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A typical trope in video games this generation is the element of choices. While it may seem like a common thing to include in a video game, they are literally two-dimensional. Moral choices appear in such games as: Grand Theft Auto 4, inFamous 1&2, Red Dead: Redemption, Deus ex: Human Revolution, Bioshock, Mass Effect 1&2, Dragon Age 1&2, etc. the latter two examples are developed by Bioware and have prided themselves on the importance of moral choices. An example that pops into my head, from Mass Effect 2, is that a teammate of yours wants revenge on someone who betrayed his team and got nearly everyone killed. His lust for vengeance puts you between him and his target, as you are the bait to lure the defector out. yet, when you see and have a dialogue exchange with the target, he tells you how he can’t eat and has nightmares about his actions. the game asks you: do you stand between your friend and his target or do you let your friend kill the man? the only problem is that these are the only options and they are clearly outlined as being good and evil, respectively.

The problem with moral choice is that they do not explore a moral gray area. the player either chooses to be Mother Teresa or Satan. Mike Laidlaw from Bioware commented on why moral choices fail. “I think it’s difficult because the raw morality you’re presented with in a game is a very narrow slice of life, a narrow experience band… a game is a big experience and you have to account for the player working within a possibility space as opposed to a single linear narrative.” Games cost a lot of money to make and so the games that have moral choices have to extend each choice and the consequences in detail or else the player disbelieves the world and experience the developer is crafting.

One example of a game with consistent moral gray areas is Fallout 3, developed by Bethesda Softworks. the plot involves you exploring the wasteland of Washington D.C. after a nuclear war between the United States and China. the whole world has been thrown into disarray so the choices that the player makes are for his or her own survival. There is no right or wrong answer when civil society has been dealt a massive blow. Bethesda goes out of their way to create massive worlds and all these choices, even if you never see any of it. the possibilities of different actions taking different effects are a hallmark of Bethesda’s games. the only system that involves a good or evil relation is the karma system. the karma system gives you bad karma when you murder or steal but gives you good karma when you help people. unlike Mass Effect 2, the karma system does not change how the game turns out but rather; it changes how the other people view you, which makes for a more immersive and believable game world.

Sound off in the comments with your opinions of a moral choice system in video games.

What’s more relentless than zombies? Video games about zombies.They’ve been good (“Resident Evil”) and bad (“Rock of the Dead”). There are serious games like “Left 4 Dead” and comical games like “Plants vs. Zombies.” The dead have even risen in scenarios where you wouldn’t expect them, like “Call of Duty” and “Red Dead Redemption.” and they never stop coming.at some point, though, exhaustion has to set in; for me, it happened with last year’s tedious “Dead Rising 2.” So I’ve been dreading “Dead Island” (Deep Silver, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, $59.99; PC, $49.99), in which zombies take over a South Seas resort — even though I could really use a tropical vacation.much to my surprise, Polish developer Techland has brought some fresh ideas to the genre. It’s hardly a dream vacation, but “Dead Island” is more intriguing than the typical slash-and-run gorefest.The drama takes place on a fictional island called Banoi. Your character wakes up after a night of carousing to discover that most of the people on the island are afflicted with something much worse than a hangover. After fleeing your hotel and meeting up with some fellow survivors, you have two goals: rescue other noninfected humans and find a way off Banoi.The open-world structure of “Dead Island” distinguishes it from the competition.instead of following a linear plot, you usually have a variety of side missions you can tackle in between major story events. It’s closer in spirit to “Grand Theft Auto,” and you can run over pedestrians without feeling guilty.The missions generally boil down to finding and retrieving someone or something, but the settings and monsters you meet are nicely varied.The first part of the game takes place on Banoi’s sunny beaches, but you eventually have to explore the island’s slum-infested city — which looks like it wasn’t very pleasant even before it was overrun by flesh-eating ghouls.you have to scrounge up whatever weapons you can; initially, all you have to defend yourself with are broomsticks or kitchen knives. Early on, though, “Dead Island” lets you modify your gear, so you can add nails to a baseball bat or build an electric charge into a machete.Guns do become available eventually, but ammunition is scarce, so you have to use them sparingly.The ability to upgrade your weapons as well as your own survival skills adds a welcome role-playing element to “Dead Island.” and I enjoyed the freedom to explore its expansive environments, although you always have to be on your guard for hungry monsters.Unfortunately, the adventure is regularly undermined by technical issues. some, like zombies getting stuck in doorways, are forgivably laughable. But when they cause your weapons to disappear or make it impossible to complete a mission, you’ll feel less charitable.Once, when I had to reboot after a game-stopping glitch, I was transported to an entirely new zone of the island — with no indication of what I should do or how to get out. (The solution: another reboot.)“Dead Island” also constantly badgers you to team up with other online players; on its default setting, other humans can join your game without even asking your permission.instead of enjoying the company, I found them irritating — especially when I had to wait for them to catch up before I could escape a particularly dangerous situation.There’s much that’s fresh and inventive about “Dead Island,” but it feels like it was released with barely any play-testing.It’s often exciting and occasionally terrifying — but its deadly glitches too often kill the mood.two stars out of four.Online:deadisland.deepsilver.com/

