![Google Maps Becomes A Video Game [Video]](http://feeds.thatsovietguy.com/~ff/kotaku/vip?d=qj6IDK7rITs)
Coming to Google+ Games in February is what appears to be a virtualized marble balance gaming experience with a theme more grounded than what you'd find in your average dentist's waiting room; you'll be tilting your way through the streets of our own world.
The ad above above demonstrates the concept for the gaming experience-ified maps service, and does one better by including some lovely retro...
Abouta month ago, I wrote the following post about "The Metagaming experience," a fun card gaming experience dedicated to fostering debate about video gaming experiences. Right as I published it, however, the folks behind the gaming experience ran out of inventory. They've just gotten more printed, so I thought I'd re-post now that you can order your own deck.
Is Starcraft more hardcore than Super Meat Boy? Is Passage a better metaphor for life...
I caught this over the weekend when our friends at Rock, Paper Shotgun posted it—some folks have been dilligently working on putting together an HD "Deluxe" version of the beloved Tim Schafer/Lucasarts adventure gaming classic Grim Fandango. They've posted a video that, sadly, isn't in-engine, but it does give a good sense of what their finished product might look like.
You may recall Grim...
![Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Kotaku Review [Review]](http://www.thatsovietguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/002f826ed3fdc7715e5.jpg)
While dozens of video gaming experiences have strived to capture the hearts of Star Wars fans through previously untold tales of epic space fantasy, BioWare's massively multiplayer Star Wars: The Old Republic is the first that's attempted to tell eight stories to thousands of people at the same time.
From the early days of video gaming experiences developers have used the medium to explore the shadowy corners of the Star Wars universe, defining...
![Gaming Industry Spent As Much As $190,000 Pushing for Senate Version of SOPA Last Spring and Summer [Sopa]](http://www.thatsovietguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/e56c26719b11f2d438d.jpg)
Many gaming experiencers and video gaming experience companies can't stand the Stop Online Piracy Act and its companion bill the Protect IP Act (PIPA). But the Entertainment Software Association, the lobbyists who stage E3 each year and defend gaming's freedom of speech rights, thinks PIPA is a good idea.
And they're paying to support the legislation.
Lobbying records for the second and third quarter of 2011 indicate that the ESA, which spends...
![Alan Wake: Now With The Sweet Horde Mode You Never Asked For [American Nightmare]](http://www.thatsovietguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/043b7229399bf087a0e.jpg)
Yes, you read that right. Alan Wake now has a horde mode, and a rather good one at that. It seems that every gaming experience has one these days. However, is this something that Alan Wake fans want?
I got to sit down with the new "Fight 'til Dawn" mode in Alan Wake's American Nightmare, and yep, that's just what you do. Fight 'til dawn. If this already is of no interest to you, go ahead and read Brian Crecente's in-depth preview of American...
![Square’s Scarygirl is Anything But Scary, All Sorts of Fun [Video]](http://www.thatsovietguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/d41cf6ea662dbdd48d2.jpg)
What if I told you Square Enix and Tik gaming experiences were coming out with a gaming experience based on the celebrated and psychedelic characters of Nathan Jurevicious next week? What if I told you I've played it and it was a ton of fun? What if I told you it reminded me of one of my favorite PS1 platformers of all time? Would you be as curious as I am as to why nobody has been talking about this gaming experience? Of course you possibly...
![Boxer is a Free DOS Game Emulator for your Mac [Mac Downloads]](http://www.thatsovietguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/f7d297bd0e1276b0862.jpg)
Mac: Computer gaming experiences have come a long way since the days of Doom, Zork, Tie Fighter, and Castle Wolfenstein, but many of us who grew up with those gaming experiences would like to replay them. Boxer is a free app that will let you play any DOS gaming experience on your Mac. After installing the app you can download any DOS gaming experience and import it into the app by dragging it into the import window in Boxer. You'll never see a...
![XCOM FPS Pushed to 2013, Firaxis Strategy Reboot Still Set for 2012 [X-Com]](http://www.thatsovietguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/6b86bc1d9e11a2e9c431.jpg)
As someone who was quite fond of what he saw of the re-imagined XCOM at E3 this past year, but who's also excited about the Firaxis strategy reboot of the franchise, I am somewhat conflicted by this news.
We haven't heard much about the XCOM FPS as of late, but have seen and heard plenty about XCOM: Enemy Unknown. In fact, many would say this news does not come as a big surprise.
However, I believe I speak for a lot of gaming experiencers when...
![Study: Video Games Keep Out The Nightmares [What Dreams May Come]](http://www.thatsovietguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/8069e0864d536cf3e4f.jpg)
The Wall Street Journal has news of yet another gaming study, but this one's pretty darn interesting: Rather than judge video gaming experiences' effect on violent behavior or socialization, the study looks at whether gaming experiences can help people escape nightmares.
Specifically, the study looked at military men and women, 64 of whom were "hard-core gaming experiencers" and 22 of whom were not, and found that the low-frequency gaming...
