With bonus Space Giraffe offer, too!
It’s been a long time in development but Gridrunner Revolution has finally been made available for download.  The high-speed, pleasantly mad shooter has a legacy spanning 27 years and counting, and time has treated its evolution very well.  The graphics are much nicer, and the gameplay better developed, but the classic arcade action is as intense as it’s ever been.

The basic premise is pretty simple- move with the mouse, the ship auto-fires, and when sheep power-ups are collected the ship adds more guns.  There are gravity wells around the single-screen playfield, and creating loops of bullets around them increases the score for everything.  The Revolution of the title comes from being able to rotate the ship a full 360 degrees, meaning not only can the entire screen be covered in firepower but you can more precisely position yourself for prettier bullet arcs, which directly increase the scoring potential.  Playing for the sake of blasting everything in sight is fun, and making complex bullet patterns is pretty.  It’s eye-candy mayhem at its finest.

Sweetening the deal is an early-bird buyer promotion.  Gridrunner Revolution is $20 by itself, or $25 with the excellent Space Giraffe.  Either way it’s an excellent application of the gaming budget.

Zombies on the way!

Capcom granted the wishes of more then a few survival horror fans when they announced the coming release of genre classics Resident Evil 2, 3 and Dino Crisis for PSN.

Thankfully, Capcom PR has said that gamers won’t have to wait much longer before they can play the classic titles on their PS3 or PSP.

According to Capcom’s Chris Kramer, the games will be out “within the next three months.”

While Kramer stressed that they “can’t be more specific at this time,” with that kind of timeline it can’t be too long before scare junkies have a date to salivate over. Now if only they’d add Dino Crisis 2 to the list…

Hat Of Sheer Awesomeness!

By now it should be a given you’ll be buying Scribblenauts when it comes out mid-September.  If Scribblenauts doesn’t nab a Game of the Year award or two then something has gone horribly wrong somewhere, and its sheer charm and creativity make it a must-have.  Still, Warner Bros. and 5th Cell seem worried that Maxwell, the main character, is too intimidatingly awesome, and have taken steps to make sure that the player is properly prepared to control him.  Simply put, if you reserve the game you get a rooster hat.

This giant red hat comes exactly as you see in the game, with three red blobs sticking out the front and white ear coverings that, sadly, aren’t actual headphones.  Despite its technological limitations there’s pretty much nothing you can’t do with headwear like this, making it one of the most useful pieces of swag ever.  It’s only available at GameStop and EB Games in the US and Canada, but seeing as there’s one on every street corner that shouldn’t be too much of an impediment.

DLC coming to the PS3 plus more packs on the way.

Bethesda have raised their computer skill beyond a hundred and cracked the code, allowing the downloadable content greatly enjoyed by Xbox 360 and PC players to appear on the Playstation 3 via PSN.   Operation: Anchorage will be released for PS3 in late June, followed by the release of The Pitt and Broken Steel in four to six weeks each.

Plus two new DLC packs coming to all three platforms:
*         Point Lookout – Explore a massive new swampland area filled with new quests and content
*         Mothership Zeta – The aliens have returned, and they’re pissed. Experience an alien abduction first hand and find out if you’re tough enough to survive.

Point Lookout will be available in late June for Xbox 360 and PC. Cost will be 800 points or $9.99.  It’ll be available on PS3 after the first three DLCs have been released.  Mothership Zeta is scheduled for release in late July for Xbox 360 and PC. Cost will be 800 points or $9.99.   It’ll be available on PS3 after Point Lookout.

Fallout 3 Game Add-on Pack #1 includes The Pitt and Operation: Anchorage on a disc and will be available for Xbox 360 and PC on May 26.  The Fallout 3 Game Add-on Pack #2 includes Broken Steel and Point Lookout on a disc and will be available for Xbox 360 and PC in August.  Retail versions of the game add-on packs for PS3 are not possible and the DLC will only be available for download online via PlayStation Network.

A Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition will be available in October. It will include the original game plus all five add-ons for $59.99 for Xbox 360 and PS3, and $49.99 for PC.

And a mystery Croteam title, too.

Once upon a time first person shooters were defined by bodycount.  Doom, Heretic, Descent, Rise of the Triad, and a whole host of also-rans substituted overwhelming enemy counts for AI, primarily due to the technology of the time.  Eventually, though, FPSes became less about arcade blasting and more about tactical or military action, backed up by a heavy online focus.  Every few years, however, Croteam releases a new Serious Sam to remind us what pure, unfiltered ass-kicking is all about.

Four years since the somewhat disappointing Serious Sam 2, Croteam has announced they’re finally getting to work on the fourth game (the first Serious Sam was divided in half) in the series.  They’re in the process of landing a publisher, so no details have been revealed yet, but work has been started and that’s good enough for the moment.  Hopefully the new game will return to the amusingly gruesome style of the original games rather than the forced and unfunny cartoonish style of Serious Sam 2.

Croteam’s update also mentions a second mystery project.  This isn’t the military title Gamecock showed a few screens of at last year’s E3, due to that being canceled when the contract with the  publisher fell apart, but rather an all-new game of some sort.  Details are still a good way off for both titles, but it’s great to see Croteam getting back up to speed.