Japanese folklore has progressed past tales of daring samurai and into some less..traditional stories. A woman in a metal suit fighting aliens, a robot boy with a robot dog, a hero of time. But what would happen if each of these stories used the more traditional art style of their folklore predecessors?

You’d get a series of prints like these from illustrator Jed Henry. He’s taken Samus, Mega Man and Link and given them the “Japanese woodblock” treatment, and I have to say the end result is pretty killer. Check out the full series below. Who do you think he should do next? Mario seems too obvious. I’ll go with Street Fighter. Continue Reading »

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Between my review and Dave’s post, this is turning into Diablo 3 day here on Unreality. And I can’t say I can complain about that.

Nor can I pass up this combination of Game of Thrones and Diablo, which further illustrates the point I’ve made about how the Auction House feels like cheating, even if it isn’t. It’s a lot more satisfying to get your own gear from kills (the paying the iron price) rather than buying it outright from someone else who did the hard work (the gold price). That said, the AH is now an inherent part of the game, and is almost necessary to progress in later difficulties unless you want to spend a few extra hundred hours hoping that the gear you find surpasses your own.

It’s just a…strange system, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

It’s time for another piece of my Diablo 3 review, now that I’ve had more than a single day to take it all in. It’s a game that takes months, not days to really understand, and as such, you’ll probably be seeing these journal reviews for some time to come.

It’s been about ten days since the game was released, and in that time I’ve put in (oh god) about 55 hours across two characters. I have a level 51 Barbarian that I used only to quest with a very specific friend with a similarly powerful Wizard, and a level 27 Witch Doctor that I play whenever I feel like. Which is increasingly often.

If you can’t tell by my current play time, the game is addicting. Impossibly so. Even when I’m not playing, builds and item drops race through my head. I’ve been able to keep a balance in my life despite this fact (hooray gym and girlfriend), but yeah, it’s pretty bad.

I suppose since I’ve now beaten the game about three total times, it’s worth mentioning that yes, there is some vague semblance of a plot. Unfortunately, it’s about the worst excuse for a story I’ve ever seen in a game as it kills off major characters left and right without so much as a head nod in their direction, and the dialogue is some of the most inane I’ve heard since I was a bad enough dude to rescue the President. Continue Reading »

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I know I spent some time last week reminiscing about where the Diablo franchise began, but now that I’ve got my hands on a copy of Diablo 3 I figured I would take some time and talk about some of the updates to their well-worn skill system for this week. I’m not saying this new system is better than its predecessor, as a matter of fact I don’t think it’s really fair to compare two games made a decade apart simply because they were made by the same company, so I won’t. However, after spending a few hours (ok, way more than a few) with the game I’ve decided that there are a lot of things I like about this seemingly simple skill system.

I love skill systems. I’ve spent countless hours over the years pouring over skill trees and builds, testing new theories while looking online for inspiration from others. There’s a fun, yet addicting science to it all. While I haven’t yet decided where Diablo 3 sits among all of the other skill systems I’ve used in my time, I can say there are some features in this system that I prefer now that I’ve used them. I think even the old-school diehard fan in me has to admit that some of these features are really just common sense. Below is a list of five things I like (or love even) about the Diablo 3 skill system after my first playthrough as a Barbarian. Continue Reading »

This is an incredibly funny way to look at some of the best video games you’ve played in years past.   Imagine for a second that all the game you used to love as a kid were as easy as you sometimes wished they would be.   Well imagine them as being easier than that.   Imagine them being so easy that it’s comical.

See how funny these iconic video games would be if their difficulty level could be switched to an extra-easy mode.  With a little help from photoshop the pictures to follow will show you just that.

Check out the fun after the jump….

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Often the overlooked brother, Luigi is sick and tired of being player two. This piece of art from Garrenh shows what it might look like if he got a little more intense, and a little less subservient to his brother.

The backstory behind this painting is actually pretty hilarious. I’ll let the author explain:

“My friend once had a dream in which there was a gigantic conspiracy going on involving shoe smuggling, and as he unraveled it, it turned out that Luigi was behind the whole diabolical plan. The shoe smuggling just turned out to be a diversion so that nobody would notice that Luigi had trapped his brother Mario in an alternate universe, and the cops were sniffing around.

So I imagined the moment you are shoved into a dark room to meet the boss, then all you see is the spark and glow of a match as Luigi himself lights a cigarette and glares death at you, and the room seems to get colder…”

His hand is kind of small.

I know it’s a bit late to be posting Deus Ex clips, but I couldn’t resist this one. It was my game of the year in 2011, and that was without even knowing this was possible in the game.

Adam Jensen channels Jordan for a brief moment, and executes a dunk so amazing, everyone around him’s lives are altered permanently. Just watch, it’s 41 seconds long. You have 41 seconds don’t you? Of course you do, you’ve already spent about twenty reading this post.

Also: I want to go watch Space Jam now.

Alright, in retrospect “Mr. Potato Daddy” kind of sounds like a weird sex thing, but if you’ve played Bioshock and are looking at the above picture, it’s not quite as weird.

Someone (this guy) took a regular Mr. Potato Head and gave him a bit of a makeover. Everything gets better with cartoon eyes, and the same is obviously true for menacing video game characters as well.

There’s more to the gallery below, as other pictures show his lights glowing and him battling an actual Big Daddy. And losing. Check them out below: Continue Reading »

Well it’s…what, day four of the Diablo launch? After exploring every nook and cranny in normal mode, I’ve beaten the game in the first out of four difficulties. How long have I spent killing, looting and farming this week? Honestly, I haven’t checked yet. But here we go.

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Let’s see, 23 hours and six minutes. Yikes. Granted at least a few of those hours are me being AFK, as the game is just left open, but still. That’s quite a tally. I’ll be doing another journal installment next week, but before then, I just wanted to see if anyone can top my tally. As there are some who are already in Inferno with level 60 characters, I assumed a few of you have me beat. What’s your total playtime? Feel free to add up characters if you like. Has it been worthwhile to you so far?

This rather stylish Nintendo travel poster set is from artist Jublin, and shows the fabulous destinations you can travel to in the Metroid, Mario and Zelda universes.

If you could pick, which of those would you like to go to? I’ve always wanted to go to space, but it seems a bit dangerous if  I don’t have power armor. The Mushroom Kingdom seems pleasant enough, but I have to say that I’ve wanted to step foot in Hyrule ever since I was a kid. Give me a horse and a sword and I’ll stay there forever.

Go below to see the other two prints in the series: Continue Reading »