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Arma 3 arms itself with cover art and screens
Bohemia Interactive posted the cover art for Arma 3 to its official Facebook page. We have a higher res version of the art available in the gallery below, along with a handful of screens from the game's site.You could say we're "up to our armas" in Arma 3 images, but we can't put our fingers on what that pun really means. The Steam-exclusive shooter is entering its closed alpha phase this coming Tuesday. %Gallery-180297% %Gallery-180298%
BioShock Infinite reverse art revealed
Irrational Games revealed the reverse cover art for BioShock Infinite today. The art chosen won 38% of fan votes on the poll posted by studio head Ken Levine earlier this month as the result of displeasure from fans over the game's official box art.The art, the full version of which can be found after the break, will be printed on the other side of the BioShock Infinite cover. Levine noted that other alternate covers will be made available for fans to print.Now hopefully we've all learned our lesson: It's what's on the inside that counts.
Vote for BioShock Infinite's b-side cover
Irrational Games is asking the community to vote for BioShock Infinite's reversible cover art. Studio head Ken Levine asks in a post on the Irrational site for fans to vote on one of six covers:"But what's that you say? You want even more choice in covers? We're also going to be arranging a whole mess of MORE alternate covers which will be available to download and print yourself," Levine writes. "Of course, these are free and we'd love to hear your thoughts in the [Irrational] forums as to what you'd like to see."The cover art PR campaign comes a week after the brotastically boring cover for the fantastical Infinite was revealed. Levine mentioned shortly after the cover art drama that the box art was made for uninformed players who don't read news on gaming sites. So, you know, if you're reading this, go vote on what you want the actual cover for BioShock Infinite to be on your shelf.
BioShock Infinite box art needs to shave
Irrational Games coughed up the box art for BioShock Infinite today, and it features lead character Booker DeWitt and his five o'clock shadow. We're guessing that with the game's lack of multiplayer, DeWitt doesn't feel the need to be presentable.BioShock Infinite is scheduled to launch February 26, 2013 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Check out higher resolution versions of the cover art in the gallery below. %Gallery-172450%
Michael Whelan forges a vision of Deathwing
If you're a fan of science fiction and fantasy, the name Michael Whelan is likely familiar to you. And even if the name isn't familiar, it's incredibly likely you've picked up a book with Whelan's art on the cover. Michael Whelan has been one of the world's premier fantasy and science fiction cover artists since 1980, with covers that grace the works of Isaac Asimov, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Anne McCaffrey and many more. In 2009, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle -- the first living artist to be included in a distinguished list of notable authors. Whelan was approached for a commissioned piece by Blizzard's Art Director, Jeremy Cranford. The subject? Deathwing. This month's ImagineFX magazine includes a two-page spread of the full painting, but Whelan has also featured a behind-the-scenes glimpse showing the full process behind creating this beautiful work of art on his official website. It's a fascinating look at what that process of creating a piece of art is actually like. There are a tremendous number of steps involved -- including, in this case, a detailed head study of Deathwing, shown above. The end result is a dramatic, bold, beautiful and very Whelan piece, but the post on Whelan's website includes all of the developmental pieces of art as well. Head to Whelan's website for the full story behind this gorgeous piece of art and an illustration of the work it takes to go from idea to finished piece. And if you're interested in a truly unique holiday gift, the head study of Deathwing is available for purchase, too.
VidaBox Media Servers add metadata support for XBMC, Popcorn Hour and others
We wouldn't expect for upper-crust aimed media server setups like the ones offered by VidaBox to play nicely with the common rabble, but apparently that's just what is going on. With the click of a check box, its "Drop-n-Rip" Blu-ray and DVD archiving now includes cover art and other metadata compatible with third party streamers including Popcorn Hour, HDI Dune, TViX, XBMC, Sage TV and others. This probably won't drop the cost of a custom installed setup by much, but if you have one and want to bring your own extender hardware (similar to its recent iPad support) into the mix, it should be a simple upgrade.