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Just in time for Halloween; in celebration of the undead everyone loves to kill, here are the top 10 Zombie games on Xbox 360 in no particular order.

There’s a lot to love about Rockstar’s zombies meets the old west stand alone expansion to Red Dead Redemption. There’s something inherently awesome about destroying the undead from horseback with an old school rifle, or with a six shooter in a street designed for duels.

This expansion offers a decent single player story campaign and a ton of additional multiplayer modes such as team survival and competitive town cleasning.

It’s really only a matter of time before some movie studio makes a movie bases off this.

Released a few years ago over the Gamecube, and then ported numerous times, Resident Evil 4 may be a last generation title but it still manages to put a good deal of recent games to shame.

Easily one of the best games in the series, Resident Evil 4 offers great gameplay mechanics and depth, a creepy atmosphere and tons of replayability and bonus modes once you complete it for the first time.

It’s one of those games that, if you haven’t played it before, you owe yourself to play and beat, and possibly beat again, this lifetime.

It’s not the first game to bring the twin stick shooting concept to zombie games, but it’s one of the more enjoyable ones.

Released over Xbox Live Arcade, this is one of those titles that’s great to own and boot up every now and again when friends are over. With top notch graphics able to handle a ton of zombies on the screen at once, environmental harazards and four players, all in glorious 3D, there’s always a lot of action going on at any time.

While the gameplay may be shallow at its heart, there’s something about running around with three friends on the same screen chainsawing zombies and scrambling to rescue civilians.

Dead Pixels is strangely reminiscent of River City Ransom, only with Zombies instead. Players are tasked with running 20 streets during an apocalypse in order to catch a way out of an infected city. To get there, up to 2 players will have to work together and shoot their way through tons of zombies, all the while looting buildings along the way.

Periodically, players will have access to shops where they can stock up on medical supplies, grenades, ammo (very important!) and even new weapons, while selling off all the swag they pick up along the way. It’s simple, but the guns are satisfying, and the graphics are charming.

Okay so this isn’t really the entire game, but the Zombies mode this time around is so good and expansive that no one would be surprised if they release it as a standalone title sometime in the future.

Featuring four player coop, players get to live out their dreams of fending off waves of zombies in locals ranging from abandoned movie theatres, to George Romero movies, to moon bases. Filled with bizarre easter eggs, and some witty conversations between the characters, the adventure is both funny and horrifying at the same time.

There may be no real end goal in this mode, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t competitive. You will quickly find yourself pushing further for high scores and the personal satisfaction of lasting one wave longer each time.

Two Resident Evil games on the same list may seem unfair, but both are great for different reasons. Resident Evil 5 builds off the game play enhancements of its predecessor and adds in 2 player coop.

