Etsy seller SarabiRose makes hats for cats. Adorable, hilarious hats.
So if you ever wanted to name your new kittens Mario and Luigi—or if for some reason you'd already gone ahead and done that—your cat cosplay needs are almost officially taken care of.
Just get some cat overalls and you're set.
Sarabirose [Etsy, via Incredible Things]
In the event that you have an extra $20,000 or so lying around, you probably wouldn't want to spend it on a watch. But on the off chance that you do, boy, have I got a treat for you.
The decadent Space Invaders watch is only available from the Colette boutique in Paris. By the way, if anyone out there is looking for a last minute stocking stuffer for me, I'll accept this. Thanks!
ROMAIN JEROME x COLETTE [Via This Is Why I'm Broke]
As our own Kirk Hamilton put it, "The Hobbit feels like a video game. That's not a good thing."
Filmed and projected at 48 frames per second, a process that's supposed to revolutionize film, The Hobbit was unbearably jarring to some, like a soap opera or a poorly optimized image on an LED television. So how does that bode for Avatar 2, James Cameron's upcoming epic, which he plans to shoot at 60fps?
You might be surprised, actually.
Peter Sciretta, founder and editor in chief of cinema blog /Film, told me that The Hobbit's incongruous hyper-real look may have resulted from its Frankenstein blend of live and CG footage being presented at the higher frame rate.
You may have guessed that as well; there's often an ugly contrast between CG and real actors and sets, and it stands to reason that that could be exacerbated by the higher frames per second. And even in the 24fps version of The Hobbit, the distractingly colorful world is made uncanny by that contrast.
But is the higher frame rate really to blame? Sciretta said The Hobbit may have simply been the wrong movie to introduce high frame rate (HFR) film to the masses. Avatar 2 might be a different story, though.
"I think if James Cameron gets his way with Avatar 2 and 3, doing it at 60 frames per second, I think people are going to be blown away," Sciretta said. "Avatar is like an 85 to 90 percent computer-generated world, and I think that's where you will see the comparison to video games."
But unlike in the case of The Hobbit, that comparison may be a compliment when applied to Avatar 2. Video games' frame rates can vary wildly, but even at 60fps, the golden number, they rarely look as uncanny as a HFR film can. That's likely due to the computer-generated nature of video games. So while Avatar 2's higher frame rate could make it look even more like a video game, its reliance on CG over live action footage may ultimately save it from the issues that plague The Hobbit.
On the other hand, Bert Dunk, director of photography and technology supervisor at Toronto's Screen Industry Research and Training Center, told me on the phone that he's not sure what everyone is complaining about. He saw The Hobbit in 48fps, and he loved it. A member of both the Canadian and American Societies of Cinematographers, he's worked extensively with HFR footage, and he seems to have an almost over-the-top adoration for the new format. In fact, Dunk insisted, the experience should only get better as frame rate increases—he explained that even 120fps footage is being tested.
When viewers do experience issues, he said, it's likely due to the way a high frame rate film is being projected, and not a problem with the format itself. The same has been said of 3D, but still, that contention seems at odds with the sheer volume of complaints being leveled at the format. Dunk was adamant that the photography process itself is not to blame, though.
"The more you watch it, the easier it is to watch," he insisted, though even he conceded that ultimately "it's a very personal thing."
Where proponents of HFR cinema like to draw comparisons with the shift from standard to hi-def TVs, which ultimately turned out for the better, Sciretta drew a different parallel: he compared the jump to higher frame rates with Orson Welles' experiments with depth-free cinematography in Citizen Kane. On paper, seeing the entire frame sharp and in focus all at once should be a good thing, but because it doesn't emulate real life, it ultimately proves jarring—much like high fps film and TV.
"The the best parts of The Hobbit in 48 frames per second were the computer-generated action sequences," Sciretta said. "When it's a computer-generated world, for some reason the more frames per second, it does look better." Thus Avatar 2 may succeed where The Hobbit has, to some, at least, failed.
So there you have it. Two experts whose experiences seeing The Hobbit in 48fps couldn't be more different at least agree on one thing: there's a good chance Avatar 2 in 60fps is going to be better. Maybe it will even do for HFR what the first Avatar did for 3D.
This is what you get for inviting Batman over for Christmas, though to be fair I'm not sure they actually invited him. Then again, maybe they should have expected that the Dark Knight would drop by at some point—this has apparently happened to them before.
Remember Max, the kid who terrorizes his mother as Batman in the video below? It seems the Batman ruining Christmas is the same Max, only a few years older and probably coursing with pubescent hormones, to boot. That might explain why he's even more aggressive now.
