gus

I agree that there is a good deal of self-segregation that goes on in society in general with something as simple as a screenname or gamerID. And yes, when you take a name like "gaymer," you would be wise to expect harassment. That isn't the point though. You shouldn't have to expect harassment.

That solution is the equivalent of saying, "if absolutely everyone turns a blind eye to this bigotry, it will not be a problem." Firstly, while it begins with the suggestion to just have an innocuous screenname, there is a slippery slope there. If you use voice chat in online matches people can tell things about you quite easily: your gender, sometimes ethnic background, and (arguably so and in limited cases) whether you are gay or straight. Beyond that, people who are not stright white males should not feel like they are walking on eggshells trying not to divulge too much about themselves.

Furthermore, clearly online punks will use racial and sexual slurs regardless of who they are directing them towards (or at no one in particular), and no one, especially not those people to whom the slurs constitute attacks against their identity, should have to put up with that.

In the case of the popular videos of the guy using the ID with "gay" in it (I forget exactly what names have been used), I had always considered it an experiment. There is plenty of hate and immaturity flying around online as it is, but is exposes a lot to see how much harassing occurs when someone can be easily identified as gay by the online community.

So, when groups of any sexual/ethnic/social minority seem to segregate, I think it is somewhat justified. It is an understandable backlash against the bigoted crap they are exposed to. It provides a sense of security and identity that, frankly, I think your average straight white male would look for if he was not already completely assured that there are people just like him all over the place.

Surely, there are times when someone may seem to be "asking for it," and it may seem ill-conceived or self-righteous to name yourself based on sexual orientation or ethnicity, but I imagine that, after hearing a good amount of bigotted language, it becomes very hard to NOT to explicitly identify as gay if you are or black if you are. It may not be an optimal response, but they aren't outright flamebaiting (in most cases), they are just trying to assert themselves.

The overall point is that it is unfair to tell people to just keep their mouths shut about who they are because to do so is "asking for it." While the outrageously immature have the right to free speech, so do those that have to listen to them, and, with those rights in mind, people also have a general right not to be personally harassed. There is a line to be drawn there. And it would be nice to see other members of the gaming community establish that line. Yeah, it is wishful thinking, but all great changes in attitudes and social standards usually start with some peoples' wishful thinking.

The Metroidvanias are all digital crack and I am addicted. Yeah they recycle near-to the same enemies (sprites at least) and many similar game mechanics, but they also have released all of them at breakneck pace.

This will be 6 games in 8 years and, frankly, based on their game-making formula, I am amazed that the games are still so fun. I consider their strategy now to be similar to what was done with megaman back in the nes/snes days, basically add slight nuances onto the same addictive formula over and over. Sadly, megaman I think got much more stale much faster, and the Cv games continue to be relentlessly addictive if only because the basic formula is so fun.
(With that said, more 2D metroid as well please...or, hell someone add a new IP to the mix along the same lines. )

SOTN was a straight up 10/10 for me (seeing as my only complaint is that, despite how much game was there, I desperately wanted more...) and the CV games on the handhelds that try to follow that formula have been more like high 8s and low 9s but I am totally fine with that. Yes it would be nice to see a big fancy 2d castlevania in full HD that has a longer more involved dev cycle and less recycling, but I'm not one to argue with having fun games in the same series thrown at me almost every year.

But, about that 2d HD CV... I mean I still think SOTN is absolutely gorgeous if only because the design and artwork was so good, and that was two generations ago. Damn 3D aberrations wasting development resources...

Eerily enough my brother and his friends are currently working on a castle defense game called "Crabby Castles" with this near-exact concept.

They are going to be kind of pissed off about this...but then again I guess someone was bound to think of sand castle defense and not-so-giant enemy crabs sooner or later right?

Yeah same here.
Clearly it is going to be a popular engine for a while, but a lot of the games made with Unreal 3 look disturbingly similar in art style too.
Maybe that is just coincidental or me over-inflating vague visual similarities.

Apart from that...
I'm just glad the joker is a puny psycho.

My main worry would be that the devs would make every villain hugely fricken buff beyond any reasonable standard. For me that is just a big aesthetic no-no. Sure killer croc should be huge and the enemies shouldn't look frail and malnourished, but Batman fights are often more about dexterity and acrobatics than overpowering the enemy with pure brawn because Batman, and strangely enough everyone else in the game, has the body frame of a world-class linebacker.

End point: I just don't want the equivalent of Marcus Fenix with a Batman mask.

I went outside too... I just brought a fat ole' Gameboy with me like a good little gamer.

Does this mean that only PS3 owners will get to experience awkward dialogue translations due to hasty localization?

Because if I have to suffer through a story that was originally crafted in English for 360 version, I'm totally buying a PS3 anyways just for the "all your base"-flavored action.

Note: I recognize that Square's localization efforts are generally just fine. Just let me make my dumb jokes.

All I can say is that MS needs to make this change abundantly clear to every person in the world ASAP... like have nonsensical over-the-top commercials wherein Cloud and Master Chief kill Kratos and then roll all over his corpse as they vigorously make out.
Yeah, maybe that's a bit much...

Point being, if the assumption that many people bought a ps3 for ffxiii is true, then MS needs to make sure that all console owners - not just those of us who keep up with the news on teh internets - know about this. Because it is a big deal. And they can milk the hell out of it if they play their cards right.

Anyways, I am both poor and a huge mooch, so I dont have either a 360 or a ps3 currently, but with announcements like this, deciding between the two just takes one step closer to "utterly pointless".
I'm all for stealing exclusivity, but I can see a dreadful future where 90% of the decent games for either console are cross-platform and nearly indistinguishable.

So now the decision is...God of War or Gears of War? Which paper-thin hardcore macho rageaholic character do I want role-play ...hmmm

I wouldn't really call a lot of his comments "digs," at PA for example. He's just pointing out blatant details.

The whole obnoxious guy paired with the straight man character, which PA admittedly deviates from through random acts of violence and insanity on the parts of both characters, could be called cliche or it could just be a recognizable staple of comedy. It is good setup for situational comedy but in no way does that framework define an entire comic (or movie, tv show, etc).
It seems that such a framework is just as ubiquitous in all forms of comedic media so I think saying there were rips at PA would have to necessarily imply that there were also rips at 50% of the comedic media in existence.

The miscarriage comment was definitely meant for CAD; the other stuff seemed far less targeted towards any individual source.

I play TF2 mostly and people seem to keep their mouths shut unless they are saying something productive...unless you don't switch to the class that they think the team needs more of, or the medics don't heal them constantly, or they keep getting sniped or backstabbed, or the team loses a match, or they think your name is dumb...

Nevermind, I lied. They are just as bad.

*sigh* music

...the only subject that turns everyone, absolutely everyone, into ridiculous, outspoken, closed-minded douchebags. Is there such a thing as a music fan who isn't actually a music fanboy?

I think not; and with that said, all of you are wrong about everything.
I'm gonna go listen to old Dashboard Confessional songs while I cry about my middle school girlfriend.