Developed by Hanako Games, Long Live the Queen is a visual novel that can become very addictive. Don’t let its cutesy nature fool you. The game is extremely dark, and deals with heavy political intrigue. You play as the Elodie, princess of the kingdom of Nova. Your mother, the queen has recently been assassinated, and you have to survive for 40 weeks until your coronation. However, it won’t be easy. Enemies, both inside and outside the kingdom, conspire against you, and you can meet your end in a number of ways. By taking classes you increase your stats in various areas, and increasing them in the right area can mean the difference between life and death. Although the game is short, you’ll get swept up in the game as you constantly backtrack and experiment on the best way to keep Elodie alive.

The best way to describe The Stanley Parable is a piece of art which uses video game mechanics (yeah I know, it’s the old ‘Games as Art’, but work with me here people). Originally a Source Mod, The Stanley Parable has received a full release on Steam as well as a visual upgrade and achievements. This game, if you can call it that, is unique. There are no puzzles, no guns, or enemies to shoot. What you do is explore, and either follow the narrator’s directions, or don’t. You’ll either love it or hate it, so grab the demo and try it out if you think it’s something you would like. If you do like it, it’s on sale during Steam’s Winter promotion.

Developed by Pack-In-Video and released by LJN/Acclaim, Rambo is an NES game loosely based on Rambo: First Blood Part II. If any action movie franchise seems ripe for a video game treatment, it’s Rambo. I mean, basically all you’d have to do is give him a bunch of weapons (including his explosive arrows) and have him kill the ever-living fuck out of anything moving. This formula does work (see Contra, Heavy Barrel, Doom, Wolfenstein 3-D). So why the hell would PIV/LJN/Acclaim turn Rambo into a RPG-ish Zelda II (although it was released a few months prior) clone?
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Command and Conquer is one of gaming’s most respected RTS franchises. While it isn’t as complex as a Starcraft or as grandiose as a Total Annihilation, Command and Conquer set the standard for classic 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate) RTS gameplay. The collection contains every C&C game released up until now, along with expansions. You’ll get the classic C&C Tiberium Dawn, the goofy Red Alert games, the realistic Generals, and even the FPS shooter Renegade. If you’ve never experienced this series before, this disc will give you the chance to witness the evolution of the classic RTS franchise. Although some of the games may have compatibility issues on newer hardware, it’s still worth the price of admission.

I don’t care how cheap it is, saving cheese on that blender can’t be worth THIS much!

By now, Black Friday has passed, and in a few short hours, we will be set upon by Cyber Monday. What better way to follow up a day meant for being thankful for what you got than by spending money on things you don’t need? Of course many of you would rather not camp out, stand in line, or get trampled over a juicer that’s %25 percent off, but you still wanna expand your video game collection for less. Well, we got your back! This is powet’s annual Green Everyday post. Everything you see on this list is $20 or less. Why are we doing this the Sunday after Black Friday? Because they are $20 or lower year round. That’s right, no standing in line, no getting up early, no camping out, no nothing. All of these games are downloadable, or at least can be ordered online, so you don’t even gotta leave your house! How awesome is that? A few of these you might have seen before, but they’re so awesome they’re worth another look.
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This Thanksgiving, we show thanks for the many things that we have. We as gamers are also particularly thankful for the many games that have been released or are on their way, considering that there are so many that don’t make it off the drawing board. On the flip-side, we should also be thankful for all the crappy video games that have been left on the cutting room floor that gamers and critics never had to endure. Without any further ado, lets take a look at 10 of these cancellations, some of which are especially heartbreaking.
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For the sequel to one of the greatest real-time strategy franchises of all time, Blizzard decided to do something big and somewhat controversial: split the game into 3 parts, one for each of the three factions. Wings of Liberty deals with the Terran faction, while the recently released Heart of the Swarm deals with the Zerg. However, just because WOL deals with only one faction, it is by no means incomplete, as the tale of Jim Raynor is a story deep enough to stand on its own, and the RTS gameplay, refined over the years since the original Starcraft’s release, stands the test of time.
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If a game like Tenka had been released in this age of gaming, it would have been dismissed as another me-too dudebro shooter. Thankfully, it was released during the Playstation One era, and its graphics and gameplay helped to set itself apart from other first person shooters of the day. Taking control of Joseph Tenka, you are out to get revenge against the sinister corporation Trojan Inc after you are attacked by one of its experimental bioweapons. You’ll make your way through 20 levels while shooting a variety of enemies. This game was notable for a few reasons. First, instead of picking up a series of weapons, Tenka just carries one gun, and picks up enhancements for it that lets it shoot different types of ammo. Secondly, it was one of the first FPS games to render enemies in 3D (as opposed to using pixelated 2D sprites) and feature a crouch button. While neither of these seem like that big a deal, they both added new enhancements on both graphics and gameplay. Developed by Pygnosis (Lemmings), Tenka was another classic addition to the FPS genre and deserves it’s place alongside the Rise of the Triads and Duke Nukems.