Sure you know that human battle fleets have engaged the deadly Bydo Empire in the latest R-Type Command for PSP, but why take our word for it?

So together with Atlus, we called upon Shackers to ghost write reviews of the demo, but given the new territory we decided maybe an outside perspective from another video game would be the ideal. And hey, let's award some prizes for it too, shall we?

• Ctlaltl33t drops Link in new territory
• Wytefang pities the poor pew pew pew
• Romsteady breaks it down to the basics

... Read more

The second season of Telltale's downloadable adventure series Sam & Max recently concluded (There's a demo for Episode 5 up on FileShack), so we asked Shackers to come up with the best joke after we provided you with an image as the setup.

You guys went hammer and tongs at making jokes and here's the full results from this contest. The big question is though, were who were our favorite three?

There were lots of great entries, and arguments can be made for many but in the end, here our the ShackStaff's top picks. ... Read more

GarageGames has asked us to remind everyone that voting for the second wave of the Shacknews Fallen Empire: Legions Photoshop contest ends today.

As with the first wave, five winners will receive access to the closed beta for the Tribes spiritual sequel. The beta is currently underway for select InstantAction users, and is expanding every week.

Thus far, this contest is the only way to guarantee beta access!

Voting is simple: just browse all the entries and respond over at the InstantAction blog with the number of your favorite. Currently, rodein is in the lead with his entry.

Telltale Games is verging upon the exciting climax of Sam & Max Season 2, the episodic adventure game for PC. Humor is pretty much the hallmark of the series, all the way back to it's comic book roots. Well, humor and a tenuously sane hyperkinetic rabbit...thing.

So for the latest contest here at Shacknews, we would like to ask you to create a little bit of that magic yourself with some help from us. That is the humor of course, not so much of the rabbit thing.

The fine people at Telltale have been so good as to provide you with the setting for your joke and punchline, along with a few prizes for your efforts. All you have to do is take the above setup image and edit it to include a joke and punch line.

Post the results in the comments to this article as a jpeg file. You have until Saturday, April 12th at 11:59PM CST, so act quickly. Shack staff will choose the best three jokes and winners will receive a complete Sam & Max Season 2 Bundle.

When a single game is played compulsively to perhaps unhealthy quantities, your brain can be so monomaniacally focused on that one thing as to where glimpses of it infiltrate real life. We asked you to take these images--provided by the fine folks at GarageGames--and insert them into the day's current events.

At stake are five entries for the Fallen Empire: Legions private beta, which should still have a few weeks to go before being open to the public. You can find the full gallery of entries here, so without further ado here are our choices for the first group of winners.

... Read more

Update: Since the responses to this have been so great, we've decided to extend the contest a day until 11:59PM PST on Wednesday, and add a little something to it. Not only will the Shackstaff pick their favorite five, but all the results will be posted to the InstantAction web site for additional public voting. The top five of those who haven't already won beta access will also receive keys. Those who win beta access are guaranteed at least two weeks of exclusive play before public access opens up.

Original Story: Ever play a game so much, that you start to see elements of it in real life? Your stoplight exchanged for Chu-Chu Rocket direction blocks? Disgaea style path trails leading to where ever you walk? Do you catch glimpses of Scouts in the corner of your vision, bat at ready?

Well, for once we will confront this phenomena directly, and jump to the conclusion of mixing real life and game elements. Thus, our next contest with GarageGames and Shacknews.

What we would like you to do is to take the art in the gallery above--so kindly provided by Fallen Empire: Legions developer GarageGames--and photoshop it into real-world events, specifically the news. Frame the picture with a more humorously... Read more

Multiplayer games bring out a certain visceral quality, and Savage 2: A Tortured Soul combines that with a teamwork-encouraging system that uses efficiency to illustrate the challenges of your adversaries. Given the sparks that flare from such encounters, it can visceral, it can be exciting.. It can be savage.

Recently we asked for you to account for your savagery that occurs in the course of gaming so that we could toss out a few prizes courtesy of S2Games, and the results follow.

First up, we see spaceless displaying the Rosewood-esque results of an unfortunate Warcraft 3 game. We've heard conflicting reports as to the survivability of the original game media, but sources indicate that it's been broken up and spread across the Earth as if to prevent Cobra from assembling it.