Guild War 2's art director illustrates cover of National Geographic
ArenaNet's Daniel Dociu has another high-profile project in addition to his work on Guild Wars 2: the cover of National Geographic. In this month's issue of the magazine, Dociu provides artwork to illustrate a "magical mystery treasure" of Anglo-Saxan origin that was recently found. Both the cover and the article piece show an era soldier with appropriate armor, clothing, and weapons. Dociu currently holds the positions of both creative director and art director for Guild Wars 2. His skill and prestige certainly isn't hurting the game's profile any, as this achievement comes on top of the Exposé 9's Grand Master Award he won this past July. The National Geographic issue is on news stands (or, to you whippersnappers, the "website") now.
ICO and Shadow of the Colossus has reversible boxart, Last Guardian not at TGS
The North American box art for the ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection is ... not super great. We're no graphic designers or anything, but we do prefer our game cases to be a tad less hideous than that. Fortunately, the flipside of that cover plays host to a much more appealing vision: A stylish representation of the Japanese and European cover for ICO, and a slightly modified version of the European version of Shadow of the Colossus -- neither of which are obstructed by gaudy frames or signage. We hope the inclusion of this good-looking cover is enough to fill you with goodwill towards Team ICO, because this next part certainly won't: PlayStation Blog has revealed that The Last Guardian won't appear at the Tokyo Game Show. The blog explains, "we can assure you that Ueda-san and the rest of the development team are hard at work to bring his lofty vision to life and deliver the very best gaming experience possible." We just hope they can do so before the heat death of the universe.
You -- yes you -- can select the cover athlete for UFC Undisputed 3
Don't think we can't see you out there, you UFC ultra-fan you. You're the guy with posters of Flint Ironstag and Bolt Vanderhuge all over your home gym. You're the guy with the octagon-shaped bed, the chain-link wallpaper and one of those old-timey uvula punching bags mounted in your shower. You breathe this stuff, and THQ knows it. That's why they've entrusted you specifically with the solemn duty of determining which fighter will grace the cover of UFC Undisputed 3. You've got between now and September 30 to vote for one of five fighters, so start blasting your core and jammin' on your quads now; that clickin' finger needs to be in peak physical condition. Once you've cast your ballot, you'll have the chance to win passes to a live UFC event, as if you didn't have season tickets already. Remember to always stretch properly before using the internet, and never vote on cover art without a spotter.
New ArenaNet blog post confirms information about second Guild Wars 2 novel
Fans may get impatient with ArenaNet for its secrecy, but when the people behind Guild Wars 2 decide to release information, they pull out all the stops. The past 24 hours or so have been pretty exciting for Guild Wars 2 fans, and now we've got one more tidbit of news to enjoy. The newest ArenaNet blog post comes to us courtesy of Jeff Grubb, co-author of Ghosts of Ascalon. He talks quite a bit about Ghosts of Ascalon, but the final paragraph holds some extremely interesting news for those already looking forward to the second book. While intrepid fans have tracked down a bit of book information via publishing and bookstore sites, Jeff gives us some confirmation: Edge of Destiny, written by J. Robert King, is due out in December. Furthermore, we learn more about the book's content: "Of the "big guns" of Guild Wars 2 – Rytlock, Zojja, Logan and the rest that we saw in the early trailers – a couple of them will show up in Ghosts, but their full story is told in the second novel, Edge of Destiny." Check out the full blog post -- it's a must-read for any fan.
