#fineart
Here's another awesome Fine Art to get your week started on the right foot: a collection of works by David Levy, aka vyle, aka another of my very favourite concept artists in the whole wide world. More »
#tron
The latest Tron, Tron: Legacy, was filled with attractive actors in fetching costumes. Here are some more nifty outfits—they're not official Tron wear, but they glow. That'll do. More »
Pirates may be dirty, pillaging fiends, but they have high standards, according to a study from Copenhagen Business School and University of Waterloo. The study tracked 173 new games on BitTorrent over a three-month release period, finding 127 of these were downloaded by 12.7 million unique peers, and that a torrent's popularity was directly correlated to its review scores. The 10 most-downloaded games comprised over 5.3 million downloads, or 42 percent of the 127 pirated games.
Fallout: New Vegas had the most downloads (962,793) and an average review score of 83.7, followed by Darksiders (656,296) with a review score of 82.7. Tron: Evolution had the lowest score of the top 10 at 59.5, yet came in fifth place (496,349). StarCraft 2 had the highest review score at 89.5 and landed in seventh place (420,138). Review scores can't trump a title's notoriety, reputation or core fanbase, but researchers found "Metacritic Scores explain 10% of the variance in the unique peers per game on BitTorrent." In other words, the only vessel that these pirates are sailing on is a statistically positive relationship.
#tron
Religion and belief were two of the key themes in the 1982 Disney classic Tron. Three of the key themes at Lifechurch.TV's location in Warr Acres, Oklahoma this month are religion, belief, and Tron. More »
#watchthis
It may be a little behind the curve, but Sam Macaroni's spin on Disney's Tron: Legacy, filtered through the gladiatorial combat of Joust, is a super short burst of delightful parody. Or maybe I just like talking ostriches. More »
#tron
To the dedicated pinball enthusiast, the existence of a Tron: Legacy pinball table won't be a surprise. But Stern Pinball, the company still cranking out pins, made its latest pinball machine extra official today with word from Disney. More »
#hollywood
Tron 3 isn't going to be like Tron 1 or Tron 2. No, Tron 3 is going to be like...The Dark Knight. Or maybe The Empire Strikes Back. Well, sorta. Here's why! More »
#video
Last month, Kotaku reader chandan1014 introduced us to his Tron-themed skins for all nine classes in Team Fortress 2. Now a friend of his has completely redone the game's "Badlands" map in a Tron theme. More »
#screengrab
Disney movies collide with the new Disney X CLOT vinyl collaboration, a Bambi in full Tron gear. This precious curiosity releases on Valentine's Day at the Man Is In The Forest shop in Shanghai. Have a friend in Shanghai grab one for you! [High Snobiety] More »
#movies
Looks like Disney's planning a Blu-ray and DVD disc orgy for the upcoming home video release of 2010's Tron: Legacy. And it looks like that includes the long-awaited release of the 1982 original on Blu-ray as well. More »
The makers of Tron: Evolution and Turok are no more. Disney confirmed the (not too surprising) closure of Vancouver-based dev Propaganda Games today, saying "The studio has completed all work associated with its most recent project." More »
Propaganda Games -- developer of 2008's Turok reboot and, most recently, Tron: Evolution -- is officially closed. Parent company and publisher Disney Interactive confirmed the unfortunate news to Joystiq this afternoon, issuing this statement: "Disney Interactive Studios confirms the closure of its Vancouver-based internal game development studio, Propaganda Games. The studio has completed all work associated with its most recent project."
Propaganda's Pirates of the Caribbean game was canceled last October, and the studio was reduced in size, with the only apparent goal to complete Tron and its planned post-launch DLC. It's as yet unclear if any more DLC will be released beyond the day-one freebie.