While the atmosphere might never be as tense as it was in Resident Evil 4, this game offers some great action scenes, challenging, but never annoying, levels and tons of replay. With Newgame+ you can play through again with all your gear, and with an expanded Mercenaries mode the game only gets bigger after the first playthrough.

Don’t let the cheesy 8 bit graphics and bad soundtrack scare you away: for the grand old price of $1 on the Indie channel of the Games marketplace, you can enjoy one of the most addictive and fun zombie games out there.

Featuring 4 player coop, players will have to eliminate increasing difficult, and lengthy, waves of zombies while collecting cash from their corpses to purchase new weapons between waves. The weapons are satisfying and diverse, pushing you to keep making money and upgrading.

Dead Rising 2

Greatly improved over the first game, Dead Rising 2 continues to show the world why hiding out in a mega mall is actually a cool thing to do in a zombie apocalypse.

Mostly a free roaming sandbox game, though with some limitations, Dead Rising 2 allows players an incredible amount of freedom when it comes to dispatching the undead. With dozens of zombies able to be on screen at any moment, the ability to combine almost any two items together to make a new weapon and more silly hats than Team Fortress 2 is hours and hours of fun.

While I might prefer the atmosphere and tension of the first Left 4 Dead more than the second, the sequel nevertheless offers a whole lot more gameplay than the first. This time around there’s a longer and more involved campaign, more multiplayer modes and even a fresh new game mode variation each week.

Set in New Orleans, a team of 4 survivors must work together to escape the city while traversing a number of interesting locals such as carnival fun houses, shopping malls and even a swamp or two.

With some great environmental effects, such as the storms in Hard Rain and the smoky kitchens in Dead Center, players will have to be on their toes at all times or risk being pulled away from the safety of the group.

This sequel really upped the “undead in space” genre by a whole notch. Offering more scares and action than the first, Dead Space 2 is one heck of a ride from start to finish.

With intelligent level design offering both challenges and scares (some more disturbing than others), fun abilities such as the “stasis” module used to freeze time and enemies, and weapons that do some visible damage, you might be at the edge of your seat the whole time but you won’t regret a minute.

While Dead Space 2 is principally a single player experience, and one that’s so intense it’s even fun just to sit by and watch someone else play it, it also has a competitive multiplayer mode that isn’t all that bad.

Unfortunately not every title made the cut to the top 10. here are some honourable mentions that are still worth your time though.

Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned offers 4 player coop, RPG levelling and millions of guns, but it’s just an expansion.

Dead Island is new and fun, but halfway through it stops being all about zombies. and my goodness is it ever buggy.

I made a game with Zombies in it! while it’s theme song is incredibly awesome, it doesn’t offer as much replay as some of the other twin stick shooters do.

Be sure to also check out our First person shooter Chronology and Are Video games a form of Art?

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Release Date: November 26, 2010
Publisher: Rockstar Games
ESRB: Mature

Unfortunately, in today’s entertainment world, many video game developers will cut corners to save a buck and overprice things like downloadable content to maximize their company’s profits. As unlikely as it sounds, Rockstar’s recent downloadable content for Red Dead Redemption, titled Undead Nightmare, has restored my faith in humanity. an extra storyline to the already amazing video game, Undead Nightmare is priced at only $10 (DLC) or $30 (disc-based), and it will provide purchasers with over 15 hours of single player gameplay, not including the new multiplayer features.

Undead Nightmare tells a somewhat more humorous tale from the life of protagonist John Marston. an evil plague has befallen the South, and somehow the undead are rising up from their graves. the old West is at a loss for what is happening, and Marston sets off to help his family, as well as other citizens, survive this horrendous outbreak.

