Over on Xbox.com, a new House Party is on the way. This year’s one-game-a-week promotion looks to start off with something quite a few people have gotten excited about since its reveal at the VGAs — Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.

This year’s House Party also features Warp from EA, Nexuiz from THQ Partners and Ubisoft’s long-awaited I Am Alive.

Get a look at all of them in the trailer below.

I was pretty bummed when my Xbox Dashboard updated and the UFC tab had the old fight on it. Then reports came out that UFC application would not be updated until December 20th in time for the UFC 141. Even UFC posted about it!

This may be only available to certain users, but I was able to get the UFC application working and found that it’s updated with all the latest fight information! Amazing videos about all the fighters in UFC 140. You can make your picks as well as see who your friends picked to win. Basically it’s my husband and I fighting to see if Mir or Nog is going to win this Saturday.

Voting is easy and you get a plethora of information on the fighters. Not only the Tale of the Tape that shows all the measurements/age/history of the fighter, but also the last three fights and the outcome of those fights.

Check out this video where I walk through the available options. I am so excited to continue to play with this application. The amount of pre-fight content available is staggering. Currently it shows I can order the event for $0, but I’m pretty sure that will change when the application does go live.

Yeah, you play your Xbox 360 on your television, but that’s about to be switched around — this holiday season, television is coming to your Xbox 360. Somehow.

40 television providers (in this case, it seems more like channels than actual cable providers, though Verizon and Xfinity are involved) from around the world are offering their entertainment services on the c0nsole to over 20 countries.

Here’s a full list of entertainment partners, per Major Nelson:

•    ABC iView – Australia
•    AlloCiné – France, Germany, Spain, U.K.
•    Antena 3 – Spain
•    Astral Media’s Disney XD – Canada
•    AT&T** – U.S.
•    BBC – U.K.
•    blinkbox – U.K.
•    Bravo – U.S.
•    BSkyB** – U.K.
•    Canal+* – France, Spain
•    Channel 4 – U.K.
•    Channel 5 – U.K.
•    CinemaNow (Best Buy) – U.S.
•    Comcast – U.S.
•    Crackle – Australia, Canada, U.K., U.S.
•    Dailymotion – Available in 32 markets
•    EPIX – U.S.
•    ESPN** – U.S.
•    Facebook** – Available in all 35 Xbox LIVE markets
•    FOXTEL** – Australia
•    GolTV – Spain
•    HBO GO – U.S.
•    Hulu – Japan
•    Hulu +**– U.S.
•    iHeartRadio (Clear Channel) – U.S.
•    Last.fm** – U.K., U.S.
•    LOVEFiLM – Germany, U.K.
•    Manga Entertainment – U.S.
•    Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment/Real Sports – Canada
•    Mediaset – Italy
•    MSN with MSNBC.com – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, U.K.
•    MUZU.TV – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K.
•    Netflix**– Canada, U.S.
•    Rogers On Demand Online (RODO) – Canada
•    RTVE – Spain
•    SBS On Demand – Australia
•    Syfy – U.S.
•    Telefonica – Spain
•    Televisa – Mexico
•    “The Today Show” – U.S.
•    TELUS** – Canada
•    TMZ – U.S.
•    Twitter** – Available in all 35 Xbox LIVE markets
•    UFC – Canada, U.S.
•    Verizon – U.S.
•    VEVO – Canada, U.K., U.S.
•    VimpelCom** – Russia
•    Vodafone Portugal** – Portugal
•    YouTube – Available in 22 markets
•    ZDF – Germany
•    Zune** – Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain

Looks like a Gold Subscription is required to use…well, any of this. And a subscription to the cable provider in question.

Speaking of questions, there are a lot of them. Hopefully they’re all sorted before the holiday season officially rolls around.

Dead Island…  Zombies, buckets of blood, use everything you see on your path to kill the zombies, and a story to go with it.  What else do you want?  If you aren’t convinced already to get the game when it releases on September 6th, nothing I say will convince you.  What I can tell you is that I got a chance to play with the game at PAX Prime this year and my hunger for killing zombies grew instead of being sedated.  I had the pleasure of speaking with Doug Macleod, who is the project consultant for Dead Island and before we got to the questions and answers, the first things he said “Just aim for the head!”  I whack my paddle against the zombie, sending him down on the sand. “Now, get on top, crouch down and aim for the head!” he tells me, and I followed suit. As I swung my paddle it made an disgusting crunch and splat sound, the head of the zombie crack opens with pieces of brains flying with blood spewing all over the sand in buckets.  The scene was nothing but horrific, but absolutely fascinating and amazing. “WOW!” I said to Doug “COOL HUH?” he said, as we quickly turned into fanboy and fangirl.

