That looks SEXY.

Forza may have wrested the racing crown from Gran Turismo, but it’s not resting on its laurels. Less than 2 years after the release of the amazing Forza 4, Turn 10 Studios and developer Playground Games are bringing Forza Horizon to the masses. The game, an “open-road” simulator, is meant to be less raceway and more highway. While details are still scant (the game hasn’t had much promotion in way of news since its March reveal to press) we can now get a sense for what the roadventure might be like.

This morning Microsoft, the game’s publisher, revealed the box art for the game. Gracing the cover is the brand-spanking new SRT (formerly Dodge) Viper, which was just revealed last month itself. The cover depicts the Viper on a decidedly American desert roadway, and is echoed in the first screenshot, which was also unleashed today.

As a massive fan of Forza I’m pretty freakin’ excited. We’ll find out more in just a couple fo weeks at E3, but I’ll begin getting in line right….. now!

Welcome to the SideQuest, your weekly podcast devoted to gaming, culture, and gaming culture, with the often tangent.

Episode 407: Microsoft Wins E3 2012

In this episode: Xbox E3 predictions, every game ever is delayed into 2013, the NPDs are dying a slow death, and Diablo 3 works 100% fine.

GET IT?

Hosts:
Dali Dimovski, Eric Smith, Ben Strauss, M H Williams, Steven Strom

Links:
Gamesindustry.biz

Music:

Intro: Gogol Bordello – Rebellious Love

Outro: Cake – Meanwhile, Rick James…

Download the episode directly here

Subscribe and rate us via iTunes or, click here for the direct feed: http://sidequesting.podbean.com/feed

#gamechat is our official Twitter hashtag

What will Microsoft bring to E3 2012?

We are just a couple short weeks away from E3, the giant video game event that changes everything we know about the industry. The predictions are starting to come in based on knowledge we have, hopes for new games, and balls-out crazy theories. We begin our journey this week with what we’d like to see Microsoft bring to E3. What are your predictions? What are your hopes for what you’d like to see?

That’s this week’s topic on #gamechat, the weekly community chat about games. Starting now and lasting all day, we’ll be chatting on Twitter and in the comments about that very subject… Join in!

Want to participate in #Gamechat? Follow us on Twitter and stay tuned every week for the latest topic! Read along below and use the #gamechat hashtag when posting your replies in Twitter. Or, leave your reply in the comments in this post. We’ll post our favorites in a follow-up article.

E3 Expo 2012 press conference schedule revealed

It’s about to hit a fever pitch. PAX East just passed by, GDC and DICE have been over for a couple months, and Gamescom isn’t until August. That means that there’s only one event circled on our calendar’s right now: E3 2012. The behemoth of video game shows returns the week of June 4th to keep us sleepless for 5 days straight as we enjoy the explosion of gaming news and reveals.

It all starts with the press conferences. We’ve pieced together a list of the press conferences and are sharing it with you (and we’ll update it as new information is released).

There are a ton of ways to keep up with the press conferences on different places online and on TV. On Twitter, the hashtags in use will be #E3, #E32012, and #E3Expo. SideQuesting will have our own hashtag for Twitter use, so play along with us: #SQE3. Follow @SideQuesting for all of the up-to-date info, as we’ll be posting our shenanigans from the conferences and show floor all week. You can even follow the official E3 Twitter account: @e3expo

As soon as the video streams are announced, we’ll have those on here as well.

Get ready. FIVE WEEKS. Yikes!

[Convert to your local times online by clicking here]

Monday, June 4

Website for event: Konami.com/e3/battle

Monday, June 4

E3 information will be located on Xbox.com/E3
Video streamed live on Spike TV and XBox Live.
Twitter handles to follow for information: @Xbox, @MajorNelson

Twitter handles to follow for information: @EA

Twitter handles to follow for information: @Ubisoft

E3 information will be located on us.playstation.com/e3-2012
Live stream on G4 TV, Playstation.com, and Playstation Home
Twitter handles to follow for information: @PlayStation

Tuesday, June 5

E3 information will be located on e3.nintendo.com
Twitter handles to follow for information: @NintendoAmerica

He remembers being terrified, unsure of what was happening. He could see mysterious figures crawling above.

He remembers being ecstatic. An entire world at his fingertips. The power to create and destroy.

Michael Inglis wants to bring his childhood memories back.

Inglis’ story begins with the small, plastic bricks that never lose their charm. Thanks to his parents, he had a constant supply of new LEGO sets to tinker with from a young age. His true “obsession” began when his parents bought him the Star Wars-themed sets. Nothing could separate him from his growing pile of bricks.

Then he discovered gaming.

He may have missed the glory of the 8- and 16-bit era , but he was just in time for the rise of the Nintendo 64. His most vivid memories stem from his first experience with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. “The scene in which Link first has his dream about Ganondorf at the drawbridge was so profound as it was unlike anything I’d seen before,” he told me in an email.

