Need money for college? Check out social gaming site Grantoo, which is hosting an online trivia contest for students on April 8. Internet payment site WePay is offering a $5,000 prize fund, which will be divided amongst the top 12 tournament players, provided they agree to donate a minimum of 10 percent of their winnings to charity. Anyone interested in participating can sign up here.

After the first wave of Kickstarter funding projects, even more classic game designers are washing up with some of their own. The creator of Shadowrun, Jordan Wiesman, needs some cash to make a true sequel to the classic RPG, and it won’t be a multiplayer shooter this time around. Replay Games might’ve yanked the Leisure Suit Larry rights out of the fetid hands of Big Software (creators of the last two terrible games) and dragged the original writer, Al Lowe, out of his tropical retirement home, but they’ll need your help to make a new Larry sequel. And if that wave of adventure nostalgia doesn’t make your inventory senses tingle, then news that Jane Jensen of Gabriel Knight fame wants to make a series of dark adventure games should do it for you. Community funding for games might be a fad, but it could yield some very exciting projects.

Gamers of a certain age will have fond memories of their Commodore 64 and Amiga PCs. Soon a new generation of PC gamers will have a chance to share the nostalgia. Commodore USA has announced a new line of their iconic home computers, to be released later this year. And these are definitely not your father’s C-64 PCs. The new models will boast some very impressive components, including Intel 3.5 GHz i7 2700 CPUs, 16 GB of RAM, 1 GB GeForce 430 graphics cards and 1 TB hard drives. “This is an historic day,” says Commodore CEO Barry Altman. “The team here has been working around the clock to fulfill the vision of a reunited Commodore and AMIGA branded computer.” Check out the Commodore website for more info.

It all started with Tim Schafer’s Double Fine studios raising more than $3 million in a Kickstarter campaign to fund…something. We don’t know what, but with Brutal Legend out of their system, it’s gotta be good. Now, a host of classic developers are asking you to help fund their latest big ideas. Brian Fargo (of Interplay fame) wants to make a sequel to Wasteland, the stump from which Fallout sprang. Chris Jones wants to continue the adventures of everyone’s favorite space detective, Tex Murphy, with Project Fedora (something I’m required to support for religious reasons). Christian Allen (Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter) has decided that tactical shooters have become too soft, so he’s founding his own company with the expressed purpose of making a hardcore tactical FPS, like before Rainbow Six went to Vegas. These designers want to make games just as badly as you want play them; they just need the cash. Today you get to be the publisher. Let’s use the power of crowd-sourcing and bring life to dead genres!

Disney and the Warren Spector-led studio Junction Point have revealed they’re working on a sequel to the 2010 platformer Epic Mickey. The game, unlike the original Wii-exclusive, will debut across all three major consoles. Titled Disney Epic Mickey: The Power of Two, it will add voice-overs and co-op to the series, and will feature songs written by Jim Dooley and Mike Himelstein, the composer and lyricist for the upcoming animated film Dorothy of Oz. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey’s long-lost predecessor who co-starred in Epic Mickey, will speak (and sing!) for the first time ever in The Power of Two. There’s no target release window as yet.

The Walking Dead game will be set in the same environment as Robert Kirkman’s graphic novels. However, it will follow a new group of survivors as they attempt to flee Atlanta in the beginning days of the walker outbreak. “Collaborating with Telltale on The Walking Dead continues to be a fantastic process,” said Kirkman. “They understand the world and the characters that I created and what it takes to make a game out of them. What’s really exciting is that they’re telling a new story with new characters, so you’ll get to see the same world Rick Grimes did, but now from a different point of view.” Telltale’s undead adventure game will be released in five parts starting this April.

The new Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim version 1.5 update has been released by Bethesda on Steam. It includes new kill moves for melee and a kill cam for ranged and magic deaths. Other new features include improved distance transition for snowy landscapes, shadows on grass, alterations of an item’s value after smithing skill increases, and improved visual transition when going underwater. You can check out the full list of features and bug fixes on the official Skyrim website.

