Games Cheats and Reviews

The Penguins in the Desert Productions team, the same team behind The Zelda Marathon, will soon host another gaming marathon to support Big Brothers Big Sisters St. Catharines – Thorold & District. This fundraising effort will support mentorship programs, future fundraisers and making successful matches for children in the program.

The "mystery" behind the marathon is that supporters will get to vote which games will be played. The team has put together a list of 50 games to choose from. Games voted into the top 20 will be entered in a lottery. The Penguins team will play whichever games are drawn for 125 consecutive hours.

Last November’s Zelda marathon raised nearly $3,000 for the charity, and this time around the team aims for a $5,000 goal. Donations can be made during the event via widget that will be available on their website.

You can catch all the action as The Mystery Marathon broadcasts live on the team’s website from Big Brothers Big Sisters St. Catharines location on April 30 at 6 p.m. ET.

Also, check out the short films the Penguins team put together to promote the event below:

Heavy Rain has arrived with a bang. It’s flashy, technically stunning but ultimately slightly empty. Characters vary from vapid to engaging, the FBI agent a highlight but lead Ethan tends to look bored rather than desperate. If you’re looking for a decent story with minimal interactivity to occupy a wet weekend, one cut with mystery and suspense, Quantic Dream’s latest might be right up your street, but gamers looking for anything else will be left out in the rain. A great idea, but unfortunately one not fully realised.

gizmodo.com writes -

We’ve seen our fair share of flaming laptops, mobile phones and iPods – but this is the first time I have come across an HDMI fire. Unless there were fireworks strapped to the cable, this one is a mystery.

Diii.net delves into the one potentially interesting aspect of the latest Diablo 2 Patch. Is this a Diablo 3 related change?

"One of the odder tidbits in the v1.13 patch notes is this little line, "Updated two Act 5 mercenary names to Klar and Tryneus." What does this mean? Why was the change made? Has it been confirmed? Yes. Thanks to MakeLoveNotDupe’s screenshot we know both of them are now hireables on the test realm, and thanks to the code-delving of Silospen, we know that the names were indeed "updated."

So it’s been done. But why?"

In the video game business, gamers often have a healthy amount of distrust for the companies that publish the titles they buy. It’s not an unreasonable reaction; after all, every gamer can remember a time or two when he or she felt deceived by a publisher after buying a game that was far less impressive than how it had been advertised. Not only that, but deceptive PR campaigns like "All I Want for Xmas is a PSP" and the new program surrounding Dante’s Inferno have done little to make it seem that companies are interested in being honest with their consumers.

Larger companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Electronic Arts seem to have realized this, and have spent the past few years working to strengthen their relationships with gamers. Part of this campaign has been an effort to put out better games. Publishers have also been establishing positions for bloggers to give gamers an inside look at the companies they represent. These "first-party bloggers" are currently few, but their presence is undeniable in the industry. Individuals like Jeff Rubenstein of the PlayStation Blog, Larry Hyrb of Microsoft, and Jeff Green of EA are some of the bigger names in this new field; even though they’re well-known, there’s still a fair amount of mystery surrounding what they actually do.

StarcraftWire.net has a review of the latest TOKYOPOP manga based on the award-winning RTS Game Starcraft. The first story in this manga, titled Homecoming, serves as a backstory on the main character marshal-turned-rebel Jim Raynor.

The story ties-in straight into the first mission in Mar Sara at the beginning of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty’s single player. The story written by no other than Blizzard Entertainment’s Senior VP of Creative Design Chris Metzen left a cliffhanger that might be exploited and come back to bite fans in the game. Mystery ensues. Did Jim Raynor’s son truly die?

"There’s only two more days until the release of Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines for the PSP and we’re here to reveal a bit more information on it. We revealed talked about the accomplishments a few days ago, and now we’re going to reveal the Upgrades that you can purchase through the Coins that you receive during Altair’s quest in solving the mystery in Cyprus."

– Just Push Start

This is an excellent quest mod from Middark. Uncover the mystery behind the Heart of the Dead, an ancient Ayleid artifact that can command the very souls of the dead.

TPG writes: "After playing the game, I have a newfound respect for Mystery Inc. It’s a fun game, well written storyline that is relevant to the game and true to the original premise of the show, and has all kinds of little surprises. Sufficiently creepy, this Scooby-Doo can be enjoyed by the new fans, or old; not that I’m calling you old. Okay. I was actually, and I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you pesky kids and your dog!"

There has been never been a phenomena in the United States like the Halo series, and in particular, its hero, Master Chief. While there have been crazes – the Pac-Man craze, the Pokemon craze, the Mario craze – they have never had the presence or popularity that Master Chief has had…

…The question is – why? Why has Master Chief captured the imagination? What sort of magic synergies have elevated Master Chief in America to icon level? This article shall explore why, and find that there actually is no mystery to Master Chief’s success.