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Former NFL Player Recovers From Video Game Addiction, Returns to Pro Football
Former All-American defensive tackle Quinn Pitcock was, in 2007, a high profile rookie on the Indianapolis Colts’ roster. By 2008, he was out of the NFL, not because his body was damaged, but because he was addicted to playing Call of Duty No, seriously. Pitcock’s inability to stop playing his Xbox 360, in particular Activision’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012 - Uncategorized
Our Lady of the Mushroom Kingdom Turns Mario Into Religious Iconography
French artist Soasig Chamaillard has taken some standard images of Catholic worship – statues of Mary – and jazzed them up a little, adding a pop culture focus to something that was once purely spiritual. While some may rightly find these a little offensive (you have been warned), others will find them oddly charming. Except…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012 -
UncategorizedStar Wars Meets Total Recall in the Crossover of my Dreams
Oh man. You know that Skyrim x Star Wars fantasy helmet from yesterday? The one for a charity drive? Take a look at this one, from the same showcase. It’s the same premise: take Boba Fett’s helmet and do something else with it. Only this one’s gone a little more left-field and has blended the…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012 - Culture
The Beautiful Final Fantasy Art of Yoshitaka Amano
Say the name “Yoshitaka Amano” to a longtime Final Fantasy fan and they may well go all weird behind the eyes, before telling you how much better the games were when he was designing things. I don’t know about that – the current “buckles on EVERYTHING” aesthetic has its fans as well – but there’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012 - Uncategorized
Everything You Need to Know About the Wii U, at a Glance
Need to know the fundamentals of Nintendo’s upcoming console but don’t like, I don’t know, scrolling? Or looking at tables? This infographic, listing all the Wii U’s publicly-released specs, has you covered. It comes courtesy of Nintendo Europe, and breaks down both exterior components as well as some of the console’s internal specs. Wii U…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012 - Uncategorized
Awful Things Happen When You Try to Make a Video About Video Game Stereotypes
Anita Sarkeesian thought it would be a good idea to make a video series called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games. It would be about, well, the tropes developers resort to when portraying women in video games. Stuff like armour that doesn’t actually cover anything To help market the idea, she set up a Kickstarter…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012 - CultureTotal Recall
How Well do You Know Your 90s Video Games?
Reader Saybox has made this terrific timewaster of a browser game, which tests your 90s game knowledge by asking you to “name that tune”. There are 93 games in total listed, and if you’re stuck, there are a limited number of hints you can get. I have little shame in saying I could get less…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 11, 2012 - CultureTotal Recall
The Wii U’s Awesome Zombie Shooter is (Sort of) a Reboot of a 1986 PC Game
ZombiU was one of the surprises of E3, taking the boring old zombie shooter idea and using the Wii U’s controller to make something new. The thing is, ZombiU might not be as new as you think. While Ubisoft didn’t trumpet the fact (only mentioning it briefly to attendees waiting for their E3 press conference…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 11, 2012 -
UncategorizedI Want to Have Dinner with Terry Gross
Don’t you? Man, we would talk about the most interesting things, she would read excepts from my acclaimed book about jazz and video games, and I bet the food would be better than what I eat most days. In this video from a little while ago, Mike Birbiglia gets to live the dream, following the…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 11, 2012 - Uncategorized
Comparing Assassin’s Creed III on PS3 and Wii U
That might seem an odd thing to ask given we’re still months away from the game’s release, but thanks to the fact Ubisoft showed the same level at E3 on the two consoles, we can actually get a good (if early, and imperfect) look at how the Wii U is shaping up as far as…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 11, 2012 -
UncategorizedThe First Official LEGO Haunted House Arrives in September, and It Is Glorious
There has never been an official LEGO Haunted House before? That grievous oversight gets fixed this September with a $179.99 addition to the new LEGO Monster Hunters line. Behold its majesty Packed with more than 2,000 pieces including six ghastly minifigs, the “Haunted House” set is so massive (and expensive) it’ll only be available for…
By Mike Fahey Published June 11, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Amish Are Gonna Be Furious When They Play the New Family Guy Game
When the barns are done being raised and the butter churned, there’s nothing the Amish love doing more than settling down in front of their carved wooden televisions and acting out scenes from the latest video games. In Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse the joke’s on them, and boy will they be irate. Back…
By Mike Fahey Published June 11, 2012 -
UncategorizedFalling in Love With Falling in Games
“This isn’t flying. This is falling with style.” Gravity is a pernicious reminder of our physical limits. It’s the thing that keeps us rooted to the ground, it pulls our bodies downwards, makes us slow, ages us. The dream of flight, then, is a rejection of that limitation—see me? I can fly, man. I’m free,…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 11, 2012 - Uncategorized
How Dragon Age II Helped One Young Gamer Come To Terms With Coming Out of the Closet
When we get mired in arguing over whether or not games are harmful to impressionable young players, it’s easy to forget that sometimes, they can be amazingly inspirational, or even helpful. The BioWare blog regularly runs interviews with the writers, producers, and artists who make their games. This week, Dragon Age and Star Wars: The…
By Kate Cox Published June 11, 2012 -
UncategorizedPersona 4 Golden Takes Bonus Music Content to a New Level
I’m a big fan of the music of the Persona series. In fact, I like it so much that I’ll listen to it outside of the game. Here, Atlus’s Aram Jabbari walks us through the copious extras that P4 Golden will bundle in with the main game. I have to say, as a somewhat recently…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 11, 2012 - Uncategorized
Street Fighter Producer Says Capcom ‘Didn’t Even Acknowledge’ His Harrowing Hospital Visit
Popular Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinoro Ono says even after he worked himself to the point of exhaustion and took a terrifying trip to the hospital several months ago, Capcom put him back to work at breakneck speed. Speaking to Eurogamer’s Simon Parkin at Capcom’s Captivate event last month, Ono paints a grim picture of…
By Jason Schreier Published June 11, 2012 - Uncategorized
You’ll ‘Want To Protect’ The New, Less Curvy Lara Croft
In the past, Lara Croft didn’t need protecting. She was a fearless daredevil, a crack shot in short shorts with enough attitude to scare off a pack of bloodthirsty gorillas. But in the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot, things will be different. She hasn’t become that woman yet. And executive producer Ron Rosenberg says you’ll want…
By Jason Schreier Published June 11, 2012 - Uncategorized
Blizzard To Start Meting Out Sweet Ban-Justice to Diablo III Cheaters
Diablo III has its share of annoyances—lost progress due to connection difficulties, the delayed auction house, hackers stealing your gear… but the most annoying of all may well be cheaters. In an update on the Diablo III blog ominously titled “Cheating in Diablo III”, Blizzard has drawn a line in the sand. They’re about to…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 11, 2012 -
UncategorizedWe Are Scared Right Now: What Today’s Video Games Say About The Moment We Live In
A society leaves behind a pretty decent map of its psychology in the culture it creates. For example, the 1950s brought us a number of science fiction films that remain cultural touchstones to this day. And as any undergraduate student taking a Film Studies 101 course can tell you, a huge number of those movies…
By Kate Cox Published June 11, 2012