A Hollywood Director Has Ideas On How To Make Better Video Games

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® A Hollywood Director Has Ideas On How To Make Better Video Games

James McTeigue must be an interesting man to talk video games with, seeing as he's had experience both directing movies (V For Vendetta) and working in the games business.

So it's nice reading this interview with him on GI.biz, where amongst talk of video game movies and video games based on movies, he offers a tip for the game developers of the world.

Many of whom might scoff - he's coming at the situation from the point of view of a guy who works mostly in a medium with a controlled, linear narrative - but then, a fresh pair of eyes can also give you the best advice.

And I like his advice, because it's got nothing to do with staff counts, or art design, or difficulty levels. It's about what's put in front of the player's face.

"...there has to be a master of the ship at some point. The master of the ship has to guide you like you do in a film or like you do in a game, so that what I'm going to expose you to is worthwhile", he says. "Like anyone who's been in the gaming industry, you absolutely know that you will not please all of the people all of the time."

"The reason I bring that up is that I think as the maker of the game you ultimately have to decide for the gamer a little bit", he adds. "You can't cover every option, you can't make the interior of every store, because what's the point if you have ten million people playing the game and only two want to go inside the shop? It doesn't make any sense. Just guide 'em; it doesn't mean that you can't do it sometimes, but make it worthwhile, make it integral to the story, make it part of the thing that you need to do. Just don't get bogged down in the minutiae of that, hoping that someone will go in there sometime."

Like I said, not everyone will agree. For some, that attention to detail is what turns a decorated virtual corridor into a world. But maybe he's right; if it took X amount of people to make all that fluff, could their time and effort have been better spent making the meat of the game better?

Games need more direction, says filmmaker James McTeigue [GI.biz]

A Hollywood Director Has Ideas On How To Make Better Video Games

Our Google Search Autocompletes Are So Depressing

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Our Google Search Autocompletes Are So Depressing

If there is such thing as an all seeing eye of the Internet, it would be Google Autocomplete. It takes in what we type into Google's search box and fills it out with common searches. The results of Autocomplete can be stereotypical, sexist, hilarious and... depressing. This video shows what the common autocomplete search is when you type in your age. I'm 15 and...

It's scary how the early age autocompletes are pregnant. Most of the results are sex related whether it be pregnant, never have been kissed, being a virgin, having a baby too late and so on.

The video, which was made by Marius B., uses a browser in incognito mode with no user signed in, no cookies and no previous search history. Marius B writes:

Using billions of searches, Google has prototyped an anonymous profile of its users. This reflects the fears, inquiries, preoccupations, obsessions and fixations of the human being at a certain age and our evolution through life.

[Marius B]

Our Google Search Autocompletes Are So Depressing

Humans Create Program That Builds Its Own Super Mario Bros. Levels

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Humans Create Program That Builds Its Own Super Mario Bros. Levels

Manuel Kerssemakers, Jeppe Tuxen, Julian Togelius and Georgios Yannakakis have done something cool. They've created a computer program that does Nintendo's job. Sort of.

For their 2012 paper called A procedural procedural level generator generator, blogged today by Gamasutra, they built a system that's able to randomly generate levels for Infinite Mario Bros., the Mario tribute developed by Minecraft creator Marcus "Notch" Persson.

The way they've designed the program to build the levels is fascinating, creating limits on the number of certain items while encouraging enemies to spawn, I guess, sensibly. Yeah, I know, procedurally-generated stuff exists everywhere these days, but there's something fantastic about seeing it applied to the classics like this.

Their efforts are underpinning a community who have taken their program and modified it to build their own levels. You can try it out yourself here.

A procedural procedural level generator generator [Paper, via Gamasutra]

Humans Create Program That Builds Its Own Super Mario Bros. Levels

Amazing Mech Designs Hint At The Future Of Warfare (And Dogs)

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Amazing Mech Designs Hint At The Future Of Warfare (And Dogs)

Vitaly Bulgarov works at Blizzard, on the company's world-renowned cinematics team. But we're not here today to look at art for Blizzard games, or indeed for their fancy trailers and cutscenes.

Instead, we're looking at an amazing collection Bulgarov recently put together called the "Black Phoenix Project". Teaming up with photographer Maria Skotnikova, the challenge was to create ten original mech designs in ten days, and render them straight into gorgeous 3D. No 2D sketches to help make things easer, no days off.