One thing to note: I'm pretty sure Youtuber TVMaxwell's take on the fight choreography here is legitimately better than Batman's actual fights with Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.
Maybe it's because Little Inferno doesn't present the side of Armageddon that we're used to seeing in games, but you might not even pick up on its apocalyptic storyline. Yet as I burned prize after prize in my Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace, a thought tugged at the back of my mind: why am I doing this?
Why am I, a child left apparently alone in the dead of winter, burning everything in sight, then buying more things and burning them, too? Why is the Weather Man telling me to keep burning, to stay warm at all costs, that the snow shows no signs of stopping, that he can't remember the last time it did?
Spoilers for Little Inferno follow:
At the end of the game, as my house burned down around me, I half expected to find a desolate wasteland and a handful of diligent post-men ("rain or shine," after all) waiting for me outside. But no, its industrial landscape appeared calm, if chilly.
So why does Miss Nancy, the CEO of Tomorrow Corporation (eponymous with the game's developers) and inventor of the Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace, flee? What is she running from? And why does she need a rocket ship to get there?
What could possibly be so bad about the planet she's already on?
Little Inferno is not overtly a story about the apocalypse. But under its deceptively simplistic surface, I sensed a pre-apocalyptic world on the brink of another ice age. This is the story I made up in my head: with temperatures dropping and adult supervision in short supply, the forward-thinking Tomorrow Corp. sent a Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace to every boy and girl in the hopes of staving off the end just a little bit longer.
And (real-world) Tomorrow Corporation's Kyle Gabler, previously of World of Goo fame, told me during an email exchange that my apocalyptic conspiracy theory is "not off base."
"The reason for the weather outside isn't ever directly stated," he wrote. "At least one character kind of muses about it, but [Miss Nancy's] also kind of a batty old lady who smells like cinnamon, so who knows."
He added a ":)" for good measure.
I played through Little Inferno a half dozen times, seeking answers to these questions and more: Where did Sugar Plumps, the cute little neighbor girl, escape to? Did she really find some tropical paradise? And where was the Weather Man taking me in his mysterious hot air balloon?
Ultimately, I could only alter one aspect of the story, by resisting my urge to burn everything and hanging on to one lone item—a coupon for a free hug—until the final act. With this special prize in hand I unlocked the secret ending: just before Miss Nancy fled the city's impending doom, she leaned in close, ample bosom taking up most of the screen, and embraced me.
It wasn't much, but in this world devoid of hope, I found it endlessly comforting, and I put down my controller at peace with my fate.
Slender: The Eight Pages was one of the true surprises of 2012—a crude, free PC game that also happened to be one of the scariest games of the year.
We've known for a little while that creator Mark Hadley has been working with Blue Isle on a follow-up called Slender: The Arrival. They've now posted their first teaser trailer for the game, which is coming to PC in 2013. It's got some waaay improved graphics and some nice, Alan Wake-ish atmosphere. And of course, good ol' slendy is back, joined, it looks like, by some freaky dude in a hoodie?
We'll see if lightning can strike twice on this one—part of what made Slender: The Eight Pages so effective was how creepily crude it all was. That said, this looks pretty damned cool.
Rarely considered for overall video-game-of-the-year honors, the uncommon diversity of sports video games, and the unique demands placed on them to recreate both a real-world sport and the real-life experiences associated with it, support their own class of awards more than any other genre. These are Kotaku's Stick Jockey Sports Video Games of the Year. This year we'll recognize achievements in six categories.
While a game's technical aspects and ability to execute were considered, more subjective qualities such as innovation, impact, and the size of the gaming population it served also came into play in judging a game's worthiness.
These awards are conferred by me, in consultation with Luke Plunkett. Here is the best in sports video gaming for 2012.
Visual Concepts' audio team is the best in this sector, by a wide margin, and opened up an even greater lead with stellar work in NBA 2K13 and even a slapped-around MLB 2K12, whose commentary was still miles ahead of its direct competitor. Lacking the kind of money EA Sports has, 2K Sports can't simply cut deals with real-life networks to bring their graphics packages and booth personalities into the game.
Instead, NBA 2K13 has created a damn good virtual network of its own, using Kevin Harlan, Clark Kellogg, Doris Burke and Steve Kerr to deliver a dynamic call that sounds like all three are actually watching your game. Damon Bruce anchors an around-the-league intermission recap that other titles have simply given up on. Let's not forget Jay-Z, brought on as a celebrity executive producer, whose influence was most felt in pregame openings during the Association mode. NBA 2K has many strengths, but its presentation, sometimes quietly, is the one that improves the most year after year after year.
