PC Gaming

The horror game reveals are coming out for Halloween, first with Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and now with a hefty new gameplay trailer for Outlast. At least, I think we're looking at gameplay. The recently announced first-person scarefest from Red Barrels is set in Colorado's abandoned Mount Massive Asylum, re-opened in secret shortly before the events of the game.

Players take the role of Miles Upshur, a journalist who decides to investigate the facility after receiving an anonymous tip. The new trailer seems to hint at there being some connection between what's happening at Mount Massive and a top secret post-World War II U.S. initiative to recruit scientists from Nazi Germany. 

I'm loving the sense of atmosphere and building tension in this trailer. Can't wait to see what Red Barrels can do with the final game, which is due to arrive for PCs in 2013.

Cyan's classic PC adventure game Myst is filled with books, so it's only right that now there's a book in this world that is filled with Myst. Super-fan Mike Ando put his tech skills to work on build a Windows XP computer with a 5-inch touchscreen to slide inside of a hollowed-out hardcover book. The result is a Myst machine, in book form (via Engadget).

Ando used a 135-year-old copy of Harper's New Monthly Magazine as his shell since it's what Cyan used as a texture reference for the game's linking books. The PC inside the book is fitted with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, a battery that's good for two hours, and every single Myst game in existence (on PC).

The whole thing is being sold for $15,625, so break out those checkbooks! As an added incentive, Ando also points out on his website that the Mystbook's computer is powerful enough to handle Half-Life 2. Just saying.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is widely considered to be one of the scarier horror games out there, which means that fans of such things should be very excited to check out this gameplay trailer from Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. Frictional Games and thechineseroom (via Rock Paper Shotgun). The 2013 release seems to be coming along nicely and, based on what the trailer shows, is very much sticking to the "everything can kill you, nothing is safe" dynamic of the previous game.

Accompanying the release of the trailer is the news that the collaborating studios want help from YOU. A Machine for Pigs will be filled with all manner of screams, apparently. Frictional and thechineseroom are asking for fans to submit WAVs, Oggs, or MP3s of their own "sounds of fear, panic, terror, anguish, torture, and horrid awful death" to piggies@thechineseroom.co.uk for use in the soundtrack.

In the video below, X-Play's Jessica Chobot is in Boston, MA on Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 3 scavenger hunt to seek out historic places featured in the upcoming game. She finds herself re-enacting a scene from Prince of Persia and teaching Ben Franklin how to talk dirty. Check it out if you want to see the real places that inspired Assassin's Creed 3.

In this Assassin's Creed 3 gameplay preview, Jessica Chobot chats with the game's Creative Director, Alex Hutchinson, to get a bunch of new details on the upcoming title. The two go in-depth on the game's new control scheme, the world of AC3 itself, your homestead, naval missions, and treasure hunts.

The dead are coming to Sleeping Dogs in the Halloween-themed "Nightmare in North Point" DLC pack. In the trailer for the Sleeping Dogs DLC below, you can check out ghosts of triads past, including the Chinese vampires, resurrected killers, and possessed gangsters that have been unleashed in Hong Kong.

"Nightmare in North Point" is available now for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC for $5.

Nerdsourcing finds you the best crowd sourcing projects from Kickstater, Indiegogo, and other such sites, and brings them straight to your wallet. Give, help spread the word, or just find out what’s going to be the hot new thing in the future; nerdsourcing is there to help support the dreamers out there looking to make the impossible a reality or those looking for the next big thing. Time is limited to fund these projects so don’t wait to long.

Distance

Distance is best described as a survival racing game, which might sounds a bit weird, but when you see it in action, it totally works. It takes the fast-paced racing action of arcade titles like Rush and Cruzin’ USA and puts them inside unique environments that look like they’re straight out of Tron. This all takes place behind the wheel of a vehicle that looks like a mix between the BMW supercar from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and future hovercars from any science-fiction film.

If that hasn’t already sold you on the title, its slick and beautiful look sure will. It’s hard to believe that this is coming from a group of students who just graduated from DigiPen. It even has LAN and online multiplayer, modding tools, and controller support. It’s the full package.

Reward: Access to the early beta and the full game when finished will set you back a $15 pledge.

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WARNING: Spoilers follow.

Like its comic book and television show counterparts, Telltale’s The Walking Dead video game tells a story about the living disguised as a story about the dead. Yes, zombies are cool, and blowing their heads off is even cooler, but after a while their rascally man-eating antics can get a bit predictable.

Instead, what fascinates most about The Walking Dead is seeing just how Lee Everett and his often-dysfunctional band of survivors carry on in the face of the apocalypse. The video game adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s acclaimed comic books is a grim, death-filled, and often depressing tale, but every so often it flashes signs of what it means to truly be alive. Sometimes, it shows that the world needs to crumble around us in order to understand what’s most important. Yeah, it’s pretty deep.

