There might come a single day in 2012 when I spend the afternoon checking out the 21 Jump Street redux starring Jonah Hill, make my way across town later that night to catch a reunited The Promise Ring for the first time in more than a decade, and perhaps close out the evening with the first version
Since the advent of intelligent discussion on gaming, the argument over the importance of gameplay and narrative has grown to be a tired one. Enthusiasts and theorists alike discuss at great length why gaming should be purely for the game’s sake or, hey now, games bear great potential to tell compel
The notion of game guides, the ideal accompaniment for any thorough gameplay, has never been all that varied over the years. In other words, the glossy step-by-step manuals that got you through the most difficult of challenges never saw much change when they were still necessary. Now, the internet m
Cartoonist (and KS contributor) James Kochalka has a wonderful new Tumblr with new art everyday. He’s the war horse of the comic book world with such prolific output and Tumblr is a great medium for him. He also loves games and sadly Star Fox Adventures isn’t doing it for him. I want a game that’s e
In a recent interview, Rick Santorum admitted to being a casual gaming convert. While the floundering candidate’s current surge in popularity may be short-lived, his run through the Mayan ruins of the iPhone game Temple Run might be a long one. The former Pennsylvania senator says his focus has shif
Ever wonder why those pinball games by FarSight Studios, like Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection and the upcoming Pinball Arcade, feel almost as good as the real thing? Because these guys pay an insane amount of attention to details, tearing apart pinball tables and reassembling them in d
Last week, we took a little field trip to the offices/gallery of AIGA, the professional association for design. They’re currently finishing up an amazing exhibition called 50 Books/50 Covers to identify and reward some of the best of book jacket design over the last couple years. Aside from a nice
Greece is a total mess right now. Daniel Drezner wanted to see what its possible outcome might look like so he turned the oracle that’s guided us through the ages: Choose Your Adventure. Welcome to Choose Your Own Troika Program For Greece! You are a junior member of the One World Government, and yo
Douglas Trumbull knows a lot about special effects in film. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Blade Runner to last year’s Tree of Life, he has helped create some of the most memorable and important effects in cinema. But he’s not happy with the state of today’s film technology. People are watching TV. K
Next Valentine’s Day, really express your love not with a bouquet of flowers, but with the latest World of Warcraft edition. Via a recent Brigham Young University study, researchers have found that married couples who both engage in MMORPGs, like, of course, World of Warcraft. The study first surve
Captain Commander, produced by Pixeljam, is Adult Swim’s newest flash game. Take control of the next great galactic military hero – Captain Commander. Blast your way across an alien planet and rescue captured soldiers from an abundance of uncomfortable probing. The Captain is proficient with guns,
With so many advances in memory storage, it is reasonable to wonder whether we’ll ever forget anymore. From daunting Facebook timelines to the iCal reminder function to USB drives galore, you’d think everyone would be equipped with flawless robotic memory. Well, we’re coming close to it anyway. An
In case you missed it, The Art of Video Games, a Smithsonian exhibition, is a month away. The exhibition installation is underway ad progress is viewable Flickr. The exhibition focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for twenty gaming systems
Does the constant pushing back of Bioshock: Infinite have you itching for your next Steampunk fix? Have you longed for your time to be displayed out of “new-old-stock Soviet Union nixie tubes?” Behold, an alarm clock seemingly straight from everyone’s favorite Cold War-era underwater city. You even
The Morgan Library & Museum’s exhibition Dan Flavin: Drawing, is yet another example of how video games can relate to different forms of art. Most are only familiar with Flavin’s light installations. The exhibition however shows us the value of a sketch and the amount of material an artist is drawn
Wake up and smell the Journey! -The gorgeous-looking Journey will be on the PSN on March 13. -Are developers ditching the Vita in favor of the 3DS? Sony thinks not. -EA is launching 6 weather balloons with copies of Mass Effect 3 into the atmosphere. –Gears of War 3 gets some extras on March 27. -T
The games, they make news. I tell you it, you listen. Then go forth and game. – Notch is partnering with the Humble Bundle folks and holding an in-house game jam for charity. It starts tomorrow, so there’s still time to vote on the theme and genre. Minecraft was made at a game jam, so who knows what
The Twisted Metal franchise, known for its over-the-top vehicle combat, is the longest-running in PlayStation history, having first been released in 1995 for the original PlayStation console and spanning ever PlayStation console since. Sony is set to launch Twisted Metal into its 17th year with a ne
For those who think that the muscle-bound marines of games like Gears of War are absurdist, macho fantasy, Paul Solotaroff’s feature on “the dawn of huge” in this month’s Men’s Journal gives some context. Solotaroff outlines the rise of the American body-builder from outcast freaks or archetypal mal
This is brilliant. File in the “games as parody” category, but TriStar Games’ Tebit Time captures the grandeur of Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. You can jump, stiff arm, and, of course, “Tebow.” All of this to and endless loop of the NFL on Fox theme. Yay. -Jamin Warren [via Touch Arcade]
Over at Grantland, economists Tyler Cowen and Kevin Grier outline the grim possible future of football if injuries continue to plague the sport: This slow death march could easily take 10 to 15 years. Imagine the timeline. A couple more college players — or worse, high schoolers — commit suicide wit
Here’s the pitch: Code Hero is a game that teaches you how to make games so you can learn to code while you play with a Code Gun that shoots Javascript in Unity 3D! To Ouroboros!
Over at Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow points to the work of Filip Dujardin who shoots buildings around his town of Ghent and then mixes them up into striking structures he calls “Fictions.” Not only does this harken to that amazing Ellen Page sequence in Inception, but also reminds us of those full pu
Board games are usually an either/or proposition. They’re either wonderful physical objects or their mechanics are ported to digital environments. Both approaches work, but this hybrid from Hasbro caught my eye for its simple stubbornness to be one or the other. (I’m a mixed kid. Gotta root for the
Chris O’Shea’s MakeGo brings the dream of a rollable iPhone to life. I know. We all have wanted this and now it is here. Rejoice! But seriously, this is an adorable treat for kids. There’s also a Flickr group where users can add images of their own vehicles, flickr.com/groups/makego. You can downlo
