Come See ME at SGC2013!

ScrewAttack.com's gaming con, SGC, is returning June 21 - 23 of this year and I'll be a guest: Doing some panels, hanging out and I'm hoping to have a supply of books to sell and/or signby then as well.

Registration is still open, and if you do it through THIS LINK you'll be directly supporting me and The Game OverThinker series. So... think about doing that, please :)

Got This Covered (UPDATED!)

As you might have read previously, I wrote a book and it's coming out soon through the fine folks at Fangamer.net. I still unfortunately don't have a set date date of publication to announce, but I can now officially reveal that we'll be publishing it under the title "SUPER MARIO BROS. 3: BRICK-BY-BRICK", and here on your right you can see the cover-art that the fine folks at Fangamer put together for it.

The basic premise is a "novelized let's-play." I've re-played SMB3 (my favorite game and my unscientifically-chosen candidate Greatest Game Ever Made) and chronicled not only every step of the journey (along with corresponding noteworthy events of my real life during the months-long experience) but analyzed each and every graphical, sound and narrative element encountered along the journey for their aesthetic, historical and cultural details. Also included: A history of the "Super Mario Bros." franchise and a separate account of my own personal history as a fan, student and critic of this series in particular and video games as a whole.

More details to follow - YES, we're planning an E-Book. Stay tuned.

EARTHBOUND Finally Returns

Today's Nintendo Direct announced a lot, including a new 3DS Zelda that's a direct sequel to "Link to The Past," but The Internet has spoken and the big news is that SNES cult-classic "Earthbound" is finally getting a release to the WiiU Virtual Console:

By the way, have you seen our new episode yet?

We Are Alright

For those of you who don't know, this whole operation is based out of Boston. So I just wanted to give a quick head's-up that yes, it's true that two (so far) explosions - apparently now confirmed to be bombs of some type - have exploded at the Boston Marathon. I was nowhere near the incident today, and thus far none of my family/friends are confirmed to have been in the area and are not among the injured.

Those looking to help the victims of this senseless tragedy are asked to make donations to the Red Cross and/or to give blood.

Everything About This Is Awesome

People thought "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" was an April Fools joke, but it turned out to be a real thing - an "expansion" (though it'll be sold as a standalone item - $14.99US for about an 8 hour campaign - that does not require a copy of FC3 to play) that takes the puuuuuurty game engine that FC3 used to render hyper-realistic jungle environments to instead render a neon-infused scifi/action game with an aesthetic somewhere between mid-80s B-movie and NES-era action game (think Power Blade, Strider, etc) blown up into a 3D FPS.

EPISODE 83: "The Next Crash"

UPDATE: Re-posted because of an Intense Debate error in the previous posting caused comment threads to disappear. With apologies for the inconvenience, anyone looking to continue an interupted conversation is welcome to do so here.

Finally, here's the new episode. Ivan takes over the hosting duties for this one, and he's got some thoughts about the likelihood of an impending Second Games Industry Crash.

Canned "Gritty FPS Reboot" of Mega Man SHOCKINGLY Only Looks About 1/3 as Shitty as You'd Expect

Polygon has a great piece up looking at a previously-unknown project - ultimately canceled by Capcom - wherein a bunch of ex-"Metroid Prime" developers (a game series which The Internet has decided, in absence of any factual evidence, that I "hate") attempt to reboot Mega Man (okay, technically "Mega Man X") into a gritty first-person shooter. And yes, there's video...

EPISODE 83: "The Next Crash"

Finally, here's the new episode. Ivan takes over the hosting duties for this one, and he's got some thoughts about the likelihood of an impending Second Games Industry Crash.