Videogames Lead to Behavioral Addiction Mike Tyson’s Paparazzi Punch-Out!! Video GameStop Buys Majority Stake in Video Game Digital Distributor Jolt Miyamoto: 3D Isn’t Everything Are You A Video Game Junkie With Mad Writing Skills? Write For Ripten NFL Super Bowl Champion Steelers Connect with Soldiers in Iraq for Guitar Hero Competition

You may remember that we ran a contest last week to promote the release of two new (well, old) Majesco titles on GoG.com. We received around 40 entries, but unfortunately we only have 15 codes to give away. This of course means that we had to choose between you, bringing our collective heart here at Ripten close to breaking point when we realised that we’d have to let 25 of you down.

The winners are as follows: Read more…

Good Old Games, the best place for nostalgia-loving PC gamers, announced the arrival of some brand new old games to their ever-growing catalogue this week; Majesco Entertainment’s Advent Rising and the highly acclaimed Psychonauts. To celebrate, we’re giving 15 Ripten readers the chance to win the game of their choice from GoG.com’s archive of over 160 classic PC games.

All you have to do is register for a free account here at Ripten and post a comment in the comments section below. Let us know which game you’d like from the library of games at GoG.com and a brief explanation why.

It really is that simple, folks! Just remember, you can’t win if you don’t register for an account here at Ripten. We’ll pick the winners on Monday, November 9, so you’ve got plenty of time to think of a game you’d like to add to your collection. All winners will be contacted through the email they used when registering.

Update: The competition is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! Here is the post outlining the winners!

I recently got a chance to test out the Volo Pro V Gamer 100 and 200 series HDMI cables, and at first I didn’t know what the difference was. After inquiring, I was told the 200 is a thicker gauge of cable and has a metal housing at the end, therefore offering more protection. To test this, I threw both cables down the stairs and then ran both of them over with my minivan, and they both still worked fine afterwards (though the paint job on the metal housing looked worse than the slightly scratched plastic on the Pro V 100).

I didn’t see much of a difference in picture quality between the two, before or after their “accidents”. They both look better than the generic HDMI cable I had previously, though not significantly, and HDMI cables in general look better than component (and everything else). Overall, I was impressed with the 10-foot-long Volo cables and kept them hooked up to my 360.

Now if you have a PS3 or an Xbox 360 and you aren’t using HDMI cables, you aren’t getting the most out of your gaming system. HDMI is, after all, the cable of choice for Jesus himself. Don’t worry, though — Ripten has got you covered! We’ve teamed up with TRU Company to send out 25 of their Pro V Gamer cables specifically designed for gaming consoles. All you have to do to enter the contest is Read more…

So for the past week & a half, we’ve been holding a contest over on Twitter to give away an Xbox 360 andBut  a copy of Sacred 2. Plenty of you entered, but to my dismay, only one of you guys can win. I wish I could give everyone that entered an Xbox 360, but if I could do that, I probably wouldn’t be writing for Ripten, and I’d probably have a trail of cops behind me trying to recorder the 100-odd Xboxes that suddenly went missing from my local game store. But enough of my rambling, the winner of the Sacred 2/Xbox 360 contest is…

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The console versions of Sacred 2 came out about two months ago, and while it’s recieved pretty decent reviews, a lot of people haven’t played it, or just didn’t have the chance to. Maybe you couldn’t afford the game’s $60 price tag. That’s understandable. Maybe you just don’t have a console to play it on. That’s also understandable, too. But we here at Ripten aim to remedy both of those situations, by giving away an Xbox 360, a copy of Sacred 2, and some swag for it!

Hit the jump to see how you can get your hands on this prize.

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Big thanks to Pepsi and Harmonix for sending us this 1 of 30 limited edition Rock Band guitars designed by artist Matt Moore. Ripten’s guitar is the Xbox 360 version and numbered 22 of 30. You can enter to win it below by leaving a comment (one per reader) and telling us why you think you should win. Our editors and myself will review the submissions and pick a winner by midnight next Saturday.

In addition to the guitar you can win right here, Pepsi and Harmonix are teaming up for a Drink Up, Rock Out summer promotion. Submit a Rock Band music video of yourself and enter to win an MTV Video Music Award Moonman for “Best Performance in a Pepsi Rock Band Music Video”. If you want a little more immediate gratification, check under the caps of Pepsi bottles for a chance to win one of 5,000 Rock Band downloadable tracks and other cool prizes between now and September 13, 2009.

Drink Pepsi and rock out with your coc…err web cam out.

*gasp* Man, that title is a mouthful.

The second Call of Duty: World at War (seriously, I refuse to call it Call of Duty 5.) map pack just hit, and while presumably thousands of people are having fun with it right now, you might’ve just hoped it would hit the proverbial online bargain bin soon enough, even though it’s a measly $10. Well, now you don’t have to, because we at Ripten are giving away 5 PS3 codes and 5 Xbox 360 codes for the map pack.

Of course, we can’t just give them to you. That would be crazy! No siree- but you can hit the jump to see what you can do to win a code.

(header image by AgentMOO. Play his game, yo!)
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If you remember with our last contest, I promised we’d have another one soon enough, and here it is- Ripten’s giving you a chance to win a free code for the Halo Wars Flaming Warthog! But this definitely won’t be the last contest we hold- the prizes will only get better with time, mon frêre. This code was only available for those that preordered Halo Wars. Of course, the last method of contest entry was a disaster, and since this is such a trivial prize, I figure the method of entry should be trivial as well. Hit the jump to see how you can get your hands on this code.

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[Congratulations DarksideClassic! Shoot me an email at demi@ripten.com and I'll send you your code pronto! For everyone else, stay tuned to Ripten, as we'll be sure to have another contest soon, but this time, with a different method of entry. :) - Demi A.]