“I spent a huge amount of time playing Ocarina of Time as a kid, but I don’t think I actually did anything to do with the story. Being unable to read at the time, I was completely immersed in the open world exploration. Having only what you see to go on, I felt made the experience even more intense; situations such as the Wallmasters hovering over you, or the atmosphere of the Shadow Temple physically terrified me as I genuinely didn’t understand at all what was going on.”

His discovery of stop-motion video helped create the foundation for his new project. He found its ability to give life to inanimate objects fascinating. Luckily for him, LEGO lends itself well to stop-motion video, and he had more than a few sets laying around.

“I made a few short films around the time YouTube was bought by Google and after hearing about it in the news, uploaded them there. Other people from around the world started seeing my work and I just loved the response the films were getting. As time progressed, I just continued, trying to make bigger and better films with whatever LEGO I had.”

In 2007, he released his Lego Legend of Zelda short, using custom pieces he made himself. It blew up, becoming his most popular video.

For the sequel, he wanted to include even more custom pieces. With the help of a 3D printing service called Shapeways, Inglis created a Lego-scaled Master Sword, along with other accessories from the game. His models began to pop up around the internet as people bought them through Shapeways.

Inglis decided to compile his models into a concept set for the LEGO CUUSOO website. With enough votes from users, proposed concepts will be reviewed by LEGO. Upon approval, they will be produced and sold as official sets. Themes and designs that would have never been a reality are now available thanks to the LEGO CUUSOO process.

A few weeks ago, Inglis’ Legend of Zelda set made the required 10,000 votes. It will be reviewed by LEGO in June.

Once LEGO approves the concept, they’ll need approval from Nintendo to go through with production. In the past, Nintendo has placed their seal of approval on a few Mega Blok sets based on Mario and Pokemon, but there’s no promise it will do the same for Inglis. “This was always the thing I was most concerned about. As wonderful as it would be, I’m not holding my breath.”

Provided everything goes smoothly, the first Legend of Zelda-themed LEGO set will be available for purchase. Included are Link’s iconic accessories from the Deku Shield to the Master Sword, Link, Ganondorf, and Zelda Minifigs, and a replica of the final scene in Ocarina of Time.

When asked why he included the Ocarina of Time finale specifically, Inglis explained its sentimental importance. “I feel it’s such an iconic moment in the game which features all three main characters in adult form. The game builds up to such a climax with the tension built as Link climbs the almost endless staircase as the organ music gets louder. Despite newer games offering a much bigger, more impacting finale, I feel nothing has compared with the deep emotional impact Ocarina of Time had on me as a child.”

He can’t call it a success quite yet, but Inglis is on the verge of recreating his childhood nostalgia with LEGO. The best part: He’s sharing it with everyone that remembers building their first LEGO set, and rolling around the grassy plains of Hyrule too.

You'd have seen this in the Eighties, right?

I guess I should start this thing off by introducing myself and what this new feature is all about. My name is Scott, and I have been an avid gamer and movie watcher since I could hold a joystick or a remote control. Over my thirty plus years of life, I have managed to own almost all the major video game consoles and amassed a collection of movies (in various formats) that I could probably run my own video store. They are both my passion and my obsession.

Though I do enjoy watching a finely crafted, Oscar-worthy movie from time to time, I shamefully enjoy the dregs of cinema just as much, if not more. It is this love of all things put on film that I inflict this pox upon myself. If it is suggested to me, and if i can find it, I will watch ANY movie out there. Now, I don’t want someone to think that I am just bagging on movies randomly. I have been doing this for a while now, years even. The best part of watching movies that you have NEVER heard of before, is finding that proverbial diamond in the ruff that shines through the darkness, or some such nonsense.

So, with out further a due, I present you with the first edition of what I have dubbed “Cinemapocalypse”. I hope you enjoy my writing as much as I enjoy hating myself… or something like that.

The Pirate Movie

Back before the days of Scary Movie and Epic Movie, and worse still Disaster Movie, writers, directors and producers seemed to just make movies that riffed on classics. Those days were called “The Eighties”. It was a wonderful time when clothing was almost optional, cocaine was the one true drug, and it was difficult to tell the boys from the girls… at least from behind. The Pirate Movie capitalizes on all of that, as a farcical riff on Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates Of Penzance”.

The Pirate Movie stars Christopher Atkins and a rather cute Kristy McNichol, who plays the part of “Mabel”. Mabel inexplicably rolls up one day on a carnival/pirate demonstration with her gaggle of girl friends. As the one girl picked from the audience to participate in a demonstration, Mabel meets Frederic, played by Atkins. Frederic, after a 10-15 second demo of his skill as a swordsman, then invites Mabel and all of her friends out for a party on his boat. Mabel doesn’t quite make the trip in time and decides to try to catch up in her own boat. She then gets thrown overboard in a storm and washes up on a beach… somewhere. Still unconscious, Mabel begins to dream. This “dream” then becomes the plot of the movie: a movie about a Pirate King, his protege (Frederic) and the girl he falls in love with (Mabel, naturally).

