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If you remember the 80s, there’s a good chance you spent some quality time with Konami’s Castlevania for the NES. You probably also had a cool Sony Walkman and ate lots of spooky Ghostbusters cereal while watching He-Man cartoons on the TV in your brightly colored Jams, but that’s not the point of this article.

Thanks to modder and YouTube user, M0rtanius, you can play the classic 2D side scroller in glorious Half-Life 2 3D. Get a glimpse of the level in the video below and download the mod here if you’re interested. Read more…

Yes, this is as brilliant as is sounds. This mod, made by user “-Trase-”, does exactly as it says on the tin- replaces all the sounds (well, nearly all) with sound clips he’s recorded himself. I particularly like the machine-gun fire noises he’s made.

This is why I love modding communities so much. It’s not often you play a game where the guns literally go “pow” and the bombs literally go “ka-pow”. The mod also works in Garry’s Mod, so you can play around with the sounds all you like. You could listen to those incredibly satisfying submachine-gun or shotgun noises forever and ever.

Via RPS

To those of you who haven’t picked up The Orange Box in some form or another, shame on you. Now’s your best chance, as The Orange Box is on sale this weekend for 66% off. That’s a measly $10 for Half-Life 2, Episodes One and Two, the glorious Portal, and the love of Sam Naylor’s life, Team Fortress 2. That’s $2 a game! Hop on Steam and buy it now! If you remain unconvinced after all of my yelling, check out our review of the, in my opinion, inferior Xbox 360 port of The Orange Box.

Mod DB have announced their mods of the year today, with both editor-chosen and player-voted categories. This year’s player’s choice award has gone to Project Reality, a mod that changes Battlefield 2 into a more realistic and complete experience. Hit the just for the full list of winners.
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Researchers at the University of Rochester have surveyed 2,670 frequent game players, as well and over 300 undergraduates, and found that violent content has no real effect on the appeal of a game. Using Half-Life 2 and a dev kit, the researchers made two scenarios for the participants: a “violent” one where the player had to kill things with a shotgun, and a “non-violent” on where psychic powers were used to do the same thing, although it was “more like a game of tag” than a deathmatch.

Guess what? The groups had no real difference; there’s very little to suggest that increasing violence increases enjoyment. The lead researched adds that this should be noted by game developers: making a game more violent won’t necessarily make it more fun.

Of course, violence is still fun- if, for example, Left 4 Dead’s zombies simply disappeared as opposed to tearing apart in a bloody mess, I’m sure there would be plenty of complaints. Likewise, the VATS messiness in Fallout 3 certainly adds something to the game. Still, the researchers have it on the nose- good game first, violence second.

Metronews via Kotaku.

We continue our countdown of the Top 10 Nicest Asses in Videogames today with our number 9 pick. Recognize that rear? Like all the entries in this list, please be aware that there may be some NSFW content inside. Read more…

Two weeks time, nearly 50 hours of labor intensive paper crafting precision, and what do you get? A 12-inch high papercraft replica of Half Life 2’s D0g. The work is that of 4chan.org user, chamoo232.

Great work, but I really want to see a full size, ten foot version, strong enough to pick up large objects like cars, dumpsters, and Dennis Dyack’s ego. I kid, I kid.

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

Source: 4chan.org (via: qj.net)

A couple days ago, we reported that Valve would be showing the next Half-Life installment at this year’s E3. It wasn’t just us, either. The internet was abuzz with the story. Well, now it looks like that isn’t true. Read more…

Nvidia and Valve have joined forces and to kick it off they’re handing out exclusive games to Nvidia users. Read more…

A demo of Half Life 2: Episode 2 has hit the Xbox Live Marketplace. There’s no excuse for not trying out this beauty now, and maybe just maybe the demo will tempt you into buying The Orange Box this weekend. Details about the demo after the link. Read more…