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It seemed kind of unavoidable. I saw a GDC talk a while back on the art direction of Dead Space 2 and it explained a lot about the direction these games have been evolving toward. To quote the art director from Dead Space 1 and 2: "There was also one other piece of important feedback, coming from our bosses, which was, thankfully very, very supportive, but also in the modern market telling us that, hey, we really need to sort of move this up a little bit. Sold fine; making a sequel was never really a question when we asked to do it. They were like "yes absolutely", but in the modern world the top 5 to 10 games are getting all the money and we need to sort of move out of the lower level. Those are all fine games but they tend to be more niche and they don't really break out and the theory was maybe there's just only so many people who wanna be scared that much. So our big challenge with Dead Space 2 was still please those people, still bring them along, create a dead space 2 that they're gonna enjoy and it sorta pays off to our core fans, while expanding it beyond the core horror." It's kind of the reality of big publishers and how they function. It seems frustratingly short-sighted to me.

I'm curious. Do you have a beard Thunderpeel? What about you, Twig?

I saw the Master yesterday. Joaquin Phoenix's perfomance was damn intense!

Yea, totally. That's what I enjoy the most about his reviews, for sure. That and his clever jabs. I'm not overly familiar with Conan beyond a bunch of the sketches he has done for his show (and the reviews), so if that's the case, then this aspect simply went over my head. Gotta say I haven't seen any of the trailers and if that's the case, then absolutely. Oh, I didn't think you were. It was more a separate point, related to some generalizations I've read on these yarr boards. I totally agree with you that it's insightful though.

A few reviews have mentioned it (Eurogamer, Polygon, Gametrailers), but they're probably in the minority. I think you were right when you said that a lot of developers lack restraint though. I'm reasonably sure if I had a group of my friends in the same room together, would have the exact same reaction as the audience. I just don't buy the idea that this doesn't bother a lot of folk. And I can't tell you the last time I needed to put a controller down, because as horrific as the spike-through-head scene is, it wouldn't stop me from trying again, getting past it and then continuing on. I can hardly judge the game on a few gratuitous out-of-context death scenes. I think it's a criticism worth making about the game. Were these really necessary? What was the reasoning for having them in the game? Whyyyyy? A game that would horrify me to the point where I have to put the controller down is not a game I would actually be interested in playing to begin with. I suppose my point is that I don't see Conan's video as proof of anything (the sexist jokes rubbed me the wrong way to the point where I couldn't really enjoy the video), and my problem was more with your generalizations. I'm not attributing this to you, but I sometimes sense some snobbery of the "us vs. them" variety (them being other gaming communities/gaming bro's/etc) and I have a bit of a problem with that.

What do you base that on though, that it barely registers to many gamers? I feel like I'm used to a lot of game violence, but the head through spike thing still made me wince. What exactly did he call out, because to me the perv jokes seemed to be "I'm a guy and she's an attractive woman, look how hot she is, haha,"

"Sorry, but that game looks awful." -- Elmuerte.com

I've always wanted to try Hinterland!

The joke! I can still hardly believe the show is coming back this year!!

This weeks group of sexy bastards and a flaccid tank.

Me too!

I'm not sure. I've played a bunch of OnLive stuff and while I think it'd be ideal to try out a game real quick before you buy it or not, I'm not sure if I'd want to play whole games that way, as I was always aware of the latency. Maybe what Gaikai does is better/higher quality, but if it's like OnLive then it wouldn't be ideal, I think. I was impressed that OnLive worked as well as it did. Totally did feel all futuristic.

He wasn't even supposed to be there that night!

Medium 14 is I think the only things I had never heard were sports games and Amiga games. Level 3: 14 -- I had no idea, but jesus, that shit makes my ears bleed. Medium 2:

Wow, this feels like a blast from the past. MEMORIES!! Once there was no more 1up show, 1up yours and GFW Radio, was there even a reason to go to that site anymore? Not for me. I was a big fan and looked forward listening to/watching all that stuff every week. So sad when it just... Slowly drained. Green, Shawn Elliot, Luke Smith, Shane Bettenhausen, Garnet Lee, Mark McDonald, John Davison, Ryan Scott, Sean Molloy, Darren Gladstone, Robert Ashley and Chuff Money, yo! There were more, but these are the people I remember from that time that totally made my week, every time! That's not sad, is it? Either way, good memories and left a lasting impression! I HAVE BEEN TAINTED BY NOSTALGIA!!!

All this stuff Sony has shown so far... It just feels way too early to form an opinion on anything. In retrospect, I didn't think their conference was necessarily bad, just that it dragged, with way too much talking. I think as a hype building thing it possibly would've been way more effective if it had been an hour long and contained the same amount of information. 2 Hours; way too long. And the thing was a total E3 tease. I get the feeling that E3 this year is going to be the most interesting one in a long while! I just hope that developers/publishers are thinking about the industry image a bit more. Last year, I mostly felt embarrassed.

PERFECT!!

Some of the gaming press decided to pull out their jump-to-conclusion mats and label this as such, but it's wrong. The timed exclusivity is limited to consoles; it'll still appear on PC whenever it comes out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i7h7AleSCF4 Great stuff. Really looking forward to playing this. Such a relaxing mood, mmmmmm.

Group chat was fun! Made all the blahblahblah a little more bearable. I'm guessing they're saving the brunt of the stuff for E3, but it was kind of strange that they showed the Playstation KinectEyething but didn't talk about it at all. Oh yea, and a puffy looking Jake briefly took to the stage and showed a head.

Come join the Idle Thumbs group chat! The future of gaming is starting soon!

I've only seen the first trailer last year. Everything else will be a surprise to me!

That's all kinds of hilarious. To be fair, whenever you hear him speak about any game they're working on he piles on the bullshit really thick, waxing on about this and that while saying very little. The used-car salesman descriptor is right on the money. Not a flattering one either!

When you turn it on, does it let out any beeps? If so, how many? And what RAM did you get? If it's really not that, then I don't know what it could be, hmmm.

Why not? WHY NOT!?