#clips
Kotaku reader "chandan1014" is taking his entry in last week's Kotaku 'Shop Contest to the next level. Now you can enjoy a Tron-ified Team Fortress 2, thanks to this Tron: Legacy-inspired skin pack. More »
#clips
Disney's Tron: Legacy may have been about as good as the original—which is to say that it's exceedingly average—but the 2010 follow-up to the '80s video game adventure was certainly visually dazzling. Thank Digital Domain for that. More »
#fanart
Two more challengers emerge from Kode Logic's excellent TRON / Street Fighter collection. RyuTRON takes on his devilish counterpart Evil RyuTRON. More »
#review
Tron: Legacy has been, at best, a critical disappointment. At worst, well, "a Dora the Explorer movie would be more interesting." Who said that? The eight-year-old daughter of noted video game academic Ian Bogost. More »
#triviagasm
Now that Tron Legacy is in theaters, let's take a look at the many hidden references that pepper the film. The film's screenwriters were also willing to give us hints about where to find Easter eggs. Spoilers way on! More »
To celebrate the holidays, we're having twelve straight days of giveaways up through Christmas day. And while we say it's to celebrate, really ... we're simply getting rid of some of the larger packages around the ol' office.
And for our fourth giveaway, we're celebrating Tron's return to theaters tonight with swag from its return to video games last week. There's a Tron: Evolution Collector's Edition for Xbox 360, replete with fancy light cycle model, a copy of Tron: Evolution for Nintendo DS (which we're certain is indistinguishable from its console counterpart) and a limited edition (only 200 made, we're told!) 12" vinyl LP of the game's soundtrack. Not a bad haul, and all you have to do is leave a comment to enter. Full rules past the break.
"I think gaming is in the DNA of Tron," says screenwriter Eddy Kitsis. "When the original came out in 1982, it really introduced the concept of a video game and it just blew my mind, because you play video games in the arcade and you're like,'Wow, what would happen behind the screen?'" Jeff Bridges' character Kevin Flynn was a gamer himself, Tron creator Steven Lisberger was inspired by early video games, and the images we remember of the first Tron aren't necessarily of the complicated metaphor of the Master Control Program and ENCOM's intra-company battle. They're of light cycles and disc fighting and the games.
"Gaming is a gateway drug, and I mean that in the best sense," says Kitsis' writing partner Adam Horowitz (the two wrote the screenplay to Tron Legacy, after writing on Lost nearly since the beginning). "That's how I got excited about computers and technology and storytelling." Gaming was intrinsic to the first Tron, but when director Joseph Kosinski was finally given the go-ahead by Disney to make a sequel, he says he "had to evolve the classic games forward."
And so Tron Legacy plays much closer to its characters, and farther away from the game metaphor. The games are there (in new forms), but the real gaming experience to be found in the new world of Tron, almost twenty years after its release, is -- go figure -- in the video game itself.
#xbox360
The $49.99 price tag for this Tron-inspired Xbox 360 controller may not suggest that it's anything special, aside from looks of course. So what makes it a collector's item? Probably the fact only 250 are being made. More »
#movies
It's been 28 years since the last Tron film, enough time for movie reviewers to build up a healthy amount of indifference to its sequel, Tron Legacy. But some movie buffs enjoyed portions of the newest Tron. Let's find out who! More »
The App Store is in constant danger of new release bombardments, sure, but
many companies adhere to a regular, weekly bombing run beginning each Wednesday, through the wee hours of the night (UTC), dropping their new iPhone and iPad games on Apple's marketplace while many of us are snoozing. Last night was no exception -- actually, scratch that. It was exceptional!
Pending the start of the "iTunes Connect Holiday Shutdown" next Thursday -- a six-day lockout period when developers will be unable to release or update apps, including games -- an army of companies, armed with their big holiday releases (for little iDevices), launched a massive attack on the App Store last night. What began as a few warning shots yesterday grew into a full-on assault, led by Gameloft's crisp clones, NOVA 2 and Shadow Guardian, and Square Enix's surprise (and apparently rushed) port of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.
Even Sega couldn't resist launching a few more classics in Altered Beast and Sonic Spinball. And what's this ... Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3? Hey, if Street Fighter IV worked ...
Pursue our complete list of new release highlights after the break, and then make double-sure "Santa" knows you've been good enough for an iTunes gift card this year.
#cars
The Bugatti brand is responsible for the Bugatti Veyron, the fastest road-legal car on the planet. Former Bugatti employee Daniel Simon is responsible for the newly styled Tron: Legacy Light Cycles. More »
#tronevolution
In what appears to be a publicity stunt (it's working, Disney!), a London gym is offering an exercise class based on the new Tron Evolution video game. The name of this class? "Tronjitsu". More »
Are TRON: Evolution's online multiplayer modes and character progression enough to keep the disc spinning after the campaign's glow fades? Find out in the official GameTrailers TRON: Evolution review.
