While the age of Halloween themed TV show specials is slowly coming to a close (we miss you TGIF!), videogames have been more than willing to pick up the slack in recent years by using the beloved horror holiday to unleash a bevy of downloadable frights on gamers everywhere. This year is no exception, and here are just a few of the recent Halloween themed additions made to some popular games.

The incredibly humorous, and appropriately intense, re-make of the 90’s FPS “Shadow Warrior” continues its in-game trend of borrowing weapons from other series, as it adds an ice axe to the game’s substantial arsenal that comes courtesy of TellTalle’s “Walking Dead” games. While its effectiveness when put up against the katana it replaces is suspect, as anyone whose played The Walking Dead can attest, when in a pinch it can really make a baddie think twice, and should fit well into the game’s selection of awesome weapons best applied with extreme predjudice.

Popular world building RPG “Terraria” gets a little more into the traditional Halloween spirit by filling it’s world with a variety of Halloween novelties. You’ll find enemies wearing costumes, random gift bags filled with in-game treats, a variety of Halloween themed items, weapons, and locations, to explore and create, and even a special new “Pumpkin Moon Event” challenge which adds a survival mode to the game, where waves of enemies all possessing increasingly better loot descend upon the player.

The best of the Halloween updates though has to go to “Minecraft,” which has  just unveiled a Halloween update for the 360 version of the game that is simply mind blowing. It essentially re-skins the entire game in a way that lets you build a Halloween world of your own, not unlike that of Pumpkin Town from “A Nightmare Before Christmas.” The attention to detail here is phenomenal, and constantly provides the feeling that the developers are more excited for Halloween than anyone else. There’s too many examples of little Halloween touches to go over, but I have to give a shout out to whoever decided to turn the game’s teleporting Endermen, into the more horror appropriate Slendermen. A free update, everyone who has Minecraft on the 360 needs to experience this, as it just may be the best way to get hyped for “Halloween” available. Browsing the images of this incredible update is also highly recommended.

Of course this is just a sampling of the Halloween updates available, and the biggest annual update (The “Team Fortress 2” Halloween update) is still yet to come. Stay tuned here this week for more updates on that, as well as other horror themed articles in anticipation of Halloween.

After Tim Schafer was done with one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all time for his studio Double Fine’s entrant into the adventure genre Schafer once helped perfect, many expected to not hear from the company until “Broken Age” was completed.

It’s somewhat of a surprise then to hear today that Schafer and co. are already working on another Kickstarter title before “Broken Age” even has a confirmed release date. While it’s initially troubling to think of Double Fine’s new offering “Massive Chalice” as a reason for them to reach into your pockets again, once you actually begin read about the game, you may take up that internet joke and start willingly throwing money at your screen.

Described as a turn based tactical RPG that sees you command generations of heroes and try to repel demon hordes from a vast and intricate fantasy land ruled by factions, “Massive Chalice” cites its inspirations as games like  “Fire Emblem,” “Final Fantasy Tactics,” and “X-Com,” but also mentions the influences of TV shows like “Game of Thrones.” Collectively, of course, those are known as some of the best things ever.

In, fact, much of “Massive Chalice” reads like a best of. You’ve got the feuding factions of “Game of Thrones,” the permadeath system of “Fire Emblem,” the tactical map design from the “Total War” series, and the combat style of “XCOM” all blended together and topped with that unique dialogue and general feel that Schafer studios usually provide.

It’s that last part that really matters, as if this was Peter Molyneux preaching a game where you control a faction over generations in a multi-faceted, kingdom consuming war involving mysticism and a variety of in-depth strategy elements, it’d be easy to dismiss it as all hype. However, Schafer (and for that matter project lead Brad Muir), have a history of always delivering an experience that may not be perfect, but is noteworthy and unlike anything else regardless of where it draws inspiration.

By the project’s own admission, “Massive Chalice” is unlike anything the studio has ever attempted. Whenever one of the most creatively exciting developers out there decide to step out of their comfort zone, that’s a cause to take notice of, and one that may easily be worth the $20 backing price.