Morning Hangover

As you will soon see on our internet website, Epictober is here. An entire week of exclusive, in-depth looks at the biggest, most epic games in the pipeline is yours to behold. Check out the schedule and be amazed.

To celebrate, let's talk about our personal epic gaming achievement. Mine: Finding all the collectibles in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. When I located the final horseshoe, it can only be described as epic.

How about you? What's your most epic gaming moment?

Like many indie game lovers in the Los Angeles area, I will be attending this year’s Indiecade festival this weekend. It will be a first for me, so I’m super excited, and be sure to tune in over the coming weeks for our coverage of the festival and all the fantastic games to come out of it. So for me, this weekend is going to be an indie-heavy affair. But enough about me. Let’s hear about you. More specifically: What are you playing this weekend?

As a side note: Anyone out there going to Indiecade? What games are you most looking forward to checking out?

It’s no wonder that Apple has been able to carve out a comfortable market for itself in the mobile gaming space. The iPhone and iPod Touch are great for gaming on the go (not to mention both get about the same reception. Zing!), and there are thousands of new games being released every day. But when I look at my collection of iPhone games, 99 percent of them are basically time killers. Nothing against the games themselves. They’re great. That’s why I bought them. I’m just saying that most of my mobile gaming is done while I’m waiting to do something else.

So my question this morning is this: what are the best time killing mobile games that you consistently go back to whenever you have some downtime? What makes a great time killing game, and on what platform do you do most of the your mobile gaming (DS, PSP, iPhone, etc.)?

My go-to iPhone time killer games are Bejeweled 2, Peggle, and Spiderette.

I’ve been thinking about RPGs a lot lately, mainly because it’s sort of part of my job too, and what I've been noticing more and more lately is that a high percentage of games these days incorporate some RPG element into them. Whether it be leveling up characters, managing classes, or the like, and it’s happening across all genres.

So my question this morning is: what types of RPGs do you gravitate towards? More traditional RPG titles like a Diablo or Dragon Age, or hybrids like Fallout 3 and Fable II? And why?

When Blizzard finally announced yesterday that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm would be released this December, I couldn’t help once again thinking the same thing I always think whenever a new expansion comes out/is announced for WoW, and that is, “Now is it officially too late to get into WoW?” The funniest part is that I don’t have any intention of starting, simply because it’s not my kind of game.

But this morning, I want to find out if there are players who continue to put off getting into WoW knowing full well that the more years you wait, the further behind you fall. I just couldn’t imagine starting a game where I know I have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of play time (and more) ahead of me. It’s intimidating, right? Or is it just me?

So I finished Halo: Reach this weekend. I ended up enjoying the game about as much I expected I would, which is to say, it’s Halo. Better looking, a bit grander in scope, and some great new features on the multiplayer side, but, essentially, it’s still Halo. What I wasn’t expecting though was how the game actually ended. I don’t mean Reach falling; I mean what the last mission in the game is. It’s by far the most affecting and emotional moment in the game, because of how it’s presented and what it represents in terms of the overall Reach story.

So my question this morning for you all is: without being too spoiler-ific, what do you consider to be the best game endings of all time? It can be a final mission, final act, post credit sequence, whatever. What are those concluding moments in games that you still think about to this day and what made them so memorable?

I'm playing one thing this weekend: Minecraft. The indie PC/Mac game is so addictive, I'm not even sure if I'm happy about spending my weekend playing Minecraft, I just realize I have no choice in the matter.

What about you? What are you playing this weekend?

It's getting near Halloween, people, and that has me thinking of my favorite game genre, survival/horror. My big three top favorite horror games of all time: Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame and The 7th Guest. Also, honorable mention to Atari's Haunted House that I've been playing in the Xbox Game Room, probably the very first survival/horror game ever!

How about you guys? Do you like scare-games? Any horror movies or franchises you think should get the gaming treatment?

I'm going to name two games that I like that I bet you either haven't heard of or have dismissed. One is old, the other new. Ready?

• Asylum for the TRS-80. This game came out in 1981 and is nearly totally forgotten. Made for a computer that was not meant as a gaming machine even back in early 80s, Asylum managed to created huge 3D world and a compelling adventure using only 16K of memory. It was a groundbreaking title, well ahead of its time, but apparently less than 1000 Asylum discs were ever produced.  More info here.

• Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. I'm not sure why I randomly picked up this movie tie-in game to a flick I haven't seen, (OK, it was because I figured it would be easy achievements) but I was shocked by how good-natured and enjoyable the game turned out to be. Not going to change your life, but could easily brighten an evening.

Okay, now it's your turn. Go!

Yesterday, I posed a question via our gamer poll that asked about the overall health of the MMO, as a genre. Overwhelming, G4's readers said the MMO was in trouble unless a viable console MMO was released, which got me thinking: What would a console MMO look/play like? You'd have to jettison a lot of what makes up playing a "traditional" MMO -- chatting and whatnot -- because most people don't have keyboard attachments. It will be really interesting to see what a massive console RPG will be like, should one ever break through.

This weekend, I played quality video games all weekend. It was pretty great. I played downloadable game Blade Kitten, Crackdown 2, and, for some reason, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Believe it or not, Night at the Museum  is a solid video game. Not a great one, but a solid one.

What did you play this weekend?

It’s Friday. We like to play it cool on Fridays. It’s a shame Stephen “Takes Things Too Far” Johnson feels that “play it cool Fridays” are the same as “no pants Fridays.” Fortunately, there are plenty of distractions for us to bury ourselves in to avoid the unfortunate misunderstandings of our more…troublesome coworkers. Like games and weekends! Hey, that gives me an idea:

What games are you playing this weekend?

I'm finally going to be able to put some quality time in with Halo: Reach. I'm not a huge Halo nut or anything, but I'm enjoying the campaign so far. Definitely digging the moody, impending doom vibe. Can't wait to play around in Forge and co-op too.

When it comes to multiplayer, I’m on the low end of average. I can hold my own among other players in my skill class, but outside of that it’s usually not pretty. However, I am a huge fan of co-op, and much more prefer to play alongside someone than against them (in fact, when it comes to competitive multiplayer, I also prefer team based modes). It’s not that I’m not a competitive person. It’s just my preference. My most recent co-op experience has been a couple Halo: Reach missions, and I’m digging it so far. Before that, I think it was Splinter Cell: Conviction, which is fantastic (great twist ending by the way).

So what do you consider to be the best co-op games around? Could be old, could be new. It’s up to you. Are there any upcoming games that feature co-op that you’re particularly excited about?

By now, you’ve probably seen the offensively spectacular gameplay demo for BioShock Infinite. If not, check back here in a few hours for the full HD version. Anyway, I’ve seen it a number of times now, and yet each time I’m left absolutely dumbfounded by the level of detail and craftsmanship on display in the video. I pretty much felt the same way about the original BioShock, and I recently started it again, and am still finding myself getting grinning with joy at the same points as I did the very first time I played through it. So this got me thinking:

What games have left/leave you in inexpressible awe no matter how many times you play them? What are those games that made your jaw intimately familiar with the floor from start to finish?
 

Video game concept art and character/environment renders have always fascinated me, and even though they mostly upset me (because I so desperately wish I could create anything a quarter as stunning as what game artists are capable of creating), I just eat them up. And what’s even better is seeing how those concepts transform into actual interactive and explorable environments. When I think of great game art, some of the games that come to mind are BioShock, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Portal, and the God of War series.

What about you?