A love letter to Blur and its artists

It's pretty obvious at this point that just about every great video game trailer is by Blur, including the Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City trailer I posted a few days ago.In fact, I mentioned Prey 2 the other day, but haven't posted the terrific trailer for the game, which of course was also made by Blur. Think Blade Runner meets The Fifth Element (with a little adult language), set to a country western version of Soundgarden's Rusty Cage:Blur's so good that the studio does little to nothing to promote itself, letting the work speak for it. And the Blur artists that even have personal websites have websites that are well out of date. That being said, here's a look at few of the people responsible for Blur's great work.Shaun Absher's work includes modeling the Sith Inquisitor for The Old Republic opening cinematic and Batman for the DC Universe Online trailers. Since I've already posted those, here's something he created for fun:Joshua James also worked on the Old Republic and DCU trailers (and created the tattoo for the The Girl With the Dragon tattoo):Toni Bratincevic has posted images from some of his older projects for Blur including Force Unleashed (and also has prints from personal projects on sale):Eric Durante worked on the trailers for The Goon, RE, Bioshock Infinite, and more. Here's a look a gladiator he created for a personal project:Jason Martin was the character lead on the Resident Evil trailer and has also teased some Tyger Guard characters from Arkham City (see the latest trailer here):Alessandro Baldasseroni has posted some of the models he created for ToR, The Goon, and Force Unleashed (you can watch the trailers here): Heikki Anttila has posted several images from TFU and ToR:

Link roundup

1. "The best notebooks of the year so far." (Check back in six months and maybe there will be some real bargains.)2. If you liked that Tokyo Rockabilly Club picture I posted the other day, check out this music video - - it shows how the guy achieves such a monstrously high pompadour. Via.3. Useful wallpaper for learning geography.*Buy vintage maps at eBay.

Link roundup

1. There's apparently some Prey 2 wallpapers available for download, but you can't use a secure internet connection to view them? (Prey 2 has a strong Blade Runner vibe.)2. Legend of Zelda animated gif by Zac Gorman. And speaking of Legend of Zelda, check out this review of the 3D aspects Ocarina of Time for the 3DS:

While it doesn't exactly add anything to the gameplay, the title certainly looks better with the 3D enhancement. Colors are a little deeper with the 3D slider turned up, and the game appears ever so slightly washed out when you turn the effect down.

And

Gyroscope controls are also included for use with ranged items such as the slingshot or bow. Unfortunately, the 3DS' contradictory design is such that the motion control won't work with the 3D visuals, unless you rotate your head along with the screen at a perfect angle. Failure to do so results in you getting an eyeful of painful screen blur. Fortunately, the 3D slider is conveniently located, and you can always just stick to traditional controls.

If even Nintendo can't make solid use of the 3D capability of the machine....3. New illustration chock full of comic book characters by Ulises Farinas.

Image roundup

This truck has two sides.Whale shark.Butterfly.Hipster Jesus loves you.Norway.Gandalf versus the Balrog.Streams of water colliding.

Link roundup

1. Alice: Madness Returns is getting terrible reviews. (Not unexpected, but such a waste of the artwork.)2. Cartoon Network and Joel Silver are going to make a Ben 10 live-action movie. (I'm not crazy about the action sequences in the cartoon, but the writing, especially anything Kevin or the tiger say, is frequently very funny.)3. Barcelona: Year Zero video, wallpapers, posters.

Image roundup

Fennec fox.Lightning strike.Arctic fox and meal.Soldier after battle.Wisdom from Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake.Wire sculpture.Ferris wheel on a cold winter day.

Shepard Fairey's The Live poster as desktop wallpapers

As expected, Shepard Fairey's They Live poster sold out at Mondo immediately and three dozen are already on sale at eBay. I cropped three widescreen wallpapers:You can find more of my wallpapers here.

Using Team Fortress 2 to promote a job listing

A company looking to hire recruiters decided that many potential hires played Team Fortress 2. They paid prominent players to become "ambassadors" and the players changed their names to the company's job listing url, where I found this swell widescreen wallpaper:They also created a poster/advertisement for players to post throughout the game world. There's no mention of whether Valve objected. Via.*Previously: Team Fortress 2 paper toys.

The space shuttle docked at the International Space Station

The space shuttle docked at the International Space Station. Via.

Star Wars: The Old Republic wallpapers

I meant to post this last night, but Blogger's image uploader wasn't working - - I cropped some wallpaper-sized stills featuring Darth Malgus and his master from The Old Republic's cinematic opening.*Buy KOTOR toys at eBay.

Gotham City Impostors gameplay video

Gotham City Impostors gameplay video. I cropped a few widescreen wallpaper-sized stills: