What’s the most engaging, memorable and visually stunning video game trailer ever made? It might be the one for Dead Island. There’s something about its music, its slow motion scenes and its unusual mix of forwards and backwards action that plants itself hauntingly in one’s mind.

The trailer also depicts graphic violence and disturbing images. It’s definitely not for kids and could be overly harrowing even for adults who have kids . . . or who mildly like kids . . . or who hope to one day go on a peaceful vacation to a tropical isle. With that warning, you can watch the trailer video below.

So does having a superlative trailer mean that Dead Island will be a superlative video game?

Continue →

In the wildly popular Guitar Hero and Band Hero video games the goal is to rock the video crowd. But what if the game Vuvuzela Hero existed? Then the goal might be to cause as much auditory pain as possible.

Here’s a video of what a Vuvuzela Hero game might look like:

Continue →

For years now there have been good skateboard video games out there (the Skate series by Electronic Arts being our favorite among them). But there’s something ultimately unsatisfying about controlling a virtual skateboarder by way of a joystick. Even Skate, which is a truly fun game, is really just glorified driving game with a skateboard on the screen instead of a car or motorcycle or whatever.

The new Tony Hawk: Ride offers to change that—the game for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 comes with a physical skateboard controller.

Continue →

One of the best ways to foresee what’s coming down the gadget pike is to check out company patent filings. Though, of course, a patent for a product being filed doesn’t automatically mean the product will become reality.

With that caveat we bring you this bit of cool news: according to the excellent website Nintendo World Report a patent has been filed for a Wii interactive football controller.

Continue →