• Culture

  Some Concept Art From The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

  If you buy the expensive collector’s edition of the new Elder Scrolls game, you’ll get a 200-page art book full of designs and sketches showing how a video game world was born. If you’re cheap and just want to see some of the art, well, you’d better look here then. There are four excerpts from…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  The Greatest Commercial Ever for Games That Sadly Never Existed

  When Italian TV wants to go all out and make an awesome commercial, it goes all out In this clip for Fox Italy’s retro channel, The A-Team meets Pac-Man, Wonder Woman meets Mario and by the time it’s done basically every iconic video game and TV show from the 70s and 80s has bashed heads,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  We Can Only Hope Mirror’s Edge 2 is as Cool as This Video

  Biting Elbows, an “indie punk rock” band from Moscow, are obviously big fans of DICE’s Mirror’s Edge, because this video to their track The Stampede is a three-minute love letter to the game. It starts a little slow, and beyond the first-person stuff doesn’t give much away early on, but the first time you see…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  Does the Most Wanted Game of Holiday 2011 Surprise You?

  Nielsen, the American market research people, has a list of the top twenty games that are the most anticipated titles of 2011’s holiday season. According to this consumer tracking survey, the top twenty games consist of titles going on sale between August and November for the PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii. Nielsen interviewed 5,000…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 30, 2011
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  Meet Your 2011 Big Buck Hunter World Champion

  Of all the niches in video gaming, there are few I find more fascinating than players of the arcade version of Big Buck Hunter Why? Because I normally associate it with smoky saloons, men who have killed things and the stench of spilled bourbon, three things that normally (at least together) don’t go with video…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  Ladies Talk Video Games. Then Screw on Camera.

  In Geek Girls, adult video game actresses talk about their favorite games. After that, they do other things “I’m into it because I don’t know how not to be,” said Misti Dawn, one of the film’s stars, in an official statement (via Banana Syrup Company). “Gaming was engraved in me at a young age. I…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 30, 2011
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  Do You Like Darksiders Enough to Spend $500 On This Statue?

  Remember that Darksiders statue that was first unveiled all the way back in July 2010? It’s finally finished and ready to ship. In Q4 2011. For fans of the game (rich fans, at least), it looks to be worth the wait, both War and his trusty steed Ruin looking great, especially with all those badass…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  Will There be a Limit to Vita Downloads Over 3G?

  The PS Vita is getting an array of memory card sizes. They range from a 4GB Memory Card (¥2,200 or US$29) to 32GB Memory Card (¥9,500 or $124). With that in mind, will Sony be restricting download size? Initially, yes. According to Sony, 3G downloads will be restricted to 20MB a pop, but that could…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 30, 2011
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  There’s a Little Pokémon and World of Warcraft In Forza 4

  I love it when games are inspired by games that are nothing like them. Take sports games, and how they’re up to their eyeballs in RPG mechanics like character creation and levelling. Or driving games. Gran Turismo 5 is inspired by elevator music, for example, while it seems Forza 4 —according to Turn 10 creative…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  Sometimes Buses Just Want To Geek Out, Too

  Ninety-nine percent of buses are boring. But there’s always one one percent of them too cool for school. This bus is one of those. Wrapped in Fate/zero, this Tokushima City bus is for upcoming nerd event Asobi Machi. Fate/zero is a light novel that’s the result of a collaboration between Type Moon and game developer…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 30, 2011
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  A History of Nintendo Handhelds On Beautiful Little Posters

  Club Nintendo goodies, rewards offered by the company for serious and long-serving fans, aren’t usually that great (outside Japan, at least). But these Nintendo handheld cards, celebrating 31 years of portable goodness, they’re great Available for 300 coins, there are 12 in the set, each individual piece measuring around 6×4 inches. They even come with…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  Busy Next Month? Spend Time with Nightmare-Inducing Anime Chicks.

  Maid cafes are a dime a dozen in Tokyo geek mecca Akihabara. They’re totally normal. Cafe t.t.t. might be in Akihabara, but it’s zip codes are way from normal. Cafe t.t.t. is a kigurumi cafe. Literally, “Kigurumi” is a mash of the Japanese word “kiru” (“to wear”) and “nuigurumi” (“plush toy”). In kigurumi cosplay, people—often…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published September 30, 2011
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  This LEGO Gears of War Gun Actually Shoots. And Chainsaws.

  LEGO builder extraordinare PLUM B has built this life-sized replica of a Gears of War Lancer rifle that doesn’t just look the part, it shoots the part as well. In the video above, you can see that you can slide magazines in. Then cock the rifle. Then actually shoot at stuff. And when the Locusts…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  Gabe Newell Likes Origin More Than I do

  Valve boss Gabe Newell has, like many of us these past few months, taken EA’s new Origin service for a spin. Hearing his thoughts on the thing are interesting, though, because he runs the company that runs Origin’s dominant competitor. “I think it does some things well” Newell told PC Gamer. “I think there are…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  Here’s DotA 2’s Juggernaut

  Freshly added to the game (well, its beta), here’s the Juggernaut from Valve’s upcoming DotA 2 He looks like one of the guys outta From Dust. If they grew a pair instead of just standing around begging for help all the time. What, you need me to do everything? Make a sword and do it…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  CultureTotal Recall

  The Four Stages of Reboot Grief

  Today’s Total Recall won’t be about video game history. It’s about dealing with what happens when video game history is dredged back to the present and coated in bright pink lipstick. EA’s Syndicate is but the latest in an ever-growing list of games that are reboots of old franchises. And they’re reboots in the strictest…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 30, 2011
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  The Applications of Assassin’s Creed‘s Hook Blade Seem Familiar

  A means of aerial transport jutting from your right hand, capable of launching you on shoulder-dislocating rides above a city in turmoil? Why, where have we heard that one before? Unlike BioShock: Infinite‘s skyline wheels, though, the hook-blade itself has an offensive purpose which, more or less, means you can counter-kill with it. Yes, you…

  By Owen Good Published September 29, 2011
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  I Could Never Stay Mad at You, NBA 2K12

  NBA 2K12 has had a rough couple of weeks. A lot of the goodwill built up in August for the game’s nostalgic “NBA’s Greatest” mode was washed out by news of lockout-frozen rosters and repackaged premium DLC. And then Kurtis Blow comes up over the speakers, and Dikembe wags his finger at you, and you…

  By Owen Good Published September 29, 2011
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  BioWare’s Cruel, Accidental Tease For Star Wars Fans [Update]

  A ton of people on the mailing list for BioWare’s Old Republic MMO received an email earlier today that basically said “hey, how’s that beta treating you?”. Even though they weren’t in the beta. Cue an instantaneous freak-out as millions of voices (well, thousands) cried out in terror (well, excitement) and were suddenly silenced, users…

  By Luke Plunkett Published September 29, 2011
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  Full House Poker Isn’t Getting a New Fall Season, but Isn’t Going Away Either

  The leaves have turned and still Full House Poker‘s online “Texas Heat” tournament is in day 119 (and counting) of its summer season on Xbox Live, stoking fears that the game will head the way of spiritual predecessor 1 vs. 100 Microsoft, according to XBLA Fans, seems content to just let the summer Texas Heat…

  By Owen Good Published September 29, 2011