Just one look at this game, Dear Esther, and you can tell that it’s very atmospheric. The game started as a Half Life 2 mod in 2008, and has since been in development for a commercial release. It’s built on the Source engine version that powered Portal 2, and is scheduled for release this February. It’s one of those game we can’t wait to check out.

Minecraft has taken the world by storm and has quickly become one of the most successful independently developed titles of all time. However, what you may not have known is the fact that Minecraft is still a beta. That’s right, the game has already sold millions of copies and isn’t even a final release just yet. Luckily Mojang Specifications are doing what they can to push the game towards a final release. In fact head developer Notch has just come forth to let us know that the company is currently working on beta 1.7. The big news surrounding this beta is the fact that it will be the “adventure update” along with adding small support for mods.

Unfortunately no other information was given as to what exactly this adventure update will include but it seems that Minecraft will be a much more feature intensive game quite soon.

If you’ve been paying attention you may remember that a clever user-created mod for StarCraft II surfaced that virtually transformed the game into a full fledged MMO. A the time of its original unveiling this mod was to be called World of StarCraft. However, not long after the unveil video surfaced Blizzard claimed copyright and the video was quickly taken down. Luckily, it was not their intention to shut down the project entirely but instead to discuss a name change.

Well, the mod has officially swapped names and will now be known as StarCraft Universe. The mod’s developer, Ryan Winzen, also took the time to give us some insight into the game.

According to Winzen, he is looking to give to give players of the mod the ability to link up with up to 12 players on a single map, customize gear based on accrued loot, save their characters and choose from a variety of different player classes. Sounds like a pretty hefty order considering this mod is being entirely developed by a single person. Let’s hope he gets everything done.

Check out some gameplay from World of StarCraft StarCraft Universe after the break.
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Video gaming is quite popular and I’m going to go out on a limb and say you enjoy it quite a bit. While the various categories of video game titles the single genre that’s caused the most impact on society is arguably the FPS genre. We’ve all see FPS Doug, played Counter-Strike and Call of Duty, but how many of us have shot a real gun? Maybe not too many.

Luckily, next time we actually pick up a gun there might be something attached to the side that would make us gamers feel a lot more at home – an electronic ammunition counter. Utilizing a built-in accelerometer this electronic ammo counter was made by Michael Ciuffo and will keep track of how many bullets you have left in the clip.

Check out the above video and let us know what you think.

Laptop modders at Xtreme Kreations took a standard 13″ MacBook Pro and modded the back so that instead of the glowing Apple logo, we get an amazing render of Metroid’s Samus Aran, with a glowing suit. watch the video, it’s a remarkable piece of work. Take a look at a few pictures here.

If you’ve been paying attention to the gaming community you may have noticed a top notch StarCraft 2 mod dubbed World of StarCraft that effectively transformed the game from a real time strategy to an RPG. Unfortunately for the developers of the game, a take down notice had been posted in place of a YouTube video that claimed copyright infringement from none other than Blizzard – the developers of both StarCraft and World of Warcraft.

Luckily, Blizzard has come forth to say “It was never our intention to stop development on the mod” instead going on to say:

“With the name so closely resembling that of World of Warcraft, we wanted to discuss the title of the mod with the developer, and as part of our routine procedure, we contacted YouTube to request the video be removed while that discussion took place.”

But that’s not all, they continue by saying:

“We were also curious about the project and wanted to discuss with the developer what the mod entailed.”

So, while it’s not yet confirmed, our best guess would suggest World of StarCraft will continue under a different name. As for the second part? Let’s hope Blizzard hired the modder and puts him to work on an official World of StarCraft. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

We’ve also included the World of StarCraft video in question above for your viewing pleasure.

via kotaku

Sony’s PSP hasn’t exactly had the smoothest road with the console as a whole never really catch on as much as Nintendo’s Nintendo DS. However, Sony forged ahead and went on to release the optical drive-less PSP Go which featured a large internal hard drive for the storage of games. Prior to its release it seemed like a good buy but once on the market consumers realized that having a device that only worked with the cloud wasn’t exactly the best as there were no used game or game sales.

Luckily, for those of you willing to do a bit of hacking some modders have managed to release a “Homebrew Enabler” that will allow you to run games that were only previously released on the PSP’s proprietary UMD format. Check out above video to see it in action where Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is loaded using the Prometheus ISO Loader program.

via arstechnica

If you’re an RPG fan you’ve undoutedbly heard of (and most likely put countless hours into) the Elder Scrolls series. Starting with Morrowind the game took a turn for the better and introduced (for the time) amazing graphics wrapped around the same gameplay we’ve come to know and love from titles like Daggerfall. However, now that Oblivion is on the streets and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is just around the corner, Morrowind is looking quite dated.

Luckily, a dedicated developer by the name of Warwon have taken the time to produce the Morrowind 2011 mod. What does this mod do, you ask? Well, as you can see from the above video it replaces the various textures and other environmental objects making for a truly incredible scene. It will be interesting to see how this updated version of Morrowind competes with Skyrim.

Unfortunately, the mod is not yet available for download but you can follow along with its development at the official site here.

Ben Heck comes up with all sorts of crazy stuff including portable consoles and Xbox 360 laptops. However, today he has revealed that work has just been completed on a brand new PS3 Slim laptop, pictured above.

While we’ve seen a PS3 laptop in the past, this one is a bit unique. New features include a 17-inch HD monitor with the ability to disconnect it and plug in an external display, built-in speakers and a headphone jack, new paint job and more breathing room than you can shake a stick at.

Want it? Me too. Too bad it’s not for sale.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play MechWarrior on the Crysis engine? Well, a mod has recently been released called MechWarrior: Living Legends that lets you do just that.

The group who put it together calls themselves Wandering Samurai and say that the mod is currently in “open beta”.

Snag the download along with a bunch of media here.