Reports

Day Two was pretty heavy on appointments. I had a ton of scheduled meetings (i.e., I followed Brad around a lot) and saw some cool stuff, and some stuff I thought wasn't as cool.

The GameCritics crew were all big fans of the original Monday Night Combat on XBLA, and this sequel only looks better. The graphics have been tweaked, the gameplay has been tweaked, there are three brand-new classes (Gunslinger, Veteran, and Combat Girl, pictured above) and it's now following a more iterative lifecycle. For the initial PC release (XBLA to follow later) the game will be free-to-play and feature microtransactions for those who choose to partake.

It's been a long day and tomorrow is going to be even longer, so I'm going to cut right to the chase here. No fancy opening, I'm just getting to it.

Today was my first real gaming convention. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little overwhelming at first, but after a while I got used to the big crowds and managed to take in some of the sights and sounds. Obviously I didn't get to see everything I wanted, but I did get to spend quite a bit of time with some of my most anticipated games, and even discovered some gems that I hadn't heard of.

Gamer moms and gamer dads, assemble! The mighty Aaron of the GameEnthus Podcast joins us for a lengthy conversation about the joys and challenges of integrating our parenting and gaming lives. How did we introduce games to our kids? How do we deal with M-rated content? How do we decide when to take the controller away? We also offer some unique kid's game recommendations you won't find anywhere else. Plus: Our take on a game your kids should definitely NOT play: Catherine. With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, Richard Naik, and Tim "The Master Thespian" Spaeth.

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

The crew reunites and wastes no time getting back to doing what they do best: angering the Internet with a brutal dismantling of Bastion. Plus: Sexism in Ms. 'Splosion Man, the failures of L.A. Noire, the joys of Ghost Recon 3DS, and the magnificence of Lost Odyssey. We also debut our new movie segment, and if you like surprises, well, hold onto your wigs and keys, folks. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim "Fresh Beatz" Spaeth.

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Links:

• Ms. 'Splosion Man Review
• L.A. Noire Review
• Bastion Review

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

If there was ever any doubt (and really, there wasn't) then Seattle Indie Expo has settled the matter for good—the Pacific Northwest has got a serious surplus of top-notch development talent.

GameCritics' own Trent Fingland regales us with war stories from the E3 front. Along the way we reconcile our E3 predictions, debate the future of Japanese gaming, have a serious talk about religion, and get uncomfortably inquisitive about the whereabouts of Ken Levine. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, Richard Naik, and Tim "Death to Handhelds" Spaeth.

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Links:

• Trent Fingland's E3 Coverage
• Brandon Bales' E3 Coverage
• Peter Skerritt's E3 Coverage

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

For the final leg of my E3 adventures, I made my way back to the Square-Enix booth to watch a guided demo of the new Tomb Raider. Some have brought up issues with this new presentation of Lara Croft, where she is shown as vulnerable and inexperienced, but I think this is quite a different thing than games like Metroid: Other M and The Third Birthday.

After three consecutive nights with three hours of sleep apiece, walking into a closed meeting room at 10am and seeing Star Wars Kinect didn't seem to show much promise. After all, other sites had been less than kind to the game and the reaction during Microsoft's press conference wasn't exactly warm. When I volunteered to test the game for a group of my peers and the other members of the KmartGamer team, I didn't have high expectations… but when the demo was over and my pulse was racing, I wanted more.