So, with that philosophy in mind, we’ve done some soul-searching and gathered together five life lessons that anyone can take away from The Walking Dead. Keep your Kleenex handy; this could get emotional.

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Multiplayer shooter Primal Carnage is out now. You can download Primal Carnage from the official site, Steam or GameStop GamersGate. All the dinosaur on human action can be yours for only $14.99.

While you wait for your game to download, check out the official Primal Carnage launch trailer.

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Assassin's Creed 3 is freshly in stores, introducing a new American Revolutionary War time period for the series and a whole new set of features and content tweaks to go along with it. New period protagonist Connor Kenway is a half-British, half-Native American nimble, Templar-silencing badass. His fight against the ancient order is a personal one, and it's what drives him to rebuild the assassin's brotherhood in colonial America.

For all of Connor's skills, Assassin's Creed 3 is still a huge game with lots to explore and any number of things vying for your attention. This feature is meant to help you get accustomed to the new face of the series, running through some of the more noteworthy system changes and improvements that you'll be adjusting to. You won't find any spoilers below, so read on for some tips for getting the most out of your Assassin's Creed 3 experience.

A Note About the Introduction

I'm sticking to the no-spoiler policy, but you should know that the first 5-6 hours of the game follow a very specific path. My recommendation is that you stick to the path as closely as possible, ignoring the lure of exploration and resource gathering until the main story arc really kicks into gear. Just hit your mission checkpoints, get your valuable story exposition, and move on to the next bit. If you are still curious, you can check out the first 15 minutes of the game right here. You've been warned.

It's hard to go into any more detail without offering up story spoilers, but suffice to say that it's clear enough why you should stick to the script in the early hours and when it's okay to start veering off. There's just no value in looting every corpse for cash and hunting down all of the synchronization points. When you see it, you'll understand why.

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If you nabbed yourself a copy of Assassin's Creed 3 late last night (or later this morning, for all of us who got Sandy'ed last night), then you'll probably find a day-one patch waiting for you as soon as you fire it up. Ubisoft recommends downloading it before diving in -- as if your gaming console of choice would allow you to do any less! -- because of the many fixes it makes.

You can read the full patch notes at Ubi's forums, though beware that you'll see some spoilers there. Nothing huge, mind you, but enough that you might want to just avert your eyes and allow the patch to work its magic. The short, spoiler-free breakdown: things work better now than they did before.

Valve have announced the Steam Halloween Sale, offering "scarily" low prices on tons of creepy, scary, and eerie PC titles, as well as deals on games that aren't really that spooky. In total, there are around 80 titles on sale at creepily low prices, between 25 to 75 percent off, until November 1. Some of the best deals include :

•     Left 4 Dead 2 – $5
•     Costume Quest - $7.49       
•     Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition – $15
•     BioShock – $5
•     Amnesia The Dark Descent – $5
•     Magicka – $2.50
•     Dead Island – $10
•     Alice: Madness Returns – $5
•     Limbo – $2.49

For the entire list of games on sale, grab your candy bucket and head over to Steam's site.

Hitman: Absolution does everything possible to immerse you in the dramatic experiences of Agent 47, including putting a huge emphasis on the dynamic audio you'll listen to during your play through. In the video below, Hitman: Absolution Game Director Tore Blystad and Audio Director Thomas Bartschi walk you through the process of creating the title's polished Hollywood-style score. 

Hitman: Absolution will be available on November 20 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Activision saw many nods of approval with its live-action Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 trailer starring Sam Worthington and Jonah Hill, so is it really any surprise that we've now got Robert Downey Jr. popping up in a live-action Black Ops 2 trailer directed by Guy Ritchie? Downey leaves behind his Iron Man armor, but he was at least smart enough to bring a jet to a gunfight. 

Only one thing about this trailer confuses me. Horses? Are there horses in Black Ops 2? Or is that part of the trailer just meant to appeal to those who are attracted to blonde women riding horses? If anyone can explain, please do. Otherwise, the wait won't be much longer. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 hits stores on November 13, 2012 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC (and Wii U on November 18!).

Linux users can now sign up to help Valve Software test out the Steam for Linux client when the beta launches at some point in the (presumably near) future (via Joystiq). The company announced a planned Linux release for its virtual storefront in July 2012, with Valve's own Left 4 Dead 2 pegged as the first official Steam title to see added Linux support.

The short notice on Valve's website ask for experienced Linux users only to step up for the beta. In other words, if you just replaced Windows with Linux yesterday on a lark, you're probably not the ideal beta applicant. To sign up, head over to ValveSoftware.com and follow the instructions there.