Serious (and not-so-serious) gamers don't drink those new fangled designer energy drinks. They drink Coke! By the case! Clearly the intention of these little round bottles of deliciousness is to look like Christmas ornaments. We think they look like bombs, because thats cooler.

The United States Army is using an interactive game called "Beyond the Front" (think Dragon's Quest meets the crushing reality of war) to combat the growing rate of suicides in its ranks. The game puts soldiers in the shoes of Specialist Kyle Norton. They are asked to make key decisions in this avatar's life all hopefully culminating in a happy ending. Sharon Loane the creator of this interactive experience believes that if they "the problems (in the game) resonate, and they make the player feel the emotions of the characters because they look like and sound like and behave like them, so it becomes a first-person experience." She believes that this game can be used to curtail the depression that can come from being an integral part of war.

I don't want to come off as being too sardonic or cynical here, because I truly think this is a great idea and a solid tool for struggling solders. In fact it reminds me of a story I heard on NPR on the way home from work yesterday about The Army sponsoring the performance of classic Greek and Roman theatrical plays for the soldiers to show them that there internal struggles have been played on the stage of history. What I don't like are games like America's Army, which use the video game platform as a sublime recruiting tool complete with dated nu-metal. The concept that some may join The Army because of a video game such as America's Army and then have their lives saved by one such as "Beyond the Front" is slightly disturbing to me. But, Kudos to Ms. Loane and her efforts to help our soldiers.

Head over to the Christian Science Monitor for the full story.

Dreamwarriors! don't want to dream no more! Oh man, Dokken's song to Nightmare on Elm Street part 3 is just classic. Almost as good as Alice Cooper's Man Behind the Mask for Friday the Thirteenth Part 6: Jason Lives. Anyway, where the hell was I. Oh yes, Fallout 3 is getting some choice downloadable content in the oncoming months. In a press release by Bethesda the DLC is listed as three downloadable packs for the 360 and PC. No word yet on any PS3 content. Here is a listing of the content:

Operation: Anchorage: Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. An action-packed battle scheduled for release in January.

The Pitt: Journey to the industrial raider town called The Pitt, located in the remains of Pittsburgh. Choose your side. Scheduled for release in February.

Broken Steel: Join the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel and rid the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave remnants once and for all. Continues the adventure past the main quest. Scheduled for release in March.

No prices have been announced yet.

Good morning folks. I seriously contemplated grabbing a cup of coffee before writing this post. I'm suffering from a video game hangover at the moment. Much like Alex in A Clockwork Orange, I was strapped into a theater chair this weekend and forced to watch horrendous acts of violence, and lose at NHL 09. What you are now witnessing is my failed attempt at writing with a frazzled brain that needs to be injected with caffeine. It hurts. It hurts bad. Anyway, onto more important things, Left 4 Dead will be getting some pretty choice DLC in the oncoming months. The mall from Zack Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead will be available for download "when it's done." This is cause for celebration of course, but I just wish it was the Monroeville Mall from Romero's original movie. Head over to Giant Bomb for the full story and YouTube video of the map. I am going to grab some coffee, see you in a few.

My brain gets caught in a loop sometimes. Lately I have been waking up with the idea of soon to be purchased Samsung 650. What the hell happened to me? The first thought of my day is a fucking TV? Man. Whatever, I am willing to roll with it. The reason I am wasting your valued time is because this has gotten me thinking about games and movies and how they are effecting our dreams. There was a study done about how folks who watched black and white TV as children still in fact dream in black and white. Don’t quote me on this. I got this nugget from NPR and I am too lazy to find it on the net at the moment (ah illustrious blogging). This concept is directly related to an idea I had a few months back (sober I swear). I believe that the cinematography of films and the gameplay of video games are effecting the way we dream. I would argue that people who dreamt before the dawn of television never dreamt about themselves as a third person avatar, yet I dream this way all the time and would wager that a lot of game players do.

 Just the other day I was at Russ’s house and he was playing Call of Juarez (I know). Anyway, he was hiding in a bush or something and that image translated directly into a dream that I had last night. The content was different, as my dream was more post-apocalyptic, fascist government and high school reunion orientated, yet the image remained. I think this is an interesting concept that is worth exploring. I have even had dreams that are effected by the amount of lag I had back in the day when I was playing Counter Strike in college. I dismissed it as sleep deprived, drug induced dreams at the time, but now I am not so sure. The fact that visual media may be altering the way that we dream, and the way that we dream is altering visual media makes me smile. I have a thing for the ouroboros. Anyway, what say you? Is it bullshit? Common knowledge? Wacky bacon?

