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  Making Mass Effect Adorable

  Artist Andy Helms, of “Dude a Day” and movie pixel art fame, has for a little while been drawing these cute little portraits of the cast and crew of Mass Effect 2 & 3 He’s probably not finished yet, but there’s enough here already to give you an idea of where he’s going with it…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012
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  Crysis 3’s First Trailer is a Little Short

  So don’t get too excited, OK? Actually, given it seems to be little more than a tease for a longer trailer, it’d help if you don’t get excited at all.

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012
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  Hugo Strange, Your Cosplay Experiments Sicken Me

  Arkham City villain Hugo Strange knows what truly terrifies men. It’s not darkness or blood. It’s horses. In loafers. Hugo Strange Has Some Weird Experiments Going On [Fashionably Geek]

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012
• Culture

  Beautiful Video Game Art, Direct From Korea

  You probably haven’t even heard of the games Korean artist Kang Jin has worked on, let alone played them. But that’s OK. These Fine Art posts aren’t about what the game is, but how nice the art is, and Kang’s art is nice Now employed at online gaming powerhouse Neowiz, Kang has also worked at…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012
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  ArmA 3 Still Looks Like 2012’s Sexiest War Game

  Call it Call of Duty fatigue, call it a longing appreciation for what Bohemia Interactive is doing with this series, but every time I see new footage from upcoming military sim ArmA 3 I get a little weaker around the knees. Military shooters, done well, are a guilty pleasure of mine, being a child of…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012
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  This Weekend, Everyone Can Play Diablo III. Even You. And You.

  Listen up. From noon on Friday, April 20 (Pacific) until 10:00am (Pacific) on Monday, April 23, Diablo III will be in open beta. Meaning anyone with a valid Battle.net account can get in on the action. To download the client now ahead of time, click here. Once downloaded and once the weekend rolls around, you’ll…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012
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  Fake Adventure Game Lands Fan a Double Fine Internship

  When German adventure game nut Marius Fietzek applied for an internship at Double Fine studios by, well, making an adventure game, it seemed a cute touch, though a little short on hard selection criteria. Not to worry! This is Double Fine we’re talking about, a studio run by Tim Schafer, who landed a job at…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012
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  CultureTotal Recall

  What Computer Animation Looked Like in 1971

  Us 21st century kids with our Unreal Engines and fancy computers think our animation is just so shit hot. And it is! But it had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere are these very humble beginnings. This 1971 Canadian documentary looks at the very early days of the practice of key frame animation. For…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2012
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  CultureTotal Recall

  The Man Bringing Classic Arcade Cabinets Back

  The 80’s were an awesome and bizarre time for arcades. Nobody knows this better than Gary Vincent, owner and operator of the American Classic Arcade Musuem in New Hampshire. For the past 3 years, he’s been shipping 30 arcade cabinets to PAX East in an attempt to recapture the feel of those classic 1980’s arcades.…

  By Chris Person Published April 19, 2012
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  CultureTotal Recall

  Those Dudes in Castlevania are Pretty Intense

  Unlike the Konami of today, which relies almost entirely on milking a couple of key franchises and selling mobile games in Japan, the Konami of the 1980s was a more exciting company. You could say, in fact, they were jammin

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012
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  CultureTotal Recall

  There was a Good Super Mario Bros. Movie. Let’s Watch it!

  When someone talks about the Super Mario Bros. movie, you’d be forgiven for assuming they’re talking about the 1993 live-action flick starring Bob Hoskins. But there are actually two Super Mario Bros. movies, the first one – a feature-length anime – having been released in Japan in 1986. It was called スーパー マリオ ブラザーズ ピーチ姫救出大作戦!…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012
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  “After A Few Months, I Realized She Was Eating Pancakes For Every Meal”

  Hello, Kotaku! It’s almost the weekend, and that is just groovy by me. I hope you’ve had a good thursday, and are ready to get your open thread on. It’s gonna be hot! So hot! Here are some things for you to read and maybe gab about. “The State Home for Manic PIxie Dream Girls”…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Atlus Publishing Vanillaware’s Gorgeous Dragon’s Crown

  Dragon’s Crown, an action-RPG from boutique Japanese developers Vanillaware (Odin Sphere), has been missing in action since its E3 debut last year. If you were thinking that meant the game was dead, though, you’re wrong! Atlus just signed on to publish it on both PS3 and Vita, and it’ll be out next year.

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 19, 2012
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  Iowa Journalism School Adds Video Games Writing to Curriculum

  This fall, the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication will offer a course in writing about video games and reporting on the industry. “My idea is that everyone can learn from video games,” Kyle Moody, the course’s instructor and a teaching assistant in the journalism school, told The Daily Iowan, the independent…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2012
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  Who’s Left for Kratos to Kill in God of War: Ascension?

  Game Informer rounds up Kratos’ hit list—of Olympians—over all the games in the God of War series. That figure stands at 23. (Obviously, this carries a huge spoiler alert). Who’s left for him to kill? [Game Informer]

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2012
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  Report: Prey 2 Studio Hasn’t Worked on the Game Since November

  There’s a good reason Prey 2 has been delayed to 2013, as announced today. It’s because its development studio hasn’t worked on the game since November, according to an anonymous source speaking to Shacknews. The reason for that? Human Head, the developer “was not happy with the terms its contract with [publisher] ZeniMax,” reports Shacknews,…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2012
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  The Man Who’s Mastered the Art of the Ridiculously Impressive YouTube Music Tribute

  This past Monday, I got hipped to this video by FreddieGredde, YouTube tribute-artist extraordinaire. I’ve seen a lot of videos that I kind of describe as “Guy With Instruments Playing Video Game Music” (GWIPVGM) videos—they can be great, or they can be dull. They can be as charming as Pomplamoose, or as annoying as… well,…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Antônio Carlos Jobim, The Great Romantic Melodist

  “I’d like to make a request.” (A woman has approached the bandstand. She’s smiling.) “Do you guys know ‘The Girl from Ipanema? I love Bossa Nova.” You and the rest of the band are midway through your second set at this wedding; this is your first request. The ceremony is over, and everyone has moved…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Introducing the Melodic Mailbag

  I’ve been having a great time writing about music and games for you guys every Thursday. I’ve also been happy to hear from many of you about different music you’re into, what you’d like to see covered here, and to generally nerd out about all things musical. So I asked myself, why not make some…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012
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  Rest In Peace, Levon Helm

  It’s a funny thing, my relationship with The Band. They were a band that I wasn’t super aware of for a long, long time—that era of rock was something of which I was mostly ignorant for most of my years growing up. A few years after college, I watched Martin Scorsese’s phenomenal film The Last…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published April 19, 2012