I remember when I got Super Mario Land as a gift (not on Christmas or anything), I beat it in the first day I got it, and went around boasting that fact to all my friends. These days, that seems a little bit absurd; why would anyone WANT to beat a game entirely that quickly?

I distinctly remember my entire household gathered around the kitchen sink to see the secret message from the Doctor. Fun times, why don't games do stuff like that anymore? It would be a much better deterrent to used game sales than silly day-one DLC codes.

I am very tempted to go through Link Between Worlds for the third(!) time, but I just bought Pokemon X and should probably give that some TLC. But there's also the Steam sale so…

San Andreas had the perfect thing to add to the mix of "I just wanna fuck shit up" gameplay: local co-op! I've spent many an hour shooting up the Las Venturas freeway before escaping on an NRG-500 with a friend and a five-star wanted level. Then running into a tree.

The Bed of Chaos is aptly named, because it consistently finds new and exciting ways to screw me over. I don't think I've died to it in the same way more than once, but it almost always gets me at least once. The best (worst) time was when it managed to kill me while I was INSIDE IT.

I could never get into Minecraft. I didn't like that progression in that game required you to hide in a house/hole at night until you had good enough stuff to kill the creatures of the night. I felt like the monsters were too unsettling for the sort of game that they made. Terraria fixed a lot of that stuff, and I…

Hear, hear. For me, it's either that or the Game of Thrones adventure game from Telltale for most anticipated.

Based on everyone's rave reviews of Gone Home, I'll definitely need to pick it up at some point (maybe in the Steam Holiday Sale). I'll probably be voting for it in the next Game Revue club, after Alpha Protocol.

The sequel, Plastic Circle With a Ball Stuck Inside It: Inner Catnip Scratch Pad Edition is even better, although it fails to innovate. The Catnip DLC Packs are a bit of a money grab, too.

Game of the Year is still Dark Souls, of course.

I am definitely intrigued at the backlash and arguments erupting over the Bioshock series (even/especially on this site). I think the reason might be that most players got a taste of what could have elevated the medium, but ultimately fell short, held down by outdated game mechanics and design philosophies. I played…

Galaxy 2 is a completely different game and arguably better than Galaxy 1 in just about every way. The only bad thing about it is that it doesn't really add many totally new things.

I feel like the Wii U might be considered sad at this point mostly because of the fact that it IS finally getting off its feet in terms of having a good library. However, that won't stop most gamers from ignoring it completely, or at least until it drops in price to $200 or less.

I'm really excited to get Fire Emblem: Awakening for Xmas (I'm assuming). I've never played a game in the series, but the games are lauded for their difficulty (character permadeath and the like) and tactical gameplay, and that reminds me an awful lot of XCOM. So if it's anything like XCOM: EU I'll love it.

Out of that list, Mario Galaxy 2 is really the only one I'd consider to be really great, and that came out in 2010.

I was pretty convinced that the boat stuff in AC3 was meant to be a prototype/proof of concept for Black Flag, as if they had already planned one of the later games to incorporate boats as a major mechanic. There was very little reason for you to be a boat captain from time to time in AC3, from a story perspective.

Judging by the contrast of how the Xbox 360 Dashboard started (Blades) to what it looks like now makes me wonder what the Xbox One Dashboard will look like in 7 years when the next series of consoles arrives (assuming they ever do).

Now, if only Microsoft made an app that made saying "Bing" out loud not horrifyingly embarrassing.

I don't mind the overall design; I just wish there was a little padding around each tile so the juxtaposition of images isn't as jarring.

I'm so jaded on big releases these days that I'd probably welcome a crash at this point. We're not going to see a crash of indies and small studios making things that don't require a hundred animators, and those are the sorts of games that I play the most these days. We also have big commercial games that are deemed…