I've been desperately meaning to write a cblog over the last few weeks, but between wrapping up the summer term -- four classes left and then I can do Dtoid full time, thank eff! -- and putting the rest of my free time toward work here (mostly behind-the-scenes stuff), nothing has come to fruition until now. Part of that is also due to it being August; we're right on the cusp of regularly scheduled big-name videogame releases, but not quite there yet. And, frankly, there's not a whole lot on the immediate horizon of interest to me, game-wise, since a lot of what people DO seem to be genuinely excited about are new installments of franchises I'm not really into so much. It's a sleepy period, one that really does feel like the last leg of this console generation, and not even admittedly wonderful downloadable/indie games are enough.

So, with all that said, I gave up on trying to make this thing strictly videogame-related. But comics are close enough, right? I'm one of those weird people who always has to qualify that, "Yeah, I like comics ... in theory. I enjoy movie, television, and game adaptations, but I glean information from wikis and the like rather than actually read the damn things."

I doubt I'm alone in this, since comics -- while not necessarily expensive -- do add up quickly alongside other leisure interests. I'm also not entirely sure how I was able to avoid them growing up, because that would have been it for life. Done. As it turns out, the money side of it isn't the major roadblock. Rather, it's the nature of the medium.

Batman has always been my favorite, and after seeing The Dark Knight Rises, I was compelled to seek out some comics after looking up Bane quotes on IMDB and scolding my kitten about his severe punishment (see below). The Internet gave me two or three starting points -- I opted to go with Batman: The Long Halloween, which was a wise decision in retrospect. It's a terrific entry for people who like Nolan's grounded-in-reality take on Batman (as much as you can given the fiction, anyway) and have some general knowledge about the better-known characters and villains.



Tremendous stuff, and it taught me something: I can seriously get into comics if I'm not reading them issue by issue. Volumes, omnibuses, and the like are where it's at, as silly as that might sound. That's where you guys come in. I'm positive we've got some resident comic experts in here somewhere.

Where should I go next?

No thanks to Amazon's black magic, I went on a mini shopping spree and recently got Dark Victory, Hush, Knightfall, Volume 1 (the paper quality makes me sad), The Ultimates: Ultimate Collection, and Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1. So those and the ensuing volumes can be left out. But other than that, I'm open to pretty much anything as long as it's halfway decent, no matter the character, publisher, etc. Hit me with some recommendations, if you would be so kind.

Obligatory cat pic:

While many Americans are spending the day grilling, drinking, and hanging out with their friends and families, science is happening elsewhere in the world. Much of the Destructoid staff has peaced out already, so content will be extremely sparse today -- but you probably knew that.

We've got Chad's lovely little holiday-themed feature that just went up, and there's also a bit of news on the Final Fantasy VII re-release for PC and Fraser's review of The Journey Down in the queue. And that's about it at the time of writing this.

So, if you had hoped to be entertained by a decent flow of stories today, consider this a kind nudge to go out and burn through the day elsewhere; possibly not even on the Internet. Just a suggestion. Might I also suggest playing Spelunky now that it's out on Xbox Live Arcade? Alternatively, Indie Games put up a solid list of similar games that can be played without an Xbox 360.

If you are reading this now, well, thank you. I assume that means you are a dedicated follower of the dumb (and sometimes not dumb!) stuff we do. Or else you're bored off your ass at work. Either way, thank you for sticking with us. There have been a lot of ups and downs over the years, but I think we're on the right track, at least from the inside looking out. I'm feeling good about the future.

We'll be Zero Cooling it up extra early tomorrow, because of SPORTS. As such, I wanted to give you fine community members the opportunity to hit us -- Darren/Dexter/Darexter, Sean, Ben, and myself -- up with any questions and/or miscellaneous thoughts you might have.

I'm not sure if it made the cut in the last episode (or the spin-off bonus), but after revealing my childhood dream of kicking Chucky's ass, I suggested to my peers that we try to cover one totally-out-there-and-bizarre topic at the end of each show. Now, if you have ideas for such things, I'd love to hear them.

I know coming up with questions isn't easy. Whatever you have, no matter how ridiculous, will be greatly appreciated. Sometimes, the less specific (and newsy), the better.

Also, I totally played all the way through Stacking today. I'll for sure discuss it during the show, but if you don't want me to leave anything out that might not immediately come to my mind, ask for any specifics you want covered. Keep in mind, though -- the game will almost certainly be out before this new episode, both because of editing time and the Wednesday launch embargo.

Link dump!
Zune
iTunes
Raw and manly

So tonight I was randomly reminded of this incredible site's existence.

It. Effing. Rules.

Apparently not a ton of people are aware of this thing, because I tweeted about it and got a bunch of responses filled with gushing. And since more or less all of the music on the site is fantastic, just about everyone was like "it started on Amazing Game X, SO GOOD!"

Enjoy, Dtoiders!

So as you are all likely aware, our forums are still down. It sucks, I know -- especially after Mxyzptlk just started organizing FNF in the forums, which I'm super happy about.

Last week I was able to put the front page post up early, and that's something I'd like to continue doing, so I'm asking anyone interested in hosting to post their info (online tag, game, system, time) here in the comments if you aren't already planning on making a cblog of your own today.

Specifically, this call for entries goes out to Xbox 360 players, because we are generally a spontaneous bunch and fear organization. I realize this probably should have gone up yesterday, but I was busy attending to ALF-related business and couldn't be bothered.

You might have already seen the thread up on NeoGAF, but just in case you hadn't, I decided to make this post. I didn't want you guys to miss out on a bunch of useless (yet extremely interesting) facts about video games.

I've selected my favorites from the post, so check 'em out and remember, once you see it, it can't be unseen. You've been warned.


Now this is how you cut corners! The bush is exactly the same as the leftmost cloud, other than color of course.


Another striking resemblance.

Pokemon will never die: Ekans backwards is snake.


Notice anything peculiar? The gym is set up to look like a Clefairy!


The original design for Gordon Freeman.

Alucard backwards is dracula (how the fuck did I not notice this?)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest ... get it?


Rare slipped a little something into Banjo Tooie for the adult players.


WHY PENUS WHY!!!

Tekken was going to be called: "Rave Wars," and Namco kept the name as one of Law's moves.

Devil May Cry was originally a Resident Evil game. A bug in Onimusha led to the air combat found in DMC today.


An early Dreamcast prototype.


Goatse, anyone?


Moar plz!

For more, check out the NeoGAF thead or Games Radar's 101 things you didn't know about games.