PixlBit

I agree Joaquim, Portal is an absolute delight and it remains one of my all-time favorite gaming experiences. Believe it or not, I bought the Orange Box specifically for Portal and thankfully it turned out as great as I imagined it would.

I'm glad that Valve decided to break off Portal into its own series and I only hope that if they decide to continue it past 2, they can keep it as fresh, funny, and enjoyable as the first was.

I think what this game did exceedingly well is immersion. It's not often that games can actually accomplish this task, but at the point where you escaped GLaDOS and were going through the innards of Aperture, the game completely hooks you.

It's amazing really. You find yourself shortcutting through some of the same test chambers you had already completed. It creates the feeling of true escape in spite of the fact that it's completely scripted. The final boss fight with GLaDOS was also a real joy the first time through because it was so unconventional.

I do find it funny that Chessa didn't like the first half of the game. It really highlights how far Portal 2's co-op takes you in terms of puzzle solving and inventive solutions. However, without that knowledge, even the first few test chambers were a bit mind-blowing the first time through for me. Obviously I felt the game really picked up halfway through, but up till then I was having a blast going through each test chamber, solving the extremely unconventional puzzles.

Man, all of this talk of Portal makes me pine for a second playthrough of Portal 2...

Great read, Matt. I've often wondered myself who could take up the torch for this series. At times I think the damage done might be irreparable, especially given the new concepts introduced in Star Fox Assault. It seems like future iterations of the series might want to work in things done there and that wouldn't be acceptable to me.

Star Fox 64 3D is currently settling my fears, as it's almost functioning as an eraser, reseting the series back before the release of the latest three Star Fox games. While I'd probably prefer Nintendo internal handle the next game in the series, I'd be comfortable with Treasure working on the series as they have the most experience in games of this nature. Platinum hasn't let me down yet (minus Madworld), so I'd probably trust them to do it, but they wouldn't be my first choice.

Honestly, if Nintendo just (finally) releases Star Fox 2 on the 3DS Virtual Console, I'd be a pretty happy camper.

I can definitely take a look at both of those things. Yeah, the Games page was a bit of a challenge because it doesn't have a really strong purpose, but I think you are on the right path. Refocusing it to be a release list on entry, featuring all sorts of other content probably makes the most sense. Look for an update in the coming days.

I'll also see what I can do with the captcha image. It should be easy enough to regenerate the image, but I'm using a third party tool to do it, so who knows.

In any event, thanks for the feedback and I'm glad to hear you like the design!

Man am I glad to have this thing launched. I've had it done for a week and the anticipation was killing me. I'm really proud of the updated look and I hope that everyone enjoys it. As always, if there are any problems at all, please let me know and I'll get them fixed up as soon as possible.

I love Bando Namcai!

I should probably beat this game at some point. It's in my "Hall of Shame" as I've only ever played a few hours of it. One day...

Glad to have a firm date for this one, though I'm a bit bummed that it was delayed to next month.

Not entirely surprising though. They are making it available on the 6th which is the day before E3 starts, also the day before their press conference, and the day of the Microsoft and Sony press conferences.

Guess Nintendo is trying to take the wind out of their sails to some extent by making the shop available then. Interesting move on Nintendo's part - it appears they are going for a real power play this E3.

This was pretty much expected after the ambiguous teaser site went up. Glad to see it's happening, but I still haven't played much of IV, so maybe I should get on that first.

This is an interesting development. I don't know that there's any reason to doubt that this is Cafe related, so the question is, what does early mean?

Seems like it could actually coincide with this year's 3DS launch, which feels like an awkward launch time, but could play out big for Nintendo. If there are a number of titles available by holiday 2012, Nintendo could have some stand out title by then that makes a strong case for casuals to pick up the system, especially if they don't have something like Wii Sports available for launch.

I guess we'll see what happens, but I'm thinking we are going to continue to hear more on Cafe before E3 hits.

Guilty confession: I still haven't played Brotherhood even though I bought it on launch. I'll have to get into it when I'm not totally behind the ball.

In other news, I have mixed feelings on this information. I love AC, but a third game with Ezio? Seems to be a bit overkill. I suppose my hype might be up a bit after I play Brotherhood, but I think part of the reason I haven't dove into that one is because I played a whole lotta AC I and II. Guess we'll see...