But oh-ho! There are many more things you can do with Swapnote than just swap notes! The Streetpass and Spotpass features really open up the app to some useful and fun concepts. I’ve compiled a wonderful list of some things that I’ve tried, and plan on doing, that have nicely extended what can be done with the fun little service. Feel free to follow along and do the same, or drop your own suggestions in the comments.

Self Promotion

Thanks to the app’s Streetpass capabilities, it’s very easy to promote your self. Think of it like a virtual business card with a few added benefits. Write in your website info, Twitter handle, gamertag, contact info, and more.

For musicians, including a short clip of your music with your contact info could be a nice viral treat for folks who walk by. The same can be said with photographers and artists, who can include their work (even with non-3D images that they’ve uploaded to their 3DS memory cards) like a mini portfolio.

Dating

More Streetpass usage abounds with the app that you can use to your advantage come the next gaming/comic/geek convention. Throw your photo, quick audio “hello”, likes and dislikes, and contact info in a few Swapnote slides and HOPE AND PRAY that some like-minded attractive person of the opposite sex has their 3DS with them and gets your ping. You could even carry on communicating, pen pal style, via the app afterwards. Who knows… it could be love.

Scavenger Hunts

The random cool things that pop up when Streetpass is turned on can be pretty exciting. Whenever a new Mii enters my plaza and gives me puzzle pieces, for instance, I feel like Santa just dropped by. Think of how cool it would be if you were out shopping when the Streetpass notification pops on for Swapnote, and inside is a photograph of a hidden stash of rare Skylanders figures at your local Target in the women’s shoes section? The next time you’re out shopping or at the movies, leave a (friendly) surprise for some lucky stranger. Draw a map and drop in a photo of a treasure that they could find. Or, maybe it’s a note of how to get a great deal at the store they are in. Say the “secret password” and get 10% off of your latte.

It’s kind of like a lite geocaching. With PAX coming up in April, there are plenty of opportunities to have some fun. I can already imagine publishers walking the floor at expos, sending out little notes for people to visit their booths to get free swag for mentioning a secret phrase.

Streetpass Flash Mobs

“On January 30th, everyone get in front of WalMart and do the Captain Lou Albano Mario Dance.”

Flash mobs happen all the time, even though they are soooo 2008. Swapnote can be used to set a time and place, using Streetpass to virally pass along the info. Instead of dancing, I suggest maybe getting people together to play Mario Kart 7 or Starfox 64 3D. Unless you actually DO know the Mario dance, then we’ll pretend to not know you. Ever.

Giveaways & Contests

This one is easy. Got a contest running or an extra code for Castle Crashers? Ask a trivia question to your friends, with the first correct answer recieved winning the code. Or, just give away stuff to random people on Streetpass.

Games… WITH FRIENDS!

I rarely used the DS’s Pictochat, but when I did manage to get a few friends together we almost always played hangman through it. There are a ton of games you can play through the app, depending on how involved you want to get. Tic-Tac-Toe, quizzes, “boxes & lines”, Hang Man, and even Battleship can be played.

For something like Battleship create a simple board of squares, 5 boxes tall by 5 boxes wide, and label each box from A-Y. You’ll probably need two of these boards, one to track your ships and one to track your hits or misses with your friend. Send your playing board to your friend via Spotpass. Now, sketch in 2 ships of 2 squares wide and 2 ships of 3 squares wide on the board (don’t send it this time) to use as your own board. Reply back and forth with the letter and the result — I use the messages “MISS” or “HIT” — until someone wins.

Drink & food recipes

This one is pretty enjoyable, and easy to do. Take a photo of something you’ve made — food or drink — and include it in the already provided “dish” stationary. On the 2nd page and onwards detail the recipe with ingredients and steps to make it.

Art contests

This one is probably the easiest way to interact with friends on Swapnote. You’re already sending sketches of 3D boners, so why not make an actual art out of it? Minus the boners. Pick a subject, send it to your friends, and let everyone sketch their interpretation of it. Or, take a 3D photo and have a caption contest. Daily doodles (like what Google does with their log) are fun to do, and can act like a simple visual journal.

Poetry & group writing

We’ve all done the “four word story” type of thing on message forums, so this should be no surprise. Start a sentence with 4 words on a slide, send it to your friends, and have them reply one by one. A second option: team poetry, with each person taking a line.

“Lite” animation

Even though the sketching is limited, there are ways to do some simple animation within Swapnote because of the way that the app renders the individual strokes in order. Falling water, shooting stars, and rockets exploding into fireworks are easy enough to do. My favorite: a fish jumping in and out of water, across both of the levels of 3D. With a little practice and a creativity animations can be really interesting.

By using dotted lines, you can make a simple animated fireworks explosion

ARG

Hosting an alternate reality game can be quite fun, and can get your friends to reply often, especially as a group. Start with an audio message that sounds like a phone call, and have your friends “call” back. Leave tasks for people to do, like take photos or solve puzzles, and have your friends work together to solve them. Think of this like a deeper, more narrative version of the scavenger hunt I mentioned above.

Dungeons & Dragons RPG

When we first heard of people hosting RPGs via Swapnote, we were somewhat intrigued. Could someone make an engaging experience in such a short form? Perhaps it may just require a different approach to accomplish, or a separate sheet of paper. The interaction could be done completely through Swapnote, with simulated dice rolls and group battles.

————–

We’re sure there are plenty more ways to enjoy Swapnote, and the uses will adapt and grow over time as more people begin to use it. We’ll just keep looking for more things to do that don’t involve sketching our balls.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) have lost a lot of ground in the previous week. With politicians, corporations and the ESA all pulling their support for the legislation in the wake of the largest online protest in history, voting on the bills has finally been postponed indefinitely. But that doesn’t mean that the danger has passed just yet. Ordinary gamers, in particular, must continue to stand up for themselves until the egregious laws are put to rest for good.

Many people know that the bills will be detrimental to the internet in many different ways (if you didn’t already know that, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article). But what exactly will SOPA and PIPA mean specifically for the video game industry?

As gamers, how will SOPA/PIPA affect us?

The video game industry has seen a pretty sizable explosion in content over the past few years. In large part, that’s because of how much easier and profitable the industry has become for independent developers. Minecraft was created by a single man with an idea. Now, two years after the game first launched into an open alpha, the game has earned millions of dollars and funded an entirely new development team.

"Organizations like Google helped to protest SOPA."

But how do millions of people pick up a game and bring it up to sensation-status when the game has literally zero funds in terms of marketing and publicity? Well, that’s where we came in.

Gamers, bloggers and journalists manned their media siege engines and showed everyone just how wonderful Minecraft was. Videos showcasing fan-made tutorials, scale-models of the Enterprise-D and simulated computers within games within computers set the likes of Youtube and gaming blogs ablaze. Rarely before had so many fallen in love with something brought to them by so few.

And that’s exactly the sort of communal spirit what SOPA and PIPA would destroy.