Going into watching The Pirate Movie I expected a cheesy love story with a bunch of 80′s tongue-in-cheek references. What I didn’t expect was a LOT of song and dance, literally. There was an entire dance routine to the “Major-General Song” by Gilbert and Sullivan, complete with “updated” lyrics. Maybe had I seen this back in 1982, I would have been not only impressed but understood and enjoyed the jokes. Seeing as how it is thirty (!) years later, it did more to annoy me than anything. The dance numbers and songs went on far longer than they should.

With the bulk of the movie being taken up by pirates prancing around like Tinker Bell, there wasn’t a lot of room for actual “action”. There were a few sword fighting scenes — and just random fights in general — and while they were good, they still felt hokie and did nothing to make this seem like more than a parody of a broadway play. There was also a complete rip on Star Wars and Indiana Jones (both big at the time) that felt completely forced in to take advantage of the movie’s timing.

The things I always look for in movie that make them bad are usually the ones I like the most. For instance, there are several scenes that are supposed to have taken place in the days of pirates, yet you can clearly see other boats zooming around in the back ground. Another scene has the two main characters, on a beach, listening to a conch shell… to hear the ocean. That one made me laugh out loud. The 1980′s were a weird time when racism was ok in movies, so long as the minority was making the joke, and everyone laughed on screen. The train-wreck of an ending is just the icing on the cake. As Mabel wakes up, there is no explanation of why, but Frederic comes to her rescue and apparently falls in love with her. Why? Because she “wants a happy ending” and says so to camera, breaking the fourth wall.

The Pirate Movie is not good, at least in my opinion. It was suggested to me by someone that had a fondness for the film, most likely out of nostalgia. I can’t say anything about liking bad movies, since you should see my collection of horror movies. However, to me, this movie felt like someone was attempting to do a “Monty Python-esqe” rip on Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates Of Penzance” having never actually seen an episode of Monty Python, or the Gilbert and Sullivan opera. Still, it’s a lot better than Date Movie.

This could all be yours, AND MORE!

You’ve seen our past MEGA AWESOME SUPER GIVEAWAY contests. You’ve probably entered a bajillion times. We’ve given away a lot of great stuff over the last few years. This, for fans of great writing and television, storytelling and action, may be one of the best we’ve done yet. Thanks to our great friends at Atlus we have one heck of a prize pack for fans of A Game of Thrones.

There are enough prizes in our pack to build an entirely new Wall. And we have enough for TWO WINNERS!

YOU can win:

• The Game of Thrones RPG (Playstation 3 or Xbox 360)
• Limited Edition Art Book for the game (pictured above)
• A copy of A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume One
• Get to 150 entries and both winners will receive a copy of the Game of Thrones prequel, Sworn Sword (Hedge Knight II), and the Game of Thrones coasters
• and a few more surprises that will be revealed as the week progresses and more entries get in!

So, how do you win? Well, we wanted to make sure that you worked for it. The contest will run for 7 days, from today (Monday) until next Sunday, May 20th. You may enter ONCE PER DAY.  Just tell us, in the comments, what your favorite character is from the books or TV series, and which consoles (Xbox 360 or PS3) you’d want the game for. That’s it! There are 7 kingdoms in the world of Westeros, so you get 7 chances to win, too! Enter once per day!

That’s it! GOOD LUCK!

The equally impressive PS3 version

RULES

• Contest starts today (Monday, May 14th) and runs through Sunday, May 20th at 11:59PM EDT Eastern (8:59PM PDT Pacific).
• Leave a comment on this post up to once per day, Monday through to Sunday, for a total of 7 chances to win.
• Winners selected by SideQuesting on Monday morning, May 21st, around 12:00AM EDT.
• Available to US residents only
• Please see our official Contest Rules for more information.

Good Luck, and have fun!

150 Entries Prizes:

The Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword – Set just a few generations before the events of A Game of Thrones

Dark Horse Deluxe Game of Thrones Coaster Set - Great for drinking Westerosi beer!

Win these if the entries get to 150!

Think back to the last video game review that you read. What are a few things that the critic commented on? There’s a decent chance that they noted the quality of the graphics and the overall look of the game. It’s no secret that with this generation of consoles being at their apex and PCs constantly improving that video games look better now than ever before, and this trend is likely to never reverse itself. However, there are plenty of games with top-tier graphics that underwhelm. Likewise, there are countless lower budget productions, even Flash games, which players hold dear in their hearts.

Trials HD is one of XBLA's most highly-rated games

If solid graphics aren’t the answer to the riddle, maybe an outstanding plot is the key to making a video game great. Chances are that you vividly remember a handful of games specifically because the narrative blew you away. You probably remember where you were, what the room you were in looked like, and the gamut of emotions that ran through you as you watched a brilliant story unfold. It’s tempting to conclude that an engaging plot is the most decisive factor in labeling a game “great”, but then how would one account for titles such as (a personal favorite) Trials HD? Trials HD has no plot to speak of, middle-of-the-road graphics, yet is still one of the best selling titles ever on the Xbox LIVE Arcade.

The factor that makes a video game great is more nebulous than what can be seen on the surface. That factor is immersion. Immersion is the key component to determining which titles impart a fleeting sense of satisfaction, and which titles stick around in the minds of players for ages.

