Clip of the Week

Dead Rising 2: "Chainsaw" Trailer

My gosh, I want to play this game.

Dead Rising 2 at IGN.com

Top Ten List of the Week

Top Ten Upcoming Games

There are a whole lot of promising video games that are getting ready to come out, and it's time to count down the top ten best looking ones:

10. Star Wars: The Clone Wars Light Saber Duels - 11/08 - I am really not sure what this one is all about, but it has "Light Saber Duels" in the title and it's on the Wii, so that's promising.

9. MLB Power Pros 2008 - Wii - 7/28/08 - Powero Pros 2007 was really fun on the Wii, but lacked a lot of depth in the "Wiimote" mode. Apparently they have fixed a lot of issues for 2008, so this one is supposed to be good.

8. Ghostbusters: The Video Game - Multi Platform - 10/08 - This game was rumored for so long that I have to put it on the list. The in-game footage looks pretty slick to me.

7. Fable 2 - Xbox 360 - 10/08 - The sequel to Fable (natch), this is supposedly the game that Fable was supposed to be...with primitive guns!

6. Fallout 3 - Xbox 360 - 10/08 - To be honest, I have never played a fall out game, but the trailer makes me want to be a better man.

5. Left 4Dead - Xbox 360 - 11/08 - Co-op zombie-bustin' fun, I am always down for new zombie franchises, and Left for Dead looks very promising. It's from Valve, and the multiplayer sounds to be Counterstrike-ishly innovative.

4. Street Fighter IV - Mult Platform - TBA 2009 - That's right, it's a new entry in the Street Fighter saga. What took so long? Who knows, but this game should be sweet.

3. Call of Duty 5: World at War - Multi Platform - 11/08 - With Call of Duty 4 being so awesome, part five has to be on the list. This time, we are going back to the big WWII in World at War.

2. Resident Evil 5 - Xbox 360 - TBA 2009 - It's Resident Evil and the NAACP already wants to boycott it. Why? Because black people are portrayed as zombies, I guess. In parts one, two, and three all the zombies are white people, but I never complained. Anyway, the game looks phenomenal.

1. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Multi Platform - 9/16/08 - I plan to buy this game on three different platforms, I am that excited about it. This looks cream your jeans good. I can't wait to try this puppy out on the Wii!

You can check all these out at IGN.com.

- Jordamn
Sulphur Springs, TX

Top 15 List of the Week

Top Fifteen Horror-Themed Video Games

That's right, since we're so close to Halloween, this week we are looking at the top fifteen horrific video games, which there just aren't enough of. Games that make your fresh crawl and your skin prickle. Those are my favorite. So, let's take a look:


15. Evil Dead: Regeneration (Xbox/PS2) - By all counts, this game is just above mediocre. However, the inclusion of the wonderful voice acting of Bruce "Don't Call Me Ash" Campbell and Ted "I'm Sam's Brother" Raimi make it well worth playing. Of course, you play as Ash battling through a world that is now inhabited by deadites. Sure, the story is ultimately forgettable, but the one-liners are great.

14. The Thing (PS/Xbox) - A sequel to the John Carpenter movie of the same name (see top ten aliens), The Thing is a pretty sweet game that could use a graphical update for next-gen platforms. Basically, you've swooped in a few hours after McReady and his crew have had it out with the thing, and your trying to piece it together. A cool idea, to be sure, the controls are a little clunky, but it's so cinematic.

13. The Haunting Starring Polterguy (Genesis) - A funny game published by EA in 1993, in The Haunting you play as Polterguy, a poltergeist dead set on getting people out of his house. You do this by taking control of various household items like toilets and beds and scaring the beegeezus out of the humans.

12. Night Trap (Sega CD) - True, the game is only as good as FMV games can be, which has its limits. In the game, you're monitoring multiple security cameras and trying to keep 5 young ladies at a slumber party safe from a vampiric horde that would do them in. Of course, this (along with Mortal Kombat) was the big game that got the ESRB ball rolling, and it really is the best of the FMV games that came out on the Sega CD.