Next up, Helvetica comes through with this divine example of Driver's Education 101 as channeled through Counter-Strike. If nothing else, the map seems pretty safe from someone using an aimbot!... Read more

S2Games recently released Savage 2: A Tortured Soul, where human and Beast civilizations challenge one another for supremacy of a shattered Earth. But that's just a simple description of a complex choreography of war, it's the individual events that make it compelling.

Here at Shacknews, we recognize the savagery in every gamer. So we're asking you to visually represent an act of savagery in the way you see fit. Action figures at war? Costume paint and photography? Abuse of 3D models? Please no actual acts of violence however, as Shacknews only condones such things against virtual beings.

To entice your creative whims, S2Games has provided us with three copies of Savage 2: A Tortured Soul for you to win. The competition will be open until Tuesday, February 12th at 11:59 CST posted in reply to this article, and the Shacknews staff will pick our favorites based on execution, creativity and humor if it fits the submission. Good luck!

As any fan of the Civilization series knows, some of the most fun to be had is finding the perfect population to guide to ascendancy. Recently we asked you to create your own civilization, and here are the results.

A couple of the more interesting entries of note were those such as zombie survivors, the Mamalukes, and The Twelve Colonies of Kobol.

It was a bit more of a casual contest, and thus we're picking four winners randomly from everyone who submitted something. Therefore, give it up to flagg209, Degenerate, xsoulbrothax, and Hidden Key, as they will be receiving a BioShock t-shirt and Civilization: Revolution Xbox 360 faceplate, courtesy of 2K Games. Thanks to all the participants, and be sure to stick around here at Shacknews for more contests like this.

Sid Meier's Civilization is a long running PC classic currently being adapted for a new multiplatform style, and the progenitor of its own genre. One of the notable features of these games was picking your favorite civilization, be it for its leader, its cultural strengths, its special units, or just just the way they happen to talk. Well, we thought maybe we could have a little contest around here courtesy of a certain wonderful community manager over at 2K Games.

Shackers, tell us of your favorite real or fictional civilization. Give a short description of the civilization, who the leader is and their traits, and what is their favored military unit and building. You can see examples from Civilization 4 at CivFanatics. No more than a paragraph or two per element please.

Up for grabs will be a Civilization Revolution Xbox 360 faceplate and one of these BioShock t-shirts which we have both men's large and women's medium sizes. Four winners will be chosen randomly from the submissions, so no one should feel any intimidation by participating. Entries will be accepted until Monday, January 28th at midnight CST.

While we did announce the winner of the Shacknews Holiday Contest of Doom yesterday, what we didn't announce were those who took away spoils in the sweepstakes from submitting an entry. Picking one winner wasn't easy, so with the assistance of my buddy the random number generator we came up with the answers. Those results follow:

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - MoreVespeneGas (PS3), Jamiejme (PS3), Troz (PC)
• Quake Wars: Enemy Territory: Collectors Edition (PC) - Wormmeat, liqker
• Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (Wii) - kallanta, ieGod
• Bee Movie: The Game (Wii) - the stickboy, c_man_tmt
• Spiderman: Friend or Foe - helvetica (PC), bettycocker (PC), aeg1x (PSP)
• Signed Team Fortress 2 poster - itsjeff9
• Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP) - tiberius bill
• Silent Hill Origins (PSP) - nitaib
• Coded Arms: Contagion (PSP) - ohhjebus
• Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel (PSP) - MajorGun
• The Witcher (PC) - filthysock, ajax, grayscale, RomSteady, gonnabechef
• TotalGaming.net memberships with tokens for Galactic Civilizations 2 (PC) and Sins of a Solar Empire (PC) - Yoonix, WARLORD48, Reavers!, cool_canuck, rustified
• Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition - T-900 (PS3), TShandy (PC), Daggoth (PS3), Trips (PC), Hidden Key (360), Gibolas1234 (360)
• Shadowrun (360) - Redfield, exigence7
• Mass Effect (360) - Lawgiver, fuji-juice
• Prey: Collectors Edition (360) with a custom Xbox 360 faceplate and mousepad - BlackCat
• The ultimate mystery Bag of (Gaming) Crap - shortbuscaptain

Thanks to everyone who participated and to the companies that generously submitted prizes such as Activision, Konami, Valve, Microsoft, Stardock, Atari, Bethesda Softworks and 3DRealms. Stay tuned for more contests in the new year.

