Morning Hangover

It's the morning after Comic-Con, and the title "Morning Hangover" really applies; I'm hungover on nerd-dom, having over-indulged mightly since Thursday. I'll bet you spent the weekend either following our Comic-Con 2010 coverage, or down in San Diego at the show itself.

What was your personal highlight? The revelation of  the The Avengers movie? The fact that real-life violence reportedly broke out in Hall H and not a single super-hero stepped up and stopped it? Street Fighter X Tekken?

Day one of Comic-Con is behind us, and day two has arrived. Before we look ahead to the deluge of announcements, panels, and general Con-ness that today will bring, I wanted to open the floor to see what some of your day one highlights were. Any announcement that you were particularly excited to hear? Anything happen during a live blog that was especially unexpected (i.e. Stephen Johnson going off on some rant about horizontal rods and/or inquiring about cuddy cabins)? Any trailer or interview that stood out to you?

And with that: bring on day two!

Comic-Con 2010 is just a few hours from officially kicking off, and G4 is gearing up for one hell of a day one. But until the festivities officially begin, I figured I’d open the floor one last time before we get this big old nerd ball rolling to find out your last minutes predictions, hopes for the show, anticipatory rantings, whatever you feel like sharing.

Welcome to Comic-Con 2010: day one!

In case you didn’t know, Playdead’s hauntingly brilliant title Limbo is now available on Xbox Live Arcade. In addition to insisting that anyone who can should play it immediately (check out my review for more details about why), I also wanted to find out what are some games that, for whatever reason, you just never stop thinking about? Ones that really got inside your head and set up shop for the long haul either because of when you played them in your life or the subject matter or the gameplay. The reason I ask is that Limbo is very much this kind of game for me, and I have no doubt it will be the same for the vast majority of people who play it.

San Diego Comic-Con is coming up later this week and this weekend. It practically goes without saying that G4 will be there, offering up a everything you could ever want to know about the con, breaking news, shooting videos, posting game previews, and most importantly, hanging out with cosplay chicks. But are you going to be there?

If not, why not?

It was way too hot on the West Coast to do much this weekend but sit in glorious air conditioning and play games... and my game of the weekend: Crackdown 2. I'm addicted to orb-chasing.

What about you? What did you play this weekend?

Yesterday’s announcement that Microsoft had canceled the Xbox Live version of 1 vs. 100 definitely bummed a lot of people out. It really was such a brilliant move bringing it to Live, and I can’t wait to see what the team behind it get the chance to do next. On that note, I want to know what other game shows you think would work as well on Live or PlayStation Network as 1 vs. 100 did? Why haven’t we seen more online game shows like it, especially given the sizes of the Live/PSN communities?

Atari announced yesterday that it was remaking their 30-year-old Atari 2600 title Haunted House. This is hardly surprising given how pervasive remakes and reboots are these days. But this one is especially surprising because I wonder how many people have been saying, “You know what game needs to be remade? Haunted House!” I’m sure there are have been some calls for it, but I’m sure there are a host of other games from the old-school Atari days that players would like to see remade more than Haunted House.

So how about it? Which classic titles (arcade, Atari 2600, NES, etc.) would you like to see get the next-gen treatment? I would actually settle for a working copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark for Atari 2600, since my brother's copy always glitched out like two levels in, and I remember being so mad about never being able to play it. So sad.
 

I just returned from a week's vacation on the East Coast. I left my DS and PSP home, and vowed to only do outdoorsy, vacation-y things for the week. While there was a fair amout of beach going and whatnot, I made the mistake of bringing my iPhone, so video games happened anyway.

So here's a list of the games that I played: Tilt to Live (incredibly addictive all-out action game), Doodle Jump (platforming and motion sensing fun) and Oregon Trail (It was more fun in my grade school computer lab, but just barely.)

What awesome iPhone games am I missing?

The recent predictions about Call of Duty: Black Ops racking up more pre-orders than Modern Warfare 2 could generate a number of discussions, but this morning I’m wondering about one specific aspect of it: the pre-ordering. I can’t tell you the last game I pre-ordered, and I honestly have no plans to pre-order any of the big titles that I’m most looking forward to this year, because I’ve never had a problem buying a game shortly after it’s released, or even on release day in some cases (i.e. most recently I picked up a copy of Red Dead Redemption from Best Buy on launch day without issue).

So I’m just wondering what percentage of you: a) never pre-order, b) occasionally pre-order, or c) always pre-order games, and why? Do pre-order bonuses play that much of a role in your decision? Have any pre-order horror stories you feel like sharing?

(P.S. I knew I made that pre-order gag graphic for a reason.)

Good morrow, Feed nation. I hope you had as relaxing (aka lazy) a weekend as I did, because, man, was it sweet. A lot of my enjoyment had to do with my finally wrapping up 100 percent on Red Dead Redemption, and, mainly, because I was able to lose myself in the hilarious and gorgeous Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge. I actually never played the original, so it’s been doubly satisfying for me to finally get the chance. Anyway, I’m on the verge of rambling here, so I’ll wrap it up and ask you all how you spent this weekend (you know, aside from crying, Netherlands fans).

Unless I'm missing something, Crackdown 2 is July's biggest release until StarCraft II hits the scene later in the month. July seems like a good time to catch up on some old games, some titles that slipped through the cracks. For me, that's going to include finally checking out Metro 2033. You?

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

If you haven't read my write-up on EEDAR's fascinating study of game reviews and their effect on purchasing habits, do so. The larger question posed at the end, however, is something I wanted to revisit for today's Morning Hangover. When's the last time you felt truly affected by a game review? Was there a specific review -- or reviewer -- who managed to change your mind? How so?

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

The last few days were all about beers, brats and pools. Video games? Not so much, though I couldn't help but sneak in a few hours of orb collecting with Crackdown 2. What games were you playing during the holiday weekend?

We're all really happy that it was America's birthday yesterday, but if you're feeling a little tired of barbecues and the beach, and you don't have any plans, check out our site today. Every hour, on the hour, all day, we'll be featuring exclusive interviews with the minds behind some of the biggest games coming out, including Brink, Madden 11, DJ Hero 2 and more. So sit back, relax and get ready for a lot of awesome.