Today’s FFWD Weekly includes my latest “Joystuck” column, which is a look at the recent releases in the music and rhythm video game category.

The two biggest players, of course, are Guitar Hero and Rock Band, each of which have new editions now available.

Music games are a big deal. In under three years, the genre has become the biggest segment of the video game industry.

Photo taken by Ozier Muhammad and borrowed from The New York Times.

Compiled and wrote a holiday gift guide of technology products that are energy and environmentally responsible for BChydro.com.

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as giving during the holiday season. This year, let your conscience be your guide, and consider gifting items that are energy and environmentally responsible. Here are some technology offerings to get you started. Of course, these are also great gadgets for your personal wish list, too.

I have always had a problem with the Silent Hill video games. To wit: they freak me out.

The thick fog prevents me from seeing very far, and hideous creatures are always jumping out from the shadows. The Silent Hill games are almost too scary to play.

Homecoming, the latest game in the franchise from Konami and available for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, is the freakiest Silent Hill yet. It all starts with you, Alex Shepherd, strapped to a gurney and being wheeled down the hallway of an institution.

Along the way, you see terrible things being done to other patients. After being left bound in an operating room, a nightmarish creature murders the nurse who had been transporting you. After breaking free, the only thing to do is to try and find a way out.

The typical Silent Hill themes – retribution, revenge, and redemption – are again at play, as Alex stumbles across his younger brother, Joshua, in the institution, and then has to find a way to rescue him from the town’s horrors.

The game play here is much the same as with previous Silent Hill titles, but combat is simpler because the character of Alex is a soldier, so he is better able to dispatch the terrors that torment. But the stronger character comes with a cost, because the game’s developers throw more attackers at you, so be prepared for some zombie killing action.

I played Silent Hill: Homecoming, but I almost wish I hadn’t. I’m going to have nightmares for weeks.

Rated mature.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight.

Dead Space, the new survival horror video game from Electronic Arts is a tense, visceral experience that will have you screeching at times.

The game – for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 – is derivative and owes a debt to many games – and films – that have gone before. The mood, atmosphere, and environment are a little bit Alien and a little bit Event Horizon, the creatures and characters a little bit Halo and a little bit Half-Life.

There’s nothing wrong with borrowing from the best, especially when, as is the case with Dead Space, the whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts.

You play as engineer Isaac Clarke, and your goal is to survive. If you can do that, then you can also fix a deep space mining vessel, combat a horde of creatures that were created from the bodies of the dead crew, and unravel the mystery of how it all happened in the first place.

Your survival will be easier if you adopt a “strategic dismemberment” combat plan, so be prepared to lop off the legs, arms, and razor-sharp tails of your attackers.

The narrative hinges on a new religion that has enraptured much of Earth and a discovery made by miners on a planet far from home. It’s a chilling tale that is paced perfectly.

Dead Space, with its fine balance of atmospheric terror and shock horror, is one to play with the lights out, and the sound turned up. Just make sure nobody sneaks up on you or they’re bound to lose a limb.

Rated mature.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight.