Escape into the Cubiverse

HIGH Discovering a vast cave system underneath my house.

LOW Repeated game-killing glitches.

WTF The game can often be scarier than most horror titles.

Dante's Infernal Camera Angles

HIGH Devil May Cry 2

LOW Devil May Cry

WTF Devil May Cry 3

Lincoln Ruchti's Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a documentary focused on the 80's heyday of arcades, and a great companion piece to The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It focuses on Twin Galaxies' founder Walter Day, and many of the infamous players from that era that make appearances in King of Kong.

Needs Mayo

HIGH The final battle with the Dragon.

LOW Walk back to Bluemoon Tower? I just $&*#!@ came from there!

WTF Who keeps leaving explosive barrels all over the kingdom?

Well, E3 is upon us again. While a tsunami of new game info is pouring out of LA, I'm not sure that anyone will have time for this little old blog, but it's still business as usual for me until PAX later this year. The convention always falls on the first week of my son's summer visit, so I haven't gone to the last few. Family > E3, but I will be watching all the press briefings!

Extra Credit looks at the latest gaming trend: crowdfunding. It's not quite a household term but going by Twitter, press releases and gaming news coverage in general, it's getting there. Crowdfunding takes money from ordinary people in exchange for, say, a copy of the game or seeing a digital version of that person somewhere in the game. Right now Kickstarter is the company on everyone's lips but it isn't the only game in town. IndieGoGo, RocketHub, ulule and the newly formed Gambitious are all out there trying to help someone create that sequel to TIE Fighter or Star Tropics.

Another Visitor! Stay a While. Stay... Forever

HIGH Solving an obscure puzzle in an imaginative way and being rewarded with sweet, sweet loot.

LOW The final section is more irritating than challenging.

WTF Casting advanced spells in battle requires a bizarrely intricate mouse pointer dance, and your so-called "mage" doesn't remember any of them at the start.

After a year of silence, Nintendo has its press conference where it was demonstrate to the world why it needed a Wii U and 3DS and why it should stay away from smartphones and tablets.

Judging by Twitter, the result was a wash. Nintendo did announce games for both the Wii U and 3DS. The Wii U got Pikmin 3, New Super Mario Bros. U, Wii U Fit, Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition, Darksiders II, Mass Effect 3 as well as support for video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube and Amazon Video announced. The 3DS got decent titles like New Super Mario Bros. 2, Paper Mario Sticker Star and Luigi's Mansion 2.

The thing is that show attendees, and those watching at home, were looking for more—especially from the Wii U. Why, after owning an Xbox 360 and/or PlayStation 3, should someone pick up a Wii U? That was the question that needed answering and it seemed Nintendo didn't do a very good job of doing so. All hope is not loss as E3 (as of this writing) is not over so there is time for more announcements. But after a year's wait, it looks like many are going home to be content with their 360s and PS3s until their successors show up.

Sony was up next. Despite a dearth of PlayStation Vita game announcements, there were some worthy announcements like Assassins Creed III on the Vita featuring the first female assassin. Other highlights from the show included David Cage's Beyond, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, WonderBooks and Naughty Dogs' The Last of Us. The Last of Us was worth the price of admission.

On this episode we examine the state of Portable Games. Brad also brings Dragon's Dogma to the table, and Mike and Chi weigh in on Max Payne 3. This episode also features what is surely the greatest Thumbs up, thumbs down of all time! With Dylan Collins, Chi Kong Lui, Brad "Bromance" Gallaway, Mike Bracken and special guest Michael Cunningham.

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