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)

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The Sins are back!  This week, it’s Sloth.

First, though, all three hosts have gotten varying amounts of playtime in on Batman: Arkham City.  They all agree the world is huge, the fighting is solid, and the story is compelling (if a little confusing).  There is some disagreement about Batman’s new methods of transportation, though.

In non-Batman news, Jonathan’s played some Dark Souls, but thinks it’s a bit too capricious and difficult to earn his $60.  He’s also finished Bastion, a game that, for the first time ever, made him really stop and think about the moral choices he had to make.

Alex has put some time in on the new Ace Combat, and he’s confused about the choices they’ve made.

Sam, meanwhile, has continued to feed his Dead Island addiction and has been expanding his phone-based, block-removal prowess with Unblock Me.

In the topic for the show, we discuss Slothful aspects of the industry.  3DRealms, Brink, Shadowrun, and World of Warcraft all get targeted.

We wrap up the show with a game of Casting Call.  Sam and Jonathan present their picks for the roles of Tifa, Cloud, and Sephiroth in the silver screen adaptation of Final Fantasy 7.

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Jonathan’s sick.  Sam’s leaving town.  Alex is in his own little world.  Should be a fun week!

First, an almost forgotten announcement: we own http://thewayofthegame.com/ now!  Maybe that’s exciting?

In terms of games, Jonathan’s finished El Shaddai.  No, it still doesn’t make any sense, and the gameplay is a bit samey, but it’s so damn pretty he just doesn’t care that much.  Knight’s Contract, on the other hand, isn’t special enough to overcome some really weird design choices.

Sam’s been obsessed with Dead Island.  Beating the hell out of zombies never fails to get old, apparently, although the game’s numerous glitches certainly do.  Also, New Game Plus gets some love in Bastion, as Sam takes the Kid on another trip through the Calamity.

Meanwhile, on another day, Alex and Jonathan give some mad love to Forza 4.  It is what Gran Turismo 5 should have been, namely fun.  So many options, so much fun, so pretty.  Alex has also been spending quite a bit of time with Metal Gear Ac!d, as well, and it’s scratching the itches that Forza can’t quite reach.

In our topic this week, we cover the sin of Envy.  Jonathan targets Konami’s E3 presentations, Sam accuses Quantam Theory of wanting to be another game, and Alex goes personal talking about Minecraft.

No game this week, but we’ll have a Casting Call next week.  Also next week, Sloth!  See you then!

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We take a break from our Seven Sins of Gaming series this week to discuss whether reviewers should compare games to one another or not.

Jonathan (as usual) has been swamped with school.  He’s still playing Dead Island, though going solo is ridiculously depressing.  He’s got a bunch of games waiting for midterms to finish, including the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus HD remix, Knight’s Contract, and Another World HD.  In lieu of games to talk about, Jonathan instead talks about what happened at Archon before Archon happened.

Alex and Sam then pull out a massive amount of wankery about Space Marine and Gears of War 3.  Gears is growing on Alex, but has only succeeded in making Sam appreciate Space Marine more.  Jonathan, as usual, has nothing to contribute to the wankery.

It does lead into our topic, though, which revolves around a reviewer’s personal experience, and whether or not they should be comparing a game to others (such as Space Marine vs. Gears) or if a game should be reviewed in a vacuum.  This is wankery Jonathan can contribute to.

Finally, Sam breaks out the final round of Name That Game!, and one of the hosts does really well.

Next week, a Space Marine review!

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The boys couldn’t get their schedules to synch up this week, but rather than inflict more Catherine talk on you (yet, anyway), we decided to experiment with asynchronous podcasting.

Sam’s finished Space Marine and put more time into Dead Island.

Jonathan surprises Sam with his opinion on El Shaddai, and has also been putting time into Dead Island.

Alex succumbs to peer pressure and picks up Gears of War 3 and lets a copy of Culdcept slip through his fingers.

In our Seven Sins series, focusing on Pride, we take aim at Sony, Peter Molyneux, and achievement whores.

Finally, we even attempt an asynchronous Name That Game!  You’ll have to let us know how it works.

Next week, we take a break from the Sins Series to talk about the ethics of game reviews.

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We’ve got a special guest with a special project this week.  Tony Mast, of Back Seat Producers fame (and he of the old-school Top Ten), joins us to talk about Sausage Fest.  The Holmberg went to Sausage Fest last year, and it was a blast, plus it raised a nice chunk of change for the breast cancer fight.  There’s actual planning and intention going into this year’s Fest, so an event that couldn’t be more awesome will be more awesome.  The IndieGoGo campaign is still going for a few days more, and even though the campaign is technically funded, any money over what’s needed to run the event seeds the final donation we send to that breast cancer campaign we can’t name without specific permission, so we encourage you to donate if you can.

