mitch

@Najaf

Excellently worded. This exactly.

I've listened to every single Joystiq podcast since episode 1. So this comes form a place of love, guys:

Always, since the show's inception, my least favorite part of the show has been listening to Chris ramble on about things that I genuinely don't care about, whether its some extreme inside baseball about the site/industry or things that irk him like the lack of capacitive touch screens. He's had the tendency to hog the mic until cooler heads like Justin or Luddy steer the show back on course. Now they've made that the format for the entire show. They've stripped away literally everything that made the show great and replaced it with an imitation of an imitation (I refer to A Life Well Wasted, itself an imitation of This American Life).

Worse, Chris has always had a problem with criticism of the site, but taking that petulant tone with Joystiq's most loyal fans seems like a bad move. I understand he's the boss, that the site is his blood, sweat, and tears, and that it's difficult for creative people to not take criticism as a personal attack at times. But, in all honesty, the show is just no longer fun, unless this was an extreme aberration and not at all representative of what we can expect form here on out.

The reality is that people listened to the Joystiq Podcast because it was goofy, irreverent, and full of weird little in-jokes and bumpers that made little to no sense. Hell, Episode 0 was proof positive of that. There will be no more "There's My Steed!" or Luddy talkin' American or other moments that genuinely made us laugh over the years in this new format. I get that Justin's busy with MBMBaM, that maybe he and Luddy are both sick of the old show. And that's fine, people move on. There are plenty of talented people at Joystiq who I'm convinced are just as clever and energetic as those two.

Every straight man needs a color commentary guy (or two). It's a comedic staple for a reason. There's also a reason that NPR listeners are stereotyped as tweed-wearing, self-serious, humorless husks and that gamers are extremely enthusiastic neck-bearded man-children who dress up as Sailor Moon. You've gotta know your audience and, honestly, who do you think has more fun? Without the humor, I'm afraid this show will just turn into pointless navel gazing. If it does, I will unsubscribe. And it really does pain me to say that.

Thanks for listening,
Mitch

Dude, this has been available for months now.

Oh yeah, I forgot, Need for Speed is empirically better than Split Second, thanks for the reminder aray48.

I agree with ME2 being at the top spot but, man, guys. Not to get too negative, but I just generally don't trust your opinions on games anymore, and haven't for some time. It seems like certain writers of yours inexplicably love bad/mediocre games, or games that wear out their welcome rather quickly, or that your staff just wants to put items on their list that are "fresh" and unique in order to stand out from other sites. Then the ultra-democratic system for judging the GOTY ensures their enshrinement. I never played Heavy Rain, but from most people's standpoint is was simply not a good or fun game. And Split Second was an awesome game...to rent, for a weekend, at best. Alan Wake became terrible to me about 3/4 of the way through it. The combat just ceased to be varied or enjoyable. Meatboy is cool and all, but it's for a VERY specific audience. Leaving Starcraft, Blops, or even tried-and-true Halo off this list in favor of those very "meh" titles ensures that I'll just ignore your recommendations from now on. Sorry :( I do love the podcast though!

@Monkey D Luffy I'm thinking this trailer was made in-engine, like a lot of the Starcraft 2 cutscenes. No way in hell Blizzard would skimp on their cinematics and dilute their brand.

HAAAAAAWX!

Am I the only one who thinks this Civ just aesthetically looks weird? I mean, the photo-realistic map look gorgeous (if a little soulless). But those city tiles look kinda janky. And I am totally not sold on the hex-based nature of the map. It just makes your civ's borders and the map generator churn out very odd, snakelike land masses. Plus, with the hexes you're actually limiting the access points to any given tile from eight to six. I dunno, I love Civ, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I hope I'm wrong.

It's not updating in itunes, says wrong url

Hilarious graphic, Justin!