I'm back from Europe and ready to continue my recapping duties once again. Did you guys miss me while I was on my two week hiatus to Germany and Italy. I would be lying if I said I'm happy to be back, because the truth is I'm not. I could have easily used another two weeks of vacation to see more of both Germany and Italy. Unfortunately we only get a little bit of vacation time here in America, which sucks.

Europe was absolutely fantastic by the way. My wife and I had a wonderful time. For those of you who are wondering, we spent 5 days in Munich, Germany, and then traveled to Venice, Florence and Rome in Italy. Everything we saw and did was absolutely incredible. Seeing the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, and Vatican City in Rome was like a dream come true. Being able to look up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in person and see the images Michelangelo had painted was breath taking. It was truly a trip I'll never forget.

The whole time I was in Italy all I could keep thinking about was how I had climbed this tower or that building in the Assassin's Creed games. I would constantly turn to my wife in Rome and tell her how in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood I had climbed a specific building we were looking at. I could even point out the ledges I had used as hand and foot holds. It was crazy how accurate the game models were to the real thing. When we were in St. Marks Square in Venice I sensed I had been there before, and that's because I had been in Assassin's Creed II. It made for a very surreal experience.

Anyways, I'm back now. Hope you all had a good two weeks. Let me know in the comments if you guys have any questions about my trip.






*-This is an incredible blog by Rathowreck that you all need to read. In it he discusses his personal views on video game addiction and tells the sad story of how he watched World of Warcraft tear his family life apart.



A-Ipaqi shares his Diablo 3 conspiracy theories.

P-Zero Cool Episode 53: Xenobradu Curonico



S-Zombie Orwell interviews Jebussaves88. It's pretty funny so check it out.

S-SeymourDuncan17 tells us about the games he's been playing on his PC lately.



R-TroyFullbuster reviews Kirby Return to Dreamland



A-Oculin shares his thoughts on the new visual novel Dengeki Stryker.

F-Bootlegs and Bad Games - A Toast to Jackie Chan.



R-DrDougal9000 tells you more than you ever wanted to know about Furries.

R-BenefitEvil is a fund raising event for Child's Play charity who's advertising on the CBlogs. Check them out if you'd like.



F-I can't even read this fail blog to tell you just how fail it is.


-(SilverDragon1979)

FPoTD

Hello friends! It's Friday once again!



So Dragon's Dogma releases this Tuesday. Earlier in the month, I was super excited about this game and was ready to throw down some money. Then I heard about the on-disc DLC that Capcom had been planning for the game since the beginning of its development cycle, and I became a little less sure about the purchase. I figured I'd let it slide and just avoid buying any DLC anyway, because it still looked like a fantastic game. Then I read about an incident involving a young woman on the Dragon's Dogma development team who tried to commit suicide after being harassed by other members of the team, and I became even less sure. This sort of reminded me of the scandal surrounding the LA Noire developer, Team Bondi, and the terrible working conditions they had (only this time it was only one person being affected, but still). I just don't really feel good about buying games from ill-behaved developers. I still really want to play the game though... I guess I'll wait to read some reviews of the game, and probably buy it used somewhere. Capcom as a company has been making me very sad lately...

What about you guys? Are any of you planning on picking up Dragon's Dogma? I know a lot of you, like myself, were very excited for the game after playing the demo. What do you think about the on-disc DLC and other behavior at Capcom? I'm honestly very torn with how I feel about the whole situation.

I also watched a trailer for another upcoming Capcom game, E.X. Troopers, and that game looks pretty fantastic as well! But again, it's Capcom, so I just don't know. I really hope the company can get its act together soon, but somehow I doubt that will happen. No wonder Keiji Inafune left the company.

Well anyway, that's enough Capcom-bashing for tonight. It's time for a different kind of 'Caps! Why don't you have a look at some of the lovely blogs that were written today?

* - T3HM0RR0W made an awesome Sundays with Sagat t-shirt! There might only be a few shirts left, so hop to it if you want one!

* - TheDustinThomas is hyped for Borderlands 2! Partly because he met his fiance through the first Borderlands (awww!)

* - Voltech has caught the Minecrafting bug! Pretty soon he'll be building replicas of Princess Peach's castle and Zelda overworlds

* - An update for the RPG Fame Designer is working on! He has been playing a lot of Diablo III recently and cites some influence the game might have on his own game

A - CoruptAI125 discusses a few summer releases that he's really excited about

A - KingSigy can't seem to adapt to modern technology. He prefers doing things the old-fashioned way!





