Gamestop has just merged with the barely-relevant IGN, which will effectively turn the site into a giant advertorial outlet. Please forgive my skepticism as I'm sure the writers at IGN are professionals and their opinions on games will hopefully remain objective, but from now on don't be surprised when you see a Wii party game collection receiving a 9/10 and front-page placement on the site over the holidays.

"Would you like to pre-order a good review with your purchase today?"

Source: http://blogs.forbes.com/insertcoin/2010/12/07/ign-and-gamestop-merging-into-uber-gaming-portal/?boxes=Homepagechannels  no comments

Today's Deal of the Day promotion over on the Games For Windows marketplace is none other than the post-apocalyptic survival horror/action shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. As seems to be the norm for the promotion, the game will be on sale for just $0.99, and the deal will only run until tomorrow.

If you want to pick the game up, you can do so here, but remember; the deal will only last until 8:30 PST on December 7th. no comments

In order to celebrate the release of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, developers Criterion Games are running a promotion in which they will be giving away three new cars (which can be seen here) as free DLC.  There is, however, a catch; Criterion Games will only release the DLC if the game's release trailer receives one million views before December 12th.

The release trailer can be found below, so please take a couple of minutes to check it out, and do the Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit community a solid!

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With the release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution coming up, Games For Windows Live have teamed up with Eidos to offer the GOTY edition of the original Deus Ex game for just $0.99. If you want to pick up a copy you'd better act fast though, as the deal is only set to run for one day, and will expire at 08:30 PST on the morning of December 3rd.

Not really being a PC gamer, the Deus Ex series is one that I've never really had a chance to get into, so I just picked up a copy to see what all of the fuss is about before Deus Ex: Human Revolution comes out.  I have to say I'm quite eager to check it out.

If you want to pick up a copy of the game, then you can find the deal here.  Just remember to be quick about it though! no comments

So I finally played Red Dead Redemption this weekend (I think I'm the last Easy Moder to try it out), and I'll admit that I really liked it. I was afraid it was going to be too much like Grand Theft Auto, but there are enough elements to make it fresh and exciting. The gunplay is really satisfying, and riding a horse feels much better than driving a Rockstar Games car. I think when it boils down to it, I don't mind doing mundane things in this game (unlike in GTA4) because they're not things I can do in real life. Yeah, that whole "going on a date" GTA4 quest just about killed me. no comments

I just finished Halo: ODST in one long marathon sitting. Certainly not the best Halo game in the series (Reach FTW), and definitely the worst dialogue ("He's pending for a bending?" What does that even mean?), but a pretty solid game all around. Metacritic has it at an 83. I think that's just about right. no comments

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Ahhhh, can you smell that? That, my friends, is the distinctive aroma of “new game smell”! The reason you’re smelling it just now, is because I, realizing that the end of the year is creeping up, and I still have a lot of games I want to play before casting my GOTY vote, went out yesterday and picked up Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. As I honestly can’t remember the last time I picked up two games at once, I feel like a kid in a candy store, and can never decide which game I want to play.

However, as I may soon have to start keeping a closer eye on my money (hint: a certain Easy Mode editor might soon have a teeny, tiny piece of property to call his own), I did a little bit of wheeling-and-dealing in order to keep costs down. As such, I traded in Call Of Duty: Black Ops and was able to get Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit for just £4.99. After that, I picked up Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood in my local supermarket, where they were offering the game for just £26 if you purchased a 2100MSP card. To put things in perspective, new games in the UK normally retail for £40, and I managed to get both games new, two days after launch, for just £31. Of course, the downside to this is that I had to trade in Call Of Duty: Black Ops, but to be honest, I wasn’t really enjoying my time with the game all that much anyway.

Of the two games, I’ve spent most of my time with Assassin’s Creed, and I’m really enjoying the story, as well as being back in Ezio’s world (much to my surprise). I am still occasionally irked by some of the problems usually associated with the Assassin’s Creed games, such as going the wrong way/running out of time during timed sequences/jumping to my death because of the game’s not-quite-right free-running controls, but it’s still a lot of fun. Likewise, I’m having a lot of fun with Need For Speed, and the game seems like it’s going to have a staggering amount of content, plus a raft of awesome cars to race in. It looks like the bitter rivalry between Justin from Horriblenight.com and myself will be roaring back to life again though, as he is currently destroying all of my Autolog times. Curse you Justin! Um, is it possible to play co-operatively… no comments

Taken from 1up's Creepy Mario Photoshop Gallery no comments

I wasn't planning on getting the Kinect when it launched, but I was at a local Best Buy and they were bringing some off the truck and I caved. I brought it home and set it up within minutes; luckily I have a large gaming area so we didn't have any issues with space. I've been running it through its paces over the past few days, and here are my thoughts on the experience.

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