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Call it Breakout. Call it Arkanoid. Call it Brickles. Whatever title you use, everyone is familiar with the “bricks-and-balls” genre.
A small paddle is located at the bottom of the screen while a large wall of bricks is located at the top. Using the paddle, players must knock the ball back into the wall until all the bricks are destroyed. It’s such a simple design that the genre is often referred to as “one-player Pong.”
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It’s Friday, friends! And it’s the 13th: traditionally a bad omen. I’ve had some ill luck to start off the day – a flash drive containing valuable data has kicked the bucket. I’m hoping someone can help me revive it. But the good news is that Don Riggs and I have claimed this day to be Dune Day! Behold us in our glory.
What’s going on in the world of deals today? Well, so far as I know, all we’ve got is Amazon’s Deal of the Day in video games, which is Turtle Beach’s Ear Force X31 Digital RF Wireless Game Audio + Xbox Live Chat. It’s on sale for $69.99 from $99.99.
Just one video game shirt today, which is dedicated to one of your favorite characters in Portal:
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Say hello to Swan, the “Goth Geek Bastard” behind the zombie uprising in Suda 51’s Lollipop Chainsaw. If you’re thinking this necromancer is any match for the big bads regularly faced by Buffy Summers, think again. He’s just an 18-year old loser who decided that the world needed more walking undead. OK, so he’s exactly like several of the big bads from “Buffy.”
His voice actor also sounds very familiar and I believe it belongs to Sean Gunn, brother of Lollipop Chainsaw writer James Gunn.
Lollipop Chainsaw will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime in 2012, which will be a day filled with rainbows and sunshine and happy dances for me.
The NPD Group has released their list of the bestselling games in December and, once again, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 tops the list. The shooter was joined in the top ten by its comrade in arms, Battlefield 3, which gunned down the number five slot.
The rest of the list includes a cross-section of some of this year’s absolute biggest games including Just Dance 3 at #2, Skyrim at #3, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations at #7, and Batman: Arkham City at #10. And Nintendo’s 3DS is finally coming alive with two titles in the top ten: Mario Kart 7 at #4 and Super Mario 3D Land at #9.
Here’s the complete NPD Top Ten for the month of December 2011:
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC)
2. Just Dance 3 (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3)
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
4. Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
5. Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
6. Madden NFL 12 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)
7. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
8. NBA 2K12 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC)
9. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
10. Batman: Arkham City (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
With three Silent Hill games on the schedule (one for each month), Konami had previously planned to keep gamers in the state of perpetual panic throughout the new year. But several delays have now condensed a season of scares into one monstrous month.
Silent Hill HD Collection will bow first on March 6. The PS3 and Xbox 360 package will collect Silent Hill 2 (considered by many to be the best game in the series) and Silent Hill 3 into a single package. The compilation will include new vocal performances and updated high definition graphics.
Silent Hill: Downpour, also in the works for the PS3 and Xbox 360, will follow the HD Collection into stores a week later on March 13. Developed by Vatra Games (their first in the Silent Hill series), Downpour is a twist on The Fugitive formula as convicted felon Murphy Pendleton escapes a prison bus crash outside a familiarly foggy burg.
Finally, the series will make its debut on Sony’s new Vita handheld on March 27 with Silent Hill: Book of Memories. Book of Memories introduces time travel to the Silent Hill universe and also includes another first, a multiplayer mode.
Asura’s Wrath is the latest game from Capcom and developer CyberConnect2. This absurdly over-the-top action game features everything from intense Quick Time Events to anime-esque “commercial break” loading screens. The frenetic action, varying gameplay elements, and extreme cinema scenes combine together to make something that, while it’s not unique, is still fun. Be sure to get a bag of ice ready, though, because you’re going to have what I like to refer to as “God of War elbow” in no time.
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The Writers Guild of America has announced the five nominees who will battle it out for this year’s Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing.
The Assassin’s Creed team at Ubisoft is once again up for a Writers GUild Award thanks to their work on Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. The previous game in the series, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, won the award last year.
The writing teams behind Batman: Arkham City, Brink, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and Mortal Kombat have also been nominated for the Writers Guild Award.
Turning the Mortal Kombat mythos into a coherent story was quite a feat, so I’m pulling for the team at NetherRealm Studios.
You can see the complete list of nominated writers after the break and check back on February 19 to find out who won.
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Not much of anything going on today, except for a smattering of rain on and off! It’s a quiet, boring day, and I’m kind of hoping it stays that way. I’ve been gaming a lot lately, and I could use another quiet night of gaming and kitties and something warm in my tummy…
The only deal I’ve got for you today is Amazon’s Deal of the Day in video games, which is Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. It’s just $17.99 today, but chances are, if you’re a fan of the series, you’ve already got this one. But just in case you were waiting for it to go on sale, well – today’s your lucky day!
There aren’t even any good video game-related t-shirts for sale today. I mean, seriously, the Internet is quiet. The only thing I’ve been hearing about is this whole Girl Scout cookie boycott thing, about the people up in arms because the Girl Scouts let a transgender kid join their ranks. All these stories have done is make me really want some Girl Scout cookies…
Video Game Canon
Video Game Research Library