The topic of the day (as well as the week and the month and the year) is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Oh boy.

The past three to four years has seen the floodgates open up. What was once the domain of the PC is fast becoming that of the consoles. The first-person shooters have exploded on the charts and I... am not happy about that. Not the most popular opinion around these parts, but in the same way you guys look upon the minigame packs and the Suzie Homemaker portable pap with disdain, I feel uncomfortable by the popularity of the shooter genre.

Am I not trying hard enough? Have I just not played the right games? I don't know, but they all start to blend together for me. I feel no connection whatsoever. How can I? I'm a floating gun barrel. How do I relate to that? It's all so impersonal. That guy over there? Point that circle over him, push a button, and BOOM! He's dead. Like divine judgment. Just look at something at it dies. What a power trip.

So... Modern Warfare 2. Wooo. Here we go. Biggest game of the year. Whoop-de-shit. Hold me, the excitement is too great. Another bombastic Jerry Bruckheimer prouction where the viewer can feed instructions to a disembodied hand which will in turn spark carnage and mayhem for the spectator's wonderment.

You know what? The next time I go to a party and someone wants to bust out some Call of Duty or Halo or whatever, I'm going to offer a better alternative:




*- Cyberxion is feeling down and it's YOU assholes' fault!

*- Niero wants to hear your sexy voice.

*- Exploiting loyal Pikmin for profit, the lowest of lows.


A- The Conduit, more like The "Can't Do Shit"!
S- We should expect better communication from Bugsport.
S- dTunes, JT IceFire Rampage, Day 4: Song mash-ups.
S- Okami gets the Wryview treatment.
M- Being bad in GTA is actually good, in context.
P- GoddessCast VI: We less-than-three anime!





S- Sounds like you've got router problems, buddy.
I- Not techically an introduction post, but welcome Revariance anyway!
I- Bon-jer-no, Ikrik!


N- I ain't afraid of this week's Euro releases.
N- Here come the PS3 Netflix streaming discs!
N- This whole Modern Warfare 2 PC drama is ridiculous.
N- Congratulations, Game Boy! You are a hall of famer!
N- Aussies, want that R18+ rating? Vote for David Doe!
R- Go, go, Forza Motorsport 3!
R- Modern Warfare 2 will rape you in the shower.
P- L4D2 is a lot like Curb Your Enthusiasm.
P- Uh oh! L4D2 is looking a little pale!
T- Modern Warfare 2 has failed to push the envelope.
T- You are soooo wrong about Dragon Age: Origins, Jim!
T- Dragon Age: Origin is slooooooooooooow.
T- Modern Warfare 2 and the gay virus.
T- Political games. I can't wait.
T-TheJesusNinja26 has a perks wishlist for Fallout: New Vegas.
T- I dunno, Droll. Sounds kinda gay.








F- Haters gonna hate.
F- Hi, Liamguy01! Don't do this again.
F- What did I just say?
F- Umm... hi? What the hell am I looking at?


[ m e g a S t r y k e ]

FPoTD

Before we begin, I must mention one small fact.

I HAVE DIBS ON ELLIS

I did stuff this weekend. That's rare in itself, but stuff like chilling with my beloved Dtoid UK bretheren is even rarer. Anyway I was chilling at Eurogamer Expo, playing shit like Assassin's Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Need for Speed Nitro, New Super Mario Bros, Split/Second, Saw and plenty of cool indie games as well. Best of this bunch was undoubtedly Assassin's Creed 2, it manages that same-but-different feel that I think all sequels should aim for. Surprises for me were Saw, which is a lot more cerebral than I was expecting and NFS Nitro, which was just crazy fun. I was disappointed by Split/Second though, for a game coming from the same devs as the gleefully insane Pure it's incredibly safe. Their mention of dumbed down tracks for online racing didn't exactly make me confident either. The demo I played was still a lot of fun, but I just expected a bit more lunacy rather than pure cliche spectacle.

As for games, I've been playing the living fuck out of Tekken 6/Streets of Rage 4. That thing is an insane amount of fun though I do have one request, fix the fucking online kkthxbai. I did get the special edition version as well, a very good special edition too. The art book covers all the characters, their stories and inspiration behind the designs as well as showing how they've evolved from game to game. Some damn beautiful artwork in there. Then there's the hoodie, it's warm and snug and that's really all I can ask.

