Square Enix and art group iam8bit have gone and done a thing. They've paid for a TV show based on first-person puzzler Quantum Conundrum, and it's going to be hosted by Kevin Pereira.
It's called The Super Dimensional Quantum Learning's Problems and Solutions Gametime Spectacular!!, and will put contestants in a replica of the game's mansion, complete with its weird dimensions like "fluffy" and "anti-gravity".
The show is coming soon.
There's been talk of a Hollywood adaptation of classic educational series Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego for years now, but it looks like the project is finally starting to pick up some steam.
Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever) is writing, while one of the producers, Jennifer Lopez, is still looking to star in the film. I say still because she's been one of the producers on this thing for years, and has been saying exactly the same thing for years.
Great.
'Jack the Giant Killer' Writer Tackling 'Carmen Sandiego' (Exclusive) [THR]
Cyril Tahmassebi is a French concept artist and visual designer who has worked on games like Darkworks, I'm Alive, Project Kane and, most recently, Dishonored and Cyanide's Game of Thrones RPG.
While that lost one might not have been much of a game, the art Tahmassebi put together for it is terrific.
Every piece you see here is for Game of Thrones, but you can see more of Cyril's work at his personal site.
To see the larger pics in all their glory (or so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on them below and select "open in new tab".
Colorful, a Chinese firm specialising in Nvidia cards, is bringing us this. The iGame GTX 680. It's ostensibly just a single GTX 680, currently Nvidia's flagship single-GPU card. But look at it.
The iGame GTX 680 doesn't have a fan like just about every card on the planet. Instead, it packs its own pair of giant aluminium heatsinks, which include 20 heatpipes and a total of 240 aluminium fins.
While this would likely take up half the inside of your PC, if you've got a window or transparent panel, it does look pretty badass. Like something Commander Shepard would find lying around before wondering to himself, wait a minute, since when did my guns need ammo?
Colorful plays with fire, plans passive GeForce GTX 680 [Hexus]
One game featuring a German with extendable robot arms is a thing. Two is a coincidence. But three? All starring in games developed by Japanese studios? OK, three is a pattern.
This post over on GameWTFs, highlighting ten cyborgs starring in Super Nintendo games, contains not one, not two, but three Germans with robot arms.
The first is probably the most famous: Brocken, from World Heroes. The second is Helmut from Street Combat. Note that both of these guys are about as Nazi as you can get (though Helmet may be a full-blown robot. Hrm.)
The third and final one is K's from Tuff E Nuff, a game you may remember more for its box art than the game itself. While he's no Nazi, he is still very German, and has some very long robot arms.
Thus concludes today's introduction to "Germans with robot limbs in fighting games from the early 90s".
Who are the Cyborgs in your Super Nintendo Neighborhood? [GameWTFs, via VGJunk]
There was much fanfare today as Atari celebrated its 40th birthday. Only, it's not really Atari's 40th birthday. I hate to be that guy, but the Atari of 2012 has about as much in common with Nolan Bushnell's original company as my beard trimmings do. Maybe even less, since Nolan has a killer beard.
The original company called Atari was formed in 1972. From Pong through to the Atari 2600, this was the Atari, the ones people associate with so many classic games of the 1970s and early 1980s.
Note, however, that in 1976 Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Bros. Which is where you'll see the wheels start to fall off.
In 1984, a year after the great Video Game crash, the company was cut in two. One half handled mostly arcade stuff, and was called Atari Games Inc. The other was called Atari Corporation, and handled mostly home consumer electronics.
Atari Games remained under the ownership of Warner. In 1993, when Warner merged to become Time Warner, it ended up under the management of Time Warner Interactive. Then, in 1996, what remained of Atari Games was sold again to arcade company WMS Industries, the parent company of rivals like Midway and Williams. As a result, Atari Games was renamed Midway Games West, and would ultimately fold when Midway exited the arcade business in 2003.
Atari Corporation, on the other hand, was the company responsible for products like the Atari 7800 and Atari ST home computer, and at least through the 1980s maintained a reasonable level of success. In 1989 it released the Lynx, a serious competitor for Nintendo's Game Boy, and in 1993 released the Jaguar, the Atari brand's last meaningful contribution to the home console market.
