One decade ago, Konami left a neoteric imprint on the survival horror genre with Silent Hill, a video game that would inspire a number of future titles, a movie, and several books and comics. But Harry Mason’s investigation into the fog-covered town and its strange occurrences accomplished more than just a household name among the likes of Resident Evil. The heart-pounding adrenaline rush introduced gamers to a nightmare founded on psychological Japanese horror and an equally unnerving musical score by composer Akira Yamaoka.

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It’s Wednesday and time again for more Xbox Live Arcade titles to be rolled out. This week’s releases include Square Enix’s Death by Cube and Konami’s Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment. With Death by Cube adding a little depth to its speediness and Vandal Hearts adding speed to its in-depth tactics-rpg gameplay, this week’s releases will be sure to leave you a little light in the pockets.

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Over the past few years the FIFA series has been the soccer game of choice. Ever since EA’s recommitment to realism in the series, Konami has had a tough time keeping up with them. With every title released the PES series has felt more and more dated. Whether they were content with sticking to a proven formula created many years ago or whether they just couldn’t find a way to bring life back into the series, Pro Evolution Soccer has failed to deliver year after year. Going into PES 2010, Konami promised an overhaul of many features and in some aspects they have been successful. Graphically this is the best looking title in the series. In terms of game modes, Master League has never been better and they put the official UEFA Champions League license to great use; however with every couple of steps forward PES 2010 takes there is always something that makes them go back a step.

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Sometimes I go to bed thinking about Big Boss. I know I shouldn’t, but the man haunts me. He is so much machismo. So much manly dominance. He is testosterone. Thus you can imagine my delight seeing the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker demo heading to the PSN this week. It boasts the four missions seen at E3, is in English, and is ready right now.

For those unfamiliar, Peace Walker is the follow up to Portable Ops, the first venture on to the PSP for the venerable series. It stars arguably the baddest of the snakes, Naked, and has been called Kojima’s baby and a true sequel (to possibly my favorite installment).

I just wish The Boss were here to witness this. I miss her so. /salute

Download it here and copy the NPUH90066 folder to GAME folder on your PSP’s memory stick. Happe Snaking!

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The talented composer Akira Yamaoka has left Konami after working on their various soundtracks for sixteen years. Yamaoka was best known for his work on the Silent Hill series, both the internally-developed titles and those handled outside of Konami’s studios. Yamaoka also released an album of some of his original recordings shortly after working on the Silent Hill movie.

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Scene it? Twilight is the latest in the Twilight-banking escapades with a gameplan to hit 13 year old girl’s women of all ages’ Christmas stockings across America. Releasing this week (November 24th) for the Wii and Nintendo DS, Scene It? Twilight will test players on their memory of lines from the theatrical release, movie clips, and knowledge of the characters. There doesn’t seem to be any relation to the novels. I think it’d make a great gift for Wii owners to play for Christmas, especially with fans hitting their peak over New Moon just recently taking over the box office for the year. Apparently according to the news, there are more Twilight fans than Batman fans! The Twilight Saga’s New Moon trounced The Dark Knight in box office sales.

Check out the gallery of screenshots from the game below.

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A few months ago, an ESRB rating for what appeared to be a PSP port of the PC and PS2 adventure game Shadow of Destiny popped up, leaving many to wonder how long it would be until Konami made an official announcement.  Well, that day is today, as Konami has revealed Shadow of Destiny PSP will arrive in North America in 2010.

The game has an unusual premise. The main character, Eike, must use  special time travel device to solve his own murder.  As a result, you will journey throughout time, always cognizant of the fact that changes to the past will have important influences on the future.  With interesting puzzles and multiple endings, this is definitely a title to look forward to!

Check out a gallery of screens after the break.

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It wasn’t very long ago when I was sitting at work talking to customers about their gaming experiences. I was still stuck in the PS2/Gamecube era, and the folks I conversed with had told me about amazing experiences with their Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 systems. I’ve lived through several next-generation conversions, though to my knowledge the more recent hardware changes offered little more than graphical enhancements. My interest in Sony’s six-hundred dollar machine was piqued when I heard stories of games with far-out mechanics and non-traditional presentation. When I made my purchase and dived into familiar genres, I wasn’t too impressed. It wasn’t until I picked up a few key titles that I was truly sold on what next-generation meant. These five games are the ones that sold me on the premise of next-generation gaming.

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It’s not every day that you come across a song that cleverly weaves the venerable Konami code within a sweet love song. Indie band The Motion Sick did just that, and caught my attention while I was perusing the track list on my latest Dance Dance Revolution purchase, DDR X. Intrigued, I made it my goal to track down the creators of this quirky yet adorable love song, “30 Lives”, thinking that if they created a clever song such as this, it must follow that the members were gamers. Vocalist and band member Michael Epstein was kind enough to answer a few of my questions as well as offer up some juicy tidbits of his gaming history. Get ready to spend some time with one-fourth of The Motion Sick!

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Atomic Games hasn’t been doing too well. Unable to find a new publisher or any source of funding and possibly lacking a creative director, the Six Days in Fallujah developer has been forced to reduce its 75-member staff by laying off an undisclosed number of employees, Gamasutra reports.

In a press release, Atomic Games blamed the current low sales of the market and controversy for its inability to find a publisher for Six Days in Fallujah, a third-person shooter based on the real Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004. It’s received criticism and calls for bans from both soldiers and civilians alike, even though some in the military feel that this could be a useful tool to assist those in the States in understanding the situation in Iraq. Atomic Games has worked with ex-Marines, but that hasn’t helped extinguish the fire.

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