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  The Well-Spoken Horror of Video Game Novel Audiobooks

  If you need help sleeping tonight, why not curl up and listen to a man with a very proper accent read you a novel based on a video game about men with giant necks shooting monsters in the face. If Gears of Wars’ Jacinto’s Remnant doesn’t do it for you, you could try Halo: Cryptum,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 2, 2012
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  Is There a New Populous Game in Development? And is Insomniac Working on a Game Called Outernauts?

  Some patent and resume digging by French site HardGamers has uncovered the very real possibility that Electronic Arts is bringing back from the dead one of its most treasured old properties: Populous Managing to access what looks to be an internal wiki for EA’s marketing team (specifically projects involving its EA Partners program), they’ve uncovered…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 2, 2012
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  Put Your Lighter in the Air for this Rock Remix of the Skyrim Theme

  As a fierce, cold land of rippling muscles and town guards who speak like Col. John Matrix, Skyrim has always struck me as a kind of ancestral home for hard rock, much in the same way Iceland is where the Supreme Council of Metal is seated. That makes this rock remix of The Elder Scrolls…

  By Owen Good Published February 2, 2012
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  IKEA, and the Logic of Video Game Design

  A visit to IKEA usually means house moving, renovating, and too much fun spent with LEGO for grown-ups. But is there an element of videogame design hidden away within the Swedish minimalism? I never went to IKEA for videogames. I went there for Swedish pillow covers. But somehow I ended up with videogames. Not literally…

  Daniel Golding Published February 2, 2012
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  Gene Simmons Wants to Make a KISS Angry Birds Game

  Because there’s no product tie-in too outlandish for KISS, frontman Gene Simmons told IndustryGamers that he and his rock band (or, “rock band”) are looking into some sort of partnership with Rovio’s insanely popular Angry Birds video game franchise, in addition to talking to Sony about other possible KISS video games. I have no idea…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published February 2, 2012
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  Fans to Pick Next Madden Cover from a Field of 64 Players

  At Madden Bowl XVIII, EA Sports’ Anthony Stevenson just announced that the cover athlete for Madden NFL will be voted on by fans for a second year. This year’s field will be doubled to 64 candidates, and the first round of voting will be a “play-in” round pitting NFL teammates against each other to determine…

  By Owen Good Published February 2, 2012
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  TF2’s Meet the Pyro is Coming. In 2012.

  Team Fortress 2 is a pretty great game, but the best thing about it are Valve’s marketing shorts, which introduce each character with the kind of animated quality you’d expect from a Pixar flick. So far we’ve met, well, everybody. Everybody except the mysterious Pyro. But we’ll meet him/her soon enough, with Valve promising today…

  By Luke Plunkett Published February 2, 2012
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  Here’s 25 Awesome Coffee Table Books About Video Games

  Miguel Concepcion recently posted a healthy reminder that gamers CAN be bibliophiles—especially where books about video games are concerned. Behold, the 25 Best Video Game Coffee Table Books These books look awesome. Among them: 1001 Video Games You Need To Play Before You Die. Enough said. Dawn: The Worlds Of Final Fantasy, an art showcase…

  By Pierre Bienaimé Published February 2, 2012
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  Get to Know the Bloody Basics of Shank 2’s Co-Op Survival Mode

  The sequel to Klei Entertainment’s cartoony stab-em-up brings me something that I desperately wanted from the first Shank: a frantic 2D twist to the waves-of-enemies gameplay popularized by Gears of War‘s Horde Mode. The nuts-and-bolts of Shank 2‘s Survival Mode get laid out in the clip above, which looks a lot simpler than it actually…

  By Evan Narcisse Published February 2, 2012
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  Helghast or Sith?