Honorable Mentions
MLB 2K12, in its swan song, also put together a network-ready team of Gary Thorne, Steve Phillips and John Kruk. NCAA Football 13 still has the dean of sports video game commentary, Brad Nessler, and added ESPN's Rece Davis to an in-game score update that portends good things for the future of that series. However you feel about them, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are true-to-life in Madden NFL 13. Those two, plus a new original score and a slew of stadium audio enhancements, righted that ship after a listless 2011.
We've called this "best singleplayer" in the past; here the title is revised to include the best persistent career mode, team or single player. Madden NFL 13's groundbreaking "Connected Careers" was unquestionably a technical achievement, in the way it permits multiplayer leagues where one user controls only a star running back against another commanding an entire team. The virtual Twitter feed, particularly its stories of fictitious draft prospects, added a lot of zest. But the omission of a fantasy draft and some basic player customization options—later introduced by server-side update—needlessly limited the experience for about a month after its launch.
"My Player" in NBA 2K13, however, cements that title as a lifestyle product, through off-the-court interactions that have no analogue or imitator in other titles. In what other game are you choosing what your player will say in his Hall of Fame induction? What other game allows you to say what's on your mind, or say the right thing, during a pre-draft interview, postgame news conference, or a sit-down with the general manager? While other career modes also have experience points, and character attribute development, NBA 2K is doing the heavy lifting as the sports genre reckons with its true potential as a role-playing game.
Honorable Mentions
Despite its ponderous menu structure, the unique demands of player recruiting still make NCAA Football 13 the most compelling personnel management game available on a console. Its "Road to Glory" mode continues to make strides and tap the potential offered by a compact, four-season career. Madden is worthy of praise, as mentioned above. WWE '13's almost absurd level of stage management options cater to a "sports entertainment" spectacle uniquely enriched by multiple ongoing storylines.
Multiplayer was really the only thing last year's edition of Madden NFL did comprehensively well, and the game's post-release support has long put everything else to shame. This year's introduction of Connected Careers strengthened Madden's multiplayer dominance, created new relevance for its neglected Superstar career mode, and new enticements for longtime Franchise hermits to take their acts online, inviting friends to their world or joining someone else's. Sports video games are still realizing their potential as role-playing games; Connected Careers is an early vision of sports as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and it is bound to have imitators in years to come.
Honorable Mentions
NHL 13 introduced GM Connected, a more robust housing for online team play that allows players of lesser skill to still contribute as coaches or personnel managers. FIFA 13's strengthened it s package of offerings in Football Club (and Ultimate Team) with the introduction of "Match Day," in which real world outcomes, injuries, and current lineups were reflected in online matches.
Heading into 2013, there is only one sport with direct competition among licensed video games, and that is in football. Had Konami put a lesser effort into Pro Evolution Soccer, we might be talking about a 2013 in which each sport is represented by a single console game only. PES 13 righted its ship, and the game's player AI, singleplayer career, and visuals make it a legitimately preferred option for some longtime football fans. PES had been hanging on largely through its incumbency in Japan, a basically saturated audience. Pushed to the brink of irrelevance, it has come back—and coming back against the FIFA juggernaut is a challenge no other series has to face.
Honorable Mentions
SSX hit the slopes after a seven-year layoff, blending modern console capabilities with fan service for a smoothly enjoyable experience. WWE '13's Attitude Era tribute helped wash away the disappointments of last year's title and was, quietly, the best showcase mode in sports video gaming this year. Madden NFL 13 introduced real-time physics a year ahead of its studio's internal schedule, but for many fans, such an improvement was long overdue.
A winter release date, its publisher's long-running financial difficulties, and the surprise sale of the UFC license to EA Sports at E3 combined to obscure what a legitimately good sports video game UFC Undisputed 3 is, particularly for its career mode. A retooled submission system also placed the unique excitement of a choke-out victory into the hands of more players. Flash knockouts were rarer but more meritoriously applied. A flurry of hammer fists on a prone opponent inevitably brought on one of the year's most satisfying experiences, Mike Goldberg breathlessly shrieking that the fight was all over. It may be too late, and it may be bittersweet for those at THQ's San Diego studio, closed after the sell-off of the UFC license, to hear this now, but they should know they went out as a winner, gloved hand high in the air.
Honorable Mentions
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 had a tough act to follow after introducing Augusta National and The Masters in 2011. A misunderstood Course Mastery system didn't help, but it's still one of the most endlessly replayable online sports games around. WWE '13 showed strong improvement, especially in utilizing the gameplay improvements introduced last year. Codemasters' F1 2012 may be more of a racer but it is a motorsports simulation, with a full featured career mode and gran prix circuit.
