To start this episode, The Pimp of the Internet gives us a bit of feedback on episode 87, where we debated the merits of reviewing in a vacuum.

We were going to continue our Seven Sins series this week, but then we realized that we’d played a ton of games over the week that deserved to be talked about, so we skipped the topic and just covered the games.

Before getting into the games, though, Jonathan announces some good news in the form of his grand victory in the Spooky Outhouse Frozen Synapse Tournament.  He took down long-time listener, Smerbev, in an epic series of games to take the title.

This also provides a good point to mention the attempts made to start a Way of the Game tournament.  Calvin the Canadian has graciously offered up a 1600 point Xbox Live card to the winner of the first tournament, but we need to figure out if there’s interest in such a tournament, and we could also use some input on how to run the tournament.  Hit up the forums or leave a comment if you have any thoughts on either subject.

Jonathan:

• Batman: Arkham City (finished)
• Bit.Trip Complete
• Child of Eden
• Driver San Francisco
• Saints Row 2 (finished)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This week, we talk about the past six months, covering the games we’ve loved, the games we’ve hated, and the games we don’t really care about either way.

Up first, Jonathan talks about how smart that Cracked.com writer was to call for a free-to-play model in the competitive gaming market, as Team Fortress 2, Tribes, and WoW all go the way of the microtransaction.  He also does a terrible job of describing Solar 2, although in fairness, it’s not an easy game to describe.  Jonathan’s also surprised to find that Yakuza 4 is more RPG than Beat-Em-Up, though perhaps he shouldn’t be.

Alex talks about Trenched, the latest release from Double Fine.  Given that Trenched is a variation on the tower defense genre, and Alex has little love for the tower defense genre, his verdict may surprise you (or not).  He’s also picked up the Captain America table for Pinball FX2, which he’s been very pleased with.  Finally, Alex went sales bin diving and came up with a copy of Daisenryaku VII Exceed, a modern military tactical strategy game for the PS2.

Sam played some games, but left no notes to remind me what they were when writing the show notes, so those’ll have to be a surprise.

Interesting tidbits from the topic:

• Sam gets it wrong about Portal 2 and L.A. Noire.
• Jonathan puts a bunch of weird indie games on his “Great” list.
• Sam praises a couple of sequels.
• Alex thinks Child of Eden is pretty, but not much more.
• Everybody’s less than impressed with Duke Nukem Forever.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We start out this episode talking about LulzSec and their various attacks on various Internet places.  Basically, if nothing else good comes from all the hacks and attacks lately, let it act as a reminder to lock down your passwords and keep your accounts secure.

Next, we get into games!

Sam gets his Duke on, talking about his initial experience with Duke Nukem Forever.  Has time made the heart grow fonder?  He’s also gotten into Portal 2 co-op, which has been hit or miss, but mostly hit.

Alex gets into Runespell: Overture, a PuzzleQuest type game that involves solitaire and poker hands.  He’s also been playing a bit of Child of Eden, the brightly colored brain breaker shooter that turns out to be a brightly colored brain breaker.  The Kinect connection is apparently strong in this one.

Jonathan talks about Rock Band 3, and how he’ll never be any good with the keyboard.  He’s also played some MLB 2K11 and MLB 11: The Show, and he’s come to the decision that sports games are no longer noobie friendly.

Finally, Jonathan wraps up talking about revisiting Final Fantasy 6, which leads into a sizable discussion about where the industry should be going, a discussion that extends into next week’s episode.

We got so wrapped up in the discussion, in fact, that we forgot to prep a game.  Sorry!  It’ll be back in a couple of weeks, promise.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Two Days: Record of Agarest War Zero, Alice: Madness Returns, Child of Eden, Outland, the Transformers movie tie-in game… Seems like I’m missing something.

Oh right.  Hell has frozen over, and Duke Nukem Forever is releasing in just two days!  Are you stoked? Are you buying it? Are you avoiding the negative reviews? (We’ll talk about those later.)

What are you picking up this week?