Thorgi Duke of Frisbee

Tycho Brahe of Penny Arcade put it perfectly; "The thing to say on your web is that since PSN is free you can’t really complain about it, and that’s pretty dumb. Maybe you could have said that if you couldn’t play Ratchet and Clank online with your Playstation 2, but that era is fucking over. By “that era,” I’m referring to the one where chains of appliance “islands” exist in millions of discrete universes across the globe. The store, your friends list, these aren’t perks. By 2011, they’re bedrock assertions of the medium. The deal they made with users - one which, for years, was the justification for a gruesome price disparity - was “free Xbox Live,” not “shit happens.” They have a serious problem here, and as serious as their technology problem might be, it’s not the biggest one they have. Their problem is that they don’t know how to communicate about anything but their legendary prowess. They simply don’t have it. I mean, genetically. They need to find a human being, or hire one, and start an actual dialogue with users. They need to do this last Friday."

That is dog shit. You shouldn't be able to skip entire parts of the game like that. If people were struggling to overcome the challenges, that means the developer fucked up, end of story. While a game should be challenging, it should never be too challenging; you want the player to have fun and experience the entire story.

My tastes are so varied and malleable that it is practically impossible for me to compile a concrete list of my favorite titles. However, I do know the identity of the best game ever made. Tetris. I could write an entire essay on why Tetris is the perfect game, but I'll keep it short; there's no game that's ever come close to matching the accessibility and challenge Tetris presents.

Yeah. Whether you like Mortal Kombat or not, there's no denying that the newest game has the greatest single-player offering a fighting game has ever kollected. The Challenge Tower has 300 levels, and it's a really fun, wacky way to perfect your skills. Scorpion and Mileena get into a fight because Scorpion refuses to accept her teddy bear. Also, if you were looking for a new Mortal Kombat movie, the campaign is your answer. It's just as cheesy and awesome as the first movie, and the story actually engages you from beginning to end (even though Shao Khan sucks).

It's for this reason that I think the game won't meet people's expectations. Every headline or news article I've read on the game mentions Rockstar, rarely talking about Team Bondi. People expecting GTA: Detective are going to be disappointed. It's a rather sad state of affairs. People will have praised Rockstar before the game comes out, and when it's released, they will undoubtedly give Team Bondi all the disgust and hate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX_1yIyfnbU God damn it, Orson Welles. Why do you have to freak out poor Jim Henson?

I don't know where FDS heard that, but remember, this is primarily being developed by Team Bondi, not Rockstar, so we can't expect many elements from GTAIV or RDR to translate into this title. Who's Team Bondi? What have they ever done? That particular studio is made of people who worked on The Getaway before.

Mine is

A friend of mine (can't say who; he's breaking NDA here)told me that while the story is well executed, the part where you actually play it was practically thrown under the bus. You may want to wait for reviews to pop up before buying the game.

Mortal Kombat. Shao Khan can kiss my ass.

http://beastieboys.com/preorder/ The Beastie Boy's latest album was leaked on the net, so the trio decided to put the entire album up for listening on the front page. Those guys are too awesome.

Wait, so it will only be a slightly more powerful 360? If that ends up being true, Nintendo can count me out. I still regret purchasing a Wii, so Nintendo would have to do better than that to win me back.

Yeah, that probably is a lot of it. Actually, I don't really have any childhood memories or anything associated with any fighting games, except maybe Killer Instinct. I got into the scene pretty late in life- late high school- and at that point, Mortal Kombat seemed... hrm. I don't know how to say this without being insulting. Yeah, I get that. That kind of super-silly violence is pretty dividing. I find it hilarious, but I completely understand why some would just roll their eyes at it. The gore is definitely there just to be gory, but make it as ridiculous as possible for some good belly laughs and cringing. It feels like the developers just went, "Hey, Noob Saibot has a shadow twin! Let's get the two to pair up and rip some guy in half! That would be hilarious."

No love for MK II? I get what you're saying. Many of these fighting games come down to personal taste; some love the Capcom stuff, others love the MK stuff. I personally prefer MK a little more than Street Fighter.

Just got it. Man, what a perfect fighting game! Every character is a blast to play around with, and I've nearly memorized the moves for Scorpion and Noob Saibot. And surprisingly, this is the first decent story mode in any MK game ever made. I'd say it's the best story in a fighting game, period, but bear in mind that it is also really cheesy.

So, is anyone else interested in continuing at the start of Chapter 4? Dean? Ethan? Any takers?

http://media.giantbomb.com/podcast/portal2spoilercast-042211.mp3 Do not, I repeat, DO NOT listen to this before you beat the game. That being said, this is a pretty interesting, candid talk about Portal 2's ins and outs between Giant Bomb and the staff at Valve.