I want to take this opportunity to take issue with something I've seen return to prevalance on Dtoid, that annoying 'Only for US residents' line at the end of contest posts. The last 7-8 contests have all had that little line which locks out the Canadians and all us Europeans as well and that's really annoying when it looked like more and more contests were going to be open worldwide. Still, that line isn't as annoying as taking part in a Twitter Party for an hour before being told it's US only. I'm fairly sure I'm not the only one who feels a little irritated by this.



* - I vote we all chip in and see if this actually gets made
* - 5 things Dexter's been taught he can do by videogames
* - Topsaucing this because I'm getting one of these in the mail this week hopefully
* - The dude who made this can have my babies
* - Chewie has dibs on Uncle Phil



A - Why bad endings matter, with spoilers
A - MMO design needs to move on
A - WHAAAHAAAPCGAMINGWHAAAAAAAAMODERNWARFARE2WHAAAAAPIRACYWHAAAAA (sorry)
M - Doing what we have to
S - Day 3 of JT Icefire's dTunes stint and he's finally worked out the rules
S - WryGuy's love letters move on to KoF 1996
S - What do you get when you rip off Zelda (3D Dot Heroes LAWL)? Alundra, this week's off-brand game
S - Aniwednesday is changing!
S - We should expect better game design
S - We should expect better of music and sports games
P - Refused Classification has reached 16, LEGAL IN EUROPE!



Nope, nothing.



C - Central Florida, where are you?
I - So this dude's back I guess
S - Surprise surprise, an online game is full of dicks
S - SilverDragon gave Borderlands a bad review, which naturally makes him a bad person
S - Daxelman's not here, leave a message



N - So yeah, the car bonus stage is back for SSF4
N - Someone tried a XBL style code giveaway and got loads of people locked out of PSN
N - ATLUS will replace your worn Demon's Souls guide, in other news, ATLUS are awesome
T - 5 things InsaneEnigma learned from Borderlands
T - Uhh, Machinarium wasn't short of hype, still Marktime thinks it deserved more
R - DJ Hero, a game that really does deserve more. That high price really stung Activision this time I think
D - Robotbebop needs artists for his XNA game, which I'll no doubt rip to shreds



C - Worst movie poster ever
S - I love stuff like this, especially when I'm trying to get back into model building myself



C - Cool story bro, but did you have to blog it?
C - Decent info, but there are better ways to get money in Tekken 6
? - I don't quite know how to categorise mods in here



F - No.
F - Responding to a call to go to the forums with 'I don't use the forums' loses points
F - Oh HELL no
F - See above

>NJ

FPotD

Hey kids. I've got a bit of a question for you guys. I'm working on a project to make 3D game characters into 2D perler bead sprites. At the moment, I was thinking about making the characters from Space Channel 5, made to look like a FF party, in the middle of a battle. Would anyone be interested in something like that? If not, got any better ideas for 3D characters you'd like to see in Perler beads?

With that business out of the way, on to the recaps! Tonight, we've got some insanely good Topsauce, L4D2 demo talk, and the greatest review I've ever seen. Maybe.

Cblog Recaps: The Opposite of Cancer TM



*-IRC = LURV

*-With another great blog, kauza talks about how the excellence of Uncharted 2 is also it's downfall.

*-A great look at the music, sound effects, and general ambiance of the Oddworld games.

*-The Destructoid comunity discusses digital distribution.

*-Awesome piece about the current state of writing in games. The discussion in the comments is fantastic, too!

*-Wow, Vice comes out of nowhere with some gorgeous art, of which Momohime is my fav.

*-Whether you love or hate sports games, check out this piece about gaming's relationship with sports.



A-Tanukitsune talks about some recent games he's played, and has a problem with the ending of Brutal Legend.

A-Mr. Burch talks a bit about his new AMC article and his fantastic entry into Star Wars Uncut.

S-Rather than work, denjunki decided to fix up his Steam account.

S-chuchoyei shows off some pics from Halloween, including his Faust costume.

