Former Chairman of the Fed Alan Greenspan knows what things are worth. And he doesn't think this Backlog is worth much, apparently.

Dig into our writing and you’ll find the editors of Silicon Sasquatch are a value-oriented breed. As we’ve explained many times before, we buy the games we review and only rarely are we sent review copies from the developers and publishers themselves. Which is O.K. — we know our clout hasn’t developed enough to afford the more lavish side of videogame journalism and blogging: free crap.

But we’ve made do with what we have, and each time a game is dissected and discussed there’s always an element of the worth of that product. That value assessment is approached in a multitude of ways; we might be looking at the cost of a DLC pack one day and judging the necessity of a sequel the next. Worthiness is a hard concept to grasp because it means so many things to people, especially when it comes to videogames.

So read this week’s Backlog as us making statements on three things: downloadable content, pay walls and sequels. These are important, modern issues in today’s software marketplace, and topics I’d like us to revisit in length down the road. However, we’ll make do with skimming the surface for now.

Doug:

Mass Effect 2's Arrival DLC: More interesting than it is fun and good

It’s been a light week for gaming. What can I say? These things go in ebbs and tides, and between not buying much and not taking the time to play anything I already have, I don’t have a ton to report back on.

I did download and play through the Mass Effect 2: Arrival DLC pack. My thoughts are here, but the long and short of it? Arrival has value because it’s the DLC pack that sets the story up for Mass Effect 3. I love that it gave me a really good reason to put my ME2 disc back in, but as DLC, it’s a little bit of a let-down. Overlord and Lair of the Shadow Broker were both so much better.

Other than that, it’s been the usual staples for me: soccer, racing, football. I’m actually doing races in Forza 3 again instead of just screwing around with creating cars, and I think I’m going to start racing online again starting next week, so a few hours getting setups nailed in might be in order. In a strange, roundabout way, starting to learn how to prepare cars up to drift has taught me a fair bit about suspension setups; even though it’s a very different discipline, reading about the interplay of shock, damper and sway bar settings provides some good ideas for more traditional circuit racing.

Also, this isn’t strictly related to games I played this week, but this week’s Giant Bombcast provided some absolute gems. I damn near pissed my pants and crashed my car on I-5 at the same time. Thankfully, some kind soul trimmed the Hot 97-parody insanity into a YouTube clip. EXCLUUUSIVE! Enjoy.

Nick:

DONATE NOW!

With the sole exception of a thirty-minute cooperative Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light sesh (I’ll let this abbreviation slide, because it’s not “natch”…I hate that -Ed.) with Aaron, it’s been a week of gaming vicariously. I’ve been meticulously combing through impressions of fancy things like the Nintendo 3DS and parts for a potential new PC upgrade.

However, I did make two major gaming-related purchases. The first is a no-brainer: I pre-ordered Portal 2 on PlayStation 3 with the singular intention of popping the disc in, syncing my PSN ID with my Steam account, firing up my free PC/Mac copy and going from there. The second is a long overdue expense: a year’s subscription to Giant Bomb.

Doug and I are unambiguous in our love of Giant Bomb. It’s an encouraging story of a few great game critics moving from the old, autocratic games press world and building something new and unprecedented. It’s paid off in spades: for my money, Giant Bomb creates the best original games-related editorial content out there.

With the New York Times having launched its controversial pay wall system, I’ve been thinking a great deal about how much web-based news and editorial content is worth to me. But where the New York Times opts for a byzantine pricing scheme (someone please explain why iPad access costs more than smartphone access and must be purchased separately), Giant Bomb charges a paltry $50 per year.

That $50 doesn’t get you a whole lot of significant perks, other than access to cool paid subscriber content like their weekly Happy Hour show — but even that’s something that I’m frankly not a huge fan of. I’m paying the yearly fee primarily because I think what they’re putting out for free is worth a whole lot of money, and I feel good about giving the Whiskey Media team money to keep doing what they do.

Silicon Sasquatch is not a business, and I doubt it ever will be. But I think paying for original media is going to become the norm, even in spite of the clumsy precedent the New York Times is setting. I have to wonder, as someone who’s used to writing for no compensation, what the total worth of my work on this blog amounts to?

It’s not a question I want answered. I really don’t want to slap a PayPal link on the sidebar to beg for money. That’s not why I write. But still, I have to wonder, all these thousands of hours and hundreds of articles later: What are my words actually worth?

Aaron:

I can't get over how non-tactical it is to do a Maxim model lookback pose when all of NYC is on fire

Nick doesn’t lie. We certainly played Lara Croft last week, and what we accomplished in that short 30-ish minutes was unexpectedly fun. I assumed that the game was going to feel like a so-so copy of Gauntlet, but the multiplayer added depth to the entire game itself. Honestly, I don’t want to play it without a partner anymore.

Otherwise I’ve been up to my old tricks since our last Backlog:  leveling my Pokemon White team in the post-game world of Unova, starting a few games and never finishing them (Comic Jumper), buying more games and content that I won’t be getting around to anytime soon (Fallout: New Vegas: Dead Money and X-Men Arcade), pre-ordering a game I’m really excited for (Portal 2 [also on PS3]) and obsessing over The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Is that out yet?

Just a minute while I go search the web.

November? Shit. After Portal 2 I might have to stop playing games for a few months. I want to re-virginize myself.

And here’s something I can’t get off my mind: Should I buy Crysis 2? Is a Crysis game, the first being so frustratingly elitist with its then mind-boggling PC system requirements, relevant today? It seems the second one has moved past flexing its muscles in so many ways, if only because I have the choice of buying it for two console platforms that don’t require overclocking and liquid cooling to up the framerate by 10 per second. I understand as a long-time PC gamer why the culture of upgrading a computer to its limits is exciting, but I don’t have the patience for that these days. At least not for Crysis 2. Battlefield 3 is a different beast, and one that will be ceremoniously slain with my new hardware come this holiday season.

So I pose this question to anyone who’s reading: Is Crysis 2, as a game and not as a technical demonstration, worth purchasing for a console platform like the Xbox 360? Some background on why I’m interested in it: I want a solid multiplayer experience that has persistent goals and ranks but isn’t a Modern Warfare clone, and I want a singleplayer campaign that is memorable enough for a $60 investment, regardless of length.

I mention the Xbox as my choice if only because I know I can rely on Microsoft’s service to keep me playing at high bandwidth (compared to Sony’s [sorry, it's true]), and because as of this writing I have more friends with the game on the Xbox than anywhere else — PC included.

Maybe I should just save my money for L.A. Noire.

This image is .05% related to the title. You can see that there's a Slinky, and Slinkys "spring." Also, this creature's stuck in it and can't move "forward." It's ironically genius, when you think about it.

Welcome to this week’s Backlog! I’m your typist-guide — my name’s Aaron, but you can call me Aaron — and it’s my job to introduce our content. So let me do that.

Today is a good day, and not just because I’m totally fond of our latest contributions about games we’ve all played during the past seven days. No, that’s all fine and dandy. What I mean in calling today a good day is that the atmosphere is different — finally. I can feel the air warming. I can see the daylight growing longer. My roommates are busy cleaning their rooms, watering their plants and putting on airs for guests who are showing up this weekend. People are emerging from winter’s woolen grasp and it’s visible on the faces around me. Spring is fuckin’ here.

How nice.

Doug:

Slip slidin' away.

Spoiler: I too am writing this on my iPhone, but it’s for a different reason – my stalwart MacBook has a slight problem that should be easy to fix. Thank god for small miracles.

However, I’ve been gaming like a fiend this week. I finished Limbo and feel like that is a beautiful, awesome game that gets a touch too obtuse, puzzle-wise, at the end. I guess I’m not smart enough to figure out how to do some of those puzzles.

I played a couple demos, too. I dont play tennis at all, but Top Spin 4 I may have to buy. It’s definitely the successor to Virtua Tennis, is fairly simple to pick up and play, but looks fantastic and has great depth. Tennis games are great same-couch multiplayer jams, too. Add in a sweet-looking single-player mode and this could be a fun sleeper.

MLB 2K11 was really sharp, graphically, but it’s just kind of eh. Sony’s MLB The Show series is much better.

I also finally got a proper taste of CoD: BLOPS. Yeah, that’s the volume turned to 11 24/7. Thanks but I’ll pass.

What I’ve been spending way too much time on is drifting in Forza 3. I got the itch after watching a recap show about the 2010 Japanese D1GP series, and impressed with the array of cars and relative street car resemblance they bore. It’s a good match for Forza’s tuning capabilities.

I perused Forza’s official forums and found that the first post of their Drifting subforum tuning thread had great tips for adjusting setups, so with knowledge in hand, I set out building and tuning a small fleet of cars. And painting! I now have a team of Castrol and Falken sponsored drift machines with authentic U.S. Formula Drift numberplates. It’s my personal fantasy made real.

Actually drifting is a whole different style from normal “grip” driving. The lines around the track are different, and car control is a bit different, too. Throttle control is paramount. It’s fun to practice, though, and a lot cheaper than burning through all those tires in real life! It also makes me excited for Shift 2′s drifting modes.

Aaron:

My girlfriend wants you to know this game is rated "T" for "Too scary!"

I’ve taken a swing at so many games over the past two weeks (which astute readers will recognize that I was absent from the last ‘log, due to generally fuck-upery). To list all of them and what I’ve beaten and/or stated would be boring, so let me try a different approach: I’ll discuss one game! That’s better, no?

Dead Space 2: What the hell was that? It lived up to the developer’s namesake, that’s certain, but I certainly have some opinions about the game now that I’ve finished it. While Dead Space 2 is the best sequel I’ve played in 2011 (Dragon Age II will triumph in the end, you watch), it’s also a game that tries very hard to be hated. Survival horror is dead, and should rightfully be until 10 years have passed and devs run out of ideas again, and what’s left of that old genre is Dead Space: an action-y creature that writhes within and embodies the shriveled carcass of the original Resident Evils, but still does a lot of things wrong to make it unforgiving — and not in a satisfying, challenging way.

The presentation is top-notch, even perfect. The atmosphere is scary and I love it.  The sound design makes me long for my 5.1 stereo set up. In so many ways, Dead Space 2 doesn’t appear to have its faults, but I think they’re readily apparent. It’s how stupid the game is. Dead Space 2 is brain dead, and it’s because you’re given an open world design as far as the weapons and RPG-lite elements go, but no really indication that your choices in upgrading your RIG, stasis powers or weapons are the “correct” choice. And don’t tell me the choices aren’t right or wrong when you die repeatedly because your weapon doesn’t have the best reload speed or some other missing Excel stat sheet number.

It’s entirely possible I’m simply awful at Dead Space. Regardless, the game doesn’t get off of the hook for its lack of intelligent or logical progression just because it offers a New Game+ mode. It’s not fair to give a bevy of upgrade choices as an illusion of freedom and then punish the player for not chosing the “right” load out on moderate difficulty. Offering a second go-around with your (poorly) updated equipment and the chance to find more power nodes is not a proper consolation prize.

Anyway, the game was good!

Nick:

Let's hope Nick doesn't get LONELY in the LONE Star state! HA! Clever.

I’m writing this backlog contribution on my iPhone about two hours outside of Austin. It’s been an insane week, what with packing, saying my goodbyes, bingeing on all my Oregon food staples (much love to Cornucopia, Café Yumm! and Dove Vivi) and driving a billion hours across half the country. Unfortunately, that leaves no time for games.

Seriously. I haven’t so much as touched an iPhone game since last weekend. But I think it’s only appropriate to point out that the last game I played in Portland before hitting the road was Rock Band 3 (of course). I’ll miss playing it every couple weeks in Portland — but I won’t miss shoving all my fake instruments into the trunk of my car each time.

It won't last, bro! Not with a goatee of that caliber.

Ah, it’s that time again. The taste of romance is in every gust of air. It rustles each leaf with libidinous intent while its bedfellow, infatuation, pours itself into our potable water reservoirs from the back of some unmarked van rented at an Avis by foreign insurgents. We’re talking about a biological terrorist attack of the heart here. That familiar, disgusting plague which incites both pleasure (a sudoric [read: sweaty] bedroom encounter) and pain (a three-course meal and expensive wine at a restaurant far out of your tax bracket) is back. A cruel holiday Valentine’s is: lovers love while the lonely get lonelier.

But who gives a shit when you’ve got videogames to play, right?

With no real honor or cause paid to Valentine’s Day (which is coming up this Monday, for those who are chronologically handicapped), I present this week’s Backlog in stunning LOVE-O-VISION ©.

Basically, I colored everything pink.

Nick:

Normally you have to pay for this kind of sexual deviance on Valentine's Day.

I am not a violent man by nature. When I’ve been shoved around or belittled, my first reaction hasn’t been to rise up with fists; instead, I try to take the high road and fire back with a wry insult or pithy rejoinder. What can I say? I have a way with words.*

But for whatever reason — carnal instinct? buried ferocity? too many demeaning camping trips in my Boy Scout days? — I get a whole lot of satisfaction out of a game that delivers raw, crunchy and, well, visceral combat. It’s related to the giddiness I get from watching a great ‘80s action movie, like the moment when John McClane sends Hans Gruber plummeting to his demise or when John Matrix (truly the golden age of brain-dead movie protagonist names!) throws an effing pipe through Bennett and urges him to “let off some steam.”

Genius.

That’s why Dead Space 2 has been such an absolute joy to play. Having devoured the first third of the game in one sitting, I’m finding very little fault in the experience. Putting a face and a voice to hero Isaac Clarke (truly the golden age of brain-dead game protagonist names!) helps give the player a more meaningful anchor within the game world. And thanks to a more-linear level structure, Dead Space 2 has honed its flow to a near-perfect pitch. Really, I think it was summed up best by @Casey_Malone when he said that Dead Space is to Dead Space 2 as Uncharted is to Uncharted 2. It really is that significant of an improvement.

But given that our theme this week is love, or whatever, I’d like to point out a game that I couldn’t help but fall for within the first ten minutes: Stacking. It’s the second of Double Fine’s quartet of downloadable new games, and it’s a strong successor to the witty and adorable Costume Quest. Pairing an industrial-age motif with Russian matryoshka dolls, Stacking is a clever puzzle-solving game filled with Double Fine’s trademark clever writing. I can’t wait to dive in deeper.

*And the muscle mass of a tiny kitten.

Doug:

If my disgusting sex-related humor continues, I may come under the wrath of Mr. Wright.

I feel about a million years late to the party, but: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is now on iOS and is awesome. I’m kind of ashamed to say that I’d only heard of the Ace Attorney series until now, but can you blame me? My DS usually just gathers dust. I’m a terrible handheld gamer. Anyway, I’m halfway through the second case, and man, I kind of wish the difficulty ramp-up was a little gentler; you go from feeling really confident burying a guy in court to then having to investigate, find evidence, keep track of it, and begin to press for falsehoods in testimony. The second court case is a lot more complicated, but it’s a fun challenge.

In any case, this is exactly the kind of game that should be on iOS devices — not terribly action-intensive, but able to take advantage of a touch screen and keep you interested. Compare this with playing the iOS version of Super Street Fighter IV on Nick’s iPhone, or the copy of FIFA 11 I bought when it was on sale — games that put a d-pad and buttons on the screen — and while it’s something that can be done, it’s just not the way I want to play those games. The touch-screen D-pad is a particular problem, though it performed better in SSFIV than I expected. I still have Broken Sword that fits these general themes, too, and I should tackle that again soon, but right now it’s Wright time. It’s now back up to $5, which is a bit dear for an iPhone/iOS game, but definitely worthwhile.

I’ve also been spending a ton of time on Assassin’s Creed II. I’m really close to the end, but I spent a bunch of time last weekend hunting for codex pages and pieces of The Truth. So I know The Truth now, but still don’t understand it; I still have some other collectibles to find, and the last few assassinations to execute, so hopefully I’ll understand everything by the time the credits roll. Nick’s also kindly supplied me with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, which is just sitting there, taunting me, and providing more reason to finish up its predecessor.

I’m also probably going to re-start my NBA 2K11 career (again) just in time for the Portland Trail Blazers to get healthy. Again. Maybe. Hopefully.

Aaron:

Stacking is a game about being inside of people. In other words, this game is totally appropriate for Valentine's Day.

What a gorgeous week! The benefit to working a 10 hour shift for four days is that you get three consecutive days off. It’s a price that’s worth paying with the nickels and dimes plucked from the tired, defeated body you lug home after each day. Anyway, I used my last few days off to chow-the-fuck-down on my personal backlog of games.

I’m more than halfway through Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and everyone who said good things about the game was beyond right — they were prophetic. And regardless of its sales, I’m happy to own a copy of Ninja Theory’s digital opus. The facial animation and character development between Monkey and Trip is staggering, and even poetic to a degree. What a nuanced game Enslaved is, and one that deserves to be played by all gamers.

Stacking came out this week, and I don’t know what to think about it. There’s no doubt that I find it charming, but I get a strange sense while playing it that I’m not clever enough for the game. Don’t ask me to explain that, because I have no idea what I’m talking about. I suppose, and this sounds harsh, that I’m not enough of a hipster to “get” Stacking.

Fallout: New Vegas was in my Xbox 360′s disc tray for about two hours on Wednesday. Moving on….

Let me say something about Dead Space 2: the succulent meat and tender potatoes of my gaming habits this week. It has impressed me more in an hour than any game in recent memory. I can tell it’s a masterpiece, all hyperbole taken into consideration, and I’m on the second chapter. Cinematic doesn’t even begin to describe Dead Space 2, but that’s what it is; Visceral Games has taken cues from film and injected them into an expertly paced horror title so damn well.

The modern videogame industry is just that: the aggregation of production and distribution focused on a central, profitable product. Each week of the 52 in a given year hosts at least one new game release, a perpetual influx so massive in volume and, well, industriousness that it’s mind-numbingly tedious to sort through the year’s calendar to decide what to spend money on at your favorite retailers. So, that’s why we take care of the work for you in this wonderfully conjectural article.

You’re welcome!

Here are the games that have made us all atwitter and will be releasing while Oregon’s weather changes from frigid to fiery.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

February 15th — 360/PS3

Wanna take you for a ride. Ten years after Marvel vs. Capcom 2, the high-water mark for batshit crazy 2D fighting games, Capcom’s crossover fighting game series is back and looks to be even crazier. Pitting your favorite Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Mega Man and assorted Capcom characters versus some of the most famous comic book heroes and villains Marvel has to offer, the Vs series has long featured 2D tag-team fighting writ crazy. With a focus on gameplay that’s faster and less technical than the main-line Street Fighter II/IV games, making MvC3 at once more approachable, wilder, and completely different to other games on the market.

Besides, if you don’t want to partner up Ryu, Amaterasu (the main character from Okami) and freaking Deadpool (who purposefully breaks the fourth wall in the game), I really don’t know what else to say. Fast, frantic fun awaits. — Doug Bonham

Beyond Good & Evil HD

March 2nd — PSN/XBLA

Michael Ancel’s cult classic is being given a second chance at life. After a relatively unsuccessful debut on last-generation consoles, Beyond Good and Evil is being upscaled for high-definition consoles and will be released for a meager $10.

For the uninitiated, Beyond Good and Evil is a clever action-adventure game that’s vaguely reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It also throws some fun new ideas into the mix, including vehicles, stealth sequences and a fun, engaging photography element. The story is surreal, with strange creatures populating a beautiful and bizarre world. I look back on few games with the fondness that I associate with BG&E; if you missed it before, make sure you take a look this time around. — Nick Cummings

Dragon Age II

March 8th — 360/PS3/Windows

BioWare has proved time and again that its sequels aren’t pixel-for-pixel reproductions of the first game with a better tech engine bandaged on top; instead BioWare has the wherewithal to improve upon the smallest and largest nuances that make a franchise resonate with gamers everywhere. Dragon Age is back, and it promises to make you “think like a general and fight like a Spartan.”

In Dragon Age 2, the Grey Warden has been retired. Hawke’s story will be written as you play the role. But who is Hawke anyway? She (or he) is a lone hero whose journey is recapitulated over the course of a decade from the diegetic stories of her closest travelling companions. It’s a clever plot device that needs to be utilized more, and the idea that Hawke may change in appearance (are crow’s feet too much?) during her journey makes it easier to be connected to the character you control. The irony is that the Grey Warden was developed to be you, the classic silent hero, a portraiture of your mistakes and successes. In Dragon Age 2 Hawke will develop as a personality through your vicarious choices.

Graphics and controls aside (the console versions look improved and PC will once again offer a classic, premiere experience), importing the string of choices made by the end of Dragon Age: Origins could become the greatest bulletpoint of this sequel. Mass Effect pulled it off, but there are no guarantees. After all, how many of Origins’ choices can truly affect Dragon Age 2 when the last hero has been replaced, the plot spans 10 years and the developers are promising an uncomplicated mythology for newcomers who never swung a sword as the Warden? — Aaron Thayer

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters

March 29th — 360/PS3/Wii

You know what? I like golf. Getting good at the sport in real life requires an almost zen-like ability to master your swing and the creativity to deal with different situations during a round, and while the sport is often referred to as “a good walk spoiled,” 18 holes on a late spring afternoon is a great time to spend with your buddies.

Thankfully, EA Sports makes a pretty mean golf game. 18 holes fly by when you don’t have to walk them, perfecting your swing on a controller is pretty easy, and the in-game golf shop always allows you to play white-man dress-up — all of which really appeals to me as a sports gamer. This year, the new gimmick/feature is the inclusion of Augusta National Golf Club and the famed Masters tournament. Yes, this is the one that gives you the green jacket if you win, but it is also quite possibly the most famous golf course in the United States, almost impossible to play at in real life, and linked intrinsically with golf history. Golf fans are going wild, but it means that gamers get the chance to participate in a tradition unlike any other. — Doug Bonham

Shift 2 Unleashed

March 29th — 360/OS-X/PS3/Windows

I think it’s been well established by now that I’m the car guy here. That said, I’m not the biggest Need for Speed fan in the world. I grew up with the first Need for Speed (presented by Road & Track magazine!), NFS2 and the original Hot Pursuit, but as things became more mass produced, I faded away and turned more to Gran Turismo and other, more simulation-heavy racers.

That said, the recent split within the Need for Speed franchise has me really interested. The new, Criterion-developed Hot Pursuit provided the Burnout-style thrills, while the Shift side promises to provide more of a circuit-racing feel. From comments I’ve read in previews and seen at the Need for Speed-tied car culture web site Speedhunters, it sounds like Shift 2 is going to focus as much car customization as Forza 3, but focus more on racing and drifting. Plus, Shift 2 is going to build on the visceral driver’s-eye view technology that debuted in the first game and made you feel how violent and physical racing a car can be. If I can pull a drift AE86 Toyota out of the garage and follow it up with an FIA GT1-spec GT-R, I’m going to be a happy boy. — Doug Bonham

Portal 2

April 18th — 360/PS3/Windows

Portal seemingly came out of nowhere and cruised right by the industry’s creative blind spot to change the way gamers both casual and core thought of videogames as a whole. It was a cultural darling and a satisfying concept that in two short hours championed the highest levels of charm and wit that more titles so desperately needed. I see most modern games in a pre and post-Portal time frame; before Portal there was stagnation and repetition, and after it there emerged an example to rally around as a piece of interactive software without peer in humor, pace, innovation and earnestness. Portal wasn’t even my favorite game, but what it represented was a shift in perception about the capabilities of the talented artists and programmers working on games today when they were allowed to think , well, with portals.

