Destructoid has posted a full video play-through of the controversial "No Russian" level from the newly released Modern Warfare 2 (warning: possibly disturbing). The level, in which the player is asked to infiltrate a Russian terrorist group and, as a result, take part in a terrorist attack on civilians, has divided gamers and journalists. [more inside]
posted by jbickers on Nov 10, 2009 - 214 comments

Reading to the Endgame: Algorithmic translation of classic nineteenth century novels into chessboard slugfests. Select the opponents from a list of fifty-five novels in five languages, and watch each text maneuver across the battlefield.
posted by carsonb on Nov 7, 2009 - 16 comments

DroidQuest, Gate and Logicly are modern logic puzzle games based on the classic educational games Rocky's Boots (1982) and Robot Odyssey (1984). [more inside]
posted by speicus on Nov 2, 2009 - 22 comments

In a revelation that, to some, is on the order of realizing there is (or isn't) a god, it turns out that all the dungeons in The Legend of Zelda were part of the same enormous map. This seems to have some sort of transcendental importance that I can't quite put my finger on. [more inside]
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Oct 28, 2009 - 91 comments

2D BOY made around $100,000 in a week. That’s $50,000 each for writing a blog post about a game they finished a year ago. By letting people pay whatever they wanted. 2D Boy stirred up a lot of discussion (previously) about game piracy when they used online scoreboard data to estimate an 82% piracy rate for their fantastic indie game World of Goo (previously). For World of Goo's first birthday, they decided to try the Radiohead model and let people buy the game for any price they choose. Now they've released extensive data about the results. Short version? "A huge success," even though the most commonly chosen price was only a penny. [more inside]
posted by straight on Oct 20, 2009 - 64 comments

Hell is Other People [more inside]
posted by flatluigi on Oct 19, 2009 - 61 comments

"Join in NOW and help Capture Obama and the renegade Cong. Defeat the Union Troops and other allies of the former President and help safeguard American Freedom. " It's the online survivalist game/wish fulfillment entitled "2011: Obama's Coup Fails" (via) [more inside]
posted by bardic on Oct 18, 2009 - 171 comments

The Dark Mod, a total conversion for Doom 3 in the spirit of Looking Glass Technology's Thief series, has finally been released after years (and more years) of development and is now available to download.
posted by dunkadunc on Oct 17, 2009 - 20 comments

All those who have gone before you have perished. Star Gard! Retro-shooty platformer for PC and Mac that rethinks character death. [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla on Oct 10, 2009 - 10 comments

Particlasm is home to the browser games of Luke Paakh. He first caught my attention with fine space shoot'em-up Ether War but I also enjoyed his other games, shooter Ether Cannon, tree defending games Phoenix and Shen Long, puzzle game blue and petri dish action game Amoeba. His new game is my favorite. It's called William and Sly and it's a beautiful platformer is about an adorable fox who likes mushrooms and his quest to recharge some runestones with fairyflies.
posted by Kattullus on Oct 9, 2009 - 9 comments

Douglas Crockford, who oversaw the porting of Maniac Mansion to the NES, would like for you to know how the game changed in the porting process and why.
posted by Pope Guilty on Oct 8, 2009 - 59 comments

Robert Yang on the homophobic response to his Half-Life 2 mod Handle With Care.
posted by Artw on Oct 6, 2009 - 145 comments

RunMan: Race Around the World is a donationware PC platformer made of bright colors and public domain folk, blues and jazz. The trailers (final and preview) are made of happiness. The download page is here. (via RPS) [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla on Oct 4, 2009 - 6 comments

In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, There is Only Skulls War... the movie!
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Sep 30, 2009 - 112 comments

Scrabulizer lets you enter the current state of your game in Scrabble and shows you all possible moves. They've also discovered a move worth 2044 Points
posted by minifigs on Sep 29, 2009 - 57 comments

Korsakovia is a Half Life 2 mod from research driven developer The Chinese Room. It melds the abstract driven story of their previous mod, Dear Esther (previously), with more traditional gameplay. The end result is an equally distinctive horror FPS with minimal narrative cues. [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla on Sep 25, 2009 - 16 comments

We've covered web-based game Evony's peculiar advertising previously. Now intrepid gamers are playing/observing the thing, and finding a lack of both freeness and heaving bosoms.
posted by mippy on Sep 25, 2009 - 41 comments

iNudge Is a software music toy that lets you create and share short snippets of music.
posted by empath on Sep 25, 2009 - 21 comments

