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UncategorizedWatch as Dubstep Ruins Your Favourite Video Game
Kotaku’s own stationary troubadour Kirk Hamilton has already shown you how some movies can be improved/ruined by the addition of dubstep. Now it’s time to see how video games can be improved/ruined by it. New games, old games, it doesn’t matter. These videos are taking a game, ripping its heart out, showing you a few…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 6, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallUnboxing the Mother Lode of Old PC Games
If you think unboxing new games is fun, wait until you see how awesome it is when a guy finds a box of old PC games and spends seven minutes taking them out of a single, larger cardboard box Space Quest. Man Hunter. Police Quest. Gold Rush. I can smell the musty manual paper through…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 5, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallAtari’s Founder Also Made Kick-Ass Robots
Nolan Bushnell, co-founder of Atari and also the man behind Chuck E. Cheese’s, won’t just be remembered for those two towering achievements. The guy also made robots. In 1981, having left Atari three years previously, Bushnell founded Catalyst Technologies, a venture capital group designed to help invest in technology start-ups. Catalyst in turn went onto…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 5, 2012 - Uncategorized
Total Recall Starts Now!
Time for your daily dose of video game history, Kotaku!
By Luke Plunkett Published April 5, 2012 - Uncategorized
What Are You Up To, Hillary?
Why hello there Kotaku. This is your Thursday night open-thread. Are you ready to do some serious chatting? Hope so! Here are some things gathered from around the internet for you to check out and enjoy. Ugh, I’m being too affected by a dumb Nike commercial – Curse you Don Draper! A new interview with…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedToday’s Most Entertaining Video Game Catfight is Now, Sadly, Over
The slinging-handbags fight that boiled up when Take-Two Interactive honcho Strauss Zelnick gave THQ six months to live has been, officially and semi-politely, resolved. Backing up, THQ has been in a bathtub full of trouble for much of this year. The publisher has shut down its kiddie division, fended off rumors it scrubbed its publishing…
By Owen Good Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedComparing The Witcher 2 on PC and Xbox 360
The Witcher 2, one of the most visually impressive PC games going around, is getting an Xbox 360 port. If you were wondering how many corners needed to be cut to get the game running on a six year-old console, here’s your answer. There’s a lot of fog, and the lighting effects have been all…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedBecause Why Shouldn’t a Toy Helicopter Contain a Nuclear Bomb
I’ve been working my way through the many, many, many games created during last weeend’s 2-day Peter Molydeux Game Jam. Now that there are videos, it’s much easier to share the ones that stand out, so yesterday I gave it a stab A list of five games feels woefully incomplete when placed against the insane…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedYou Don’t Have To Sell Me On Your Kickass Soundtrack, The World Ends With You
The World Ends With You was a game about shopping, so it makes sense that included a sales-pitch with its in-game music. Also, about being a teenager. And… playing Tin Pin games? And ghosts. And general confusion. It was a game about a lot of things, wasn’t it? Part Battle Royale, part Shibuya shopping-simulator… all…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedI Don’t Know If This Mass Effect Rap Is Awful or Amazing
I think I’ve been spending too much time on the internet. I laughed for pretty much this entire video, even though I’m fairly certain it’s the most objectively bad music I’ve heard in a long time. It’s to the point that I don’t really know what to make of it anymore, so I’m putting it…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedThe Great Anthems of Sport Belong in Video Games
Today I wrote about “Augusta,” the theme of The Masters Tournament television broadcast since 1980, and its inclusion in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13’s collector’s edition. The emotional violin, piano and guitar ballad is instantly recognizable, and you’re going to hear a lot of it this weekend as the tournament plays out on CBS. There…
By Owen Good Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedThe Spacious Beauty of the Machinarium Soundtrack
Holy heck, I loved Machinarium. I loved it for its art, and for its difficult puzzles and inventive hint system. And I loved it for Tomas Dvorak’s spacious, hugely evocative musical score. The track above is the first tune to play in the game, and it’s very much the moment when the game “reveals itself”…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 5, 2012 - Uncategorized
Some Video Games Are Better Without Music
I think it goes without saying that I love music in video games. But not all games require a soundtrack, and in fact, some games are better off without one. Music can be a distraction, an unnecessary layer of sound that pulls attention away from a game rather than enhancing it. Sometimes, there’s nothing to…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedGame of Thrones’ Rowdiest Song Gets a Celtic Rock Makeover
If there’s one sone more popular in the Game of Thrones universe than “Rains of Castamere,” it’s the rowdy, boisterous “The Bear and the Maiden Fair.” In bars, at weddings, in taverns and on the road, this song gets sung gets sung about as often as someone gets stabbed in the neck. So it was…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedAn Open Letter To The Creators Of Rock Band
Dear Harmonix, I do not ask for the stars, nor for the moon. I ask only for Call Me Maybe to be included in Rock Band Perhaps you’ve never considered putting this wonderful melody in your music games. Perhaps you’ve never even listened to it. I stand here today asking—nay, begging you to reconsider. Carly…
By Jason Schreier Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedSimCity 2000 Had Some Weirdo Music, Man
Every so often I’ll be going back through classic video game music and a game will sound completely different than I remembered. SimCity 2000 is one of those games. Listen to the music in this clip—it’s… really weird! The melodies are kind of haunting, odd dissonant notes up against lonely, floating basslines… looping over and…
By Kirk Hamilton Published April 5, 2012 -
UncategorizedThe Kotaku Mixtape Vol 5: All The Cheesy Game Music You Can Handle
There is a very sick part of me that loves cheesy music and movies. I blame it on being left alone with basic cable in the 1990’s: You couldn’t change the channel without hearing some schmaltzy song playing in the background! And so today on the Kotaku Mixtape, we’re celebrating at some of the cheesiest…
By Chris Person Published April 5, 2012 - Uncategorized
Meet the NFL’s New Uniforms—Same as the Old Uniforms?
Nike is the new maker of uniform apparel for the NFL, and yesterday saw the unveiling of the new threads for all 32 teams. And they’re … basically the same as last year’s for most teams in this tradition-bound sports institution. The Seattle Seahawks did get a makeover but, as the excellent Uni Watch by…
By Owen Good Published April 5, 2012 - Esports
Watch This Pro Gamer Go Bananas, Live, When He Misses His MLB 2K12 Perfect Game Bid
This is Justin Masterson, the Cleveland Indians’ opening day pitcher, being controlled by Richie Martinez, aka TeRRoRR of Major League Gaming, and the captain of Legacy, the pro Gears of War 2 team. Right now, he’s trying his hand at the million dollar prize in 2K Sports’ perfect game challenge for Major League Baseball 2K12,…
By Owen Good Published April 5, 2012