I know it might sound crazy. Zombies in the old West? Although it sounds ludicrous, Rockstar has managed to pull off a pretty realistic representation of what would happen if a massive zombie outbreak was to curse the years surrounding 1911. while the story may play out like a well-written B-movie horror flick, the actual portrayal of the zombies is at times maddeningly frightening. These undead do not think. They do not wait. They simply see you, want what’s inside your skull and run. and because the setting is a pre-developed United States, players will often find themselves with no other option left but to run as well. It’s quite an experience to see Martson booking it down a hill with a hoard of zombies stumbling after him.

As far as the actual gameplay goes, Rockstar made the right decision in not fixing what wasn’t broken. their already realistic physics engine makes the zombies react perfectly to real-world experiences. Shooting a zombie’s shoulder may spin its fragile body around itself, or perhaps knock it backwards into the zombie behind it. everything feels organic and realistic, or at least as realistic as one can allow for an old West zombie video game.

Although I highly recommend this game, either as a download or disc-based experience, I have a stipulation for anyone considering it: Finish the single-player campaign on Red Dead Redemption prior to playing Undead Nightmare. if you don’t, more than just plot points will be spoiled for you.

Red Dead Redemption is an action packed video game developed for PlayStation 3 and Xbox by the well-known RockStar San Diego. the ultimate version of the game is scheduled to be released by the mid of 2010. And not to mention the eager fans counting down the moments.

The game is made on the same line as the GTA series; however Red Dead Redemption offers a far wider scope to the gamer for experiencing with the game environment. Red Dead Redemption makes it possible for the players to determine how he would like to play by giving dozens of possibilities. the sense of morality present in the game, provides an extraordinary touch to the game. It is set around the final days of the American Wild west.

Red Dead Redemption is going to be available on-line on Amazon which has already opened its bookings expecting the usual rush and obsession for it.

The game play is quite remarkable. You can find somewhere almost 40 animals that are waiting to be hunted on participants steps. the various places and accents have given it quite a realistic appealing to it. An extra nice thing is the range of guns which has gamer has got accessed to.

The arena is actually large, spanning three distinctive areas and check posts having different types of inhabitants. Red Dead Redemption consists of many gun play and combating sequence with a third person perspective from the player. this game has even an option of on line play where in a maximum of 16 people can fight with each other in a single session of the game.

The product is compatible with Xbox and PlayStation. It can be played in PC as well with a PC version which will be available soon, although it is not confirmed by the developer. Red Dead Redemption is going to be sold outside of US as a limited edition product and has planned to launch it in Australia as well as Great Britain.

Rockstar Games will release the Game of the Year Edition of Red Dead Redemption on October 14th.

The new SKU will be available for both Xbox 360 and PS3, and will feature both the 2010 smash hit and plenty of extra content.

Chief among the extras will be the popular expansion pack Undead Nightmare, which added brand new single-player and multiplayer scenarios. and this will be first time the Solomon’s Folly add-on will be made available on Xbox 360.

It will also include various character and weapon packs that were released as DLC in the wake of the game’s launch, such as the Legends and Killers pack, Liars and Cheats pack and the recently released Myths and Mavericks pack.

Rockstar is even throwing in all of the original pre-order content, including the Deadly Assassin Outfit, War Horse and Golden Guns Weapon Pack.

A Game of the Year Edition was first rumoured when a BBFC classification was discovered last month.

Lou Kesten, associated Press, on Thursday September 8, 2011, 6:54 am EDT

What’s more relentless than zombies? Video games about zombies.

They’ve been good (“Resident Evil”) and bad (“Rock of the Dead”). there are serious games like “Left 4 Dead” and comical games like “Plants vs. Zombies.” The dead have even risen in scenarios where you wouldn’t expect them, like “Call of Duty” and “Red Dead Redemption.” And they never stop coming.

At some point, though, exhaustion has to set in; for me, it happened with last year’s tedious “Dead Rising 2.” So I’ve been dreading “Dead Island” (Deep Silver, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, $59.99; PC, $49.99), in which zombies take over a South Seas resort — even though I could really use a tropical vacation.