The sequel won’t define the industry in the same manner as its predecessor, but that’s acceptable. Portal 2 only needs to be a better version of Portal 1 to justify itself. With the groundwork laid in the first title, Valve could complicate the puzzles a bit, add a Portal Gun 2.0 and call it a day. Instead, Portal 2 is introducing cooperative gameplay, cross-platform Steam support on the PlayStation 3, a six-hour long campaign, another charming script full of mentally deficient automatons and a bevy of mind-bending puzzles that I have a hard time comprehending even after watching them unfold in video previews.

The first Portal was rewarding because it was refreshing. Its sequel will be rewarding because its developers refuse to settle for anything less than profound. — Aaron Thayer

Duke Nukem Forever

May 3rd — 360/PS3/Windows

Always bet on Duke.

You know, I don’t really care how great this game is. If it boots up successfully and lets me kill a bunch of ugly aliens while spouting off crude one-liners left and right, I will be completely satisfied. Maybe younger or older gamers won’t understand my affinity for Duke, but if you were ten years old when Duke Nukem 3D burst onto the scene, it would have opened your eyes with all its boot-stomping, nipple-tasseled debauchery. I owe Duke for depriving me of a bit of my childhood innocence — and for starring in a pretty great, and classic, first-person shooter. — Nick Cummings

L.A. Noire

May 17th — 360/PS3

Ever since I first visited Los Angeles last November, I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. It’s true that I complained ceaselessly about the smog, the traffic, the heat, the sprawl, and everything else in between, but in spite of all that I’m finding myself wanting to go back. L.A. is a contradictory and fascinating place.

Rockstar’s latest, L.A. Noire, puts you in the shoes of a detective investigating a series of crimes in 1940s Los Angeles. Some seriously stunning motion capture and voice acting are on display in early trailers for the game, highlighting a very strong sense of place that I think is invaluable in immersive games. Details are still relatively few, but the combination of intense action and investigation sequences that require some serious critical thinking sounds very promising. The most obvious comparison in my mind is Heavy Rain, and it’ll be interesting to see how the two compare. — Nick Cummings

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

TBA (originally spring) — 360/PS3/Windows

My mission is to infiltrate a fortified, 30-story building. What do I do? How can I survive this? Do I shoot my way through, or do I sneak in? Honestly, I have no idea. Thankfully I can fall back on my cloaking device and that martial art implant training. And that computer interface hack I installed earlier will prove useful.  Either way, people will die as I find myself slipping further away from my former humanity to become a better and faster machine for the company — for my employer.

Adam Jensen is an ex-SWAT and heavily augmented human in a futuristic Detroit (sounds like Robocop now that I think about it). In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, he confronts both himself and saboteurs in a quest to find out who took his life away from him. It’s a well-told tale, intentionally vague and filled with smoke and mirrors to string the player along. But what Human Revolution has going for it is the Blade Runner atmosphere and a dissertation of sorts on the potential course of human evolution through cybernetics, a fantastic philsosphical debate that, as long as the gameplay isn’t sluggish or cumbersome, could result in intense moral choices and wonderfully strenuous dialogue trees.

However, Human Revolution has faced multiple delays. The most recent one has sent it into a “TBA” fiscal 2011 classification, and that doesn’t bode well for either Square-Enix or Eidos. This franchise has clout. Selling gamers on the Deus Ex name is both a feat and a folly: The belief that the original game is among the greatest ever published is readily apparent, yet the eight years that have passed since Deus Ex: Invisible War have seen tremendous change, which implies an uphill battle for this sepia-toned sci-fi think piece. — Aaron Thayer

This gorilla mirrors my current level of enthusiasm toward videogames

Has it finally happened? Have I lost my interest in the one pastime I’ve sunk the most effort into since I was a child? Are videogames suddenly boring?

Maybe. Actually, I doubt it.

In all honesty, I’m more overwhelmed with the industry right now than I’m disenfranchised with it. And I should be specific here: I’m not talking about the videogame industry so much as I’m directing my bitching to the large pile of games I still need to finish. That’s no one’s fault but my own — still, once I have “too much” to play I get bored with games in general and — gasp — go and read a book.

In semi-related news, I’m just about finished with book four in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. With that movie and TV franchise in the works, I kinda hope for/dread a videogame adaptation. Here’s a tip, Ron Howard and Mr. King: make Rockstar San Diego the developers.

Aaron:

Colorful!

I started Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands this week. So far it’s what I had expected it to be, which is typical. That’s not to say I’m unsatisfied by the first two hours; anymore I need to play games that offer something unseen or new to truly satisfy my wants and needs as a player. Regardless, the game cost me $10 used from Gamefly, so I shouldn’t be so judgmental.

The rest of my week hasn’t exactly lent itself to gaming. However I did pre-order the collector’s edition of LittleBigPlanet 2 last night, and I absolutely can’t wait. I expect hours of enjoyment, as does my girlfriend, from Media Molecule’s anticipated sequel. The one downside here is I’ll have to drop some more cash on an extra controller. Which color of DualShock 3 should I choose?

Doug:

It's football.

Football season is over. There’s really nothing else to say.

Nick:

Nelson Tethers encounters a potential clue at the Scoggins Society building. Not pictured: Wood chipper with human leg.

Basically, what Doug said. I made the journey down to Glendale myself to watch the Ducks vie for the championship title, and it was physically and spiritually exhausting. I don’t want to dwell on specifics or what could have been or certain egregious (read: bullshit) calls; I’d rather just remember the experience for all the fun and excitement that defined it. This season made me into a college football fan, and I couldn’t really ask for anything more than that.

While in California, I only had my ancient laptop and iPhone for entertainment, so my options were a bit limited. I played a lot of Minecraft, of course, but that’s a given. And I’m still enjoying the hell out of VVVVVV, the best little masochistic indie platformer this side of Super Meat Boy. But I actually got the most enjoyment out of a little game I’d picked up for a dollar months ago for my iPhone and somehow forgotten about.

Puzzle Agent kind of came and went, it seems, and that’s a shame. It was Telltale’s first foray into a smaller, more digestible approach to games, but in my opinion it might be the most playable and best-designed game they’ve ever put out. Its similarities to Professor Layton are certainly not coincidental, but the puzzle-slash-adventure hybrid formula feels fresh and interesting. Excellent sense of style, bizarre humor and well-designed puzzles make Puzzle Agent a fantastic game, and one that’s particularly well-suited to iOS.

Now that I’m back, I’m eager to dive back into a few of the better games of 2010 that slipped through the cracks. First up: Fallout: New Vegas. Yes Man (voiced by Dave Foley!) and I have some unfinished business to attend to.

Nick and Doug have had their chance to proselytize for their second-favorite games of last year. Now it’s my turn.

Let’s get busy!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Windows, Xbox 360, PS3 — March 2nd

Perhaps it’s not fair to judge a game based on how close it is to my own personal ideals, but whatever: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is as close to a proper Battlefield 2 sequel that I’m likely to get until EA and DICE suck it up and release Battlefield 3. And truly, that’s why I enjoyed BC2 last year.

The Battlefield games have exemplified the most pure aspects of truly chaotic and unpredictable online multiplayer warfare. Each round on each map is a randomized experience, more so than any other FPS I’ve played. It just feels right to me, and Bad Company 2 was an impressive game in 2010. A few things held it back from being a top contender, however: limited game modes, too few maps and odd issues with bullet lag, damage detection and weapon accuracy made Bad Company 2 a good game, but not a great game.

Donkey Kong Country Returns

Wii — November 21st

As was the case with Torchlight in my honorable mentions from 2009, I haven’t finished Donkey Kong Country Returns and yet I still claim it to be one of my favorite games from 2010. If you were ever a child with a Super Nintendo, you probably played the original Donkey Kong Country series. And even if you weren’t fortunate enough to have an SNES (or your family was really dumb and bought you a Genesis), I’d still bet that you played Rare’s platforming masterpieces at some point in your adolescent life.

The fact is that Returns is a modern Donkey Kong Country experience that preserves the essence of the classic games better than any other remake in recent memory. Some gamers claim that Returns is far too similar to the core DKC titles, or that it’s too difficult. It’s not. It’s brilliant, and one of the best Wii games available today.

