Good morning to you, ladies and gents. First things first: many thanks to Sentry for filling in for me last Monday. I was off on a long-overdue week long vacation, during which I went totally dark as far as the internet was concerned. I still haven't caught up entirely-- particularly here at Destructoid, so my apologies if I'm not quite up on the latest memes and so forth. I DO like the look of the new redesign so far, though as I said I haven't spent a lot of time with it. By the way... who decided to start a Pokemon meme while I was away? That's just mean, guys.

Speaking of Pokemon, the recent release of Heart Gold and Soul Silver is as good an excuse as any to re-offer the special Johto starters I bred for PAX in 2008. If you'd like a set, merely send me a PM or E-mail and they're yours for the asking. I'll be happy to arrange a time to trade with you. Here's what I've created:

Each of the frankencritters I've worked up have two Egg moves they wouldn't normally start with and don't learn on their own.


Chikorita starts with Leech Seed and Leaf Storm in addition to its standard Tackle and Growl.


Cyndaquil begins with Will'o'Wisp as well as Flare Blitz plus its standard Quick attack and Leer.


Totodile comes packing Crunch and Dragon Dance combined with its standard Scratch and Leer. Teach it Waterfall and it becomes a very effective and versatile physical attacker.

I'm not especially difficult to get a hold of, just check my blog's sidebar for a variety of different methods.

Right, enough of the digital cockfighting for now. And since I want to get back to my Pokewalker (Originally I typed Pokewanker. That should get me on a few watch lists.) I'll try to keep things brief tonight. On to the recaps.


*-Dexter poured out his heart here. This is genuinely touching.
*-Stevil's consistently hilarious Gamer Obscura feature this week features DENNIS HOPPER in Black Dahlia.
*-Ace of knaves' love for the Ace Attorney series is infectious. That's yet another series I regret never having tried.


A-CaptainBus' article seems to agree with one of the founding philosophies behind this site: STFUAJPG.
A-I'm only about a third of the way through Heavy Rain, so the warnings of spoilers caused me to turn back from reading this article by AwesomeJon. What I saw looked good, though.
A- Klarden compares the best of the East and West and found something of a similarity.
M-I'm not certain I fully understand the point Mollygos' Musing was trying to make, but Laser Tits would be a great name for a punk band.
M-Enkido's Musing is chock-full of double-entendre goodness. Remember that obscenity is all in your... polka-dot undies.
S-The already-prolific Wry Guy is looking to start another series of articles called "Nostaljourneys." Do it, man. Go go go!


No community contests. Two weeks ago, my quote was the dialog about a moment of silence between Moe and Barney from Homer's triple Bypass, and it was identified by Stevil. Sentry added one to his recaps last week when he filled in for me, but no one seems to have noticed. Therefore, I'm gonna let it hang until someone picks up on it. (Hey, my game my rules. =p) If you're wondering what exactly I'm talking about, you might wanna read this.


I-Please join me in welcoming Garethxxgod to the site.


N-RandomBullseye brings word that transferring a character from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2 isn't as easy as you might think.
N-A selection of technolust by Crunshii.
N-Bronte has some information about the upcoming Mass Effect 2 DLC.
V-Diverse is full of DO WANTitude regarding the upcoming iPhone game; Sword Sorcery EP.
T-Om Nom nom on Souls got a little philisophical about how games tend to cater to the lowest common de-NOM-inator. Sorry. Couldn't resist.
T-Squirrelygod thinks Activision and Infinity Ward should fix the current version of Modern Warfare 2 before sticking their hands in your pants for a map pack.
T-Ace Flibble thinks the revelation that Bioshock 2's DLC was already on the disc should surprise no one. NO ONE.
R-A collection of mini-reviews by Wasphone.
P-Mark Oleski is in the Starcraft 2 beta and probably broke some sort of NDA to bring this article to you.
D-Sheppy shows how a different kind of game is developed; he's been working on a CCG.


A-Our resident art god Mikey is at it again. Tell him what to draw.
L-While only tangentially related to video games, Tangoliber's story of collisions and cephalopods might be right up your alley.


R-Eaten By A Grue shared a development idea that sounds suspiciously similar to how Dragon Age: Origins begins, as well as an intriguing-looking Deus Ex mod.
[V-You can watch this interview with the creator of Cave Story on your Wii if you have one. If you don't, Mooks has you covered. It's well worth a look.
V-Geoff gives some video tips on how to get the most out of Mega Man 10.
C-Good lord, so many spelling errors. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but let's take a moment to put on pants before we rush out the door.
C-A fine topic, and one I hadn't seen mentioned before. But a little more effort would have done a lot to make this worth reading.
?- Something about Final Fantasy 13? I think? Maybe?


S-Down low. Too slow!
F-Call me biased if you want. But slanging off on preorders just because you don't like that style or series of game puts you pretty squarely on the jacktard list.


M-Brilliant troll, or sarcastic, crotchety and deadly serious? You make the call!
M-Apparently, the comparison garnered too much attention not to be met with a response...
M-Or two...
-(Qalamari)

FPoTD