This is just another one of those silly little coincidences that has nothing at all to do with supernatural powers working behind the scenes. This sort of thing happens all the time. Polamalu was doing great, with six tackles and a one-handed interception, until a scrum just before the end of the first half left him with a sprained medial collateral ligament. It's perfectly normal injury that will have him on the sidelines for 3-6 weeks. Big deal! It's not like Pittsburgh needs him! They've still got....um. It'll come to me.

Note how I didn't say Madden curse. I don't believe in the Madden curse, and won't unless something horrible happens to Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald, the other athlete on the Madden 10 cover. Arizona plays San Francisco this Sunday, so you might want to set your DVR, just in case Fitzgerald spontaneously combusts.

Steelers Notebook: Knee injury to sideline Polamalu [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

If, like me, you will be alone and weeping on Halloween, abandoned by friends and family, tormented by roving ape larva in frightening accoutrements, then blubber no more: Strategy Informer has hired a ten year old to advise you on the best Halloween games evarrrr!

Number 9: Jack in the Dark Platforms: PC This is an extremely short game, probably the shortest game you'll ever play but it's an evil one at that! It comes included on the Alone in the dark 2 CD so it might be quite hard to find these days but Mr EBay is a great friend of mine and he often has it. If you're reading this EBay, you still owe me that ticket to Earth.

You'll play the role of a young girl which gets trapped in a shop and must save Father Christmas from the jack in the box and other strange toys which manage to come alive. The girl was out trickle treating and my guess is that she knocked on the wrong shop and ended up in trouble! It's a fun short game but doesn't offer much of a scare innless you've got a fear of toys.

"Jack in the Dark" should be Jack in the Box's M-rated answer to Sneak King, but I digress. Spooky games, racked up and reviewed for your reading pleasure.

You know, so you don't have to go trickle treating. Sweet jesus. Eliza Gauger

Strategy Informer Halloween Month [Strategy Informer]

Last night I finally was able to grab Rule of Rose. I made Lady Grey tea with lots of cream and sugar, put my hair in pigtails and didn't leave the couch for the next two hours. I haven't gotten too far in, instead taking my time skulking and listening and psyching myself out. I have a lot more planned for tonight.

My initial reaction is simple: I like it.

My buddy Sizzlepig asked me how it was going once I finally quit for the night.

sizzlepig: how is the game?
eliza: I poked a ragbaby with a dessert fork.
eliza: And ran like the dickens.
sizzlepig: good.
eliza: My only friend is a bucket.
eliza: And everything talks, even scissors.

The game has a very solid world to it, an almost perfect immersion. Imagine that Lord of the Flies was written by Lewis Carroll, adapted for stage by Jules Verne, scored by Paul Mercer and performed aboard the Hindenburg, and you're starting to catch on.

My favorite aspect of the game is that I have absolutely no theories about where the story is going or what's going to happen next. I'm kind of hoping there is no pat little plot, no wrap-up. That it just continues in an insane fashion until a gruesome end.

One thing that surprised me about the game is the age difference between Jennifer, the player character, and the rest of the children. They're about half Jennifer's size, and Jennifer appears to be in her late teens at the youngest.

This underscores the niggling little voice I always endure while playing games of this type, you know the one. The voice demands to know why Jennifer doesn't just grab the little brats and get some real answers, instead of whimpering and skulking and looking for butterflies. This little voice is going to get louder once the really bad bullying starts.

Speaking of which, where's the protests against this game, huh? Jamming a rat on a stick into my face is okay, but recovering lost character sheets for Nerds isn't?

But I can't complain too much. That ragbaby spooked me proper, dessert fork or no. Eliza Gauger

eToychest was kind enough to point this out to me and since I can let no Rule of Rose material slip through my grasp, I am logging it here with mad glee. This video documents a bit of movement and a boss fight, and talks about various dog functions and the overall mechanic of the game.

