Stage Select:

3) The Metal Blade (Mega Man 2) - The most satisfying and utilitarian weapon in the entire game, and likely the oldest weapon I can remember specifically using. 

2) Soul Reaver (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver) - This sword has been around for quite a few games, but it's role in the Soul Reaver series is what puts it up there for me. Coolest sword in video games (even over the ever popular Buster Sword) by far.

1) The BFG (Doom - original) - How could this not be on here? This is the grandaddy of all video game weapons and has the absolute best name (which it absolutely lives up to). Has to be number one.

Honorable Mention: All the guns in Ratchet and Clank. Shooting stuff is just so much fun in those games.

Well of course I have to post my top 5 of all time! What a way to start off that segment with a topic that could warrant its own episode;)

5) Super Mario World - Super Mario 3 may be the touchstone Mario game for most folks, but Super Mario World took what Mario 3 did and perfected it. This game is still fantastic today and none of the other 2D Mario fare has even come close to matching the magic of this title.

4) Mario Kart 64 - I likely spent more time playing Mario Kart 64 than any other game I've ever played. Lots of folks point to Goldeneye 64 as the go-to multiplayer game on the Nintendo 64, but Mario Kart is the one that still pretty much holds up today. Fantastic game.

3) Phantasy Star IV - I was a Genesis kid, so I didn't to most of the Super Nintendo JRPGs until much later. I plays PSIV several times over and I still remember it fondly. The combo attacks, the story, and just everything about this game. It saddens me how this series has fallen from memory of the general gaming public, because it was such an important game for the genre.

2) Red Dead Redemption - I've never played a game before or since that I enjoyed just puttering around as much in as RDR. I loved just riding my horse over the plains and through the forests and up into the hills and mountains. The world was filled just enough with other folks to be interesting, but not so many that the game felt overpacked. The wide open spaces was part of the appeal of this one. Add to that a fantastic story that I didn't want to end, and you have a real winner.

1) Metroid Prime - Man o' man, talk about a game. I'm a huge fan of the Metroid series and while Super Metroid is up there, nothing nailed the atmosphere and feel of being a badass bounty hunter like the Prime series. Everything about this game was perfect, from the graphics, to the gameplay, to the atmosphere. It was suitably lonely, and you had to glean information from little nuggets of knowledge you would gain from scans and artifacts. I really hope that Samus can be blessed with another game of Prime's caliber soon.

And for Chrono Crossing 2009, it has to be Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. That game is what solidified Nathan Drake as a gaming icon, and made Naughty Dog a household name. 

Ponzi Scheme isn't out here quite yet in the states, but you can pre-order it on sites like Miniaturemarket.com.

There are actually quite a few steam/app versions of games that have either come out recently or are on the horizon. Small World, Agricola, Le Havre, Neuroshima Hex, Star Realms, Splendor, Galaxy Trucker, Stone Age, and Twilight Struggle all have excellent digital versions on PC/iOS/Android, just to name a few. 

I also just heard that Smash Up! is getting a digital version this fall, as well as a bunch of other games. As the board game hobby continues to grow, there has been a definite rise in the development of quality digital versions, which is a huge boon since you can try a game now for a small fee before dropping serious coin on the physical.

lol, I never noticed that before :)

Great cast guys - Kinda jealous I wasn't on this one! Really enjoyed the board game talk and I pledged to the Yokohama Kickstarter before I even listened to this one. TMG does some of the best Deluxified games.

I've played female characters quite a few times.  In pencil and paper RPGs (like D&D and the like) I've done it for the challenge and taken it as an opportunity to see things from a different perspective - as much as I can at least.  Being white and male means that most video game protagonists don't really offer a different social or cultural experience than I get in normal life.  Playing a woman or different ethnicity gives me a different view on things, and I find that I gravitate towards characters that differ as much from me as possible when I have the option to do so.

When the experience isn't any different, I think of the aesthetic.  Some female characters look or sound cooler to me than the male ones in my opinion, so that can be a factor as well - for example, this is why I played a female character in Saints Row the Third.

I love having a few app versions of board games and I think Aqcuire would be a prime candidate for the app treatment - and I honestly can't imagine why it hasn't been done.

*checks Google Play Store for app*

Yup, no Acquire.  There are awesome versions of Carcassonne, Catan, Small World, and San Juan on there though.  I can easily recommend all of those.

