Category: Featured

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Featured Game Reviews

We Review: Test Drive Unlimited 2

It’s been four years since Eden Games essentially pioneered the M.O.O.R. (Massively Open Online Racing) genre with Test Drive Unlimited. The Test Drive series, which has been with us since the 8-bit era, has become all kinds of irrelevant and was in dire need of a massive engine overhaul and a shiny new paintjob. To an extent they succeeded. The game was moderately successful, and perhaps benefited from being launched when the Xbox 360 was still swaddled in diapers, and there simply weren’t many racers available in the “next-gen” market at the time. It certainly was a unique arcade-racer, with over 1,000 square kilometers to explore on the Oahu Island , jump-in competitive multiplayer racing, and a dollop of Sims-like management thrown in for good measure.

Fast forward to 2011, and TDU2 has finally been allowed to leave the starting grid after spending a sizeable amount of time in development hell. Will it pull away from the pack in a haze of burning rubber and receding tail-lights, or will it choke to a stuttering halt on the first straight?  Find out after the jump.

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Featured Game Reviews

We Review: Killzone 3

I should probably tell you something. It may repulse you and you may give no credence to this review after knowing it, but you should know. I’m not the biggest fan of the FPS genre. I’ve played Mirror’s Edge, Bioshock, and Singularity but never got the whole obsession with COD or Battlefield. It may or may not shock you then that I have never teabagged anyone. Considering that action is so synonymous with FPS, I may as well be considered a noob, perhaps even a nublet to some. The over-the-shoulder adventure titles and third-person shooters are what I’m used to but recently I’ve had the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and into the killzone. My experience continues after the jump.

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Arty Awesomeness Featured Music

A Heavy Metal Viking Tale Told in LEGO

YouTuber and brick fanatic Paganomation combines heavy metal and LEGO toys to tell a tale of the middle ages where a lucky strike results in simple Norse woodcutter being able to transform the world around him. Everything he touches turns to awesome. It’s sure to be the most hardcore LEGO music video you’ve ever seen. It’s crazy, epic, and very creative indeed. Check out BUILD! below.

See more of Paganomation’s work on YouTube and Flickr.

[via PS3ZA]

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Arty Awesomeness Featured

The Ordered Chaos of Pr0x-E

I’m an member of local PS3 gaming forum, PS3ZA, and I get to interact with a diverse bunch of people. Aside from our shared love of gaming, I also get a chance to see people’s other sideline interests. Just the other day I spotted some fantastic illustrations by by PS3ZA member and fellow Capetonian, Pr0x-E. I wanted to see and know more about him so I got on the blower and asked him a couple of questions. Have a gander at the interview and a small collection of his images after the jump.

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Featured Gadgets Gaming News

Opinion: Nintendo 3DS vs Sony NGP—FIGHT!

There is nothing quite like a good, comfy war. It is what makes the world an interesting place, and there’s nothing better than a war between two competing formats. Think of all the great format wars past: VHS vs Betamax; CD vs vinyl; 8-track vs cassette; Genesis vs Super Nintendo; Playstation 2 vs Xbox vs Gamecube; HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray. We’re all naturally fascinated by battles between giants. We’ve seen this battle play out over and over, placing our bets to try and figure out in advance who the winner is going to be. Sometimes there is no clear winner. Either way, the fun is in the speculating, so we’ll dive right into the fun of the next great war of portable gaming: Nintendo 3DS vs the Sony Next Generation Portable (which currently has no official name). I swear I’ll try to keep this as civil—and unbiased—as possible. The fisticuffs follow after the jump.

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Arty Awesomeness Entertainment Featured Movies Music Video Clips

Everything is a Remix

In his series of videos entitled Everything is a Remix, Vimeo user Kirby Ferguson takes an interesting look at what a remix is, when it started, how it has pervaded every form or art, and where it’s headed. It’s due to be a four-part series with the first exploring the nature of covers, knock-offs, and sampling in music. His second short film was released last week and explores the use of existing material in the production of films. It’s very enlightening, see the two videos below.

See more information about Ferguson’s project including the references and samples used in the series at Everything is a Remix and follow him on Twitter.

[via PSFK]

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Arty Featured Inspirational Designs

Intricate Salt Labyrinths

For the past decade, incredibly patient Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto has been creating the most intricate mazes from an unlikely medium. As a tribute to the life of his sister who died of cancer in 1994, Yamamoto spends hours upon hours using a plastic squeezy bottle to create beautiful labyrinthine patterns from household salt.

In an interview with Hi-Fructose, Yamamoto explains the use of salt in his memorial artwork.

Salt seems to possess a close relation with human life beyond time and space. Moreover, especially in Japan, it is indispensable in the death culture. After my sister’s death, what I began to do in order to accept this reality was examine how death was dealt with in the present social realm. I posed several related themes for myself such as brain death or terminal medical care and picked related materials accordingly. I then came to choose salt as a material for my work. This was when I started to focus on death customs in Japan.

… Drawing a labyrinth with salt is like following a trace of my memory. Memories seem to change and vanish as time goes by. However, what I sought for was the way in which I could touch a precious moment in my memories, which cannot be attained through pictures or writings.

Have a look at his salt labyrinths after the jump.

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Arty Awesomeness Cartoons & Comics Featured

Awesome Character Portraits by MISTERHIPP

Dan Hipp, or MISTERHIPP, is an American comic book artist and illustrator whose works have appeared in DC Comics, Dark Horse, and Tokyopop. Using a great selection of colours, gradients, and Hipp humour, he creates fantastic character portraits of popular heroes and villains from comic books and movies. Have a look at some of his amazing illustrations after the jump.

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Arty Entertainment Featured Gaming News Movies Weirdness

Sundance Film Festival 11 – Video Games In The Spotlight

It’s that time of the year again. What time you ask? The time of year when aspiring film makers get together at one of North America’s great indie scene movie festivals, the annual Sundance Film Festival to be more precise. Hosted in Salt Lake City, Utah, it’s every hopeful movie-maker’s dream to succeed at this event. Many of today’s biggest Hollywood film makers had their humble beginnings at this prestigious festival, amongst which are Steven Soderbergh and Quinton Tarantino. Some of the movies which gained fame at this festival are The Blair Witch Project, Little Miss Sunshine, Reservoir Dogs, SAW, and Napoleon Dynamite.

From 20 to 31 January 2011 we saw some truly inspiring work come from this popular movie outing, but for the purpose of this article we will look at a topic which is close to our hearts – video games. Yes, the 2011 Sundance Film Festival boasted with quite a few video game-themed projects and even a panel where members of the press (and public) could interact with the writers of such games as Alan Wake and Uncharted.

So it would seem that video games are really in focus for independent film makers. We have collected a trio of video game short films to show what talent we can expect from the future film-makers of Hollywood. Have a look at them after the jump.

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Arty Awesomeness Featured

The Many Faces of Tal Spiegel

Israeli graphic designer, Tal Spiegel, spent quite some time photoshopping a set of fantastic Facebook profile pictures, one for each day of the year. Starting with a photograph of himself, he has created a myriad of profile pictures that reference popular characters from cartoons, comic books, TV, film, music, and current affairs. Have a look at some of his illustrations after the jump.

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