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Time: Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 at 5:00PM PST
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Just when you thought you were free from zombie-related videogames, Housemarque comes along and creates an awesome shooter that will be available on PSN this Tuesday. Tune in to Game Night at 5pm PST tomorrow and see the first few levels of Dead Nation as we work on dispatching hordes of zombies with a variety of weapons. For a primer, read our Dead Nation review.

THQ to announce 'one core Kinect game soon' originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

VIEW SLIDESHOW: Taste Test: Apple Sauce

Apple sauce is big with those in highchairs, nursing homes, and latke eaters. With Hanukkah starting at sundown on Wednesday, we decided to have an apple sauce tasting—it was either that or sour cream. Though we prefer the from-scratch kind, sometimes you just don't have the time or stovetop space to boil apples and deal with peels, especially when there are potato pancakes to worry about! We were curious, are there any good store-bought jarred ones out there? How do they compare in terms of sweetness, tartness, and chunkiness? We tried 11 brands—find out which placed in the top five.

• Flavor: Slightly sweet but balanced with tartness. Fresh-tasting, like it came from crisp tree-picked apples.
• Texture: Smooth but not so thin that it's closer to apple juice than sauce. Not reminiscent of Gerber baby food mush. It should have some heft and texture; small apple bits are nice.

• Gefen Kosher
• Eden Organic
• Vermont Organic
• Santa Cruz Organic
• Northeast McIntosh
• Trader Joe's Unsweetened Gravenstein
• Mott's
• TreeTop
• Whole Foods 365 Organic Unsweetened
• Musselman's
• Wild Harvest Organic

Too bland—were there even apples in there? Sometimes you really couldn't tell. Some were so watery and smooth, they ran all over our plates. Others were too grainy and mealy.

With enough West Coast transplants in the office, we couldn't ignore TreeTop*. Widely available up and down California, this is what many tasters grew up on. Perhaps an apple sauce cognition theory should be applied here, a la pizza cognition theory? Such would state: the first apple sauce a child sees and tastes, becomes, for him, apple sauce. But it was undeniably the favorite, even for those who don't hail from the TreeTop motherland out west.

It seems silly to describe apple sauce as apple-y, but this was the most reminiscent of fresh-picked fall orchard apples. The texture was also pleasant: not mealy or grainy, nor watery.

* We actually special-ordered Tree Top from their Washington state headquarters since it's nowhere to be found near our New York City office. The jar was only $1.95 but the shipping and handling on the other hand, well, ten times that.

See how the rest did in the slideshow above »

Maple Vanilla Apple Sauce »
Mario Batali's Apple Sauce »
Chunky Pear Apple Sauce »

• Chicken Stock »
  
• Frozen Pie Crusts »
  
• Chicken Stock »
  
• Root Beer »
  
• Microwavable Popcorn »
  
• Kettle-Cooked Potato Chips »
  
• The Best Chocolate Chips for Chocolate Chip Cookies »

A lot of unanswered questions lingered after Attachmate announced that it has negotiated an agreement to acquire Linux vendor Novell earlier this month. The company has since issued official statements to clear up several notable points of concern. Attachmate intends to continue developing the SUSE platform and will support the community-driven openSUSE project. The company has also confirmed that it has retained the UNIX copyrights, the intellectual property at the heart of the SCO dispute.

Although some of Novell's business decisions proved unpopular among Linux enthusiasts, the company made a strong effort to foster an independent community around its platform. Novell formed the openSUSE project in 2005 with the aim of making SUSE development more inclusive. The effort has evolved considerably over the past few years, attracting a modest number of contributors. After the adoption of a more open governance model in 2008, openSUSE has gradually gained greater autonomy from Novell, while still working closely with the company.

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Toy Soldiers: The Morality of Real War Games Our look at the troubling topic of fun videogames depicting real warfare.

By: Anthony John Agnello

War is the most obvious subject matter available to game designers. Its inherent components -- conflict, change, and violence -- make for engaging rules. If the first pleasure of a game is to make something outside yourself move, then the second is to see that object affect the digital world. One dot projects a second dot at a third dot. The second dot makes the third dot disappear; the first dot is a victor. Our imaginations give the abstract action context based on the familiar. The first dot "shoots" the second dot while the third dot "dies." We see the human conflict between them. When those dots multiply, we see war. Benjamin Busch -- actor, writer and an infantryman in the United States Marine Corps who served two tours in the ongoing war in Iraq -- sees war as a natural subject matter to create meaning for the dots bouncing on our screens. "War is the most dramatic human based event, and it is inherently centered on a contest of distinct opponents making it an ideal subject for gaming. Combat appeals to both our dark animal nature and a strict military order so it combines both chaos and structure in extremity."

Digital Foundry pops the hood on Gran Turismo 5 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.