Lately I've been looking back at some of the memories I have had playing video games. Granted, I'm only fourteen years old so I may have less experience than older gamers. But regardless, there were some games I loved, and the first one that popped into my mind was Psychonauts. I forget exactly how old I was when I played it, but I remember being hyped for the game because of G4TV. (back when G4 was actually a good channel) I bought it as soon as I can, and I remember playing it for hours on end. The fun platforming, the great humor, I loved everything about it. I had a blast, and I'll even go as far as to say that Psychonauts is probably my favorite game of all time. (And if you haven't played it and you like platformers, it's up on Xbox Live Marketplace for $20. Buy it!!)

So it's not surprising that when Double Fine's next game was announced, Brutal Legend, I got super hyped. By that time, I would've loved to play any game with the Double Fine name on it, and the idea of a metal inspired game was genius to me. Rock stars such as Ozzy, Rob Halford, Jack Black doing voices in the game made me even more excited. But then the reviews came out and said that it's not the most perfect game ever. And for that I held off on buying it. I rented it instead. And to my surprise, I was really disappointed with it. They completely hid the fact that it was an RTS from everyone, and at times the RTS gameplay seemed really cheap. The game also dipped into other genres on top of that, making it overwhelming and a bit sloppy. It wasn't terrible, but I was still unhappy that it wasn't as good as Psychonauts. 

Lately it's been announced that Double Fine has been working on downloadable titles, the first one being Costume Quest. This seems to be the right move for the company, since none of their games seem to be selling well retail. The idea of Costume Quest seems interesting, and even though though RPGs aren't really my type of game, I might still try it out for the sake of supporting Double Fine.

Yes, Double Fine has made mistakes in the past, but I do still have tons of hope for them, and I do hope that they can finally make some money with these downloadable titles.

TL;DL version - Yo dawg, Double Fine is awesome.

How many of you are actually reading this? None. Why? Because a majority of the people who follow me only do it for the quest, which annoys the hell out of me. Is anyone else very annoy about this? Also, 
 

I rented Web of Shadows from Blockbuster out of boredom and now I bitterly regret it. While I don't think the game is terrible, it fails to hold my attention. Everything about the game is repetitive, the story progression is the same pattern over and over. Kill however many number of dudes, report back to whoever you're serving, repeat. Even the boss battles are dull and generic, ending with a quick time event at the end of every one of them. It's also very buggy, and crashes regularly. I wonder if they even had people test the game, because it's feels so unpolished and in some cases, broken. For example, one time I hit the wrong button during a QTE and it resulted in the whole game freezing. Nice! 
 
But the worst and most laughable part about the game is the horrible voice acting. Peter Parker sounds as though his balls haven't dropped, making each terribly written line hilarious to hear. It's actually the reason why I kept playing the game for a little bit.      
 
  

It is now July 21 and if you're a big fan of the site then you know the significance of the date. Two years ago, four wonderful journalists, Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis, Vinny Caravella, and Brad Shoemaker launched this amazing site that is known as Giantbomb. I have been here since day one. Sure, I was about 12 at the time and I didn't know what I was doing, but even then I knew enough about the staff that made me want to sign up. I then went to post random shit on the forums (man, I was so fucking dumb!) and enjoy Giantbomb's hilarious videos.  I sat and watched Jeff and Vinny play Persona 4 all the way through, Ryan take his tour through video game movie land, the whole staff witnessing the end of the Matrix Online, and more. I listened in on every Bombcast, getting the scoop on the latest Giantbomb memes and what have you. 
 
Two years later and I think Giantbomb is a strong site as it was two years ago, maybe even stronger. Following the guys have been great, but I'll be missing a great deal if I only just talk about the editorials. When I signed up for Giantbomb, I truly didn't know that I would find something that would keep me coming back day after day: friendship. I became close friends with fellow members, which is weird for a 14 year old kid, but I don't care. I hope you guys know who you are, and I hope you know that you're the reason why I stick around. You guys help me get by and I couldn't imagine not knowing you all. God bless all of you. 
 