Much to my surprise, Polish developer Techland has brought some fresh ideas to the genre. It’s hardly a dream vacation, but “Dead Island” is more intriguing than the typical slash-and-run gorefest.

The drama takes place on a fictional island called Banoi. Your character wakes up after a night of carousing to discover that most of the people on the island are afflicted with something much worse than a hangover. after fleeing your hotel and meeting up with some fellow survivors, you have two goals: rescue other noninfected humans and find a way off Banoi.

The open-world structure of “Dead Island” distinguishes it from the competition. Instead of following a linear plot, you usually have a variety of side missions you can tackle in between major story events. It’s closer in spirit to “Grand Theft Auto,” and you can run over pedestrians without feeling guilty.

The missions generally boil down to finding and retrieving someone or something, but the settings and monsters you meet are nicely varied. The first part of the game takes place on Banoi’s sunny beaches, but you eventually have to explore the island’s slum-infested city — which looks like it wasn’t very pleasant even before it was overrun by flesh-eating ghouls.

You have to scrounge up whatever weapons you can; initially, all you have to defend yourself with are broomsticks or kitchen knives. Early on, though, “Dead Island” lets you modify your gear, so you can add nails to a baseball bat or build an electric charge into a machete. Guns do become available eventually, but ammunition is scarce, so you have to use them sparingly.

The ability to upgrade your weapons as well as your own survival skills adds a welcome role-playing element to “Dead Island.” And I enjoyed the freedom to explore its expansive environments, although you always have to be on your guard for hungry monsters.

Unfortunately, the adventure is regularly undermined by technical issues. Some, like zombies getting stuck in doorways, are forgivably laughable. but when they cause your weapons to disappear or make it impossible to complete a mission, you’ll feel less charitable. Once, when I had to reboot after a game-stopping glitch, I was transported to an entirely new zone of the island — with no indication of what I should do or how to get out. (The solution: another reboot.)

“Dead Island” also constantly badgers you to team up with other online players; on its default setting, other humans can join your game without even asking your permission. Instead of enjoying the company, I found them irritating — especially when I had to wait for them to catch up before I could escape a particularly dangerous situation.

There’s much that’s fresh and inventive about “Dead Island,” but it feels like it was released with barely any play-testing. It’s often exciting and occasionally terrifying — but its deadly glitches too often kill the mood. Two stars out of four.

deadisland.deepsilver.com/

Follow Lou Kesten on Twitter at twitter.com/lkesten

Devoted gamers’ from all around the world can’t wait to put their hands on the most wanted third person shooting game of the moment. Many just want to buy Red Dead Redemption even without knowing the game’s features.

Red Dead Redemption for PS3 is a Western epic, set at the turn of the 20th century while the lawless and chaotic badlands began to surrender to the growing reach of government and the expansion of the Industrial Era. in this game, you will take pleasure in dramatic train robberies, extreme gun battles, bounty hunting and duels during a period of violent change.

You will find out an unrestricted area facing the elements of nature. You’ll track more than 40 species of wild beasts. You’ll ride horses and take part in many cowboy theme tiny games like showdowns, hunting bounties, betting, cattle herding and 5 finger fillet. a collection of eon specific guns is also available in this game.

Before you buy Red Dead Redemption, you must know that this game guarantees innovative main features. These main features are the following.

It is an extensive open-world game play placed in the final years of the American Wild West. Substantial play zone made up 3 idiosyncratic regions composed of cities and outposts filled with characters with untrustworthy looks, accents and more.

The morality system. The morality system of this game is determined by fame and honor developed by the gamer’s actions throughout the game. you can also communicate with distinct non-player characters.

Another main feature of Red Dead Redemption for PS3 is the cowboy themed mini-games counting showdowns, hunting bounties, gambling, cattle herding and 5 finger fillet. Also, a variety of eon specific weapons including a cattleman revolver, a mouser pistol, a sawed-off shotgun, a repeater rifle, a throwing knife, lasso and more are available in this game.

