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Star Trek’s Intro, Reborn for the 21st Century
One of the biggest problems I’ve had with Star Trek over the years is that, recent movie aside, it’s so dorky. So old-fashioned. This re-imagined intro sequence, done by artist Shawn Sheehan, flips that to its advantage, crafting a clip that revels in its retro chic so much it nearly drowns in it. And it…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 25, 2012 -
Prototype Movie Trailer Isn’t What You Think It Is
There’s a movie coming out next year called The Prototype. It stars a “man” in a hoodie who is on the run, being hunted for his extraordinary powers. Combine the plot with the name and you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s a movie about Activision’s Prototype series. But it’s not. The Prototype the movie is…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 25, 2012 -
Honest Game Reviews are the Best Game Reviews
If a retailer reviewed the games they were selling, would you trust them? Probably not, but then, most retailers aren’t like Australia’s JB Hi-Fi. Known here as a humongous, cut-price seller of anything that can turn on or be put in something that turns on, many JB managers hire students or other forms of young…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 25, 2012 -
Tanooki Suit, Frog Suit…Luigi Suit?
Um. This is pretty gross. Dann Matthews [Tumblr]
By Luke Plunkett Published June 25, 2012 -
You Won’t Believe How This Zelda Picture Was Made
Take a good, close look at this beautiful painting based on The Legend of Zelda. It looks like it was done using PhotoShop, right? Maybe a speed painting on a tablet? Nope. It was done on a Nintendo 3DS. Using the simple art program Colors 3D!. That tiny screen, that fat stylus…to have come up…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 25, 2012 -
About Time a Video Game Let You Freak Out and Flip a Table
Flipping tables. It’s about as perfect a rage moment as you can get. And now, in WoW’s upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion, you’ll be able to do it in a video game. While there’s actually a Japanese arcade game centred around this very premise, it’s a Japanese arcade game. This will be a little more…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 24, 2012 -
Now THIS is Okami in HD
After years of people asking, Capcom and Sony are finally releasing Okami in high definition on the PS3. While we’ve seen some screens of the project, they still look a little…jaggy. Maybe not as “HD” as people were hoping. Definitely not as gorgeous as these screens. Duncan Harris, of Dead End Thrills, has fired the…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 24, 2012 -
Is This a Photo of Heath Ledger, or a Joker Action Figure?
OK, so the over-sized fabric and stitching on the jacket kind of give it away, but man. Whoever is doing the modelling at Hong Kong toy company Hot Toys needs a round of applause. The likeness here is terrifying Priced at $275, and due out in December, this Joker piece – that is actually a…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 24, 2012 -
There Are No More Heroes When Cosplay is This Amazing
Hey, whaddya know, it’s cosplay superstar Omi Gibson, kicking this week’s round-up off with some blood-soaked dress-ups based on No More Heroes. Joining her is a cute little Zelda couple, some Black Widow and Tekken. There’s even some Arrietty cosplay. Because, you know. That movie was adorable. Shut up. To see the larger pics in…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 24, 2012 -
These Guys Went to a Tunisian Desert to Save a Star Wars Film Set
The Lars family homestead, last seen in the newer Star Wars films, is one of the more iconic locations in the Star Wars universe. It’s where Luke Skywalker’s journey begins and, from a certain point of view, it’s where Obi-Wan Kenobi’s comes to an end. Sadly, the set used in some of the films has…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 24, 2012 -
Pixel Uniforms Made American Soldiers Easier to Shoot
In 2004, American Army personnel were issued with a bold new camouflage design, one based not on wavy woodland patterns, but pixels. It looked cool in a photo, but hasn’t worked so well where it counts: on the battlefield. The Universal Camouflage Pattern, or UCP, is a grey-green uniform that was supposed to allow soldiers…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 24, 2012 -
Programming Note
Ordinarily, I don’t like to announce when I’m skipping town for 10 days, as the meth-heads tend to come over and borrow shit. Permanently. However, as all of said shit is in that truck you see above, and I’m going to be in the cab, I don’t have much problem telling you I am on…
By Owen Good Published June 24, 2012 -
Xbox Live Takes Down Fez‘s Game-Breaking Patch
No sooner than they released a patch for Fez, the game’s creators discovered a game-breaking filesave corruption and warned everyone not to accept the title update. Microsoft has now taken the step of removing the patch altogether, meaning people who didn’t get the memo about the patch won’t find their game bricked by it. Polytron,…
By Owen Good Published June 24, 2012 -
Longtime Final Fantasy Producer Stepping Down, Health Reasons Cited
Hiromichi Tanaka, one of the earliest members of Square, with producer credits on Final Fantasy XI, Xenogears and Chrono Cross, will be leaving Final Fantasy XI and Square Enix altogether, reports Famitsu. An interview at Vanafest 2012 revealed that Tanaka has a “major illness” (this according to Tanaka himself) and that led him into his…
By Owen Good Published June 24, 2012 -
Packing Up the Pantheon
Tomorrow I’m hitting the road for a cross-country move, the sixth time I’ve driven the width of the nation since 2001. As I was boxing up my video games it occurred to me that some of them will have made five of those journeys by the time I reach North Carolina on Friday. All of…
By Owen Good Published June 24, 2012 -
An Advocate Who Believed in His Community, not Just the Games They Bought
Seth Killian’s last day at Capcom was Friday. Community managers and PR types become well known to our readers because they’re so frequently quoted, but their departures typically don’t rate a news item because it usually amounts to no more than insider talk. Seth, whose title was “Strategic Marketing Director, Online & Community” wasn’t really…
By Owen Good Published June 24, 2012 -
A Postmortem—or an Autopsy—on Steel Battalion‘s Failures
Kirk Hamilton, the Kotaku features editor, appeared with Anthony Carboni on revision3’s New Challenger to discuss the shambling pile of fail that is Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, why scathing reviews differed so much from optimistic previews, and what this means for core games development on Kinect. The segment is about 10 minutes long. [YouTube]
By Owen Good Published June 24, 2012 -
PC Code Points to Five-Deck DLC Plans for Magic: The Gathering
PC gamers inspecting the game code for Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, which released this week, found references to five additional decks that seem likely to be released as downloadable content later. Top Tier Tactics has all of the details. [h/t WiNG]
By Owen Good Published June 24, 2012 -
America Scared of Iran’s Video Games, Says Iran
Iran’s mastery of the Unity engine may not have gotten the attention of the United Nations Security Council, but games like Gando (pictured above) sure have spooked ‘Murica, according to Iranian government sources quoted in a report published by Iran. Mokhber Dezfouli, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, said video games became…
By Owen Good Published June 24, 2012