Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 418

Goat Simulator is the stupid game it wants to be

If you build it, people on the Internet will talk about it.

New PBS Game/Show looks at their favorite gaming gifs

Seriously, who doesn’t loves gifs? But gaming gifs are worthy of affection in particular because they capture those one-in-a-million moments that your friends, much less your Internet-friends, would never believe. And there are just so many great ones. On this week’s episode of PBS Game/Show, Jamin looks at some of his personal favorites, and, as expected, hilarity ensues. That Dark Souls one is almost too good to be true.

Let us know some of your favorite gifs in the comments!

Arcade-themed yearbook from '82 is great in a way that only a yearbook from '82 can be

Ah, the 80s; when teenage smoking was still glamourous, punk was holding on by tooth and nail, and it was culturally viable for a yearbook to be themed around the concept of arcade games. When I came across this nostalgic album from a Florida high school on IDEA Books of London’s classy Instagram feed, I could hardly believe that my own yearbook in contrast was so uncool. To rub it in I also discovered the way-too-wack-for-this-world learner’s manual on how to breakdance that I couldn’t help posting down below. I was born too late, I tell you.

Cloudbuilt is a game about speed with an uneven pace

Fighting for freedom

Four Sided Fantasy's level design is smarter than you

No offense, of course. 

We simulated the rest of March Madness using Smash Bros., because why not

Let the record show that we nailed our Super Bowl predictions using this methodology.

Cloak is the antisocial app that helps you avoid people

Mobiles have been a boon for staying connected. Your phone can help you track down your friends, join a conversation with people you never met, and quickly find a stranger looking for a one-night stand. Or so I hear! But what if you want to avoid people at all costs, like an ex-husband, your money-borrowing kids, or your supervisor from the factory who does not need to know how high you are? 

Cloak by Brian Moore is the anti-social app that helps you stay far away from those you might otherwise unfortunately run into. The way it does this is by tapping into Foursquare and Instagram’s GPS for people in your contacts. If they draw to close to your whereabouts, the app gives you a warning to be on guard, displaying an icon at the last location they checked in on the map. It’s not flawless, as it only works with two social media services, but it’s a good idea and I’d love to see it expanded, because sometimes you just want to hide out.

You can find Cloak on the App Store for 99 cents.

Tentacles: Enter the Mind has tentacles behaving badly

Tentacles in games and game culture have a bad rap due to some unsavory things I’d rather not spill words about. But they're not always morally reprehensible. Tentacles: Enter the Mind shows the potential for fun with tentacles in a totally wholesome way. While the blobby protagonist with an evil eye appears to have mischievous intentions, it only involves strangely moving forward with stretchable appendages, latching with three or four slimy tendrils onto coin-lined corridors. It's all about exploratory controls. 

As it stands, this one’s only for Windows devices and Windows 8.

Half-Life 2 sure would be good-looking on modern hardware

These crisp and meticulously-rendered screenshots of the train station from Half-Life 2 titillate and tease. Just how gorgeous would Half-Life 3 look on modern hardware? Not like that’s going to happen, but from time to time its good to rub fresh salt in old wounds. 

The shots come to us courtesy of digital artist Jeannot "Logithx" van Berlo, who grabbed these images from his very lovely recreation of City 17 and posted them on the Polycount user forum, which is full of game artists pimping their stuff. 

What’s scary is he’s claiming that his architectural model will look even more perfect once he’s done porting it to Unreal Engine 4. It’s such an interesting Intenet we live in where fans like this guy and the fine people over at Dead End Thrills make more beautiful game art than the studios themselves.

Cex’s rad new electronic record comes in a grimy old Gamestop case

The electronic artist Cex’s new record is a soundtrack for a PlayStation 2 game that doesn’t exist, and the music seems similarly outside of physical space. Shamaneater is sample-heavy, low-key electronica filed under the sub-genre of vaporware—hyperreal, beat-bumping tunes as imagined by purveyors of obscure sounds. Think smooth jazz, lounge, maybe PlayStation 2 samples. 

As far as the music quality, this album is really fucking nice, but you wouldn’t know it from the cover art. It comes repackaged in authentic secondhand jackets recycled from Gamestop—you know, the kind that stand in for long lost boxes of traded-in copies of Burnout. If you’re lucky yours will not be covered in gummy sticker residue. Ah, the memories! Not only that, but the disc is printed like an authentic PS2 game.

You can and should listen here.