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"It came to me recently as I was nobly contemplating the night sky, searching for the gossamer touch of inspiration, that I have been writing New Challenger for over a year now. I feel like this warrants some sort of celebration, so I decided that I would go back to the original reason I started writing about videogames in the first place: love."
Gears of War has, literally, the worst writing in gaming?
Well it's easy to argue that it's far from the best, but the worst? Lindsay Bell Chambers digs deeper into the fray and churns out some interesting information on Chuck Beaver's verbal vomit earlier in the week.
"On March 22, 1996 Capcom gave birth to a brand new genre with Resident Evil. Believe it or not, Survival horror and Resident Evil just turned 16 years old. Regardless of how you feel about the genre in general, it has come a long way. The dark atmosphere and grisly content in the original Resident Evil games put players on the edge of their seat with slow pacing and fixed cameras. Coupled with the pretty prerendered environments, Resident Evil created a spooky atmosphere on the now infamo..."
"Horror is a genre I never really explored in video games, but with the recent announcement of Resident Evil 6, I decided it would be rude not to talk about it. Most of my experience up until recent years was the terror of corrupted data, the fear I might somehow die before I reached the next save point and the concern that maybe, just maybe, I’d spent money on the wrong game and would have to spend the next few weeks exploring a terrible glitch-ridden world that bored me to tears. However, I ..."
"When I say that piracy is not tackled positively this is because I do not count cramming every form of DRM (Digital Rights Management) known to man onto a disk to the extent that you must be connected to the moon's Wi-Fi hotspot to play and that the disk is registered to your tongue print. DRM is basically the methods of preventing games to be copied, ranging from a simple CD Key to some of the more extravagant methods. It can frustrate gamers, and more often than not the gamers that are bein..."
"Let's face it; Metal Gear Solid 4 was basically a film anyway. If ever an example is needed of a game that gives more time to cut scenes then it does to gaming, MGS4 is it. Did that make it a bad game? No. And that fact in itself proves that Metal Gear Solid could be the basis for a fantastic film."
"There was a great moment, 12 years ago, when the tension and the terror had finally taken its toll, and I was forced to put down the controller and walk away from what turned out to be the scariest game of the ‘90s: Silent Hill. This was the first – and only – time in my life in which a game was so scary, and made me so agitated, that I physically and emotionally needed to take a break. It was a huge accomplishment in game design, and I haven’t had that feeling since. Not while playing a game..."
"Lately we have seen a renaissance of gaming tie-ins. Tie-ins can include movies, comic books, novels, and even television series. Big publishers like wringing every cent they can from a popular IP, and thankfully this will often bring fans some extra material about the universes that we've fallen in love with. They aren't always done well, but I would argue that there is an increasing movement towards hiring quality writers and artists for these projects, and it has made for some fantastic ti..."
"Video games have much in common with movies when it comes to scare tactics. Both rely heavily on music and sound effects to create suspense and atmosphere. EA Redwood Shores' 2008 sci-fi horror gem Dead Space is a prime example, taking home awards for Audio of the Year and Sound Design of the Year at the seventh annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards. And, as anyone who's played the game can tell you, those awards are richly deserved. From the disturbing audio logs of the U.S.S. Ishimura's cr..."
"Tonight, television fans around the country tuned in for the season premier of LOST. If the producers are to be believed, it's the last season, and should give some closure to the plot lines started up over the past five years. While watching, I couldn't help but think about what makes the show so successful, and realized there are a few things that game makers could take away from J.J. Abrams' series. Well, besides Polar Bears, of course."
"When Electronic Arts announced Dead Space Extraction for the Wii—a follow-up to the million-plus selling PS3, 360, and PC title Dead Space—the company explained that the game would be used as a test case to see whether or not it would develop more Mature-rated Wii games in the future. And according to NPD sales figures, Extraction failed: it sold just 9,200 copies in its first week. So what does this mean for the future of Mature Wii games?"
"Almost ever piece of media, if it sells well enough, will warrant a sequel in some way, shape or form despite the very real underlying need for consistently new content. When Halo was originally designed, it was created as an RTS, for the Macintosh. Well, jump ahead a decade later and Halo has become a monstrous franchise that has brought gamers the world over to their knees and the RTS elements it was build on have gone into Halo Wars. But, when a publisher or developer decides that it is be..."
"How can a video game be scary? Unlike horror movies where you're stuck watching some hapless victim succumb to scary stuff, video games empower players to fight back. Or at least run away. It's October. Time to identify horror-gaming's essentials.
Some of the scariest experiences I've had in my life come from video games. I can remember running from the family computer room in tears after a wax skeleton in an Are You Afraid of the Dark game chased me through a basement.
My chest still g..."
Since the Resident Evil 5 demo's release, fans have been split down the middle regarding the game's controls. Some think they're outdated and clunky, while others think there is nothing wrong with them. MTV Multiplayer's Patrick Klepek is in the former group. He believes Capcom have made an error in choosing not to update the controls of their newest game. He uses Dead Space as an example of what next-gen horror games should play like. Do you agree? Disagree?
Go to the source for the full ar...
"Well, the announcement already has caused quite the ruckus in the short time since its been issued and both sides of this fence are crowded. On one side, people are welcoming the game and the possibility of more to come from EA yet the other believes that allowing another port could damage the Wiis legacy."