The margin between the Big Four—FIFA, NBA 2K, NHL and MLB The Show—has never been thinner than it was this year, mostly for the fact each series largely retained its overall excellence without making truly transformative changes to the way it was was played. In the end, though heavily reliant on incumbency, FIFA 13 gets the nod for best team sports game. Its most recognizable improvements were largely refinements of its already strong gameplay. First touch physics sacrificed the unrealistic magnetism of past years in opening a subtle new dimension for planning passes and positioning. AI-controlled teammates broke into more useful runs, and defenders started thinking further ahead in the play, rather than fixating solely on the man with the ball. In a year with no true breakout hits, FIFA, a nod to the class of sports video gaming for the past four years is appropriate.
Incumbent excellence is fine for crowning a winner in a subcategory like Best Team Sports Game. Improvement deserves to be recognized, and that's why there's Comeback Game of the Year. But a game must do both to be considered the Sports Video Game of the Year, the standout best offering of the genre in the past calendar year. And none was this year.
FIFA 13, as said above, improved largely through subtle refinements. So did NHL 13 with a new skating engine, whose benefit was perceptible more to longtime players of the series than to a broader audience. Had NBA 2K13 developed even a modest showpiece mode for the inclusion of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team, or returned the "NBA's Greatest" retrospective from NBA 2K12, it would have been hands down the Sports Video Game of the Year. A welcome control refinement made player movement more intuitive, but there are still a dizzying number of moves for the average person to memorize, much less master.
While these three plus MLB The Show did not regress, and leave this year as they began it—all highly regarded games—they did not take any appreciable risks either. Madden NFL 13 did, and no title this year strove harder to transform itself, and executed more in doing so, than it did. But overall laurels for it, in this year, would send a message that following a terrible year with overdue changes is all it takes to be the class of sports video gaming.
Nor should we arrive at this type of honor by such a process of elimination. It should be affirmatively awarded, for readily identifiable reasons. And sports video gaming's annual demand for $60, for what can be an incremental update even in its best series, arouses intense opinions and resentments within the community that further necessitate a clear-cut and defensible overall winner.
The most defensible choice, for 2012, is that there is no Sports Video Game of the Year. With the attrition in the licensed publishing catalogue, which speaks for the largest constituency in sports gaming, and with PC gaming a total nonentity except in management simulations, this hasn't been the worst year for sports video gaming. But it is the furthest from its best in this hardware generation.
Perhaps that's to be expected at this point in the lifespan. We're looking forward to the disruptions caused by the next console generation, the risks they will force all of these series to take, and the new contenders that may emerge.
When I introduced myself yesterday, a number of you expressed interest in my admittedly stylish Dark Souls hoodie. With the sigil and color scheme of the lovable character Solaire emblazoned on it, it's one of my most prized possessions.
But if you're a Dark Souls fan hoping to get one for yourself, I've got some bad news: it's no longer available for sale. But that doesn't mean it never will be again.
I reached out to the hoodie's creator, Josh Hansen, to find out whether he'll be making another run, and his answer was sufficiently ambiguous enough for me to believe that he just might.
The sweatshirt's design was something of a collaborative effort across the Dark Souls subreddit. "It was very organic," Hansen said.
Once the design was finalized, Hansen had the hoodie made for cheap through connections at clothing manufacturer the Independent Trading Company.
Hansen originally sold the Solaire hoodie in two limited runs, and only a few hundred were ever produced. The entire process, from design to sale, took around eight months. It was a significant risk to have them made in the first place, Hansen told me, as he didn't take orders in advance, and he sold the garments at cost, his only profit coming from a few paltry donations.
After all the hassle (the hoodies arrived to him around the same time his wife was due to give birth), he's hesitant to do another run. But he said if he did, he'd do it through Kickstarter or another crowdfunding site in order to make it easier.
I asked him if he'd be worried about attracting the ire of Namco Bandai and From Software, who haven't sanctioned his use of the Dark Souls imagery. On the contrary, he said, "If someone from Namco Bandai or From is not aware of the hoodie already, I'd be incredibly surprised." Besides, it's not like they seem to mind any of the other unofficial Dark Souls apparel floating around on the internet.
I wear my Solaire hoodie almost every day. It's the most comfortable sun-praising apparel I own, and I legitimately believe that it makes me better at the game. Don't give up hope if you want to get your own—I can't be sure, but it might even help if you show Hansen a little love on Twitter. Maybe you can convince him that another run will be worth his time and effort.
Say what you want about Zach Snyder's take on Superman, but I already prefer Dustfilms' homemade version. The special effects just seem so much more realistic.
