Despite bad PR claiming the game causes the Xbox 360 to heat up, Capcom shipped 500,000 units of Dead Rising to the world of the living since its North America launch two weeks ago (August 8). The action, horror, shoot 'em zombies game set in an urban town where rat infestation is not the major problem, has been a huge success making this month's top ten bestsellers list. Response to Dead Rising from the trade, press and consumers has been tremendous," said Capcom. "The success of the game is a result of Capcom's recognition of Xbox 360 system's possibilities and starting development early on in order to deliver such a high-quality game."

Nah, we think it's those freaking zombies. Everybody wants to blow up freaking zombies. Dead Rising is set to infest Europe (September 8) and Japan (September 28).

It's dark, gloomy, and it's underwater. Scared yet? Add some 1930's nostalgia, booming music, some grotesque humanoid mutants, insane ceiling-crawling women scouring around the whole place--hunting you down. Yep, I thought so. Welcome to Bioshock!

Here's a lowdown from the top man of Irrational Games, Joe MCDonough. Joe wants to add more tension to your already fragile nerves. So what they did was build an active gameplay, called the "adaptive difficulty", that reacts to the present situation your player is in. In short, it aims to make your game just right. Not crazy-impossible nor boringly easy.  Low on ammo? Some will appear just at the right time. Got enough bullets? There's a shortage in the armory. Another "innovation" is the absence of any tutorial. They believe that since you're playing this game, you'd be familiar with how everything moves or goes. It makes it challenging for new FPS players, but what it does is give subtle hints to help you through the game.

This is a thinking man's shooting game. There will be times that you may need to use brain power to get out of situations. It's a good way to reserve your ammo and relax the trigger finger. Making the right choices, rather than shooting bullets, rule in this game.

Another great feature is that instead of levelling up in abilities like average RPGs, this game employs "plasma" to give your character special bonuses and enhancements. There are Active Skills, Physical, Engineering, and Weapon Specialties. Therefore you can customize your character. You want to build him like a tank or would you rather be fleet on your feet? Again, choices, choices.

This game is starting sound like a new movement in the gaming scene. A combination of horror, FPS and RPG in ways everyone can appreciate, we'll see in 2007.

Since the announcement of its comeback, Alone in the Dark is looking pretty solid and, well, pretty. It is well-known among fans that this survival horror game has suffered a lot of setbacks which can be attributed to poor, not-worth-mentioning sequels and Atari's financial losses. Happily though, things are looking bright and sunny now for Alone in the Dark, however oxymoronic that may sound.

A few things to look out for with the latest installment for this horror game series would be the scarier than ever (not to mention highly-detailed) environments and the new episodic game content.

As it is being released next year, more and more goodies and sneak peeks are coming out from Atari's camp such as these screenshots below. Are you feeling those chills now?

 

 

It has been quite a while since we have given you something you could chew on about the upcoming game for the Xbox 360 and the PS3, The Darkness. Just to give you a little recap, the game is developed by Starbreeze AB, which also brought to you The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. The game is inspired by the Top Cow comics of the same title.

And in case you have no idea what the game is all about, it let's you experience being Jackie Estacado who is suddenly possessed by the powers of The Darkness; he then must now learn how to control his new-found powers. Blending both modern crime drama and supernatural horror through both first-person and third-person perspectives, the developers definitely have their jobs cut out for them. The environments are highly destructible allowing players to explode the scenery of New York and The Otherworld, a parallel reality where the Darkness dwells.

Here are some of the game's screens. On a more personal note, we would like to thank Xzyl for the heads up.

  

Timeshift's star power has just been driven up by a notch (or two, actually), with two film stars joining the voice cast of the game. The more popular guy of the two, Dennis Quaid, does not need any further introduction, despite the fact that it's even going to be his first game job - he will be voicing Colonel Michael Swift, an ex-test pilot who becomes one of the world's first time travelers and the character players are going to control.

The other one, Michael Ironside, is one of those actors who is actively known by relatively few people, but once you start spitting out movie and character names, you'll get a response along the lines of "Oh, so HE'S the guy in that show...". Besides being the voice of Sam Fisher, Ironside also starred in the survival horror title Run Like Hell. Movie and TV appearances include 'Total Recall', 'Starship Troopers' and 'Desperate Housewives'. In Timeshift, Ironside is playing Doctor Krone, a scientist responsible for the time travel program Dennis Quaid's character is a part of.

Timeshift is being developed by Saber Interactive (Will Rock) and scheduled for a release on PC and Xbox 360 in September. Of course, a game like Timeshift needs time-manipulating features, and it's got plenty of them, similar to Prince Of Persia. Which is not the only reason this game could turn out as one of the better shooters to hit the Xbox 360 this fall.

Too much gaming, as you all know by now, is bad, bad, bad for you. Video games are particularly hard on the eyes. According to an article by Andrew Bermam in Tech Zone, "Flash graphics, rapid-fire movements, and long hours at the console result in health problems like muscle and eye strain. Common ailments resulting from gaming are: lateral epicondylitis, tendonitis, bursitis, and carpel tunnel syndrome among others."