M-Do The Wrong Thing: Something aboutthat guy from "Thriller".

P-FAILCAST...something about horseriding...whatever.



E-List your Top 5 favorite PS2 games for a change to win Armored Core 3 for PSP!
 


S-The poor, poor Borderlands training area is this week's Dumbass Design of The Week.

S-GamingGoddess goes over Day Five of Parasite Eve. If you haven't gotten into the series, do so.

S-The begining of an interesting series of blogs about being a gamer in Germany.

I-Everyone, welcome armless phelan and his great taste in games to Destructoid!



N-Hey...got the L4D2 PC demo? Wanna do some cool shit with it? Check this out.

R-The best review I've ever read. I think.

T-CptnMayhem talks about how the aesthetics of Fallout 3 have shaken him to his very core, making him unable to continue.

T-The RPGist is still gonna pass on L4D2, unless someone's sweet mouth convinces him otherwise.

T-The DRMaster is making the jump into JRPGs with Persona Portable.

D-sheppy gives us an update on the card game he's been working on, including notes from a recent playtest.



L-Ok great good but no ok good great just ok good great good. Get.



F-I wonder if anyone is as dissapointed as I am in this blog.

F-Umm...k?

F-Dumbass.

(Pendelton21)

FPoTD

Ohhhh snap. Look at that, ladies and gents. Megastryke has been whipping the photoshop gnomes that live under his '73 Vega extra hard this week, and they have produced for him a set of new banners that should line up nicely with the expanded blog formats. Pretty slick, huh?

I missed doing last month's YTMoNDay, so I'll have an extra big batch for you this week. In the interest of setting the recaps live before Midnight however, they will be added in as an edit.

Edit: All done! Please to enjoy.



Admit it, dads. You've done this.
Don't screw with Kaepora Gaebora.
Fresh Prince of the Mushroom Kingdom.
I think this could actually work as an indie game. How about you?
Mario 3: XP edition
Halloween may be over, but the nightmare can last all year long.
THE LAST YTMND IS IN CAPTIVITY. THE GALAXY IS AT PEACE.
A tense scene from the upcoming Harry Potter and the Pyramid Head.
Classicmntd: Stan sells EVERYTHING to Guybrush. (Side note... episode 4 of Tales of M.I. is excellent.)
Sonic and the Knuckles Dramatic reading Part 1...
... and part 2.
Catchy chiptunes and sprite art.
One of the cats escaped.
Poor Kaz. I'd have died of embarrassment by now.
Chad Iverson talks about the PS3.
Squall needs some help with the ladies.
Bowser's homepage.
Bloopers from the original Half-Life.


And it wouldn't be worth doing if I didn't include some Random Man Now, Dogs.

That's no cave!
Yep, that's pretty much a distillation of the internet, all right.
Nothin' gonna break Scotty's stride.
A tribute to the fallen on the day of the dead.
Dirty Harry is having a wonderful time.
Who wants candy?


*-Handy has harnessed the pure power of JOURNALISM. Exposes of this magnitude are few and far between. If you click this link, prepare to have your mind... and indeed, your very soul... blown.
*-Is "Kauza" German for "Quality?" I don't understand German.
*-Sadly, moments after posting this blog, Ashley Davis comically exploded-- taking the lives of herself and the entire Burch family. A muffled "Doooood" could be heard emanating from the charred remnants of the residence. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was asked to comment and did so, but this reporter does not understand Persian, either.


A-Y0j1mb0: Drama, bitches. We have it.
A-Great art evokes emotion, be it calmness or disgust, curiosity or foreboding. Kasey Kagawa asks why games shouldn't strive to elicit the same range of emotion.
A-Part 2 of Stevil's dissertation comparing Eastern and Western horror games. You can find part 1 right here.
S-It's Monday, gentlemen. Time to let NihonTiger90 know What'd You Get?
P-Refused Classification is recording right now.
P-Let's Cybercast episode 2 is available. This one features CTZ's girlfriend.
P-Drunkcast episode 13.5 is now available. Why .5? There'd better either be a little person on this show or someone who has had a tragic farming accident.