So, Giantbomb, it's been a hell of a ride. We all have our share of trolls being idiots and such, but when it comes down to it, Giantbomb is a great site that has some great members. Two years have really done by fast. Cheers to a great year and to many more. 
 

EDITOR'S NOTE - The reason why this episode is titled The Underwater Podcast is because I messed up and forgot to check the bitrate of the recording, which resulted in us sounding like we are underwater. It is listenable to some extent though, so enjoy it!

Find the inner strength to deal with this week's episode, where you'll find Danny rapping aboot Modern Warfare prestiege anticipation and the goodness of Toy Story 3, Ryan talking about his escapades as a Persian soverign-to-be and his failed suicide mission, Nick yelling about his fights in the cold, unforgiving future of 2142 with trusty AaoxHawk by his side, and Ben getting turned on... Naturally, only to promptly receed into disgust and disdain! And you can get all of this AND MORE for four easy payments of 19.99 loonies! British Pounds Sterling and United States Dollars not accepted.

Stream (Right Click To Download)

Outro Music -  Donkey Kong 64 Rap

I just watched the quick look for Kane & Lynch: Dog Days and it got me worried about gamertag names. For those who haven't seen it, Jeff and Brad checked out some of the multiplayer, and all of the players in the match had the most juvenile gamertags ever, such as "Oo SiK WeeD oO" and "Halo Man445." It got me thinking, what if one of these people met someone in real life who is also a gamer, and so they give that person their gamertag. Wouldn't they come off a complete ass?  
 
I mean, most of my friends I know in real life have silly gamertags, but none referencing weed or anything. And personally, I like my gamertags to be simple and easy to explain. My PSN tag is "mgsguy" because I like Metal Gear. My gamertag on Xbox is "adolescentnerd" because that's exactly what I am. I don't want to make my names embarrassing because I have a thought in the back of my mind that I'll met someone who plays games in real life, and if I gave them a stupid name like "Oo SiK WeeD oO" then this new friend would probably never talk to me again. 
 
And on the topic of gamertags, Time Muffin is such an amazing name. 

I finished Mass Effect 2 a little bit ago, and I thought I'd like to share with you what happened in my suicide mission run. I'll start by saying that I failed to upgrade certain parts of the ship, so some characters died before we even landed. Yeah, I suck. 

•  Tali got blown to fuck in the core room. Whoops.
• Thane got stabbed in the stomach by a spare piece of wall or something. How'd that happen?
• After that cutscene, I sent Mordin threw the vents and Miranda as the leader of the second group. While closing the door, Mordin got hit in the face and died.
• Left Dr. Chakwas and the others to pretty much die. Didn't take anyone to protect them. Dumb move on my part. Also, Kelly died, I guess I took too long doing Tali's side mission to rescue her.
• Used Samara for the biotic powers in the next stage. Took Grunt and Jacob for my squad.
• For the boss battle, I took Garrus and Jacob with me, everyone else stayed back. Everyone survived that part.

Welp, it's summer, and that can only mean one thing. Free time! I'm free to play games and use the computer for most of my summer. This means that I will start doing my weekly blog on Giantbomb again. Over the summer, I plan to have played a varied amount of games, and that means, hopefully, more interesting writings.  
 

I just played a tiny bit of Saints Row 2. I played it for about thirty minutes and turned it off. I really felt depressed, as if something in my mind went "I shouldn't be playing this. I'm better than this." But then somewhere else in my mind went "Dude, it's just a game." All and all, I wasn't having any fun, and to be honest the story is really stupid to me and I think the gameplay got old fast. I don't know if that opinion was influenced by my conscience but I just wasn't having any fun. Has anyone else had this feeling about a game? I want to like Saints Row 2 but I'm just not enjoying it. The game works...everything about it is fine.