Video Games

A Salute to Shotguns

Ever since Bruce Campbell hoisted aloft his mighty boomstick, shotguns have been the premiere weapon for laying waste to our imaginary adversaries. As fiction has proved countless times, no enemy is a match for the raw strength of a bunch of tiny pellets fired at close range. Like most modern gaming consoles, the Xbox 360 has paid its dues to the most redundantaly-named of guns. Whether you’re fighting zombies, space aliens or even zombie space aliens, the following games know how to celebrate this mainstay of the gamer arsenal.

Saw II: Flesh and Blood Review

 The Saw franchise is known for inventive traps, twists and turns, and a warped sense of right and wrong. The Saw games have attempted to bring the suspense and horror to a console near you. The first Saw game was panned for terrible combat, poor graphics, and for being completely boring. The second game aims to remedy the situation by updating the cast of characters and continuing the story. Coming a year after the first game, Saw II: Flesh and Blood misses the mark by simply ignoring the problems of the first game.

Music Game Sales Plunged in 2010

With the release of Rock Band 3, Dance Central, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, DJ Hero 2, and Power Gig in the last month, you would be forgiven for thinking the music genre is pretty healthy. However, according to a report on Gamasutra, the total earnings of the genre has dropped by more than 50% since last year.

The Gamastura article records the music genre as raking in $1.6 billion in 2008, helped by sales of instrument bundle sets of games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Since then, the genre earned $870 million in 2009, but as of this writing music games have yet to break the $400 million mark. With these numbers, it’s not a huge surprise that parent company Viacom is looking to sell off Guitar Hero and Rock Band creator Harmonix, despite the critical acclaim of their latest games, Rock Band 3 and Dance Central (well, everybody but Jay seemed to like Dance Central at least).

A Plethora of New MvC3 Characters Announced

Capcom and Marvel have definitely had some fans guessing at what characters will make it into Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. The roster is already packed with heavy hitters from both camps, but recently four new characters have been announced. The first two are Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath,  are DLC exlusive characters and have been known about for a few days due to a Gamestop mistake. The second two are thankfully unspoiled and we can be in awe of their combined might.

Portal 2 Delayed Yet Again!

Weekend Deals November 19

After a full week of massive sales, we enter the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but all of the retailers have been trying to one-up each other to get the best sale online before everybody else.  Therefore this weekend is looking to be almost as packed with sales as Black Friday will be.  Let’s have a look at these terrific deals.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm Preview

In the last six years, World of Warcraft has exploded and most certainly dominated the MMO genre, with subscriber numbers hitting the 12 million mark whereas most others are lucky to break 100,000. Two expansions have already been released, each expanding the content and lore of the Warcraft universe. As we enter into the 2010 Christmas season, Activision-Blizzard has been preparing the online world for the newest expansion, Cataclysm, showering players with ominous rumbling, elemental invasions and new boss encounters, setting the stage for events that will remake Azeroth into a scarred hellscape filled with both lava and new opportunities. As with the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm brings with it a multitude of content that expands on virtually every facet of gameplay, including new races, new professions, new guild features, whole new areas and remakes of old lands, and the integration of old lore favorites from Warcraft 2 into whole new storylines and instances.