You see, word of mouth is a very powerful thing. Minecraft isn’t the only indie sensation that can attest to that. However, word of mouth also relies on one’s ability to actually spread the word. Things like Twitter, Reddit, Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube, gaming blogs, N4G, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon and just about the entire goddamn internet make this easier than ever. However, SOPA and PIPA would make spreading the word about anything tangible without the express permission of those behind the product in question illegal. Not only that, but it would make the service that allowed something as tragic as free promotion to pass without question liable.

Smaller games that rely on all of those precious stories and videos could be silenced in the shockwave caused by some blitzkrieg CEO that doesn’t like what someone said about the latest Madden game on Youtube or even a news blog like Joystiq or Kotaku.

It’s also true that our homegrown video games wouldn’t bear the brunt of the damage. That’s because the legislators behind SOPA and PIPA have decided to veil their ridiculous bills behind the xenophobic notion that those barbarian hordes known as ‘foreigners’ are somehow more liable to be pirates than us here in the States. SOPA and PIPA are technically only supposed to be able to block content from other countries. The trouble is, most gamers these days aren’t old enough to even remember what a Regan looks like. Tons of games, big and small, good and bad, come from all corners of the globe. On average, foreign games tend to rely a lot more heavily on word of mouth than domestic stock. Not only that, but (and this may be a surprise to the kind of people writing these kinds of laws) not every country in the world is run like the United States. If some nation out there does things a little bit differently than those behind SOPA/PIPA would like, they could potentially restrict access to content from that country. That means we might never hear about games like The Witcher 2, which was developed in Poland and managed to crack SideQuesting’s own 2011 Game of the Year list.

"Lamar Smith – author of SOPA."

Obviously, journalists and developers depend on people being able to know about video games. However, so do all of the gamers out there that rely on healthy competition and innovation to ensure the best possible quality for the products that they spend money on. If television stations were to lampoon a FOX property, the government wouldn’t be able shut down every other network but FOX. I’m pretty sure that this is the case since I still don’t watch Fox News (that being said, I don’t watch a lot of network television period).

So if you thought that SOPA and PIPA were only dangerous to pirates or the film and music industries, you were wrong. These bills are dangerous to just about everyone; possibly to gamers most of all.

That’s okay. It’s not always wrong to be wrong and it’s never too late to make things right.

Recent protests have made a lot of headway in terms of shutting down the threat of SOPA and PIPA. The internet has shown a lot of solidarity in pushing the bills back to their wrinkly, Gold Bond-soaked hives. The bills are likely in for some major overhauls before voting finally begins. But the fight isn’t over. You can still support the cause, as well as your hobby and yourself, by contacting your local representatives and telling them that they shouldn’t support these draconian laws in their current states, or not at all unless drastic changes are made.

It’s not too late for them to be right too.

It’s a difficult task to top a nearly-perfect gaming experience. Excellent storytelling, engaging characters, and thrilling puzzles are already a rare combination, and one that is usually impossible to follow up in a sequel. In fact, it becomes very easy to be let down by a sequel to a game we love as a less-than-stellar sequel can ruin our impressions of the first.

Valve Software has an incredulous record of sequels that top their predecessors (when they actually release, that is), so when they announced that the wonderful Portal would receive one the entire Internet let out an excitedly happy “whoop” without knowing a lick of what the game would encompass. The initial expectations were massive; how would the beloved game’s simple brilliance of mechanic and snappy, humor-filled plot translate to this new game, and would it need to be similar to the original or something completely new?

The development team quickly let fans know that the core of the game — shooting portals — would remain, while new mechanics and physics-based puzzles would be added. Further on, cooperative play was announced and a wonderful voice cast was revealed, and even Steam integration for the game would come to the Playstation 3. The game seemed to be pushing all of the right buttons leading up to its release, but the niggling feeling remained: would Portal 2 actually live up to the hype?

OH. HELL. YES.

It’s not just the “When Nature Calls” version of Portal. Yes, it carries over many of the same constructs of the first game — notably, the mind-mending puzzle structure and the humor — but it uses them as a pedestal to jump from instead of copying. The new mechanics that result from the gels, vortexes, jump platforms and gravity lifts allow for some of the greatest puzzles in video game history, almost always resulting in “oohs” and “ahhs” and “holy shit, it worked” responses when playing. What may seem like an accidental solution is almost always the one that Valve intended. We are supposed to figure this out, in any way possible, even if we’re meant to break the game.

The co-operative play is itself an amazing feat. It isn’t just an extension of known Portal 2 levels, or a clone of it’s magnificent plot, but an entirely separate game on the same disc. Heck, it’s perhaps a better experience than the single-player mode.

And speaking of the plot: the character development and several narrative twists throughout the adventure are simple, yet extremely fulfilling. It’s not a new plot, by any means, but the delivery is magic. Wheatley, voiced by Stephen Merchant, may be the greatest bumbling sidekick in video game history, and his rise within the game’s plot left us hoping to see him again post-Portal.

Valve created a true masterpiece that should be played over, and over, and over again, with and without friends, for everything it has to offer. It’s better than a sequel should be, even for an already-beloved classic, and sits alongside Bioshock and Uncharted 2 as the greatest games of this generation. Quite simply put, Portal 2 was an easy selection for Game of the Year.

We live in a world where videogames are now constantly being scrutinized to see if they are ‘art.’ Some games go out of their way to provide you with a somewhat dull experience just so they can provide what they think is an artful tale of woe and wonder. None of these games are Saints Row: The Third.

Saints Row: The Third is a game that follows in the shoes of Bayonetta. It is nothing alike it in structure nor story, but it is exactly like it in the way that it is pure insanity. In one moment I went from diving out of a plane to rescue a crew member, to letting go of that crew member so I could smash through the front window of the same plane, to flying out the back and returning to my falling crew member once again. Not to mention the whole time I had to dodge the excessive amount of junk flying from plane while shooting copious amounts of bad guys. So why did I just spoil the craziest part of Saints Row: The Third? Well, I didn’t. This is the second mission and nearly tame to the badassery that happens throughout the game. VTOL jets, jet bikes, Atari style tanks…the list would go on for hours. The amount of stuff worth your while in this game is simply staggering.

Saints Row: The Third may not be artful, moral, or even appropriate for anyone of any age, but it is FUN. I have not had a more fun time playing a videogame in a long time, and Saints does very little wrong in my eyes. Even the open world jank that is in the game is unoffensive because it feels like it was put there for a reason (even if it wasn’t).

Saints Row: The Third should not be taken seriously, but as a pure videogame, I could not have been happier. That is why it is SideQuesting’s second favorite game of 2011.

The Nintendo 3DS was released in March of 2011.

Until this past November the system subsisted on ports as well as mediocre and fair original content. That all changed with the release of Super Mario 3D Land. The 3DS had finally gotten its killer app. Mario opened the floodgates and ended the drought for fans of handheld games.

Super Mario 3D Land represents the marriage of the two conflicting schools of Mario game design. The game is played out entirely in 3 dimensions, but the level design is clearly inspired from 2D Mario games. And, the game incorporates lots of elements from past Mario games. The only complaint that I have is that the game is too steeped in Mario lore, if one can even cite that as a complaint.

This game stands as the finest title on the 3DS and will prove to be a very difficult champion to dethrone. And as one of the best Mario games ever, it’d be hard to deny it from any “Best of 2011″ list.

Bodycount, by Codemasters

Bodycount
I have no comment on the quality of this game, because I’ll likely never ever play it. But this cover art is simple, and pretty. I don’t mind the use of neon rainbow colors, sitting against the stark white they stand out quite beautifully. If only the game itself showed as much restraint and ambition.

Brink, by Splash Damage/Bethesda Softworks

Brink
For a game that’s all about running and shooting, you wouldn’t expect something so restrained. The bright turquoise and the full color rebel fighter went go to great lengths to sell an aesthetic, that was arguably lacking in the game itself.

Catherine, by Atlus

Catherine
This is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. For that reason alone, I included it on this list. Another, and more important reason, is this: go to your local game store and look at the display of new games. How many of them have pink on their cover, let alone are predominantly pink? Atlus knows how to sell its niche products.

Dragon Age II, by Bioware/EA

Dragon Age 2
There a tendency among marketing folks to oversell a game by putting everything they can on their box art. This is a great example of how effective minimalism can be. I’ll give a million extra points even because I didn’t notice the silhouettes of people in the Dragon wings until this week, despite the game coming out 9 months ago.

Homefront, by Volition/THQ

Homefront
The best thing you can do with box art or any marketing materials is create a simple, iconic image. An image so powerful that you can’t help but think of your product when you see it. Homefront does this. It would be nice if the game itself were half as effective and bold as this cover.

Killzone 3, by Guerilla Games/SCEA

Killzone 3
The bright orange title mirrors the glowing eyes of the Helghan soldier, a character that I’ve always loved the look of.  While there was a major shift towards primarily white backgrounds in a lot of box art this year, this game was one of the first and most effective. Its worth noting that I still like this cover, despite all the extra cover information that Sony forced upon.

LA Noire, by Team Bondi/Rockstar Games

LA Noire
Rockstar knows cover art. I can imagine this cover sitting on the shelf next to classics like The Maltese Falcon or The Third Man with out anyone batting an eye. Its the perfect way to acknowledge your influences, something that Rockstar is particularly adept at, while still keeping  in line with or perhaps leading box art trends.

NBA 2K12, by Visual Concepts/2K Sports

NBA 2K12
I don’t envy the sports game cover designers that have to keep cranking boxes with dudes in jerseys on them year after year. While EA founds its niche with scribbles and paint splatters, this 2K took it one step further. I can almost imagine Michael Jordan grabbing a rebound and BAMFing Nightcrawler-style all the way to the other side of the court to score.

Resistance 3, by Insomniac Games/SCEA

Resistance 3
2011 was a banner year for box art. If only for the fact that Sony and Insomniac went out of their way to do something different with their Resistance 3 box art by hiring the incredibly talented Olly Moss. Its like one of those fake Criterion Covers come to life. Not only does it sell the game in appealing way aesthetically, it actually fits quite well with the tone and setting of the game.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, by Bethesda Softworks

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Is there a more appropriate cover than a simulated leather-bound book for a game thats all about telling your own story? I think not.

When you’re not shouting ungodly amounts of cheese wheels, decapitating each and every female passerby in a sick, twisted fantasy, or sneering at the sight of a misdirected arrow shot, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an innocent puppy full of wonder beyond your imagination, just begging to be embraced. And how could you deny that? Thieves, Barbarians, Magi, and of course, dragons await you at every step on the frigid grounds of Skyrim. Then you finish the main quest.

Isn’t it something truly extraordinary that a game like Skyrim that switches its focus from streamline to freedom exists? Almost mischievously it plays on our attention span with a jolt of curiosity here and a jolt of curiosity there, or rather an undiscovered cavern here and an ancient Dwarven mine there. It’s tough but Skyrim’s only rule, or suggestion because it’s so kind like that, is to let go, only then will the journey become that much more meaningful and spontaneous. When you do force yourself to release and thrive, Skyrim isn’t about playing, it’s about living. Do yourself a favor and don’t waste your time trying to name a game of equal stature that was available this year.

Take a moment, if you will, to listen to that boisterous main theme again. Chant with me into a crescendo, an explosion of might. Grab your sword, your staff, your bow, your dagger, your bucket, and give me a “FUS RO DAH!”, friend.

*Images courtesy of Duncan Harris (Dead End Thrills), you can find more of his work here.

When the first hints of Bastion made their way to the collective hive-mind that is The Internet I became immediately enthralled; I was obsessed with finding out any and every detail about this masterpiece-in-waiting. Even when next to nothing was known about it I was already talking about what an amazing experience we were all in store for when it would finally came out… and nobody else seemed to have any idea what I was talking about.

As a coworker of mine headed off to GDC just prior to the release of Bastion, I demanded that he take the time to do an interview with Supergiant Games, just so I could absorb that much more information while I transcribed the audio of his interview. It was a touch of synchronicity that almost all of the information I had came from a plethora of audio sources and the final product itself utilized audio in a way never before seen in a modern game.

Playing as The Kid is almost an incidental part of Bastion. It’s expertly crafted, of course, but it’s the constant companion of the narration that really made the game something special. There is clever dialogue for possibly everything you could hope to do, from exploring the levels to mixing and matching weapons. As if that one facet wasn’t enough there is also the world itself to consider, a world so shattered that it has to rebuild itself in front of you as you move forward. It’s just an incredible thing.

The fact that Bastion placed as highly as it did on a list put together by a collection of writers with vastly, often diametrically opposed tastes in games is a testament to how amazing of an experience it actually is.

I think that there are two main genres of daydreaming that geeks today subscribed to while growing up: science fiction and fantasy. For me, it was the latter that helped shape the geek that I am today (I didn’t discover Star Wars until college. I know; I’m awful.) I loved the Middle Ages as a kid. It was the only unit in social studies that I cared to learn anything about. As the timid, straight-A Asian kid in class, there was something about the Middle Ages that really appealed to me. Maybe it was the heroics, chivalry, and saving the lady that I really fell in love with because that was the furthest thing from who I was in real life. Either way, this is what I day dreamed about as a child.

Running around with a sword, slaying monsters, and saving the princess were all ideas that never would have touched my five-year old mind if it werent for The Legend of Zelda. Before I even knew there was such thing as the Middle Ages, there was The Legend of Zelda. Before I even knew what a dragon was, there was Aquamentus at the end of Level 1. At that age, if I wasn’t playing Zelda, I was out in my backyard in Long Island with a wooden paint stirrer from Home Depot killing imaginary monsters and smooching up on imaginary princesses.

As a kid, I wanted to be Link. And today, as a grown-ass man, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has allowed me to interact with that fantasy at a deeper level than I ever had before.

I would like to think that anyone with a heart would give anything to be able to vividly experience a childhood daydream as an adult. It’s a chance to truly forget and remember. That’s what Nintendo offered me in the form of Skyward Sword. And I bit.

Hard.

Two summers ago, I was the SideQuesting staffer who wrote the preview for this game after the Nintendo presser. I cold-heartedly broke down each mechanic that an item brought to the experience as a Wii Sports Resort mini-game. This assessment still holds true, but it’s hard to dismiss it as just that. After securing a finished game and playing through it in its entirety, this is one of those cases where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Skyward Sword was successful because it provided the “backyard experience” of playing as (pretending to be) Link and filled in the blanks — normally sketched in with my imagination — with a colorful rendition of Hyrule and a story that would satisfy the most rabid Zelda fan.

For someone like me who fears getting old, playing Skyward Sword and being able to daydream like I did as a kid in a world that I love was an incredibly therapeutic experience.

“I’m Batman” – Me, October 2011

From its lowliest gutter to its highest rooftop, Batman: Arkham City is the next evolutionary step to make you truly feel like the Dark Knight. The more claustrophobic feel of Arkham Asylum is traded for an open experience, bringing Batman back to the streets and into the sky. There is nowhere Batman cannot go, nowhere for a criminal to hide, even inside their own prison. You see, a large section of Gotham has been evacuated and walled off to create Arkham City, an enormous open-air prison for the combined populations of the former Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison. Run by the villainous psychiatrist Hugo Strange, the inmates have free reign within the walls. Bruce Wayne/Batman believes this powder keg is about to explode and endeavors to shut it down from the inside.

Rocksteady Studios again proves its expertise in distilling the key essence of Batman into a tangible gaming experience. The gameplay elements brought to the table in Arkham Asylum were by no means broken so the name of the game here is refinement and expansion of what worked so well before. The free flow combat, stealth and gadgets – in particular the grapnel gun and gliding ability expanded to maximize Batman’s ability to move quickly around the gorgeous and incredibly detailed city. Little additions like smoke pellets and being able to call swarms of bats to your aid just add to the Batman authenticity. It all functions to make you feel like a one man wrecking crew, the way Batman should feel.

Aside from the main storyline, there is an amazing amount of extra content in Arkham City that keeps you very much occupied as you zip around, almost to the point of distraction. Interesting sidequests that breathe further life into the Batman mythos are everywhere and those Riddler trophies are almost impossible to ignore. Arkham City embraces DLC much more than Asylum, including a Catwoman side story seamlessly integrated into the main plot of the game as well as a plethora of character skins for post-game and challenge rooms, serving to enrich the universe created here by Rocksteady.

Batman: Arkham City has everything a sequel should be – bigger environments, broader scope, a fresh yet familiar experience while fleshing out a grander overall story. When you’re grappling from rooftop to rooftop, change directions mid-glide in order to swoop down toward a thug and kick him square right in the freaking face, yeah you better believe you’ll actually feel like THE GODDAMN BATMAN.

Based on the bestselling series of Polish fantasy novels, the Witcher games follow the man-turned-mutant Geralt of Rivia after the events of Andrzej Sapkowski’s final book. There is no medium finer at crafting intriguing, organic worlds than video games. And you would be hard-pressed to find a game that does it better than The Witcher 2. From character’s that feel honest and sympathetic to an environment that feels well lived-in, The Witcher 2 delivers on all the promise of interactive entertainment.

The game can be punishing at times, but the challenge only serves to make the player’s every move feel as though it has weight and meaning. Entire storylines can be lost, found, forgotten or changed completely depending on the choices made over the course of the impressively mature and envelope-pushing campaign.

While the hefty PC requirements may have kept many players away, the forthcoming Xbox 360 version should give everyone an opportunity to see why this game made our top ten.

Arguably Grasshopper Manufacture’s most accessible title to date, Shadows of the Damned did the unthinkable by successfully marrying solid gameplay and a coherent plot to the typical Suda51 fare of  outrageous characters, gratuitous violence, and an overabundance of dick jokes.  Placed in the role of Garcia (Fucking) Hotspur, career demon hunter, players were tasked with rescuing Garcia’s girlfriend from the clutches of the Demon Lord, Fleming.   Though the journey led Garcia through Hell, thankfully, SotD was anything but; each act brimmed with memorable baddies, delightful music, and hilarious dialogue.

It wasn’t perfect, but the few tedious bits and slightly baffling design choices were far outweighed by the sheer ridiculousness of shooting a sometimes-skull-sometimes-motorcycle-sometimes-gun sidekick at an enormous, foul-mouthed crow’s glowing crotch (where else?) or hand feeding some collectible gems to a twangy human/demon “mix-cher” named Christopher.  If you haven’t yet played Shadows of the Damned, you’re not only missing out on what was easily one of the best games to have come out in 2011, you’re also denying yourself a truly enjoyable experience.

All images courtesy of Electronic Arts.

Despite its perceived handicap, Deus Ex: Human Revolution managed to capture most of its progenitor’s black magic. Ignoring the much maligned boss fights, the latest Deus Ex brought so much variety – from its cyberpunk aesthetic to its emergent gameplay options – it puts most other games in the genre to shame. And all the while it allowed itself to be accessible to new players and referential to Warren Spector’s classic.

We may not be able to see the end of Deus Ex from here, after all. And according to its placement on this list, that’s a very, very good thing.

No, nobody from SideQuesting is going to Vox Games (that I know of).

At the same time, a new year brings with it a lot of new hope and optimism just the same. At SideQuesting it’s no different. When we first created the site nearly 3 years ago its name reflected writing about games as a sometime-hobby. We wanted an outlet to write, rant, and rave about the games we loved. Since that time the site grew a lot larger than we ever anticipated. We’ve had some incredible articles and features, huge days of eyeballs, and epic events. Many of our writers have gone on to “real” paying writing gigs. And, we’ve made some incredible connections within the industry. It’s been, quite frankly, awesome.

We’ve naturally evolved beyond the original focus of the site. Now, we’d like to get a little of that back.

What does that mean? Well, not much if you like the content that we already deliver. The same features will continue, the same great content, the same people. On a regular basis people ask me about how to break into the industry, and while I haven’t fully broken in myself I can definitely point them in the right direction. What we’re aiming to do now is bring some of that original freedom and passion to new, hungry writers.

Going forward we’re going to be featuring a lot of writers on the site. You may have already recently seen great posts by Jonah Gregory and Mike Suszek, or you might have enjoyed our themed weeks (8-bit Week, JPAG Week, etc) that allowed more voices to be heard. We’re going to be building up SideQuesting to allow for writers to have a chance, to improve, and to get their names out there.  With help from our staff and community, we’ll be editing their work, giving advice, and sharing ideas back and forth. We have a bunch of different ways this is going to be happening, and many will be unveiled over the coming days (after our 2011 GOTY proceedings) so stick around.

We love to play and write about games, and we hope you do too.