The results are...well, see for yourself. There are game developers (and movie studios) who would murder for their art teams to come up with mech designs this good. For someone to have come up with them off the top of his head, and get them looking this good within a 24-hour period in his spare time, just seems unfair.

You can see more of Vitaly's work, including plenty more images of the mechs below, at his personal site.

To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the bottom-right corner.

Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!

Amazing Mech Designs Hint At The Future Of Warfare (And Dogs)

The Hilarious Truth About the IKEA Catalog

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® The Hilarious Truth About the IKEA Catalog

Whether you love IKEA for being a one stop shop to fill out your home with a seemingly endless inventory of knick knacks or hate the big box shop for its self-destructing furniture and not so easy instructions, the IKEA catalog is probably the most printed book after the Bible. But what is IKEA hiding in its impeccably decorated pages? This video hilariously exposes it.

Like poking fun at the SkyMall catalog, Meghan O'Neill and Slackatory imagines IKEA designers telling the truth of all its products. Meatballs, included. [Slackatory]

The Hilarious Truth About the IKEA Catalog

Dragon’s Dogma Update Corrupting Files, Preventing Saves

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Dragon’s Dogma Update Corrupting Files, Preventing Saves

Following complaints from users, a Capcom rep has issued a statement on the company's forums urging people to backup their save data before downloading an update for RPG Dragon's Dogma.

Seems people have run into issues where, after downloading the update, they've found their save files corrupted, with the game unable to save (or load) their progress. Which for a big game like DD is kind of a problem.

The full statement is below:

A quick public service announcement for you Dragon's Dogma and Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen players. A number of users have encountered an unforeseen issue with a recent downloadable Title Update (patch). The TU, in some cases, has caused players' DD save data to become corrupted (cue Olra purification jokes), meaning the game will no longer save or load their game progress.

To prevent the possibility of permanent loss of your data, please copy your existing save data (whether it be DD or DDDA) to an external storage device or cloud whenever possible—especially if you are picking up the game for the first time in awhile or switching over to Dark Arisen for the first time.

If you experience repeated issues with your save data becoming corrupt, please try playing the game offline while we investigate the issue. We’re exploring the issue currently and hope to have a solution as quickly as possible. Many apologies for the inconvenience.

PSA: Title Update issue—Backup your Dragon's Dogma save data [Capcom]

Dragon’s Dogma Update Corrupting Files, Preventing Saves

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: LANDSHAPES

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: LANDSHAPES

And you theought the Griswold's trip to Walley World ended badly? Just look at the havoc wrought upon S’ Agaró, Spain by a family of gravitational anomalies.

This artistic reimagining of the famed resort upon the Costa Brava was filmed last summer before one-named videographer Ben, who you may remember from Imprevionism, went to work adding effects.

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: LANDSHAPES

Wii Owners, Nintendo REALLY Wants You To Buy A Wii U, OK?

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Wii Owners, Nintendo REALLY Wants You To Buy A Wii U, OK?

Readers are letting us know that Nintendo has this evening taken the very direct step of sending out messages to Wii owners. Not to tell them that their system is being updated. To tell them their system is now out of date.

Continuing a recent exercise in the company finally realising "holy shit we really should have called this thing something else", Nintendo's message spells out as explicitly as it can that the Wii U is "an entirely new system". Not a re-release of the Wii, not an add-on, not a variant, an entirely new system. OK?

I've never seen a console need to be marketed like this before. When you need to spell things out so clearly, and directly message every single owner of your previous console, well. You appear to have a marketing problem. And a sales problem.

[thanks @Starfireturtle!]

Wii Owners, Nintendo REALLY Wants You To Buy A Wii U, OK?

A Mod That Tries To Save Duke Nukem

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® A Mod That Tries To Save Duke Nukem

Poor Duke. Once an A-list star of the FPS world, his long absence during the hellish development of Duke Nukem Forever - and the even more hellish end result of that - has tarnished his name.

As regretful as his latest title was, though, there are many who still harbour a soft spot for the man he used to be. And the engine his games used to run on.

And so we have Duke Nukem Forever 2013, a project that recreates much of the experience of DNF, only now it's in the old engine from Duke Nukem 3D.

It's amazing what a visual downgrade and a switch from creepy polygons to serviceable bitmap characters can do for a game.

