Man, remember back in the day when Ron Gilbert and Hothead Games released that game DeathSpank? If my foggy memory of those long-long-ago times serves me right, we here at Gamer Limit even reviewed the game. Boy, those sure were the days, but they’re long forgotten now. The world has moved on in the, you know, month since all that happened.

But do not despair! Hothead Games is bringing it all back! DeathSpank, the long-forgotten hero, is making a triumphant return just when we all had forgotten completely about him!

All right, now that the “boy this sure is happening soon” joke has been beat like a dead unicorn, we can focus on the goods: a DeathSpank sequel, entitled DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, is coming on September 21st for PSN and September 22nd for XBLA. Did I mention how ridiculously soon this is happening?

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This week, long awaited platformer And Yet It Moves (1000 Wii Points) has finally made its way to Wii-Ware.  Turn the game’s beautiful paper-craft inspired world on its head by using the Wii remote to complete mind-bending puzzles by changing the world around you.

Hit the jump for the rest of this week’s Nintendo Download Update.

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Unfortunately, our good buddy Kevin is out of town this weekend, meaning he is unable to write this week’s What are YOU playing? Rather than skip a week, Kevin was good enough to hand the reigns over to me, so I’ll be your humble host for this week’s edition. Think of me as the substitute, only I’m (slightly) less badass than Tom Berenger.

Now that that’s out of the way, lets jump into the meat of this article. What are you guys playing this weekend? Read more… »

Ever wonder what would happen if Katamari Damacy and Pikmin got together and created an unholy love child? If the answer is yes, you might be interested in the recent Wii-Ware release A Monsteca Corral: Monsters vs. Robots.

Monsters vs. Robots is the kind of game that leave players wondering what kind of psychoactive hallucinogen inspired developer Onteca to create this title. After an army of robots invades a planet inhabited by creatures called Stompies, it is up to you to gather the herd, fend off the robots, and gather natural gas. Gas bubbles are fed to an enormous Astromaggot so that its body will dramatically increase in size and float away releasing strands of silk carrying the monsters to safety.

It sounds a lot like something from an acid trip. But is this bizarre RTS any good? Find out after the jump.

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Gamer Limit Game Night is quickly approaching so be sure you’re ready! This week we will be playing Monday Night Combat for the Xbox 360. So be sure you are ready and online at 9PM EST.

If you are interested please send a friend request to Jorrel56 with GLGN in the text field. If you aren’t able to join us in-game tonight, be sure to watch the stream above and hit the the jump for the chat. Alternatively, you can watch the live stream here. Enjoy!

Update: Gamer Limit Game Night went well. I have come to learn Monday Night Combat isn’t for me but it is definitely a game that works well for a game night. Enjoy part one of the recorded live stream above and hit the jump if you want to watch part two. Until next week!

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One of the biggest complaints from Madden fans since the game was released is the poor implementation of preventing quitting. In years prior players who quit received a loss and players who were quit on could either count the game or continue versus the CPU. However, EA’s online architecture was revamped to a one-to-one connection between players. While this offloaded bandwidth on EA servers, it caused a huge problem for the Madden online community: quitting with no repercussions.

However, EA has listened to the community and implemented a fix. Whether or not it meets your expectations though is questionable. Hit the break for a full breakdown of the fix. Read more… »

[We Need to Talk is a weekly feature that puts you in the driver's seat of the discussion. Got something to say? Hit up the comments and keep the discussion alive. Got a lot to say? Register for a Gamer Limit blog and write a response.]

Adventure, as a genre, doesn’t really exist anymore. We have some studios like Telltale who make nice, traditional adventure games that not many people play. Aside from that, you could ask a random gamer what the last adventure game he played was, and he’d probably look at you weird and ask, “You mean like God of War?”

Honestly, I’m not in any rush to see “adventure games” make some sudden, miraculous resurgence. Instead, I’m much more interested in those games from other genres that still feel like grand adventures. You know – setting out to explore a huge land, meeting eccentric inhabitants, and generally feeling that sense of adventure that never fails to excite.

But even the sense of adventure seems to be disappearing, and it’s quite troubling.

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Kane and Lynch: Dead Men was a mediocre slice of grindhouse cheese with you and your AI or human partner on the giving end of guns and a billion thugs on the receiving end.  Despite a lot of design flaws it passed the time well enough.  As with any video game sequel, Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days has the chance to improve upon the formula.

Not only does it fail to do so, but the formula reverses and devolves into a spectacular mess. Read more… »

[Warning: there are links to some potentially disturbing material, and distressing images, within this piece.]

I’ve been writing quite a bit lately about my distaste for calls for “realism” in military first person shooter titles, both in comment threads and in my own, original work. What’s somewhat disheartening is that the conversation usually comes down to arguments like “Do you know what getting hit with a Squad Automatic Weapon would actually be like?” or “You understand that modern infantry tactics bear absolutely no resemblance to Modern Warfare 2, right?” or “Even mil-sims like Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising have medics that can heal missing limbs with their magic syringe.” It’s all a very clinical conversation.

EA premiered at GamesCom a video of a new Apache helicopter gunship level from the upcoming Medal of Honor, and in doing so have given me a golden opportunity to make my point in a more direct, human, and hopefully poignant fashion.
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["Stop It" is a weekly feature which serves as a forum for me to express my opinions on things in the video game industry or community that need to stop. Despite the fact these things may never stop, this will, at the least, fuel discussion. Got something to say? Hit up the comments and keep the discussion alive. Got a lot to say? Register for a Gamer Limit blog and write a response.]

The video game community is full of a bunch of whining babies. I am one at times, I will absolutely admit that. After all, isn’t this feature just me whining like a baby? Oh no, what will you have to comment about now that I already beat you to the punch? Something constructive maybe? Probably asking too much, nevermind.

Anyhow, while these members of the community are full of a number of annoying idiosyncrasies, the one that I wish to discuss this week is purchasing a game without enough knowledge of what it will provide and then bitching about said game. You’re being stupid. Stop it!

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NamcoBandai has just released the latest trailer for their upcoming hack and slash title Knights Contract. Expect lots of man on wolfman violence to ensue, with the ocassional magical incantation or two. Overall, the motion capture work is incredible, and I’m really interested to see some gameplay, given how much effort they put into the above video.

The visceral medieval feel of the game actually reminds me more of Berserk than Dragon Age, but this is a video game website after all, so don’t expect a huge rant!

The purpose of a review is to evaluate a game by providing a critical statement that is indicative of the title’s merit or lack thereof. As much as some may try to provide an objective opinion, leaving personal feelings, interpretations and prejudices at the door, providing an unbiased opinion based merely on facts is nearly impossible. Even if it were done, it sure as hell would not be very interesting.

The preconceived opinions, attitudes or feelings that make up our prejudices influence how we think about what we perceive. It is because of this that two individuals can come to entirely different conclusions about the exact same experience. One person’s terrorist is another’s vision of a freedom fighter. Similarly, one person’s idea of a perfect game could leave another wanting.

Reviews not only contain bias in order to formulate a subjective opinion on a product, but also within the structure of a review itself. The majority of videogame reviews are rated on a scale of zero to ten. However, it seems the prejudices formulated by the academic background of reviewers and readers have influenced both the use and reception of this scale, giving rise to complications and creating grave inconsistencies in the process.

Our personal biases and life experiences certainly affect who we are and are a crucial part of formulating our opinions. The blending of the academic and critical mindset in ten point reviews does not make a lot of sense and is something that needs to change.

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