E - Join Beccy Caine and other European Dtoiders at Rezzed, a new event featuring PC and indie games!

E - Join Andrew Benton and other Dtoid New Yorkers for Blipfest 2012 next weekend!

F - Friday Night Fights on the PS3 + ...Noot noot?

F - Friday Night Fights on the PC + The premier of Diablo III FNF!

F - Friday Night Fights on the 360 + Bahahahaha! Oh Andy....

F - Friday Night Fights on the 3DS + Patch time!

D - The beta for Fray is out now! Get your beta keys!

N - A rumor about Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! Omega

T - On a quest to play some older PC games that she missed out on, Allie Castellano has started playing Neverwinter Nights 2 for the first time

$ - May 18th UK releases and bargains





F - Here, try this site: twitter.com

F - 987 copypasta blogs on the wall, 987 copypasta blogs. Take one down, pass it around...

F - The incoherent ramblings of robertayers



- bbain

FPotD

Soo...Diablo III. I think you and I should have a talk.

These past few days have been fun, but you need to understand something; I'm married. I never wanted to fully commit to anything else. I love my wife and my family. I was just looking for some fun on the side. And even though, yes, it HAS been fun, I feel I need to set some boundaries now. Because you are tearing me apart.

It isn't often I get addicted too, or even care about new games. There is something almost indescribably dull about many modern releases, so apart from the rare few titles with some kind of innovation, I usually don't give a damn. Diablo III does not innovate. In fact, it would be entirely fair to call it a perfectly serviceable clone of Diablo II. What it does do is offer yet another incredibly addicting grind, an action game wearing the cloth of an RPG, and so far I love it to death.

I'm on board with the rest of the universe about the whole "servers don't fucking work and this blows" argument, but that is only because I'm slightly addicted. I understand that there are some strong arguments out there saying Diablo III is a "dissapointment", that it does not live up to the decades long hype around it. I disagree; I was waiting for a new Diablo game, Blizzard made one, and it is undeniably, indisputably a new entry in the Diablo series. My expectations were low, but my level 26 Hunter with a damage rating of 296 and 312 dexterity proves that sometimes those arguments don't really matter.

Another thing that is intriguing to me, at least from a science fiction perspective, is the auction house. We are actually living in an age where time spent in a virtual landscape can equal tangible benefits in the real world. That is both incredibly fascinating and terrifying. It's been going on for much longer than this of course, most notably in MMO's where gold farming has kept many a below the poverty line person living in China unhappily employed, but now it's an official service. And the real winners? A dollar per item sold going directly to Blizzard kind of answers that question alone.

Oh, and, Torchlight 2 still actually looks better. Just sayin'. But until then, I'm saying a fond farewell to my thoroughly vampirized time, and a fond farewell to you all until next week because I would honestly rather be leveling than writing something clever which you will all probably skim through anyhow.

I know I would right now.

Oh and god, no pictures today. Sorry. I am just not in the mood to Google image Diablo III and share whatever generic thing comes up. Just for those who can't live without them, here is a picture of a duck, though; I'll do that much for you.



I'm so kind.

* - Topsauced for bias; farts and poo. If you want a topsauce on Thursday, just say the word "fart". You'll probably get one, just like PhilK3nS3bb3n.

S - Is it a review if it has an arbitrary score in bold near the bottom of the page? jebussaves88 might answer this question in his ongoing backlog series. Or maybe not, but you won't know until you read it!

M - ManBitesNintendog talks about the Sega Dreamcast. If this weren't a monthly musing, I'd give it the unnoficial title of "blog of the century" just because he talks about the Dreamcast...good mems, but no mem cards.

M - gutsack loves Resident Evil, and screenshots, and- wait, Karutomaru? He is stealth blogging now? God help us all; but you come yourself, don't send Jesus....this is no place for children.

M - Roses are red, violets are blue, Vadz can write poetry, and I just took a poo. (No seriously, it's early in the morning, that shit just kind of happens.)

A - StriderHoang tackles the unique hype surrounding Super Smash Bros. Melee and its rabid, monstrous fanbase. Nice writeup!


I - I'm feeling generous today since playing lots of games has put me in a good mood, so rather than failing for ultimate "ohmahgod wtf" spam, let's just consider this a welcome to David Hollins III. Onward to better blogs, or at least more reasonably spaced!

T - Allie Castellano writes an enjoyable list (because who doesn't love lists?) of some of the creepiest games ever, Ecco the Dolphin, Eternal Darkness, and Chulip are suspiciously absent.