Sometimes we, and by we I mean the collective whole of gamers both core and casual, find ourselves becoming jaded by mainstream releases — all too often we play derivations of the same few concepts over and over again. I’d like to point out that Returns did more in 2010 to make me feel happy playing videogames than any other release last year. I didn’t have to pick apart Returns’ finer points and determine what the social commentary or narrative introspection was truly saying about, I don’t know, the South American banana trade; instead of looking at a Donkey Kong game and worrying about it being art, I played it for amusement’s sake.

And while I continue to find all sorts of games fun, Donkey Kong Country Returns kept that purely youthful feeling of exuberance and whimsical wonder around long after I set down the remote. That counts for something.

Splinter Cell Conviction

Windows, Xbox 360 — April 13th

Unlike a few of my Silicon Sasquatch colleagues, I can look at our Top 10 list of 2010 and believe that it’s an undeniably fair sorting of what we all agreed were the best games released over 365 days. I’m not one to lament that X title or Y app was left off of the tally sheets, or even boast that — in sheer blasphemy — my list is the “true” list. (That’s right Nick, I saw your Giant Bomb post!)

All mockery aside, the one game I regret that didn’t make the cut for our 2010 list was Splinter Cell Conviction. Ubisoft crafted the redemption of Sam Fisher in a singleplayer story that held my interest, propelled the action and revamped the entire core experience of a Splinter Cell game. The catch is that in doing things so drastically different, the team didn’t fail but instead made the best Splinter Cell of all time — I honestly believe that.

Conviction proved to me that Sam Fisher as a videogame action hero has a lot of life left in him. But what put last year’s Splinter Cell over the top (and what could have made it a comfortable fit in our Top 10) was the two-player cooperative campaign, Deniable Ops, which is a co-op experience that every other developer should take notes from. Players rely on each other like in the Spies vs. Mercanaries mode of old, but instead of feeling helpless Conviction’s Mark and Execute tactics empower the Third Echelon and Voron black ops characters to kick all kinds of terrorist ass. The success of a well-timed series of behind-the-back pistol shots and “death from above” neck snaps is morbidly satisfying. In many ways Conviction’s co-op missions bring back the feeling of originality and super spy machismo that the first three Splinter Cell titles became famous for.

Anyone not impressed by the mode, and believe me there are many, likely missed out these two elements that are key to the experience: one, a trusted online or offline partner that understands the finer points of stealth and target prioritizing; and two, having the difficulty cranked to its maximum. I for one usually despise higher difficulties, but Deniable Ops was an enitrely different experience when the enemies started to think for their own survival.

Maybe it’s the developer’s fault that to truly enjoy its product you have to play it in very specific ways and with a list of stringent options that not everyone has access to or interest in, à la Deniable Ops and its need for a quality human counterpart and an extreme level of difficulty. Whether or not a game’s experience should be measured on either its highest potential or its most introductory elements is a debate worthy of an entire other article. However, I’m glad Splinter Cell Conviction didn’t ask me to buy another $400 worth of plastic instruments to get the most out of it last year.

It scares some of us.

Nick and Doug settle for the gaming equivalent of security blankets this week instead of embracing the unknown.

I’m not judging them, at least not intentionally. But maybe I am now that I think about it.

Our story so far: two editors walk down well-tread paths carved out of boredom while I charge blindly into trying two indie games on a whim and a 2010 retail release I had completely forgotten about until this past Tuesday.

Nick:

Nick says: Considering that Diablo 2 was my favorite game when I was 14 years old, I have a long history of characters with crude, juvenile names. My current character is named Assbutt. I'm nearly 25 years old. You're welcome.

World of Warcraft is the great divider among gamers. Either you play it or you don’t, and when you’re playing it that’s generally the only game you have time to play.

As an editor of an award-winning¹, world-famous² website about games, I can’t reasonably justify diving back into the murky depths of Azeroth post-Cataclysm. I’ve watched a fair bit of video on the new regions and races, though, and it looks like a smarter, faster WoW. That’s good news, but it also means it’s a game I should probably steer clear of for the time being.

But when life closes one time-consuming, soul-sucking door, it opens another one called Diablo 2.

If you know me you know that as far as I’m concerned Diablo 2 is the real goddamn deal. More than 10 years after it was released and came to encompass my high school gaming experience, it’s still unsurpassed in its genre. Newcomers like Torchlight have come very, very close, but when Diablo 2 is still so playable and so much fun after a decade of new games, there’s something legendary about that.

James (of StarCraft 2 review fame) and I have been playing some serious Diablo 2 over the last couple days, and the game is every bit as fun as I remembered. The expertly-paced combat, the varied dungeons and the addictive loot-hunting gameplay all resonate down to my core desires as a gamer. And with the latest patch adding modern features like being able to reallocate your skills and points as you level up, it’s more playable than ever.

The only downside to all this is that Diablo 3 is all but certain to disappoint. How could it not? Between the near-perfect design of its predecessor and a decade of my own potent feelings of nostalgia, it’s facing an uphill battle. I hope that, as was the case with StarCraft 2, all those years of development and refinement result in a similar leap forward for the series.

1. Well, in our hearts…
2. Okay, that’s just a flat-out lie

Doug:

Doug says: The ol' girl's still looking pretty good. Oh, and Forza 3 stands the test of time, too.

Right now I’m still sitting between what I want to play and what I feel like I need to play. I’m still playing through a couple different games ahead of our Game of the Year discussions, but I’m only really drawn into one of them. I actually put another one into my Xbox 360 a couple nights ago, booted the game up, and then stared at the title screen for a minute or two…only to pop the disc out and put Mass Effect 2 back in.

Yep — I’ve gotten the bug for ME2 back, and earlier this week I blitzed through the Lair of the Shadow Broker content pack. Without giving anything away, I thought it was maybe too combat-heavy but provided a fascinating twist into the storyline. Highly recommended for anybody who’s played the game, but that’s a fact we’ve known since Nick’s review.

Another game I’ve been putting time back into recently is Forza Motorsport 3. It’s over a year old, but it’s still a very good-looking game and plays very, very well. After spending all the time with F1 2010, my racing senses have been set to “super-alert”; the street cars in Forza obviously react and drive a bit slower, which takes some adjusting. I really want to sit down and give Gran Turismo 5 a shot now that I’ve been playing Forza 3 again some more, because it’ll be a clearer comparison in my mind. There’s also another DLC pack coming out for Forza 3 next week, and it features some cars I like in real life — and then also the DeLorean, as made famous in Back to the Future.

Lastly, I’ve been playing more NBA 2K11…and it’s still amazing. It also helps that I created an awesome Trail Blazers squad with a fantasy draft — Kevin Durant and Tony Parker to run things on offense and Kevin Love to pick up all the rebounds? Yes, please. The closest nerd analogue I can think of is playing a game where you start off by rolling characters, and getting a really good starting roll. I’m looking forward to trying to get through a season with the lineup I’ve drafted.

Aaron:

I say: In spite of a horrendous advertising campaign and lukewarm reviews, Blur is the most splitscreen fun I've had all fucking year.

It would be great if someone would tell me I was wrong about something way ahead of time. Blur came out in May, and I blacklisted this racer as a cheap knock-off of the Mario Kart formula. It’s not. It’s much, much better as far as this generation of Mario Kart is concerned.

I’m absolutely serious, people! Mario Kart for Wii was god-awful. I couldn’t even stomach the hackneyed motion controls during multiplayer, let alone an entire singleplayer racing campaign.  And that’s coming from a diehard fan of every other Mario Kart game in the series — even Double Dash.

My opportunity to play Blur came this past week, and over the last few days I’ve spent several hours with the game’s singleplayer campaign and multiplayer splitscreen modes. The learning curve is steep, and the tutorial videos are tedious and do a bad job of explaining the concepts. But once I had a few races under my belt I was ready to unleash the fury of my RS Camaro. Time and time again the NPC drivers would fall prey to my land mine traps, EMP fields and tiny purple energy missiles of doom. Blur is a gorgeously rendered neon-soaked alternate universe where a race is won by crossing the checkered line first and pummeling cars into oblivion. This is the most addictive racing game I’ve ever played (yeah, ever), and I’m saddened that Bizarre Creations might be closing its doors in part because Blur, the better-than-Mario-Kart-Wii racer, flopped at retail.