Japan's Heavy Rain box art barely stays above water
The Japanese box art for Heavy Rain, featuring a nose and mouth barely staying above water, is probably the most sinister and mysterious out of all the regions. Andriasang has posted all three images in succession for comparison. No word yet if the Japanese art will be available online to print like the European cover -- but that would only seem fair, right? (Come on, play along.) It'll be interesting to see how the game does across the oceans, with the European and Japanese covers lacking a certain marketing appeal that's quite prominent in the North American cover. Heavy Rain will try to grab attention with its box art -- and whatever else it has at its disposal -- when it releases later next month. %Gallery-30067%
It's-a Mario World: The Lost Premises
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/The_Mario_games_that_never_were'; Being a solitary Mario fanatic is rewarding in its own right, but when the obsession is affirmed by other people, gaming geekery reaches new heights. More cultural icon than game character, Mario has inspired everything from an animated television series to an extremely lengthy scarf. And probably a couple of other things in between, like cakes and stuff. Most recently, though, we've become infatuated with the thriving community over at VGBoxArt.com, a website dedicated to all kinds of game box artwork, both real and imagined.Barring occasionally subpar Photoshop skills, voluntary contributors to the site's public database have created an interesting collection of box art. Whether it be a reinterpretation of an existing cover or a completely new idea for a game, box art in the Wii category is worth checking out. Of course, the Mario-themed works take precedence in this humble feature, and we've assembled a new gallery showcasing the finer of the bunch. Click on and imagine the Mario games you'll likely never see. It's-a Mario World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's flagship character is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax, debate the curious whereabouts of the princess and covet the luminous power stars strewn about the galaxy. Check back here every Friday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps.
Band of Brothers Blu-ray box art emerges from fog of war
Peep the first picture of the Band of Brothers 6-disc Blu-ray set, recently confirmed as due this fall. The sleeve promises DTS sound (which we'll conveniently take to mean DTS-HD MA), picture-in-picture commentary from the real men of Easy Company and an "interactive field guide" among other features. Fans of the miniseries can rest easy, this set definitely seems to be getting the proper treatment before it hits shelves, we'll keep an eye out for the official list of features that should be unveiled pretty soon.[Via TheHDRoom]
Brett Favre named as Madden NFL 09 cover athlete
Confirming an earlier report that appeared on GameDaily, Brett Favre announced he would be honored as the cover athlete for Madden NFL 09; the 20th Anniversary of the series.The announcement was made during an interview by Late Show host David Letterman. While news may come as a surprise considering Favre recently retired from the sport, his accomplishments alone warrant the appointment.In his career Brett Favre was awarded one Super Bowl championship, 3 AP NFL MVP awards, was a Pro Bowl and All-Pro selection 9 and 7 times respectively and holds over 7 NFL records, including most career passing yards (61,655 all-time yards).Finally, a cover athlete that can end that silly Madden curse. Unless Favre falls off his fishing boat this summer or something.Madden NFL 09 is set to release on August 12.[via Joystiq][Image via GameSpot]
Capcom offers box art 'redemption' for Okami Wii
Capcom has responded to the Okami Wii box snafu by offering replacement cover artwork "to better reflect the artistic nature of the game," which we presume is a more professional way to say "to better remove the reflection of the IGN watermark." Head over to the Cover Artwork Redemption page (yes, they call it redemption) to fill out the form and choose one of three designs, including a "redesigned" version of the original. Previews for the other two replacements are shown above. The offer is free and an email confirmation from Capcom states the cover art will be shipping "in the next few weeks."
The Orange Box gets a much needed makeover
Ever since we laid our eyes on the Half-Life 2: Orange Box cover art we have been a little perplexed by its simplistic design. The cover art featured a mostly orange background with white text explaining the contents and that was about it. We accepted the cover though and never made a fuss. But now it looks like Valve has had a change of heart and design philosophy. TeamXbox is reporting that Valve decided to re-design the Orange Box cover and now it actually features artwork! Indeed, it shows off beautiful Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal artwork! We're glad to see Valve add more art to the cover art and spiffy up the Orange Box, because it really looks good. Check out TeamXbox's supplied Half-Life 2: Orange Box cover viewable after the break.
iTunes Artwork with Curator
Kavasoft has released version 1.0 of Curator, an iTunes Artwork management utility. Curator allows you to search for missing artwork and download any MIA items from Amazon. It also has a few spiffy features like creating Finder icons for your music and helping you perform custom searches for hard-to-find artwork. It costs $18 and there's a free trial version. One thing I've got to give Kavasoft huge props for is it's online guided product tour. I wish every software developer provided one. It gives a quick rundown of the software, complete with screen shots.