C-Infinity's End helps run the Metroid Database, and he'd like you to enter their Make a Metroid contest. Looks like some pretty neat prizes are up for grabs.


E-Want to participate in this year's Destructoid Secret Santa? Of course you do! Cataract is organizing this year's festivities.
E-Everyday Legend lets us know about the B-Kin figting game tournament in Daytona Beach, FL.
D-Dexter345 posted some pictures from DtoidLA's Halloween ARP.
C-TonicBH is having second thoughts about preordering Modern Warfare 2.
I-Greetings to Preacherman89, who signed up to win a soccer ball but liked us enough to stick around. Welcome to Destructoid.
B-Antwhan celebrated what I assume will be his last birthday ever by consuming a bowel-shaking, unholy combination of tater tots, pizza and mint-chip ice cream. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.


N-First I was like, Nawww. And then I was like, Really? And then I checked it out for myself. And it was true!
N-Volomon found a site that broke Modern Warfare 2's NDA to post an early review. I think the videos have been cornholed by now.
N-Further developments on the MW2 front courtesy of Volomon. Looks like people are already figuring out how to cheat.
N-And a third MW2 blog from Volomon, this time detailing the new perks.
N-Double J gives you an inside look at the Xbox Live rewards program.]
P-ThePhil went to Eurogamer, and here shares what he thinks about the upcoming games he got to try.
R-Professor Pew reviewed Dragon Age: Origins. I'm thinking cameltoe in a chainmail bikini would hurt in a way I could never fully comprehend. Especially in Winter.
R-Nogarda reviewed the tGTA 4 expansion, The Ballad of Gay Tony.
T-He then went on to look at this holiday's release schedule...
T-...and pontificate about how online has changed the marketing of games.
T-I didn't finish this one by Beyamor. About 3/4 of the way down I got hungry for pepperoni pizza with rabbit sausage and chocolate coins for dessert.
T-Poverty can be an effective motivator to dip into your backlog. Canti-Sama has been doing so lately, and shares his thoughts on the experience.
T-Lordy there's a lot of people posting about Modern Warfare 2 today. Gatsby shares his opinion.
T-And here's AKK's...
T-And taterchimp's.


M- With Editor's week behind us, dTunes returns to the common man. This week, it's JT Icefire, startin' things off with They Might Be Giants.
M-Pixelpunx has posted another STFUAJPGM. The "M" is for"Music." Have a listen!
F-For Mindf*ck Monday this week, Analoge is showing something I've never heard of: Interstella 5555. Kinda sounds like Interstate '76.


C-This would probably do better as a forum post. Don't let that stop you from posting more artwork, though.
C-I don't agree with what you're saying, but you have the right to say it. Still, you could stand to put a little more effort in.
C-Protip: if your blog is less than a paragraph long, consider visiting the Forums.
?-Genki JAM asked about what he should do with Aniwednesday.


F-(Prolonged sigh) I had such a streak of no-fail Mondays going, too.
F-DUDE SHUT UP DEADLOCKED WAS AWESOME ESPECIALLY THE ANNOUNCERS.
F-You see how there's no comments or faps? That's because this is unquestionably, irredeemably, unequivocally and completely irrelevant.
F-What the hell is wrong with you?

-(Qalamari)

FPoTD

So I'm only 6 days away from my 30th birthday, and I have to tell you all that I honestly can't believe it. I don't feel like I'm almost 30. I feel like I'm 22 still, which I guess is a good thing. Part of me is a little freaked out though, because I had all these things I wanted to do by the time I was 30 and I haven't done any of them. Where did the time go?

So I would write more, but I'm extremely tired right now because I've been playing Borderlands all freaking day. I finally beat it tonight after 22 hours of play time. The game is freaking awesome, but the PC version suffers from a lot of problems. If you are interested, you can find my official review of the game up on Gamer Limit in a couple of days.

For now though I need to head to bed. I've been living in the world of Pandora the entire weekend. Tomorrow it's time to get back to the real world. I hope you all had a good Halloween.

Now onto your regularly scheduled weekend cblog recaps.






*-Yojimbo shares his thoughts on the new "10 minute video preview" phenomenon that sweeping the internet.



