Finally, Some Hardware Gameplay Footage. And It Looks Great.

Hardware: Shipbreakers, a strategy game being made by some of the guys behind the Homeworld series, has looked very gorgeous for a very long time. Problem is, in all that time, we'd never actually seen any gameplay footage.

Time to fix that, with this surprisingly candid and lengthy footage of the game in action.

You don't need me to tell you that some of the art and effects here will move Homeworld fans to tears.

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Sonic and Mega Man's Enemies Team Up to Make Some F***ed-Up Robots

Knuckles Man.? Rose Woman? Shadow Man? Only two horrible minds could've come up with evil robot antagonists like these. Dr. Wily and Dr. Eggman's malevolent subversion of Sonic the hedgehog's friends gets revealed in the latest issue of the Worlds Collide crossover, an Archie Comics event pairing up Sonic and Mega for twelve issues of hi-jinx.

This Wednesday, Sonic the Hedgehog #249— part six of Worlds Collide—comes out with the mini-bossed versions of Shadow, Knuckles and other buddies of gaming's fastest hedgehog. What a way to go out, huh? I mean, Knuckles and Shadow have their haters but even they probably wouldn't have wished this on those characters. You can check out more the blue-hero-vs-mad-scientist team-up in the preview pages below.

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Here, Have Some Games of Thrones in Japanese

There's no Game of Thrones this week. How to cope? With a preview of its upcoming Japanese language disc release.

While many of the books have gotten Japanese language editions, the series hasn't yet reached the public in Japan in the way Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter have.

The show is already being broadcasted on Star Channel, a Japanese cable network. Not everyone in Japan has cable TV, so Game of Thrones really hasn't had the opportunity to find a larger audience in the country. Yet.

In Japan, lots of people rent physical media. Thus, the first season's DVD and Blu-ray release is really what could make the Game of Thrones a mainstream hit in Japan, like, say, 24 or Lost were a few years back. There's no reason why Game of Thrones won't take off in Japan.

For those living in Japan, the DVD and Blu-ray versions will be subtitled.

Game of Thrones [Warner Bros]

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Some Of The Best Video Game Concept Art On The Planet. Enjoy.

There are very few artists working in video games who I'd label truly "top shelf" without a moment's hesitation. There's Craig Mullins. Sparth. Jaime Jones. Daniel Dociu. Oh, and today's subject, Jesse van Dijk.

Formerly of Guerilla Games, the studio behind the Killzone series, van Dijk is now working on Bungie's Destiny, and is behind some of the best art we've seen so far for the game.

I love his art for the same reason I love the guys listed above: they do more than just design buildings, or make pretty pictures; they lavish enough detail and character on their work to really give you a feel for the world that's being created, something that shines through here.

Below you'll see a sample of his work (we've seen some of his Killzone pieces previously), from his time at Guerilla to Destiny to other stuff.

You can see more of Jesse's work at his personal site and CGHub page.

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!

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