Duke Nukem Forever 2013 [ModDB, via PC Gamer]

Duke Nukem Forever 2013 Trailer - Mod DB

A Mod That Tries To Save Duke Nukem

Now Everyone Can Make Out With Assassin's Creed III's Connor

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Now Everyone Can Make Out With Assassin's Creed III's Connor

Action figures? Little desktop statues? Those are for coward collectors. Those who really want to make a statement - and scare off home intruders (particularly British ones) - spend over $3000 on a giant statue of Assassin's Creed III's Connor Kenway.

Standing nearly seven feet tall, he's available for preorder from French (I guess that explains the smooching?) company Attakus. You can see a making-of video below, which is actually pretty interesting, as it's got a nice mix of hand-crafted art and hypnotic machine work involved.

Connor - Assassin's Creed 3 Preorder DEPOSIT [Attakus, via Toyark]

Now Everyone Can Make Out With Assassin's Creed III's Connor

Here Are the Best Movies on Netflix That Will Disappear Tomorrow

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Here Are the Best Movies on Netflix That Will Disappear Tomorrow

Another Netflix purge is happening. By tomorrow, 1794 movies will disappear from Netflix's catalog which means the last chance you have to stream these movies is tonight. Pick wisely! We've narrowed the choices down for you.

If this sounds a lot like what happened last year with Starz, well, it is. Only not as bad. Still, you never know when movies will disappear because Netflix and/or studios want their current streaming deals to expire. This time, Netflix is losing movies from Warner Bros, MGM and Universal. Most of them are classic films, some of them will be available on other streaming services but all of them will be gone by tomorrow, May 1st. Here's a few worth watching:

The full list of movies that are disappearing from Netflix tomorrow can be found at Instant Watcher (the site is pretty bogged down right now). A selection of classics you should watch are over at Slate. We'll be updating our list as we comb through the list of what's expiring and from your suggestions.

Here Are the Best Movies on Netflix That Will Disappear Tomorrow

Lawsuit Claims Aliens: Colonial Marines Used False Advertising

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Lawsuit Claims Aliens: Colonial Marines Used False Advertising

Looking at the demos and previews for Aliens: Colonial Marines, it's difficult not to notice just how much better they look than the final product. Bullshots are one thing—in this case, arguably, Aliens had false advertising. Now there's a class action lawsuit claiming exactly that according to Polygon.

The plaintiff, who cites California civil and business codes, is Damion Perrine. The lawsuit seeks damages for people who purchased the game before the discrepancies between the advertising of Aliens and the actual final product were publicly known. Those outside the press would have no way of knowing what they were purchasing at the time.

Edekson LLC, the law firm representing Perrine, issued the following statement to Polygon:

"The gaming community had a strong reaction to the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines," Edelson LLC's Ben Thomassen told Polygon. "We think the video game industry is no different than any other that deals with consumers: if companies like Sega and Gearbox promise their customers one thing but deliver something else, then they should be held accountable for that decision."

Kotaku reached out to both Gearbox and Sega on the matter, and we will update this post as soon as we receive comment.

Gearbox and Sega falsely advertised Aliens: Colonial Marines with press demos, lawsuit claims [Polygon]

Lawsuit Claims Aliens: Colonial Marines Used False Advertising

Athlete Tweets About His Love for the Galaxy S4 from an iPhone

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Athlete Tweets About His Love for the Galaxy S4 from an iPhone

David Ferrer, the 4th ranked tennis player in the world right now (which probably makes him the best tennis player you never heard of), made a silly unforced error off the tennis court today: he tweeted about how happy he is with his new Samsung Galaxy S4 from... his iPhone. Whoops!

Like how BlackBerry spokesperson Alicia Keys got caught using an iPhone, Ferrer made the same embarrassing mistake of shilling for a company while actually using its competitor's device. The offending tweet, which was obviously supposed to be an advertisement to his followers, said:

That translates to: I'm happy with my new Galaxy S4, setting up S Health on my Galaxy S4 to help me with my training.

Hey look Ferrer's followers, he's actually using all those crazy features of the S4! Only totally not, as that tweet came from his iPhone. The tweet from the iPhone, which was spotted by Jaime Novoa, was promptly deleted and replaced with the same tweet but from a different device (no guarantee it was the Samsung Galaxy S4).

