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It only took me 14 years, but I finally played Quake. It comes to some surprise to me that I had never played the original Quake before, which makes it all the more interesting that Quake II was and still is one of my favorite games. I wasted hundreds of hours of my life playing this game. Did I say wasted? No. Enhanced. Bettered. Some out there may not like the painfully simple first-person shooter video games – the kind where you hit some buttons, switches or levers spread around a map and kill a bunch of bad guys, but hey - they're my action film in video game form.

Taking Wikipedia's word for granted, Quake first reared its head with the first Commander Keen game in 1990. Originally titled The Fight for Justice, it would follow a character named Quake, "the strongest, most dangerous person on the continent." Quake in its final form is an odd mix of fantasy addled middle-ages to futuristic space-age building. It is literally Heretic meets Doom. The clash apparently comes from John Romero wanting to make a fantasy hand-to-hand combat game, while level designers Tim Willits and American McGee wanted a Doom-like game. Or so the story supposedly goes. That would make a lot of sense since the designs seem to really clash that way.

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Now that New York Comic Con has come and gone, we will now be feeding all of our pics on to this player. We still have more to add seeing as the show is absolutely enormous.

Dead Space put you into the shoes of Isaac Clarke, a name that  references great science fiction of the past. Mainly the writers Isaac Asimov and Author C. Clarke. Everything in this game has a deeper meaning, for instance, Ishimura means Stone Village.

In 2007 EA studios was a company that iterated non-stop on its key franchises to make money. It was not what you would call an innovative company by any means. EA printed money off Madden and The Sims. In September 2007 EA Redwood Shores announced Dead Space a Sci-Fi Horror 3^rd person shooter for the 360 and the PS3.

Isaac Clarke, an engineer from the USG Kellion, is dispatched to investigate the sudden distress signal of the planet cracker ship the USG Ishimura. The Game starts with the fly in and eventually crashes aboard the Ishimura, which leaves our hero and two others to find a way off and home.

The game is claustrophobic as you investigate the ship. Eventually you encounter the games main protagonist, the necromorphs. This is an enemy that jumps out at you at every turn and always when you do not expect them too, and can't be killed by conventional means. You must tear them apart, limbs, heads, legs, tear them in half. To do this you us your arsenal, which consists of basic mining tools.

The game breaths atmosphere, you are fully engaged in the game at all times. Dead Space includes no HUD at all; all necessary information is included on Isaac himself or on his weapons. The games non-playable characters communicate with you through holographic projections that play in front of Isaac  and do not interrupt the game. As is you can be killed watching a cut scene, or checking your health. It makes for an environment where you are always on guard. I have not been this on edge since the first Resident Evil game.

This game is a survival horror game in its truest sense. The ammo is scarce; you are surprised and terrified around every corner. Dead Space has become the measuring stick against which all other survival horror games should be measured going forward.

I don’t even know where to begin with this.  It took me about 45 minutes of solid wait time to get hands-on with the title.  They came in droves out of nowhere thirsting for some play time.  Of course, I’m not complaining (I totally am) no other booth with the exception of maybe the Starcraft tourney was seeing nearly as much action.  I bitched, I moaned, I sighed, and then I smiled.

A booth employee directed me to a claustrophobic space in front of a shwank Samsung LCD, fitted me with equally sexy headphones ,and simply said “enjoy”.  You bet your ass I’m going to enjoy.  I start the game (PS3 version because its apparently sexier?) and it all comes back to me.  The controls feel familiar, secondary fire, stasis, d pad for weapon switch, etc.  As I’m becoming acclimated to the controls, it hits me.  The game is bigger, better, and stronger.

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It only took me 5 minutes on the exhibition floor to make a b line to the first hands on experience of the weekend. I got to take the new Red Dead Redemption DLC, Undead Nightmare for a spin. In this run through you step back into the shoes of John Marston and you stand on the edge of a cemetery on a quintessential dark and stormy night.

Cemetery's are the new gang hideouts and zombies are the new bandits that you need to clear out. I started out with two pistols, double barrel shotgun, and the new blunderbuss, which ends up being my saving grace in this level. Also a torch, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Your mission is to burn the several coffins that are spread out amongst the graves. As you do that, a bunch of the undead begin to harass the crap out of you. Head shots are the only way to take these guys down. I was automatically on the defensive the entire time. Constantly running through the graveyard, zig zagging through graves, and taking pot shots at zombies that were relentlessly pursuing me.

This DLC is great and one that I WILL buy once it becomes available. There is just something about zombies and DLC's....

October is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the fall weather, great seasonal brews, good food, and of course there is Halloween.  Every Friday for the rest of October we will be putting up a post and video describing some of the games that effected us the most. We had a huge list of potential games (13 to be exact), but we managed to cut it down to four games that genuinely terrified us.   In Week 1 we will cover Visceral Games Dead Space.  A master of atmosphere and mood, Dead Space would make John Carpenter quite proud.  Post will be up this Friday with Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Siren Blood Curse to follow.  Trick or treat yo.

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The time has finally come for New York Comic Con.  There is now a dedicated page to all things New York Comic Con on the sidebar.   AGP will be podcasting live from New York City in a seedy Manhattan hotel room.  We will also be bringing you some hands-on impressions of several games on the floor, liveblogs of specific panels, and of course an AGPTV video wrap up on Sunday.  Be sure to keep tabs on our twitter and Facebook page for all updates and shenanigans.

AGP @ NYCC 2010 Page