Dali

Give me a moment to age myself here. Back in my day, questing wasn’t so speedy, I had to read the quest text and walk to (unmarked!) objectives. Sometimes you’d spend 20 minutes trying to find a certain type of boar to slaughter only to realize it’s on the other side of the world. How did you get there? You walked. This was routine until that fateful day you finally reached level 40, the day you could purchase a mount. Achieving 40 levels wasn’t the hard part, no, getting the 100 gold pieces to buy the training and the mount itself was. You either needed to have a higher level character without much need for currency, the dignity to dance on top of a mailbox for money, or a loyal friend like I did.

His name was Faviopeave. The name came from the “randomize” button below the character creation screen. “I thought it sounded cool,” he told me. He was a Troll Mage, level 60, my idol. His presence was that of a god, I was terrified to talk to him, to say the wrong thing, for fear he would take me off his friends list. I was desperate though, I needed Faviopeave. So I asked him if he could power level me through some dungeons. The plan was for me to stand there gaining effortless experience, loot, and most importantly money, while he massacred each and every thing the dungeon threw at him. All I needed was that mount, and he could go on with whatever powerful deeds he performed elsewhere. To my delight, he agreed to help me out.

Standing there, purple text scattering my computer monitor with experience gains, I felt guilty. What could I ever do for Faviopeave in return? For all I knew, every time he read my, “I have 12 bars left,” to himself in the chat log, he was growing with frustration. But he never complained, he was silent all the way until the end, slipping a “you’re welcome,” as he returned home.

Faviopeave was my friend, I didn’t know who he really was, but his silent demeanor and kindness felt suffice enough to refer to him that way. Days later I was questing in style on my giant mount, a privilege Faviopeave granted me.

He never asked for anything in return. In some way, I wish I still knew him now. At some point in my World of Warcraft career, I could have lent him a hand. I’ve logged onto that particular server since then, but his name in my friends list was unlit for years. I still went back, hoping maybe I’ll catch him, give him an update, say hello.

Faviopeave, if for some reason you’re reading this, thank you. Thank you for making my first MMO experience that much better by helping me earn enough cash for my ride. Thank you for helping me out. Thank you for giving me friendship during a time I had so much left to learn.

Note: This article is a call for submissions to the Modern Game Player podcast.  Share your thoughts below on the topic, and they will be included in this week’s episode!

How long should a $60 video game be?

I’d wager that it shouldn’t. As in, it shouldn’t matter.

Epic, adventurous games like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 3 share the the trait of being long to a crippling degree. I get the impression that players enjoy these games as a means to escape from reality, diving into a challenging fantasy world with fewer rules, and for as many hours as possible.

The back cover of the GameCube game Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean boasts the following selling point for players:

“Embark upon an emotional journey across a richly imagined world and detailed character development spanning over 60 hours of gameplay.”

Emotional and fulfilling?

But at what point are we sacrificing our precious time for a piece of media that isn’t fulfilling? Games get frequent praise for their “replay value,” or as Urban Dictionary describes it, the way “a game beckons you to play it again after beating it.” Pressing New Game+ at the title screen is hardly a bad thing, and enjoying an experience over again should be encouraged.

But what about the other side of how games are lengthened? What about the less enjoyable, artificial means of pushing the in-game clock we know as “fetch quests?” The Gaming Wikia page for fetch quests refers to them as “gaming cliches,” and appropriately so. How often do you find yourself carrying virtual items from one location to another in an adventure game to advance the story?

To expand on this, let’s consider other gaming cliches, such as collecting items… often by the hundreds. Chris Davidson wrote an article on BitMob back in September 2009 named “Collectathon: The Rights and Wrongs of Collection in Gaming,” which explores specific examples of how games have treated this tried-and-true gaming cliche.

In recent years, series like Grand Theft Auto and Assassin’s Creed have tasked players with hours of exploration around the in-game terrain to complete a collection of items, with some kind of virtual reward in the form of achievements and “boosts” to assist the player in the game’s campaign. It often takes hours of a player’s time to complete these collections, which Davidson says he avoids when “it requires [him] to tediously look over a guide and check every single collectible location 8 million times because [he] missed flying rat #34 out of 200.”

Back to the point, then: how long should a $60 video game be? Are you happier if you spend $60 on what some might consider to be pointless gaming cliches… when they aren’t enriching?

Time is precious, and games are expensive. For me, I’d sooner cut at least 10 “useless” hours out of my gaming experiences and pay the same amount for a higher quality, albeit shorter experience.

This is where your opinion comes in. On Modern Game Player, all of us participate in a discussion about how we value games based on their length (or if we should at all).  You’re welcome to join in any way you choose. To help, I’ve set up Twitter, Facebook, and Formspring pages, an email address – moderngameplayer@gmail.com, a Google Voice line (I can’t stress enough, please use this!) at 1-408-MGPLAY1, and the comment section below (and on the topic post on the Modern Game Player site). At the end of next week, I’ll parse through every piece of text and audio I can find, and edit it together into one big podcast. Hosting your own discussion?  Tweet or email the link to me so it gets included!

Recommended talking points:

• Do you care about how long your video game experiences are?
• How “much” do you want out of your games?
• How long should a $60 game be?
• What are your thoughts on the kinds of gaming cliches that pad the length of video games? Are they good or bad?  Do you enjoy the tasks you’re presented?

Questions about Modern Game Player?  Please, read this.

It was July 2010 when I answered a call on the JPAG Facebook Group for individuals to declare their interest in making a video game. “Those interested in design, writing, art or programming; come one, come all.” Eighteen months later, Just Play A Game Studios is working perilously hard on it’s premier game – Spy Babies.

I didn’t personally know any member of the JPAG at the time. I took part in some fundraising events, being pointed in the direction by the Joystiq Podcast hosts. Nobody knew of this lovely Geordie gentleman and I was fine with that. Having just finished the first year of my Computer Science degree with a keen interest in game production, I found myself just about fit for purpose. The very first Skype meeting was held shortly after my story was delivered to the growing group on Facebook.

Meetings were held in a timeslot that shared folk from California to England. Chaired by the lovely Marie Barnes, there were many people and many topics. I can safely say the meetings were the highlight of my week. Sadly, many of the people who were there at the beginning left the project for one reason or another. But, I will keep the moment Ben Pack realised that Just Play A Game Studios held the same initials as the JPAG in fondest memory.

Spy Babies is a recently found propaganda piece created by the Gustavian government in the 1980s. Unfortunately, the Gustavian scientists created the game on a supercomputer, only belatedly realizing they had one of the only supercomputers that could run it in existence and therefore no citizens of Gustavia would ever be able to play the game. It is good news for both the citizens of Gustavia and the JPAG that Just Play A Game Studios has been able to bring Spy Babies to the Xbox 360 for all to enjoy.

Set in an alternate history of the Cold War, you take charge of Ivan Kostyavich, the Gustavian national hero tasked by Gustavia’s intelligence agency to investigate and sabotage a super spy program initiated in the United States itself! Take Ivan on a journey across the US and uncover the secrets of the diabolical Liberty Smith.