Someone wiser than myself once said “the truly special video games are the ones that you play every chance you get, and when you’re away, all you can think about is getting back and playing them.” Consider that for a second. Which titles have been able to dominate your mindset for days at a time? Which titles have made you look at the clock and realize that you meant to go to bed three hours ago? Which titles have had you saying “just one more” even though you knew full well that there would be “just one more” after that, too? The list probably isn’t long, but everyone has at least a handful.

Ocarina Of Time is regarded as one of the best video games ever made

That isn’t to say that all of the obvious competencies hold no weight. In fact, the opposite is true. If a game has faulty control mechanics, it’s going to break the sense of immersion. The same can be said for shoddy graphics, a muddled story, or any aspect of a game. Every misstep chips away at the immersion that the player feels.

The reality is that immersion is an amalgamation of every feature of a video game – a sum of its positives and a subtraction of its shortcomings. However, video games are an art form and not everyone will ever hold all of the same qualities at the same level of importance. If that were true, we’d have a qualitative list of the best games ever, and there would be no deviation from it; it would just be accepted as the truth. This will obviously never happen as we all have different expectations of what we want from a game. But, ultimately, we all want the same thing: We want to be able to lose ourselves.

Welcome to the SideQuest, your semi-weekly podcast devoted to gaming, culture, and gaming culture, with the often tangent.

Episode 406. Diablo 3 Pre-Party

In this episode: Activision makes money! Awesomenauts and Walking Dead are awesome! Bioshock Infinite is delayed… but why? Torchlight II sucks in our time! Diablo 3 is next week. DIABLO III IS NEXT WEEK!

WHAT NOW, INTERNET?!

Hosts: Dali Dimovski, Eric Smith, Mike Bachmann, John Parie, Steven Strom

Music:

Intro: Gogol Bordello – Rebellious Love

Outro: Cake – Meanwhile, Rick James…

Download the episode directly here

Subscribe and rate us via iTunes or, click here for the direct feed: http://sidequesting.podbean.com/feed

Zayne Black finishes what he starts.

Zayne Black was a writer first, and a game designer second. In college he studied drama, spent his time script writing, and aspired to see his work on stage or the big screen. That was until someone from the online gaming community he frequented offered him a challenge. They claimed the “endurance platformers”, games like Super Meat Boy and I Wanna Be the Guy, took “great care and skill to design.” Black disagreed. “Prove it,” they said.

At the time, Black wasn’t new to creating games; his brother had introduced him to a program called Klik ’n' Play when he was 11-years-old. Klik ‘n’ Play, while primitive, teaches the basic concepts of game design. It brings imagination to life, with games that have “multiple copies of Cliff Richard’s disembodied head bouncing around the screen, and weird target-shooting games starring characters from Dragon Ball Z.” Originally aimed for educational use, it doesn’t require any programming knowledge, just the ability to drag and drop different components together. His own first game? “A really glitchy Pac-Man clone, starring the Queen…”

A week after being challenged to create a difficult platformer with no experience, Black proved his internet cohorts wrong. He used Klik ‘n’ Play’s modern successor Multimedia Fusion 2 to make Awesome Bob, a game whose only purpose is to punish the player. Every jump made too early, or fidget too far to the right, ends in death. Not a level goes by without trial and error. Few survive to see the end.

They loved it.

The appreciation he received for Awesome Bob changed his priorities. He decided to make more games.

Since then, Black’s built up a lengthy list of creations. Many of them were entries into game jams — events that encourage developers to start and finish projects in a limited amount of time, usually based on a central theme. Ludum Dare, his favorite, takes place over 48 hours where games are created based on a community submitted theme, uploaded to the public, and judged. The prize: a completed game.

“I think the most important thing is that they basically force you to finish whatever you’re doing, which is, in my opinion, the most important part of creating anything. Sooner or later, you have to learn how to finish something, no matter what – nothing is more important to your growth as a developer than that.”

Last May, ExperimentalGameplay.com held a game jam based on the theme of “zoom”. Black submitted Intense Staring Simulator. The website describes it best: “a little depressing, but also pretty funny.” Intense Staring Simulator is an experience in the mind of a sociopathic teenager who hates people. His internal dialogue written with the amount of eye-rolling irritation toward society one would expect. When confronted by a stereotypical peer, be it a ponytailed otaku, or a awkwardly attractive teacher, he stares at the most embarrassing thing on their person to make them flee his personal space. Black admits the character isn’t purely fictional. “The nameless, misanthropic main character is sort-of an element of me; I get like that, sometimes,” he said, “Not to the point of hating humanity, or anything, but I think we all have days where we’re just not in the mood to deal with other people, and he’s basically that, taken to the extreme.”

Although it’s become secondary, Black’s screenwriting skills play a large part in designing his games. It doesn’t matter how simple they are, he has a story to tell. “I don’t think it’s a popular opinion in [game development] circles these days, but I genuinely believe that anything, if handled correctly, can be enhanced by a well-written, well-implemented story,” he said. Good writing will give context to the player’s actions, great writing will provide a compelling narrative to keep them playing. “It’s been said of me before that, if given the chance, I’d have designed Tetris to be plot-driven.”

