I tried to watch Game of Thrones and this is what happened – The Oatmeal.

The only two things I could think of when watching this trailer were “Holy shit, game CGI graphics have come a long way!” and “Wubwubwubwub yeahhhhh drop that bass.”

(For the record, I enjoyed Far Cry 2. It doesn’t look like this sequel has anything to do with the previous games, though. Then again, you can’t really divine much from this movie trailer, anyway, as there’s no gameplay shown in it.)

Rob Bricken for Topless Robot:

The finest dystopian Dance Dance Revolution-themed gang war movie ever made.

via Topless Robot.

Bourdain’s slightly more rascally approach? Invoke “nerd fury.” Hit up any message board with an active international or travel community, and rather than simply asking them for advice, outright lie to them.

Get online and write something along the lines of, “hey guys, I just had the absolute best chicken rice at [restaurant x] in Singapore, no questions asked, hands down, everything else pales in comparison,” then sit back and enjoy the show as the internet foodie elite each jump into the fray to defend their own picks to the death. You’ll get a much bigger response, more passionate praise, and it’ll probably end up being a little fun to boot.

Love it. Who knew that “troll-sourcing” would be ever be a solution for anything in life? God bless the internet.

via Serious Eats

The whole story just feels to me like a shameless pandering project set to capitalize on the upcoming release of The Avengers movie in May. Reading the first seven pages of the first issue didn’t change that viewpoint.

Read the preview of ‘Avengers Vs. X-Men on Comics Alliance

This interview is very long, but once you start listening to it, you won’t even notice the time going by. Plus, it’s the weekend, so you’ve got the time.

You’ll be absolutely enthralled by David Choe because he’s the honey badger of artists. He doesn’t give a shit about “normal” conventions or the decisions that normal people would make. He plays by his own rules and is completely candid with Howard. He tells stories about his time incarcerated in a Japanese prison where he had to bash his head in to cause a visible injury so the warden would take him to a hospital for internal bleeding treatment. He’ll tell you how he came to paint the walls of the original Facebook offices and how he came to the decision to choose shares in the company as payment rather than hard cash. There are some vulgar moments where he talks about sex and masturbation, but it’s all part of his profile.

It’s the most fascinating interview I’ve heard or read in a very long time.

There’s a couple of other differences that I noticed right off the bat. The first is the addition of many (I’m talking 100+) microtransaction pieces. They’re all vanity-related and don’t affect gameplay, but there’s a few pieces of flair that are only obtainable via extra purchases. This may or may not annoy you, but I personally don’t mind.

The other big difference is the addition of a single player challenge mode, which tasks players with moving around each of the 5 levels using the glider, grapple, and skates. You can earn up to three different medals on three tiers of challenges which also award you XP. It’s an elegant way of incorporating a “training” mode where players can learn how to maneuver around using the gadgets while also giving an incentive to spend time there rather than learning on the fly. I dig it.

At $15, I still think the game deserves a good, long look if you’re into team-based shooters with oodles of unlockables. It’s almost as robust as the multiplayer components for full retail games, but at a fraction of the cost.

Gotham City Impostors Beta Impressions on ComicsAlliance

Download Gotham City Imposters on Xbox Live (It’s also available on the Playstation Network for PS3 and Steam if you own a PC)

Great six-piece Icelandic folk band that I’ve been listening to a lot recently. Love the video’s Monty Python-esque animation style.

Keeping the scale of the project this small accomplishes two things. First and foremost, Double Fine gets to make the game they want to make, promote it in whatever manner they deem appropriate, and release the finished product on their own terms. Secondly, since they’re only accountable to themselves, there’s an unprecedented opportunity to show the public what game development of this caliber looks like from the inside. Not the sanitized commercials-posing-as-interviews that marketing teams only value for their ability to boost sales, but an honest, in-depth insight into a modern art form that will both entertain and educate gamers and non-gamers alike.

I’m surprised it’s taken this long for a major game developer to crowdsource funding for new projects (niche musicians have used it in years past to fund new albums), but who better to capitalize on both nostalgia and goodwill than Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions. The man has made some of the most cherished games of my childhood (Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango) and I’m sure as hell excited to back a project that will attempt to revitalize the dying genre.

In just a few hours after posting the Kickstarter page, Double Fine has already got half of its $400,000 funding goal (the original deadline was over a month!) for a genre that is supposedly incapable of selling in this day and age. Hopefully, this will serve as proof to the industry that games don’t have to head down the same path as Hollywood movies are in milking tired franchises year in and year out.

At this point it’s really only a matter of time before we see a Kickstarter for Psychonauts 2…

(Don’t forget to watch the video on the top of the Kickstarter page. It’s very entertaining.)

Update (2/9):

We did it! 100% funded in just over eight hours. You people are amazing! But it’s not over yet. The number keeps going up and now the question is just how much news do we want to make with this? We’re getting a lot of attention already and it seems like this little project could have an impact beyond itself.

All money raised will go to make the game and documentary better. Additional money means it can appear on more platforms, be translated into more languages, have more music and voice, and an original soundtrack for the documentary, and more!

Your backing and comments have been truly inspiring to me and the team, so on behalf of Double Fine and 2 Player Productions I want to say THANK YOU!!!

Amazing.

Double Fine Adventure by Double Fine and 2 Player Productions — Kickstarter.

Sony has told Kotaku that there will not be a North American version of the UMD Passport program, which would allow PlayStation Vita users to transfer their PSP discs to the upcoming handheld.

Disappointing, but predictable. I imagine the infrastructure it would take to implement this sort of program is just not worth the niche, one-time market that it would serve.

Frankly, you’re better off just playing the games on your old PSPs. I mean, would you really want to pay an additional $6-$15 per title to transfer games you already own to a new system?

via Kotaku.