Play You Can Have What Ever You Like

Zynga just added another game to their Zynga with Friends series called Scramble with Friends. If you've ever played Boggle, it's basically the same thing, but is dedicated to playing your buddies just like Words with Friends or Hanging with Friends. Chances are you've alread ...more

Halloween is just a few days away, and since I've been churning out the creepy Bingo of the Days for everyone the past few weeks, it seems fitting to do a puzzle based on them. Too bad today isn't Friday the 13th! That will have to wait until 2017. The Challenge Take a look ...more

Bingo! No, this isn't the game where balls fly around in machines and players dab their cards with daubers. In a game of Scrabble, bingo refers to the bonus a player receives when emptying their rack in one turn, which gets them an extra 50 points on top of whatever their play ...more

Scrabble has invaded just about every medium out there. It started as a mere board game, but has since spawned numerous board game spinoffs and variations, an electronic version, mobile apps for just about anything (Android, iPhone, iPhone, iPad and Kindle), games for both PC ...more

Video games are one of the best non-medical things that have ever happened to sick children. They are stimulating, entertaining and require very little physical strength to play, which makes them perfect for those suffering physical maladies. In 2003, the ambitious and creati ...more

Japanese game shows are legendary for being more extreme (and absurd) than their American counterparts. Chris Farley immortalized the concept in a classic SNL sketch, and MXC and Ninja Warrior have both achieved great success dubbed and subtitled on American television. A big ...more

World of Warcraft has been on top of the world for seven years. No other MMO has come close to challenging its dominance of the genre, and it has generated billions of dollars for Blizzard. They have spent a lot of money adding more and more content, to the extent where the fu ...more

Advancements in technology usually lead to the miniaturization of old technologies, and video games are no exception. Since at least 1990, game hardware manufacturers and enterprising DIY electronics enthusiasts have poured their efforts into making full-size video game consol ...more

Death is tough for the living, and those who mourn do all sorts of odd things to cope with it. Some keep mementos, some build towering statues, others create memorial paintings or write sad songs, all of which are healthy in moderation. Honoring the dead has been around for so ...more

Do you ever really know someone? I mean really really? Super really? Sometimes we can talk and be with people normally for years and then bam: five people dead, house on fire, dog missing. All the while people shake their heads and regret that if they had just put the little ...more

In 2008, Audiosurf came out on Steam, creating the psychedelic music game genre. If you haven't played it in the intervening three years, you're missing out on one of the coolest things in video games. The player selects any MP3 on their computer, then the game builds a unique ...more

Sticking with our theme of XBLA games with uninspiring names, we have Outland. This game shares its name with an unrelated sci-fi cult film from 1981, unrelated comic strip from the '90s, and unrelated region in World of Warcraft. Didn't exactly try hard to build name recognit ...more

When you grab a video game off the shelves, finding love is probably not your end goal. Most games focus on letting the player shoot guys, order other guys to shoot guys, or build houses. Mass Effect 2 comes closer than most titles to offering virtual romance, but the relation ...more

Fads, Fiascos and Good Stuff in FrontierVille This WeekThis is the first of what should, with luck, be a series of weekly columns.Fads firstIt’s St. Patrick’s Day in FrontierVille and it looks like staying that way for the foreseeable future, which will probably be about ten d ...more

The joys of summer are many! If you, like me, live in a place where the summer is short, you’re going to want to maximize your fun in the sun by doing as many awesome things as possible before the sun goes back to wherever the hell it hibernates during the cold and dark times. ...more

Where were you in 1993? Thinking about starting a tech company? Starting elementary school? Awaiting a 1996 Daft Punk party after which you would be conceived? It's been eighteen years, but the game that solidified my dorkdom for good is still coming out with new sets, still f ...more

L4D2: Chapter two - The Underground "Ok explain something to me, how is an under-the-river tour scenic?" - Nick The second chapter(out of 3) of the Passing DLC is The Underground.  The goal is to go though a passage under the river to reach the bridge generator on the other ...more

Get a little perspective on FarmVille hysteria, via FarmVille World, written by tenebrism: Did you know it only took five weeks to make FarmVille?  That it currently has over 80,000,000 users?  That FarmVille farmers outnumber real farmers in the United States by a ration of ...more

Did you know it only took five weeks to make FarmVille?  That it currently has over 80,000,000 users?  That FarmVille farmers outnumber real farmers in the United States by a ration of 80 to 1? Crazy, right? And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  There's plenty of other od ...more