Catan is a great gateway game, and it shouldn't be too difficult to get folks to play.  I think the easiest way to get folks to play with you is to simply host a game night. When I posed the idea of a board game night to some friends I was greeted with a surprising amount of enthusiasm.  The board game industry is going through a kind of 'Golden Age' right now and people are starting to hear about these games that aren't Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, or Cards Against Humanity.  Good luck!

I myself am waiting on a good bundle.  I figure that when Uncharted comes out they'll have a decent bundle.  Even then, I'll only take the leap if the price is right and there are other games I'd like to play.

I think it will eventually get better, but there aren't that many games out there that I can only get on those machines to make it worth it.  Up until recently it seemed like the PS3/360 were getting versions of games coming out on the next gen consoles, so there wasn't much of a push to get me to pick a new machine up, especially given the price.

That said, I do see this changing.  The new Batman is a good next gen exclusive, as are the upcoming Uncharted and Tomb Raider games.  Still, that's not enough for me to drop money that could be spent elsewhere (like more board games!).  More titles and some price drops will get me on board the next gen train.

Sort of?  You can move the whale meeples to destroy your friends' ships :)  Which in no way generates any ill will towards you.

I'm with you on PC being a perfectly acceptable substitute for consoles at this point.  It seems that everything I want to play (accept for Bloodbourne and Uncharted) would be available there.  Perhaps it's time to fill the empty PC tower I have with some new guts.

And yeah, I'm also a big comic book guy.  I have lots of thoughts on the recent television and and movie happenings.  I'll likely be making a post soon.

It certainly does, and that's part of it.  I don't expect everyone to suddenly play nice, but we must expect better of our community if it's to achieve that maturity. Expect more and you'll get more. Expect less, and they'll give you less.

No war here - opposite of war. This is a celebration of gaming and a move to bring culture forward. #GamingForward doesn't "oppose" either side of the culture war. It seeks to circumvent the war all together and have an actual dialogue. I don't want negativity and I don't want a battle. That's the opposite of what I want.

I don't think this works with GG because GG was started as a revenge fantasy.  Legitimate issues were attached to it afterwards, but the foundation is broken. For all those in GG that have legitmate issues (and I believe they exist), they will never be able to advance the conversation because the overall tone of GG is sour.

The anti-GG isn't really any better, because they are only focused on stopping GG, and not engaging in any real conversation or offering any solution.  This is truly an us vs. them situation. 

I don't want #GamingForward to be directly associated with either, because it isn't about right or wrong.  It's more about what we need as a community, and that's for us to move the community forward, discuss issues and stop attacking eachother.  We may not like all the ideas, but we can respect them and work to be more inclusive than exclusive.

This reminds me that we need a "like" feature here on PixlBit.  Nick, get on that!

Awesome! I've been in the position to explain what this culture war is about to those outside of the community - it's a very hard thing to do while trying to still make sense.  Having others have a better opinion of our community - that the war does not represent us - is a good and constructive thing.

This whole culture war definitely has a feel of a gruesome political campaign.  It's all mud slinging while they ignore the actual issues instead of talking about how we can actually make things better.  I want to talk about making things better.

Thank you, and I understand deleting twitter - it can be a rather toxic place. 

Exactly.  Being the change will hopefully affect others in a positive way and we can take our culture back and make it better.  

Shhhh..it will be alright.  I'm actually rather interested in tablet gaming myself.  There are plenty of games that make sense for the platform (release War Craft 3 on Adroid/iOS already Blizzard!!!).  It's just a natural progression of the gaming experience.

That would be the case if I was making a game solely to sell it, which is not the case. I'm just having fun building it, and if people like it enough to perhaps produce it, that's great. As you said in the end, a Labour love is it's own reward.

Carcassonne is great - I actually have the app, so I play on breaks and whatnot quite a bit.  Not as fun as playing in person, but the games go by quickly and scoring is much easier with the PC tracking it.

I could list tons of games to recommend, but I wanted to keep the blog on the shorter side.  That being said, I created a forum where people can place recommendations and talk about board games!

http://www.pixlbit.com/thread/131/board_game_recommendations

Cards against Humanity is a fantastic party game that always goes best with alcohol.  You learn alot about your friends.  Perhaps too much....