He’s also familiar with the process of bringing ideas into reality.

“Having taken a full-scale stage production from inception of the idea to opening night, you learn a lot about managing resources, people and time. Most of the work I did at University revolved around taking an idea from a script and somehow replicating that in a physical space, which involved a lot of concessions, adaptation and adjustment, since there were a lot of resource limitations to get around. That’s a vitally important skill when you’re working on your own, or in a small team, because there will be things you want to do that you just can’t, for whatever reason, so you have to find a way to compromise that and somehow end up with something you’re happy with, even if it’s not what you originally envisioned.”

It’s been two years since Black’s sudden jump into game development. He’s learned a lot. Ask him the most vital part of learning to make games, and he’ll point to the game jams. “Ludum Dare is responsible for probably at least a thousand people deciding to make games who maybe otherwise wouldn’t, if there wasn’t such a friendly, open, flat-out FUN event like this to take part in,” he said. They force him to try different genres, and to follow through with the wildest of concepts. Like a game about a cake-hungry dinosaur with a jetpack, fittingly titled SADROCKETDINOWANTSCAKE.

People who want to try making a game have a lot of easily accessible tools to choose from. “If you can’t program and have no desire to learn, there are so many tools that allow you to make games without a single line of code, like Stencyl, Game Maker, Construct or Multimedia Fusion 2, which is what I use. Each of them has dozens to hundreds of tutorials to get you from ‘Never heard of the program before,’ to ‘Just made a 10-hour 2D metroidvania by myself.’”

With that in mind, Black says there’s no excuse not to start now. “The hardest thing you’ll have to deal with is overcoming your own limitations, but there are so many options and tools for that, that it’s almost a non-issue. I, for example, can’t really do art at all, but that doesn’t stop me. I draw crude, representative art that gets across the point I want to make and then carry on with making the game. “

Black thinks he’s ready to give a “bigger project” a shot. He’s eyeing distribution platforms like Steam to start seriously entering the life of a “full-time, self-sustained game developer.” “The main problem right now is keeping myself afloat while I take the time to work on something good enough that I’d feel comfortable asking money for.”

He already has a few ideas. Whatever the project is, once he starts it, he’ll finish it.

Every now and then someone I know either in real life, or on the internet will talk about a television show to such an extent that I finally give in and sit down to watch it. Such was the case with New Girl; Justin and Sydnee McElroy over at Satellite Dish are two people who watch the same kind of television I watch and have been praising the show for a number of episodes. Much like when I first came across my Battlefield team chatting The League up it took me a while to finally resign myself to sitting down and watching it, and they were right. I wound up loving it. I would sing the praises of The League from the rooftops like an Albino Shouting Gorilla until the end of time.

New Girl is sort of like that, but didn’t quite hit me in a way that I immediately got attached. The first few episodes were kind of grating, to be blunt. By the end of the third episode I was about ready to drop the show for good, content in the knowledge that I gave it a shot and, like I had originally thought, it just didn’t pan out. By the end of the fourth episode I knew the show had found its footing, and had me laughing more than any other sitcom currently airing.

I know what you’re thinking here. What about Community, 30 Rock, and Parks and Recreation? Don’t get me wrong, those shows are still great. But let’s take Community for example. The most recent episode that spoofed Law and Order just wasn’t funny. In the grand scheme of things I can see why it was necessary – it looks to be setting up the plot for the final episodes of the season, which will probably ramp up the laughs. The episode itself was the usual standard of excellence: well written, well-acted and true to the spirit of the show, but it didn’t make me laugh.

If I can paraphrase Satellite Dish, New Girl is the most consistently funny show currently on television.

I realized something on Sunday. In Game of Thrones we’ve got barely a handful of episodes left, and that means the Battle of the Blackwater is coming up. Without going into too much detail, I just gotta say that this is one of the more epic things to happen in the Song of Ice and Fire books, and rivals the Red Wedding for my favorite moment of the series. I can’t wait to see it go down.

Xenoblade has a gorgeous art style. The environments are lush, vibrant, expansive. and incredibly diverse from each other. The game takes place on the dead bodies of two warring gods. This is the craziest premise that I have ever heard of for a setting, and yet it works perfectly here, providing so many amazing areas. Would the game look better on an HD system? It might, but so much other content would have to be trimmed to stay within the same budget. I’ll take a better, but slightly uglier game. Console JRPGs just do not exist like this anymore. I think that Xenoblade may be their swan song. The development cost is too high for many developers who now opt to put their JRPGs on portables.

Each area is expansive and teeming with monsters. Many will not go out of their way to attack and only fight back when threatened; some will attack on site. Each area has monsters with a very wide range of levels. In the first area there were enemies about 70 levels above me. Your party fills typical job classes. There’s a healer, a tank, a mage, and several others. You’re free to customize your party with any three characters, even removing the main character if you so desire. The player controls the leader of the group while the computer controls the two other party members. Attacks have no inherit cost to them, but require a cool down time of varying seconds or even minutes before they can be reused. Dying in battle merely returns you to the last landmark that you passed with no ill effect other than having to re-cross a bit of terrain.

