Culture Archives - Page 1512 of 1557

One Does Not Simply Draw Into Mordor

Ilya Nazarov works as an artist and illustrator at Bethesda. Before that, he’s worked at places like Warner Bros. and Nintendo, and has provided art for series like Metroid Prime, Donkey Kong, Tribes and, as you may have guessed by that headline, Lord of the Rings (in this case, War in the North). Ilya’s fantasy…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 20, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

1981 Video Explains Activision’s “Overnight Success”

Activision may be heralded/hated as one of the world’s biggest video game companies today, but in 1981, it was a much smaller company. A very different company, in a very different time. Which is the only reason I can think of to explain this bizarrely wonderful promo video the company put together in 1981, which…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 19, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Serve the Public Trust. Protect the Innocent. Smash up Old Arcade Games.

Hey, RoboCop, you’ve got mechanical arms and a gun in your leg. Why’d you have to go and smash a perfectly good arcade game? And it was pretty good. If you couldn’t make it out beneath all the broken glass and criminal hair, it’s Sly Spy, Data East’s 1989 side-scroller that took more than a…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 19, 2012

Culture

The Future is Either Clean and Glorious, or Dead and Busted…

Artist Dan Blomberg has worked with just about everyone who’s anyone at the top of the concept art food chain, at least as far as video games are concerned. From studios with a history of investing heavily in their own internal talent (Eidos) to firms who do nothing but concept art (Massive Black), Blomberg has…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 19, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Atari’s Awesome Arcade Prototypes

Companies like Sega and Namco tend to get all the credit when it comes to weird and wonderful arcade cabinets, but even all the way back in the 1970s, Atari was trying its hardest to be different. To that end, it came up with a number of prototypes for cabinets that went a little further…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 18, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Microsoft Already Has a Computer Called “Surface”, and it Makes Board Games Look Awesome

The unveiling earlier today of Microsoft’s new “Surface” tablets was a strange one for me. Not because of the nature of the product, but for its name. It’s one Microsoft has been using for years, only, for an entirely different device. One that, for a while there, we thought could change the way we played…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 18, 2012

Culture

Gods and Heroes

Two heavy-hitters step up on Tuesday—Civilization V and LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. Others of note include the Avengers Chronicles suite of four Marvel-themed tables in Pinball FX2 and Marvel Pinball, and Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Monday • Pokemon Conquest (DS) Tuesday • Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles (PSN) • Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods…

By Owen Good Published June 17, 2012

Culture

Sunday Comics: Chews Your Poison

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. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published June 12.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published June 14.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…

By Owen Good Published June 17, 2012

Culture

This Week in the Business: ‘“The Next Generation of Consoles Will be the Last.’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “The next generation of consoles will be the last, and they should be.”—David Jaffe, designer of God of War and Twisted Metal, talking about how consoles are going the way of the dinosaurs STAT | 5 years—Maximum jail term in South…

Steve Peterson Published June 16, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Before Journey, There Was A Game About The Rock Band Journey

Ha, ha, Journey reviewer. You think you’re so clever, inserting Journey lyrics into your game review. Well as it turns out, there once was an arcade game based on the band Journey. Well, it was something of a minigame collection, telling a somewhat awesome story of the band reuniting with their instruments, do a show,…

By Kirk Hamilton Published June 16, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

A Super-Spy Intro Worthy of Solid Snake

Since I had not played Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater until recently, I had also not seen its introductory credits sequence and accompanying movie. How? I ask you. How had I not seen this? This song, performed by Cynthia Harrell, was a classic almost from the moment the game was released. When the song…

By Kirk Hamilton Published June 15, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

This Video Digs Into Our Love Affair With 8-Bit Art

You don’t have to be a regular Kotaku reader to know that “8-bit” has become one a hugely popular aesthetic. 8-bit art, 8-bit music, 8-bit everything. This terrific mini-documentary at PBS goes in-depth into the origins for the trend, pulling together all manner of artists familiar with the movement, from Dr. Octoroc to Anamanaguchi to…

By Kirk Hamilton Published June 15, 2012

Culture

Time for More Terrific Korean Game Art!

I don’t know what, specifically, it is in the water in South Korea that makes so many of its artists so damn talented, but if they ever feel like bottling it, they could make a fortune. Latest example: Sang-heun Nam, who works at Korean developer Nvius, and whose cheery style is brightening up my dreary…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 15, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Sega, You Can’t Show Hairy Balls in an Advertisement

Sega earned itself quite the reputation during the 1990s for its bold advertising, especially in the European market. Sometimes, though, the company went a little too far. Like these British ads from 1992. Which had dick jokes, masturbation jokes, pissing, enormous breasts and, well, pictures of a guy either rubbing his junk on the back…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 14, 2012

Culture

This One’s For Fans of Blizzard’s Cinematic Trailers

David Luong is an artist who, aside from helping out on a number of big-budget Hollywood movies, has also been involved with several Blizzard titles, including Diablo III, World of Warcraft and StarCraft II While he’s done visual FX work as a compositor on some of Blizzard’s best cinematic trailers, he also does matte paintings,…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 14, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

An Evolving History of Old Video Games For Girls

Think back to the video games of the 80s and 90s and most characters, let alone protagonists, were dudes. But not all of them. Which is where the delightfully-named Femicom comes in. It’s a website that’s looking to “collect information about 20th century electronic games and toys, especially video games and computer software, that feature…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 13, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

The Secrets, and Threats, Lurking Behind Pokémon Games

This is the first episode of Did You Know Gaming?, a new series close to my heart because it does exactly what I try to do here with Total Recall: not necessarily dwell on the known history of games, but the more interesting stuff hiding in the background. It’s off to a good start, with…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 13, 2012

Culture

Thundercats, and Concept Art, Ho!

Tyler Breon is an artist who has previously worked on properties such as Spider Man, Uncharted and God of War, including the most recent title in the series, the upcoming Ascension He’s currently employed at Big Red Button Entertainment, who are working on unannounced projects. If you like what you see here, you can check…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 13, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

See How Tron’s Original Arcade Looks Today

In the 1982 film Tron, nearly everything takes place, in one way or another, inside a joint called Flynn’s Arcade. While at E3 last week, video game historian Scott Patterson decided to skip the noise and light and go and see how the building used for filming is looking today. It’s…not bad! It’s still clearly…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012

CultureTotal Recall

Nintendo’s Early DRM Was Simple (And Didn’t Work)

DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is in many ways the great scourge of modern gaming. Designed to limit the effects of piracy, it’s often more of a pain in the ass for paying customers than it is a hindrance to pirates. It’s usually associated with PC games, but Nintendo is no stranger to it either.…

By Luke Plunkett Published June 12, 2012