Culture Archives - Page 1496 of 1557

This Artist Is Paid To Draw Star Wars Pictures All Day Long. So Jealous.

If you’d asked me as a kid what my dream job would have been, getting paid to draw pictures of Star Wars would have been right up there. So yeah, Amy Beth Christenson has quite the day job. A former senior concept at Lucasarts for over a decade, she now works at Lucasfilm, and since…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 20, 2012

Culture

Aren’t You Guys A Little Short To Be Stormtroopers?

The art you’re seeing today comes from Daryl Mandryk, a freelance concept artist who has worked with EA on games like Need for Speed, Def Jam and SSX, and more recently on the Turok and Tron franchises. You may have seen him on Kotaku previously for that Tron stuff, but today’s gallery encompasses all of…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 19, 2012

CultureSplitscreen

Here’s a Dinosaur-Riding MMO You Can Play in Your Browser Right Now

Why are you sitting on your ass reading a website when you could be sitting on a dinosaur while wearing a cowboy hat and shooting lasers? Why do I even have to ask a question like this? Dino Storm is a free-to-play browser-based massively mutliplayer online role-playing game in which thousands of players wander about…

By Mike Fahey Published December 18, 2012

Culture

The Only Way Rotting Zombie Flesh Can Look “Pretty”

We’ve featured the art of Morgan Yon here on Kotaku not once, but twice. Today, a third time. Why? Because it’s too good not to, that’s why. This latest batch is from Yon’s work on ZombiU, Ubisoft’s Wii U launch title set in a post-apocalyptic London. In case you couldn’t tell it was post-apocalyptic London…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 18, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Toys R’ Us’ Christmas 1996 Catalogue Is A Historic Wonderland

Ah, 1996. The future, as the front cover of Toys R’ Us’ catalogue so boldly states, is here! Or…was there. And it was only really there for some of the systems involved (sorry, Sega Saturn!) I love looking at these things. Not for the general nostalgic rush, but to see the individual games highlighted. Of…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 17, 2012

Culture

The Knights of New Vegas

Feargus Urquhart was freaking out. He and his team at Obsidian Entertainment were about to take one of the biggest steps in the company’s history—launching a Kickstarter for a brand new video game—but something was wrong. The button to start up their crowdfunding page had turned grey. Nobody could click it. And the Kickstarter was…

By Jason Schreier Published December 17, 2012

Culture

The Week in Games: Little Things Mean a Lot

Small things stand out the most in December, when games publishing comes to nearly a dead stop in observance of the holidays. Tomorrow sees Street Fighter X Mega Man, a free, fan-developed crossover observing the 25th anniversary of the Blue Bomber. Tuesday offers downloadable content drops for Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Battlefield 3.…

By Owen Good Published December 16, 2012

Culture

Tell Us the 10 Comics for Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics Makeover [UPDATE]

Last week we opened up nominations for new additions to our Sunday Comics feature. Seven candidates satisfied the standards we put down for inclusion, so I am delighted to present them to you for your consideration in our 10-comic weekly feature. UPDATE [Dec. 16]: Voting on our new Sunday Comics page has concluded. We’ll announce…

By Owen Good Published December 16, 2012

Culture

Sunday Comics: If a Tree Falls …

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Legacy Control by Javis Ray published Dec. 11.—Read more of Legacy Control Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Dec. 10.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by…

By Owen Good Published December 16, 2012

Culture

This Week in the Business: ‘Retail’s Worst Nightmare is Coming True’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Retail’s worst nightmare is coming true.”—Former GamesIndustry.biz editor Rob Fahey, talking about the horrible year game retailing had in 2012 and what the future holds as digital takes over QUOTE | “We’ll be able to compete with any AAA game out…

Steve Peterson Published December 15, 2012

Culture

26 Terrific Pieces of Halo 4 Concept & Promotional Art

OK, so this should be the last batch of art from Halo 4 we showcase here on Fine Art. Hopefully. Maybe. While we’ve done a lot over the past few weeks, it’s hard to resist when the artists involved keep sharing their work, and that work keeps being some of the best you’ll see in…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 14, 2012

Culture

Paying Tribute to Some Movie Stars (And Vampires)

Joshua Black is a concept artist who has worked on games like the adaptations of Toy Story 3 and Cars 2 In the gallery above you’ll see a selection of his work, both professional and personal. If you like what you see, you can find more at his personal page and CGHub site

By Luke Plunkett Published December 13, 2012

Culture

It’s Surprising How Much Art Goes Into Making Halo’s Multiplayer Maps

You normally associate great concept art with the act of building a world and its characters. You know, singleplayer stuff. But a shooter’s multiplayer maps still need to be designed and dreamt up, and in cases like this the art can be just as stunning. The pieces you’re about to see are by Michael Pedro,…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 12, 2012

Culture

Halo 4’s Environments Can Be As Beautiful As They Are Brutal

We featured some of Thomas Scholes’ art back in August, but that was before he could show off all the work he did for Halo 4 Now he can. It’s incredible. I mean, not only is there beautiful art here, but he even made gifs of some of it You can check out more of…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 11, 2012

Culture

The Week in Games: Hibernation Begins

Fresh off its big evening in Los Angeles on Friday, The Walking Dead gets a retail release on Tuesday. It’s joined by free-to-play indie mecha title Hawken, downloadable content for Dishonored, and not much else as the games publishing business takes its customary extended holiday. Tuesday • The Walking Dead (PS3, 360) • 007 Legends…

By Owen Good Published December 9, 2012

Culture

Sunday Comics: Unlikely Hero

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. We’ve also got a vote coming up on making over the comics page. Look for news on that in an hour. Brawl In The Family by Matthew…

By Owen Good Published December 9, 2012

Culture

This Week in the Business: ‘There are Still Trolls Furiously Masturbating Under Internet Bridges.’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “There are still trolls furiously masturbating under internet bridges.”—Rachel Weber, journalist for GamesIndustry International, talking along with other journalists about whether the game industry has grown up QUOTE | “I think Nintendo becomes completely irrelevant.”—Michael Pachter, analyst with Wedbush Securities, talking…

By Steve Peterson Published December 8, 2012

Culture

Watch This Speed Run Take Down Dark Souls in 32 Minutes

From Software’s sequel will be remembered as one of the hardest games of this console generation. It took some people weeks—months, even—to make their way to the final battle of Dark Souls. This ruthless speedrun by Freddy ‘Thanatos’ Vasquez blows through it in about half an hour. There’s some skipping but it’s still a hypnotic…

By Evan Narcisse Published December 7, 2012

Culture

Crippled By Disease, This Artist Found a Way to Keep Drawing

Francis Tsai is an artist who has worked in comics, film, gaming (tabletop and card) and video games, for clients like EA, Rockstar, DC Comics, Eidos and Marvel. Widely-published, awarded and respected within the field, he’s one of the most talented artists going around. Sadly, Francis was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 2010, a…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2012

Culture

Halo 4 is a Lot of Things, But Beautiful? Sure, Why Not

A.J. Trahan is an artist we’ve featured here before, at least partially, for his work on Epic Mickey. But the stuff we’re going to look at today is a little grander in scale. Trahan was one of the 117,342 artists who worked on Halo 4, but in addition to his contributions to Microsoft’s latest blockbuster,…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 5, 2012