Xenoblade has far to0 many side quests and other diversions. Many are the standard trope of kill x monsters or find y items. While these quests are not terribly exciting many can be accepted and then fulfilled without having to return to the quest’s originator. This makes them slightly less annoying. The quests are not essential and it would take a long time to search out and complete every one. The quests usually only offer exp, money, or some basic items. Depending on how many quests you do and how many people you talk to, your rank and reputation in an area will go up. Each party member has an affinity rating with each other member that can be raised by fighting together, giving items, or by viewing unique scenes called heart-to-hearts. The game world operates on a 24 hour clock that gives the world mornings, days, and nights. Certain people, monsters, and quests can only be found at distinct times. Thankfully the game gives you the option to change the time at any point. This allows for a more flavorful world without detracting from the game play. One little touch that the game adds is changing your characters appearance based on different armor and weapons. I love when games alters a characters appearance based on equipment. Xenoblade even shows these changes in cut scenes.

The story of the game is standard JRPG fluff, but kept interesting enough to keep you engaged. The main character, Shulk, is on a quest for revenge after seeing his hometown attacked. The plot gets more complicated as the story progresses, but revenge is always an underlying theme. The aspect that really gives the game soul is the English accents. The game has been ported right from its European release to America with the same voice over. Each character has a very distinct accent. The characters talk to each other in cut scenes and in battles. This leads to one of my biggest complaints with the game. The lip synching in cut scenes is horrendous. No effort was put into it. It is incredibly jarring until you learn to look away from their mouths. I don’t know if the mouths were programmed for the Japanese voice over or if they just do not match up at all with spoken words. Either way it is a big disappointment.

Xenoblade is unfortunately one of the last of its kind. This game and The Last Story may be the last big console JRPGs for a while. If you were a fan of the genre especially during the SNES, PS1 and PS2 heyday, then you owe it to yourself to pick up and play this game.

[UPDATE: Because we didn't get to 100 entries, we couldn't give both prizes to one person.... So, we chose TWO people to win! Winner #1 was Eric Willes and will receive the first prize, Awesomenauts. Winner #2 is Vladimir Ljubetic and will win the secondary prize, Walking Dead! Congrats!]

It’s an awesome week for fans of downloadable games. Two critically acclaimed games launched recently that YOU MUST PLAY: The Walking Dead: A New Day by TellTale Games and Awesomenauts by Ronimo Games. However, if you don’t have the cash to do so then we’re here to help you with that.

We have a code for each INCREDIBLE game for XBLA that we want to give to you, but we don’t want to make it too easy. I mean, we don’t come across these that often since the zombies started showing up. You’ll need to work for it (a bit). We’ll start by offering up the ridiculously fun Awesomenauts as a prize to one lucky person. You have 5 days (Monday May 7th – Thursday May 10th at 11:59 Pacific time) to get 100 entries in this post, and should you reach that (not-so-lofty) goal you’ll unlock The Walking Dead as a prize for that winner as well. That’s right: get to 100 entries in this post and you’ll win BOTH games. Get less than 100 entries and you’ll *only* win Awesomeonauts. You can enter once per day, for a total of 4 entries.

To enter all you need to do is tell us what your FAVORITE comic book is in your entry (comment).

We’ll choose the winner on Friday at 10AM for the prize(s).

Easy Peasey!

RULES

• The contest starts today, Monday May 7th, and ends on Thursday night, May 10th, at 11:59PM Pacific Time PDT.
• Leave a comment in this post, up to once per day, telling us what your favorite comic book or graphic novel is.
• One winner selected by SideQuesting on Friday morning, May 11th, around 10:00AM EDT.
• Winner receives a download code or codes for the Xbox 360 for the prizes listed above should 100 qualifying entries be reached.
• Available to US residents only
• Please see our official Contest Rules for more information.

Welcome to the SideQuest, your semi-weekly podcast devoted to gaming, culture, and gaming culture, with the often tangent.

Episode 405. Super Social Media Bros.

In this episode: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2! Elder Scrolls Online! THQ at E3! The new Xbox in production already? And how Ford (the car company) is getting into games!

WHAT NOW, INTERNET?!

Hosts: Dali Dimovski, Eric Smith, Mike Bachmann, Brian McClary

Links:

Social.Ford.Com

BrianMcClary.com

FistfulofPixels.net

Music:

Intro: Gogol Bordello – Rebellious Love

Outro: Cake – Meanwhile, Rick James…

Download the episode directly here

Subscribe and rate us via iTunes or, click here for the direct feed: http://sidequesting.podbean.com/feed

Christopher Holden's Stark coat of arms

The Week of Thrones continues with a look at one bit of fan art mashup that we’d love to see. House Stark meets Tony Stark in these Iron Man/Avengers/Game of Thrones mashups. It’s a match made in heaven: Iron Thrones and Iron Man. Have a gander at this gallery of fan art, and if you see others that mix the two, let us know and we’ll add them in.

The above image is Christopher Holden’s coat of arms.