Aside from blowing up a hundred Ford Focuses this week, I randomly bought two Xbox Live Indie Games. My purchases of Breath of Death VII and Epic Dungeon have been very sound investments. Breath of Death is a parody of everyone’s favorite JRPGs as well as a compendium of so many references to nerd culture that I can rarely keep up with the script. Epic Dungeon is a rapid Diablo-like hack ‘n slash. It’s simplistic in an admirable way, and the incessant dungeon crawling is more immediately rewarding than, say, Torchlight.

Both indie titles are a buck each, and I would recommend them to anyone with the Microsoft Points to spare.

The PSP Mini is a concept that has been lost on me. I don’t own a PSP, and as a result I’ve never bothered to browse for, let alone purchase, what I assume are cheaply made Flash games developed for people without iPhones. Hell, I didn’t know until two months ago that Minis are playable on the PS3. So perhaps, like me, you assumed that Minis don’t have a snowball’s chance in the marketplace. doomed to stand in the shadows cast by incessantly advertised blockbusters and buzz-worthy independent games.

Who’s That Flying?!  is exactly the sort of game I never expected to come from the Minis platform. It’s a polished homage to the shoot-’em-up genre and a fun variation on twitch-based gameplay. This is a quirky and lovable game that is also superbly designed and ends before it wears out its welcome. In a few hours WTF?! managed to reverse the many misconceptions and ignorant thoughts I had about PSP Minis, which is a testament to the developer’s ability to find inspiration in such a limited format.

My ego is going to become obese if I keep eating my words, which really sucks.

Earth defends Earth, which is quite meta when you think about it.

All you need to know about the story of Who’s That Flying?! is that the defender of Earth, appropriately named Earth, is on trial for the destruction that befell our planet during an attack by blob-like creatures called ravagers. The game is played in reverse chronology as Earth testifies to the Galactic Council to clear his good name, while interjecting the monologues of his fellow defenders of the galaxy with sarcastic comments and a general sense of overblown self-importance. Earth certainly loves himself, and the developers make a sly statement by characterizing the guardian of our planet as a vain show-off.

Mediatonic is known for its odd sense of humor in its numerous games for Adult Swim and Must Eat Birds on iPhone/Android, and the team continues to bring a lot of laughs in WTF?! The title’s acronym alone makes me chuckle every time I read it. My favorite line of dialogue from the game is childish: the Guardian of Uranus antagonizes Earth throughout the trial, and at one point Earth cuts him off by saying, “Hello Uranus…decided to ‘BUTT in?’” The writers play to their strengths in WTF?!, and as a result the game is, for my tastes, much better than typical Japanese shmup (short form for shoot-’em-up) titles, which are generally devoid of personality and insistent upon rapid and relentless gameplay.

The massive number of enemies on-screen can be pleasantly overwhelming.

WTF?! is very easy, which means those looking for a challenging campaign won’t be happy. The one caveat to the general simplicity of the game is the oddly balanced levels. Specifically the Mexico level is much more difficult than the world after it. As each new area should be harder than the last, I was very confused about the incongruent levels of difficulty. Furthermore, the final boss is a pushover, and for games of this style it’s detrimental to the overall experience. Yet WTF?! isn’t entirely devoid of trials, and the ample challenge mode makes up for any shortcomings. Aimed at hardcore players, the challenge mode is sort of ridiculous. Each challenge is unique, but only the best players and shmup veterans will get past the first few challenges. Persistence doesn’t seem to matter. I’m not very good at these games, so I tried my best but died far too often to stick with it.

Each location has four stages, the last of which pits Earth against a very large boss unique to the region. WTF?! mixes things up by sending Earth to Mexico, Russia, Tokyo and the Big Apple itself, and even though the background animation and color palette for each stage is noticeably repetitive, it’s a forgivable oversight for a Minis title. And truthfully it’s quite hard to pay attention to the backdrops when hundreds of ravagers are doing their best to eat the planet’s entire population.

In a clever twist on typical shmup gimmicks, WTF?! has no traditional health or shield bar. Because Earth himself is more or less invincible, the game instead tracks the health of a city. If too many ravagers get by your beams, blasts and punches, the game will end. Medals are awarded based on performance; good news for the obsessive compulsive gamers out there.

Bosses are massive and fairly tough; so big, in fact, that the camera zooms out significantly. However, this guy is a wuss.

It’s a good thing that Mediatonic is applying its Flash title roots and mastery of bite-sized gaming experiences to a new, and monetarily viable platform — outside of mobile phones, of course. If I hadn’t had a chance to play Who’s That Flying?! I’d still be scoffing at all the other PSP Minis. The quality of this particular title makes it impossible for me to ignore Minis in the future.

Be it the toilet humor or the crisp visuals, WTF?! is a well-written and uncomplicated salute to fans of shoot-’em-up games.

Recommended for:

• The hilarious writing
• Short but sweet stick-flicking action
• Gorgeous and crisp art style
• Because it’s a shmup that’s not really a shmup…but sort of is anyway — let’s support developers that think outside of the box
• PSP users in need of a simple on-the-go gaming fix

Not Recommended for:

• $5.99 is asking a bit much for the short campaign
• Challenge mode is relevant for a select few
• If you don’t have a PSP, the allure of a game meant primarily for portable play will be lost on you

Who’s That Flying?! is a PSP Minis title developed by independent UK developer Mediatonic. The game is available on the PlayStation Network marketplace for $5.99. A copy was provided to the reviewer by the developer. The reviewer completed the core game and tried his luck in the Infinite Mode. He died very fast. The reviewer also sampled the Challenge Mode, and in doing so he realized he’s not very good at shoot-’em-up titles.

Read our policy on reviews here.

Our wondrous Backlog returns this week, and it’s massive; really, a two-for-one sort of deal.

For those out there who read these posts, I bet it’s easy to tell when pre-break introductions do a terrible job of framing our editors’ gaming experiences over the past seven or more days. In case you were wondering, this is one of those bad introductions. I’m not sure where I’m going with the Michael Scott joke and woefully overused phrase in the title, but I promise to make you just as confused as I am.

However, Nick kindly bombards us with — and I haven’t checked this to be certain — the largest block of text to ever appear in a Backlog entry. It sort of justifies my attempts at referencing size and such an immature joke. But his thing is just really huge.

That’s what she said.

Nick:

Bet you can't guess which Fallout game this is from! Here's a hint: This one has cracked asphalt, burned-out 1950s nostalgia, and wide-open, empty spaces.

Last week was insane. Between finishing the layout on the Silicon Sasquatch book and finally diving into National Novel Writing Month, I’d been busy with just about anything except games. But in recent days I’ve been lucky enough to spend some time with a lot of great games. A LOT of them. Seriously, this might take a while.

Foremost among them is Rock Band 3, where I’ve knocked out almost every achievement that isn’t related to pro guitar or three-part harmonies. I like rushing through the achievements in these games because then I feel like I can just focus on playing the songs and having fun, which is my favorite part. Or maybe I’m just compulsive? Either way, it’ll be a long time until I 100% the game — Harmonix announced the Squier guitar controller won’t be out until March 2011. In the meantime, I’m playing my real guitar all the time to get my chops up, so to speak. I won’t make any excuses — I’m a terrible guitar player, mostly because I’ve been teaching myself in bits and pieces over the last few years. But when you toss in concepts like leaderboards and fully charted guitar parts for songs I’ve always wanted to learn, like Radar Love, I Can See for Miles and, um, Portions for Foxes, there’s a great deal of motivation to become proficient.