It's not a good look for Samsung when it's paying athletes to use the S4 and yet those sponsored athletes continue to use their iPhones. [Jaime Novoa via TUAW]

Image Credit: AP

Athlete Tweets About His Love for the Galaxy S4 from an iPhone

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon: The Kotaku Review

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon: The Kotaku Review

There is joy in stupidity.

In an age where the search for deeper meaning in our interactive entertainment pursuits begins after the first trailer — where more thought goes into post-game critical analysis than development — a game that bears its shallow soul for all to see is a blessing. "The game is stupid," Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon creative director Dean Evans proudly proclaimed during a recent press event — not foolish pride, but pride in foolishness.

"Dare to be stupid," sang parody artist Weird Al Yankovick in a song appearing in the 1986 animated Transformers movie, a contemporary to the late 80s, early 90s action films from which this day-glo Far Cry 3 spin-off takes much of its inspiration. As a young teen I enjoyed the tune in the same way I enjoyed movies like Terminator and Aliens (both featuring Michael Biehn, the voice of Blood Dragon's protagonist) — mindless fun.

The game casts players as Sergeant Rex 'Power' Colt, a name we wouldn't have blinked an eye at back in 86. He's a special forces cyborg with a man to kill, but first he's going to have to kill all of the things standing between him and that man. The game's loosely about saving the world. Heck, if we were in the 80s it might have been heralded as a commentary on the Cold War. We were pretty ridiculous in the 80s.

The story unfolds through a series of 2D cutscenes that wouldn't be out-of-place in an NES-era adventure (well, except for the foul language and... other things). And when those scenes end, it's into a day-glo nightmare from the early days of MTV.

If a black light poster broke open a neon bar sign and inhaled its contents, this would be what the puddle of vomit around its corpse would look like when the police found him. It was nice and novel for the first couple of hours, but I soon found myself yearning for the cloudy blue skies of Far Cry 3 proper.

Ubisoft has done great and terrible things with the game engine, transforming it into a nightmare world, where wild boars roam the purple plains, backs covered with neon graffiti. Where mutated gila monsters — the eponymous blood dragons — prowl the tiny island, seeking to make a meal of whatever flesh your cyborg body still possesses.

As outlandish and garish as this tiny island is, there is always something there to remind me of Far Cry 3. There's the sweet-spot shooting (not too loose, not too tight) that helped push me to nominate an FPS — not my normal go-to genre — for game of the year last year. There are outposts to conquer, side-missions to complete for weapon upgrades, money to collect and animals to hunt. The crafting system is gone (and good riddance), and the leveling system has swapped tattoo-based branching trees for straightforward level-based power upgrades. Oh, and the developers couldn't resist the opportunity to scare the living shit out of me with an alligator. They get me every damn time.

But alligator attacks are few and far between — Blood Dragon would much rather make you laugh than make you scream, and it's damn good at it. Michael Biehn sighs gruffly through the opening tutorials, eager to get with the killing and catchphrases. The dialogue sounds as if it were written by a thirteen year-old me, more concerned with how cool it sounds than how much sense it makes. "Tell them I died for my country," one of Rex's compatriots tells him during a moment of tension. "You'll tell them that yourself!" he responds.

That's the power of overt, honest stupidity. I just described two things I despise in a game attempting to be taken seriously. Bad dialogue and repetitive voice clips would completely kill most games for me, but there is no pretension here at all. There is no other expectation. It's the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker of first-person shooters, delivering ridiculous with a straight face, Airplane! style.

There are people who consider Far Cry 3 to be the wrong kind of stupid — a senseless story masquerading as something deep and meaningful. There are many games that do just that, and sometimes they succeed. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon isn't trying to fool anyone, and that's why I loved every minute.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon: The Kotaku Review

The puck dropped an hour ago on the Stanley Cup playoffs, and NHL 13's official simulation has the N

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® The puck dropped an hour ago on the Stanley Cup playoffs, and NHL 13's official simulation has the N [unable to retrieve full-text content]

The puck dropped an hour ago on the Stanley Cup playoffs, and NHL 13's official simulation has the New York Rangers winning the whole thing, beating Chicago in six in the finals. Get your bets down now. C'mon. No way you can lose.

The puck dropped an hour ago on the Stanley Cup playoffs, and NHL 13's official simulation has the N

Watch How HTC Makes the HTC One So Beautiful

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Watch How HTC Makes the HTC One So Beautiful

The HTC One is very probably the most beautiful looking smartphone on the planet right now and very possibly the very best phone money can buy. How did it get that way? The details in its design. HTC's design team talks about the impressive process of turning a slab of metal into so much more.