11. Stubbs the Zombie (Xbox) - This is a rather odd game that came out two years ago for Microsoft's big black box. It's one of the few zombie games to actually let you play as the zombie. You're Stubbs, a travelling salesman that was murdered and has come back to life to take his revenge in the 1950's. It's played for laughs, and will definitely elicit a few chuckles.

10. Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Genesis/SNES) - Another of the more comical games on the list, this LucasArts game features two player gameplay in which you (and a friend) are responsible for saving the neighborhood from...zombies! Zoinks! You use your watergun (and an array of other assorted "weapons) to destroy the monsters. It was a ton of fun, no lie.

9. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (Xbox) - If you're into horror literature, or are a Lovecraft fan, this is one of the best games you've never heard of. It's an amalgamation of a few different Lovecraft stories that play out very cinematically. The gameplay does leave something to be desired, but the story keeps you playing.

8. Alone in the Dark series (PC) - The true first 3D survival horror series, Alone in the Dark draws its inspiration from none other than Howard Phillips Lovecraft (see #9). A creepy series on all counts, you play as detective Edward Carnby (in the original trilogy) investigating the supernatural.

7. Quake Series (PC) - Upping the ante of 3D-gaming, Quake was id's next big game after the Doom series. In Quake, you're a marine travelling through dimensions to battle demonic foes. The subsequent volumes don't follow the original storyline, however. Anyway, everyone knows how revolutionary this game was and it was pretty creepy to boot!

6. Silent Hill Series (Multi-platform) - Taking place in the creepy little town of Silent Hill that makes Twin Peaks look like a nice place to retire, this series probably uses atmosphere better than any on this list. It's an interesting story with well developed characters. I've only played the first three, and I definitely recommend those.

5. BioShock (Xbox 360) - The newest game on the list, BioShock doesn't fit as snugly into the horror genre as a lot of the games on here, but it is creepy as hell. Not only that, the story is amazing, the graphics are beautiful, and the gameplay is more than solid . A great game, BioShock is set in a dystopian 1960 in an underwater city called Rapture.

4. Doom Series (PC) - In 1993, id Software changed the face of gaming forever. Doom wasn't the first first-person shooter, but it certainly brought the genre to the forefront. I remember playing this one as a kid, and being floored by how great the graphics were and how awesome the guns were! And Doom II just got better.

3. Castlevania Series (Multi-platform) - Allowing young kids to kill vampires and ghouls since the mid-eighties, the Castelvania series is absolutely amazing. The series follow the Belmont family as they have to kill Dracula over and over again, and, for my money, there just aren't many better platformers on the market. You all know Castlevania and you love it. We can even forgive those N64 3D versions.

2. Dead Rising (Xbox 360) - Number seven on my top 15 Video Games, Dead Rising combines elements from Resident Evil with those of the GTA series to give you a free-roaming, zombie-whuppin', awesome game. Blood and guts galore, you play out a Dawn of the Dead scenario in which your stuck in a mall infested by...the undead! Dead Rising is a wonderful game, and I recommend you pick it up ASAP. If they could make this into a wonderful series, it might one day usurp the throne of numero uno on the list, which is...

1. Resident Evil Series (Multi-platform) - What can I say about Resident Evil? It is the ultimate in survival horror. There are no games that have done it better than this series. You kill zombies that have been created by the Umbrella Corporation. With guns. There's no need for more explanation.

Honorable mentions go to Ghost N Goblins and Splatter House 2.
I do regret to say that I've never played the Clock Tower series.

And, if you're bored at work, you might want to check this one out: Endless Zombie Rampage.


- Jordamn Monster
No Commercy, TX

Top Fifteen List of the Week

Top Fifteen Video Games of All-Time

I've been gaming (seriously, that's what people call it) since I was probably three years old. Over the years, I've had a ton of systems: an Atari 2600, an Atari 5200, an NES, a Super NES, a Sega Genesis, a Sega 32X, a Sega CD, a Sony Playstation, a N64, a Sega Dreamcast, an Atari Jaguar, a Playstation 2, an Xbox, and an Xbox 360. I feel that I'm qualified enough to make a list like this. But I have to warn you, I never was big on RPGs so don't let the absence of Final Fantasy or Breath of Fire or freaking Japanese games that have the words Dragon or Dragoon in them surprise you. Here's my list of my personal favorite 15 video games of all time:

15. Mortal Kombat II (Genesis) - I played this game all the time when I was a kid. It really pushed that M rating, harder than its predecessor. It was a lot of fun and had a lot more characters than the first one as well. Download the ROM

14. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - One of the few RPGs your going to see on my list, this game was awesome. It was the first time a console had seen Link in years, and he didn't disappoint.