Spy Babies is the product of countless hours of tears, laughter and serious hard work from so many people. We can’t wait for people to get their hands on Spy Babies Episode 1, coming soon.

This wouldn’t have been possible without you, JPAG.

Just Play a Game Studio’s staff:

Marie Barnes | Founder; Team Lead; Programmer; Designer – Twitter

Stan Kramer | Co-Founder; Art Lead; Designer; Writer – Twitter

Rob Burgess | Programming Lead - Twitter

Bob Ball with unnamed girl in purple (thanks to Calvin Nelson at www.ccniii.com)

I’m Bob Ball, and I’m a voice actor.  I’ve got a hit podcast, ‘PopQuizzical‘.  But I want to take you back a few months – to a dinosaur costume.

A dinosaur costume?

Yes.  It’s a green and yellow carpeted outer garment but that’s not important right now.

Boston: Friday, March 11th, 7:30pm.  It was so hot.  Desperately hot.  Every time I faced away from the crowd, it was to press my face against the mesh of the costume to taste just a little of the sweet, fresh air – just two seconds worth, and then back to the crowd.  A voice actor/dinosaur’s work is never done.

Let’s go back to how this all started.  I had been doing email reads for the Joystiq Podcast for a while, and PAX East was about 2 months away.  I emailed Justin McElroy an idea: instead of having me simply be in the crowd and read an email live, why not surprise the crowd?  I emailed him a picture of a costume that vaguely resembled something you would see at a Flaming Lips Concert.  The email reply was a resounding affirmative.  My evil plan was in motion.

A shot of Bob Ball trying on the dinosaur head at Boston Costume

Fast forward to March 10th, the night before the Joystiq Live show.  My airplane touched down and I was off like the proverbial bullet.  Racing across town in taxis to get to the hotel, check in, unpack a few things then back across town in taxi #2 to get to Boston Costume shop before closing to try on my monkey suit.  Or dinosaur suit.  Whichever.  After trying on and approving the costume, I decided to slow down a bit and  carry the costume to the train station.  Have you ever tried to carry two garbage bags filled with 30 pounds of dinosaur costume 7 blocks to a train station?  Me neither.  Four blocks later and I was hailing taxi #3.

Back at the hotel I fully tried on the costume with the appropriate clothing.  Dread was starting to set in as I realized that this monster suit I donned was indeed a monster in itself.  The feet were easily 3 times the size of my own foot, and all of the dance moves I had been practicing were going to be nearly impossible.  And that was before I tried on the dino-feet.  But I was still excited.

The following day saw the opening of PAX East 2011 and for me the morning was a blur of shaking developer hands and saying hi to Joystiq listeners.  The afternoon came with a Joystiq planning meeting for the show that night.  I edited videos together as they mapped out the rest of the show.  In the final minutes in the hotel room before leaving for the convention center, I suited up in the dino costume.  You would have thought I just walked into a comedy club with the amount of riotous laughter that met me as I walked out of the bathroom.  Everyone was pleased with the costume.

I rode in a taxi van with Griffin McElroy and Andrew Yoon (who is now at ShackNews.com).  Griffin took some taxi confessional video, questioning me to how I arrived at this obvious low point in my life.  I believe my joking reply was “poor decision making skills”.

Will this dinosaur eat Griffin McElroy? Probably not – he's all gristle. (Thanks to Jason MacDow)

The two of them helped me out of the taxi and through the crowds to the Wyvern Theater.  We were stopped several times for photos and hugs – you’d be surprised how many people want a picture with a random dinosaur.  I guess that doesn’t surprise me.  I mean really, how many dinosaurs do I see on a daily basis?

We made our way up to outside the Wyvern Theater, and the line was already pretty long.  With no one in line knowing who I was, I mingled about and made a general nuisance of myself.  This was an opportunity to do some improv acting as a humanistic dinosaur, which is not something that I envisioned doing as a voice actor, but still sounded super fun.

There was one girl who became an unfortunate victim of my whimsy.  She was merely walking by the Joystiq Live! line.  She was sporting a Yoshi backpack, and I decided to treat that backpack as if it were my baby dinosaur.  I followed and stopped her, and proceeded to pet and hug the backpack.  I let the backpack go a couple of different times, but then I just started following her all over again.  Oddly, it’s like she didn’t know where she was going because she doubled back through that packed hallway a couple more times, which only added to my character’s want to chase this baby dinosaur backpack.  I can only hope that someday she feels comfortable enough to wear that backpack in public again.  I cannot promise that a costumed dinosaur won’t do that to her again.  Wink.

When the doors opened, I walked in with the rest of the Joystiq team.  Here’s the set up: almost everyone with Joystiq was at the pre-planning meeting.  Meaning: not everyone with Joystiq knows I’m the one in the dinosaur suit.  Will hilarity ensue?  Perhaps… 

The show starts, and I begin to do some general milling about through the crowd.  I knocked off hats, played with pony tails, picked up the phone and held it to head (which was at the end of an improbably long neck), and in general did whatever an entertaining dinosaur would have done.

The one thing that no one at the costume store tells you about?  Heat.  The inside of that dinosaur suit must have reached about 120 degrees Fahrenheit (about 49 degrees Celsius).  With very little airflow in that suit, every time I faced away from the crowd was a chance to press my face against the mesh built into the neck of the dinosaur and grab a couple of quick puffs of cool, sweet air – then turn back to entertain the crowd.

After running through just about all of the things I could do and not disrupt the show entirely, I decided to help myself to some water.  I found the water cooler at the corner of the room and filled up a cup with water.  I was going to be reading an email later on anyway, so I sat the cup up on the stage at the table where I would eventually be seated.  It got a couple of chuckles, and that’s al it took.  I was filling up multiple water cups and putting them on the stage for myself, garnering more and more laughter each time.  My intent was to build a pyramid of water filled cups, but I wanted to drink this water later – not just have it spill everywhere.  Practicality won out over comedy.  So, three cups of water on the table later I was desperate to have them for myself.  But I would have to wait a bit longer.

Soon after that, People came up to microphones to ask questions, and I milled about some more.  I couldn’t hear very well inside the suit (I know, shocking, right?) but I did hear one comment that was derogatorily directed at the dinosaur.  I heard lots of “oooohs” as if people were looking for some sort of dino-smackdown to occur.  Look, I’m a pacifist.  But the actor in me realized that this dinosaur is a carnivore, so I began to go towards the microphone the little cretin was asking questions from.  Little problem – there are large 40 inch monitors between me and the cretin.  I tried to squeeze through the small path beside the monitor, but if you’ve seen the dino costume you realize that I was not very nimble inside of it.  The monitor began to TIP OVER.  I, along with several other helpful people, righted it so it never really fell over.  However the Joystiq writer in charge of security had decided that this dinosaur had caused enough trouble.  Security would have to get involved.