We're used to seeing these design videos from Apple with Jony Ive's fiercely wonderful accent making it seem like the littlest design details are more important than ending global warming. But here's HTC taking design just as serious as Cupertino. HTC even has its own Jony Ive (albeit wearing glasses and with less pronounced traps) talking about the specific design process. HTC even string words that just sound cool together like zero gap construction, electro chemical etching process, nano matrix structure, special diamond cutter creating a chamfer, and so on. HTC gets that design matters.

Though I guess we shouldn't be surprised that a beautiful phone like the HTC One has such a beautiful design process, right? [HTC via SlashGear]

Watch How HTC Makes the HTC One So Beautiful

Destroy Your Childhood Memories of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Destroy Your Childhood Memories of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Obliterate what you once thought of the Ninja Turtles by watching this gross, NSFW exploration of what 'scientifically accurate Ninja Turtles' would be like. Truly, Animation Domination High Def has a twisted mind. I had no idea real turtles were so...unpleasant.

Eww.

SCIENTIFICALLY ACCURATE NINJA TURTLES | ADHD [Animation Domination High Def]

Destroy Your Childhood Memories of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Dream Jumpers, a Kickstarter project developed by a group of designers with experience on games like

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Dream Jumpers, a Kickstarter project developed by a group of designers with experience on games like [unable to retrieve full-text content]

Dream Jumpers, a Kickstarter project developed by a group of designers with experience on games like Mass Effect and Fez, looks pretty neat. They want $15,000 to make a co-op hack-n-slash for iOS, PC, Android, and Mac.

Dream Jumpers, a Kickstarter project developed by a group of designers with experience on games like

A Classy, Hardcover Scoreboook for a Classic, Hardscrabble Game

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® A Classy, Hardcover Scoreboook for a Classic, Hardscrabble Game

If there’s one thing I learned about baseball from my pitcher grandpa, it’s that you’re not really watching unless you’re keeping a scorecard.

The only cards I’ve ever used have been flimsy things, printed on news stock and quickly tossed in the circular file. But graphic designer Bethany Heck is attempting to inject a little style into the genre with the Halfliner Scorebook, a luxurious-looking scorecard that hit Kickstarter a few days ago.

The Halfliner is based on feedback from customers who bought Heck’s first scorecard, which was funded on Kickstarter back in 2011. Users asked for things like a rigid chipboard case that serves as a support for writing and space for more games (this one has room for 81). The super minimal graphic design allows more space for notation, too, plus an intro to the sport for n00bs and extra innings, sub slots, and stats columns. According to Heck, everyone has their own weird habits and notations, and the Halfliner is attempt to give devotees enough room to do their own thing. “Scorekeeping is a personal expression,” she says in her pitch. “I wanna give fans the cleanest scorebook experience possible.”

Heck is the founder of the Eephus League, a project that began as her senior thesis at Auburn in 2010. The company—which is named for the awkwardly high, slow pitch—began as a way to articulate “baseball’s beauty, oddities and wonderful fans.” It’s since blossomed into a beautifully designed online magazine and shop devoted to the minutiae of the sport—of which there is an almost unlimited supply. [The Halfliner Scorebook]

A Classy, Hardcover Scoreboook for a Classic, Hardscrabble Game

SyFy TV tie-in Defiance is running an in-game contest that'll score the winner a guest spot on the s

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® SyFy TV tie-in Defiance is running an in-game contest that'll score the winner a guest spot on the s SyFy TV tie-in Defiance is running an in-game contest that'll score the winner a guest spot on the show! Well, a guest shot as a picture of them rendered by the show's artists. All you have to do is play better than everyone else. TV and MMO cross-media experiments are hard. SyFy TV tie-in Defiance is running an in-game contest that'll score the winner a guest spot on the s

Here's Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon in Action For Seven Minutes

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Here's Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon in Action For Seven Minutes

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon— the neon and fuchsia drenched stand alone expansion for Far Cry 3 — is out today for the Playstation Network.

We'll have a review of it later today, but in the meantime, here's seven minutes of me playing the game just to give you a taste of what it's like in action.