13. Super Mario 64 (N64) - This was the hot ap for the N64 when it came out. A launch game, Super Mario 64 really showed what this new system had to offer by giving us huge environments in full 3D!

12. Tekken 3 (Playstation) - This is my absolute favorite fighting game of all time. Now every time I play a fighting game, they are all compared to the first time I ever played Tekken 3. Nothing ever stacks up.

11. Grand Theft Auto 3 (Playstation) - Controversial and so much damn fun, GTA 3 was a revolution in gaming. The first really big "sandbox" game, it proved that killing cops and stealing cars could be tons of fun.

10. Super Mario World (SNES) - It took Super Mario Bros. 3, and made it better. That's a feat, because part 3 was awesome.

9. WarCraft II (PC) - One of the first games I ever played over the internet, WarCraft II is also one of my all time favorties. I used to be really into RTS games, but nothing was ever as fun to me as WarCraft II. My friend Jim (who lived like 5 houses down) and I would hook up to our 28.8 connections and try to play this puppy about every other day.

8. Resident Evil 2 (Playstation) - The first one was great, but Resident Evil 2 really took it took the next level. We got a lot more of the (really interesting) story and the gameplay really came into its own. RE2 was just so much fun (and remained scary!).

7. Dead Rising (Xbox 360) - Boy, oh boy. The second (and final) zombie-themed game on the list, Dead Rising basically puts you smack dab in the middle of Dawn of the Dead and sets you loose. The game is actually a mixture of Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto, giving you free reign over a character in a large environment and giving you the ability to kill zombies with anything and everything.

6. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox) - Ah. I can remember a solid week when I was supposed to be going to school at UNT, and instead I was sitting like a zombie, glued to my xbox playing KOTOR. There is no better idea than giving you an action-packed RPG in which you are a jedi choosing the light or dark side. If Dead Rising was a fanboy's dream, KOTOR is his wet dream.


5. The Legend of Zelda (NES) - It's the Legend of Zelda and it's really rad. It's been 20 years (literally, the game came out in 1987) and this is still one of my favorite games ever made. It came in that really cool gold cartridge, and if you beat it you could play it again backwards and all of that other innovative stuff.

4. Halo 2 (Xbox) - For all intents and purposes, the gameplay and graphics were both improved upon for the sequel to Halo. It was an amazing game that (natch) had great multiplayer and was incredibly fun to play. It didn't have quite the same oomph that the first one had however, and that's what bumps it down to number 4 on our list.

3. Tetris (Any Platform) - Tetris may be the only game that I will never get tired of. It's great to have on your cell phone or on the xbox or whereever to can get it. I could play it for hours on end (in fact, I have!) and just keep wanting to play it.

2. Goldenye (N64) - The second greatest shooter ever. In 1997, I would've have sworn that Goldeneye would always be #1. I couldn't get enough of this game. My friends and I played it all the time, hosting mini-tournaments and everything. My brother and I used to bet baseball cards on it. The game was like crack.

1. Halo (Xbox) - What Goldeneye was when I was in middle school, Halo was when I was in high school. It was Goldeneye cranked up to 11. My senior year (and the subsequent year as well) where both so completely dominated by Halo that my graduation party was just a bunch of linked up Xboxes that we used for some 16 player action.


Honorable Mentions:
X-Men (Arcade)
Dune 2 (PC)
Warlords (Atari)
Rampart (Arcade)
Rock N Roll Racing (Genesis)
Age of Empires (PC)
Ateroids (Arcade)
Mario Kart 64 (N64)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out (NES)
Super Mario Bros 3 (NES)
Sonic 2 (Genesis)
Road Rash II (Genesis)
Perfect Dark (N64)

Of course, THIS and THIS might actually be the two greatest games ever.

- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX