These Video Games Aren’t Just Art, They’re Masterpieces

Guillaume Colomb has taken ten classic works of art and made them a little more current, dropping the likes of Mario, Pac-Man and Princess Peach into the paintings. Some may be a little inappropriate, but that Goya-meets-Shadow of the Colossus piece looks like it’s always been that way. Video Games Get Arty [Guillaume Colomb via…

Why Kotaku Didn’t Save a Japanese Fishing Village

In the years that Kotaku’s been on the internet, the site’s done a wide array of things. One thing it’s never done is save an entire Japanese fishing village. Late last week, an Associated Press wire story regaled readers with the story of a small village, called Fudai, in northeastern Japan that survived the tsunami.…

Why, Exactly, Do People Enjoy Watching StarCraft Games?

Most people just aren’t interested in watching video games. They’d rather be playing them. So why is strategy juggernaut StarCraft such an exception to the rule? Information Science phd students Gifford Cheung and Jeff Huang sought to answer this in their paper Starcraft from the Stands: Understanding the Game Spectator, which looks at what makes…

Here’s What Civilization On Facebook Looks Like

We gave you a brief rundown on how Civilization World, the upcoming Facebook version of the classic PC strategy series, worked the other day. Now you can see for yourself in this trailer. Those expecting the same game, only running in a browser with a Facebook logo on the top, will be sorely disappointed. Those…

The Atari Games That Became Comic Book Heroes

While we normally associate multimedia cash-ins as a recent phenomenon, the practice of spinning games off into other mediums dates back decades. One of the earliest examples of this is the Atari Force line of comic books. While most adaptations of games are expected to be based on the events or characters in the actual…

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

Folks, if you’d like to talk amongst yourselves about a variety of topics, video game related or not, this is your shot. Tonight’s open thread is all yours, so let’s make the best of it. Should be a crazy week, with Mr. Brian D. Crecente here in Los Angeles prepping for the big E3 2011…

Playing One Hour of Dead Island, The Zombie Apocalypse of My Dreams

Techland’s Dead Island reminds me of a recurring nightmare, an unsettling dream of helplessness in which my body feels too fatigued and feeble to fight off nameless, faceless attackers. And beyond a cinematically inventive trailer, that’s my favorite thing about Dead Island so far. Playing Dead Island, an exotic, violent, zombie-infested role-playing game, from the…

Sony Thinks Your PSN Pain and Suffering is Worth Up to $104

Sony is sorry it got hacked and that you’ve been locked-out of the Playstation Network for over three weeks. Now it would like to buy your forgiveness. Exactly how much the company is willing to part with depends largely upon what kind PSN-user you were previous to the outage, and which of the two Sony…

We’ll Forgive Another Take on Catherine‘s Scantily-Clad Actress for Not Being Good at the Game

Launching day-and-date with Atlus’ sexy Persona spin-off Catherine, Another Take on Catherine is 70 minutes of Japanese gravure idol CoCo demonstrating how much she looks like the game’s title character both with and without clothes. Just don’t ask her to play the game. Another Take on Catherine is one of the latest releases from Studio…

Dragon Age Legends: Remix 01 Delivers Hack-and-Slash in a Flash

Dragon Age Legends developer EA2D turned over all of the assets to its Facebook strategy role-playing game to acclaimed Flash game developer Pixelante, and the action-packed Dragon Age Legends: Remix 01 is what they got back. Pixelante’s Evan Miller isn’t one to create slow, Facebook-style strategy role-playing experiences. EA2D already made that game, so when…

Lego Sets Launched Into Space

Hide Your Wallets! Valve Now Doing Steam Deals Daily

No stranger to sales, Valve is now committing to “a new 24-hour deal, every single day” via its Steam digital distribution service. Valve christens the daily deal with Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, currently 75% off.

Get ‘First Access’ to Duke Nukem Forever: The Demo on June 3

Duke Nukem Forever is still (*fingers crossed*) on schedule to release June 10 internationally, June 14 in North America. But a select few will get their hands on Duke’s long-awaited adventure a bit earlier. On June 3, Gearbox Software and 2K Games will unleash the Duke Nukem Forever demo on the world, but only to…

Officer Down

L.A. ACCIDENTAL | Deleted scene from my play-through of L.A. Noire’s Fallen Idol case.(Screenshot by Stephen Totilo) Mass Effect Fans Worry That Expanded Gay Options Will Create Inconsistencies, Alter Canon Mass Effect developer Casey Hudson’s announcement less than a day ago that same-sex romances would be given fuller and more explicit articulation in Mass Effect…

Best Buy’s Giving Away L.A. Noire DLC at Midnight

According to a Best Buy circular, the first 16 lucky gamers who line up to get their copies of L.A. Noire at midnight tonight will get access to a yet-to-be-announced DLC case, The Nicholson Electroplating Arson Case. [Joystiq]

A Doom Tribute That Also Kind of ‘Fixes’ Doom‘s Box Art

This is not a knock on the original, iconic Doom box art, gorgeously illustrated by the late great Don Ivan Punchatz. This is just a tribute. But some may consider it a “fix” of the artwork that graced id’s early ’90s shooter. This is the work of “Agent Scarlet,” an artist we’ve featured more than…

Action-RPG Darkspore Is or Was Coming to Xbox 360, PS3

In his resume, level-designer Jordan Patz claims to have “worked with Maxis to modify Darkspore for release on Xbox/PS3.” Wasn’t that just a PC game? The résumé has since been modified: it now links to a YouTube video of a flying cat. Very Suspicious. [joystiq]

Report: Forza World, Dance Central 2 and Kinect Games for ‘The Hardcore’ At E3 2011

Microsoft may have had some of its Kinect-heavy E3 2011 showing spoiled a bit early by a Eurogamer report, which pegs “at least 10 non-sequel Kinect games” for the show, including some aimed squarely at the “hardcore” Xbox 360 crowd. Eurogamer‘s unnamed sources point to reveals of Kinect Sports 2 and Dance Central 2, a…

Before Playing Gotham City Impostors Read Batman: Impostors

Want to get more out of Monolith Productions upcoming downloadable multiplayer game Gotham City Impostors? Then you’ll want to read Batman: Impostors, an epic four-issue story arc that first appeared in Detective Comics last year. Gotham City Impostors is a cunning way to deliver a multiplayer Batman experience without having to worry about who plays…

Mass Effect Fans Worry That Expanded Gay Options Will Create Inconsistencies, Alter Canon

Mass Effect developer Casey Hudson’s announcement less than a day ago that same-sex romances would be given fuller and more explicit articulation in Mass Effect 3 has unsurprisingly ignited a spark among many followers of the franchise. In previous Mass Effect games, only female versions of series hero Commander Shepard have had access to homosexual…