Torsion (Space Warp Gameplay Prototype) from alpha new on Vimeo.

This is Torsion, a little game tech-demo made by Alpha New, a one-man game outfit. In Torsion you warp the space around objects on levels to get across obstacles and complete objectives. It is certainly very reminiscent of Portal in all the right ways. I could certainly see Valve snatching this guy up quietly.

Here’s an interesting mod to everyone’s favorite tropical-themed sandbox game: Just Cause 2. This is a very complete first person mod that really adds a whole level of detail and even a bit of vertigo to the Just Cause experience. The fighter jet with this mod is nothing short of insane!

There’s many ways to measure the success and philosophy of a company, specially in the gaming industry; however, one of the weirdest ones has to be judging it by its snack bar. In this student video filmed at Valve HQ we get both a look at Valve’s history as well as the history of, you guessed it, its snack bar.

Time for a musical Friday, while you’re all out having a good time or geeking it out ’till the wee hours of the morning, I’ve been doing my semi-anual Chrono Trigger replay. So in honor of one of the best RPGs of all time here’s an amazing cover of one of the most underrated songs in the Yasunori Mitsuda’s grand masterpiece OST: Courage and Pride as performed by MegaDriver.

Valve is launching a series of videos promoting the diverse and exciting products of Aperture Science, voiced by none other than Cave Johnson, undead founder of Aperture Science, voiced by none other than K.K. Simmons. I’ll take 12 of those panels please!

It’s when watching videos like this that 1) I’m reminded of my lack of creativity while playing this game, 2) feel the immediate urge to play it again, 3) SCORRRRRRPIO.

Microsoft has tried, unsuccessfully, for a few years now to penetrate the PC gaming industry with their Games For Windows label as well as trying to integrate it all into the Live platform, along with Messenger, Writer, and a bunch of other little apps. The results have been not only lackluster but down right annoying, Games For Windows ends up feeling like a roadblock instead of a an asset to the game. Well, Microsoft seems to want to change this with a revolutionary initiative that will “change the world”! What’s this miraculous new strategy? Make everything look like Xbox Live but with Farmville. Seriously Microsoft? Cute avatars and Bejeweled is the best you can come up with? If this is what it takes to change the world wait until you see what I’ve created in my toilet bowl, it’s going to fucking blow your minds.

Many in the younger generation would agree that the gritty, realistic first person games of today really show how silly and infantile the games of the 8-bit generation were. I think it’s the other way around, as this video proves. Applying the CoD style to Mario just goes to show you how cheap and tacky modern games can really be. It actually kind of feels like an infomercial with bonuses popping up every couple of seconds and meaningless overdone HUD elements everywhere.

This year’s SXSW saw the debut of a little film bumper faux trailer that takes the Mario-as-a-drug-addict view on the Super Mario universe to new heights. The casting in this little clip is top notch, at least for Mario, Luigi and the Goomba; they are spot on, and I never thought I’d see someone who resembled a Goomba.

Star power as Ecstasy? Brilliant!

As someone who’s only been working in the industry for a few months I completely agree with every single point this good robot makes and I’ve already been told all of these points made by the box-man. It’s all painfully true but I still love my job.