So, by now everyone's heard about all of the badness befalling the people of Haiti. Bungie Software has heard too, and they're hosting a chairty promotion with their mega-popular Xbox 360 game, Halo 3 (or ODST). Basically, if you log on to a multiplayer game this Wednesday or Thursday, and switch your emblem to the heart (above), Bungie will donate a dime to the red cross. When you consider that Halo 3 is the most widely played multiplayer game in the world, this isn't insignificant. More details here.

(via Joystiq)

Left 4 Dead 2, the latest electro-dongle from the folks over at Valve software is one of them first-person shootin’ games where you and a few other persons of your acquaintance get together to shoot other persons and suchlike what have been simulated by one of them computer-brains. Now, Valve’s latest zombiecide simulator is a right-fun time and no mistake, but them’s words you can read all up and down this here electro-web. For what my opinion’s worth, the game ain’t worth the sand its printed on if you ain’t got any friends to go along with ‘ya, and its finest moments are the ones made by someone actin’ the fool at the wrong time – or, hell, sometimes at the right one. I was lucky enough to have one of them “emergent gamin’ experiences” t’other … Read More

Move over, Portal. Take a graceful bow, Team Fortress II. Pout bitterly and begin a plot to break your competitor's kneecaps, Psychonauts. There's a new gaming funnyman in town, and his name is Assassin's Creed II. And he isn't even trying to be funny. Erik Wolpaw, eat your heart out. 

After taking the game home last night and deciding to unwind after a hard session of zombie killing (more on that later today, maybe) with a bit of the ol' face stabbery, I was immediately struck by how dumbly-written, dumbly-performed, and just generally dumb the script was. Of course, I was just coming off three hours of Left 4 Dead 2, whose writing is concise, witty and never obtrusive, so the experience was coloured for me -- perhaps unfairly.

Now, I've been led to … Read More

Are you the sort of guy who's capable of growing magnificent facial hair (see above for an acceptable standard of magnificence)? Do you make it a habit to do really nice things for strangers? If so, then you're a much better person than me in a few ways. 

Rockstar Games is proudly supporting "Movember" (sorry guys, that portmanteau is no Rocktober), which basically equates to a month-long moustache growing contest. If you win, the glorious banner of masculinity growing on your upper lip (and the rest of your face, presumably) will forever be immortalized in Rockstar's upcoming Western-themed videogame, Red Dead Redemption. Also, you can take pledges that will be donated to men's health research (namely prostate cancer), but that part doesn … Read More

I like music games. They catch a lot of flak from both game and music snobs for either their gameplay—which is pretty much just an overwrought version of Simon Says—or that fact that they might discourage people from actually learning to play an instrument, but I think both of these perspectives miss the point. Music games provide players with a different, entirely active way to engage with a song they might have heard a thousand times, but have never been interested enough in to devote more than a couple percent brain capacity to. By combining the elements of a simple colour matching game with the preexisting rising and falling moments of intensity in music, your success in the game bit is then reflected by the song itself … Read More

“Fuck.”

I’m the sort of guy to swear casually in conversation, so long as I’m familiar and comfortable with the people I’m around. My rule is: so long as it isn’t holding the place of a word I don’t know or can’t think of, curses are a fine way of providing emphasis, colour and texture to ordinary communication.

“Cock-damn it.”

I swear a lot when I play videogames, especially when I’m playing online (though never into a headset). This is a different kind of swearing. A pure, uncensored outpouring of testosterone-powered emotion.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.”

I love to win at online games, to beat someone else who wants just as badly to beat me, who hasn’t been programmed to do it by a team of artificial intelligence coders. I love it the way some people love their … Read More

Seems like a handful of reviewers go to try out Starcraft II recently. There's an interesting article posted on Ars Technica that points to several other sources.

Personally, I'm glad to hear that Blizzard is trying to flesh out a more robust single-player experience. Playing online is obviously an important dimension for an RTS like Starcraft, but I'm a big fan of the solo aspect.

And yeah... if you haven't seen this yet, you should probably watch it:

Warning: it's SUPER nerdy!

With just over two weeks left until release, the Batman: Arkham Asylum: The Game hype engine is now operating at maximum RPM, spinning its brass wheels and leather fan belts at such velocity that the very earth around the monstrous wrought iron contraption has begun to vibrate. As part of the press push, along with a surfeit of new video content and the announcement that the special geek edition will come with a replica Batarang (no really), the official game demo was released for all platforms yesterday--PS3 and Xbox360 users will find it nestled in the annals of their console's respective download service, and PC users can get it here or here. 

Needless to say, I have played the demo in question, and I feel the powerful need to … Read More

Sorry fans of influential east-coast hip hop crew Gang Starr, you've been had. This is actually a post about videogames! Zing!

Galactic Arms Race (or GAR) is a nifty little computer game designed by the University of Central Florida's Evolutionary Complexity Research Group, which they describe as "Space Diablo." What makes GAR really interesting, though, is that it uses the gamer as an input variable in a procedural generation algorithim that, basically, designs all of the weapons the players can pick up in the game automatically, with no input from the designers themselves. So, when you pick up a new gun for your space ship, you have a limited number of inventory slots, and will have to discard an old one to make room. The game client … Read More

Maker Faire Power Glove + Raptor Safari Demo from Matt Mechtley on Vimeo.

Matt Mechtley, one of the creators of the splendid Offroad Velociraptor Safari, Minotaur Chinashop and Jetpack Brontosaurus, is probably a genius. And I don't mean genius in an Internet-Guy "oh look, someone's done something kind of esoteric" way, either. I mean that he's taken a twenty-year-old gaming peripheral that only ever worked for two games, manually re-jiggered it, and through some technical wizardry (God bless those of you who caught that reference) managed to program it to work with a relatively sophisticated game that runs entirely in a web browser. He's also done all of this in the time he could spare between making really, really fun casual games … Read More