Fans of Secret of Monkey Island, the 1990 point-n-click adventure game, will undoubtedly remember the infamous "three trials" scene, in which protagonist Guybrush Threepwood proclaims to Mêlée Island's pirate leaders that he, too, would like to be a pirate.
Here's the iconic scene, Team Fortress 2 style. And it's extremely well done. Enjoy.
[SFM] I Wanna Be a Pirate [YouTube via Tim Schafer]
Can't it be both? Coming soon to iOS and Android, Blitz Brigade is a team-based online multiplayer shooter. It's set during World War II (can't you tell?) and features vehicular combat, five character classes, single-player challenges and trailer music that sounds like it's being performed by a Team Fortress 2 cover band.
It's Team Fortress 2! It's Battlefield Heroes! Since this trailer was released last Friday (it was late Friday, past caring time) the YouTube comments have been dominated by discussion of which game Blitz Brigade is trying to be. Why not give Gameloft the benefit of the doubt? Perhaps this is a completely original creation that just bears a striking resemblance to...*falls over laughing*
Those wanting to work for WibiData better have impeccable Portal problem solving skills. Part of the application process for the San Francisco tech startup involves completing a custom level, based on the company's offices, says the New York Times.
A teaser of the custom level can be seen above. WibiData, a computer engineering firm, created the mod as a test for new applicants. The company's CEO said that playing Portal (and Portal 2, upon which this mod is based) he felt the game challenged his reasoning in the same way as a complex programming problem.
WibiData commissioned modder Doug Hoogland to create the level, which features WibiData's offices and a secret (nonexistent) test laboratory beneath them. Hoogland, notes PC Gamer, came to WibiData's attention after he built a wedding proposal mod in Portal for a customer of WibiData.
The level is available for download at WibiData's website.
Start-Up Uses Portal Game as Recruiting Tool [New York Times via PC Gamer]
Unable to get any satisfaction from Glee, 20th Century Fox Television, or its lawyers, Jonathan Coulton has put his version of of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" on iTunes, called it "my cover of Glee's cover of my cover," and will give proceeds from its sale through February to charity.
Coulton put the song on iTunes today under the title "Baby Got Back (In the Style of Glee)." For good measure, he changed his iTunes icon to a picture of him making the L-for-Loser hand gesture, which is used in Glee's logo.
Coulton is the artist who wrote and composed Still Alive, the iconic closing-credits song of Portal.
Reader Brandon passed this video along yesterday, which he helped make, wondering if we'd ever seen it. I had to say "no", which tore me up inside, because it is absolutely perfect.
Sadly ineligible from winning a Saxxy award due to its use of copyright material, that won't stop it winning hearts here today, because if there's one thing Team Fortress 2 needs more than less hats, it's more Queen.
QUEEN FORTRESS [YouTube]
The Half-Life 2 Cinematic Mod has been around forever, and in that time has proven fairly divisive. Sure, it adds some lovely effects to the game, but it also makes so many changes that some feel it loses a little of Valve's original vision for City 17 and its surrounding countryside. The "improved" character models are a particular bone of contention.
I could never get past the latter, with almost everyone in the mod looking like a Baywatch reject, but if all you care about are environmental effects and the crusade to make a game that's nearly ten years old look brand new, you might want to watch the new video below and see how far the mod has progressed since its inception back in 2005.
If you can meet its surprisingly hefty specs (at least for the full range of effects, considering the game's age), you can download the mod below.
Cinematic Mod [Official Site, via PC Gamer]
Fucking Zachariah Scott, man. He is a visual genius, and his partnership with composer Lars Erik Fjøsne is a genius beyond comprehension.
The video above is a Turret Anthem, internally known as Megadub, and it's a fantastic song. The video is great too, of course, as you watch the tiny turrets slowly overtake GLaDOS in her confusion.
Definitely something I will listen to on repeat.
Team Fortress 2's Heavy, Pyro and Spy will all be playable characters in the PC version of Sega kart-racer Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. We didn't like the game all that much, but many readers did, so... this is good news, PC/Valve-loving folks!
The game will be out on PC at the end of the month.
This news also should please anyone who plays six-degrees-of-separation with video game characters. See, Sonic has fought all the Nintendo characters in Smash Bros. and now Sonic has raced against TF2's characters. The Heavy was in Telltale's Poker Night, which also starred the rabbit from Sam & Max and others. One step closer to Kevin Bacon!
YouTube user Marflus1 has created this musical gem, which is described as follows:
An Arrangement of "Still Alive" from Portal, produced using the Wintersday Bell and Pipe Organ in Guild Wars 2, a little bit of pitch editing in Audacity, and an awful lot of time in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Whatever it takes!
Marflus1 previously figured out how to wring "Billie Jean" out of Guild Wars 2.
Portal's "Still Alive" in Guild Wars 2 [YouTube]
By now you've probably seen the ridiculous bikini-clad severed torso that publisher Deep Silver is packaging with the European/Australian special edition of zombie action-RPG Dead Island: Riptide.
It is gross and awful—to the point where Deep Silver just issued an apology for the statue—but hey, why let them have all the fun? We've put together some Severed Torso Special Editions for a handful of other deserving video games.
Above: the Portal turret gets the torso treatment.
Torso Mario isn't quite as useful as Raccoon Mario or even Frog Mario, but he's still an integral part of any statue collector's inventory.
There's nothing like cuddling up with a Cortana torso after a long night of shooting space aliens and getting called racial slurs on Xbox Live.
Dante from Devil May Cry apparently has no penis. Now he also has no arms or legs or head.
"Reach for the sky!" says Sheriff Woody in Disney Infinity. "Unless you have no arms!"
This lovely Princess Peach torso ain't gonna save itself.
Your turn, Kotaku Photoshoppers. What other games do you think need special torso editions?