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2012 (cont.)

September
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October
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 & 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 & 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |

What up dudles and ettes?

It's been a few since the implementation of the new Dtoid, and after seeing things in action, I think it's pretty solid! One thing I dislike about it is the like/dislike system in the comments section. The ability to downvote seems to go against the nature of the site in general, and some trolls have already been abusing it. But what do I know? I'm just this guy, you know?

I've been gearing up for National Novel Writing Month, which starts in November. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. It's a fun gig I've been participating in for a few years, and have successfully completed it once. This time, I'm doing it alongside my blog, which I will try to update every day for thirty days as well. The blog is sort of new, it's more of a personal ramble of thoughts and what not. Am I shamelessly promoting myself? Obvs. More importantly, though, if you are going to be doing NaNoWriMo this year, I'd like to hook up with you. Sexually at first, and then by linking your own NaNo or personal blog on mine. So send me a message if that is the case!

Anyways, short blabs for short caps. Still playing Avernum IV, but am mostly getting interested in tabletop gaming as much as possible before winter hits and I am back to escaping the harsh cold reality of a winter wasteland by escaping into the world of Skyrim. No, I'm not very creative.



* - TheManWithNoName Am Become Death...The Writer of Words. Saucy words, trust me

* - This is so creative and hilarious. I dream of video games a lot. Mostly of aliens from Ecco trying to kill me.

A - A fun piece about the joy of gaming in general. Good read, Everyone welcome Marche100!

P - Some podcasts all up in yo taco! Posting before these guys get sued by Taco Time for copyright infringement on "Taco Tuesdays"

C - Seems to be a legit contest? I have no idea. If you get scammed somehow it isn't my problem.

E - Donating money to kids is a good idea. It's better than that time I pulled up in my van and tried to donate my Halloween candy to them personally. The cops and me had a good long talk that day, I'll tell you!

E - Watch as tsunamikitsune literally dies of exhaustion on a live stream! Donate some money to pay for his funerary costs!

T - A cool recap of some rando-ass games lost leader has been playing. Ultra props for Retro Game Challenge...KACHOU-ON

T - I really liked the Rabids games. Not sure why most people didn't seem too, but there is a new one coming for the Wii U and it looks pretty fun!

V - I'm not so quick to yell copypasta now that vids can be embedded. Check out this review of Mark of the Ninja, if you want! I didn't because I'm superstitious and believe that watching videos steals your soul or something.

R - Xbox' new dashboard sucks because I can now no longer tweet about my penis. Or Facebook about my penis. Or penis about my johnson.



FPotD

Saturday, a few of us recappers will be recording the inaugural episode of the Cblog Recap Pcast (or whatever we decide to call it), a podcast specifically for the cblog community from us, the Cblog Recaps team!


I'll probably make the header image out of the Cblog Recaps blog header image but if you have an art idea, send it in!

So far, I'll be recording together with Phil and Wrench, but if Funk and ScottyG manage to find time, they may join in too. We managed to hammer out a rubric for it all, so hopefully it flows well enough that we can naturally stick with it. I feel like there should be some surprise though, so you'll have to wait to so what we tackle specifically. Just know that everything we'll be talking about is directly related to the cblogs YOU are making. Maybe we'll talk about he trends and news the blogs are about or the games they're about, but it all starts with what's on the blogroll for he week and from our respective days!

Most of all, this will be a cathartic release to make a podcast my way. I've listened to a few over the years and I definitely have my favorites. This project is my baby and I want to do it my way, specifically how the whole audio experienced is edited and I'm excited to have another creative project on my hands and I won't eat up tons of CPU space on my laptop since there won't be any HD video footage to process. Seriously, I'm lucky Sony Vegas lets me edit the HD quality videos that I can't even preview correctly on my laptop. A podcast should be a relative piece of cake.

One of the things I love about certain podcasts is the cold opening. A cold opening is an introductory segment that is somewhat related and yet not. For example, a podcast with a big focus on Resident Evil's newest release might use a sound byte of how Jill almost became a Jill sandwich. I really want to put a lot of effort into this podcast.


Then queue intro theme

Actually, speaking of the podcast, I don't know if we've actually settled on a title yet. Here's what's been swimming through my head lately.

