PixlBit

O snap. How could I forget Eternal Darkness. Forget RE4, go play ED first.

Resident Evil 4 is a good one to start with. It's got a bit of creep factor, but it's a lot less startling than others in the series. It's also just a great game in general that everyone should play.

Good stuff. Glad to see Nintendo actually trying this time around. Seems like they are finally getting some indication of what people want, though they still have some ground to cover.

Just to give a bit of incite into the conversation Jesse and I had regarding RPGs, here's how it went:

I had recently read an interesting article on the difference between a feature and a platform in regards to just general electronics and software. For instance - a calculator was once a platform, but today it's just a feature. Sure, standalone calculators exist, but what you'll see most often today is a calculator as a feature. Your cell phone or computer stands in its place, because it's a platform.

We were discussing a bit about the bleeding of genres and how tough that made it to vote for GOTY awards (is Deus Ex an RPG, is it a Shooter, is it an Action/Adventure?). That's when I proposed that RPGs were once a platform, but are today more of a feature. They were and still are a standalone genre, but like the calculator, it's more or less been consumed by other platforms. Most every game seems to introduce RPG concepts these days (experience points, leveling up, stat-based gameplay) to help give the experience more depth.

The RPG still exists in its most pure form in many of the JRPGs still being made today, but its most important features have been lifted and integrating in unique ways into other genres. You could probably argue the same thing of the beat-'em-up genre, which has mostly been integrated into general "action" games or other titles with melee combat.

tl;dr version - Yes, the RPG genre still does exist, but it's definitely not the platform it once was.

Only one word for this news: AWESOME.

No online co-op? Seriously? What were they thinking? That's a serious misstep in this day and age. Sounds like a game I might consider if the setting is right, but these days, it just doesn't happen like it did back in the day when I was a kid.

Yes! Finally, someone who agrees with me on Bastion. It's not a bad game, but it's not a game that I found to be particularly gripping. It's deserving of praise for some of its unique ideas and the chutzpah to actually try them, but beyond that it's mostly a slightly above average hack 'n' slash adventure. 

What Jesse said. Also, I won't buy Twisted Metal up front. I'll wait for a price drop and then get a digital copy of a game for free. It's win-win.

I agree. I think Esteban has it right. We should also lift the audio recording and post it separately if it's a good discussion.

No, no, I'm saying that I want to put my penis all over Snake... Wait that came out wrong.