[Editor’s note: megaStryke takes a look at a bunch of fangames for hisMonthly Musing piece. — CTZ] I loveSonic the Hedgehoggames, don’t you? We all have our favorite memorable moments. Like, remember when Robotnik totally went back in time and killed Sonic, causing the Sonic of the present to slowly fade away from existence,Back to the Futurestyle? Probably not since that didn’t happen in any commercially availableSonictitle. I just described the premise behindSonic: Time Attacked, one of the myriad games built by fans who had aspirations to see their favorite videogame mascots embark on adventures of their own design....

About a month ago, we found out from Yager and 2K Games thatSpec Ops: The Linewould be the latest console-bond shooter to get the beta treatment. The difference here is that this seems more like an honest-to-goodness, actual beta, instead of being primarily an attention-grabbing marketing tool. Not only is it fully closed —sign-ups are right here— if you happen to get in, you won’t be able to talk aboutSpec Opsthanks to a handy non-disclosure agreement....

Just when you thought this sh*t might be dying down Activision steps in and fires back. Thisfiring/lawsuitcontroversy is like the biggest industry smack talking competition ever. EA isclearly winningat the moment, with Infinity Ward employeesin a close second, but Activision is back with its own defense. Activision COO Thomas Tipplis defendinghis company’s treatment of game developers.“We treat our developers extremely well,” he said this week. “We have an independent studio model that provides them a lot of creative freedom while we take care of the back office stuff so they can focus on making games....

I’ll be straight with you guys; I don’t have anything cool or fun to say about today’s newFinal Fantasy XIII-2screenshots. Before I’ve pulled these kinds of blogs out of my ass, talking aboutbad military uniforms,my pink hair fetish(twice!) orhow much I love Moogles. But today I’ve got nothing. Sure, I could pull the Jim and say very plainly that we have some new screens, but that’s not my style. I had something mildly funny worked up about Serah and knives, but it just wasn’t good enough to run with....

Some new screens from Remedy’s psychological horrorAlan Wakehave hit the Internet, and you know exactly what to expect. Yet more images of a man in the woods, wearing the kind of clothes a dick would wear and holding a torch.Alan Wake‘s atmosphere is top notch, but unfortunately it doesn’t make for very good screenshots. Nevertheless,Alan Wakeis looking like it’ll be a hot one. I’m still worried that the long development time may have had an impact on overall quality, but then, that impact could be good or bad....

Oh happy day! I’m featuring a comic this week, something that is sadly far and few between. This week’sAAFspotlight lands on KatieTiedrichand her comic,Awkward Zombie. The name of the comic is awesome, but sadly, has nothing to do with zombies in awkward situations. AwkwardZombieis mostly a Nintendo themed comic series which started back inSeptember of 2006. So far, the series has been pretty good. A lot of the jokes are what any Nintendo fan can get a good chuckle at....

GASP! An artist that goes by his real name on the Internets?! Blasphemy! OK, maybe I’m being over dramatic. I’m so used to artists using their pseudo-personasthat it’s actually a refreshing change to see someone using their real name. BillMudronis easily a master of his crafts with his pieces that turn our very well known gaming icons into overly extremecartoonyversions of their former selves. We’ve actually featured him in the past with hisDead Mario’s piecebut I don’t think we’ve ever been able to put a name to it until now....

Around three days ago , Eidos got around to confirming — and detailing — that whole “freeBatman: Arkham Asylum” thing we kept talking about on Destructoid. Now that downloadable content has arrived. Earlier on the 17th, the post-release content was released across the two console downloadable services, Xbox LIVE Marketplace and the PlayStation Store as well as Games for Windows LIVE. (People are having trouble downloading it from the latter.)...

Beautiful music shmupBeat Hazardis coming to iOS. Beat Hazard Ultracreator Steve Hunt toldEurogamerthat the iPhone and iPad version should be out within the next three or four months. The iPad HD version will probably cost £2.99. “I’ll run a discount for a few days when it first comes out to reward early purchasers,” he said. It was definitely cool on PC and Xbox 360, and it will be just as cool on PS3 when it drops, but what’s great about an iPhone/iPad version of a game where music drives gameplay is that your music is probably already on that device....

Though most insider gaming journos already saw this demo during X06 last year in Barcelona, some of you, including me, have not. What do you get to see in this latest peek intoBioShock? How about force powers, fire, and a wholla lotta shootin’ going on.

It seems that Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to ensure that Kinect is popular, proving that if you’re able to’t win the hearts of the people with a good product, you can do it with boatloads of cash.Cirque du Soleil,Justin Bieber, and now Burger King have been recruited by Microsoft in th great casual war, the latter being used to promote Kinectimals. Burger King will be giving away little stuffed animals that can be scanned by Kinect’s camera to create a digital alternative....

You should all know Cammie Dunaway by now. I like to refer to her mostly asthat womanfrom Nintendo’s E3 press conference that made me want to claw into my own skull and start haphazardly tearing portions of my brain out. Cammie wants to assure everybody that she reallyisthat grating in real life too! For some bizarre reason, she’s desperate to let the world know that acting like a patronizing primary school teacher is not an act....

“Flooded” is not a word that gamers like to hear. It makes us think of shovelware and ports. But, this is Capcom we’re talking about here, and they’re saying that this upcoming flood will involve “triple A” titles. If that’s the case, then bring it on! Nintendiccame across this message from a Capcom Community Specialist on their official forums: “Honestly, I think the lack of AAA titles also has a lot to do with a lot of the 3rd parties simply being caught with their pants down....