As I said before, it isn't that simple. There aren't just trademark rights to worry about, there are copyright rights as well, and the copyright for Twin Snakes could be distinct from the copyright from the original MGS. Copyrights automatically vest in the creator of the work, so being the developer would make…

Well, the question isn't necessarily that simple, although I'd wager Konami put something that is that simple in their contract.

The level with Zia's song is when I stopped thinking of Bastion as a good game and started thinking, "Wow, this game is amazing." The music was really an unexpected high point of Bastion for me—I expected a bad-ass narrator and pretty visuals, but I wasn't prepared for how good the soundtrack was.

I dunno. I haven't played Skyrim yet, so my opinion is really not worth anything. But I didn't enjoy Oblivion that much, and nothing anyone has said about Skyrim has made me think it will change my mind. I'll probably pick it up in some Game of the Year version down the road when I can get all the inevitable DLC…

I agree (it doesn't necessarily have to be better), but the comparison is illustrative for me. I like Portal 2 because I liked Portal 1 and I also like co-op, not because Portal 2 was longer and had some new mechanics. I don't think this year was abysmal, although if it was I wouldn't have a problem giving the award…

Oh, and to add:

Well, I was talking about Portal 2 as compared to Portal 1, not as compared to other games this year. I think the original Portal was GotY material largely because of its originality, but I have a hard time putting Portal 2 into GotY status because the only new things that really impressed (emphasis on really…

My issues with the pacing isn't really about the puzzles, it is more about the plot. I didn't have trouble with any of the puzzles in single-player—I thought they were easier than the first game overall, too easy if anything. It just felt like the story got stretched out to me.

Being new isn't nothing. Other than co-op, I don't think Portal 2 added that much to the original—the new mechanics were fun, but they were kind of a double-edged sword because they diluted the simplicity that I liked in the first game. The story was more detailed and fleshed out, but it dragged in some places for me.…

I liked the level design, but I kind of agree with him that the pacing fell apart. There were some good lines with Cave Johnson, but once you fall into the underground part the plot feels like it slows to a crawl. I prefer the original, it felt more focused and purposeful to me.

Well, if a game isn't a good game, it doesn't have any place at all in a game of the year discussion. Game of the year is more than "a good game," it has to be a really great game.

Shorter games offer a lot of things that longer games can't. Long games can never feel as tight or as well-paced as a short game. For a game that focuses on narrative as much as Portal does, that's especially valuable. Personally I think we've become way too focused on having 30+ hour games because video games are so…

Or rather, July after Julius Caesar and August after Augustus:

I thought that was because of June and July, which were named after Julius Caesar?

I'm going to willfully deny this until someone from Sony announces that it is true. I know there are some problems in development right now but...I want to play this so badly. :(

For me, once you've established that the rules of physics are kind of loose in your universe (which is what happens when you have flying whales and such) you can do whatever you want as long as you don't change the rules arbitrarily to suit the plot. If you want a character to be able to jump over 50-foot walls,…

All this GotY talk is just awkward to me right now. I mean, I like to leave some games out there so that my family has things to buy me for Christmas, and even if I had bought everything I wanted to play there is no way I could have beaten Skyrim, Arkham City, Skyward Sword, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and Rayman:…

I don't really see jumping too high as destroying suspension of disbelief. People can suspend their disbelief for a heck of a lot more if they care enough to. I mean, in a world where people summon gigantic, spiritual beings by waving their hands around and saying something, do we really care about how high the…

I don't have an issue with it; I have more of an issue with the prevalence of realism, which I think is just boring. But I think it has to do with the rise of realism, which people apparently like (although I have no idea why). Now that we can do much more realistic environments, people who don't like Final…

Not the ones I'm talking about—although there are a lot of those too. I have googled some of them and they are real articles from major news websites. I think Washington Post for example has one.