Tag Archives: Video Games

Even if you’re not an Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo gamer yourself, and even if you’ve never played one of the many LEGO games, it’s hard not to appreciate the strange and stunning LEGO creations inspired by video games. Look for lots of LEGO models inspired by Halo, the Legend of Zelda, Gears of War, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, and more. Game on!

[News] LEGO to Try Their Hand at New MMO Based on Collectible Minifigs

Today Funcom announced that it has entered a partnership with LEGO to create a new massively-multiplayer-online game. This time around it’s based on the phenomenally popular collectible Minifigures, which LEGO has been licensing out with surprising frequency, with them now appearing on everything from suitcases to pencil carriers and lunchboxes. Funcom’s most recognizable game to date was the dubiously successful Age of Conan MMORPG, which like nearly all MMOs that are not owned by Blizzard, withered away quietly to the deserts of free-to-play a short time after release. Funcom touts that the game will “focus on maximum accessibility,” which doesn’t bode well for sustaining the long-term interest and depth required to support such an expensive endeavor as an MMO necessitates. I am curious, however, about what sort of plot and world Funcom intends to tease out of what is, essentially, simply a random collection of figures. The press release is scarce on details, but that’s to be expected this early in development:

LEGO® Minifigures are the inhabitants of an unimaginable number of spectacular creations put together by both kids and grown-ups over the past several decades. Whether it is a knight in shining armor, a brave firefighter or just an oddball in a gorilla suit, these figures breath life into elaborately constructed cities, castles and even space stations around the world.

I do sincerely hope that this game will be more successful than LEGO’s last ill-fated foray into the world of MMOs, but the MMO market is notoriously hard to get even a foothold in, much less create a rousing success.

See the full press release from Funcom here.

via RockPaperShotgun.

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Portal on CUUSOO

I have seen a lot of discussion with respect to CUUSOO, in particular in terms of licenced themes, but generally about feasability of the entire program. Everyone obvioulsy has their own opinions, but personally I think the program is brilliant. We have to keep in mind that this is all in Beta right now and obvioulsy the kinks will be worked out over time. I think the true success of CUUSOO will be through highly thought out projects that are designed with the program in mind…just throwing any given LEGO model on there won’t work in most cases.

Now with all that being said, Team Jigsaw, made up of Five X Five, Brickthing, Lego Junkie, and Arkov have just published a new project based on the hugely popular Portal video game series. I have to be honest, I have never played the games, but I am familiar with the design and aesthetic of it, and one thing is very clear with this project…these guys put a tonne of thought and effort into all aspects of the design!

The thing that really stands out with this for me, is that they have really designed it with different types of possible sets in mind. This wouldn’t be restricted to just a simple building set. One of my favourites is the LEGO boardgame version.

Be sure to check out all the details and ideas. If nothing else, these guys deserve a pat on the back for their planning and development. I think they have set the bar rather high for the design effort of future projects. This had previously been denied by the CUUSOO team, but their perseverance got it reconsidered and approved for voting.

Well done guys!! I really do think that this is a project that could be a huge success!

CUUSOO PROJECT

Mass Effect’s UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle

Any fan of Mass Effect will no doubt recognize N-11 Ordo‘s rendition of the UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle from the games. By striving for a studless build and using custom stickers, the builder was able to create a high degree of accuracy, albeit at a sacrifice of the model’s sturdiness.

I was caught in the middle of the railroad track!

…oh wait, nevermind, that is ‘Thunderstruck‘…this is a ‘Thunderclap‘!?!?!

All jokes aside, Nathaniel Rehm-Daly (nate_daly) has built an absolutely stunning spacecraft out of the Star Wars Universe called a BT-7 Thunderclap. I am not familiar with the source at all, but was immediately able to recognize this as a Star Wars ship. Nate has perfectly captured that rough worn aesthetic that we all love.

My favourite aspect of this build has to be the seemless integration of the wing folding mechanism.

This thing totally wouldn’t have looked out place sitting in my toy box circa 1985 :D

New Gears of War gets the custom treatment

Some may already know me but I am Jas (Jasbrick on Flickr) and I have an unhealthy obsession with mutilating ABS plastic. I promise that this fixation will not divert me from highlighting unadulterated creations, but I thought it fitting that my first official post involves customisation… and what better way to start than with pure brilliance:

Andrew (Pecovam on Flickr) is a talent that I have been watching closely over the last year and this image of his Gears of War project is all the reason you need to see why. This project combines all the best aspects of the customisers art, with flawless sculpting, painting, combinations and even an MOC by Legohaulic to just add the cherry to the cake.

There are more pictures of his work on Flickr and any aspiring customisers can use this to see how it should be done… and us Gearheads can just drool at the COG goodies he is working on.

Lego Minecraft Set 21102 Review

Here’s a video review of the newly released 21102 Minecraft set, the first CUUSOO product to be released outside of Japan. You can get it starting today for $34.99 on Lego Shop at Home.

Summary: the Minecraft set is a decent buy for a collection of small plates and tiles. It is more geared for display with its detailed texture and modular sections. Even though I am not a Minecraft player, I’m believe that Lego has succeeded in turning the game concept into a product (although my initial sentiments still stand).

An Exception to Every Rule

I try to avoid posting LEGO creations based on the Halo games; there are simply too many of them around, and I don’t really think anyone wants to see another attempt at a Warthog. This diorama by legomocs. forced my hand, though. The micro scale frigate is nicely rendered, as is the accompanying Covenant spire, but neither is what caught my attention. The shape of the diorama and the angle of the ship combine to give this creation a great sense of motion. It’s difficult not to imagine the continuing flight path of the frigate, after seeing this one moment caught in time.

Nice Curves

Tromas says that he was inspired to build this little ship by playing a video game called Phoenix. I think I need to get my hands on a copy of the game, because this looks awesome.

The cockpit is an interesting shape and opens and closes well. The color scheme and shape are pretty unique, and it’s impossible to overlook the ridiculous array of weapons.

Lego Halo Reach M45 Tactical Shotgun

Nick Jensen has used Lego to build most of the human weapons from Halo. His latest LEGO Halo model is the M45 Tactical Shotgun, which took almost 2 months to make. In addition to its realistic looks, the model also has working features such as a sliding pump and ejecting shells, which you can see on YouTube.

What do you see?

This image is currently going viral around the net, what do you see in each group of blocks?

Portal 2 test chambers in Lego

These two recent Portal 2 test chambers by Haypro (above) and [LJ] (below) shows off the dilapidated testing environment that many players of the game found memorable.

Transforming LEGO Game Boy & Tetris + bonus Super Mario 3 Fireflower level

Though we’re a tad behind the interwebs on this one, we wanted to make sure to highlight this excellent transforming Game Boy by Julius von Brunk.

Read more on Julius’ blog and check out lots more pics — including the tiny transforming Tetris — on MOCPages or deviantART.

Of course, we’d be remiss in our blog duties if we didn’t also highlight Julius’ carefully rendered LEGO version of the “Fireflower” level from Super Mario 3:

The tiny photo doesn’t do the massive model justice, so click through for all the details.