Having exhausted Call of Duty: Black Ops (or as it’s affectionately known, CodBlops), I’ve been sneaking in a few rounds on a borrowed copy of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood whenever I have the time. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t dying to delve into the single-player campaign, which appears to be easily the equal of Assassin’s Creed 2 in scope and quality, but I just can’t resist the urge to fulfill my face-and-neck-stabbing quota in its innovative online mode. The closest parallel I can think of is The Ship, an odd little multiplayer game I picked up on Steam about four years ago. But being a pre-Modern Warfare online game, The Ship was devoid of mechanics like persistent progression — something that works exceptionally well in Brotherhood. As you increase in rank and unlock additional modes, how you outfit your assassin has a huge bearing on your strategy. For instance, there’s a cat-and-mouse mode where you’ll play one round trying to stay incognito as the hunted and another round trying to kill the other team as much as possible, and you’ll quickly learn the nuances of proper smoke bomb and hidden gun usage. Although it’d be unfair to call Brotherhood’s multiplayer truly unique, it is the most compelling and original competitive online multiplayer experience I’ve encountered this year.

I also picked up a copy of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West on the cheap from Amazon last week, and although I’m only a couple of chapters in, I’m already attached to its characters and world. It’s not a perfect game, but its charm and believability are more than enough to win me over. I’m looking forward to seeing where their journey takes them.

I picked up Pac-Man CE DX on Wednesday at about 7:30 p.m. By 8:05 p.m., I had earned every achievement and cemented myself firmly in the top 5% of the leaderboards. Don’t take that as a knock against the game, though; it’s an innovative and thoroughly entertaining spin on the Pac-Man formula. It takes the precedent set by Pac-Man CE’s clever evolution of the decades-old classic and moves it even further into the realm of the absurd. Now adorned with the prestigious title of “DX”, Pac-Man now picks up chains of hundreds of ghosts simultaneously chasing him and, in a first for the series, can now fight back with bombs. It’s a brave new world for the puck-shaped protagonist, and I think Namco deserves some serious recognition for being so audacious Pac-Man. It’s the sort of interpretation that’s risky and unexpected, much like Space Invaders Infinity Gene, and it’s similarly successful.

That same night, I also finally earned the last two outstanding achievements I had in Just Cause. Not Just Cause 2 — the first one. You remember it, right? That clunky, buggy, up-rezzed port of an original Xbox game? Now, look: I’m not proud. I’m sure you know me well enough by now to know that I don’t take pride in my disgustingly inflated gamerscore, which just broke the 60,000 threshhold this week. Nor am I proud to report that I logged a grand total of 27 hours in Just Cause, at least half of which I earned after finishing its sequel. But the strange magic that the original game possessed hasn’t been diminished by time or by its superior sequel. In fact, because it’s such a different game from Just Cause 2, I found it relatively easy to slip back into even in spite of the 40+ hours I spent with the sequel earlier this year. Yes, it’s repetitive and frustratingly designed, but it has a satisfyingly consistent flow that is hard to find elsewhere. And if nothing else, it’s a great vehicle for listening to new music or catching up on podcasts. It was easily worth the eight dollars I spent on a used copy. So if you’re reading this and in the area and you’d like my old copy, just drop me a line and I’d be happy to give it to you. If you’ve got the patience for an old, inconsistent, experimental open-world, game, you’re in for a great time.

Finally, I picked up a used copy of Fallout: New Vegas on the cheap last week, and after about fifteen hours of wandering the American Southwest, I’m feeling content, if a little bored. If Fallout 3 felt a little too much to me like a recycled Oblivion, then New Vegas is that same formula diluted even further. The combat is exactly as I remembered it, which is to say it’s too much about math and not enough about actual aiming skill. It’s an issue that’s only confounded even more by New Vegas’ addition of iron-sight aiming, which doesn’t seem to change the fact that every shot is nothing more than a dice roll. Getting around is often tedious, too, but maybe it’s more of an issue for me now that games like Borderlands have come out with useful fast-travel vehicles. I’m sure trying to rewrite the old Oblivion engine to include functional vehicles (because Oblivion’s horses were anything but functional) would be a colossal waste of time with the inevitable new engine on the way, but still, it would be a lot less frustrating and more entertaining to be able to ride around the postnuclear United States on a badass motorcycle.

A boy can dream, I guess.

Doug:

Doug didn't provide a caption, so let me say this: Anamanaguchi made an excellent soundtrack for the game.

This week, the Game Dev Story bug bit in a big way. I’ve hunted and thought long and hard about where the most addictive point in the game is; I mean, there has to be a turning point where you HAVE to play “just one more round,” and without concrete level breaks in the game, it’s hard to tell. However, the closest approximation is the development of a new game. I’ve found myself rushing to decide what my studio’s next title is going to be — I mean, you don’t want your employees sitting around bored and unproductive, right?!?! — and then looking down at my iPhone, exasperated. “I can’t believe you tricked me into another round of this,” I sigh.

Ah well.

I’m now on my third play-through, and to the point where I’m cranking out Hall of Fame games one after another. I’ve also since churned out two consoles, made a snowboard racing game that sold almost 70 million copies, and turned three employees into fully leveled-up Hackers. There’s something to be said about Japanese games that are as broken as this.

I picked up Scott Pilgrim vs. The World on Xbox Live Arcade, too, and that is a quality beat-em-up game. Difficult, a little tricky at times, but packed full of charm and nice nods to the movie and comic series (which I do still need to read). I think Nick and Aaron both bought the game, but on PlayStation Network instead. I need some sidekicks to kick the seven evil exes’ asses with me! Drop a line if you want to throw down sometime.

Lastly, I’ve tailed off on F1 2010 a bit (still winning races for Ferrari in my second season) but invested that time back into NBA 2K11. I’ve been playing some single-player career mode games and it’s addicting but man, I am Not Good at basketball games anymore. Fortunately, my Portland Trail Blazers have Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge healthy, so I can drive to the hoop at will and also have a great low-post game. Once I figure out 2KSports’ byzantine web service, I’ll try to use their in-game photo exporting feature to show what my Portland Trail Blazers can do. However, it’s really frustrating to see the AI go off on runs…no matter how accurate it may be. That’s definitely a positive for what’s been hailed as one of the best sports games by reviewers.

Aaron:

The entire reason I've sided with the NCR is because I want this armor.

I committed myself to lots and lots of Fallout: New Vegas over the past two weeks — around 30 hours’ worth.

So…that wraps up my discussion about all the gaming I’ve done lately!

Honestly, videogames have only been my priority from a work standpoint since this past Monday. I started a new job that heavily involves them (something we’re supposed to keep quiet, thanks to NDAs [though it's nothing developmental]), and when I get home from my 6 am to 2:30 pm daily shift I just pop in New Vegas and keep trudging through the 15 quests I have left to do. I still love the game, enough to keep doing my New Vegas Travel Guide — new post next week, I promise! — but I’ve had to put a heavy emphasis on adjusting to my newly busy life. I also moved out into Portland last weekend, which was stressful. But I finally feel like things are coming into some sense of order for the first time in years.

I guess I’ll be playing some Who’s That Flying?! this weekend for review purposes, and finally open the copy of Enslaved that I got last week during the same Amazon deal Nick took advantage of. I’m also tempted to purchase the new Assassin’s Creed, even though I need to be frugally responsible with my cash flow. Which is lame. I know.

“Ghouls and Boys”

Ghouls don’t tend to make conversation with Bob. Most of the time they’d rather tear humans’ insides out like sheets of paper from a spiral notebook. But at the entrance to an abandoned REPCONN rocket factory, a distressed ghoul used an intercom to bark a series of orders at Bob. The courier thought that was a wacky turn of events.

Bob was startled by the detached voice, which told him he had to come upstairs right away and to watch out for danger. He listened to the ghoul’s raspy smoker’s voice; his survival instincts had already kicked in.

The REPCONN factory looked like any other abandoned building from the years before the nuclear holocaust. Bob thought those old Americans must have been really big on their accomplishments because REPCONN and other companies’ headquarters always had some sort of massive statue in their parking lots. Bob calculated in the time it took to walk around the long-defunct company’s space rocket monument that all the metal wasted on that thing could have built lots of armor suits. What a shame.

