Mento

The Internal Affairs podcast was a lot of fun, but it's a pity it ended so soon. I hope it comes back in the Summer of 2012 (along with the interns behind it.)

ToEE.

This is seriously too much fun. If nothing else, Dave has the baddest series of Christmas cards to send people this year.

Does the DiRT 3 Vinny Spin count? What about when he tries to teach Vinny how to fly a plane? Am I just picking things with a Vinny bias? Whatever, those two work well together, on camera or behind it.

ToEE as always. Also, this is a crazy thing you're doing man. I figured you were holding back the big guns for the Big Live Live Show, but then I seem to recall it starts when this giveaway extravaganza ends (9th), so... well-timed. On a mostly unrelated note, the new season of QI starts on the 9th too. It's going to be a pretty special day I think.

Rest of thread is for people abusing this wonderful artwork. I feel like I'm spraypainting over the Mona Lisa.

@keris: ZombiePie's been switching VGK's profile link with wiki links to history's worst tyrants for a while now. I almost missed the subtle one this week, so thanks for that.

Why isn't this called Cloudy With A Chance of Cartoons?

If you're doing any more animated superheroes, you should probably cover Bananaman. Skip to 1:30 if you need an explanation why.

Great spotlight as always. I think we need to hold a competition - or something like a competition where you don't win anything - to get people to make more lists, because it seems like it's always something you struggle to find enough of each week. It'd be nice if new lists from your followed people appeared in the sidebar like new blogs do. Or, hell, just being able to search for them (though I realize that there would be a huge number of "games owned", "GOTY" and "E3 stuff I want" to sift through.)

Ethan is requesting that people email links to their awesome community stuff to the interns because they're busy having chats to man and games to be frightened by, but couldn't they just visit this thread and pick out the best ones? I mean, you've pretty much done most of the work for them.

You were probably better off playing the Anniversary edition of Tomb Raider - less historical value, more enjoyment value. Then again, it doesn't undo the issue of obtuse puzzles and wandering around hoping to bump into the next mission-critical path conical-boobs-first. I dunno, though - there's people who might appreciate the mystery. Especially with games in a place now where there's often a dedicated button on the controller for explicitly telling you where to go next.

Forgotten Sands is an odd beast. It felt like Sands of Time with less personality, either because the formula had been so diluted after half a dozen games or they believed they'd overdone the precious "hero and heroine actually like each other but quip like they're the Lockhorns" aspect by the 2008 Prince of Persia reboot and just had him go mostly solo. I mean, there was that water genie, but she was far from a love interest role and more a Princess Peach "you'll rescue me just because" role. Otherwise it was probably the most competent of all the PoP games gameplay-wise.

I dunno if any one moment sticks out. So I'm going with the lengthy period he spent entertaining call-in people when the site was down during Whiskeypocalypse. I also appreciate his tireless campaign to promote random PC RPGs from around the world.

Talking of obscure RPGs, I'll go for ToEE again. I can't imagine it'll be available for long.

@buzz_clik: I actually found the music in Equinox quite intimidating as a youngster, especially the boss music. It has a weirdly intense and atmospheric (but great!) soundtrack for such a brightly-colored, cartoony game. Plok is a similar case.

EDIT: Turns out Plok is Tim (and Geoff) Follin's work too. Figures.