Although the average human attention span is less than that of a retarded meerkat, Halo 3 seems to have held its own extremely well in the year and a half that it’s been out. Even now, with a multitude of different FPSes, TPSes, and Halo Wars, Halo 3 is pretty popular amongst Xbox Live members, despite the fact that its maps are pretty limited.

We here at Ripten aim to fix that problem, by holding a contest in which you can win the brand new Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack! The map pack contains three maps- Assembly, Orbital and Sandbox, and a brand new Forge experience (you can start on a blank slate!) for more thrilling multiplayer action.

As of now, the Map Pack hasn’t been officially released, and the only way to get a code for the maps is through the Halo Wars Limited Edition. But, thanks to Microsoft and Ron “Greybush” Workman, we’ve got a code for one lucky reader out there. Hit the jump to learn how you can win!
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Looks like Ripten readers love them some PS3 exclusives, because Metal Gear Solid 4 put down Little Big Planet by a razor thin margin to win The Ripten Readers Game of 2008. Thank you all for your well thought out and fun comments, you guys really did do us proud and just reassured us that we have the best readers on the entire internets.

Congrats to you, Cody Segraves for winning our best comment contest for your well thought out explanation of your admiration for Valve’s Left 4 Dead, you’ve won a 60 buck game of your choice.  Also, congrats to DavidGX for coming in second place, and yes, I know we were only supposed to pick one prize winner, but we liked your impassioned comment about Gears 2’s chainsaw bayonet so much we decided to pull together and send you a used copy of The History Channel Presents: Civil War: A Nation Divided for the Xbox 360.  Thousands of bayonets for a bayonet aficionado!

Cody Segraves and DavidGX, email your mailing addresses to Jzungre@ripten.com to collect your games.

Would I like to win an Xbox 360 console?? Sure!! Wait, what the hell do Super Mario and Yoshi have to do with an Xbox 360? This appears to be a University campus message board, so let’s hope the person who made this isn’t an advertising major. Sheesh.

Source: flickr.com

Valve have announced an official contest today entitled “Dude, Where’s My Thumb?” that challenges budding zombie hunters to take a photo of themselves in front of one of the many advertisements for the game (in London, New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area). Read more…

If you were anything like me, your favorite movie growing up was (is?) the original Star Wars Trilogy. In fact, even if you aren’t anything like me at all you probably love the original Star Wars movies. As a result, you get a lot of crazy fan art like homemade storm trooper outfits and, you know, Lego Han Solo in carbonite.

One Star Wars fan decided to go green and make his own TIE Fighter out of Starbucks garbage. Using stirrers for the skeleton, ribbed cardboard for the two outside panels and a cut-up coffee lid for the front of the cockpit, Star Wars fan Dan Winters has made a pretty fancy looking replica. “Pew pew!” sound effects not included.

As a result of Dan’s ingeniuty, Wired.com is also starting a contest to see who can make the coolest stuff using only Starbucks materials. Don’t let this dude show you up; save the environment and your money by making your own toys. Grab some cardboard cups and get cracking.

Source: Wired.com

Have something you think we should show on Geeked-Out? Email it to us.

We here at Ripten love our community- almost to the point where it’s illegal, really. But while we’re standing at a minimal 500 yard distance, the least we can do is give you free stuff, right?

Earlier in the day, USA Today ran a contest in which the first 15,000 people to email them would receive a beta key. Unfortunately for those who didn’t see the post in time, the codes were extinguished in a matter of minutes.

Luckily for you, we’ve got two keys to give away! Hit the jump to see how you can be entered for a chance to win a LBP beta key. Read more…

First off I want to thank everyone for their patience. This was a very hard decision to make and it involved much discussion internally. In the end we decided that the art would be awarded to the person we believed showcased that they were the biggest Mega Man fan. Read more…

I wanted to get an update out to everyone who entered the Mega Man sketch contest. We will be reviewing the entries made before the contest deadline and deciding on a winner shortly. Thank you for entering.

Chad-

There you have it. E3 is over and here is the list of all the swag I got for the “win my swag” contest:

• Bottle Nuka-Cola and a pretty sick Fallout 3 viewfinder (courtesy of Bethesda)
• Legendary comic book (courtesy of Spark Unlimited)
• Gamecock socks, Gamecock shirt, and Gamecock bottle opener.
• Full version of Spore Creature Creator and EA Notebook (courtesy of EA)
• Microsoft Xbox 360 laptop skins (courtesy of Microsoft)
• X-Blades poster (courtesy of SouthPeak Interactive)
• Left4Dead breath mints (courtesy of Valve)
• Tecmo Bowl foam finger (courtesy of Tecmo)
• a few other pins and posters.

The winner of the contest will be announced tomorrow, so check back then, because I have to get rid of this stuff before my girlfriend sees the mess I made.

HEY. You there. Reader. Fancy yourself an artist? Do you like BioShock? If so, 2K Games has got a deal for you.

Now is your chance to win some sweet customized BioShock swag in honor of the release of the PS3 version of the deep sea dystopian adventure. Hit the jump for details on this awesome contest. Read more…

Dilbert points out that overlords can be menacing yet fashionable

Do you feel like a mindless minion at work, slaving away for the glory of your overlord boss? Well, you may be able to get something for those months or years of drudgery. How does a PlayStation 3 sound?

Codemasters is searching for a real-life Overlord in a contest to promote the upcoming Overlord: Raising Hell for the PS3. The game arrives in Europe on June 20th and in North America on the 24th. Read more…

You know, we appreciate our readers sooo much, that we got to thinking recently. What can we give them that would really show them how much we care? The Sun? The stars? How about the Moon? Read more…