Run, don't walk for this sale

Telltale's The Walking Dead is on sale at several online retailers through Thursday, August 30st. Both Steam and MacGameStore are offering a bundle of all five episodes of this downloadable title just in time for the release of Episode 3. At 40% off, these games are a steal at $14.99.

It was cheap enough for me to pull the trigger, and so far I have no regrets. These well reviewed games are well made, tense adventures and a nice change from the usual FPS games I play.

UPDATE: Friday, August 31 -- the sale may be over on Steam, but it runs until the end of Monday at MacGameStore for all you Mac users out there.

Hunted, never safe

Rockstar rarely plays it safe. Even its ping pong game has an edge, with its sweating, snarling competitors. You expect one of your opponents to shout an expletive, or throw his racket at you at any moment.

Much has been said about the Rockstar magic over the years--books have been written uncovering its naughty bits and manufactured controversies. I think my favorite stunt that Rockstar pulled was when they finally released Bully--a game that came no where near the heights of depravity it was being accused of prior to its release.

Eurogamer has a history of writing good reviews that often end up populating the top of the lists on Metacritic. They also do some nice non-review work, reports and essays reminiscent of the work of Destructoid. This weekend Jon Denton gave us a look back at Rockstar's Manhunt. Jon has some interesting observations on the title, its place in history, and its value in today's gaming world. Click on over to read what he has to say.

PS2 horrors continue to haunt us

The PS3 goes gothic as it reaches into its PS2 back catalog of titles.

Say what you will about Nintendo's Virtual Console games service, they have gotten really good at re-releasing older titles this gen. Sony, besides adding their own spin on motion control to the PS3, one-upped Nintendo when it jumped on the "let's resell our old titles bandwagon" with PSN and a selection of their own back catalog, the latest being Capcom's moody Haunting Ground.

Haunting Ground inherited its Survival Horror crown from the Clock Tower series, but definitely gave it, it's own moody spin. Between the the continued success of the big guns like Dead Space, and the growing indie game's survival horror scene, it looks like the survival horror gaming is making a comeback.

How Book of Memories came about

One of my favorite video games journalists, from one of my favorite blogs, has written an article on Joystiq (a damn fine website), sharing details of the development of Konami's partnership with WayForward to create Silent Hill: Book of Memories.

In the article, JC Fletcher shares with us a history of the game's creation, from concept to current state for this controversial entry in Silent Hill series. Click over the Joystiq to read the report, and to see a selection of pre-production artwork created for the game.