If we actually read all the terms of service, terms and conditions, and all those other words written in lawyer-speak then we wouldn’t have any time to do anything else; nevermind actually interacting with anything we’re reading the terms for.

As a fantastic April Fool’s prank, UK retailer GameStation took advantage of this fact to collect gamer’s souls. Yes, you read that correctly. They inserted an “Immortal Soul Clause” into their terms of its online game sales. More soul stealing details after the break.

“By placing an order via this web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul,” the terms and conditions read. “Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorized minions. We reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act.”

88 percent of customers didn’t read these terms and conditions and therefore forfeited their souls. Only 12 percent actually noticed and saw the opt-out option, which included a voucher for £5 – roughly $7.75 – off the price of their purchase. More than 7500 customers missed out on the offer and are now beholden to GameStation for all eternity.

Management claims they aren’t actually interested in the gamers souls so they’ll be issuing an email to customers nullifying that part of the contract.

via the escapist

Fans of the long forgotten X-COM franchise may have reason to celebrate this morning. 2K Games has announced that their Marin-based studio, who recently completely the truly horrible BioShock 2, are bringing back X-COM – as a first-person shooter. I would imagine this might cause some groans from fans as X-COM was originally a tactical-based strategy game. Although, its last sequel was a space combat simulator of all things.

2K’s President Christoph Hartmann seems excited: “Players will explore the world of XCOM from an immersive new perspective and experience firsthand the fear and tension of this gripping narrative ride.” He then added “Worked for Fallout 3, am i rite?” and promptly threw his hand in the air looking for a high five.

XCOM is currently in development for the Xbox 360 and PC. No word on a release window, however, you can register for updates at the newly launched XCOM.com.

via Joystiq

Good news for StarCraft 2 fans. Blizzard has posted a look at the upcoming StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty Collector’s Edition. Bad news for StarCraft 2 fans, it won’t include the much missed LAN play.

That said, you can look forward to shelling out loads of cash for an alright looking box, behind-the-scenes DVD, soundtrack, comic book, art book, WoW content, DLC content AND a USB key featuring the original StarCraft anthology. Oh, right and the game for PC and Mac. No price point, yet. However, I would imagine it will be close to $100.

Remember, Wings of Liberty is the first part of the StarCraft 2 trilogy. So except two more of these Collector’s Editions in the near future. Complete run down of the CE can be found at the official StarCraft 2 site. Or hit the jump for high res shots.

Despite claims from EA, it turns out the recent Command & Conquer 4 isn’t exactly “DRM free”. While it’s true the title can be installed from its DVD to an infinite number of machines, it does however, require an internet connection to play the game. What’s better – or worse, if you can’t detect sarcasm – if you loose your internet connection during play, you’ll be booted out of the game. Even in single player.

EA defends their system as a means to keep up-to-date player stats on their server, seemingly disregarding the fact that many next-gen consoles (such as the Xbox 360) will simply wait till a connection is re-established before updating player information. Recently, UbiSoft  enforced similar DRM on their PC games, much to the dismay of gamers.

I guess the war against piracy will be won by simply preventing people from playing games. That will teach ‘em!

via gi.biz

I’ve developed a new nightly ritual these past few weeks. I get home from work, eat dinner with my girlfriend then get on my computer to see if I can get a good game of Left 4 Dead 2: Scavenge going with a couple of friends.

If you’re not familiar with the game Left 4 Dead 2 or the Scavenge mode of play within, I’ll try to explain the new game mode briefly. (If you are familiar then feel free to skip ahead).

In the zombie infested world of Left 4 Dead 2, two teams, of four players each alternate between offense and defense, in timed best of 3 or best of 5 games.

A round is split in two halves, and begins with one team of four players as the survivors (human characters with weaponry) on offense. Their goal is to collect sixteen gas cans from a surrounding area to pour into a central receptacle before a timer runs out.

Each gas can poured in, scores the survivors a point, up to the maximum of 16.

The infected team (zombies with special powers of their own) begins the round on defense, and their goal is to prevent the survivors from scoring.

The first half ends when either the survivors have managed to score 16 points, or when the infected have prevented the survivors from doing so and the clock runs down to zero.

If the clock hits zero and at least one of the survivors is holding a tank the round goes into overtime. If the score, more time is added to the clock giving the survivors a chance to collect more cans. If the infected manage to make the survivors drop their cans, the round is over.

At the end of the first half, the teams switch roles and continue the round.

The team that scores the most cans in the quickest time wins the round, and the team that wins the most rounds, wins the game.

As you might have noticed, this game play mechanic sounds a lot like a competitive athletic team sport. (If we removed the weapons & zombies, and added balls in place of the gas cans perhaps even more so)

Like a sport, it can get very competitive, and that’s part of what drew me to this game mode.

It also appeals to me, because the goal is very different from the typical team-multiplayer objectives of first person shooter games. It requires great communication with your teammates to score all sixteen points as the survivors, and the same skills to effectively prevent the opposing team from doing so when your team is playing on defense.