Hey, Tower Defense fans: do you like cake? How about pirates? Want to combine the three? Just in time for (almost) Friday, it's Cake Pirates!
posted by sarcasticah on Sep 24, 2009 - 11 comments

"Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the player's computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted." via
posted by Plutor on Sep 23, 2009 - 105 comments

Journey to the Center of the Earth - or DonDon (?) is an excellent exploration-based platformer game with fabulous little pixel graphics and a solid 45 minutes or so of gameplay. Think Diet Spelunky, or La Mulana Lite. A little more info and hints at Indie Games Blog.

Sorry, Windows only (direct link). F4 for fullscreen (but it's better in 1x windowed mode)
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Sep 19, 2009 - 6 comments

This month marks the 25th aniversary of Elite, the groundbreaking 3D space trading game. The making of Elite. More on the making of Elite from The Backroom Boys. Emulate the original BBC Micro version. The Dark Wheel.
posted by Artw on Sep 19, 2009 - 29 comments

A huge collection of vintage cycling board games. The main site also has resources for rolling your own cycling game.
posted by OmieWise on Sep 18, 2009 - 14 comments

To jump straight into it, what made you decide to make a game involving rape? Inspiration was mostly personal, I’ve known a few girls who have been through similar situations, which sparked the concept. As far as the experience, I wanted to inspire emotion in the player, even if its vile and disgusting.

Tomorrow, Monopoly City Streets begins, introducing a world-wide game combining google maps and the classic family fight-starter. Buy any street in the world, build houses, hotels and more. Remember, property always goes up, and your siblings always cheat.
posted by pompomtom on Sep 7, 2009 - 25 comments

Concept Art World - For example: Michael Kutsche, Marek Okoń, 25 Inspiring Examples of Spaceships and Aircraft, Star Trek XI Concept Art by Ryan Church plus lots more.
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Aug 19, 2009 - 9 comments

Physics Games is a collection of browser games that all have at least a rudimentary physics model. Some of the games I've enjoyed are Roly Poly Eliminator, Totem Destroyer 1 & 2, Demolition City and Red Ball. Most are fairly simple but some are complex, notably IncrediBots 1 & 2, which might as well require an engineering degree (slight hyperbole). My absolute favorite type of game on this site is the destroy-castles-with-a-trebuchet game, handsomely represented by not one but three games, Castle Clout, Castle Clout: Return of the King (no Tolkien connection) and Crush the Castle. All this is but a small sample of what's on offer.
posted by Kattullus on Aug 14, 2009 - 21 comments

World Wars 2, sequel to the hex-wargame-inspired World Wars, has been released. [more inside]
posted by XMLicious on Aug 9, 2009 - 24 comments

This is the only level in the game and you will die a lot.
posted by Item on Aug 8, 2009 - 86 comments

The Chickening [via mefi projects] The Chickening is a video game about a chicken who shoots lasers. Out of his eyes.
posted by Burhanistan on Aug 5, 2009 - 46 comments

The makers of Ninja Gaiden 2 have decided on an unorthodox ad campaign. The game is being advertised by two white breasts protruding from a wall facing the street (SLYT). There are predictably funny reactions from passers by. Obviously, this is NSFW.
posted by reenum on Jul 31, 2009 - 44 comments

The Great Red Herring Chase is like TypeRacer, but with a plot. Greg Wohlwend's other games are addictive, destructive/cute (previously), philosophical, and baffling. Next, he's taking on the exciting world of patent illustrations. But if your childhoood was anything like mine, his homepage will be your biggest productivity killer. (via)
posted by roll truck roll on Jul 28, 2009 - 5 comments

Final Fantasy IV remix project. This week the videogame music rearrangement site, OCRemix.org, released a new project covering Nobuo Uematsu's soundtrack to FFIV (originally FFII in the US). FFIV's was the first game soundtrack I fell in love with, back in 2nd grade. Maybe you feel the same. [more inside]
posted by grobstein on Jul 22, 2009 - 19 comments

Galactic Arms Race is a new game developed by the Evolutionary Complexity Research Group (EPlex) at the University of Central Florida. The game is a fairly basic 3D space shooter with an interesting angle: all weapons are genetically evolved, not designed by the game's creators. (Windows only, requires XNA installation before play)
posted by mkb on Jul 16, 2009 - 14 comments