- Dtoid Cblog Pcast
- Cblog Recap Pcast
- The Cblog Recapcast
- The Cblog Fapcast (please don't vote for this)
- Or a combination of all of the above

I've also unlocked my first unique ship on FTL. I believe it is the Zoltan focused ship with three Zoltan crew members. I don't remember it's drawback but Zoltan give a free charge of energy to the room they operate in, so it'll be pretty interesting how I stretch my reactor in future playthroughs. I unlocked her while playing the Engi ship again and I managed to survive a similar situation that killed me last time. A group of pirates boarded my ship after fooling me with a Zoltan science station. Things might've turned out he same if I weren't for one big difference: I had a bigger crew including one Rockman.

Four pirates; a Mantis, a Slug, a Rockman, and a human, all teleported onto my weapons bay. Luckily, as they destroyed my weapons, my drone system continued to at least pressure the enemy ship. Meanwhile, I maneuvered my Rockman to intercept three of them coming down to he medbay. The last, the Mantis, I tried suffocating with an open air lock. I managed to weaken it enough so even an engi could kill him. Meanwhile, my Rockman fought off three whole pirates by himself thanks to a combination of high health, the medbay, and the medical nanobots. Those nanobots really saved my life too, because my ship was still taking damage from the enemy ship I had trouble focusing on (hello? pirates!). A lot of direct hits resulted in fires and injuries to the crew and the only way I was going to break even was if I sent my engis, the only crew members trained to handle engineering duties in the ship, to repair all my damaged systems with their double repair speed. All while my crew was still taking damage from taking hits to direct fire.

A common conundrum is whether or not you want to continue repairing important systems so your ship holds out while risking your crews' worsening health to direct hits, or send them to the medbay to heal while the systems remain damaged and vulnerable to enemy fire. Medical Nanobots allowed my crew to continually repair the ship while slowly being healed. It was the optimal work pace and once the pirates were expunged and the systems were repaired, my deadly attack salvo made quick work of a ship being manned by one human.



Good thing caps are short tonight! I need to try out this Adjudicator thing!

* - Elsa's PSA about gamin' it safe! You fat, smelly slobs!

* - XCOM's hooks are in Wrench. THE HOOKS!

* - I love Seph T. Roth X's writing style and it all culminates on his retro review of Robocop Vs. Terminator

* - Mario basically punches the back of Yoshi's head to make him stick his tongue out. Now Superman is riding Yoshi...

* - William Defoe, the patron saint of Destructoid

A - Will's response piece to Apathy's front paged story. This time it's Minecraft who saved a life

A - Kona muses about the power video games have over us, for better or for worse

S - You see this Protag? You see that S right here? It's a goddamn series now. Make your blog series about game music shine!

C - Before the winners of Phil's last contest can roll around in their new hot dog paraphernalia, he springs a new contest on us

R - SkintCrayon sings the praises of Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword

R - VisualOdyssey announces his mobile game development thing.

F - You should play FTL


~ StriderHoang


FPotD

XCOM has its hooks in me. Bad.

I haven't played anything else since last Tuesday. No Vault loot has been plundered, my FTL ship is in space-dock, and I haven't even picked up Dishonored despite spending a good portion of the year looking forward to it. Who would have thought that out of all the amazing games this year, a turn-based tactical shooter might have emerged as my personal favourite? Not me for damn sure.

I spent a good portion of my Tuesday writing a blog all about XCOM so I'm a little exhausted on coherent ideas about the game – I'm just going to share some of my favourite things about it.



Future 1950s is awesome - The game is set in 2015, but you might not know it to look at it. Everything has a distinctly "retro-future" vibe. While your soldiers clop around in high tech body armor and cradle massive modern machine guns in their beefy arms, your base is replete with room sized generators, spinning satellite dishes, and a Strangelove-esq War Room. The clothes your base staff and scientists wear aren't necessarily old-fashion, but definitely evoke a kind of by-gone era of post-war pulp – mad scientist comics and commando dime-novels. All the laser guns and alien tech feature delightful oversized glass tubes, filled with luminous, bubbling, mystery fluid, malignant and alluring. The Fallout series appeals to the same kitschy "SCIENCE!!" aesthetic, but rather than playing it to the T, XCOM moves those trapping forward with a modern edge, giving the game a unique, fun visual design.



