DeathSpank is the latest game to feature Ron Gilbert's involvement, famous for creating The Secret of Monkey Island, among other games. Originally a comic strip character featured in one of Gilbert's Grumpy Gamer series, DeathSpank the game can be summed up as a loot game, similar to Diablo. However, the main difference (and gimmick) here is that the story and characters act as a parody to that genre, and the entire game itself is very much based around its humor. While this definitely adds to the charm and style of the game, it ultimately felt like the ironic clichés were too over-the-top and childish. Playing DeathSpank is relatively simple, and the controls are very similar to most any other dungeon crawler made for consoles in the past. Read More...

Today at the University of Cincinnati, students began their next summer session. While normally a Philosophy class on your schedule may be cause for alarm, a class full of students is tackling Philosophy in video games. Designed by Philosophy Ph.D. student and gamer Vanessa Gorley, “Violence, Sex and Immorality: Video Games and Philosophy” will explore philosophical topics through the eyes of one of our own. About the class, she says, “This class explores the social and moral implications of video game play. Video games are a substantial part of our culture and we need to look into how they affect us. Read More...

So what would have happened in history if the U.S. wasn't a nuclear power during the cold war? Or for that matter, what if the USSR had some other form of power to lash out at the world? How would the world be changed? For the better or for the worse? Well this seems to be the main question brought up in Activision and Rave Studio's new game Singularity. You take control of U.S. Read More...

Finally we get to see what all the buzz and hype are about. According to a recent press release 38 Studios and EA will be hosting a panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2010 where they will reveal a trailer and discuss the long anticipated RPG "Project Mercury". The EA/38 Studios presentation will be on Thursday July 22nd from 1 pm to 2:15 pm, Room 6A. The panel will consist of the entire 38 Studios team including Todd McFarlane, R.A. Read More...

It wasn't that long ago (*cough*...E3...*cough*) that Microsoft announced its latest XBox redesign - the Xbox 360 Slim. Well, news has been flying around that an Arcade version of the XBox 360 Slim is getting an August release date along with some even slimmer hardware. According to German Amazon.com, the XBox 360 Slim Arcade is slated for an August 20th release date, and will come with only 4GB of storage space (no news on wireless capabilities yet). Contrary to the recent inception of the XBox 360 Slim which only comes in a 250GB hard drive option. The new XBox Slim Arcade seems like it could possibly support some sort of flash memory or other small storage device as an option. Read More...

League of Legends fans rejoice! With season one drawing closer, Riot Games has given us a little cinematic action to tide us over until the soon-to-be epic competition begins. Not only that, but if this video on YouTube gets over 1,000,000 views before the July 21st, European and US players will get a Double IP Weekend. “The Season One features and updates will greatly enhance League of Legends and help us towards our goal of having LOL being played by the world's top gamers in the biggest and best gaming leagues and tournaments,” said Marc Merrill, co-founder and President of Riot Games. The new content download brings ranked games, ladder matches and a new player draft system. Read More...

Have you ever wanted to see what goes on in the sick-and-twisted world of teddy bears? All in the hopes to understand what they think and how they interact with each other? Ever consider the fact that they may be a bit more heinous then they let on? You know, in terms of mistreating and mocking the less fortunate or oddly misshapen or deformed bears - much like the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Well wonder no more as Naughty Bear has come out and will give you an in-depth look into the world of the teddy bear. This is no "kiddy" game mind you as it plays out a bit like Manhunt with the cute and cuddly. Read More...

Well that would be October 5th in North America. Yep, just weeks before Namco's Splatterhouse hits the shelves making them all bloody we will be getting Enslaved: Odyssey To The West. At least that is what Namco just told the world. How to celebrate this announcement? Oh, well how about some new screen shots for the game? I just happen to have a few here for you. From the looks of things, they like blowing up our main man here. Read More...

A heated debate has been going on in the Blizzard community lately over a new concept called Real ID. Blizzard understandably annoyed with the sheer volume of trolling and flaming going on in their forums, originally decided to require real names with forum posts. After a community uproar, they have resolved to postpone the use of real names. I clearly am proof of using your real name online will not prevent someone from spewing vitriol and being an internet troll (just read any post I've written about Nintendo). Instead of enacting an instant update Blizzard will still be phasing in its use of the RealID system, just not until Starcraft II and subsequently World of Warcraft: Cataclysm crawl out of our dreams and into our local game retailer's shelves. Read More...

In the past with rhythm/music when it was time to inform the masses of the track lists usually we just got a long list of songs and artists for us all to gawk at. Sometimes Gods like me would go through the list and try to add a link to the song so you knew what it sounded like. Sometimes the titles don't really go with the part of the song we all know. It was a nice little thing I liked to give our readers. Well from the below video it looks like Activision is stealing a page from my book like Naughty Bear did. Read More...

The announcement that many fans have been waiting for has finally arrived. The next chapter in the Dragon Age series, Dragon Age 2, was announced today with a shiny new website and few artistic concepts. So here's the big question, what's new? Embark upon an all-new adventure that takes place across an entire decade and shapes itself around every decision you make. Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land. Think like a general and fight like a Spartan with dynamic new combat mechanics that put you right in the heart of battle whether you are a mage, rogue, or warrior. Read More...

Fans of the SHMUP (Shoot 'em up) genre in the U.S. have always had a hard time in recent console generations finding easy access to titles without importing them from Japan. Thankfully, Aksys Games is trying to reverse that trend. Aksys has released their first SHMUP in the U.S. with Deathsmiles. On the development side is Cave, one of Japan's best SHMUP developers. Deathsmiles is a horizontal, side-scrolling, bullet hell SHMUP. It features young girls in Gothic Lolita outfits fighting against monsters to stop Jitterbug from opening a portal. Read More...

In case you didn't get enough of the For-PSN-Only reality show The Tester, it was officially announced at E3 that Sony is doing a second season. Not exactly a big surprise, it was slipped into the other PlayStation news as just another bullet point. I mean, all the PS3 fans and users had to figure it was coming as it made some of the largest draws into PS Home and on the PS Store. This is not what this article is all about. Just after the 4th of July, voting began for contestants to get a chance to move onto the second round of the casting process. Read More...

We got a release date for the game and a view of what the PC box will look like, but what about an update on what the game looks like. We haven't had a good one of those since around the time of E3. Am I right? Of course I am. Well let's take a look at some of the new creatures to kill and environments to come to us this September 30th. Having had actual hands-on with the beta of the game, I can assure you that what you see below is what the in-game will look like; if you have a system that can handle it. Some of the creatures look a bit new, but I will say I am a fan that they went back to the original look of the Bombs. Read More...

Having some trouble with the ladies? Got an XBox 360? Well lament no more, salvation is here. Brought to you by the same named company, 8-bit Girlfriend is a pix-elated text based dating simulator which you can find in the indie section of the XBox 360 Marketplace. According to the press release "It has been described as the closest thing to dating Princess Peach this side of the 360." You play Sir Knight and work to develop a relationship, using epic innuendos, with four different stereotypical RPG lady friends. A Princess, Elf, Thief and Item Shop Girl all await you on your hilarious journey which is very reminiscent of a pix-elated Leisure Suit Larry within a medieval fantasy world. Read More...