A dead civilization’s hubris notwithstanding, the halls of the dilapidated REPCONN building would teach Bob that appearances, and even voices, can be deceiving.

After hearing the ghoul’s instructions, Bob nearly tripped over a few robed corpses sprawled on the ground beside the receptionist’s desk. They were ghouls, who Bob assumed the one from the intercom probably looked like, and each one was wearing dark monk’s robes with the name “Bright Brotherhood” stitched inside them.

The courier rubbed the formless cult-looking robes between his fingers and found that they were made of 100% cotton – a breathable alternative that, coupled with such loose fabric, would have flattered any apple or pear-shaped body type. Bob’s sister designed costumes for pet mole rats, and the courier had picked up a few tailoring tips over the years. Unfortunately for her, his sister was eaten by a pack of pissed-off mole rats who were tired of playing dress-up.

Bob draped a spare robe over ED-E — now more or less the courier’s pack mule — in the event that infiltration into the Bright Brotherhood was required.

Feral ghouls and Nightkin stalked the floors of the REPCONN facility. Though tough and numerous they all met the business end of Bob’s new rebar and concrete beating stick. Between smashing skulls and crushing limbs, Bob looted the rotting desks and cabinets of the numerous office desks in the building to find ammo, Nuka Cola caps and even a shiny new pistol.

Eventually Bob stumbled into the site’s manufacturing wing, where a hectic battle between Nightkin and ghouls had destroyed a large steel blast door and caused the dismemberment of several limbs. Bob, occupied with his investigation of the carnage, managed to step on an arm and a jawbone. It took him a week to get the gristle out of his boot tread.

A series of creaky metal stairs took Bob to the top level of the factory and a locked door with another intercom. The chatty ghoul answered Bob’s buzzing and told him to watch his shit if he wanted to live. His rebar club holstered on his back, Bob walked in the door, not expecting the face that greeted him. A decidedly non-ghoulish human turned toward Bob — it was the voice who guided him to safety. When Bob tried to convince the man that he wasn’t actually a ghoul, the guy told the courier (who was trying not to laugh by that point) that he’d heard all the jokes before, and he was clearly not human.

Bob shook the awkwardness off and headed upstairs to the actively busy computer center to talk to Jason Bright, the leader of the ragtag group of sapient ghouls calling themselves the Bright Brotherhood. Jason Bright was a sharply dressed green-glowing ghoul. The soft-spoken Bright told Bob that their religion required its members to “take to the stars” based on his “visions.” Hoping to see at least a few religious nut jobs get blown up in a botched rocket launch, Bob agreed to help Bright and his brotherhood prepare the last three REPCONN-era rockets for their destined trip into outer space.

Image courtesy of Bob the Courier

The first task asked of Bob was to eradicate all the Nightkin left in the basement. So Bob did. He smashed every one of those blathering mutants into tiny, chunky bits, and even scrounged a few crudely crafted swords made out of car bumpers.

Not satisfied with the courier’s genocide, Bright asked Bob to talk to their chief technician, the human in denial about not being a ghoul, about the brotherhood’s need for rocket fuel and a rare replacement part for a broken rocket ship. The zealots, trapped by the aggressive Nightkin forces, couldn’t be bothered took look for such essential shit on their own. Bob begrudgingly set out to do their dirty work for them. He kept thinking about how nice it would be to punch one of the ghouls’ deformed, irradiated faces in…even though he knew he couldn’t.

Four days later, Bob had accomplished nothing. It wasn’t until he took an afternoon’s reprieve in a dingy Novac motel room that the fate threw him a bone.

When Bob woke up from his lazy midday nap he decided to take a stroll to stretch his legs. When he walked past Dinky the giant dinosaur outside of his motel room next door and noticed there was a general store inside the metal carnivore, his plans changed. See, Bob had recently started picking locks. It was a hobby, and he reasoned that the theft of some useless wasteland junk now would be good practice in case he had to pick a lock that would save his life later.

The shopkeeper greeted Bob, and then walked in front of the counter to sort some goods on the display shelves. Bob smiled at the man, unable to look at him in the eye because he knew he’d soon be stealing from him, and if things got bad he’d have to kill the dude. As quickly as possible Bob crouched down and waddled behind the counter, moving silently but really looking like an idiot. He looked up before he could search for a safe and saw a locked door, which he proceeded to pick.

Though the courier was hoping for ammunition he managed to find pure nuclear combustion: behind the door was a trove of at least a hundred miniature REPCONN rocket souvenirs, each containing a small amount of atomic rocket fuel. Bob almost fell flat on his ass in shock, but composed himself enough to grab a few armfuls of the replicas and stuff them into both his satchel and ED-E’s cavernous storage compartment.

Bob ran out of the store without looking back and headed toward the REPCONN compound. However, the directionally challenged courier started heading far north and away from the facility. Before he could get too lost, Bob saw an old woman sitting outside a shack off the road. Bob looked around and found that the place was a junkyard. Opting to try his luck twice in one day he asked if she had the part the ghoul cult needed for their rocket. She did. The problem was it cost 500 caps – Bob sighed deeply.

He thought about breaking into her house and taking it, but he argued with himself that pushing his luck could work both ways, and one of those ways could be deadly. So he did the nice thing and paid for the part out of his pocket, and desperately wished the ghouls had given him a few purchase order forms.

Bob made it to the launch pad’s control room an hour later thanks to the old woman’s directions. The courier found a convenient sewer entrance to the launch pad outside the REPCONN building, and once inside he gave the wannabe ghoul the replicas and the part.

The space-faring ghouls finally had everything they needed to be shot into the stars. Preparations for the rocket were to commence shortly, and Jason Bright thanked Bob personally for working so hard to fulfill their hopes and dreams. Bob was instructed by Mr. Not-a-Ghoul to head upstairs to the rooftop viewing booth so he could push the ignition button in some kind of thankful gesture and reward. Bob clearly wasn’t going to get his money back. Once he was on the roof, Bob noticed that a destination programming computer for the rockets was placed next to the launch button.

Now Bob hasn’t done a single very bad thing in his entire life. Aside from theft, he’s never hurt someone who didn’t try to hurt him first. Hell, he always paid his New California Republic taxes on time while he lived there. So it was with much internal debate that Bob mulled over sabotaging the ghouls’ launch sequence to send them crashing into the ground somewhere in the Mojave. Even though his lack of computer ability kept him from knowing what he was doing, the destination software was wide-open and unencrypted. A few ham-fisted presses of the keyboard should have done the trick.

In the end Bob pushed away his evil thoughts. He knew what it was like to search for something, to make certain principles his driving convictions. If he blew up the ghouls because he didn’t get paid as their errand bitch, well he’d just have to suck it up and realize that someday he too would need a stranger’s help in getting revenge on the bastards who shot him.

Bob didn’t exactly like the idea of someone blowing up his own metaphorical space rocket.

Image courtesy of Bob the Courier

Bob the courier pressed the big red button in front of him. Giant doors opened on a domed structure in the distance. Three rockets came into view. They powered up, and bright smoky fire spewed into the air around the facility. Before the rockets launched to their cosmic destiny, the sounds of “Flight of the Valkyries” could be heard playing on a shortwave radio next to the computer console. Jason Bright and his followers blasted off into space that day, and Bob the courier could only imagine where they were actually headed.

As he turned around to leave, Bob heard the discomforting sound of machine parts grating on one another. He flipped his head around just in time to see one of the rockets violently zigzag in the sky before it shot off in a different direction than the other two. Bob left the control booth with a sly smile on his face, determined to find the wreckage someday and scavenge his 500 caps from those stupid ghouls.

But Bob would earn his money back long before he would have to sort through the burnt corpses of a few failed intergalactic pilgrims. Bob the courier would next shack up with the New California Republic; money, influence and bad ass clothes were going to be his reward for taking a side in the battle for Hoover Dam.

New Vegas would have to wait just a little bit longer. Bob decided that he needed to make a favorable impression on the NCR first, and the battle of Boulder City would help him do just that.