Aliens are weird – and that's great. I love how the enemies manage to be legitimately threatening while still playing to almost comedic sci-fi tropes. The Greys are unnerving little buggers with their bulbous eyes and huge craniums. The way they skitter like cockroaches when disturbed might make you giggle, but those hydrocephalic jerks will mess you up if you give them the chance.

My favourite have to be the Thin Men. Reptilian M.I.B-like infiltrators, you usually find them in packs poking at a corpse with a syringe or two. Watching them slither, hop, and slinky their way around the battlefield never gets old. It's like peeking into an alternate dimension where Spiderman is a creepy sex offender. And the way the one you capture simply sneers at the interrogation device and cocks his head as the chamber closes? Chilling.



Fraulein Vahlen's little shop of horrors - It isn't often that the Mad Scientist is on your side. Dr. Vahlen seems like a friendly enough young doctor when you are introduced to her, but it isn't long before you start to see the darkness lurking behind the high-tech clipboard. Whether she is yelling at your troops for having the gall to use explosive weaponry around potentially salvageable alien tech rather than risking their lives for fancy new toys for her to research, or acting absolutely giddy at the prospect of unlocking reality bending psionic powers in the human mind, you'll know exactly what kind of person your dealing with. There is a certain dark comedy listening to such an affable young lady eagerly discus how much information she was able to extract from an alien prisoner "before it expired from the process." Even your lead engineer seems a little uneasy with her ruthless pursuit of more advanced tech and less than clear moral compass. In most other games she would be a villain, but in XCOM she might just be your only hope against the invaders.



The Council of vaguely ominous intent - Why do I get the feeling that some of the nations in the XCOM Project might not actually know they're in it? The game never spells it out specifically or spends much time dwelling on it, but not everything is on the up-and-up with your would-be-bosses. While any Stargate fan should be intimately familiar with the concept of a top secret anti-xeno special force that the government maintains a careful amount of plausibly deniable distance from, some of the flavour text peppered about XCOM ratchets up the unseemliness. References to corporate interests, mysterious V.I.Ps, and the existence of a Grey Market for alien goods all point to a more expansive and possibly self-interested conspiracy then might be immediately evident. But much like Dr. Vahlen, when the aliens are breathing down your neck and global panic levels are rising, your not exactly picky about where your getting your support.

I think it is to the game's credit that they play this aspect coy. It introduces a nice flavour to the game without getting mired in some Majestic 12, LA LE LU LI LO, crap. In fact, most elements of the story are handled with kid gloves. Chief engineer Shen and resident madwoman Vahlen might butt heads a bit and wax poetic on the dangers/advantages of rapidly advancing humanities technical evolution by adopting alien gear, but you never have to sit through an introspective cut-scene about it. Story missions introduce the basics of the situation, but let the real drama unfold out in the field. The light-touch keeps the focus on your own personal story – the choices you make, the squadmates you lose, your successes and failures – and thats where XCOM shines the most.

* - ShadeOfLight hits us with some of his favourite soundtrack selections. If you put Dancing Mad in a blog post, I'm gonna Topsauce you.

* - Don't fuck with the Mole-Men. Strider provides a great breakdown of the new Volus classes added to ME3's multiplayer. I love that Bioware is still supporting the mode with fresh content. I've had to eat every snide comment I made about the "shoehorned" in multiplayer that has since delighted me for untold hours.

* - I've been meaning to give Slender a shot for some time now. With all of these recently released spiritual successors and Halloween just around the corner, the timing has never been better.

* - The Secret Moon Base transmits once again to make sweet love to your ear drums. If you aren't listening to this podcast yet, your missing out.

A - Mirrors Edge was an ambitious game that fell far short of its potential. L3ED has a wish list of suggestions and things to avoid to make a sequel that fulfils on the promise.

A - I am so happy to see the return of our ManWithNoName! He doesn't disappoint with this punchy blog about the importance of enjoying the ride rather than getting all hung up on the destination.

A - CringerPrime lists off some of my least favourite things about Borderlands 2 and compares them to an MMO as an example of how one could work on a console. I'm not sure that is a great thing. I would much rather think about ways to replace the more annoying MMO trappings in BL2 with awesome fun stuff than replicate them in different games.

A - Bethesda makes some great games, but they often feel hamstrung by their wonky engines or perhaps overreaching ambition. This blog also serves as something of an intro-post from Turpinator who would very much appreciate it if we didn't savage him too much in the comments.

