The Blunted Blade

HIGH Gloriously detailed artwork.

LOW Repetitive, simplistic combat.

WTF To access the hot springs, just ask a bath monkey.

Made The Playoffs, But Lost In The First Round

HIGH Breaking through a six man gang tackle to rush for a touchdown.

LOW Having to play the fight for the fumble mini-game when I was the only one near the ball when I fell on it.

WTF Enough with the measuring, it's clearly a first down.

Lots of game news here at the site this morning—which is cool, because I love gaming almost as much as I love horror.

TGC—The Games Company,  a Berlin-based publisher, has announced I’m Not Alone for the PC (see? PC gaming's not dead!). The survival horror experience is set to hit retailers in the first quarter of 2010. What can adventurous gamers who grab this title expect? Skip past the break for a full gallery and more on the game.

You'll have to forgive me for the unimaginative headline on this post. There are only so many inventive ways to title a story on zombies and I think after covering the undead for over a decade I've run out of cool ones.

Konami's Zombie Apocalypse is now available for download and was the most downloaded title on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. You'd think that would be good enough for Konami, but it's not. They think there are still some of you out there who haven't splurged for a copy of the game and indulged in its Smash TV-esque wholesale zombie genocide. To entice you to pay your money and take the ride, they've released a new trailer for the game–one that basks in the gory glory of the experience of taking out hordes of flesh eating monsters in satisfyingly violent ways.

Can you survive the zombie apocalypse for 55 days, spread over seven different environments? It'll cost you $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points to find out.

Ever wondered what it would be like to whole up in a building you'd converted to a fully functioning fortress during the zombie apocalypse? Well, wonder no more because Paradox Interactive's forthcoming Fort Zombie is set to let you live the dream.

In Fort Zombie, players must save the town of Piety, Indiana from an impending wave of zombies migrating from a nearby major city. Players are challenged to take control of a single building throughout the entire campaign. By effectively building this structure into the ultimate fort, as well as carefully searching for supplies and finding and training survivors in Piety, players have a chance at conquering and outlasting the flesh-hungry zombies.

The game reportedly blends zombie-killing mayhem with casual RPG elements and will be available for PC download later this fall—for an insanely cheap $9.99 price point. Just to set the tone, here's a look at the game's introductory cinematic. Yes, the graphics aren't exactly cutting edge, but the gameplay may well make up for the visual shortcomings.

The world of video games is no stranger to inconceivable, bizarre, and at times downright irresponsible marketing.  Most recently, gamers were shocked by Electronic Arts' reprehensible "Sin to Win" promotion for Dante's Inferno. Now, Namco has decided to unleash a series of odd and, quite frankly, dangerous "viral" advertisements for the upcoming game Tekken 6.

One last note: I'm almost done with my start-over-from-scratch replay of Demon's Souls, and after taking a very close look at the Tendency system, I'm basically convinced that it's pretty much the only false step that From made.

The first time I played the game, I went through it without consulting any FAQs and just immersed myself in the overall experience. It was extremely rewarding and I'm glad I did it that way, but I was a little put off after credits rolled to find that I had missed several things because my gameplay style kept me "in the middle".

As would be expected of any comic-to-game adaptation, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 does not entirely replicate the storyline, but it does a surprisingly good job of recreating the key allegorical events: the attack on New York City, the atom bomb-like explosion in Stamford, and the escalating violence between the two factions of superheroes. While the game changes much of the end of the storyline, opting to have the two sides unite against a sentient virus and removing Captain America's poignant surrender and subsequent death-by-assassination, it still conveys important truths about what it means to surrender freedom for the sake of fear, and why even the seemingly powerful are so eager to give up their rights.

Rummaging Through Stuff Is Fun. Really.

HIGH The graphics are pleasant, and the game hides objects in very clever ways.

LOW The garden-renovation elements are much too simple.

WTF Live cats and fish. Hidden in rooms amid junk. For sale.

"This should be interesting. Or fraught with peril."

HIGH Murray's rendition of the closing credits.

LOW These games are always over too soon.

WTF Much of the game takes place inside a giant manatee.