My Most Hated Character Of The Year: GTA V's Franklin

Franklin.. Oh Franklin.. If videogame characters were bicycle wheels, you'd be the big, deflated, third one. If this were a big wheel, you'd make a kid cry...

I Called It 2 Years Ago: Operation Rainfall Didn't Mean Squat...

I've been waiting a long time to write about Operation Rainfall, the upstart little segment of the game community that really wanted to see Pandora's Tower, Xenoblade and The Last Story get localized to the west, but haven't because they've very plainly fallen off the face of the earth in terms of creating ridiculous plans, just to get seen.

My Favorite New Character Of The Year: Lara Croft

I started to write this in response to the Destructoid community casting call for the same subject, but life and my fickle health made me take more of a detour then I wished, and I missed the boat. But screw it, I'm typing up what I wrote through the week and posting it any way!

This may have some light Tomb Raider (2013) spoilers.

My Least Favorite Games Of The 7th Generation

Okay, so I tackled some of my favorite games of the last generation, it only seems natural to go in the other direction.

Like the last time, I can only comment on games I've actually played. And I'll add the caveat that this time, you'll probably find a reason to really be angry. But, again, that's on you. Feelings and all that.

So without further ado, I'll be getting behind these blast doors...

My Favorite Games Of The 7th Console Generation

Generation Hate.. I mean 8.. Is finally upon us, but I wanted to take a (sometimes) fond look back at Generation 7. These lists are in no particular order of importance, with no real set limit (with your Capito..wait..), it's more of a free thought deal; though I guess you can say that if I thought of it first, I thought more of it then the next thing. But thats on you.

I know some will find this to be incomplete without (Insert this game), and feel inclined to say so. It really should go without saying, but I honestly can't comment on games I've not played.. Or aren't thinking about..

Either way, sit a while and listen...

Zombie Survival Kit: A Thank You Wrapped In An Homage To Text Adventures

Zombie Survival Kit
Copyright (c) 2013, Maybe 2014 (if it survives) Geek Forge, Blog, All Rights Reserved
Zombie Survival Kit is a registered trademark of Big Fish Games and Destructoid.com
Revision not 3/Serial Number 8679309

Your friends and family are dead, you are on the run form a horde of zombies. You're also really hungry.

Opinion: How To Do Pokemon DLC Right

So, some weeks ago when Pokemon X/Y was released there was a lot of talk about whether they're going to sell DLC for the game, with some of the makers of the game saying it would ruin the series' worldview.

But that got me thinking, could there be a way to sell us DLC without doing that? Here's how I imagine Pokemon DLC, done right. 

Thought: PS4 Launch Coverage Is Surprisingly Relaxed...

Seriously, while I waited around all day Friday, I was reading, and...  I felt like I was reading more about the Xbox ONE then the new system that just came out. Now I'm still not seeing a whole lot of hub-bub about it.

Thing is, I can't decide on whether or not that's a good thing or not.

Question: Should You Sell Your Current Console?

This time it's an important question if your thinking about going next-gen sooner, rather then later: Should you sell your Current Console?

I'm a Little Embarrassed to be a Gamer Right Now.

Last night Markus "Notch" Persson, creator of Minecraft, appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and, generally this is a win for the videogame world in it's own cheeky way.

Notch wasn't really there to plug his game, or the big convention that was just held for the game, or his company, or show a new game off, or even talk about the biography that's been written about him and the making of that game. None of that. He certainly wasn't there to defend the medium from it's attackers. He was sort of just there to talk, refreshingly, about.. Stuff. And that's really different in the videogame world, but not wholly unusual for the sandbox world Craig Ferguson's created for himself.

How I'll Handle Gaming Next Generation (Or So I Hope)

Usually around this time in a generational shift you'll hear a lot more then I seem to be hearing about how media entities will be handling the next gen. Or at least how frantic they are that the next gen is almost on us. I don't really know why this time is any different then others; the only theory that sounds plausible to me is that this year has been pretty relaxed, and will allow these entities to organize their time and resources a little better. But that can't really be too true seeing as how publishers are still trucking on releasing their big yearly fare with little regard to the flow of generation. Time isn't really stopping just because this is coming.