The lying down game.
posted by furtive on Jul 16, 2009 - 80 comments

Living with First-Person Shooter Disease (SLYT)
posted by Cool Papa Bell on Jul 13, 2009 - 86 comments

The downward spiral that is Evony, a web based multi-player game, advertising. Also: The Best Worst Ads by 1UP and fake in-game ads by Something Awful.
posted by Foci for Analysis on Jul 11, 2009 - 41 comments

Flash Friday Funtime: Steamshovel Harry [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Jul 10, 2009 - 92 comments

Wolfenstein 3D, the animated graphic novel.
posted by Artw on Jul 8, 2009 - 42 comments

The current federal and state budget woes have lead many to create their ideal budgets to keep it all in balance, and now you can try your hand at the push and pull of budgets large and larger. You can be a nation-wide budget hero (toggle-able music) at Marketplace for American Media. The LA Times makes the California budget into buttons, where you can add and subtract whole segments of the budget in a quick-and-dirty attempt at making things even out. Next 10 have created a more detailed budgeting system in their California budget simulator and localized Oakland variation. Too much information to handle? Stockton's budget balancing options cover police, fire community service and public works, with sliding scales of money to spend on each.
posted by filthy light thief on Jul 6, 2009 - 48 comments

Freeware Genius is a large review site for various freeware apps, from desktop organizing tools to philosophical flash games . There are literally hundreds of applications reviewed, as well as a few compilations to get you started. [more inside]
posted by scrutiny on Jul 2, 2009 - 11 comments

Upgrade Complete is an engrossing Flash game that marries classic shoot-em-up gameplay to unprecedented flexibility in ship design and an innovative UI re-skinning system. Drawing from the same well as previously discussed game Achievement Unlocked, this arcade shooter maximizes familiar game design tropes to keep the player occupied for literally minutes. Do you have what it takes to get through 100% progress and unlock the (spoiler alert!) secret best ending? [more inside]
posted by Nelson on Jul 2, 2009 - 47 comments

Strange Games "What do you get if you cross a large rubber ball used for physical therapy with the medieval sport of Jousting? Yoga Ball Jousting."
posted by feelinglistless on Jun 30, 2009 - 18 comments

Shogi (将棋), or "Japanese chess," has been described here before, but it's such a fascinating game that a little more exposure can't hurt. Specifically, shogi has spawned a lot of variants, many of them astonishingly large. [more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust on Jun 28, 2009 - 18 comments

At the recent Games for Change conference, Brenda Brathwaite debuted her game Train. The WSJ blog Speakeasy interviews her: Players load boxcars with tiny yellow figurines and are asked to move the trains from one end of the course to the other. They pull cards that either impede their progress or free some of the characters. Once a train reaches the "finish line," the game is completed and it is revealed [more inside]
posted by j.edwards on Jun 25, 2009 - 49 comments

(NSFW) The Angry Video Game Nerd (taking a cue from seanbaby's lead) has been producing video reviews of some of the most notoriously awful NES games, from Top Gun to Bible Games. (Can't miss: The Power Glove.) Not content to go after one system, he's upgraded his range to take on other colossal failures like the Atari Jaguar, Superman 64, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (the movie). His newest series of videos, You Know What's Bullshit?, takes on everyday nuances like DVD box sets. He may be vulgar and his vignettes silly, but damn straight he's got a point. Enjoy all his archived videos here, spanning five years of obscenity-laced love/hate for his greatest passions.
posted by Christ, what an asshole on Jun 23, 2009 - 18 comments

Boxmen. A bit late for Flash Friday, but not a bad way to spend some time on a Sunday evening.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing on Jun 21, 2009 - 15 comments

"It's a secret to everybody" -- an unbelievably comprehensive blog post about the etymologies of the names of famous (and not-so-famous) video game characters.
posted by empath on Jun 20, 2009 - 26 comments

In the wake of the Resident 5 racism flap (previously), and with the final game released, one of it's chief detractors, N'Gai Croal, talks to its producer, Jun Takeuchi (Part 1, Part 2). Meanwhile industry magazine MVC takes a look at Africa as a games market.
posted by Artw on Jun 12, 2009 - 137 comments

Home taping didn’t kill music, says Ben Goldacre - but where did all the money go?
posted by Artw on Jun 11, 2009 - 168 comments