mikemariano

I agree with all of that, but actually I'm more worried about the fact that it is the "Wii Sports" of this console: it is meant to show you everything that you can do, which to me doesn't seem to be all that much.

Now that's an iPad killer app right there. RIP Ratsofatsorat!

Yup! It highlights how arbitrary and opaque this system is. They might as well have an Applause-o-Meter on a wall outside of Valve headquarters. Notice you can no longer see the number or percentage of votes on these chosen games; you've got no information to go by to get a sense of what makes a Greenlight-able game.

Rat Assassin?

Ave, true to Caesar!

No! They can't occupy the same space at the same time! Haven't they seen Timecop?

Poor Nick! When Jake said, "Oh yeah, and parts of Skyrim," pointing out the only panelist Chris didn't praise, I gasped out loud. Nick Breckon let us plant trees in Skyrim! If that's not the future of games I don't know what is.

Anime figurines have showed up on the site, but (as of two years ago at least) it wasn't a regular or defining feature of the site. Things they post always have some video game connection. My favorite was "See child actor Christian Bale in a Pac-Man cereal commercial!"

I am an Apple cultist and look forward to glimpsing the new chains that will bind me to my god. I really thing more games should take advantage of iPhones and iPads as secondary screens, similar to the Wii U. Have a big blue potion iPad and a big red potion iPad, and leave more of the screen for Diablo-ing!

I thought I was Mike but I'm not cool enough to be Mike.

Even though Sno and Henroid told me not to quit the former game, I haven't gone back to Metroid Prime or Wind Waker. Too many Chozo Artifacts! Too many Triforce Shards! I'm sick of hunting for hidden objects, even with walkthroughs and Let's Plays in front of me.

Everybody should read up on Pac-Man AI, it is truly excellent and it shows how important it is to have engaging, elaborate, and varied enemy AI. The game , for the GBA and DS is sort of an isometric Metroid rip-off. But where Metroid games have enemies that shuffle back and forth or up and down walls, Scurge's enemies rush the player in terrible, mindless zombie fashion. It shows a big difference between intentionally minimal AI and just plain bad AI.

My big fancy plasma rifle and I beat him after a long battle in which he slaughtered all the NCR and former Enclave soldiers who followed me in. Reading his Fallout Wiki entry reveals that there are a lot of tricks to give him "boss" level help without making it look like he's superhuman.

Chris, this is the second podcast in a row where you've brought up Kotaku. Their writers constantly update the site with the thinnest slivers of what could be called news. Their readers compulsively refresh the site, needing to react to those slivers. Block them! Block all Gawker sites! I've been much happier since I stopped reading up-to-the-minute gaming sites. I don't feel any less informed; if I want to know the release date of the new Luigi's Mansion or something news-ish like that I usually just go to Wikipedia.

Mike reads the description: "Yeah, yeah, Dota 2, Far Cry 2, a whole buncha other games I'll never play..." Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures Thank you, Idle Thumbs! I'm actually surprised that these games haven't been re-released as free-to-plays yet, where we have to in-app-purchase killer ants, nuclear test fridges, etc.

This is cute! I will not buy this. But I will watch YouTube videos of people Fus Ro Dah-ing their pet oxen.

I had that installed from the beginning of my playthrough and I completed it early on. I liked it but I don't know if there's enough there to recommend going back to Oblivion for that quest alone. The quest is intentionally structured to affect the entire game area and it actually weaves itself into the game pretty well. I was doing parts of the quest and visiting wayshrines while I was working on the Mage's Guild visits until I decided to devote myself to Pelinal Whitestrake and devote my entire game-playing time to finding his armor. Of course, working for a holy knight forced me to be a goody-goody for my entire playthrough of Oblivion. If you're returning after doing the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves' Guild questlines, perhaps Knights of the Nine can be a redemption quest for a murderous Champion of Cyrodiil.

I finally beat the Shivering Isles. I didn't find it significantly better than the main quest. They did learn their lesson that shiny things should happen when you complete a major quest, so that's something. I hated the layout of the island; the central mountain range was so poorly created—it was nothing but a giant wall. There was little to do when straying from the path. I wonder if the voice actor for Sheogorath was happy to get away from saying "Stop! You violated the law!" all the time and put on a ridiculous accent.

I'm a man! If I can't contort the comments of my chromosomal peers into something I can believe is harmless, then lash out at others for overreacting, I don't even want to be on the Internet! I want to second the suggestion to play Ultima, especially Ultima VII. I am playing it whenever I remember to start Boxer and plug in a mouse, and I really do enjoy the feel of the game. I am in a writing group and had to write a short story about the word "gypsy" for our next meeting. Somebody chose the musical, and somebody else chose Fleetwood Mac, so I ended up writing about the gypsy from the opening of Ultima IV-VI. Riveting reading, I'm sure.

I used the standard party and named them after my cousins, my sister, and I. Fighter - MIKE Ninja - DAVE White Mage - MSM Black Mage - ROB I made it to the final castle/dungeon/dimension, but never made it past the second boss of the boss rush at the end of the game. I lent my copy of Final Fantasy to my real-life cousin Dave and he managed to beat the game in one try using my save file. I have never seen the ending of Final Fantasy. In fact, I have never beaten any Final Fantasy game. Put that on my tombstone.

Last week I was charged for another year of Xbox Live Gold Membership, which I use about twice a month to watch a movie on Netflix. Then today Ben Kuchera posted this article: The ugly, profitable details about Xbox Live advertising They have buried Xbox Live Arcade games even further down then they were just a few months ago. It is now miserable to use this machine. Is this yet another sign I should return to the world of PC gaming?

Pitch it for the Kinect where you have to sway your arm.

I wrote a weblog entry about my teenage QBASIC games a while ago, complete with terrible fantasy prose! I still can't wrap my head around programming. My mind is forever stuck in Choose Your Own Adventure, "if this is chosen, then this happens" mentality and I can't wrap my head around creating a game where things happen without player input. Heck, I don't even know how save games work.

I am doing the exact same thing and am falling over at the exact same spot every time. Even slowing down to try and get some rear forward momentum (?) doesn't prevent me from flipping backwards. Oh well!

No way, Sno; these achievements are the best kind! I had a lot of fun with "Zombie Chopper", "Just One Bullet", and "Little Rocket Man" in Half-Life 2 and its Episodes. They are stunts that ask you to get creative in the way you approach the game. They are also unabashedly meaningless and exist only for their own sake. If you don't have fun trying to achieve them, it doesn't mean a thing if you decide to ignore them.