found most interesting was the pair’s ideas on making games about teaching. Both had…

This Old-School RPG Might Give You One More Reason To Buy A Vita

Here’s another look at Dragon Fantasy Book II, out for PlayStation 3 and Vita early next year. As you can see, it’s very SNESish. Gotta love that fake Mode 7

Star Wars, Dead Space, Transformers, This is Some of the Best Nerd Art on the Planet

Ryan Church is about as close to the top of the concept art world as you can get. He’s worked on Star Wars movies. He’s working on the new Star Trek movies. He’s worked on Avatar, Transformers and John Carter. In addition to all that movie stuff, though, he’s also found time to lend a…

We Are One Step Closer To Real Metal Gears

Continuing a process that began back in the 1960s, the United States has this week taken us one step closer to a world in which Metal Gears cease to be science fiction and start being part of the military’s everyday life. Boston Dynamics, whose military robots even look like Metal Gears, this week released video…

Eidos Developer Fired Over Murder Comments

Blake Marsh spent four years working for Eidos Montreal, the team behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution. He was fired this week. Not for anything he did while on the job, but for stuff he said on Facebook. As the latest reminder that anyone with a full-time job had best watch what they say on a…

The Best Crime Show No One Watched

Remember Terriers? Man, that show was great. (Too bad about the terrible name.) In the annals of dead-before-their-time TV shows, Terriers is right up there with Firefly, for my money. And hey, as it turns out, both of those shows had amazing flashback episodes written by Mr. Tim Minear! Yeah, the guy who wrote “Out…

That Harry Potter-like Spellbook for PlayStation Move Is On Sale in November

Wonderbook; The Book of Spells, the not-really-Harry-Potter-but-endorsed-by-J.K.-Rowling-so-you-think-it-is bundle of game and hardware, is gonna hit shelves in November, Sony said earlier today. Sony’s selling it in two forms: The Wonderbook: Book of Spells Move Bundle, for $79.99, which comes with the game, a peripheral, and the PlayStation Eye camera and Move controller that makes the…

Report: G4 As We Know It Is As Good As Gone

According to a report on Variety, G4 – one of the only TV stations in the world with a “geek” mandate – will be “rebranded” early next year, resulting in a change of focus and possibly a change of name as well. In other words, it’ll be an almost entirely new/different channel. NBCU, the station’s…

One Last Dragon

Hey, maybe you’re playing some more Skyrim lately. Maybe you’ve even downloaded the latest DLC, Hearthfire? Seems like a good enough excuse to share this amazing image by Dead End Thrills. It’s part of his “Parting Shots” series, which he’s put up to bid Skyrim farewell. Jason’s been playing Hearthfire, so check out his list…

League of Legends has introduced a new streaming integration and curation service. Think of it as LoL TV.

Let’s Listen To Some Bitchin’ Music From Torchlight II

In just a few short weeks, Torchlight II will finally come out. I’m looking forward to digging in to Runic’s dungeon-crawler for a number of reasons, and of course, the question of “What can they get right that Diablo III got wrong?” is at the top of my mind. But one of the very coolest…

This Amazing Harmonica Player Gets The Halo Composer’s Endorsement

It’s always fun to hear composers talk about their favorite musicians. This past weekend at PAX, I sat down with a group of the biggest names in AAA video game music to talk about all things musical and video games. Fresh from their panel at PAX, I chatted with Dragon Age composer Inon Zur, Assassin’s…

A Game Design Legend, Still Chasing The Video Game Musical Of His Dreams

Someday, somewhere, someone will make a video game musical. Legendary game designer Warren Spector hopes it will be him. His latest game, Epic Mickey 2, is something of a video game musical, but it’s still not a realization of Spector’s musical ambitions. I sat down with Spector last weekend in Seattle to talk about Epic…

New Getups Now Available for Free in NCAA 13

NCAA Football 13‘s “Uniform Store,” meant to deliver the latest variants on the college football getups you see on the TV, finally has some threads to offer. Twenty-three uniforms are now available through the feature—free—although it is not yet accessible through the PlayStation 3. Teams included in the first batch of free uniforms include alternate…

This Is How They Sell Assassin’s Creed III To Football Fans

Readers who, like me, get most of their TV on a recorded delay may not have seen this ad starting to pop up on their local airwaves just yet. So here it is. It premiered during a football game. This Assassin’s Creed 3 commercial doesn’t exactly give the redcoats a badly-needed break, but it does…

Madden‘s Master of Fake Twitter Must Tell a Story Deeper Than 140 Characters

I knew what was coming after I lost to Green Bay, 24-17, in Week 11 of my first season in Madden NFL 13. It was the same kind of thing that came in Week 2 after a gutwrenching 24-20 loss at home to San Francisco, in which I was cited for the lack of a…

Sony Online Games To Start Letting Players Add Their Own Items To The World, And Make Money Off Them Too

Over the past couple of years, Sony Online Entertainment has transitioned all of their MMORPGs into free-to-play games, relying on microtransactions and a cash shop to make their money. Now, they’ve announced a plan that would let players make real-world money from SOE’s cash stores, too. The Player Studio will allow players—for now, of EverQuest…

They Really Need To Make Mirror’s Edge Online

In today’s first-person platforming episode of the TAY-powered Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Fernando Jorge thinks that EA should put together an online version of Mirror’s Edge. I’m into it, Fernando. Until today’s post I hadn’t realized that Mirror’s Edge online would be great. EA should go ahead and make ME2 a primarily online game.…