While I'm on the video game theme, I might as well selectively ignore the fact that I've encountered all of about two Comicon posters who are the least bit responsive or receptive to anything remotely related to them and hawk The Escapist's Zero Punctuation feature, with weekly reviews by some incredibly witty and very bitter Australian dude. As far as video game reviews go, these are the best there are, period. They're video reviews and they load pretty quickly, so even if you're not a video game nerd like me take a second and watch a few.

BIOSHOCK , which is pretty much the best game of the year, Yahtzee's harsh assessment aside.

Super Paper Mario , which I haven't played.

Psychonauts , which sounds fun.

Clive Barker\'s Jericho , which, well ... yeah.

Others here, they're all pretty stellar.

K

The review for Super Paper Mario was spot on. I played it for a few hours and then lost interest. Easily the worst game I've played on the Wii.

Mario Galaxy is fucking brilliant.

Bioshock is a cool game, but a big plot reveal basically ruins the replay value.

I can't really see the point in starting over to see if you can get a different ending. Other than that, though, the game is totally worth renting and obsessively playing for a week.

Yahtzee takes the piss out of Super Mario Galaxy.

K

I'm a huge fan of this Yahtzee guy now. The humor still works even though I understand maybe a third of the game references.

Yeah, he's real good.

K

Yeah, real good! I like his reviews, and I'm one of those in the not "the least bit responsive or receptive to anything remotely related to" video games catagory. I only read the thread to see what the topic 'zero punctuation' was about. I'm glad I checked the links.

It wasn't quite what I expected: He sounds quite British (where he was born) more than Aussie, and oh boydoeshetalkfast. He says so much in four minutes.

I probably know less about gaming than Dumas -- I get hardly any of the references, and the only game I've played in the last 12 months is 'Grand Theft America: Sin City' or somesuch -- but I still found it very funny. A lot of the stuff he makes fun of, like the enemy kindly waiting while you jump to grab a power thingie or whatever, is something you can pretty much get if you have any sort of acquaintance with computer games; you don't necessarily need to be too familiar with the latest X-Box/Playstation/Wii stuff.

Anyway, despite not being too interested personally in discussions about computer games, funny thing is I read this topic, and then shortly after I read a second internet comment about gaming. I don't think I've read two articles about gaming in a row ever before. In the article I linked to, she writes: if you were to say things like: “Man I wasted you with my gravity hammer” or “the cone challenge on platinum is impossible” or “what do you wanna be, locust or cog?” I could totally talk your language.

I couldn't.

And in the comments at the end some guy writes: "I introduced my GF into Battlefield 2 with disastrous results. At first she was pretty n00b at it but after 6 months she will come up behind me and knife me without mercy and then follow it up with a T-Bag all while laughing at me and calling me a nub *sigh* have I created a monster?"

"...she was pretty n00b"?
"...follow it up with a T-Bag"?
"...calling me a nub"?

W00t the fuck?

Computer games: Another universe. Another huge universe. I'm surprised there's not more overlaping interest from these boards, actually.

Me too, you'd think there'd be tons of video game nerds round these parts. I just have an Xbox 360 that I play periodically, but for some reason I keep tabs on gaming industry news and new releases and such. I have no idea why, as I barely finish 2 or 3 games per year, even if I start a good deal more.

But yeah, you don't have to be a game nerd to get a kick out of Yahtzee.

Here's a good one on Medal of Honor: Airborne. And one for one of the Zelda games.

K

I gave up games when they added a second button to accompany the joystick.

That's about the time they started getting interesting.

K