A - I couldn't read this because I'm lame and still haven't played through the Walking Dead! Sorry man.



D - New York Comic Con looks like a ton of fun. TroyFullbuster certainly seems to have enjoyed it!

N - Could Super Mario Bros U have online multiplayer? Maybe? Maybe not? It all depends on how much you want to read into things.

T - ThePhil plunges into his backlog with a trio of dissimilar games. Kilk may know how to handle his pole, but Bayonetta has hair to die for.

R - A mixed review for poor ol' Alan Wake. Was I the only person who really dug that game? Still hoping for a sequel.

F - A video look back at Nintendo Power.

C - A sort of intro blog from damagedcaterpie. Your on the right track, but we need more! Tell us about yourself, make a proper introduction!

C - I don't know if TheKodu is making a point in earnest, or just trolling the heck out of us here. I don't think anyone in their right mind would defend pirates breaking the street date of a game with an illegitimate copy weeks in advance by comparing them to a lucky guy who picks up the game a day early because the clerk at Wallmart is clueless. Fuck pirates, and doublefuck any of them or are stupid enough to try and play a stolen game online before it even hits the stores.

F - Horsey dance straight into the fail pile.



-Wrenchfarm

FPotD

Mmmmmm. Guess who's back? Back again? Phil is back, tell some men. I don't know why, but that popped in my head after sitting down. Oh man. Eminem. You twat. Anyways, I'm back! Again! Smurfee McGee unfortunately had some mass baby seal murders to attend and I'm filling in for him, so I can fill him in. Mmmmmmm guy.

*Slaps self*

Sorry, I got into Kaniff mode. It can overtake me sometimes. I'm good now... I think... Soooo, I'm totally into Borderlands 2. Still. Just beat my first run last night and am now rocking it in TVHM. The loot is SOOOOOOOOOO awesome. The battles require more tactics now, new baddies, new (WAY BETTER) loot and most importantly: It's still super fun. I really need to unwrap my XCOM though. It's screaming "YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME", from my shelf. As it does, I sit there and continue to smoke a cig, back to her, ignoring the whole situation, like a bad dream. It's muggy outside and I could use the warmth I tell ya. The chill in here is arctic. I could feel her gaze pierce me from across the room. Pierce me like a hot cup of man. SHIT!!! I went from Kaniff to whatever that was and back!

I need meds......



*- You'll know why I sauced this when you read it. It's from ccesarano. It's real good.
*- MagnaChris Cartalon shares an amazing DIY project. I WANT DARK SOULS ONE NOAW!
*- PICTURE.AWESOME.BEATBEAT.NUFF.SAYD?

A- N7's sexy self, lays out how to make Kinect better. Here's hoping, because they dropped the ball imo. They=Everyone.
A- TheKodu peeks behind the curtain on the Wii price drop and shares it's secrets.



W- Alex B. announces the ever awesome Ninjapresident, a weiner of games.

E- Kirrylord shares two animes that would make great vidya gamz! I want a Cowboy Bebop one, with shades of ME, Vanquish, Freespace and Analogue.
I- Say what uppers to Friedzombie! All his genitals belong to us now!
C- Occams twists open his Oreo cookie head and rains his sweet white filling of knowledge upon us. the topic? Music in games. The result? Amazing.
S- Strider shares a FTL story. Each playthrough is an awesome, harrowing adventure. Man, I need to get my rig up fully.
S- TriplZer0 shares a -wait for it...... wait for it.....
C- Coffeewithgames ponders NSMB Wii U's online status.

T- Levelseeker gives some impressions on RE: 6, also known as 'one of those games'.
T- Perfidious Sinn shares thoughts on MK9. Mmmmmmm I'll share m-*FATALITY*
T- Sir Davies played 7 awesome indies, that you should too. Seriously, I've mainly had more fun in indies lately, than the past 5 years of big budget stuff.

L- TheCiderMan reviews Jam, the book by Yahtzee Croshaw. Have to admit, I want to read it now.

C- Unappreciated writes a good blog, but needs some formatting help and some pizazz. Like, so close to greatness here, just a little lacking.



S- A recap of a recap? Recapception! #2011Jokes
F- This mothe******* right here.


Our story continues....