A-Behind the Times: Half-Life 2

M-Nothing is Sacred: Conflict

M-Nothing is Sacred: Post ____ Post ___

M-Nothing is Sacred: Game over man, Game Over

M-Nothing is Sacred: Character, XP, Karma

M-Nothing is Sacred: Genres and "RPG"



No contests this week



E-Scooby Movie Month FINALE!

E-Dtoid UK returns from Eurogamer and shares pictures and stories.

S-Mr Gilder decides it's time to move on from the Dtoid cblogs and start his own blog.

S-PixelPunx wishes us all a Happy Halloween

S-BenelliM4's Nintendo DS died this week. :-(

S-Stewie32887 is sad that Halloween has come and gone!



N-It appears that Modern Warfare 2 has leaked.

N-Pirated copies of Dragon Age: Origins have also leaked out.

N-A gore fix for the Australian version of L4D2 is now available.

N-Don Ivan Punchatz, the DOOM box art artist, dies at the age of 73.

T-Solgrim recollects the events from Persona 3 that will stick with him forever.

T-Zoel shares his impressions of Sin and Punishment 2

T-Luigi thinks he has discovered proof that the next GTA title is set in France

T-Sanious rants about Modern Warfare 2

T-Darkknight37 can't believe so many awesome games are coming out all at once. It's just too much for him.



A-Check out Protoknuckles awesome Halloween Costumes.

A-Check out these incredible pumpkin carvings Cdevildevil did

A-Geralog shares some pictures of some awesome Halloween Pumpkin Carvings

A-WankerJist shares pictures of his Halloween costume.

A-Superhobo shares pictures of his awesome Mr. Destructoid Halloween costume

A-MiOdd shares pictures of his awesome Akuma Halloween Costume.

A-Mustbeandrew shares pictures of his kick ass Halloween Costume.

M-Zen Albatross shares the new OverClocked Remix project "Castlevania: Sonata of the Damned"

M-Giant Robot and Attract Mode hosting West Coast Chiptunes Micro Tour.

F-ScanCase lists his top 15 fictional ships



?-It looks like Fetusmilk is going to start sharing cool screenshots from the Uncharted 2 cinema mode



F-It wouldn't be a weekend in the Cblog if there wasn't any FAIL!!!



-(SilverDragon1979)

FPoTD

Hello, and welcome to the Friday recaps.

Firstly, it's official. I am the new regular Friday recapper. It's very great to be on the team and I hope I'll be here for a long time to come.

Secondly, that idiot, Valentin Seleznyov, has finally been banned. He bragged about his money and car to no end, and acted like he was above us. I cannot stand people like him and I am glad he's gone. I will not speak of this again.

Thirdly, I went running today. It was muddy but I enjoyed it. Now that I think about it, it's a bit like writing these recaps. It's hard work, but the end result is well worth it. Speaking of which, here, have this funny photo of me taken a few years ago when I was out running.



Hooray for embarrasment!

Finally, if you've been wondering where my header image saying "Mouseisms" is, fear not. We're in the process of resizing the images to accommodate the changes in the cblog image widths from months ago, so this will be finished soon, hopefully. With all of that out of the way, let's move onto the recaps.


*-I love it when staff make blogs.

*-I read the title of this wrong and thought it said "Gay men and sweaty bits".

*-The wonderful Elsa writes a wonderful blog.

*-A fantastic blog. My pick of the day.



A- SuperShawn revisits Kirby's avalanche.

S- Obscurer tribute #18

M- The ESRB is indeed a stroke of genius.


No contests today...


F- PS3 FNF

S-Good god alive, D Sane has gotten robbed.

I- A solid intro.

I- This is a weird story, but weird stories make for great indroductions.


R-Uncharted 2 review.

T- Eurogamer expo thoughts

$- UK bargains.


A- Halloween wallpaper!

A- Left 4 Dead tribute

A- Great Bayonetta fanart!

M- An open letter to college bands.



V- This won't help the MW2 server issue.

V- Live streaming of Tekken 6.

?- Beh?


S- Week old news in a wrap-up.

F- This blog is sadly lacking in the content department.

F- Lurkers, take note. This is how NOT to do your intro.

Anonymouse

FPoTD