In the game, you have 4 different characters and each character fulfills a different roll. The assassin character excels with sharp weapons, knifes, cleavers, anything dealing with cutting.  You can also add a ‘blood rage’ ability or combat for sharp damages. Survival allows you to keep yourself alive ant it is highly recommended to spec survival when playing solo campaigns.  Playing the game with more than just yourself, you’ll be able to spec into the more aggressive roles and have more fun with it. Sadly, the game does not support local co-op, but when you play online co-op, your friends can come in and out of the game, without having to end the current game.  You will also get quests, where it will allow for the story to be moved forward.  Some will be related to the survivors and some will be related as to why this island seems to be overrun with zombies.  The best part is that if you want to stay and explore the section of the island you are currently in, you can.  You are not tied to the story or to the quest. You can look around, kill as many zombies as you like, level up and explore the island to your heart’s content.  Talking about the story a bit more, as the cut scenes played I noticed a lot of similar images from old zombie movie classics like Night of the Living Dead.  I asked Doug if this was a if this was a coincidence or a deliberate attempt to grab inspiration from the vast library of zombie movies.  “A lot of research was done on the classic zombie movies and some of the newer ones. You’ll notice that there are some ‘28 Days Later’ types of zombies that are sprinting at you all the time. We have also taken inspiration from mutant type zombies.  A lot of it was because we wanted a game that focused on survival. A lot of zombie games are not that focused on survival and we wanted to make this one as close as we could make it, as true as to what it might be like.”

The weapons in the game are abundant, but they have the limitation of durability. By simply pressing RB, you’ll be able to see a circle that shows you how many of that particular weapon you currently have.  Once it is gone, it’s gone, so you have to plan accordingly and pick up new weapons as you progress through the area.  Any weapon you carry, is capable of being thrown at the zombie, for some spectacular combinations of throw, run, pick up weapon from zombie and kill, if that is your style of playing.  I will neither confirm nor deny the possibility that I might have done just that, several times, during the demo.   If that wasn’t enough, you’ll be able to combine weapons in order to make them even more powerful when fighting a horde.  The character I happened to be playing was Xian Mei, who was fashionably equipped with heels.  Heels at the beach? After a zombie invasion? Let’s not use ‘logic’ and suspend reason for a second and enjoy the fact that Xian can kick and stab the zombie with your heel, hurting the zombie enough to bring him down and allowing you to chop his head right off!

If zombie killing is your thing, Dead island is clocking around thirty hours from beginning to end, due to its long and deep nature.   If that isn’t enough, relatively soon after the game is out, you’ll have the Blood Bath Arena DLC to keep yourself busy, adding to the amount of game play this game will have from day one.  The DLC is said to be free if you pre-order the limited edition copy of the game from Gamestop, but for those of you that don’t have Gamestop near you, you’ll be able to purchase it for around $10.  If you go the Gamestop route, you’ll have some exclusive weapons like the Reaper (A baseball bat), and a buzz saw.  So keep an eye as to what retailer has the weapon you like, as I was told that different locations will have different weapons.

With the possibility of exploring all you want, create new weapons, kick, make zombie heads explode and so much more, no doubt this zombie game will be on the top of many people’s list for a while.  The best part?  It’s out very soon!

Rating:

BUY

I never had much of an opportunity to play Splosion Man, but I heard nothing but good things from everyone else who played it. Then I saw Ms. Splosion Man at PAX East this past March, and I got a bit more interested in the series. Ms Splosion Man follows Splosion Man’s female counterpart who is created during a mistake made by the scientists after the capture of Splosion Man. But it wasn’t the story that drew me to the game, it was the girly aspects added to the game (like looking for shoes) and the quips made by Ms. Splosion Man herself.

The gameplay itself is pretty much the same from the first game. You need to splode in order to jump over obstacles, up walls and to exterminate some scientists and environmental details. There are two new obstacles in this game however: cannons and rails. The cannons are used to shoot Ms. Splosion Man through outdoor environments, and the rails are used in a similar fashion. Of course both do have their tricky parts, like the cannons that will move and the rails that have electric death rays criss crossing them.

This is all explained in what has quite possibly been my most favorite “how-to” instructions I have seen in a long, long time. It is done in an instructional video type format with two different colored Ms. Splosion Men. One showing the right way to play, the other showing the wrong way, because “nobody likes Debbie.” The sarcastic voice over for this part really gives you the tone of the game and sets you up for some fun times.

