Okay, okay, Fearzoners, there is no horror here.

Absolutely none.

Zilch.

Nada (unless of course you consider the $169 price tag).

But Harmonix's ROCKBAND is the kind of monumental achievement in gaming that needs to be played and I simply can't help myself. I initially sat down to write a review about severed limbs (NINJA GADIEN 2) or murderous drug dealers (GTA IV), and I already covered a rhythm music game a few reviews back (GUITAR HERO 3), but the ROCK kept screaming in my head and alas I had no choice but to relent. The ROCK wants what the ROCK wants and I am here to give the raucous MFer its due. I suppose the icky ninja bloodshed and high crime city slime (awesome games the ... (more…)

Zombie PC Game Survival Guide: 2008 PC Game Previews

Zombies made their feature film comeback a long time ago. With the combination of great zombie films hitting theaters like 28 Weeks Later, Diary of the Dead, and the upcoming World War Z, the zombie plague isn't likely to subside any time soon. What is even better is the infection has spread to your Mac and PC.

Here is a list of the upcoming zombie PC games for 2008:



Dead Island
Release Date: TBA 2008
Genre: First Person Survival Horror

Dead Island is an open-ended game where you try to find the protagonist's wife on a zombie-infested island. The game uses a first-person perspective; however, the game emphasizes melee combat and ammunition ... (more…)

Monolith's CONDEMNED 2: BLOODSHOT is a decent, near-bad addition to the Survival Horror canon. It's the kind of grisly gory game horror aficionados like us Fearzoners want to love. The operative word here being want. One look at its freaky promo reel and I was salivating. No question the game is gruesomely gorgeous. There are decapitations and ritual mutilations and evil pig masked crazies. There are creepy locales like abandoned doll factories and moldering hotels and eerie winter lodges. Hell, (late in the game) you can even take some enemies down by blowing up their heads with a concentrated sonic blast from your malformed vocal chords. All that being said I really wanted to ... (more…)

Capcom's DEVIL MAY CRY 4 is a big, loud, garishly goofy game.

It's stupid fun.

It's cotton candy.

It's pure sugar and brilliant color, frenetically spun until it looks huge and appetizing and substantial.

One taste, two, and you're smiling from ear to ear. Three tastes, four, and the immediate sugar rush tightens your smile into a line. Five tastes, six, nausea begins to rise.

I liken the game to a Jerry Bruckheimer production, big and slick, a well-oiled entertainment machine that dazzles with its bells and whistles and tries so hard to deliver on its promise of sheer spectacle that it just ends up numbing us into quiet submission. No brains, no soul, just empty thrills. Not to ... (more…)

RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN

Video games about World War II, though extremely popular, tend to bore the hell out of me. After you've played through CALL OF DUTY 2 (the pinnacle of WWII shooters) what else is there? True, many of them do a very nice job recreating the chaos of trench warfare and capturing the bleak, war torn European landscapes, but I get awfully tired of the shoot Nazis, advance, shoot Nazis, advance, game mechanic. Also, their undying faithfulness to era weaponry, though accurate and historically sound, generally presents very little in the way of pizzazz. Standard issue rifles and machine guns kill efficiently enough I suppose, but they can't shoot through walls or track ... (more…)

Okay, THE SOPRANOS was the best show ever. Period. I usually have trouble making such declarative statements, but in this case no problem. Another declarative? Okay, Faith No More was one of the most underrated rock bands of the nineties (listen to their seminal 1992 album ANGEL DUST and try to tell me I'm wrong). One more (last one, I promise)? Comic books rule.

So when I heard about THE DARKNESS, developer Starbreeze (the team responsible for the fantastic THE CHRONICLES of RIDDICK: ESCAPE FROM BUTCHER BAY) and publisher 2K's (BIOSHOCK) gory, first person shooter, with its Mafioso storyline, vocal work from Faith No More lead vocalist (and demented artistic visionary) Mike Patton ... (more…)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Congratulations to Michael Louis Calvillo for his Bram Stoker Award nomination for Best First Novel for I WILL RISE.

Generally, horror aficionados have a thing for metal and vice versa. Hard rock's iconic staples - Satan, death, despondence, murder, suicide and on and on - are on full display in the horror films, comic books and literature we love and the relationship between the two is a comfortable one. GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK, the rhythm based phenomenon developed by Neversoft and published by Activision, fully understands this. And though it's definitely not a horror game, its visual palette contains plenty of screaming skulls and heavy metal dragons. There'... (more…)

DEVIL MAY CRY 4 will help kick off 2008 with a large bang across the PS3, 360 and PC.

DMC 4 will present two separate difficulty levels for players to test their skills with. For newcomers to the series, the Human setting should offer a challenge while helping to ease the newbs into monster killing. For veterans of the franchise, however, the Devil Hunter setting should present more than enough of a challenge. After selecting a couple of options, players are thrown into the game. You are presented with a cutscene and story sequence set in the town of Fortuna, which culminated in the appearance of Dante, who promptly slaughtered some of Nero's friends. Of course, this sudden attack ... (more…)

VIDEO GAME REVIEW: CRACKDOWN By Michael Louis Calvillo From what I hear smoking crack is bad for you.

Dementia, tooth decay, soul sucking need, a fleeting feeling of euphoria - they (who exactly are they?) say it's the high you can't catch, but plenty of addicts have thrown away their lives chasing it anyway.

Sitting on my couch, three in the morning, feeling a little crazy, breath surely stinking, compelled, driven, endorphin overload, trapped within the world of Microsoft's CRACKDOWN, I think I have developed a modicum of understanding, a bit of empathy. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I've become a fiend of the highest order and god help anyone that stands between me and my ... (more…)

Rage Video Game News and Trailer

Attention DOOM and QUAKE fans: Prepare to start salivating over RAGE.

Famed programmer John Carmack announced id Software's newest game at QuakeCon 2007 and it's quite a departure from the company's traditional first-person shooters.

RAGE will have shooting action, but it will also feature racing and driving gameplay in a post-apocalyptic world. This may draw comparisons to classic movie THE ROAD WARRIOE. The game is being developed for the PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

The name RAGE was chosen for several reasons. The game is set after a comet destroys civilization, and your character finds himself aiding settlements and villages in ... (more…)