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The Haunting Beauty of the ‘Chernobyl VR Project’
Virtual reality is the new hotness. It’s going to be the thing we remember when we look back on 2016 from the cockpit of our hover car while we listen to President Trump ramble on about walls, and like any platform its success will be determined by the strength of its library of games. It’s far too early to tell which of the many promising titles will find a place on that pantheon of platform-defining titles, or if they’ll all be video games.
I suspect they won’t be, and the gorgeous Chernobyl VR Project is the reason for that.
Developed by The Farm 51 — the makers of Necrovision — this incredibly ambitious VR project aims to recreate the infamous ghost town of Pripyat so it can be explored freely without having to worry if you brought enough ammo to take out any wandering Radscorpions. The area was deserted in 1986 following a disaster at a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl that claimed 31 lives directly, and thousands more due to radiation sickness. A portion of the game’s sales will be donated to some of the foundations that have been set up to lend aid to victims of the disaster.
In pairing a virtual recreation of the area with educational and movie narrative software, the team behind the Chernobyl VR Project gives us the opportunity to better understand the tragic event, as well as bring attention to the people who continue to be affected by it.
It’s being built for most of the major VR headsets, including Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR and HTC Vive, with a release planned next month.
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Legendary Grimdark ‘Warhammer 40,000’ Artist John Blanche Has Passed Away at 78
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.



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