And Vinyly...24 or so Minutes of the End...

Some people believe that there is an afterlife - a continuation of one's soul after the physical shell has passed on. This has been with humanity ever since we evolved the ability to think in abstract thought. As we grew and learned more about the material world, some of us realized that there was no need to believe in such nonsense. I'm one of the many who feel, nay, know that there is a definite end to one's life. The only way to live on is to leave behind a legacy. And what better way to do that than with pressing one's ashes into vinyl?

Ten Stale Ideas Holding Back Gaming...But Not Really (Part 2)

See? I told you I'd be back for part two! I went over the first two points of IGN's article, 10 Stale Ideas Holding Back Gaming. Now for the remaining points that I will rant all over and probably uses some other bodily function!

Hit the jump to keep reading.

Ten Stale Ideas Holding Back Gaming...But Not Really (Part 1)

I'm not a frequenter of IGN. Sure, I have a profile set up with them but that's only because they have a way for me to keep track of my immense game collection and I've been too lazy to set it up elsewhere. This article has been brought to my attention and it's flawed for several reasons. First of all, its criticisms are far too narrow. The root cause of the problem, which is supposedly stagnating the game industry never comes to fruition. Secondly, he fails to cite any of his claims, which borderline on extraordinary. Third, he confuses some definitions of games, namely casual and independent. I'll just go ahead and break down each point because I have nothing better to do (not true I have Red Dead Redemption and Rock Band 2 waiting for me).

Continue reading by clicking on the jump!

Dead State

About a year ago there was a small news announcement of a new independent video game company forming from the former writers of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir. The company was called Doublebear Productions (inspired by Doublefine Productions?) and they made a small blurb that they're working on a zombie survival horror RPG. And that was it.

Flash forward to a few days ago and they officially announce the name of the game, Dead State and release some more information about it. Now I've been fairly excited for this game even though I haven't kept up with it too much. I like zombies, however they have completely saturated the market now and every game tends to feel cookie cutter, rarely adding anything new to the mix. I've always felt that a RPG centered around the zombie apocalypse, maybe in the vein of Walking Dead, would make for a great video game. And here comes Doublebear Productions with what I hope will be a great game.

The gameplay bullet point seem promising with open ended gameplay, engaging storyline, innovative noise and resource management. They have a few screenshots posted that look like the game would fit better in 1998 than 2010. That's not a bad thing mind you as long as the gameplay holds up. I'm also not too thrilled with the concept art at this point, but again it's still in the early stages and they haven't even announced a release date.

I'll at the very least try the demo for this game when they decide to release it and I hope it turns out well for them.

http://www.deadstate.doublebearproductions.com/