T - CorrupAI125 gabs games. Also, it's SUMMER TIME!

T - Hey brother, it's NEVER too late to play Max Pay- oh wait, you didn't like it? Well, you're right, the PS2 version wasn't very good, so check it out on PC if you get the chance!


R - Zombie Orwell considers to give new meaning to the words "batshit crazy", but I still like the cut of his gib.

F - I can only nod my head in agreement to Dwarf Fortress name dropping for so long before the lame content of the actual blogs starts to irritate me.



FPotD

Hmmmm. I have some ideas for future posts. So instead of venturing too far into any one subject, let's just bring this little baby back.



I have been enjoying Awesomenauts an awful lot. It hit me that I really like the MOBA mold. Gotham City Impostors also released some new content that's really tempting me to come back. All this goes back to my first great investment of time, dedication, and skill: Monday Night Combat.

Monday Night Combat was light on the MOBA but it was still there. Escorting bots to turrets in order to draw fire, breaking into an enemy base, and a class-based system of characters. The difference, I learned, was lethality. You can die fast in MNC but like traditional MOBA, you are very much capable of preventing your death if you're smart about it. The mark of a good MNC player was one who kept his deaths to a minimum and would have a plan when enemies were present.

Gotham City Impostors took all the shooter elements I enjoyed from MNC and put it in a faster, streamlined package that had regular support from the devs. MNC was eventually shelfed by Uber when they moved onto Super MNC, which meant regular support like new maps evaporated. GCI has all the elements I enjoy from MNC like tight, shooting combat, recharging powers, and varying divisions in player size, strength, and role. It didn't hurt that GCI also shared MNC's whimsical sense of humor.



Now we come to Awesomenauts. Everything that GCI doesn't pick up, Awesomenauts brings in full force. True elements of MOBA are loud and clear like role-specific characters, turret defense, and NPC escorting. Awesomenauts also does something MNC did and that was make the genre of MOBA make sense on a console platform where it was not normally seen. MNC mixed it with fast paced shooting combat for the console crowd. Awesomenauts decides to make the action happen on a 2D plane while narrowing the selection of powers hero characters have.

All these returning memories of MNC makes me really want to bring MNC back and return to my old stomping grounds. I was a really good Assassin. I soloed my fair share of bad teams with my Assassin. MNC was the first game I invested everything I had into. I was apart of the community, I entered contests, won developer swag like a hoodie with a piece of bacon high fiving a shotgun shell, and uploaded tons of YouTube videos of my gameplay. What made me stop playing was just the shock of seeing Uber just up and stop supporting the game when they decided as a company to turn their efforts towards PC gaming and the F2P model. It's like a girlfriend left me for a snooty douchebag after kicking my dog and telling me he smells funny.

Still, GCI and Awesomenauts are way too good for me to simply go back to me old ex. They're good and I want to keep my energies on them. Also, Minecraft and Skullgirls.

Speaking of Minecraft, pay attention to FNF this week. I'm hosting Minecraft for the 360. I guess I'll start a new map for you guys so you guys don't screw up my farm or my house. Then again, I'm curious to see what you guys would build in my home map, so maybe I will open up my main map to Dtoid.



But if you destroy my farm, so help me, I will kick you into a pit full of spiders.

* - Allie's first post is topsauce. We expect good things from you.

* - PIR usually only talks about EVE but it's always fascinating. Players in EVE can topple virtual nations without even logging into the game itself.

A - Hey Zombie Orwell. I like Sonic Generations. It shouldn't be in the same sentence as Sonic Unleashed

A - Rhysy's hype for Jet Set Radio made great imagery

A - Samson breaks down comedy to a science

A - Arguing about bad implimentation of realism? Sounds more like general game design than designing realism

A - No brohoof for you Zanthis.





D - BahamutZero used to play games but the trade off seems worth it

D - Persistence is a dev blog that doesn't go away despite having no context or formatting









F - The problem is that I'm expected to care about something with no context

F - I also don't care about your blatant copypasta pet project


~ StriderHoang

No, seriously. Get in FNF and join in.

FPotD

Um yeah. Recaps.

I might be a bit distracted today. I'll give you two guesses why.



Yes I picked them both up on the same day. Well, actually I had Diablo 3 doing the digital download thing so I could play early in the morning, but we all know how that worked out.

I'd talk more about Diablo, but I've only just tipped my toes in it. Max Payne 3 got the lions share of my attention. As a night-shifter with the night off I've been able to sink some uninterrupted quality time into it and it's been just lovely. As a huge fan of the series I might be a little bias, but this game is amazing.