After the tutorial you get to go right into the game, and the quips get even better. Ms. Splosion man not only likes to go tip-toe while she runs, but she also seems to have a fondness for quoting songs from artists like Beyonce, Spice Girls and even No Doubt. She also seems to enjoy doing the “Single Ladies” dance. Ms. Splosion also spouts off some great one-liners that are girl-centric and made me laugh my ass off. At the same time like with most puzzle games like this I did get frustrated when I kept dying and had to keep re-starting. You are able to take a penalty and “cheat” to get to the next checkpoint, but the penalties are quite bad, and if you want a good score I recommend not going for it.

The other fun aspect that I liked was being able to play the game co-op though different levels. Players can choose between a few multiplayer options, including playing as Splosion and Ms. Splosion in a mode called 2 Girls 1 Controller. This mode proves to be tricky since one thumbstick and trigger will control one character while the other one will control the second character. It’s definitely a mode that can cause some frustration for some. I did enjoy playing a few levels with my boyfriend though. There are definitely some tricky puzzles in multiplayer that give you a good feeling once you are able to solve them.

All in all however I really enjoy playing Ms. Splosion Man. This game is great for someone relatively new to the series as well as people who have already been fans. Twisted Pixel really did a great job with the game and were just completely spot on with the humor. As an arcade game for Xbox Live I highly recommend picking it up to add to your arcade. If you’re a platformer fan, you will not be disappointed.

Yesterday kicked off week 3 of PopCap Games’ art auction to benefit the Starlight Foundation (US) and Special Effect (UK), both great causes that aim their help at sriously ill or injured children. This 4 week long auction is an opportunity for PopCap fans to take home a piece of PopCap history, not to mention some great looking one of a kind art pieces and help out some phenomenal charities in the process. The original pieces available this week are:

• Plants vs. Zombies Dr. Zomboss Original Concept Sketch
• Bejeweled Neon Blue Diamond
• Zuma’s Revenge Underwater Stage Concept Painting on Canvas
• Peggle Splork Drawing
• Zuma Blitz Ceramic Tea Cup & Saucer Set
• Personalized Sketch by a PopCap artist
• Plants vs. Zombies Zombie Head Costume
• Plants vs. Zombies Concept Sketch on Canvas
• Plants vs. Zombies Zombie DJ Painting

Head on over to the PopCap auction to bid on your favorite before next Tuesday! 100% of the proceeds will go to the charities mentioned above.

As the first week of PopCap Games’ unprecedented auction of unique game art pieces comes to a close, fans are gearing up for the second wave of displayable history to bid on. The first week’s auctions brought in nearly $1700 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation in the United States and SpecialEffect in the United Kingdom, and with the second week’s lineup, it promises to continue that trend.

Starting today until next Tuesday is your chance to take home a Plants vs. Zombies Peashooter costume, a Plants vs. Zombies ceramic bowl and mug set, a Plants vs. Zombies Organ Grinder Zombie concept sketch on wood, a Plants vs. Zombies XBLA player house concept sketch on canvas, a Plants vs. Zombies diorama, a Zuma Tiki Gods original concept sketch on paper, and a Lex Bookwarm original sketch on paper.

Check them out at PopCap’s ebay page and help raise funds for these two nonprofits dedicated to helping seriously ill and disabled children. Starting bids range from $1 to $350.

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E3 is one of the most impressive events for gaming on the planet.  EA made sure that their booth was equally impressive.  As you enter the South Hall of the LA Convention Center, the first thing you saw was the EA booth.  Huge screens, very loud music (Crank your music to 11… now do it again, and you might get close) and enough shiny things to make anyone happy.

I immediately went to the Battlefield 3 side of the booth.  The line for attendees was long and winding.  Some of the attendees complained about how they had spent 2 hours in the line, but they were not moving much.  This was a game people wanted to see.

The game promises to allow you to wage an all-out war as you step into the boots of Henry Black, a U.S Marine.  You have to eliminate the deadly force known as the PLR, which takes us to battles on land, in sea, and air as SGT Black as well as other playable characters.

Battlefield 3 has taken three years of development and is showing some amazing results thanks to the new Frostbite 2™ game engine.  This allows the game to really stand out with a vast landscape that gives you the feeling that we are looking as far as the eye can see.  The particles of dust seemed to be affected by every bit of wind direction, whether it was coming from the tanks moving or nature.   It gave you a sense of feeling dirty and dusty in the middle of the battlefield.  If that wasn’t enough, the animation and moving of the characters has been incredibly improved, giving the player a feeling of actually being in the game.  Visually it is appealing; the shadows and light in the game not only give it the dramatic feeling it requires, but as I played the game and had to enter into a tunnel, I was expecting for my eyes to have to adjust from going from daylight to the darkness of the tunnel. Then I realized I was playing a video game.

