The time of the heavy hitters has come again. That’s right, the holiday season brings with it a tide of the blockbuster video games, and you know what that means? Shooters! Shooters out of and into every orifice that you can possibly imagine, waiting to unleash their tools of mass destruction upon your console or your PC.
Playing all of these recent titles really gets the noodle going, and it brought to mind visions of ordinance past, guns of yore, weapons that have entertained and slayed in the bygone days of gaming.
I wanted to take this opportunity to look at some of my favorite video game guns of all time. These range from the most fun to the most utilitarian to the most destructive that I can remember. They do have one thing in common, though. They all kick ass.
As we all know, Thanksgiving, and the holidays in general, are a time where we get some much needed down-time for not only family and eating, but also getting in some good gaming time before we go back to the grind. In addition, Black Friday brings the opportunity to save on systems, devices and games that we’ve been waiting to play.
So Left 4 Dead is out and I’ve been playing the junk out of it. What I can’t deal with about the game (in a good way) is just how epic everything is when you’re playing with a group of friends, battling zombies in campaign or becoming them in versus mode. I’ve played the game for hours already with no signs of letting up anytime soon.
Ah, Thanksgiving. When we eat and stuff our faces like we might never taste food again. It’s the time of year where we get to play extra video games, and where we long for Christmas to get the last few that we haven’t bought. In light of this holiday, I thought I’d leave you guys a short feature before departing on my great Turkey adventure tomorrow. 
Ah, the good old Legend of Zelda series. How Nintendo needs you. How long will you keep getting shoveled out?
The platformer is a dying breed in today’s game world that is filled with shooters, gore, exploding aliens and musical game clones. We don’t always get the same kind of games that we used to get, and sometimes I really miss this genre, because it’s so often overlooked by the big gaming studios. Because of that, it’s kind of interesting that we’re getting a few great platformers this holiday season.
For as long as I can remember, there has always been a debate raging about PC versus console shooters, and which are better. I remember leaving the world of PC shooters for some time because of games like Goldeneye, etc, before being dragged back in by Counter-Strike and convinced that no other shooter on the console could come close. But then I go back and play a Halo and realize that sometimes simpler is better. Sometimes.
As of now, I’ve finished Saint’s Row 2, Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead from the holiday pile of games. On the deck still are things like Chrono Trigger DS, Fallout 3, Penny Arcade episode 2, Portal “Still Alive”, Call of Duty World at War, Fable II, Little Big Planet and Mirrors Edge.
One of the most important aspects of any visual medium, be it films, games, graphic novels, machinima, etc- is story. While many people put an emphasis on the kinds of images and effects they can put into their production, it’s ultimately story that leaves a resonating impact on the viewer/participant. 
In this day and age, it’s hard to be a lone ranger in the gaming community. So many games support multiplayer because, in fact, they would be lambasted for not having it. Sometimes I miss the days of long ago where I could play a game with no outside disturbances, no invites, just me and the game for hours on end while I have my own unique experience with it.
GTA IV releases on the PC in December, bringing its destructive gameplay to desktop gaming around the world. One of the cool new features that will be coming to the PC version of the game, however, is the in-game video editor that allows you to piece together several 30-45 second clips that you can capture while you play.
So after experiencing some more actual time with the NXE, I felt it was necessary to provide an update. While I wasn’t too thrilled after my first exposure to it, last night I played Left 4 Dead for awhile and got to tinker quite a bit. I have to say, I really enjoy it.
Since we’ve had a chance to get our hands on some of these long anticipated titles, it seemed only fitting for another version of “Would You Rather?”. We’re a big fan of how much you guys get involved on these.
Wow. I know I say it all the time, but I’m continually impressed by both the ingenuity of gamers and the way that they can help each other in community on these crazy tubes called the Internetz. For anyone that’s feeling overwhelmed by Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland and all of its many places of exploration, some of the folks at Planet Fallout have built a google map edition.
Ok all you crazy zombie nuts… Left 4 Dead, the game you’ve been waiting for, is now available on Steam. I know several people on my friends list who are already downloading this game, and going nuts about it as we speak. Or as I type this rather.
So apparently, if you filled out an application for the NXE a few weeks back, you can already get online and grab your update for the XBox 360. I turned on my 360 earlier tonight and was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with a new update, which then promptly replaced the old dashboard with the slick shiny new one.