Iron Throne by Firepower

A print design for a T-shirt by Firepower, available for sale.

Medieval Iron Man by unknown

We don’t know who created this image of Lord Iron, but we just wish it wasn’t so “Lannister Red”.

Iron Man x Princess Bride x Game of Thrones by Michael Dialynas

So many nerd references here make us swoon! Excellent mashup by Michael Dialynas.

"The Avengers are Coming" by unknown

Yes, they are!

"Tony Stark is the Lord of Winterfell" by unknown

By taking a Deadpool cover and adding in some Westerosi influences, the (unknown) artist made something so unbelievable epic that we want this printed poster size for our lockers. Via Geek Tyrant.

House Stark via the Meta Picture

Poor Jon. Via The Meta Picture.

There must always be a Stark in Winterfell by psychopaticart.tumblr.com

Still, Poor Jon. At least Tony Stark’s facial hair is an improvement over the baby face. Via PsychopaticArt.

Hope you have a backup plan.

[Update] Wow. The show is now completely sold out. All passes. Better luck next year!

[Original post]

Just like that. As soon as the registration reopened for our favorite fan-based expo, the 3-Day passes have sold out. Word comes from the horse’s mouth tonight that your only option is to get individual day passes now.

But, with 3-day passes out, you can bet that tomorrow’s headline may not be too different than tonight’s. Time to buy your passes, en masse, and VERY QUICKLY.

Via Official PAX Site

That's a snazzy logo there!

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.

It’s Week of Thrones on SideQuesting, so it would be a complete reprehensible error if we didn’t mention our favorite Game of Thrones podcast. The Cast of Thrones has been around since Season 1 of the television series, guiding us through the world of Westeros via dick jokes and inside baseball… and we love it.

What’s it about?

Cast of Thrones began as a recap of the television series on an episode-by-episode basis, as a part of the ThriftyNerd podcast. It is now its very own podcast, with its very own website. It has gone on to talk about the TV episodes and book chapters in a “bullet-point” style, covering many of the aspects of the show. The five hosts chat about the various GoT subjects, going off on several tangents in the process. It’s a two-hour podcast about a one-hour show. Figure out that math, but it actually works.

The most recent episode I’ve listened to, covering the 4th episode of Season 2 of the TV series, is chock full of puns. In fact, that’s one of the bits of magic about the podcast: because it constantly derails, it makes reliving the show and books that much more effective. The team comes off extremely friendly and conversational, much like how I’d imagine that I would react when chatting about the subject. One of my favorite features was the “Stump Mike Dao” segment, where the team asked the host about what he thinks will happen the rest of the season (he hasn’t read the books).

There is a lot of laughing that comes along with listening to an episode, and it provides a less than serious (but no less accurate) account of the series.

What’s it sound like?

It’s not going to surprise you in production. The show has very few segments, relying on a set of predetermined bullet points to speak to and followed up by traditional podcast housekeeping (email, comments, etc). For a Skype podcast it sounds about right. It’s not recorded in a studio, since the team doesn’t all live near each other, so you get what you expect with Skype as a method of communication. Between seasons the show is hosted live over TinyChat each Sunday, which adds another layer to the onion (knight).

In Conclusion…

Cast of Thrones is thoroughly enjoyable, especially if you’re knee deep in the series and show as I am. It’s a great way to continue the experience of the show in between episodes, usually launching on Mondays or Tuesdays. There are a lot of other Game of Thrones podcasts on the web, but none have the chemistry these fine folks do. Mike DiMauro, Mike Dao, Nick Bristow, Jennifer Cheek, and Tim Lanning are as close as we’ll get to a traveling troupe of mummers this side of the narrow sea.

For more info, find Cast of Thrones on their website or through their iTunes feed.

[UPDATE: Winners are Arthur Moy (website), Paul K (website), and @Candygamerchic (Twitter)]

There’s a new-ish Mortal Kombat game releasing this week! Well it’s MK9, now shipping for the PS Vita. We’ve heard some good things about it, too. That’s why we’re giving away some klassic Mortal Kombat action to help you celebrate! Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection was released last year, letting us relive the action of some of the most popular MK arcade games that we grew up with in the 90s.

We have three wonderful codes for the XBLA version up for grabs, and YOU could win one of them! We’re offering three chances, too! Just leave up to one comment per day starting today, May 1st, and ending Friday, May 4th at 11:59PM Pacific time telling us what your favorite Mortal Kombat series finishing move is. You can ALSO win via Twitter! Follow @SideQuesting on Twitter and tweet the following message:

We’ll choose 3 winners on Saturday morning at 10AM Eastern.

Good Luck!

RULES

• The contest starts today, Tuesday May 1st, and ends on Friday night, May 4th, at 11:59PM Pacific Time PDT.
• Leave a comment in this post, up to once per day, telling us what your favorite Mortal Kombat series finishing move is, or by tweeting the phrase above
• Three winners selected by SideQuesting on Saturday morning, May 5th, around 10:00AM EDT.
• Winner receives a download code for a copy of Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection for the Xbox 360.
• Available to US residents only
• Please see our official Contest Rules for more information.