Yesterday, Mojang announced their next video game project 0x10c, and the response has been tremendous. Discussions have covered everything from the math mystery over the game's name, to creating projects that interpret the assembly instruction code the in-game computers use (m ...more

Have you often wondered how to brighten up your underground farm or base? Are you depressed when you look in your underground dirt-filled garden to realize that it lacks a certain something? In this tutorial, I will show you a few tips on how to get grass to actually grow unde ...more

So... The MPAA, who are (obviously) in favor of SOPA, are crying about how the anti-SOPA blackouts are being caused by the ''big corporations'' and any who support it are apparently turning into pawns of said corporations. OK, let's forget about just how much fecal matter the ...more

Stan Parker StanDP~"Avid PC Enthusiast Since 1982..." ...OH Yes "AND First & Foremost; Husband Ot A Unique and Lovely Wife, & Stay at Home Dad With (Our Cats Of 6 Years) Polli aka "Miss Mississippi", "Polli-D", Manxi aka "Lounge Lizard", Manxi-D, Mrs. Loe Manxi, Mrs. Manx" K ...more

Leather Goddesses of Phobos Leather Goddesses of Phobos was one of the most suggestive text adventure games ever developed. The sarcasm-rich sci-fi parody allowed gamers to choose their genders and interact with other characters within the game. The game is known for its diff ...more

CUCURBIT n pl. -S a gourd 64 points (14 points without the bingo) Halloween is just around the corner, and by now most of you have already picked up a CUCURBIT to gut and carve scary faces into. Yes, that jack-o-lantern decorating your doorstep for all of the trick-or-treate ...more

University video game design programs have been spreading like wildfire around the world over the last ten years. They allow students, researchers and game developers to work on their craft in an academic environment away from the harsh realities of the market, and have led to ...more

The Humble Indie Bundle has become like an unpredictable little gamer Christmas. It helps indie developers get their games exposure, helps gamers get cheap DRM-free games via the most user-friendly online purchasing process ever, and helps the world at large by raising money f ...more

Games have been getting shorter in length over the last decade. RPGs like The Elder Scrolls series are still tremendously long, but most single-player game experiences have gotten shorter as production values, costs, and manpower requirements to create them have gone up. It se ...more

This week's FIGRR is all about games that are old-new (or new-old, if you like) school. Each celebrates a different vital, yet largely taken for granted, aspect of video game history in the decidedly new-school world of indie games. Their titles betray them. Blocks That Matter ...more

MACHZOR 73 points (23 points without the bingo) Definition: mahzor; a Jewish prayer book [n] If you ever get stuck with a rack like ZORCHAM, you might be prompted to lay something down like CHAM or CHROMA, which could both get you some pretty big points, but knowing this muc ...more

Dead Island is known for having the most successful trailer of any game ever. It was a beautiful cinematic experience. But sadly, as details of the game itself emerged, and after it was shown at conventions around the world, doubt began to set in about whether this five-year-l ...more

We've all seen FOX News commentators get worked up about silly non-issues. It occurs more than we'd like, but what happened last week on popular morning show FOX and Friends was not only a misleading and pointless attack on video games, it was an unintelligible attack on a med ...more

Like a great acting performance, making a really good game is all about choices. While creating or playing a game, those involved have to constantly make small choices that will affect the outcome, either positively or negatively. And the only thing worse than choosing wrongly ...more

Studio Ghibli is the most well known anime feature film studio in the world. For over 26 years, their films have represented the peak of mainstream anime, and since Disney began distributing their films in America back in 1997, they've become a household name here in the State ...more

Shadows of the Dammed (360/PS3) is a polarizing game. It's not shy of being crass and crude. Go ahead and judge the game by the following examples (click to enlarge): The game is a giant penis joke. This is an official trailer for the game.. Now, with what you have seen, choos ...more

Stuck in a relationship that is going nowhere? Do you wake up and it's nine years later and nothing has changed? Do you also dream of sheep? You know, in the non erotic sense? Well welcome to Catherine, a puzzle game of non-commitment and text messaging. The story is simple. ...more

Electronic Arts is the biggest game publisher in the world, and have been for years. And yet, their only successful internally developed games nowadays are the EA Sports mega-franchises like Madden. Most of their success has stemmed from their ability to buy other companies on ...more

Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is one of the best multiplayer games of all time. It took nine years to make, and the developers have supported it with more post-release free updates than any other game ever. Four years after its release in 2007, it is still immensely popular, and altho ...more

Playing Super Mario Brothers for the NES is the first thing I can ever remember doing, at age 3 sitting on the carpet at my grandparents' house. It was a special game for an entire generation, including British youths Andrej and Adam Zamoyski. It inspired them to eventually be ...more