The last main feature is the Dead Eye targeting mechanic. This feature allows the participant to slow down time for shot accuracy. Horses are available for you to ride, and just above forty kinds of creatures can hunt or be hunted.

Red Dead Redemption PS3 can be found in any video game shop around the world, especially in stores on the Internet. you can take the pleasure of playing this game in convenient and manageable ways. all you need to do is configure this game on your PS3 including the codes it requires. Once everything is ready, you can start playing the game.

This is an innovative game adapted from the Western epic. This is one of the most well like games in the world today since it offers exciting and challenging missions to accomplish. It is simple and convenient to use. so grab your chance to play Red Dead Redemption PS3 or simply buy Red Dead Redemption at your favorite gaming shop.

Rockstar have released four news screens for it’s upcoming Myths and Mavericks bonus pack for Red Dead Redemption. This pack will be free Myths and is coming next week September 13th to Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network.

Utilizing Rockstar’s proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE), Red Dead Redemption features an open-world environment for players to explore, including frontier towns, rolling prairies teeming with wildlife, and perilous mountain passes – each packed with an endless flow of varied distractions. along the way, players will experience the heat of gunfights and battles, meet a host of unique characters, struggle against the harshness of one of the world’s last remaining wildernesses, and ultimately pick their own precarious path through an epic story about the death of the Wild West and the gunslingers that inhabited it.

Red Dead Redemption was released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010. It was published and developed by Rockstar.

There are those who will claim that anyone who doesn’t like sex in video games such as this one should just not buy the game and avoid ruining the fun for others. these are the exact types of comments that come from an immature gamer.

Sex and nudity, gore and excessive violent content do not make a game mature and the M for Mature rating itself is just a label to allow developers to slip this controversial content in whenever they can to draw more attention to their titles.

Rockstar has a reputation for putting nudity and sex in their games so it’s no surprise really that Red Dead Redemption would have such a scene. they proved in their Grand Theft Auto series that they like to push the boundaries of what is allowable and acceptable. Due to some heated debate over the Hot Coffee mini game scandal, Rockstar has kept to mostly implied sex scenes and sexuality. But in Red Dead Redemption, they decide to take it a step further and introduce sex in their games in a new way. if controversy is what they’re after, then they’ve certainly done the trick

The famous Red Dead Redemption sex scene happens at the beginning of the Gates of El Presidio mission. John walks in to find Abraham Reyes (well known for consorting of women of all types) in what some would call a compromising position with a local woman on a table. This is where the problem comes in. It’s quite apparent to any mature adult that game developers could easily imply what was taking place on the table without the need for nudity or graphic sex scenes. yet Rockstar feels we need full-on cartoon porn to get the picture.

It’s a real insult to mature gamers when developers think we need to have this type of blatant pornographic scene thrown in that has no real bearings on the mission or outcome of the game in any way. It’s an attention-seeking ploy that wouldn’t be needed if they just made great games in the first place. It’s not so much the nudity and sex itself that bothers most gamers as it is the tricky tactic that is often used to get the game in the press.

The only people interested in the potential pixilated porn would be children or other immature audiences. for the rest of us, we get what the storyline is telling us about Reyes and his ruff n’ gruff attitude and objectification of women. We understand that he relishes in his celebrity status and taking advantage of that to its fullest extent. There’s no need for the scene at all other than to draw controversial attention to a subpar game. if more time was spent improving the story line and game play, Red Dead Redemption wouldn’t need a sex scene to get people talking about it.

So what is the scene all about anyway?

The basic, clean version is that at the start of mission, John walks into a room where Reyes has a local woman on a table and is obviously having sexual intercourse with her. the woman is clothed but the clothes are pulled away to reveal the private areas. We see breasts and the sounds and animations of intercourse but we do not see male or female genitalia. the woman, startled, then jumps up from the table and begins to walk towards camera view where we get a full female frontal. Her dress is pulled away at the genitals and at the breasts.