No, no I am kidding. I love the New Xbox Dashboard (NXE). In fact I just spent the last hour getting my Netflix queue in some kind of searchable order for my wife. My pleasure sadly does not translate into Gabe's (from Penny Arcade). He is pissed that the friends list "freezes." No, this is not "news," but I just wanted to tell you folks to be patient. I don't think the dash is freezing as much as it is loading your friend's avatars. I don't have too many online friends so mine takes about 10 seconds to load. I imagine that Gabe has more friends than virtual Jesus so it is taking seven days and seven nights to load them all.  There is no progress bar and there probably should be. Hell, this shouldn't even take more than a second or two to load, but it does. Be patient, don't throw your controller or turn off your console, go make a sandwich, maybe add some movies to your queue, and for the love of god, don't go play WoW. It is all those friends that got you into this mess in the first place.

Source

When they should be getting a full version of GT5 in the eagerly waiting racing gloves of driving sim lovers like myself, the eggheads at Polyphony are instead seeing how amazing they can make the parts of the game they already made look. By linking four PS3 together they can either make a huge image at 2160p (each machine takes on the duty of processing a quarter of the image) or lace together the 1080p images from the four to multiply the Frames Per Second rate to 240. Holy shit. Read more about this techy time-wasting and the party that ensued at the GT site. You'll have to scroll downpast the D-List celebs to get a more accurate description of what actually went on.

Long before Gran Turismo came along, there was Pole Position (mocked above by some smart-ass theater kids). Contra was exploding on our screens decades before Gears of War. Face-meltingly awesome games aren't a new concept. Entertainment Weekly would like to remind us all that pulse-quickening action was available as far back at the 80's. They put together a little gallery of their old favs. [EW.com]

You can play many of the games that EW is reminiscing about at Classic Games Arcade. They offer a ton of old-school titles you can play right in your browser window.

Well, it wasn't just a one time fling boys and girls. 7-Eleven is throwing there proverbial hat into the ring of game sales. This is a dangerous thing for me. I constantly find myself drunkenly buying things I regret the next day. But what was once chips, and frozen burritos will soon become "AAA" titles that I wouldn't buy in the harsh light of day. If you recall, 7-Eleven has broken the street date for every major title they have sold, here’s hoping this trend keeps up. I would much rather wait in line behind a hobo chugging Scope, than have to deal with the snarky staff at GameStop and their unearned air of confidence. Click here for the full story.

We are getting reports (i.e. a few of our friends are bitching to us) about the inability to save during a co-op game of Call of Duty: World at War. If you are like me, and you enjoy putting in hours of on the couch co-op gameplay, with burritos and Brooklyn Lager this is a big detraction for the game. It appears that the only way to gain replayable access to co-op campaign levels is by beating them in single player. Part of the fun of these games is the ability to share the experience with a friend. I for one found Gears of War 2 almost unplayable without a friend to laugh at the poor dialogue with. It's sad that Treyarch did such a piss poor job in handling the split screen co-op. Not only is the screen set up awkward and distracting, but now we have the fact that you can't even save during co-op. I don't think that I am in alone in saying "that is fucking retarded." Let's hope they fix this with a patch.

I like horror movies. In fact, I like them so much I challenge you to a horror movie duel with Kandarian Daggers. I know there has been lot of hubbub about running zombies and Simon "king of the fanboys" Pegg has his knickers in a bunch about just how far his belief can be suspended. We have some bad news for Grandpa Pegg, Left 4 Dead comes out today, and it is bringing the fastest fucking zombies I have ever seen. They aren't infected and they don't have rabies. They are just the good old zed word, and man are they fast, scary, and fun to shoot in the face with a shotgun. I understand the argument, the horror movie fan in me agrees with Mr. Pegg, but it's like arguing against the rain man, you are only doing to so you can be heard doing it, you aren't going to change a thing. It's like King Lear baby.

I have only played the demo of Left 4 Dead so far, and I would recommend that you do the same before you run out and buy it. The game itself looks like it can get pretty repetitive. Which begs the question, how many times can you shoot a zombie in the face before it gets old? The answer is of course a resounding "until every last one of those rotten stenches are dead!"

Valve looks like they hit another one out of the park with this one. They took a simple concept, much like they did in Portal, and made a potential classic out of it. If you are not going to play Left 4 Dead with friends though, I recommend renting it and not buying it. This is multiplayer gaming at its finest. Rest in Peace Shadowrun.

Street Fighter IV has been dated for the PS3 and 360 in the States. You will be able to pick up your copy Tuesday February 17th. That's right, the same day as my father's birthday, it's so sweet of you to remember. I would appreciate an email on the 13th from someone so I can get a card out in time. I was initially pretty indifferent to this game and slightly miffed that it was such a nostalgic cash in, but the more videos I see, the more I am getting excited for it. Head over to Wired and check out the video of Gouken. I am already bobbing my head to the tunes and biting the top of my wrist from the undoubted frustration I will be in when I get hit with that double fire ball.