London-born photographer Phillip Toledano loves taking emotive portraits. He has photographed phone sex operators who put on falsities to appease attention-starved callers and has captured how surgery is ushering in a new kind of beauty. And in a 2002 series entitled GAMERS, Toledano asked his subjects to play video games and captured the intensity where it can be most seen — on their faces. Toledano doesn’t mention what games the people were playing, but from some of the “FFFUUUUU!” looks, they’ve died one too many times in Ninja Gaiden. Have a look at some crazed gamefaces after the jump.
Tag: video games
Illustrator A.J. Hateley from the United Kingdom has embarked on a fantastic voyage. In the Thirty Days of Videogames, she aims to create vintage book covers based on popular video games. The covers are complete with relevant publisher information, wonderful artwork, and apt titles. The series is currently in day 16, and Hateley has created many a cover including one for a scientific study into the lives of vicious headcrabs, one for a safety guide on dealing with unhinged operating systems, and another for a harrowing adventure in the land of giants.
Have a look at The Secret Life of Headcrabs, The Wonderful End of the World, The Forbidden Land, and other wonderful video game book covers after the jump.
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We Review: Red Faction: Armageddon
Let’s get a few things straight as an arrow right off the bat. Any game that lets you use a giant hammer to crush your foes into so many tiny pieces, is alright by me. Any game that lets you—nay, requires you—to use a giant mech suit and assorted robots is all right by me. And Red Faction: Armageddon does all that and much more. It’s a riotous ride and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Find out why I looked past the bore and enjoyed the gore, after the jump.
Level 5 has released the latest game in their White Knight Chronicles JRPG series, and Level 5’s well-paid marketing department have sat many long, coffee-laden hours to bestow upon it the creative name of White Knight Chronicles 2. I have always been a fan of JRPG games, because the driver behind the game is the story, not the character. Because WKC2 is a direct sequel to WKC1 (unlike some JRPG games **cough** Final Fantasy **cough**), Level 5 thought it a good idea to also include WKC1 on the same disc. In the same breath, they addressed many of the issues that fans had with the first game, so you can almost call the version that ships on-disc White Knight Chronicles 1: Remastered. Is it worth playing, however? Let me answer that question for you, after the jump.
We like illustrated alphabets, be it a rather odd one, an A to Z of Star Wars, or a look into Japanese culture and customs.
It’s not often that one comes across an alphabet dedicated to the gaming world. Illustrator Fabian Gonzalez has taken a sampling from the vast range of characters in classic video games and represented them as letters of the alphabet. Find the image in all its glory after the jump.
Ahoy, lubbers! Th’ latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides wa’ just recently let out o’ th’ shipyards and onto yonder movie screens and, as almost always be happenin’, there be a video game offering as well. The game tha’ we be getting be Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, which sails us through not only th’ most recent swashbuckling film, but also th’ three priors, savvy? The Lego series of games ha’ been ken for their high quality gaming an’ excellent humor, but does Lego Pirates follow this most excellent legacy in a like-minded, sword swinging manner? Onward, scurvy dogs, if ye be wantin’ to know more.
LEGO Star Wars III: Clone Wars is the latest in a series of games that make the unlikely mix between the famous toy and famous movies. The game itself follows the first two seasons of the Star Wars Clone Wars animated series on television (which I have to admit, to my chagrin, I have never watched. I am the world’s worst Star Wars fan). Find out whether the game is a brick-building success or a brick-breaking mess after the jump.
Singstar is one of those great Playstation institutions, and one of those absolute must-have games for whenever you have—or want—a karaoke party. It’s awesome, then, that Sony have decided that South Africa’s Afrikaans-speaking market is big enough to warrant their own Singstar game: Singstar Afrikaanse Treffers. Find out about my experiences in delving into the world of Afrikaans music after the jump.
There’s a great little thread going on over at the PS3ZA forums where the original poster wonders what the theme tune to life would it be. The replies have included a rather comical Benny Hill tribute, the smell of Napalm in the morning, and even the desire for surprise buttseks. It’s clearly a diverse crowd.
Another member posted a song by Two Steps from Hell, an outfit that creates music for the trailers to movies and video games like The Dark Knight, Star Trek, Inception, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Mass Effect 2. It’s all very epic, beautiful, and optimistic. If this kind of music dictated what I did in life, I wouldn’t be stuck in the cubicle that time forgot. No, I’d be flying with dragons. Have a listen to some of the beautiful pieces created by Two Steps from Hell. They’re all from the Invincible studio album with the exception of Love & Loss.
Velocitron (used in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood)
Freedom Fighters (used in Star Trek)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa8cMYc0H6g
Heart of Courage
Love & Loss
Stirring, no? If you had to choose a theme tune to life, what would it be?
[via PS3ZA]
The Sly Collection has been a difficult bundle to review. I’ll not elaborate on the snowstorm of events that has hijacked the time I needed to truly get to grips with this game. And time you will need as this collection packs many many hours of game play. What with not one, not two but three games in one bundle, it’s a Ménage à trois of cel-shaded goodness and if you’re into that sort of thing it’s a steal at the price…
But every man and his goat has already reviewed these games to depths of which I cannot begin to fathom, stolen every word that remains to be said and pilfered all the good jokes. So a conundrum, if there is little left to write how should I unlock The Sly Collection? Find out how after the jump.