Are you considering donating some money to help the needy this weekend, but you demand some sort of entertainment in exchange for your so-called charity? Well, there are several charity events going on this weekend where dorks will humiliate and torment themselves to raise money for the Child’s Play charity, which donates toys and games to children’s hospitals.
The beat ‘em up genre has been mostly lacking as of late. This is no surprise as it seems the gameplay nearly always boils down to “do tons of light attacks, toss in a few heavy attacks, you win.” Throughout the years, developers have tried to add interesting variety to the genre (combos, leveling up, open worlds, etc.) and occasionally, it all falls into place and is fairly fun. Is Splatterhouse one of those rare occurrences?
Atari have announced that a new Ghostbusters game, called Sanctum of Slime, will be coming for download on Xbox Live, Playstation Network and PC. Sanctum of Slime will be a four-player action adventure game that can be played locally or online, and you play as the rookie hired by the original Ghostbusters who featured in last years Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Unfortunately, none of the original actors from the films will be lending their vocal talent to the game. Not too many other d
Do you like video games and are penniless? Well, if the answer to both questions is “Yes”, you should head over to Onlive.com and check out the beta test of their new Free Playpack Beta. Unfortunately, the “Free” beta is only available to people who already shelled out $99.99 to buy Onlive’s Micro Console.
Microsoft has officially rolled out its new Xbox Live Rewards service, after a year of extensive beta testing. The new system is designed to, of course, reward you for activity on Xbox Live. Now before you get all excited and think that your gamerscore is going to net you some Microsoft Points, you never receive anything for free and must usually make a purchase before receiving any Microsoft Points. However, this could be a real deal for those of you out there who would make these types of purchases anyway.
There are several video game developers who have unbroken strings of great games. Anything game put out by Blizzard, Irrational Games, or Bungie can be counted on to please their fans, and get spectacular ratings. Unfortunately these developers are only part of the team that brings a game to market. They have to work with a Publisher. Where the Developer is the group of artists and programmers who make a game, the Publisher is the company that promotes, distributes and funds the development of that game. Publishers have to make a lot of the hard choices about a game; they generally set the budget, the release date, and have to decide how to deal with anti-piracy. Limiting the budget or development period can turn a potentially great game into a mediocre one. Even worse, choosing the wrong kind of anti-piracy software can turn the joy of starting a new game into a frustrating experience that makes players ready to vomit with rage.
Reach was Bungie’s swan song for the Halo franchise, so what do its new stewards at 343 Industries have planned? If reports in a recent issue of U.K. magazine GamesMaster (via CVG) are to be believed, their first project will be a remake of the first game in the series, Halo: Combat Evolved.