The classic BioWare RPG series Baldur’s Gate will soon be getting a facelift, thanks to Beamdog Studios. Both Baldur’s Gate games will be released as PC-exclusive Enhanced Editions, complete with the expansion packs. While there will be new content and the graphics are getting a touch-up, Beamdog is reminding everyone that the more things change, the more they stay the same. BGEE will be 2D-isometric, they’ll use the original AD&D second-edition rule set, contain all the original music and voice acting files, and even run on a beefed up version of the original Infinity engine. Not only will you be able to import saves between the enhanced editions, but they’ll also support the original saves. Expect an enhanced trip through the Forgotten Realms later this summer.

Gettysburg: Armored Warfare, the upcoming hybrid multiplayer game from Paradox Interactive and Radioactive Software, will feature something cooler than Civil War-era tanks. Steam Workshop, the service that lets players download mods directly through Valve’s digital platform, will integrate with the game. Blending third-person action, real-time strategy and a dose of tongue-in-cheek history-bending, Gettysburg certainly doesn’t skimp on the creative ideas. Paradox and Radioactive knows that they’re not the only crazy people out there, so they’re embracing the community and officially integrating their custom mods through the Steam Workshop. I expect to see an entire category related to Mecha-Lincoln populated within hours.

Cancel any memorial services you might be planning for PC gaming. Information has recently been revealed that shows our hobby’s most powerful platform still has some life left in it. According to a report from the non-profit PC Gaming Alliance, global revenue generated by PC gaming set a new record of $18.6 billion in 2011. China led the way with an amazing 27 percent increase over the previous year, followed by the US, Germany, the UK, Japan and Korea, whose numbers grew by 11 percent each. PCGA’s report also predicts up to 37 percent global growth by 2015, aided by digital-only software sales and the spread of broadband availability. So let your console-only friends know that we’re not going anywhere just yet.

Source: Shacknews.com

Rumors are flying that Valve might have it’s own hardware system in the works. According to sources cited at The Verge, the Steam Box would come equipped with a Core i7 CPU, 8 GB of RAM and an Nvidia GPU. Reportedly, the idea behind the Steam Box is to create a standardized baseline for PC hardware so developers can plan for clear product lifetimes, with upgrades scheduled every few years. In addition, the system would be completely open, allowing standard PC software (including games from competitors such as Origin) to run free of licensing fees. As outlandish as it sounds, such scuttlebutt fits with the USB controller patents Valve filed last year, and the announced Steam TV mode. Could this be the future of PC gaming?

Developer Irrational Games have finally given a concrete date for the release of their very much-anticipated new game, Bioshock Infinite. The game will be available on October 16 in North America for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The international release will come three days later.

Ken Levine, president and creative director of Irrational, says Infinite was the culmination of “a vision that dwarfed the original in scope and ambition.” So, looks like this will be one to watch. Also, Sony are adding an incentive for buying the game on the PS3 by offering the original game on a Blu-Ray disc.

Source: Tweaktown.com

The popular action RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be expanding soon with The Legend of Dead Kel. Taking place on the inviting tropical island of Gallows End, Dead Kel is more than just a few side quests. Besides having more things to stab and weapons to stab them with, this latest DLC will contain a new main quest line and 15 percent more land to explore. To make this new land a bit more like home, players will also be able to run their own estate. The Legend of Dead Kel launches on March 18th and will cost 800 Microsoft Points (Xbox 360) or $9.99 (PS3/PC).

Good Old Games, everyone’s favorite distributor of DRM-free classics, has recently added the games of iEntertainment Network to its growing catalog. iEntertainment is responsible for many classic simulators, including the classic Warbird series. The first to emerge is Apache Longbow, available now for $5.99, complete with the original manual and reference card. During the coming weeks, Good Old Games will lead us further back in the past, when the joystick ruled gaming. Better dust off that HOTAS and free up a USB port!

The next time you load up Minecraft you’ll be treated to new features, courtesy of the 1.2 patch. Highlights include a new jungle biome, craftable Iron Golems, ocelots, and twice the map height. Showcasing the new goodies is the 1.2 patch trailer (left) from the fine chaps at Hat Films, which is well worth your time. How many games can say they have trailer patches? No word yet if the ocelots use six-shooters and speak Russian. Complete patch notes can be found here.