Here's Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon in Action For Seven Minutes

Feed Wrangler: A Great iOS Reader Replacement for a Price

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® Feed Wrangler: A Great iOS Reader Replacement for a Price

While yes, the grieving process takes time, if you're still too busy bemoaning the imminent death of your beloved Google Reader, you're going to find yourself in a bind when it finally gets put out of its misery later this summer. Replacements abound, and there's no question that $19 price tag is going to be a turn-off for some. But for those willing to buy their peace of RSS mind, you may have found a winner.

What does it do?

Lets you import your RSS feed from Google Reader, or if you're looking for a new beginning, you can pick and choose which specific lists you'd like to bring in to your new, Reader-less life. From there, you'll get four main screens: unread, all, starred, and Smart Streams. The last follows in the vein of Apple's Smart Playlists, and puts together feeds whichever search terms or already existing feeds you'd like.

Why do we like it?

Convenience is front and center here. The web app lets you manage your lists and browse your feeds when desktop access is available. Plus, for 1Password users, an icon is flawlessly integrated into the start screen, so all it takes is a single tap and you're in browsing headlines. And unlike with many mobile-based reader apps out there, Feed Wrangler doesn't skimp on functionality for screen space. It manages to give you just as much power (star, mark as read, mark all as read, sharing, etc.) as you enjoy in Google Reader while keeping a simple, clean layout that doesn't detract from your experience. Of course, you'll have to REALLY be someone who uses an RSS reader to validate the high price. Everyone else can download the sample version for free and get a glimpse of how the other side lives.

Feed Wrangler, Download this app for: iOS, Free/$19

The Best: Smart Streams

The Worst: Pricey

Feed Wrangler: A Great iOS Reader Replacement for a Price

A Visual History of Attractive Video Game Characters: The 90s

~~pagesoon.blogspot.com~~ ® A Visual History of Attractive Video Game Characters: The 90s

By the end of the 90s, the 16-bit era ended and 3D took over. With the PlayStation and 3D graphics cards out there allowing for new possibilities, narrative and gameplay, the 90s produced some of the most attractive characters in video game history.

Well-known mascots and protagonists made their transitions to 3D, other, yet to be famous ones made their low polygon debut. In the second part of our series—showing the most attractive females and males in video games—we explore the 90s.

But let's not rush forward. Games in the first half of the decade featured primarily improved 2D graphics, creating some really detailed and memorable characters.

Chun Li, Ryu, Ken and Guile in Street Fighter II (1991)

Bubble Bath Babes (1991)

Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat (1992)

Mai Shiranui in the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series (1992)

Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 (1992)

Spellcasting 301: Spring Break (1992)

Night Trap (1992)

Time Gal (1993)

Morrigan Aensland in Darkstalkers (1994)

Samus Aran in Super Metroid (1994)

Voyeur (1994)

Tanya in Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996)

Leisure Suit Larry 5-7 (1991-1996)

Princess Rosella in King's Quest VII (1997)

Elaine Marley in Monkey Island 1-3 (1990-1997)

Nico and George in Broken Sword I-II (1996-1997)

Although the PlayStation was already out in 1994 in Japan, the real 3D breakthrough happened two years later with the release of Core Design's Tomb Raider. Can't say that these early 3D character models were perfect compared to the beautiful 2D ones, but it they made strides as the years went on.

Kazuya, Michelle and Anna in Tekken (1994)

Princess Peach in Super Mario 64 (1996)

Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield in Resident Evil (1996)

Duke in Duke Nukem 3D (1996)

Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (1996)

James Bond in Goldeneye 007 (1997)

Tifa, Cloud and Aeris in Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Aya Brea in Parasite Eve (1998)

Elexis Sinclaire in Sin (1998)

Red Lotus in Deathtrap Dungeon (1998)

Solid Snakeand Meryl in Metal Gear Solid (1998)

Heishiro Mitsurugi in SoulCalibur (1998)

The Hunter in Quake III Arena (1999)

Squall and Rinoa in Final Fantasy VIII (1999)

Compared to the 80s the 90s introduced a vast amount of attractive characters. Our list is just the tip of the iceberg, so make sure to leave your picks and favorites in the comments with visual support!

sources: eVoluci0n, cubex55, Joao Carlos, stormypetrel, Darius320, Broken Sword Wiki, szemigi, Fernito, Fighters Generation, Quake Wiki

A Visual History of Attractive Video Game Characters: The 90s