Recently we asked for Shackers to celebrate the holidays in the language we speak truest in: Video games. Did grandma get run over by a reindeer... in Mario Kart? Well we asked and you guys certainly did not disappoint. This being our last contest for 2007, we wanted to go out on a bang and so first prize is an Xbox 360 Elite system. The stakes were high but so was the quality of the entries. A few of our favorites follow:

• So now more people can know the lie, or so says Tiberius Bill
• Helvetica defuses a difficult gift issue and gives Gordon a serene moment
• Troz expresses himself through Mario, through both still and motion
• Filthysock knows why Norad doesn't track Santa anymore :(
• Havoc1c4 wants you to pick up that present, because you'll like it or else there'll be repercussions
• The way Tiberius Bill tells it, Santa has seen a rough spot this year
• And maybe if you prefer Santa prose before elf hose(s), RomSteady and TShandy provide

Thanks to all the participants, I think the quality of entries has never been higher, which makes our job all the tougher. In the end, the numerous and high quality entries of Havoc1c4 have brought us to choose him as the winner of the Xbox 360 Elite. Thanks for all the entries, tune back in tomorrow when I pass out the rest of our holiday goodies. In the mean time, feel free to look through all the entries.

Games are what bring us together, and the holidays are what hopefully give us a nice end and new start to the year. Here at Shacknews, we too wish to acknowledge the festive gaiety of the season with a whole slew of prizes and a contest worthy of your time. We're asking you to recreate your favorite scene from a game and to give it a holiday theme. Interpret this directive as objectively or abstractly as you like, but humor, cleverness and skill should be the key ingredients of your entry.

We're going to give you a full week for this contest, accepting entries until December 26th at 11:59 CST, giving people that day after Christmas to submit a decent entry. Why so much time, you ask? Well I think we expect some pretty great entries since the first prize for this contest will be an Xbox 360 Elite edition game system.

Intimidated by the notion of making something? You shouldn't be, because just submitting something will enter you in our game sweepstakes. For this, we have a wide array of prizes such as Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat (PS3 and PC), the collectors edition of Quake Wars: Enemy Territory (PC), Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (Wii), Bee Movie: The Game (Wii), Spiderman: Friend or Foe (PC and PSP), a signed Team Fortress 2 poster, Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP), Silent Hill Origins (PSP), Coded Arms: Contagion (PSP), Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel (PSP), The Witcher (PC), TotalGaming.net memberships with tokens for Galactic Civilizations 2 (PC) and Sins of a Solar Empire (PC), Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition (360, PS3), Shadowrun (360), Mass Effect (360), the collectors edition of Prey (360) with a custom Prey 360 faceplate and mousepad, a plethora of t-shirts, an ultimate mystery Bag of (gaming) Crap and more just for submitting an entry, courtesy of Activision, Konami, Valve, Microsoft, Stardock, Atari, Bethesda Software, 3DRealms and Shacknews.

When submitting, post your entry in the comments to this article and please indicate if you own a PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PS3 or PSP. If you need tools, check out Splashup or Paint.net and image hosting can be found at EasyScreens, Photobucket and ImageShack. As many submissions can be made as you like, but quality will always win out over quantity. Worldwide entries will be accepted, however only North American residents are eligible for the Xbox 360.

As gamers we've played as hundreds of different characters. But after the credits roll, what happens to those characters who so much time has been invested in? Do they go back home to their families? Do they despondently waste away in the gutter?

That was the question we asked you, and now the submissions are in. Out of the numerous entries, here are the Shack's top picks

• Ryuuseki has a unique take on the events of Diablo
• Both the East and West Coasts like Node's account of Deus Ex
• Dhopkins reflects upon a Pong ball

Some other great entries came from Sailor_of_Fortune, Nitaib, Silent Sorrow, T-900 and others. For the winners we'll have copies of World in Conflict for PC, Heavenly Sword for PS3 and Project Gotham Racing 4 for Xbox 360. If you didn't win, or writing just isn't your bag, then stick around because we'll be sure to have more contests.

One of the best aspects of gaming is the variety of characters. Some are well crafted and deep, and well some are one dimensional justifications for gameplay mechanics. Both have their charms, from the drama of Tassadar crashing his ship at the end of StarCraft to accepting the unknown reasons behind Pac-Man's pill-munching habit. So we know these characters from their back stories, from their games, but what comes after the game?

In our latest contest, I would like you to write the true story of what happened to your favorite video game character after the credits rolled. Did the Lizzie from Rampage settle down with Godzilla? Did anything ever come of Sonic's speed accusations? And really... What has Duke been up to? And why was the Princess in those other castles?

