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It feels like forever since last update, but that's the way life goes sometimes. I caught a sore throat right as the week started and I've been trying to sleep it off when I haven't been grinding away at the day job, so that ate up a lot of my regular time. Toss in a wife and kids to fill up the rest, and there you go.

Well, E3 is upon us again. While a tsunami of new game info is pouring out of LA, I'm not sure that anyone will have time for this little old blog, but it's still business as usual for me until PAX later this year. The convention always falls on the first week of my son's summer visit, so I haven't gone to the last few. Family > E3, but I will be watching all the press briefings!

Extra Credit looks at the latest gaming trend: crowdfunding. It's not quite a household term but going by Twitter, press releases and gaming news coverage in general, it's getting there. Crowdfunding takes money from ordinary people in exchange for, say, a copy of the game or seeing a digital version of that person somewhere in the game. Right now Kickstarter is the company on everyone's lips but it isn't the only game in town. IndieGoGo, RocketHub, ulule and the newly formed Gambitious are all out there trying to help someone create that sequel to TIE Fighter or Star Tropics.

On this episode we examine the state of Portable Games. Brad also brings Dragon's Dogma to the table, and Mike and Chi weigh in on Max Payne 3. This episode also features what is surely the greatest Thumbs up, thumbs down of all time! With Dylan Collins, Chi Kong Lui, Brad "Bromance" Gallaway, Mike Bracken and special guest Michael Cunningham.

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Chimply Mediocre

HIGH Dozens and dozens of levels.

LOW Game pacing controlled by scroll of the screen.

WTF The design of the villain. Seriously.

Finding Shapes in Chaos...

HIGH Fast-paced, yet simple tile-based mechanics.

LOW A lot of the game boils down to waiting for the right piece.

WTF The main character is a strange mix between Harry Potter and The Riddler.

Once again, the guys at Extra Credits go through some games that caught their eye but may have flown under everyone else's radar. Some obvious ones make the list like Dungeon Defenders and Recettear, but they also include some lesser known releases like Dear Esther, The Dark Meadow and Xotic to name a few. Check out the video to see they mentioned one of your under the radar releases.

Straight Outta Innsmouth

HIGH Having an unbelievable streak of luck and finally sealing Cthulhu away.

LOW Needing just one more glyph and repeatedly being denied.

WTF Getting "+3 Doom" four times in a row for a speedy WTF Game Over.

Three Slices Through the Same Exquisite Corpse

HIGH Tense and significant story-based choices.

LOW Not knowing whether I was stuck or just waiting for the plot to progress.

WTF The way to break a window "silently." Also, batteries.

In this episode we feature a full blown discussion of The Walking Dead, Episode 1, and Richard drinks the most Richard-like thing that he could possibly drink. Not enough, you say? We also look at the good, the bad and the ugly of open world games. Stop what you're doing right now...unless it is downloading this PODCAST! With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, Richard "I'm not wasting a bullet" Naik and Dylan Collins.

• The Walking Dead, Toy Soldiers DLC and Escape Goat Shirts!
  
• The Walking Dead: Episode One—A New Day Review

Download: Right click here and select "Save Target As..."
Subscribe: iTunes | Zune | RSS

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.