Wii

Quantitatively speaking, I prefer Plants vs. Zombies to every game, ever. Plants vs. Zombies is not my favorite game. I'd say it's not even in the top 20. That honor belongs ICO, a game that typically lasts less than six hours and that I have played exactly four times, to net less than a fifth of the hours I have spent playing Plants vs. Zombies. ICO is my favorite game because of how it makes me feel.

Go Vacation

HIGH Playing the quick draw mini-game reawakened my love for another Namco arcade title, Quick N Crash.

LOW The balance board makes games harder to control without making them more fun.

WTF Why can't I swordfight without Motion Plus?

It was either slow in the gaming news department the last couple of days or everyone really was blown away by the new Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword videos making the rounds. This coincides with recent first-hand impressions Nintendo afforded Western journalists that were kept out of Nintendo's September 13th press conference. And it seemed to have changed Skyward Sword's fortunes.

Microsoft should be pleased with moving another 308,000 Xbox 360 units, especially during a pretty dry month for new game releases. As I mention in the analysis piece, Microsoft will likely interpret this as a signal that a price drop isn't needed for at least the rest of 2011. That doesn't mean that the company won't be offering some interesting deals.

There have been a lot of advancements and positives for console gaming over the course of this console generation. Many games sport high-definition graphics and top-notch sound. Online play gives players the option to be social with friends all over the globe, if they so choose. The rapid rise of social media has put the industry and its fans closer together than ever before. Gradually, though, this generation's negatives and general anti-consumer trends have wiped out a lot of of those positives for me.

This explains where Mario got the super human strength that he has possessed since Super Mario 64. We all thought it odd that Mario could all of a sudden pick up a giant monster like King Bowser and toss him around like a sack of mushrooms. That could only result from hours spent in the gyms building his lats and such dedication would only stem from a humiliation like this one.

Really, who didn't see this coming? Ubisoft has a richly-deserved reputation for hating on the PC, and From Dust's DRM and terrible port can hardly be a surprise in light of the company's past actions. Ubisoft's upcoming Driver: San Francisco will probably also have this asinine DRM—Ubisoft claims it will not, but a similar claim was made for From Dust.

Sensationalist headlines could have casual observers running for hills when it comes to how this year's sales numbers compare with last year. Don't fall for this. Let's keep in mind that the newer Xbox 360 models—the Xbox 360 Slim—really flew off of store shelves last July. We're now a year removed from that and now YOY numbers will bump into that success.

Apparently everything is better with a Portal Gun.

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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