Tag: VIDEO GAMES

No, your monitor isn't broken. While this week's crop of games have been drained of color, they're just as ingenious as their more vibrant brethren. Inspired by doodles, noir cinema and silent films, this batch's stark graphics present curious mechanics and clever adventures. Their addictiveness is as simple as black and white. 'Paper Moon' is a side-scrolling adventure that stars a young boy ...

Ah... Halloween. We embrace our spooky sides by filling our October nights with horror, donning our black capes and, of course, playing as many terrifying video games as possible. (Don't you?) While we can't deny the appeal of monster mainstays like 'Frankenstein' and 'Dracula,' our horror tastes lean towards the brain-munching variety. So join us as we indulge in our love of Halloween by ...

Every few months, researchers publish a new study about the impact of violent videos and games on teens. Although the conclusions typically differ, the studies themselves apparently have a profound effect on adults, because the researchers seemingly -- and frequently -- just become contradictory, contentious and confused. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) ...

Last week, Sony announced Netflix subscribers could go disc-free with an update for their PlayStation 3 consoles starting today, October 18th. This morning, Nintendo announced Wii owners will no longer need an installation disc to stream Netflix on the video game console. Netflix subscribers can download and install the app directly from the Wii Shop Channel (new users can get access after paying ...

When Fort Gay, West Virginia resident and 26-year-old gamer Josh Moore created an Xbox Live profile, he naturally listed his location as "fort gay WV." The ever-vigilant enforcement team from Xbox Live, however, recently suspended Moore from the gaming platform, due to what they believed to be a fictitious -- and inappropriately named -- town. As the AP reports, Moore pleaded with security ...

Glen McCracken avidly plays 'Modern Warfare 2' with a goal steadfast in mind. He has already reached rank 70 several times, completed all of the challenges and killed many a dude by locking and loading. So, when it came time for McCracken to start a brand new campaign, none of this seemed to be enough. By radically shifting his gaming philosophy, he decided to take on an entirely new and arguably ...

In the never-ending battle between fantasy and sci-fi, we'll side with the latter every time. (And we'll take a sci-fi con over a renaissance faire any day of the week, thank-you-very-much.) No virtual playground entertains like one inhabited by robots, astronauts, spaceships and ray-guns. With the recent release of 'StarCraft II,' we're jonesing for some free-to-play sci-fi excellence, so we've ...

Being under the weather never seemed like much fun until we played 'Cloud Control.' The game is super simple, and resembles puzzle games you've most likely played before. Basically, there are three types of clouds: fluffy white, stormy gray and rainy blue. Using the arrow keys, navigate the white cloud(s) around the level to find the blue ones, which will be absorbed by whatever white cloud mass ...

Like cats, apparently 'Duke Nukem Forever' has nine lives. The title -- which has been in a constant state of development since 1997 -- was officially terminated in May of 2009, but it took till December for anyone to notice. We all thought that the saga was finally over for our catch-phrase-stealing, woman-objectifying, swear-word-spewing alien killer. But it appears that in 2011, the most ...

Telltale Games announced its development of a 'Back to the Future' game way back in June, and specific details are finally beginning to emerge. USA Today (USA Today? Really?) scored the scoop on the time-traveling Hill Valley hijinxes, and Marty and Doc Brown are expected to star in their customary, primary roles. While Marty's voice-over actor has yet to be named, Christopher Lloyd is ...

Those circles, squares, x's and triangles that adorn your PlayStation controller weren't just randomly assigned. According to an interview with the designer, Teiyu Goto, the circle and "x" represent yes and no, respectively. Meanwhile the triangle, symbolizing a head, represents point of view, and the square is supposed to be a sheet of paper, indicating menus. ...

We recently got a chance to sit down with designers Chris Campbell and Brian Thompson to take a look at 'Drawn: Dark Flight', their forthcoming sequel to Big Fish Games' adventure-puzzle game 'Drawn: The Painted Tower'. For those unfamiliar with the series, the game's lineage can be traced back to atmospheric adventure titles like 'Myst,' whose gameplay requires that players roam through a ...

The University of Florida is not the first college to offer a course in 'StarCraft,' but it is the first to offer one that at least pretends to have some intellectual value beyond boosting your APM (actions per minute) rate. EME2040, or 21st Century Skills in 'StarCraft' is being taught by Nate Poling, and uses the blockbuster real-time strategy game as a tool for teaching lessons about time ...

Although, for a time, the video game industry valiantly staved off the recession while other enterprises suffered, console game sales did eventually stagnate before precipitously dropping. Online gaming currently thrives, though, particularly with enormously popular titles like Zynga's 'FarmVille' and 'Mafia Wars.' Other services like Xbox Live, which reportedly generates billions in revenue, ...

Billy Mitchell, the ostensible villain of 'King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters' and recently usurped 'Donkey Kong' champion, doesn't like to lose. Despite the fact that he did lose the latter title to Steve Wiebe in 2006, he eventually regained the world championship, and retained it for three years. Then, in March of this year, a dude named Hank Chien muscled out Mitchell with 1,061,700 points, ...