Question: What Is Your Next Gen Resolution?

Not the lines for next gen consoles... Maybe...

So the next generation of console gaming is about a month away, give or take a few days, and a sudden question popped into my head after peeling my ass out of bed today: Since the next gen is like the New Years of gaming, what's my next gen resolution?

You Know Things Are Bad When...: Pokemon Edition

Usually I'd love to be able to leave the government out of my videogames.. Well, unless its some sort of government plot I'm fighting for, or against, or I'm simply having to save another president (or be one).. But that becomes harder and harder to do as the years pass, it feels like. I'd really love to not talk about sanctions, censorship and all the other things that come with politics, if only because those things can make me ranty, a little irrational and pretty much inconsolable at times. But this is a little too hard to pass up.

Gridiron Thunder's Bad Break

Back about a month ago I wrote about the OUYA and some troubles it was having with the nice, but ultimately bothersome, Free the Games program, where OUYA would match a projects crowdfunding (if they made at least $50,000, at the time the issues came up. It's been lowered to $10,000.) and agreed to a short exclusivity to the OUYA. At the center of the problems that arose was Gridiron Thunder.

Most are using this opportunity to talk a bit further about how OUYA's policy wasn't good from the start (like I had before), or how OUYA's heads don't seem to know what they're doing (like I had before), but I'd like to talk about Gridiron Thunder, if briefly.

Man, The Last of Us Could Have Been Really Different...

That header image looks like it belongs at the beginning of Family Ties or something.

Any way, the developers of The Last of Us, have started to let their hair down and tell-all about the early ideas for the game.

Originally, the game started as a premise pitched to none other then horror great, George Romero. If taken by the zombie master, the game would have been a cross between ICO's escort gameplay and a character with chronic heart conditions slowing him down.

Rest in Peace Hiroshi Yamauchi

This week, the flags in the Mushroom Kingdom will be at half staff and the unseen firework operators will be firing a 21 gun salute to Hiroshi Yamauchi, the legendary business man who pushed Nintendo forward and made the company, and the videogame industry, what it is today.

Yamauchi died yesterday at age 85, from complications of pneumonia.

Race The Sun and the bad shake the games getting.

That trailer is for Flippfly's game, Race The Sun, a title currently sitting at an 81 metacritic score, thats done-so without yet being greenlit on Steam, in spite of being on the list for over a year now. But the game is struggling with sales in its first month, and it's something developer Aaron San Filippo says, when talking about not getting your release on a big platform, is, "asking for trouble."

But I don't think indies are screwed without Steam. I think they can do just fine without it. I do think, however, that it's no different then everything else PC gaming related, where PC=Steam for most people... Except for where almost an equal amount of people are anti-Steam because they're anti-DRM. You hear it all the time when Steam is brought up.

One of the biggest thing I think can go wrong though, is lack of exposure.

Microsoft's Xbox ONE Email Campaign Makes Me Feel Like I'm In A Board Meeting.

As the title implies, something about the Microsoft's email marketing for the Xbox ONE doesn't make me feel like I'm being marketed to, but more-so that I'm supposed to be putting on pants and get into the boardroom myself. Screw it, they'll have to deal with my waggly bits.

And somehow I have a hard time believing its a good idea (except for the waggly bits). But lets take a look at what I mean:

The Wii U Price Drop: A Thing I Have Thoughts On

Not the hands of an Ambassador

I was one of the people highly pissed off by the 3DS price drop and subsequent ambassador program. There was very little about the situation that any one could say to console me before the games started rolling out and I got a chance to play them. There was a lot of talk in my house about how 20 games, many I've already owned before, wouldn't be enough value, shouldn't be given at all, and how all I really wanted was for all 3DS early adopters to get a $50 refund instead.

Then I got my hands on the games. I even replayed the ones I had... And then I shut my fat trap.

Nintendo 2DS: A Thing I Have Thoughts On

Yesterday Nintendo announced their next handheld, another iteration of the 3DS that is actually has no 3D at all named... Wait for it... The 2DS.

Yes, the 2DS. This is not a joke. The handheld that takes all the goodness of the 3DS and doesn't let you see it in 3D. Oh and its also a cheese wedge shaped block.. And thats just weird.