Tony sticks around for the rest of the episode, and drops some knowledge about Populous and Greedy Spiders.  Jonathan’s been re-exploring Saint’s Row 2, has been confused by No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise, and has whacked some zombies in the face in Dead Island.  Sam has finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and has been enjoying Space Marine and Dead Island.  Due to the short time between recordings, Alex hasn’t played anything new.

In our topic, we continue our Seven Deadly Sins Series with Gluttony.  Jonathan targets Google, Alex throws stones at EA, Sam points fingers at the Madden series, and Tony brings an RTS twist to the topic.

Finally, we have a three-way Name That Game!  Tony makes a valiant effort to dethrone the hosts, and succeeds with one of them.

Finally, we ask Tony to pick our next sin.  Pride goeth before a fall, and cometh in next week’s episode.

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We start an experiment this week: a series of shows based on the seven deadly sins.

But first, Jonathan bobbles a contest giveaway, and Sam doesn’t bother to try to make it sound good.

For the games this week, Jonathan has given up on Eternal Sonata.  Perhaps it was a bad idea to claim he’d play whatever game the audience chose “to completion” but he thinks he’s got some good excuses for why he should be allowed to call the game “done.”  He inflicts a small flash game, Hero’s Adventure, on the crew, argues with Sam about Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, and discusses the D Trilogy: Deus Ex (the original), Dungeon Keeper 2, and Dungeon Siege 3.

Alex leveraged his connections to get a hold of Space Marine and Dead Island early.  He loves both for very different reasons.  Space Marine is everything he wants in visceral, for-the-emperor style, brutal destruction.  Dead Island takes its marks from Left 4 Dead, and expands it in a way that nudges all of his pleasure centers.

Meanwhile, Sam has spent an ungodly amount of time playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, considering the game practically just released.  He’s got some complaints, but it mostly scratches the right itches.  He’s also still playing Eternal Sonata, though he wishes he wasn’t any longer.

In our topic, we start out the list of deadly sins with the one that most obviously relates to the video game industry: greed.  What games, companies, and events typify gaming greed for the crew?  What do you think of when you think of games and greed?  Some choices might surprise you.  Others will be pretty damn obvious.

Finally, we fumble through the introduction of a new game: Casting Call.  Since we haven’t yet let our obsession go, Jonathan and Alex cast the big three parts from Catherine: Vincent, Katherine, and Catherine.  Sam then decides on the final cast.  Hop over to the forums or drop a note in the comments letting us know who you’d cast in the roles.

Next week: Sausage, Gluttony, and a Special Guest.

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Resistance 3

Dead Island

Warhammer 40K: Space Marines

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten

Driver: San Francisco

What’s on your buy list this week?

This week, we try to start a series of topics shows, and then don’t.  Instead, the hosts talk about games, some bad, some good.

Jonathan mentions that he’s picked up Final Fantasy Tactics for his phone, though he hasn’t played it at all, so it’s kind of a moot point.  He’s also playing Sword & Sworcery on his phone, a game with an incredible soundtrack and a great sense of humor.  Finally, he’s still suffering through Eternal Sonata, and he goes on at length about why it’s suffering, not enjoyment he feels.  Spoiler: he’s not going to get much farther in it.

Sam has picked up El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.  Much like Alex’s supermodel comparison, Sam finds it gorgeous and incomprehensible.  He’s hoping the confusion stems from a language barrier and not from the fact that the model is just brain dead.  (Perhaps I’m pushing the analogy too far?)  He’s also enjoying the hell out of Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, though he wishes he had people to blow up bugs with.  Finally, he joins Alex in sharing some Deus Ex: Human Revolution impressions.

Alex got his hands on Human Revolution early, and gloats about it.  He’s also ridiculously excited about the Space Marine demo (FOR THE EMPEROR!), and perhaps his opinion of Dead Island is changing?  Maybe?

Finally, the show wraps up with a game of Babelfish.  Jonathan’s only run the titles through three languages this time around, but did it make the game any easier?  You be the judge.

Next week, we finally officially review L.A. Noire, then the week after we start our Seven Sins Series.

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Bonus! One-word reactions to each based solely on hunting for the images.

Dead Island (SE is the North American distributor): Intrigued.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Cautious.

Dungeon Siege 3: Meh.

Final Fantasy XIII-2: Really?

Heroes of Ruin: Whazzat?

Hitman Absolution: Okay.

Tomb Raider: Intrigued.

Wakfu: Curious.