The video above has the amateur version side-by-side with the official Man of Steel trailer so you can see exactly how they compare. The homemade trailer is available by itself as well, plus a behind-the-scenes video for those who want to find out exactly how they recreated the flight scene. Truly mind-blowing.
Man Of Steel - Trailer (Homemade Version: Shot-For-Shot) [Youtube via BuzzFeed]
![What The Hell Is Up With The New Black Isle? [Update]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/1897ke0jimrkxjpg/medium.jpg "What The Hell Is Up With The New Black Isle? [Update]")
Black Isle was one of the great game studios of its era, but the visionary company that existed in the 90s and early oughts is no more, and its revival is something else entirely—something that seems more sketchy every day.
After months of silence since its August announcement, the new Black Isle opened its virtual doors last Thursday with an unsurprising mission: to make a game by taking your money.
We've all grown pretty accustomed to the crowdsourcing movement. Some projects—like the ones run by inXile and Obsidian, the two studios where most ex-Black Isle personnel ultimately landed—are probably even worth checking out. But the new Black Isle—somehow still backed by Interplay, a company that itself seems rather up in the air—offers little by way of incentives or explanation. The studio's main site is being powered by something called "InvestedIn," which as far as I can tell is like Kickstarter, but without all the pesky limitations that keep Kickstarter projects honest. The main site itself doesn't so much as show the total amount raised so far; to find that out you need to head to the tucked-away invested.in page. So far they're over $3,000.
Contributors aren't even funding a full game (just a "prototype"), and access to the finished product is never promised at all. Instead, contributors get access to a "special forum," though only donations over $20 earn you posting privileges—otherwise, bafflingly, it's "look, don't touch." The top 20 funders, god help them, get gold forum badges and a "Certificate of Valor" (clearly much better than the Certificates of "Merit" and "Recognition" offered to $10 and $20 contributors, respectively). Oh, and they'll be taking your money immediately, eschewing the expected 30-day funding period required by sites like Kickstarter.
Does that mean that you won't get your money back even if the project fails? I can't be sure, since representatives of Interplay and the new Black Isle don't seem to want to chat. But as it so often is in post-apocalyptic games, the writing here seems to be on the walls.
The game itself—dubbed "Project V13"—raises even more questions, though an update to the studio's Facebook page yesterday described it in more detail than anything that had been posted previously. It described a game with an atypical post-apocalyptic setting—"endless flat plains of brown sand are not in the cards"—and equal parts SimCity and Fallout.
Yet the update also revealed that Black Isle had to scrap most or all of the work that went into Project V13, previously the codename for the Fallout MMO (Interplay no longer owns the rights—the word "Fallout" is even bleeped out in the studio's plea video), which had been "in development for years". So that leaves…what? They don't say, and it seems even they don't really know.
On the other hand, that at least was better than their last update, posted the day before. Here's an excerpt:
Something you should think about before donating or telling your friends to donate. You might be the cause of a small number of people sitting in their cramped, dark f****** shelter depressed because they're not sitting in their cramped, dark f****** for real because the world didn't really end.
Got that? Some people won't be happy you're helping.
No, I can't make head or tails of that, either. And I honestly can't tell whether the new Black Isle is a brazen scam or simply a project helmed by misguided game developers who haven't fully grasped the concept at the core of the crowdsourcing movement: that those contributing get something in return.
Two of the original Black Isle's workforce, Chris Taylor and Mark Green, have indeed returned, yet still it seems that the studio has been resurrected in name only. Perhaps most damning of all is the fact that they seem to be ignoring all requests for clarification—my own questions remain unanswered, and the story is apparently the same across every site that's covered this debacle so far. What's up with the weird updates? What's been happening at Black Isle for the last four months? Who is actually creating this game?
If you'll forgive me donning my tin foil hat for a moment, I'd hypothesize that they launched this right before the holidays so they'd have an excuse to ignore the media's queries while raking in cash from the poor saps who haven't done their homework. That, or maybe they were hoping the world would end after all and they'd never have to answer to this.
Update: Black Isle's invested.in page shows the amount raised so far, though this information is indeed missing from the studio's official site. This story has been updated to reflect that.
Update #2: Interplay CEO Hervé Caen replied to say that some of their updates are "just for fun" and assure me that they're hard at work. Full comment below:
Some updates are serious and some are just for fun. Update #2 was a fun one obviously. The Black Isle team wants to have fun while making a new post apocalyptic game. We are not sure why the hostile tone of your report but we're not offended. I have been at work for over 10 years cleaning up the financial mess Interplay was in. Now we are as strong as ever. It is time for us to come out of our bunker and we are looking for feedback from the fans to deliver great new gaming experiences.