You have until 11:59PM CST Sunday to write this story and post it in the comments for this story. For the prizes, the three winners will select from World in Conflict for PC, Heavenly Sword for PS3 and Project Gotham Racing 4 for Xbox 360 for the best three stories. Good luck!

We recently asked for you to execute an elegant merging of two disparate gaming properties, repurposing them for the greater good. So is it Kingdom Hearts or Rapture on Ice? The skating Big Daddy I can definitely see. Interpretive dance splicers would probably convey the horror well too.

So, without further ado, here's what you guys came up with, with following highlights:

• Helvetica has the type of face that masterminded Final Counterstrike, the N-Man and Super Mario Fortress.
• Trips puts together the peanut butter and chocolate of this seasons's Shack gaming flavors.
• Out of all of Romsteady's entries, this one really went for baroque.
• By all accounts, Yemeth is sending Gordon on a nice vacation.

The winners will be able to select from Heroes of Mana (NDS), Front Mission (NDS), Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (NDS), and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP). There were some really great entries for this contest and I hope everyone enjoyed seeing them. Even if you weren't a winner this time around, stick around for as we will surely have more contests in the future.

Given Square Enix's pedigree, it's hard not to have played something by the company responsible for Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Mach Rider and more. I for one fondly cherish my days designing Gummi Ships in the Disney-meets-Square world of Kingdom Hearts. Since the company is kind of big on constantly reusing and occasionally crossing its licenses, today we're going to ask you to craft the finest, or at least funniest license mashup game concept. This time around, we want you use a photo-editing program to merge your favorite video gaming icon (it doesn't have to be from Square Enix!) with another notable license from... well, anything. Entries will be graded on execution and humor, so serious and funny entries are both welcome. Up for grabs are copies of Heroes of Mana (NDS), Front Mission (NDS) and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (NDS) and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP).

The contest will be open until 11:59 PM CST on Saturday, November 17. Don't forget to specify whether you've got both systems or just one of the two!

So with the release release of The Simpsons Game, itself a pastiche of different game genres, we asked you to parody the long familiar Simpsons family. And today, we bring you the winning Shacker responses.

• Kaddar0 changes things up with Homer snacking on mushrooms
• Tiberius Bill gives a different explanation for Bart's behavior
• BigBlack comes at a price, but hopefully a cheap one

Each of the winners will receive a copy of The Simpsons Game courtesy of Electronic Arts, and you can view all the submissions here. Thanks for your participation! Keep tuned in for future contests.

I imagine we have a few fans of the Simpsons in the audience. It's the longest running prime time cartoon series, and has birthed many a memorable scene or catchphrase. It's even beget a few games, the appropriately named The Simpsons Game being the latest, of which we have a Wii, DS and Xbox 360 copy each for you to win.

Your task is to parody the Simpsons family via photoshoppery or whatever imagery creation method you choose. The AutoSimpsonsbot family? Mr. Burns, nuclear super villain? The Simpsons with a bumbling father that regularly spouts non-sequitor memories? Post your entry in the comments to this article, by Thursday, November 8th at 11:59 PM CST and winners will be announced the next day.

Please note your system(s) of preference in your post. Good luck!

The winners, in no particular order, are kallanta, liqker, RomSteady, quadeh, and AndyGoin. Chris is working on the results and should have the results for Friday's ShackCast.

Reminder: The contest ends tonight at 11:59 CST. Be sure to get your entry in and vote for your favorite!

Update: Thanks to Ubisoft, the winner will also receive a Nintendo DS Lite!

With the contests recently, it seemed like everyone really enjoyed our haiku challenge most of all. It's no fun to re-run the same thing, but there's certainly something to the spirit of it. So if you will consider writing a poem to be the warm-up session, for the real challenge we'd like you to lyrically craft a full song, writing your best ode to gaming or a particular game.

Our latest contest is inspired by the Plato-developed, Ubisoft-published Jam Sessions. It isn't your typical DS software, and is not so much a game as it is a guitar simulation package that allows anyone to easily express their inner Dylan.

You will have until Sunday, October 28th at 11:59 CST to write your song and post those written lyrics in the comments for this article. We would like everyone to vote for their favorites, as we will pick five from the highest voted songs.

The authors will receive not only a copy of Jam Sessions for Nintendo DS but our own Minstrel-in-Chief, Chris Remo will perform their songs with a Jam Sessions accompany. To top it off, the grand prize winner will have an actual instrumental-backed rendering by Chris.