"The gaming community has a morbid fascination with death, and something is always dying. Apparently E3 is dead, PC gaming is dead, and some say the survival horror genre is dying. Most gamers readily admit that Resident Evil 4 is a great game, but no one is trying to defend it as a survival horror title. Indeed, the Resident Evil franchise has changed over the years, and we're a long way from where Capcom started."
Patrick Klepek of multiplayerblog.mtv.com blogs about his unfortunate tale. He packed himself ready these Christmas holidays, he was ready to spend two weeks destroying his wrists, but he ended up doing absolutely no gaming at all! With this he poses the question, is he the only one?
So you probably have done all that can be done in Dead Space. You have beaten on impossible and have unlocked all trophies/achievements and you probably think you know all about Dead Space's religion, unitology. Well think again. CVG have done some investigation and dug deeper into the world of Dead Space. Unlocking secrets that were never told in the games cutscenes.
"Despite the holiday season traditionally being a good time to release and establish new intellectual properties, both Mirror's Edge and Dead Space performed poorly. Marketing certainly wasn't an issue, nor were the reviews, as they both received good to decent remarks. Instead, the failure of both games is likely due to the current recession."
OXCGN writer looks at the dismal sales of New IP and how some blame it on the recession, when in fact, game sales figures show an 18% increase of late. Most of the problem is the overabundance of games in such a short window of time. Making it almost impossible for New IP's to have a chance of establishing a following.
Check the article out and most definitely let OXCGN know your thoughts on the matter. Games need to be staggered over the year rather than pushed out all in one short period...
Jim Sterling of destructoid.com types about how the evolution of survival horror games has run them into the ground. This isn't the only speculation of recent times about the genre, with What happened to survival horror? and Survival Horror - Does it even exist anymore?. This blog is just one more look into how the genre is dying off.
Read on to see how the generations have been adding to the dragging down of the survival horror genre.
While religion play's a big important role in the game, so does money in a small subtle amounts. One could argue the USG ishimura destroyed itself through religious fanatics, which is strue, but money also played a role in those fanatics lives. An interesting blog about why money is the root of all evil in dead space.
"Dead Space and Uncharted only have one thing in common: they both are set in the third-person. When playing both games, players watch as every event unfolds for the hero of the adventure, but each tackles the revelatory nature of these events in entirely different manners. Where Nathan Drake, Uncharteds protagonist, is shuttled into a cut scene every time a major shift in the plot comes along, Isaac Clark (Dead Spaces player-character) remains in the players adept--or in my case, not so ad..."
"When it comes to horror in games, there are a few things that are givens: it will likely be twisted, bloody, and terrifying. In other words, my kind of game. The genres of such games arent quite as predictable, however, ranging anywhere from RPGs to first-person shooters, and rightfully so; why limit a fun thing like terror to just one genre? Nevertheless, when looking at the overlying themes of these diverse games, trends have been emerging, giving everyone a glimpse of where things are pos..."
Is the survival-horror genre dying? It's a topic that has recently come up on gaming sites, with many recent survival-horrors (such as Dead Space and Silent Hill: Homecoming) taking a more action oriented route to attract a larger audience, thus losing the "survival" aspect that many older horror games had.
While horror games may be gaining in popularity, is survival horror slowly disappearing?
"So which one takes your vote for being more fear-inducing? Which one puts the money where the scares are? Which game, do you think, is more likely to send your next pair of pants to the hamper, and not because theyre dirty?"
Survival-Horror, you either love it or hate it. Whether Nemesis is chasing you down Resident Evil 3's cramped hallways, or Pyramid Head is cornering you in Silent Hill 2's dark rooms, or Sae is stalking you relentlessly in Fatal Frame 2, it's a genre that is bound to get your adrenaline rushing and your heart pumping, so much so that you might find yourself feeling dread and wanting to turn the console off. But that's why we play them, after all. We want to be scared.
Joystiq takes a look ...
Hey all, I have a real treat from you. We received a cool replica helmet from EA for the upcoming release of Dead Space and, since a bloody battle was fought who would get it in the office, a decision was made to give it away. You are helping us out by entering, seriously... Knives were drawn as editors and channel managers like myself argued who would get to take it home. Save us from ourselves!
In a letter about reviewing Dead Space, at the top and in the largest text were the words "FEATURING STRATEGIC DISMEMBERMENT". Basically, that means throughout the game, you'll be cutting off monsters like it's nobody's business and it looks like EA - the developer and publisher of the game - wouldn't want to have it any other way.
GameInformer, the popular magazine about all things gaming that has somewhere near three million subscribers, always has a different game on the cover each time. MTV wanted to see if there was a GI cover curse, so they looked back into the past and pulled out magazines from 2-3 years ago.
One game titled Superman Returns didn't so well, receiving 6/10's. That's nothing compared to Fear and Respect, which was at one point on a GI cover, but ended up being canceled!
All in all, the game...
![Box shot of Dead Space [North America]](http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/R2FtZXMvWGJveF8zNjAvQWN0aW9uL1Nob290ZXI=/dead_space_frontcover_small_S8TYDDKHQzN4pJi.jpg)