As expected at this point, I was the only girl in the room.  We moved to another area that was set in a L shape with computers.  I grabbed the first one that was available.  No controller, so I had to use a keyboard.  I had a bit of a problem trying to rewire my brain to remember that WASD was for moving and the nearby keys for reload, going prone, etc.  Once I got the feel of it, I moved on with the mission.   The point of the multiplayer LAN game we played was to clear sections and push back the enemy; seemed simple enough.  As an added bonus I had one of the players spawn on me, or vise versa, so I had to talk while playing.  My team pushed the enemy very well, and the communication of my partner and I became more and more fluent as we clear the areas.  The lushness of the maps plant life was incredible, the detail that it was put on it, the movement and animation, really made you feel that if you looked for cover in a bush, you where actually covered.

We moved our fight underground, where my team did a fantastic job at keeping the enemy distracted whiled I proned myself, angled on the stairs leading to the station.  If you could have seen me, all you saw was the end of my gun and a bit of helmet.  Perfect placement as the enemy rushed in ala Leroy Jenkins style, while I put them out of their misery one by one with a bullet in their head as a souvenir.  I never in my life wanted to yell HEADSHOT so badly in a game, but I just kept playing and making sure my partner and I could spawn on the same locations.  We kept pushing and gaining ground, my partner became more and more of a fan on my style of play as he could rush in and spawn only a few feet before or after where he died, never loosing ground.

The demo ended, and I looked at the leader board.  I was second in kills with over 27 kills.  Not bad for a girl that never uses a keyboard to play an FPS, I thought.   Battlefield 3 will bring dog tags back, but these tags are dynamic and based on your style of play.  If one week you only headshot, you’ll have a tag reflecting that.  If the next you only knife kills, it will change and reflect that too.

Battlefield 3 will be released this Fall 2011 in North America and Europe and is pending rating. Coming to PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Through twitter, I have found GamingAngels.  The staff has embraced me as one of their own and in the months I have been working with them, have found a nice little family.  Although we are spread out across the nation, gaming, social media & the internet we are able to stay in touch and run GamingAngels.com as a team.  This has impacted my life in a positive way and given me a new outlook on my life as a gamer.  I used to hide the fact that I played video games, like it was a dirty little secret.  I had a fear that I’d be judged as a non-professional, as immature.  With the help of social media, I’ve seen that there are a great many professionals who enjoy the sport of gaming as much as I do.

Of course, there is the social aspect.  With conventions, tournaments, sites like twitter and facebook, online gaming, online multiplayer and game chats, it’s easy to connect with other gamers, talk about life and have some laughs.  Through these outlets, I’ve also seen a great number of people find jobs in the industry.  It’s good to have connections.  It’s also fun.  The number one reason to play games is for fun.  What better way to end a stressful day at the office than to sit on your comfy couch and play a game of Call of Duty?  Or how about having a family game night?  A lot of games seem to be geared toward families or groups.  Who wouldn’t want their mother to issue them a beat down in a game of The Fight: Lights Out?

Many games for kids prove to be educational as well.  I’ll be honest, my kids love gaming and I feel they learn a great deal from games.  They can teach anything from Colors and ABC’s to logic and problem solving.  Yes, there are games out there that are not for kids but that is a parent’s responsibility to ensure safe and appropriate games for their child as well as to guard them from possible online connections that should not be made.

With the Wii, PS Move and Xbox Kinect, games have taken a hard right.  The fact that sitting on your butt for hours is not very healthy can be countered with the Fitness and Motion games on the market.  These games are fun, educational and many of them can get you to work up a sweat after a while (fitness games or not).  This can get you out of those boring gyms, keep you away from repetitive work out videos and give you a customized program on your personal fitness level with progress tracking and in-game rewards for reaching your goals.  In our GamingAngels forum, we recently finished the “90 Day Challenge: New Years Edition!”, and another challenge will be starting soon.  Through our forum we are able to encourage and support each other in our fitness goals, along with a few rewards along the way.  Some people have turned to good old exercise and healthy food choices, while some of us have combined them with fitness and motion games.  It gives us a whole new way to keep in shape.  I myself have been playing Dance Central lately and I love the workout mode which calculates your workout time as well as estimating your calories burned.  On those days I don’t feel like going for a run or if the weather is bad, I still find myself turning on my Xbox for a few rounds of dancing.  It really seems to take the work out of workout!

So, with all things said and done, I feel there is a good deal of positive that can come from gaming which outweighs the negative.  I think people who oppose gaming altogether should be more open to the possibility that games could bring a positive change in their life.