I wrote a blog a few days ago mentioning some of my concerns for the title. That Rockstar would put too much of their stamp on it, that the story wouldn't mesh with the rest of the series quite right. Well, I'm happy to say that even though I was right about some of those concerns, it doesn't matter in the end. MP3 is a very different, very Rockstar Max Payne, but it's still a fantastic game. I think they made smart changes to Max's character and motives to keep the series going and give his mission some purpose, and while the script does wear on some well worn Rockstar points, they are fun points to hit.

I won't gush excessively, but I've been loving the hell out of this game. The shooting is fantastic, Max is still a protagonist you love but have trouble watching sometimes, and the new weapon inventory system has been surprisingly fun – I've been constantly playing with new guns rather than just sticking with a few that work.



I have had a few problems with the game though. First, as a public service announcement, when you get the game IMMEDIATELY turn off the auto-lock stuff. I have no idea why Rockstar thought a shooter largely based on placing accurate headshots would benefit from a soft-lock that constantly drags your aim around and works against you.

After you've done that and saved yourself some headache, do yourself another favour and turn up the aiming acceleration. Max is very sluggish at the default settings and it led to some early frustration. Sensitivity is a personal thing, but I found 8 to be a good number for it.

Other than that, have fun slamming prescription medication and murdering an untold number of goons!

* - A beautiful contribution for the Artist Wanted call. Timothy Kelly shows off all the ominous evil of Gannon's Fortress.

* - The best review of Diablo 3 on the net.

* - Neat ideas in this blog. I always love it when games collect and use info against the player without telling them. The indy side-scroller Iji did this extremely well.

* - A lot of love for a game that was met with a tepid response at launch and has been long since forgotten about by many. I don't think too many people are going to rush out and play WW2Online after reading this, but I appreciate SirKerrald's passion for the game.

M - "Yeah, I guess the Reaper invasion is kinda apoctalyptic. But after all this time hearing Shepard whine about it, I thought it would be a little, ya know, cooler" – An esteemed Council Member 3 seconds before being annihilated by a giant red laser beam shot by a space flea.



Max is a feeling creature.


Not that what he feels is very nice.
T - Gunsage takes us all the way back to the distant year of our Lord 2009 to determine the best RPG of the time.

T - Some first impressions on Max Payne 3. Boy Max, you sure do shoot a lot of people and drink a bunch don't you?




F - ASS AND TITTIES.

F - Only 989 to go. Thanks for the spam.

F - Trolling from 2011.


-Wrenchfarm

FPotD

I guess there are some goings-on tonight? Some of you may be hanging out at Gamestop at midnight, and some of may be F5-ing in your bedroom all night long. Have fun y'all. ;_;

Myself? Thanks for asking. Probably trying to figure out Demon's Souls for the first time, so I can co-op/harass some of you before it's too late. It's pretty good, although it causes me to be short with anyone who dare speak to me while I'm playing. (Sorry, bro)

I saw some junk about one of dem new games today. Brought up the usual bullshit about reviews. Other reviews were discussed. Claims were made. STUPID-ASS SHIT WAS SAID...

I'm gonna go over here for now. Just...just slip any notes under the door. I'll get back to you once I figure out Morse.





* - "My point here is that we have lost perspective on what is the true value." Thank you, NeonBlade.

* - The first of this new musing. Zhukov gets hype over Battlefield 3, and gets lost in the moments.

S - Dave is back to musing, and with limited options, picks some interesting games. Come read his thoughts on Terranigma and Limbo.

A - jennyfish tells us about Diablo III's auction house. It is about time, you know...

A - Pre-orders, special editions, DLC... I'm sure you're all familiar.



F - Super Super Monday Night Combat Mondays!

S - Scield tells us about his gaming habits these days, since he's become a family man.

E - Only 6 weeks until the big ol' Dtoid Midwest NARP. There's gonna be a bunch of awesome Dtoiders there, so you had better go too. C'mon. You know you wanna pitch a tent around these folks.

C - Would you like to be interviewed by the most Orwellian writer EVER?? Now is your chance.

T - A very irritated tale from Skyrim.

T - Come check out Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura Pekopon's E3 speculation blog, focusing on Nintendo.

T - Our captain finds himself pondering teh BIGNESS of DK64.



? - I'll consider it a warning, and mark it on my apocalypse bingo card. I'm so close...

F - 1001 copypastas.

F - I didn't get to read this one because some blood-spraying boner deleted it first.



FPotD