Nice to see that the almost-7-year-old console is still a workhorse. Kit Dotson at SiliconANGLE has the story.

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Also, the shout-outs begin!

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The additional enhancements FEAR 3 will see is something we’re actually intrigued by: co-op play with two different main characters.

In a break from previous installments, F.E.A.R. 3 features two-player co-op. Players have their choose between the super soldier Point Man or the powerful psychic Paxton Fettel. Each has their own special set of abilities, allowing for two distinct play experiences. There’s no mention of competitive multiplayer features.

Other enhancements included could also be noted in the linked article as better writing—so we’ll see how it works out.

To ensure that the game is sufficiently scary, Day 1 has recruited some Hollywood consultants. Halloween director John Carpenter assisted with creation of the in-game cinematics. 30 Days of Night writer Steve Niles, meanwhile, co-wrote the game’s script.

Okay, we give in! Both of the above consultants write nicely flesh-crawling, fingertip-tingling horror work. So we’ll be looking forward to what kind of creative sting they add to the already potent atmosphere of the psychic horror FEAR. (Even if it does stand for a silly acronym.)

Link, via Cinema Blend: Games.

“We are always looking for new ways to connect with fans and give them unique opportunities to express their creativity in a way only Doritos and our partners can deliver,” said Ann Mukherjee of Frito-Lay, in a statement that made my skin crawl with a thousand outraged artistic sensibilities.

The end result will be ten semi-finalists, voted on by Xbox players, and plastered up and down with branding from Doritos, Microsoft, and whatever other corporate partners attach themselves to the contest.

You can read the whole press release here. Bring along some strong drink, you’ll need to wash the taste from your mouth after.

Castle Crashers by The Behemoth—possibly one of the cutest action-arcade games playable on the Xbox 360 with friends—features a great deal of downloadable content to extend and otherwise enhance already rapid-fire, chibi gameplay.

The Necromantic DLC pack is being released Thursday, Aug 26th 2009. According to sources, the last time The Behemoth released a DLC they spread codes across their forums like rich tapioca pudding. So we’d say keep a lookout for that.

For just 160 MS Points, come Thursday, this lovely little DLC could be yours. Just let us know how it works out!

Link, via The Behemoth dev blog

Contrary to what some may say about Dead Rising, how lame or uncanny this is with its strange sense of humor and random happenings around the mall, there is actually a pretty decent game in here. If you can manage to get through more then half of it without giving up, of course. You’ll discover plenty of certain little parts in Dead Rising where you’ll just want to throw the controller at the wall and scream, but we’ll get to those moments later. First off were going to take a little trip into Dead Rising and see what this game is about.

Enter Frank west. A freelance photo journalist Frank sneaks past a quarantine to cover the sudden happenings around a mall, that I believe is based off the horror classic Dawn of the Dead. Frank pays a local helicopter pilot to take him into the town, and the trip itself is filled with horrible events as they both witness the atrocities of a town overrun by the hungry dead. Raising your camera to quickly take shots of such happenings will earn you some vital experience points, giving you just that much of an edge before the game begins.

Dead Rising does have a story line, and its pretty in-depth, for a zombie game. I won’t spoil the story here, but it involves the actions of multiple other characters straight out of a direct-to-video B-movie. You’ll run into them as the game arcs through its three day storyline.

As for the actual gameplay, it could be better. Oh yes, there are millions and millions of zombies to lay to waste in wonderful and violent ways, so don’t worry about that. The mall offers a wide variety of combat moves and items, including golf clubs, bats, jewels and hedge clippers, even a boomerang and light saber. In basic, everything in the game can be and will be used as a weapon. Find yourself a bag of flour or baking powder? Cream a zombie in the face with that. A bottle of ketchup or some baking oil? Splatter it over the zombies and watch the fun. Then there are the shovel and katana…

Everything around you can be used to knock down, chop up, or brutalize the zombies into gooey corpse-messes. Further, the longer you play and advance through the storyline, the more stuff you’ll unlock, which will greatly help you and be fun to use during your next play through.

At first glance I thought this game would be fun. Single player, leaderboards, and the chance to chop up zombies! Well, it was fun, until I had to advance through the storyline and hadn’t leveled up enough to plow over the challenges thrown in my path. Then, I discovered it was best to start over, keeping Frank’s level and powers, and doing it all again. Still, those extra health boxes do come in handy, especially when you close in on the end of the game. For the final boss, they’re REALLY useful.

For one of the few first games released on the Xbox 360, Dead Rising was a really fun game. Though, I don’t think many out there really appreciated the game. Yes, it has a good few ups and downs, boring parts, and time-sensitive escort missions that might fail before you even have a chance to start them because of random zombie spawns and pathetic NPC programming, but there are bright spots.

You can use Frank’s camera to take fun little shots, there are missions to complete, you’ll find no end of zombies to beat into submission and take silly pictures of, or just wander the mall, slaughtering until you get bored.

If you have not played Dead Rising yet, it would definitely be a game to take a look at. For a zombie beat them up game it has it all. Guns knives, parasols, ketchup bottles and chainsaws. Hunt down Dead Rising at your local used shop, and gut-punch the undead for a while.

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You still can’t run a proper search on the Netflix. Neither will you be able to waste your time and life on Facebook or Twitter, both promised features that will be released sometime either later this year or when Hell freezes over.

None of that really means anything, though, in the face of the new Avatar upgrades and Avatar Awards. That’s what you googled to find this page, right? Here’s what we know.

Avatar props give your digital representation new toys to play around with on the screen, so you can use your top-end, vastly powerful, expensive gaming console and its built-in wireless internet service to wheel around a little remote-controlled car between the menus.

Other props include cheerleader pom-poms, a soccer ball, a Big Daddy doll, a guitar, and a lightsaber. Of course, this list is just a sample of the available items; more will be released in regular updates on Thursdays.

Avatar Awards are unlockable goodies for your Avatar to wear and use. The first of these come inside the game ‘Splosion Man, which offers unlockable shirts for your Avatar. A full list of Avatar Awards has yet to reach the net, but it’s safe to say that major Xbox 360 games like Halo 3, Splinter Cell, and Fable 2 will probably spit out either retroactive awards, or new awards through the dashboard.

The Avatar Marketplace will also offer new schwag for your digital daemon, mostly themed items from the bigger game franchises like Gears of War, Halo, Bioshock, and Star Wars. Most are priced between 80 and 360 points.

The Avatar Awards seem poised to become a major carrot for the Xbox Live service, and will almost certainly replace simple gamer scores and achievements as the new dick hat gamers compare to determine the most powerful among their number. Expect to be mocked for those awards you lack, and questioned endlessly by clueless fleebs about those you’ve earned.

Welcome to the new Xbox 360, please enjoy your stay.