It is, at this time, I refer you to earlier in our story when I said that almost everyone had been at the planning meeting.  The security director?  Not at that meeting.  And didn’t know that I was in the suit.  He just thought I was some weird cosplayer that had wandered in and wasn’t causing too much trouble so I was left alone to entertain.  Disregard the fact that I had been on the stage, behind the curtain, throwing merchandise into the air, trying to steal the sound guy’s wallet, knocking off people’s hats and in general being the personification of a little slice of chaos.  Now I had tipped over a monitor and electronics violence would not be tolerated.  Not even from a fuzzy dinosaur.

It was at this time that someone finally leaned over to him and said, “Hey, it’s ok.  It’s Bob in the suit.”  Whoever whispered those words saved the rest of the show.  Can you picture a dinosaur being carted off in cuffs while the Chris, Justin and Ludwig looked on in horror?  I can hear it in my head now in a quaint South African accent, “Umm, sirs, don’t arrest our dinosaur.  He’s just about to read our email.”

Eventually there was a big reveal, I drank a lot of water (those cups of water I poured came in very handy) and read an email.  After that I was tasked to give out swag to the audience, and I proceeded to chuck a plush toy into the rafters at the convention center.  What can I say?  I’ve got a strong arm.  I nearly played college ball – at least that’s what my PR department keeps telling people.

I got a chance to meet several of you after the event, either while I was in costume or throughout the weekend after I showered and smelled much, much better.  I had a fantastic time that weekend, and I still thrilled to know that such a big hearted group invited me in as one of their own.  I’ll always be glad to be a member of the JPAG.

Happy new year, and hey, have you listened to my new podcast ‘PopQuizzical‘?

It’s available on iTunes or surf on over to PopQuizzical.com.

Wanna see the whole ‘Joystiq LIVE!’ show?  Go here:

http://bit.ly/joystiqlive2011

–

Bob Ball is a Seattle based voice actor and host of the internet darling quiz show, PopQuizzical, available on iTunes and online at PopQuizzical.com.

Did you know that there are OTHER podcasts on iTunes besides those that your masterful crew at SideQuesting creates? Yeah, it came as a shock to us as well. That’s why we launched OPP in hopes to share some of these shows with you, especially the good ones.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t ask the question about why the Joystiq Podcast ended its run. Thankfully, JPAGger Mike Suszek did just that on his latest episode of Modern Game Player, speaking to Chris Grant on the subject.

What’s it about?

MGPlayer is a content-specific podcast. That is, it focuses on one topic associated with games each week. The topic is given some lite “inside baseball” treatment, as things get more in-depth than just casual conversation. Suszek takes calls, tweets, and comments from readers & listeners and directly infuses them into the show, and includes guests to speak on the subject.

The latest episode, just the second of the show’s existence, focuses on video game podcasts. Why do we listen to podcasts? Why do we create them? Suszek’s guest this week is Joystiq’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Grant, who is on the show to chat about how and why the Joystiq Podcast came to end. Grant talks about the the negativity that came with the show’s change, and how the team’s focus wasn’t just to make a “good” show but the best of its kind, and how that altered what was delivered. Suszek & Grant even touch on the issues of the change in leadership at AOL and how the unknowns of big changeover affected the show.

What’s it sound like?

The show is produced very well, mixing talk and music without any weird transitions. Mike breaks up the interview with Chris by injecting voice mails, Tweets, and comments relevant to what the two are chatting about at that moment. Mike’s audio comes in clear, but Chris was coming in a bit “tinny” due to the inefficiencies of Skype.

In Conclusion…

Modern Game Player is a great addition to a podcast field that is drowning in the “dudebros chat about the news” genre. The focus on one subject is common, but the angle taken is enjoyable and fresh. Give it a listen if you’re looking for something a little more intellectual when compared to dick jokes on [insert top gaming podcasts here].

For more info, find Modern Game Player on the website or through the iTunes feed.

Did you know that there are OTHER podcasts on iTunes besides those that your masterful crew at SideQuesting creates? Yeah, it came as a shock to us as well. That’s why we launched OPP (two years ago) in hopes to share some of these shows with you, especially the good ones.

Today we are going to take a look at Pop Quizzical, the show that friend of the site Bob Ball revealed to SideQuest listeners back on Episode 314.

What’s it about?

Pop Quizzical is a pop quiz show, strangely enough. Every other week esteemed host Bob Ball sits you down for a few minutes (usually 10-15) and quizzes you, the listener on subjects that you quite honestly should know something about. Ranging from pop culture to usage of the English language, Pop Quizzical has you covered. Bob Ball does an excellent job every episode of coming up with creative questions that you won’t know, but may actually like knowing after you get them wrong.

What’s the audio quality like?

Bob Ball has several microphones that cost more than my computer, and with me, that is saying something. But what good is a high-quality mic if the person talking into it sounds like Gilbert Gottfried on speed? Well, I dunno, because Bob Ball’s pipes are bitchin’. Pop Quizzical flourishes because of the audio production. A high bit rate allowing the ambient music and sound effects to flow through show that Mr. Ball cares what goes into your ear holes.

In Conclusion…

Pop Quizzical is what would happen if Cookie Masterson from You Don’t Know Jack started a podcast. Since that isn’t going to happen any time soon, Bob Ball jumped in and filled the role and is doing an excellent job. Give it a listen, the short ‘cast makes it easily accessible and won’t overburden you with…what’s that thing called? Oh, yea, that’s it: Thinking.

You can find PopQuizzical at the website and on iTunes.

Did you know that there are OTHER podcasts on iTunes besides those that your masterful crew at SideQuesting creates? Yeah, it came as a shock to us as well. That’s why we launched OPP (two years ago) in hopes to share some of these shows with you, especially the good ones.

Today we look at the Slightly Burned Pants podcast, created by friend to SideQuesting, T Michael Murdock and his brethren comedians Michael Sullivan and Dwight Slappe.

What’s it about?

SBP is a comedy-based podcast, and after a quick introduction, the show becomes one giant tangent. The trio touches off on just about every subject, from superhero powers to entertainment to politics, with a completely different spin on what is most important about each. And, much like a good Simpsons episode from the late-90s, the tangents that the group carry into manage to weave back in and out throughout the show.

It’s also self-referential, as the group regularly thrives in the fact that they’re recording a show together for the Internet to laugh with… or at. The humor is adult-oriented (lots of swearing & references) but the gents are very well-spoken and easy to listen to.

What’s the audio quality like?

The guys are sitting around a table together, so it’s a little noticeable when someone is sitting closer to — or father from — the mic when speaking. However, this makes the pauses shorter, as the dudes can see each other and have quicker reactions.

In Conclusion…

SBP is kind of like overhearing a raucous group of guys talk over each other at the table next to us at dinner in a bar. I’m intrigued to know what they’re talking about — especially about Mormons who “soak” during intimacy — so I’m leaning in. Often. I wish I was at their table.

Check them out at Slightly Burned Pants and on iTunes.

Blueberry Muffin Tops. Secret Santa. Dead Space Girl’s head. Episode Zero. Meetups. Official unofficial official t-shirts. X Spaceghost.  Poyawd casts. Bob Muthatruckin’ Ball in a DINOSAUR SUIT.

