I think the peak of my "Futz off Dark Souls, your multiplayer mechanics are terrible" happened when I consumed a bunch of humanity right in front of a bonfire with the intent of unhollowing and immediately kindling it all the way up to 20 Estus. I was able to kindle it once, then was forcibly kicked out of the Bonfire…

Yaaaay, Alpha Protocol! Really a gem that got overlooked due to Mass Effect coming out at the same time.

Yeah I probably should've considered that. The MEC's weapon options and Collateral Damage make his accuracy largely an afterthought, similar to a Heavy with his rockets. I think we've cracked the code on their stat growth. *HIGH FIVE*

The base defense is awesome, and has been without a doubt my favorite part of EW so far. I was actually kind of sad that some of my top-performing redshirts (bluehats?) didn't get to become proper recruits afterwards.

I still have not played the Newfoundland mission! It popped up for me once, but after I got into the map I realized I'd forgotten to equip one of my soldiers. After reloading my save, it kept throwing up other Council missions or country requests, and I haven't seen it since.

Interesting. My first playthrough of EW I basically didn't do anything with Meld until the very end game - turning Zhang a MEC became a neat novelty rather than a strategic consideration - largely because MECs' stat growth is the same as Heavys' - i.e. awful. That was enough of a disincentive that I ended up sitting…

I'm playing XCOM: Enemy Within. After a brief foray back into Diablo 3 (the loot patch improved things a lot, but it's still a click-a-thon), I finally gave XCOM a go with the expansion, and it feels like a much stronger game than the original - this is actually my second playthrough of EW now. I just wish that the…

I still have a Zune and prefer it to every iPod I've ever used. RIP in peace, friend. :(

My favorite gag in this episode might actually be Cameron's tending to the volleyball player. At one point early on, House goes on a little rant about how ridiculously excessive she was in getting the patient's medical and family history, especially in light of the fact that it's probably just muscle strain. Seeing…

I'm astonished to see any kind of support for MI3. I wasn't impressed with Hoffman's part as a poor man's Hannibal Lecter, and anything related to Ethan and his wife was teeth-gnashingly awful. But the biggest middle finger? Mission Impossible 3 has no impossible missions.

Wha? I got F1 and F2 through Steam. That sounds… weird. Maybe just a weird temporary glitch? I know that it's possible for companies to retire games from sale, but the only time I've run into that has been when I tried to post a review for Deus Ex: HR and couldn't because only the Director's Cut was for sale at that…

Fallout 2 has slipped from my radar a bit. Not giving up on it, but definitely putting it on pause for a week or two. Meanwhile, Ys II has proven to be a better action game than the first while hanging on to the crazy prog rock that distinguishes the series. I think "radical" is the right word for it.

Bed was actually one of the bosses I was most fond of, at least in retrospect.

"Indie games seem to do a better job of fitting into my schedule anymore"

Yeah, but this nerd did everything he could to not score.

If you're looking for a good adventure mode experience, I really enjoyed Card Hunter. It's a very different structure though - deckbuilding TCG combined with tactical skirmishing in the vein of old-school D&D. I didn't get into the Arena side of things (which sounds like it's been largely "solved" into a small…

So, when Netflix's costs trickle down, do you figure they'll jack the price of the streaming service or the DVD service? Weirdly I'm actually expecting the latter.

Son, Oracles are all kinds of baller. And stats be damned, Beowulf has neither a pimp cane nor a bowler hat.

Can't, Paul Rudd is already in the tank for Big SNES

Out of curiosity, how old were you when you saw it? I finally got around to watching this last night, and though I thought Birch did a good job with the part, I was definitely distracted by how little patience I had for her character. I realize that being in my late twenties doesn't quite make me an old fogey, but…