Among others? You mean there's more? If that didn't scare you, you must already be numb and cross-eyed from too much gaming. We posted an article called "Tips On How To Avoid 'Xbox Vision', 'Nintendonitis', And Other Gaming-Related Discomforts". We hope you didn't turn a blind eye to it!

Here are more tips to keep gaming safe, especially for your eyes.

• Blink your eyes to lubricate it. We doubt you could lose the game to blinking every now and then.
• Ask your eye doctor to prescribe artificial tears that will moisten your eyes. Or you can pull out a nose hair every now and then to make your eyes well up.
• At least 6-8 times a day, rub the palms of your hands together and press them on your eyes. Hold themthere for a few minutes. The warmth of your palms will relax the eye muscles. A warm hotpack may also do the trick if you rhands have turned into horrible claw-like things after hours of gaming.
• Greenery soothes eyes, so glance as often as you can at green trees, bushes, or plants. You can also watch the horror classic The Exorcist. Lots of green colored stuff streaming out of Linda Blair's throat there.
• Do simple Yoga eye strengthening exercises. Don't worry you don't have to sit, painfully, like a circus contortionist. Roll your eyes, focusing on your nose and then the area between your eyebrows. Shift your balls (you eyeballs, we mean, we never tire of that line) from left to right. Was that too hard?
• Get a qualified eye doctor (not your bestfriend) to check your vision and find out whether you need “computer glasses.” If you use contact lenses, doctors say take them off and use glasses instead.
• Bug your parents to buy you HDTV. Screens with sharper images and greater clarity are gentler to the eyes. If they say no, remind them that prevention of CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome) is a hundred times better than any cure after a problem occurs. Of course it could backfire, they could take away your console, instead.

San Diego's Comic-Con is bringing us a joyous serving of The Darkness exposure, and while I'm envying the journalists on location who are able to get a live preview of it, we here must feel content with these three grisly screenshots that have just been put out. So far, the game looks like pure evil in software form, and if it's actually as thoroughly dark and grim as it pretends to be, we may have a comic adaption done right on our hands.

In case you didn't know, The Darkness is developed by the acclaimed studio that made Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay for the Xbox and PC. This time, players take up the role of Mafia hitman Jackie Estacado, who is suddenly possessed by spectacular evil powers on his 21st birthday. With these powers, he can unleash unimaginable destruction on his enemies, a thing he'll hopefully be doing a lot in the game. The Darkness promises to be a visceral, non-linear experience that blends modern crime drama and supernatural horror.

The title is scheduled for a release next winter on Xbox 360 and PS3.

 

We've already reported before that that horror-author Clive Barker is working closely with Codemasters to develop an all new action game called Clive Barker's Jericho. Today Codemasters released an official press release containing more info about the game, along with it came some interesting images.

The game is all about the strange city Jericho that suddenly appears is an abandoned desert. Inside the big city resides an evil ghost that has zoned Earth as its target. As a player you'll control an elite Special Forces team that has to break through the city's walls. The thing is, between every wall is another timezone/era. That way you'll travel from modern warfare to WWI, and from that to the middle ages.

The game will appear on the PC, 360 and PS3 in the autumn of 2007.

Clive Barker may not be as prolific as Stephen King but his books are just as terrifying. The author has written over twenty including bestsellers The Books of Blood, Weaveworld, Imajica, The Thief Of Always and Abarat I & II. Maybe you're more familiar with the horror classic films he wrote, directed and produced: Hellraiser, Candyman, Nightbreed, Lord of Illusions and Gods and Monsters.

Some time next year Barker will shock Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers with the release of Clive Barker's Jericho, an original paranormal-horror action title rich in visuals and phantasmagorical special effects. Clive Barker's Jericho mixes the darkest elements of Barker’s horror fiction and films with an ambitious, age-spanning story for mature gamers as well as Barker fans and horror fiction enthusiasts.

Clive Barker’s Jericho revolves around the mysterious reappearance of a lost city in a remote desert. Along with the city, a form of evil as old as Earth resurfaces from there. A Special Forces squad, trained in both conventional warfare and the secret arts, must hunt down and destroy the evil that lurks at the heart of the city before it destroys humanity.

“This project is very close to my heart and I don’t believe there's ever been anything like it. It promises to be the most spectacular, creative, and unflinching realization of a Clive Barker nightmare that will drag players in kicking and screaming. Players will constantly be given new challenges, new environments, and yes, new horrors and abominations to face every step of the way,” says Clive Barker. “However, unlike a conventional game in which the characters are attempting to escape at the end of their ride through Hell, our protagonists have a much more difficult task. The closer they come to the end of their trek into darkness, the nearer they get to the source of that darkness: Evil Incarnate, we'll call it for now…"

With an Evil incarnate playing the bad guy, you know this is going to be one hell of a ride! Clive Barker's Jericho is being developed for the Xbox 360 and PS3 by Codemasters.

The Descent is a 2005 British horror film, directed and written by Neil Marshall - known for the film Dog Soldiers. The movie will be released in the United States this August. The film follows a group of six women on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. The trailer is in the usual 480p, 17.71 MB and 720p, 98.89MB formats. So if you haven't heard anything about the movie go ahead and check out the trailer on the Marketplace. If you happen to have seen The Descent already because of its global release last year, go ahead and let us know what you thought of the film.