Bejeweled 3 is out, and if you like putting gems in a line then you can play it on your computer. It’s quite good! Look, here Bejeweled 3 is on Steam, here it is on Direct2Drive, and if you head down to the official PopCap page then you can get yourself a free 60 minute trial. If you missed John’s rundown of the new features, that’s worth a look too. He is acerbic yet uplifting, like an Alka-Seltzer.

A video of Bejeweled 3′s new Zen mode follows, with its customisable mantras, ambient sounds, breath modulation and binaural beats. I am not joking. Take a look at this. (more…)

I’ve got to be honest: I was expecting a Black Mesa update. It’s been tradition to do one around this time every year – a big post with new information, a trailer, some new screenshots or, last year, a big apology for having not released the mod yet. But nothing. No word. I’ll keep my eyes peeled, but I gave up trying to get in touch with the devs ages ago. Fingers crossed for next week, eh? Until then, here’s some mod news. (more…)

To be honest, I usually go out of my way to avoid the commentary of industry magic 8-ball analyst Michael Pachter, but his recent comments on Activision’s public declining of the suggestion to charge for Call of Duty multiplayer made me laugh. Via Industry Gamers: “We were disappointed to hear Activision’s new head of publishing flatly deny the company’s plans to charge for multiplayer,” says Pachter… “Considering that each of the publicly traded publishers exists to maximize shareholder value, we view their reticence to monetize multiplayer as a betrayal of shareholder trust.”

What a shame. I wonder whose trust Activision were considering when they said they would never do that, eh readers?

Come on open world racing games, smarten up. After the weak Need For Speed World, and the almost great Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, I’m now banking my hopes on next year’s big-money, big-car Test Drive Unlimited 2. The original Test Drive Unlimited also fell into the “almost great” category, so I’m very much hoping to see even more this time. To get an idea of whether that’s happening, there’s a new trailer below.

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In six days every single living cell in the world will die. You have one chance to save the world.

IMPORTANT: Please don’t click ‘read the rest of this entry’ until you’ve played the game. Please also precede all spoiler-containing comments with approximately 30 words (full words, not characters) of non-spoiler so as to not reveal important stuff in the sidebar on the right. Take pity on your fellow indie gamers. (more…)

Somehow, 2000AD owners/ AvP developers Rebellion ended up owning the Evil Genius IP in the wake of Elixir’s sad demise, and they’ve finally revealed their nefarious plans for the spiritual Dungeon Keeper sequel – a social network adaptation that should perhaps be known as MinionVille. (more…)

A year ago (wow!) Jim posted news that the PC would be seeing the release of Oddboxx, a pack of all the Oddworld games including the never-released-on-PC titles Munch’s Odyssey and the wonderfully perverse bounty hunting game Stranger’s Wrath, plus some small additions and extras. Well, I can now announce that Oddbox is not only alive and kicking, but it’ll be released “this holiday season” on plenty of big direct to drive outlets, including Steam. Are you excited? You should consider being excited. Look, I’ll post a video of Stranger’s Wrath (which has an 88% Metacritic score, BY THE WAY) after the jump. (more…)

The pictures that move have looked into the future and foreseen the workings of a new Ghostbusters game, known as Sanctum Of Slime. The glimpses we get of the 4-player co-op game make it look fairly colourful and entertaining, with a moderate chance of progressing into being mental. It’s got a chaotic Smash TV sort of thing going on, but with a whizzy 3D camera and crossing of the streams. Go take a look. (more…)

Today’s window on out advent calendar likes to be turned upside-down. It takes all sorts, eh? Adopt a brave face and give it a try. No, not like that. Try again. No, no. Again. No, you’ve got it all wrong. Try it one more time. You did it! Excellent. Today’s game will be very pleased… (more…)

Apropos of nothing, I’ve joined the rest of RPS in becoming deeply excited about The Witcher 2. Look at it! Swords, hair, grass. Great. Last month Jim posted a nine minute video of CD Projekt talking about the tech behind the game, and today they’ve released part 2, which awaits you beneath the jump. At one point they use the word “polish”, which I of course read as “Polish”, in the context that they would “Polish” their game engine. That was weird. (more…)