In December 2009, Angry Birds was released to the public. The iPhone and iPod touch were the first to take on the demand, then a devoted HD version for the iPad. Since then, it's transcended iOS devices to appear on Android, Nokia, Palm phones, and many others. Next, it broke ...more

The days of having to pay for video games are over. Generally, retail games are better because they're made with more effort and care than their free counterparts. But free browser-based game sites are insanely popular, specifically Kongregate, Armor Games, and the grandaddy o ...more

Two new and radically different ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) have burst into the news in the last week, and illustrate the very best of an innovative phenomenon: the commercial tie-in ARG, and the public service ARG. After video games grew beyond "fad phase" and entered the ...more

Great controls are the most important and difficult part of game design. Games with vector graphics and non-existent stories are classics because their creators managed to create a system where using buttons to control a shape on a screen was intuitive and fun. This is the tra ...more

One of the creepiest musical instruments ever is undoubtedly the theremin, a device originating from the early 20s that emits eerie sounds with a just a wave of the hand. If you've seen the original movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, you know what I mean—freakishly creepy. P ...more

Buy, buy, buy. Buy this, buy that. Many wizards are buying crowns and earning or buying gold points to buy an in-game item. I, myself am saving up for the Great Fortress, a giant 50,000 coin Dragonsyre house. But right now, I still have to face the hideous greyed-out Buy butto ...more

This is one of the easiest and best computer pranks ever invented. It's simple to do, and works great. This prank causes all of the icons on the desktop to be unclickable, as well as the start bar. 1. At your desktop, close all windows if any are open, and press Print Screen/ ...more

Yes. That's right. The 2010 National SCRABBLE Championship (NSC) is almost here. In fact, it starts in less than 2 weeks! And if you were lucky enough to register for the competitions, you could win a first place prize of $10,000! This years events will be held on August 7–11 ...more

From Major Nelson, Xbox 360's spokeperson: Kinect Pricing: Existing Xbox 360 owners can purchase Kinect and Kinect Adventures for $149.99 (U.S. ERP). Remember, Kinect will work with every Xbox 360 ever made. Xbox 360 4GB Console: The new Xbox 360 4GB Console includes built i ...more

Keanu Reeves is a really good actor and I'm not even kidding Pity the fate of the blank-faced man or: Why you need to rewatch Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Somewhere along the line, around about the time Pacino, De Niro, Brando and Hoffman and Hackman and Eastwood were int ...more

Picked up Metro 2033 from the Steam Sale. Wow is it pretty. At 1080p with DX11 and gorgeously detailed, it's hard to not stop and stare at every single thing! I wish there was a way to somehow convey this feeling.. Something like that. Beside the amazingly detailed texture wo ...more

The famed chessmaster Capablanca was once asked how many moves ahead he saw when playing a game of chess. His answer? "I see only one move ahead, but it is ALWAYS the right move." Such confidence! How did he get it? Cognitive scientists and neurologists have long been fascina ...more

So the fiance and I cannot imagine spending upwards of $500 on a DJ for our wedding when we have tons of perfectly good music on our computers. And the cross-fade feature... Genius! I'm a little bit nervous about leaving our dancing fates up to the iTunes gods, but apractical ...more

What's the highest score you ever achieved in one SCRABBLE game? 500? 600? 700? I think Plantation, Florida resident Robert Kahn has you beat. On March 3rd at the Lauderhill, FL SCRABBLE Club #276, Kahn scored an impressive 801 points. Amazingly, he did not break the record f ...more

Grab your thinking caps and get your hack on. Null Byte is officially seeking contributors on a weekly basis who are willing to take the time to educate the Null Byte community on anything, from hardware hacks to life hacks. Contributors that write tutorials will be featured o ...more

Have you ever noticed that whenever you setup your voicemail account after getting a new cell phone number, it asks you to create a security pin to access your voicemail from other phone lines? When you call your home or cell number from another phone, after a few rings your ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our tutorials, post to the community corkboard, and come play on our free server! Weekly Challenge: Week 3 Though these Weekly Challenges are not required, they were created in order to help our builders on the server get out of any arti ...more

We're officially seeking Null Byters on a weekly basis who are willing to take the time to educate the community. Contributors will write tutorials, which will be featured on the Null Byte blog, as well as the front page of WonderHowTo (IF up to par, of course). There is no ne ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our tutorials, post to the community corkboard, and come play on our free server! Weekly Challenge: Week 2 Though Weekly Challenges are not required, they were created in order to help our builders on the server get out of that artistic ...more