Check this out: a YouTube vid demoing the NES-friendly “de-make” of Left 4 Dead, featuring a soundtrack, graphics, and gameplay well-suited to the 2d console-ness that was the 80s!
While only the Boomer made an appearance in the demo above (and is actually tougher than your typical infected, compared to the original), creator Eric Ruth assures us that the finished product, to be made available for free this January 4, 2010, will be more complete. Q & A detailing the game below!

Q: Is this just an animation or an actual game?
A: An actual game. It will be available for free download …read more

Ok fine, so Blizzard recently implied that Diablo III won’t see a 2010 release. But it’s not the end of the world for us Diablo fanatics, as there are games out now that provide similar gameplay. None of the following are Diablo III, but from my experience, I think they’ll do a good job of keeping you busy, dungeon-hack-wise, until Blizzard finally completes the Diablo trilogy.

The Original Diablo
I’m not kidding. In some ways, the first Diablo provided a more compelling gameplay experience than Diablo II and its expansion, Lord of Destruction. There were limits: you couldn’t run, magic item generation …read more

The Ace Attorney series is a notable example of the overwrought emotionalism and character movements that characterize Japanese narrative culture. Play an Ace Attorney game and you encounter a tremendously surreal court system where legal arguments become epic, backed up by just-in-time realizations pieced together from obvious fragments of evidence.
My first encounter with this legal adventure game series saw me take on the role of Phoenix Wright, and I was a rookie defending attorney who became a master of cross examination. I even got help from the spirit of my murdered mentor, who somehow possessed her younger sister and made …read more

Hee hee, see Dr. Mario in action, diagnosing ills, realizing that an unfortunate heroine suffers from crabs.

Ironically, despite the low prices of PC games on Steam, I’ve ended up spending more than I budgeted over the last few months. Those discounts are very tempting, and the fact that Steam is coming out with more games every week—especially classic titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic— isn’t really helping.
Recently however, I’ve realized my compulsion to buy stems from the slick marketing process built into Steam’s interface. By default, you are presented with the home page of Steam store once you load the client. Sometimes a pop-up appears, upon start-up or after exiting a game, detailing …read more

Enterprising Tom’s Hardware member tecmo34 has taken the time to write a “Recommended Build” guide, outlining the parts you should get for a “budget” gaming PC. Whether you prefer an Intel or AMD CPU, tecmo’s got you covered. Here are two gaming PC builds he’s recommended, with input from TH’s more veteran members. Both are designed to “play games at mid. to max. settings at a monitor resolution of 1440×900 or less”:

$505 Intel Build

CPU: Intel Pentium E5300 2.6GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor ($70)
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L ATX Intel Motherboard ($80)
RAM: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 …read more

As manufacturers constantly come out with new hardware, the answer to the question “what is the best graphic card for my money?” also changes. I don’t have the time to do the research and check out the specs, and that’s why I’m thankful Tom’s Hardware takes care of that for me, through the website’s Best Graphics Cards for the Money series.
Like previous editions, the November 2009 issue simply lists the best graphics card(s) for a particular price point, and explains why it is so. Without further ado, here are the cards:

Price
Card

$55
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4650 100253HDMI

$80
HIS Radeon HD 4670 H467QS1GH

$90
XFX GeForce …read more

Here’s a rare find from the recently concluded Tokyo Game Show 2009: Wet Ones in a black packet, with the Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising logo the only thing keeping the disinfectant wipes from leaving the packaging. Click a thumbnail to zoom in.
Possibly the result of a strategic alliance between Playtex and Codemasters (the makers of the wipes and the game respectively), are these OF:DR wipes symbolic of anything? Perhaps Codemasters literally wants to wipe the tactical shooter genre clean with its newest offering? Or maybe this is just another phase in Playtex’s plan to continue dominating the disinfectant wipes battlefield? …read more

Whether you’ve played the first Left 4 Dead or not, here’s a trio of videos guaranteed to satisfy your curiosity about Left 4 Dead 2.
We begin with the first video, where our hero Criken tests the waters. The new special infected make their debut off-screen, but you can already hear the telltale sounds they make:
The second video is more revealing, at least in terms of gameplay mechanics. Criken intentionally(?) puts himself in bad situations, and shows us how to deal with the new Charger and zombies enjoying bullet-proof protection. He even reveals his “single favorite weapon in all the Left …read more

Dungeons & Dragons on a multi-touch surface, with support for other RPGs promised? Definitely neat stuff, and it also inspires “now why didn’t I think of that?” moments. A brief 3-minute demo of Surface Scapes follows!
Now if only the creators, students at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), can come out with a polished final product. I’m pretty sure Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), owners of Dungeons & Dragons, would love this. At the very least, WOTC can turn Surface Scapes into an expensive new toy designed to make die-hard fans spend even more.
Totally immersive and addictive? Check! Let’s …read more