The reviewer says the dog is used primarily for locating objects and solving puzzles, generally with a "find" command with which you can match keys to locks and so on. The beast helps in combat by distracting critters so Jennifer can run, but doesn't appear to inflict or absorb damage.

It also looks like combat is not a big part of the game at all, and in fact is to be mostly avoided. I've heard reports of frustration from people who got their hands on a review copy that boss fights are annoying, due to the three-strikes-you're-dead feature. I usually don't mind low character health or even one-shot kills (remember Bushido Blade? That game was sweet.), so I don't think it'll be insurmountable.

Overall, the game is reputedly more along the lines of an old-school adventure game than a survival horror, the difference being the focus on the combat that survival horror usually entails. I will definitely be picking this up, but any review I give will be late because I'll be getting it the same time everyone else does. But my review will have a lot more literary references, of that much you can be sure. Eliza Gauger

more here [eToychest]

Destructoid points us to the official Rule of Rose site, which officially went live back on the 18th. Seems like everyone missed it, as everyone has missed most of their pre-release milestones. They are sneaky, those spooky schoolgirls.

The site includes a story synopsis, some brief words about the dev company, a trailer, links to a preview played by AceGamez, a wallpaper based on the blackboard-themed inventory menu from the game, and accompanying icons.

My biggest objection at this point is the hairdo of the main character. It's just a big blonde blob. More suited for Patsy Stone than an adorable del. Eliza Gauger

Rule of Rose Official Site [thanks Destructoid]

One thing I haven't really been clear on is what Rule of Rose is actually about. The plot synopses I've seen are all vague and full of innuendo.

I've been able to piece together that much of the game takes place onboard an airship or something description, probably the fishblimp we see in screenshots and trailers. And there's a wicked cabal of cute little girls, who are called the Aristrocracy of the Red Crayon.

Our heroine, little blonde Jennifer, arrives in this group somehow and immediately becomes the whipping girl. I assume the game is a sort of Lord of the Flies in petticoats.

Siliconera just posted a rundown of the characters in Rule of Rose, complete with little portraits.

Jennifer

The main character of the game. An unlucky, helpless and timid girl who's dragged into an alarming world. She's doomed to face unimaginable hardship with her companion Brown. To find a way out of this nightmare, she's forced to obey the ridiculous rules of the Aristocrats of the Red Crayon.

I like "Aristocracy" better. Eliza Gauger

The Characters of Rule of Rose [Siliconera]
Interview with Atlus about Rule of Rose [Siliconera]

Demian sent this in and I'm very pleased with them. This is the newest Rule of Rose trailer, appropriately titled "Creepy Kids" over on GameVideos.

Lots of sadism, short skirts, and spooky smiles. And my special friend, the fishblimp, makes another spectacular showing at the very end.

This video is completely nonsensical but I couldn't look away. Eliza Gauger

Hardcore blog DESTRUCTOID says an Aussie auctioneer is eBaying what he claims is the original version of Silent Hill.

As of press time, the price is already over $100 and it's going to get ridiculous in the last five minutes before auction end. All the really hardcore bidders are waiting for the big snipe, man.

This build of the game contains a small set of areas from the final game that we have today, but it shows off how much of the game was later altered or removed. The most noteable features being the alternate introduction, the appearance of the "Child Like" monsters in the school, and the complete re-arangement of items and monsters in the areas.

More, oh so much more, after the jump.

This makes it sound like it's not actually the complete game, but only a few levels. That's a pity. The "child like monsters" are apparently the charcoal babies we saw in the movie, which is apparently based more strongly on this version of the game than the release we saw in Japan and the US.

Those babies sure made some impressive noises. All the sound in that movie was outstanding. But with the exception of Pyramid Head, nearly all the visual creepiness was awesome until it got close enough to actually see. What's with the recent Hollywood trend of using CGI that would embarrass us if we saw it in a Wing Commander cutscene? The newest Ghostrider trailer is just sickening.

Countdown to angry fanboys flaming me about Ghostrider starting....now. Eliza Gauger

Spooky, spooky auction. [eBay]