  Helghast or Sith? | “Apocalypse Vader,” is one of 24 custom Darth Vader helmets going up for auction on Feb. 7 by HalloweenCostumes.com, (along with “Skevader,” by artist Ryan Renders, featured here in December). Proceeds will benefit two Minnesota charities. Here Are 3 In-Game Screens from The Last of Us Game Informer Magazine has posted…

  By Owen Good Published February 2, 2012
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  Get Up Close and Personal With a Max Payne 3 Hand Cannon on His New Website

  You’ll have many armaments at your disposal in Rockstar Games’ upcoming noir shooter and it sure looks like the 608 Bull’s the one designed to make you feel like Dirty Harry. Witness its thug-stopping power below. That .357—and the leader of the Comando Sombra gang you’ll be shooting it at—get the spotlight at the newly…

  By Evan Narcisse Published February 2, 2012
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  I Wonder If the Artist Realizes Lacrosse Does Have a Video Game

  Wishful thinking is a common theme with conceptual EA Sports game covers; usually the artist is honoring a favorite player or another star he wishes would be anointed for cover recognition. Entirely imaginary titles, as conceived here by an artist and posted on Behance, are a little less common. No NCAA Lacrosse title by EA…

  By Owen Good Published February 2, 2012
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  Madden Bowl XVIII Kicks Off Free Xbox Live Gold Weekend Tonight

  Four teams of all-star competitors, including three Heisman Trophy winners (in their video game personae, above) and two Pro Football Hall of Famers, clash tonight in the Madden Bowl, the annual pre-Super Bowl throwdown EA Sports has staged for nearly 20 years. You can watch the action on ESPN3, which means if you have an…

  By Owen Good Published February 2, 2012
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  Here Are 3 In-Game Screens from The Last of Us

  Game Informer Magazine has posted three screens from their new cover story on The Last of Us, the upcoming PS3-exclusive zombie-adventure game from Naughty Dog, the studio behind the Uncharted series. Looks pretty good, though the real question is how the game plays—the Game Informer post describes combat as revolving around both melee and ranged,…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published February 2, 2012
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  The uDraw is Completely Dead to THQ

  Blaming the poor sales of the uDraw tablet on a dismal third quarter of 2012, THQ has officially halted production on the device and has plans to eliminate existing stock through retail channels. Hey, isn’t Valentine’s Day coming up?

  By Mike Fahey Published February 2, 2012
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  Trials Evolution‘s Crazy-Deep Customization Features Pinball, Helicopters and… First-Person Shooting?

  This trailer for Trials Evolution twists the Darwinian motto into “Survival of the fastest,” and truly it does seem that the spring-bound sequel will be a more sophisticated beast. Local and online multiplayer, diverse settings, and a track editor scarily reminiscent of the possibilities unleashed by Little Big Planet… well, that all sounds pretty cool.

  By Pierre Bienaimé Published February 2, 2012
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  THQ’s 2014 Lineup is Alive and Well (On Paper, At Least)

  Further distancing the company from rumors that its 2014 lineup had been canned, today’s third quarter 2012 financial results from THQ list inSANE, Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online, and several more unannounced core titles that should be showing up over the next couple of years. Warhammer 40k fans in particular should be pleased that the…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 2, 2012
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  Darksiders II Ushers in Death This June

  The vague summer release window for THQ’s Darksiders II became slightly less vague today, with the company’s third quarter 2012 financial report listing the title for a June release. Ah, the sweet release of Death.

  By Mike Fahey Published February 2, 2012
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  Resident Evil: Revelations Claws Its Way To Impressive Review Scores

  While it might not be quite as terrifying as the Circle Pad Pro add-on it helped inspire for the Nintendo 3DS, Resident Evil: Revelations seems to have scared some impressive numbers out of the assembled game reviewers. The eight games in the main Resident Evil series and the first to appear exclusively on a handheld,…

  By Mike Fahey Published February 2, 2012
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  Plants vs. Zombies’ Best Music Meets Shredding Finger-Style Guitar

  I adore the music to PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies. I bought the soundtrack from composer Laura Shigihara, and I still listen to it pretty regularly. My favorite track from the whole game is the tune “Watery Graves,” which plays during the backyard pool missions (runners-up include “Loonboon” and the Oingo-Boingoish ““Ultimate Battle.”) So you can…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published February 2, 2012