Get Pictobit. JUST TRUST US.

“Downloadable.”

Dammit, it’s still not a word that our spell-check software understands. Ah well, Nintendo (finally) does. Each month the Big N brings a few downloadable games to the Club Nintendo rewards catalog, and this month might have a MUST-HAVE 3DS game.

PiCTOBiTs is a fantastic DSiWare puzzle game, with elements of playing Tetris in reverse to create classic Nintendo images on the screen. Though it’s not in 3D, it’s still one of the best puzzle experiences to be had on any mobile platform, 3DS or phone. Grab it here if you’re a member for 150 coins. Note: Must have eShop or WiiWare online access to get the games.

The other additions are:

• 3D Classics: Urban Champion (3DS) – 150 coins
• Snowpack Park (Wii) – 150 coins
• Eco Shooter Plant 530 (Wii) – 200 coins

You can pretty much avoid Urban Champion. Trust us on that one, too.

Well, leave it to fans of the series to actually create the pieces, or at least some interesting interpretations. We’ve collected as many individual songs that we could find, sharing them with you below. We know there are several interpretations of each song, so we’ve only highlighted one of each. If you know of any more, feel free to let us know in the comments!

Put the headphones on, sit back, and enjoy!

Written for Lord Tywin Lannister’s victory over House Reyne

A song sung by the Wildlings

A humorous song that describes the exploits of a bear who rescues a maiden

A song about a man who makes love to a married woman of Dorne, only to die later because of a duel with her husband

There’s no name to this tune that was written to force Tyrion into letting its singer, Symon, perform at the royal wedding of Joffrey

We love A Song of Ice and Fire. We love the books, the TV series, the comics, and the games. That’s why we’re dedicating this week, April 29th – May6th, to the series!

Join us all this week as we chat about the books and show, A Game of Thrones, and everything that surrounds it. We’ll review games, have podcasts, and share some of the coolest stuff on the web with you.

But, you can get involved too!

As with our previous theme weeks, we are happy to give you a voice to share some of YOUR thoughts and memories on the series! Have a favorite moment from the TV show? Did you share the books with your office? Did you build Winterfell in LEGOS? Let us know! We’ll feature your work (and give you full credit).

Shoot us an email at dali @ sidequesting.com or steven @ sidequesting.com and we’ll do our best to include everything!

Winter is Coming… No, it’s HERE!

For reference on how we do our weeks, check out our 8-Bit Week and our 16-Bit Week

Welcome to the SideQuest, your semi-weekly podcast devoted to gaming, culture, and gaming culture, with the often tangent.

Episode 404. Error

In this episode: Sports! Well, sports games. This week saw the reveal of Calvin Johnson as the Madden 13 cover athlete. LUCKY NUMBER THIRTEEN. There’s also a curse associated with it. More importantly, we have experts on the show to tell us how sports games have changed and are changing, as well as some breaking news like Adam Sessler leaving G4.

GET IT?

Hosts:
Dali, Mike Suszek, Craig Gonzalez

Links:

4thString

Modern Game Player

ConsoleSports

Music:

Intro: Gogol Bordello – Rebellious Love

Outro: Cake – Meanwhile, Rick James…

Download the episode directly here

Subscribe and rate us via iTunes or, click here for the direct feed: http://sidequesting.podbean.com/feed

There are several things to be excited about in this leaked trailer for the unannounced Rayman Legends, and a few to be extremely disappointed about.

The Really, Really Cool:

• It’s more Rayman Origins, which is awesome
• The WiiU version is official
• The video shows the NFC uses for the WiiU, including Skylanders-like dropping in of items and characters
• The WiiU tablet has touchscreen controls to help solve puzzles within the game
• Multiplayer is still there
• There are new “social” features, similar to ideas that are used in mobile games
• It’s more Rayman Origins, which is awesome

The Kinda Shitty:

• There is only ONE tablet used in the game, leading us to believe that the WiiU is only powerful enough for one at a time
• Every other player is using the standard WiiMotes
• At one point, the WiiU tablet looks like it’s plugged in to something. Not so good for wireless..?

Just a note: This game is still unannounced, and we could very well be seeing prototype hardware and features. Let’s hope we get more info at E3 or sooner. But, there is one giant, important thing to remember: It’s more Rayman Origins, which is awesome.

Video courtesy NintendoWorldReport

[Update] In a statement today, Ubisoft confirmed the game’s existence and stated that the video was an internal clip meant to show ideas and get the team excited.

Nintendo's note explains it all, right there.

Well, there’s a surprise. Word just came from Nintendo via their 3DS messaging system that the company plans to update (read: PATCH) Mario Kart 7 to remove the infamous Wuhu Island cheat glitch. Call it a cheater’s winning method, or bad design, or a glitch, but it’s helped people win several races in an unorthodox “fall-off-the-cliff” fashion. Usually AGAINST me.

The patch arrives in Mid-Mary, showing that Nintendo does indeed plan on using the updated 3DS software to actually fix things. Welcome to 2006, Nintendo! It’s about time.