I’ve quickly grown to love it, and win or lose, a great game of scavenge is one of the most satisfying multiplayer gaming experiences I’ve ever had.

But this is a rant right? So what’s the problem?

Great games of scavenge are hard to come by, and they shouldn’t be.

Simply put: Too few people are playing this great game mode.

Though most of the fifty or so friends on my steam list have left 4 dead 2 it’s hard to find 8 to want to play when I try to organize a match.

I can usually corral about three friends together. So we create a lobby, team up, and wait for other players to join.

And wait… and wait.

Inevitably a player will join, realize we’re a team, get scared (or bored of waiting also) and leave.

But Ajay… why not use the “Play Scavenge as a team” option in the game? Where you can create a team of four and look for another team of 4.

We’ve tried, and waited for twenty minutes.

Nobody else uses that system it seems.

So we’re back to playing against teams comprised of random people looking to play scavenge.

Occasionally, after waiting long periods of time we’ll get four players to play against and a game will start.

It’s a surprise if one of them doesn’t leave at the immediate start of the game, and an even bigger surprise if they all work together and offer an actual challenge.

Most often, the other team crumbles, people get angry and quit and my friends and I end up wasting a lot of time on an unsatisfying gaming experience.

Sometimes all four will stay, and we’ll kick the crap out of them, scoring 3 rounds of 16 points in a row, which is about as fun as winning a boxing match against a baby.

Rarely do we encounter a team worthy of competition, but when we do, its great fun.

My solution?

Since I didn’t create the game, and I don’t have a connection to Valve’s marketing department, all I can do is advocate that more gamers play Left 4 Dead 2: Scavenge, in hopes that I’ll find more worthy & fun competition out there. If you’re reading this you could become part of the solution.

Get yourself a copy of Left 4 Dead 2, add me to steam & challenge me to a game of Scavenge.

I promise if at least 4 other people out there reading do as well then we’ll have a great game going.

Thank you for listening.

Love Ajay

Telltale Games has released a trailer for the upcoming third season of Sam & Max today. What’s more, it’s been revealed that the series will debut on the Playstation Network – then later on the PC and Mac. No word if previous seasons will be made available on PSN, or when season three will grace the Xbox or Wii. The premiere episode, entitled “The Penal Zone” will release April 15th. Stay tuned for more info.

LucasArts (via original series creators Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer) has just announced the release of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge for XBLA, PSN, iPhone and PC this summer. Like the previous installment which was released last year, Monkey Island 2 will get the full “Special Edition” treatment; Meaning newly created high-definition graphics and audio, all the while retaining the original 1991 version through a single button click. What’s that you say? You want more? Well, thankfully LucasArts likes you ungrateful bastards and will also be including a brand new (and thankfully very optional) control scheme, new art from Peter Chan and Steve Purcell, and an audio commentary.

Finally, for inquiring minds, Monkey Island 2 is arguably one of the finest adventure games ever crafted. So everyone will be in for quite a treat this summer. Screen-shots and comparisons to the original after the break.

via Joystiq

My pants are drenched from wetting myself upon reading this very short blog post announcing that Portal 2 will be shipping this holiday season. Since my birthday is around that time, this makes it even more exciting. Imagine the cake that will be had!

Plus, who knows where they’ll take the series. No matter what, it’ll be an epic multi-dimensional explosion of awesome.

We can only hope, wait and eat cake.

via Steam

Looks like Activision might not be into milking every IP they own after all. Recently the company saw fit to shut down production on a fan-made sequel of the long defunct King’s Quest series. Although the project, dubbed The Silver Lining, had been granted a non-commercial fan license from previous IP holder Vivendi, Activision (who acquired the rights in 2008) has asked for production to cease. The project’s official site has already removed all material pertaining to the sequel and replaced it with a statement thanking fans for their continued support over the last eight years of development. Check out the full statement here. And if you’re curious about how the projected looked, check out this GameSpy preview from 2005.

Activision has already stated that they have no interest in exploring previous Sierra-created adventure titles. God forbid anyone should make a game based on a good license.

That said, Activision did allow both the King’s Quest and Space Quest collections to be released on Steam late last year. So maybe they’re only half evil.

My memories of sex education are an awkward, potentially pedophile, gym teacher standing in front of the class sporting a beard and diagrams of sexual organs. There wasn’t even a hot teacher’s aid with a banana and a condom doing demonstrations. No wonder kids are having sex younger and younger. They want to skip the boring stuff and get right to what they see in the movies.

These days, kids play this (rather amusing) game, in which you have a choice between some star players (including Wonder Vag and Captain Condom). Although many of the questions are fairly obvious, kids might not be as smart as I give them create for. Its wroth it just to see the Sperminator shoot angry sperm at you with his penis hands. Go try it out and, don’t forget, play safe

via Kotaku