9. Deeznuts as a screen name? Not funny.It always amazes me how creative online gamers can be in the world. There was a fellow online the other day that assigned himself a name that could only be found in porn (can’t name the fellow because I would probably get sued).  Here are suggestions that sound a lot cooler than the name you chose… shaftstroker? T*ttickler? Better yet, why n...[Read More]

Super Meat Boy was voted our collective 2010 game of the year on Episode 16 of our podcast, Flap Jaw Space. One would think beating out Mass Effect 2 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 would merit additional coverage somewhere at Digital Chumps, but, outside of a small feature I wrote and some E3 coverage I can’t find, Super Meat Boy has been absent from the pages of Digital Chumps. After a month of blood, ...[Read More]

Ah, Las Vegas.  Not just the setting of every year’s (magnificent) CES Expo, but also the basis of annual fabrications to my wife about having to go there to “work”.  Hah.   But that doesn’t mean it’s without its unique breed of stressors.  We’ve experienced our day’s worth, including:   • One lost press badge (first time this...[Read More]

Previous Top Tens: 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009   After a reasonable amount of thought I whipped up a list of my favorite ten games of 2010. Obviously I didn’t get to play everything so I couldn’t included what  I didn’t completely experience, but I still got a good number of titles under my belt.  So, in no order…    Nier Nier doesn’t have the ...[Read More]

For Flap Jaw Space’s (the Digital Chumps Podcast) poorly named “We All Play A Game” segment this week, we’re all playing Enslaved. I took some extra time and wrote a bunch of my thoughts for a slight preview. The ending is discussed, but in a vague-ish non-spoilery way). Namco apparently wanted to position Enslaved: Odyssey to the West as an analog to Naughty Dog’s Un...[Read More]

Hello and welcome to part two of a poorly written feature covering my time with Fallout: New Vegas. Rather than post extensive impression like I did for Fallout 3, I have decided to write from the perspective of my player character, DariusRucker. It’s 90% “his” point of view concerning intended plot elements, tomfoolery, horrible glitches, and random observations associated with ...[Read More]

Hello and welcome to part one of a poorly written feature covering my time with Fallout: New Vegas. Rather than post extensive impression like I did for Fallout 3, I have decided to write from the perspective of my player character, DariusRucker. It’s 90% “his” point of view concerning intended plot elements, tomfoolery, horrible glitches, and random observations associated with ...[Read More]

Going on vacation a few weeks ago resulted in a few unexpected consequences. Failure to properly operate sunscreen led to the bulk of my problems, but another was the byproduct of being a thousand miles away from my 360; I couldn’t review Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, Capcom’s incredibly priced downloadable prequel to Dead Rising 2 (Greg did an excellent job of that). Thankfully $5 wasn...[Read More]

Warning:  Fourth paragraph contains heavy spoilers for Red Dead Redemption.   Red Dead Redemption, a game I was ready to embrace an evolution of Rockstar’s aging open world design, wound up letting me down. I give credit to the rich atmosphere that perfectly captured the last gasp of the Wild West, but I can’t forgive marginally interactive design wrought with repetition. Red...[Read More]

In-game databases are a love/hate feature in the current console generation. On one hand, one shouldn’t complain about the developers attempt to flesh out their world with every detail imaginable. On the other, some players don’t like having to interrupt their experience to check a reference for something that, in all likelihood, usually wasn’t that important anyway. Not unlike F...[Read More]

Warning: Spoils both Alan Wake and downloadable episode “The Signal.”   I was worried about “The Signal,” Alan Wake’s first chunk of downloadable content. Alan Wake was oddly episodic; six chapters (complete with individual credits) spread out over eight or so hours sounded perfect for an experience like Siren or Sam and Max, but the thing came out on a disc anyw...[Read More]

For the first couple hours, I was convinced I was playing a reskinned Grand Theft Auto IV. My mini-map looked the same, missions were being distributed evenly, narrative and character exposition was being delivered in a similar manner, and for some reason I had GPS. A change in setting was obviously apparent and a few engine tweaks were noticeable, but Red Dead Redemption was giving me weird paral...[Read More]