Exactly! Handhelds are a much better game development environment then consoles right now and it is mostly due to different expectations regarding graphics.

It's not just that a massive part of the budget is spent on the visuals, lots of interesting games don't get the greenlight on consoles because they are too…

I'm with Pete on this one. When I read the line about US having the most plastic surgeries I got annoyed because I thought you were trying to use misleading statistics to make a point. Then you turn around and acknowledged that per-capita surgeries were actually what we should be talking about, which just left me…

That's because 90% of RPGs have bland unfun combat. If you have a 3DS try the demo for Etrian Odyssey 4. That game is basically a master class in how to do traditional RPGs properly.

Ultimately the issue here is that many RPG players don't care about challenge in RPGs and more generally they are mostly uninterested in combat. Honestly I can't really blame them, most high profile RPGs have very dull combat systems.

I think much of the problem is due to it being very hard to make a turn based combat…

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be entirely the case for Japan. Their nominal median household income is a couple thousand dollars below the US but the purchasing power adjusted median is 10k below. So they get paid about as much as US citizens, but the money doesn't go nearly as far.

Thanks, other person! Glad to hear you liked some of it. There is so much good stuff out there right now that needs more attention.

I haven't figured out my album of the year, but Parquet Courts - Light up Gold is great. I went to 4knots music festival to see The Men and Kurt Vile (both of which were awesome) and these guys blew my mind.

The live version of Stoned and Starving is amazing, particularly the rant at the end.

Somehow I didn't know The Ocean put out a new album. Thanks for bring that to my attention.

Sunbather is really good, although some parts don't really work for me. (Mostly the parts that just sound like post-rock, instead of an amazing genre fusion).

Try to forget that he is engaged to a Kardashian for a minute and just go listen to Yeezus. You probably won't like it, but it should be clear that it isn't the work of a hack who is just trying to sell albums.

Yeezus is the kind of album that drives away fans. Kanye didn't give a shit he made it anyways and it wound…

As long as there are garages and guitars rock will never die.

Now go listen to the following:

Yep, the Falchion goes all the way back to Marth (of Smash Bros fame). The name used to really annoy me, but now I just think it's funny. Every other legendary weapon has a properly dramatic sounding name, except the most important one.

I know the name is stupid, but it dates back to the first Fire Emblem, which was on the famicom. I'm pretty sure developers didn't bother with research at all back then. For what it's worth the newer legendary weapons have non-stupid names.

This is the million dollar question in my book. There is so much interesting potential in having a Qunari main character. I really hope bioware focuses on the issues that having a Qunari Inquisitor raises instead of just waving it off (This applies doubly if you are playing a Qunari women).

I think procedurally generated levels only work well for very specific sorts of games. Since procedural generation is so popular right now it seems some developers are just using it because they like other games that use it, rather then thinking about if it works well with their core gameplay.

For example Spelunky…

Sadly I think that was the point, he wanted to show off how much he was controlling her as an example for his church to follow. We see a fucked up relationship and they see a biblical one.

I'm checking out some jobs in the NYC area and while I'm not much of a city person living there would be awesome just for the music.

I know right? I've already become obsessed with his music, then decided that he was massively overrated (I didn't like his self-titled at all when it first came out) and then finally decided that he is actually excellent after all.

Furthermore that all happened 2 years ago!

I'm extremely jealous you got to see Tame Impala live, living in the middle of nowhere is horrible. Out of curiosity, how do you think Lonerism stacks up to Innerspeaker? Personally I think Innerspeaker is slightly better, but both are great.

I'm choosing to believe that the green-haired girl is there to laugh at all the creeps who stare at underaged anime girls while peeing.

Realistically she's there because somebody is into having his dick laughed at, but I like my interpretation better.

When you get your 3DS you should give the Etrian Odyssey 4 demo a try. The series is based off of the ancient western RPGs of the 80s, but with an incredible amount of polish.