Ah, how I miss those times when creative games seemed to flow like rivers. These days, all we seem to get is the same console shooter re-packaged ad infinite. Woo. It’s nice to play something like Castle Crashers or Braid every now and then, just to feel like you’re doing something different.
Enter the Independent Games Festival, who announced their finalists just yesterday. One of those games is called City Rain, which combines gameplay mechanics from Sim City and Tetris to create something incredibly awesome looking. For real, check this out. If you want to see the lists of other rad finalists, click here.
Go ahead. Tell me it doesn’t look sweet.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q40u8zmYnQE[/youtube]
Source- Kotaku
So in the past couple of weeks, I wrote about a couple of rumors that I had seen reported around the Web Tubes. The first had to with Game Informer claiming that a 
Lots of speculation has been going on recently as to when the current generation of gaming consoles is going to give way for newer, shinier, more capable consoles from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. Some people believe these days will come as soon as 2010, while others have said much later, though this is all speculation. Of course, it all depends on what folks in the industry say.
We all know the feeling. Placing the crosshairs on an enemy forehead, only to not score the kill. Getting assassinated from the front in Halo 3. Feeling like your head must be the size of a balloon in the rival teams’ sniper scopes. Experiencing these things online can be frustrating.
Man. Every time I think I’m starting to like GameStop a little more than I used to, they go ahead and do some foolish thing that reminds me why I constantly campaign against them in the first place. On top of overcharging for used video games, it seems the video game retail chain may now be blocking certain games due to their association with Steam.
There really aren’t a whole lot of things I can say about this. I mean, I can talk about how I’ve always wanted to be a handy person (again), or how I like video game things and want them near me or on me. You know how it goes. But really, words can’t quantify how ridiculously cool this 
Besides whatever narcotics he puts into his system to give him wild visions and convoluted storylines, Hideo Kojima is inspired primarily by movies. I mean, the fact that nobody told him that Metal Gear Solid 4 was not actually a video game past Act 2 is quite plain to see, and the man clearly has some directorial chops. 
I don’t own a whole lot of extraneous video game merchandise. That’s not to say that I choose not to, or that I’m categorically opposed to filling my house with bizarre video game paraphernalia (my wife would throttle me), it’s just not financially viable all the time. Sure, kicking back with my life-sized Solid Snake cardboard cut-out would rule, but unfortunately, it’s not meant to be.
Each and every year, video game developers push to come out with that mega blockbuster that shatters sales. And each and every year, the final list of which games sold the best is always slightly baffling. While we gamers have our top titles, the general public doesn’t always feel that way. So how about this year?
So I’ve been noticing some new faces around here. Or rather, new names, with no faces next to them. Which is indeed a problem. 
There are lots of discussions going on these days in the gaming blogosphere about whether or not PC gaming is dying or not. While the place to game 10 years ago was on the PC, console developers have really stepped up and given our computers a run for their money.
One of the biggest hill that consoles war upon is the hill of graphics. Fanboys of ages past can easily recall arguments over which system or game had better graphics, and this has long been a standard for gamers to declare their position. In this newest generation, HD graphics have been given prime importance in the eyes of many, but is it the most important thing?
When I was a kid, realism is all anyone wanted out of video games. Virtual Reality was the buzzword of the times. If an enemy acted realistically, that was amazing. If a character’s portrait in a cut scene looked anything like the real thing, we were in awe. As graphics got better, the dream became closer to reality. Games like Flashback and Heart of Darkness wowed gamers with photorealistic graphics, crude by today’s standards, but jaw dropping back in the days when Kurt Cobain was still smashing guitars.
You all know of my love for Mass Effect and its awesomely epic sci-fi space opera ways. As I’ve said before, it’s one of the more underrated games of this generation, and deserves a spot right near the top of the heap because of its excellent story telling, something that not many games do that well to begin with.