Online/Multiplayer

Fission Mailed

HIGH Seeing the Raccoon Police station rendered in gorgeous HD for the first time ever.

LOW Firing a full clip of assault rounds into a hunter as it yawns indifferently.

WTF There's a "special" vision mode designed to make zombies invisible to the player.

In another example of "any publicity is good publicity," Microsoft invites Conan O'Brien into the offices of 343 Industries so that he can expose millions of his viewers to its upcoming Halo 4 game.

As one would expect from the Conan O'Brien Show, it degrades into an opportunity for silliness on O'Brien's part with very little of the game actually shown. To be fair, O'Brien is funny and the representatives for 343 Industries take their beating pretty well.

You Got Your MMO in My KOTOR

HIGH Keeping my party barely alive as we take down a nasty boss during a flashpoint.

LOW Being thrown into a PvP match against players 20 levels above me.

WTF Acquiring a companion who is the last of his kind, then walking outside and seeing five more of him.

Welcome Back to the Stage of History

HIGH Getting curbstomped until I'm down to a sliver of health. My opponent's throw places him at the edge of the ring. I kick. Ring out!

LOW The AI blatantly cheating in the most infuriating ways possible.

WTF Ivy's the only person to speak with a European accent. Maybe she missed the memo that everyone was pretending to be American?

A copious amount of blood, sweat, tears and other bodily fluids have already been spilled over Mass Effect 3′s ending. Several of the first few Google results concern the overwhelmingly negative fan reaction in some way, be it in the form of an online petition or a silly FTC complaint. The laser-like focus on the ending is a damn dirty shame, because outside of those five minutes at the very end of the game and a shaky first hour or so, Mass Effect 3 is about as good a series finale as I could have hoped for.

So, Journey. My review schedule was quite full when this much-anticipated project from thatgamecompany was released on PlayStation Network, and the other night was the first chance I had to get to it. I was a huge fan of Flow, I loved Flower, and I've been looking forward to Journey ever since I knew about it. While I was playing, several people asked what my opinion was, and I knew that there was absolutely no way I could even begin to address the topic over Twitter. Hence, this entry.

Although Raccoon City is getting hammered all over the Internet, I have to say that I did enjoy certain parts of it. The idea of playing as an Umbrella strike team member is pretty cool to me, and shifting the dynamic of power from being a solo hero to being part of a full assault squad struck me as quite interesting and full of promise. Unfortunately, the title's problems far outweigh the good bits.

To Retail and Beyond

HIGH Surfing the Sunken City in the fading afternoon-absolutely gorgeous.

LOW Can't we have more?

WTF Put on a scarf and fly!

Here's the wrap-up of our fantastic talk with David Jaffe, creative lead on the Twisted Metal series and one of my favorite all-time games, God of War.

Inside, we finish up our talk on the new Twisted Metal, we hear about Mr. Jaffe's future plans, and we hear how he feels about other games and designers aping his style.  If you're a fan of David's, you don't want to miss this one!

In this episode, Mr. Jaffe shares with us his thoughts on God of War 4, the troubles of tumultuous development (including two cancelled games, Darkons and Heartland), the failures of Calling All Cars, and the reasons why he left God of War. Finally, we wrap up with thoughts on the process of creating the brand-new Twisted Metal.