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No matter if you consider yourself a casual gamer who plays a couple of times per week or if you want to make games for a living, you probably noticed this certain trend: over the past years, videogames seem to have drowned in badges, achievements and other meaningless crap.

Many of us who consider ourselves to be hardcore gamers blame the so-called social games for this trend, FarmVille, FrontierVille and the myriads of clones. In other words: anything you can play via Facebook.

But the line between hardcore and casual gaming seems to be blurring. I recently met with Arne and Helge Wieding, two german indie game developers who founded their own game studio “Yoone” a couple of years ago. They just released the open beta for their tank deathmatch game “TankWars,”and while having all the elements of a hardcore game you can play it via Facebook. Surprised? Keep Reading

Addiction to video games is a difficult topic – almost as hot as violence in video game. Plenty of people claim that video game addiction is a modern epidemic, whereas scientists have yet to decide whether it is a valid diagnosis alltogether.

At the core of the discussion is – of course – World of Warcraft. I don’t think there is an individual who would openly admit to perhaps playing a bit too much WoW at times (or knows someone whose playing is a bit “excessive”).

Anthony Rosner aka Sevrin definitely thought he played way too much and made a drastic choice – to give up his virtual career and go Keep Reading

it’s no secret that Hollywood loves turning established franchises into films – little risk, lots of $$$. The most recent example of this would be Battleship, the adaptation of – yes – a board game.

The fact that big studios have a seemingly inseparable relationship with big brands, its almost incomprehensible what is happening with the movie adaptation of Halo – one of the most successful video game franchises ever!

In 2006, Fox and Universal allegedly killed what would have been Peter Jacksons and Neill Blomkamps version of Halo Keep Reading

Ever heard the phrase “Videogames are invading our living rooms”? Well, there is a new show on YouTube that aims to do just that…

Co-Op Life is exactly what the title suggests: Two roommates bring the meaning of cooperative play to another level. Each episode lets a game like Bioshock, CoD or Braid invade the apartment of the two gamers Jumanji-style…and once a ‘Big Daddy’ shows up in your living room, stains on the carpet are the least of your concerns! Keep Reading

This could easily become the biggest controversy in the comic book world since Stan Lee gave a makeover to Jace Hall’s The Incredible Hulk # 1. The rumors have been true, DC Entertainment announced that they will publish 7 mini-series that are essentially one big prequel to Watchmen, possibly the most acclaimed comic book of all time….and this is where it gets tricky.

While in the film community every sequel is greeted with at least some suspicion, its worth noting that even superheroes like Batman or The Hulk have seen countless reinventions by different writers and artists.

But the perfection of Watchmen and the fact that it has been untouched for about 25 years would be reason enough for people to be outraged by the recent turn of events. Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and recently in the news for bashing Frank Millers crude OWS statements, sure is pissed: Keep Reading

With Resident Evil 6 announced and the new trailer for the RE: Retribution movie just out, the spotlight is back on one of the most successful franchises in the world of video games:

What started with the legen- (wait for it) -dary survival horror Biohazard aka Resident Evil 1 has morphed into a series of 22 cross-platform, cross-genre games that have collectively been sold 46 million times! Oh, and the franchise now also covers comic books, novels, collectible merchandise, and movies (live action and CGI). Keep Reading

Recently Daniel Loton, a psychologist at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, presented preliminary findings of a study that paints a pretty dark picture in regards to the habits of gamers. It states that excessive gamers report 15% more stress and anxiety and 25% more depression than balanced gamers. (Read the press release of the Victoria University here)

Now, you don’t have to be a psychologist, or a psychic for that matter, to predict what kind of headlines such results will cause Keep Reading

In medicine, a mass effect is what happens when something is growing in your body. In the gaming world, it is an acclaimed game franchise, embraced by critics and an enthusiastic community. And – on a side note – has been the target of some of the most ridiculous accusations that have ever been issued against a video game.

So it was only a matter of time for Hollywood to step in with their cinematic version of the game, still rumored to be in development. For those of you with more confidence in the online movie world; you’ll be able to watch Mass Effect: Assignment this month!

British YouTubers Gary Scullion and Nick Acott aka SneakyZebra are currently performing the finishing touches on their fan film Mass Effect: Assignment to be released this January.

Jace Hall Show: Can you tell us a bit about Mass Effect: Assignment? Keep Reading

If you watched this winter’s DreamHack then you witnessed at least two world records: The biggest LAN party and the fastest Internet connection (120gig/s) on the face of the planet.

But you also got a glimpse of why StarCraft 2 might be what eSports needed to become International, outside of Korea: An audience of over 4000 fans went nuts as HerO won the final game, 100,000 viewers watched the finals on live stream, and with about $60,000 prize money the StarCraft 2 competition easily dwarfed the other tournaments (HoN, Street Fighter and even Quake and Counter-Strike).

However impressive that may be, Starcraft 2 hasn’t reached Super Bowl status, at least not yet. Here’s how StarCraft 2 could surpass football, soccer and baseball in popularity by next decade, and what it would need to do to improve itself. Keep Reading

by Ben Dressler

A problem I really find myself struggling with lately is that I don’t have enough time to watch and play anything that I’d like to. There is just no way I can play RIFT and WOW at the same time! So how should I decide which products are worth my time and which are not? Generally, there are a couple of ways to build a preliminary opinion about a piece of art/entertainment:

Looking at advertisements is not really an option, you might as well ask a fortune cookie or a brick. But what about trailers? Don’t they give a good indication of what to expect? Since studios/developers are tailoring trailers to make the films/games appealing to a certain target group, it has become increasingly difficult to build an opinion.

If it were for trailers, I wouldn’t have watched WATCHMEN or SUPERBAD but KINGDOM OF HEAVEN would be my favorite movie of all time. Scary scenario if you ask me!

Of course, being familiar with the history of the attached artists might give you a good idea what to expect. Peter Molyneux – super creative but not always true to his promises. Blizzard Entertainment – not the most inventive but rock solid and of superb quality. Christopher Nolan – smart and complex genre-films. Uwe Boll – mh, no thanks. And so on. Keep Reading

By Ben Dressler

The good news is: Increasing budgets in video game adaptions indicate that Hollywood is targeting gamers as an audience more and more. The bad news is: We have learned that game adaptions seem to allure people with dollar signs in their eyes rather than talented writers and directors. Is that because good filmmakers are not interested in video games? Or is looking at video game adaptions maybe the wrong approach to find filmmakers that look into video games for serious artistic inspiration? Keep Reading

Just before Christmas 1996 I, for the first time ever, went to spy on my presents. Since my mother thought I was a good boy, it wasn’t too hard and soon I found the box labeled: SONY PLAYSTATION. I held the next generation of video gaming in my hands. And next to it…A game called TOMB RAIDER.

The first two cutscenes went by, graphical splendor unknown to the eye, and then I was controlling Lara, entering the catacombs of Vilcabamba, shooting and attacking wolves and bats, diving through unknown pools, discovering secrets…It was the first time I ever controlled a character in a three dimensional virtual world and it was magical. Keep Reading

Written By Ben Dressler

How many great video game adaptions have you seen so far? Yeah – me neither…

18.08% – That is the average score on RottenTomatoes for films that are based on a video game, the highest score being 43% for FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN. Again: Eighteen percent. And FAR CRY wasn’t even taken into account!

For those of you who don’t know the RottenTomatoes score system: Keep Reading