These, and more, were legendary memes that proliferated through my favorite Facebook group of all time, the JPAG (Joystiq Podcast Appreciation Group). What started as a small gathering of fans of Joystiq.com’s staple podcast grew to well over 3000 members over the years. It spawned friendships, marriages, contests, get-togethers, and podcasts of its own. At first it wasn’t even promoted by the show, instead growing by word of mouth. At times it even eclipsed the show it was based on (that epic Christmas podcast is still a vivid, happy memory around these parts). It became a huge family, replete with drunk uncles (we’re looking at you, Russ).

For us at SideQuesting, it was where we all met. SideQuesting was founded by me, Yaniv (the skin-wearer), and Ryan, all of which were active members of the group. As SideQuesting grew, we kept adding more and more like-minded JPAG members to the staff. Call it inmates hiring inmates, I guess. It’s worked, and well, to the point where we consider the JPAG to be a tremendous breeding ground of creative and enjoyable people. Also: really fuckin’ attractive, too.

When Facebook changed it’s layout and aborted many things that we built as a community, and the Joystiq Podcast came to a grinding halt at about the same time, we tried several options to keep things going. Ning, Twitter, NEW Facebook groups… but it just didn’t work. Then, Steven came to me a couple months back with a rough idea of getting the JPAG engaged again somehow. Granted, it was just an idea, but it sparked a fire in us that kept us going. I’d suddenly found myself being a bit more active in (what remained of) the group, and started missing the old days of oddball conversations and strange Photochops of our favorite hosts.

Well, it took a couple months to come up with a “real” direction for the idea, but here it is. Since SQ is made up of JPAG members, and owe everything to it for getting us into games, we’re hosting a “JPAG Appreciation Week” the week between Christmas (Dec 25th) and New Year’s Day. We’d love to get as many people involved as possible, showing love for the group in just about any way possible. Here’s the plan, and what we’re asking for:

- If you’ve ever had an itch to write about games, and you’re a JPAG member, we’re going to offer you our outlet for the week. Have a topic? Want to share a story? Have a rant about how Tall Sonic is superior to Fat Sonic? Want to review a game on your shelf? This is the place for you. Our esteemed staff will work with you to edit your posts, and we’ll give you full credit & promote your work. Keep the swearing to a minimum, and no hateful posts, please.

- We’re looking for people to write articles ABOUT the JPAG, too. Memories, good/bad things about the community, etc.

- Artist? Designer? Want to help make a t-shirt, poster, song, etc for the JPAG? We want to get that going, too.

- We’ll be doing prizes and giveaways aimed towards JPAG members only. If you’d like to donate something, or have an idea for a contest, let us know.

- We’ll do Tinychat sessions and game nights each day of the week.

- We’d love to do a live episode of the JPAG Show to cap off the week. Let us know if you’re interested, or if you’re willing to run it. Randall, maybe?

- We’re going to post everything FIRST on the JPAG group on Facebook, and then on SideQuesting & Twitter. Why on SideQuesting and not just the Facebook group? Well, the group has sort of died and more people are getting their JPAG-related info elsewhere, so any extra forward-facing exposure is helpful and encouraged.

- If you run a website that started because of the JPAG, please let us know. We have ideas about how to spill this over onto other JPAG sites as well.

That’s it. Email us at sidequesting at gmail dot com and let us know if you’re interested in writing, creating art, donating a prize or two, whatever.

Go to the JPAG here: JPAG on Facebook

*Again, this is aimed at the JPAG first and foremost.

This week on The Lonely Tardis – the world’s favorite Doctor Who podcast — we’re discussing the Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton, in the 5-part episode “The Mind Robber”. As we explained two weeks ago or so, this is the second Doctor found on Netflix. You can CLICK HERE to watch! It stars the new Doctor, a sidekick named Jaime, and a very sexy Zoe in a sparkly cat suit beating up on a strange muscle-head named “Karkus”.

Here’s the all-important synopsis on Netflix:

To save Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton) and his fearless crew, the TARDIS time-traveling machine sends the lot of them to an unknown dimension, where anything they can dream up is possible. But a land with no boundaries — populated by unicorns, Minotaurs and Medusa — proves dangerously unforgiving.

We’ll be recording the show VERY SOON, so if you’d like to be a contestant on it (with either Shaun or Steven playing for you) please let us know and leave a comment in this post or on the last podcast.

Duncan Harris' "Smoke on the Water" from Skyrim

Duncan Harris is a gamer just like the rest of us. He spends hours playing, and looking at, some of the best games of this generation. Games are, coincidentally, often the products of large teams of creators and artists, coming together to develop backgrounds, environments, characters, and style. His understanding of the medium as a visual art form, not just a story-telling or experiential one, combined with his knowledge of software and graphics tweaking led him to create the blog Dead End Thrills.

With DET, Harris focuses on stripping away HUDs, characters, animations and more to create landscape-style scenes from some of the biggest games of the past decade. Using several imaging software and hardware tweaks, as well as source code and emulators, Harris creates “perfect” shots from games like Bulletstorm, Portal 2, Mirror’s Edge, and more.  And, not by coincidence, they’re all stunning.

Have a look at the blog, where he’s even listed the steps and tools necessary to recreate several of the images.

Link: DeadEndThrills.com

Image: Smoke on the Water

Help fund the first issue of PXL magazine through Kickstarter

The slow death of print magazines became ever more apparent to me the other day when I took a look at my dwindling monthly subscriptions. I wasn’t cancelling any, but my tabletop pile of unread issues wasn’t growing by much either. Transitioning more to digital news consumption, whether it’s through my RSS reader or iPad apps, has become more of the norm for me — and for millions of other Americans.

Perhaps that’s why some of my favorite gaming magazines are facing challenging issues. We’ve recently lost Gamepro’s storied print magazine, and Future’s “Official” magazines are a weird state of flux.

I couldn’t help but throw a fist pump, then, when I saw that some of my favorite writers and Editors were banding together to create a new digital magazine for tablets. The team behind PXL is setting its sights on delivering a fresh approach to delivery of information about the industry, focusing more on fun and enjoyment rather than deep industry sales figures analysis, and they’re using technology to their advantage. The magazine will be released monthly at only 99 cents per issue, but the news within each ish will be delivered weekly to remain up-to-date and relevant. That way you’ll not only be reading the mag for its great features, but also coming back to it far more often than once a month.

The magazine is being planned and developed for iPads and Android tablets, but as with any new endeavor the team needs our help. They’ve created a Kickstarter campaign to get the funding needed for this first issue, which they hope to have ready and available by the first week of February. In case you haven’t checked your calendar yet today, that’s about 8 weeks away. In other words, get on over to the Kickstarter page and help fund this great project. The group is offering Founders Club acknowledgement, t-shirts, artwork, and more for different levels of donation, starting at just $1.

Click here to go to the Kickstarter page, and help spread the word!

Want to follow the team? Just go to twitter.com/pxlmag or facebook.com/pxlmag and keep up to date.