By 1996, with the Jaguar a failure, Atari Corp. merged with hard drive manufacturers JTS. Only two years later, JTS offloaded the Atari name and properties to Hasbro.
Still with me? Well, in 2001 Atari's corpse traded hands again, this time to French publisher Infogrames, who in 2003 then began adopting the Atari name for itself. By 2009 this process was complete, and the people once famous for publishing games from the likes of Microprose had completed their public cosplay act and become a company that, for all intents, didn't really exist anymore.
I realise this isn't exactly a secret - indeed, the infographic posted earlier today has all the key dates of the company's metamorphosis listed - but I guess it just irks me a little. The company called Atari today has absolutely nothing in common with the Atari of legend with other than the name and the legal rights to its back catalogue.
To say it's Atari's 40th birthday is to claim a sense of continuity that simply isn't there.
If I changed my name to Elvis Presley, and bought the rights to all his music, I wouldn't suddenly start celebrating my birthday on January 8 and claim I was 77 years old. Well, I mean, I could, but that would be a little stupid.
Because of this, celebrating Atari's "birthday" just feels a little wrong. Jesus aside, you don't really celebrate the birthdays of people who are dead. At least, not with lavish public fanfare. Whether you mark the time of death to be 1984, 1996, 2001 or 2003, the fact remains the original Atari is long gone. Maybe we should be celebrating an anniversary instead...
Hi there Kotaku, and a happy Wednesday to you. It's 10:30 PM, and that means it must be time for the open thread.
We're all so constantly connected to social media that it's easy to forget just how many people can see everything we say. So thank goodness for WeKnowWhatYoureDoing.com, who have put together a website that offers a simple, clear reminder of the damaging things we post to social media every day.
Who wants to get fired? Who's taking drugs? Who's got a new phone number?
Yikes.
Are you more careful now about what you share on social media? Do you think that since the cat's out of the bag, you might as well just share everything? Are you considering closing any of your accounts, or have you ever?
Let those prompts be your guide, and feel free to talk about anything else, as well. The open thread is yours.
When Nintendo revealed the 3DS XL, Kotaku asked the game maker about the Circle Pad Pro—you know, the add-on circle pad—as it would be too small for the larger 3DS. Nintendo said that the company had nothing to announce at that time. Fast forward to today.
In the recent issue of Japanese game magazine Famitsu, Nintendo revealed that, yes, the 3DS XL will also be getting its own Circle Pad Pro. Hope it's called Circle Pad Pro XL.
Whatever Nintendo calls it, the add-on is slated to go on sale sometime this year in Japan. No word yet about a Western release date.
本日発売の週刊ファミ通は、ニンテンドー3DS LLを筆頭に特集てんこ盛り！ [Famitsu]
For around a decade, Sony and its various advertising agencies managed to create not only some of the most memorable commercials in gaming, but straight-up of the most memorable advertisements.
While things haven't been too bad lately - Kevin Butler has his fans, and as corny as it is, "Michael" was a neat idea - there's been nothing to really grab me by my shirt collar and make me watch it over and over and over again.
Until now.
These are Sony Japan's new ads for the upcoming Crystal White version of the PlayStation Vita. They star crooner, actor and voice-over man Shigeru Matsuzaki absolutely belting one out.
If you've played Katamari Damacy, you may already know who the guy is.
Does it have anything to do with video games? Nope. Can you watch it a few times then walk around for the rest of the day singing "AH WHOAH WHOAH WHOAH"? I sure as hell have.
The full clip is up top, but to the left is a shorter, peppier version.
While we continue our review-aimed adventure with the new Peter Parker under, over and through the streets of New York, here are some of the fun features of The Amazing Spider-Man you can expect to experience in the game's earliest moments.
I'd make a joke here about crazy people urinating and the authentic New York City experience, but I am sure I don't need to. You are all incredibly sharp folks, fully capable of making your own snide comments. Besides, to someone that loves the city as much as I do, that pungent ammonia scent is the heady aroma of hope that one day we'll be able to stand together regardless of race, sex or spiritual beliefs, and pee in an alley. Then we'd take a nap.
What was I talking about?