I go to walk out the door, but she grabs me. She spins me around by my coat, her eyes shedding tears, like she shed her clothes last night. Quick and sopping wet. Like a rain that moved in overnight from the coast. Wet and fast is what I'm saying. She says to me "Damn you! Look at me, look at what you've turned me into!" I slap her across her tits and push her away from me. I blow smoke in her face as she slaps me in return. The sting feels good on my cheek, the sound echoes down the alleyway. I turn and begin to walk, in search of a hot dude, in tight pants. Her screams follow me. Like I'm a bag of chips and the screams are Honey Boo Boo. I begin to run.





-PhilK

FPotD

Sooooo, who wants to teach me how to change my blog header? I want that back dammit. Anyways, I have missed you motherf**kers. Damn, I've missed you. I've been out from recaps for two weeks and just had a full plate of life lately. I have discovered the Twitter though. It's actually pretty cool. It's like texting with people, you don't trust with your real phone number. A lot of you folks are on there too and I definitely dig that.

So what have you all been playing? I'm still plugging away at BL2, have XCOM sitting on my shelf (have played the crap out of the demo though) and am assed on pc stuff, due to my rig taking a dive (she's up now though). The busy season of gaming is speeding towards and I find myself shrugging mostly. I have everything I could hope to play already and stuff I was excited for (AC3, P4G, ZOE HD, Hitman), has kind of fallen out of my head. BL2 and XCOM are more than enough gaming for me the next few months. Anyone else feeling that way?

I'm never much of a blabber, so let's get on with the caps, but first:



Oh, I love the new site. Yes.



*- Excel updates his how to fix Capcom blog. Still spot on. Read. Learn. Act.
*- MisterDonut files for divorce from Pokemon and outlines the problems with the series..

A- ReeceH92 gives us a fantastic list of the top 5 most innovative zombie games. What, no Land of the Dead? Pfffft.
A- The ManWithNoName shares his thoughts on how Mirror's Edge could be improved. I'm praying we get a proper sequel. PRAYING.
A- Kurosaki lays out whats wrong with Sony's handling of cross-buy. Oh Sony...



C- Some dumb bag of dicks, is giving away RE 1-4 in some lame contest. I bet he even likes Smurfee. *vomits* Y'all got until the 17th

I- New community podcast Low(er) tier says hi. I hear the guys doing it are a bunch of dicks though :p
C- BWA removes his tin foil hat for a minute and gives us.......... this. Buried under all the crazy is a point. I think.

T- Eternal Death Slayer shares his thoughts on RE6. Hey Mikey! I think he.... Oh no. Never mind. He does NOT like it at all.
R- StealthMaster reviews Dishonored and has a bitching blog header. For Gilead!
T- Bibbly shares some love on survival games.
R- Casey Baker busts out some haiku reviews. Pt. 1
V- Jebus has risen again and this time brings us a let's play of Dishonored.
R- Mr. MacGregor shares some short reviews/thoughts on his current playlist of games.
T- LevelSeeker shares some thoughts on LBP Vita. Seriously, the game feels at home on Vita. I tore through it in a week and am waiting for more community stuff.
T- Mister Gray shares why XCOM is so f**king awesome. BUY IT NOW FOOOOOLLLSSSS
R- Haiku reviews pt. 2 The Haikuening with a Vengeance
T- Papi shares what he's playing with some cool trailers for them. I swear I could watch the Runner and Muramasa trailers over and...

L- ElectNigma shares another story with us.
F- TheKodu begins a sketch comedy show. Needs Dave Foley. Everything needs Dave Foley. Naw, good stuff man.

C- Kwamouflage brings a new series Suntoid. I like it, but I feel it could use more substance, more wacky, just... more. Awesome potential.
C- Papi I'm not failing you. But format a little better and maybe spice it up with pics. Other than that, good thoughts on the Wii U launch.






Yay, I didn't have to fail anyone! That always makes me happy. I'd attribute that to Andy doing his job, but something tells me otherwise. I bet he's sitting in a lounger, sipping fuzzy navels and dreaming of boners. All the while, a young El Salvadorian boy fans him with used boxers. Boxers stolen from the local gym. Used boxers. You disgust me Dixon. *spits on ground*

Shit, I have to clean that...




-PhilK3nS3bb3n

FPotD