Welcome to Thursday's edition of the Cblog recaps. Kind of a light day today all things considered, but you guys made up for quantity with quality-- and I appreciate that.

I took the week off from work this week in honor of the anniversary of my arrival into the world, so I've been using my spare time to play some games I'd missed out on or wanted to revisit. It's a rare pleasure anymore to be able to devote a large block of time to a game, and with each rotation of the earth 'round the sun it seems like it becomes rarer and rarer still. That does make it all the sweeter when I get a chance to do it, though, and for that I am thankful.

I'm especially thankful that Dyson was kind enough to lend me the use of his Goodwill Retrogod this week, even if he didn't know it. I never had a Dreamcast when they were a contemporary system, though I certainly looked on with interest. This Monday I picked up a system, two controllers and a VMU for a grand total of eight American dollars. Though the system was missing its power and video cords, those were easily acquired (and cost more than the system, come to think of it). Sadly, the system was missing the phone cord for its onboard 56K modem. I'm sure I would have gotten a lot of use out of that.



As I said, I never owned one of these beauties before, so I'm somewhat unfamiliar with the system's library. I picked up a copy of the original Soul Calibur and have been merrily unlocking additional characters and stages for the better part of today. I could use some help from the community, though. Most of the Dreamcast's games were eventually ported to the PS2 or other systems (The Wii seems to be the dumping ground for Dreamcast ports lately). Of the games that remained exclusive to the DC, what should I be looking for? I'm keeping a lookout for Jet Set Radio, Rez and possibly Power Stone, but apart from that I'm largely clueless. Help me out in the comments, would you please?


*-Cadtalfryn wrote an excellent article that explores why gamers attach such importance to how many units of their favorite games sold. You should read it.
*-A day can't pass without GrumpyTurtle posting some of his excellent artwork. Is that a Pachysephalosaur riding a Penny-Farthing in the second picture? Can we give this man some internets please?
*-A confession: I've already forgotten what S.H.A.F.T. was supposed to stand for. Be that as it may, Agonofinis has a gift for putting cock jokes into a literary review, and that is a talent I can appreciate.
*-Togail's artblogs are always a highlight of the Cblogs, and this duochrome Samus Aran is one of his best so far.
*-John Solgrim's article exploring how story can be effectively communicated in videogames is well worth a look, though it does contain some spoilers.


A-I'm a sucker for Pokemon, but NCHammer326's article has made me look at a few of them a little more warily. Even if Simpsons already did it.
A-Flamecondor gives the ol' gray brick Game Boy some love with a look at the game that launched the handheld market as we know it.
S-The second installment in Flamecondor's Game Boy series looks at one of the earlier Ghostbusters games, featuring surprisingly excellent Venkman sprite art.
S-Part two of Retroman's Game Boy retrospective. Prince Valliem? Super Hunchback? Aussie Game Boy games have some weird titles.
S-Gemsi's back with this week's European releases.
M-In Neeklus' Musing, he salutes the R-Type alien race, the Dobkeratops.
M-This wasn't an official Musing, but it could have been. Ballistic salutes the main baddie in Final Fantasy 9.
M-Sentry's Musing salutes the many, many robot masters who have faced Mega Man over the years.



Nada. Zip. Bupkiss.



S-Yojimbo left some incriminating files in his recap folder. One of them seems to be a to-do list. "Kidnap and replace Aborto thefetus" is the only box with an X inside.


R- Ygro Wok reviewed Zeno Clash today. Looks like bizarre fun.
T-Picklemick had some free time to check out the new stuff in Left 4 Dead. Haven't had that opportunity myself yet.
T-Unangbangkay likes suggestive German eating games.
T-Pappadukes loves him some DS. Can't say I blame him, if I could wear mine around my neck I probably would.
T-Trev tried out the Arkham Asylum demo at Wal*Mart. "Concentrated Retail Evil" would be a good name for a band.
T-Dexter345 reacts to Black Rock's statement regarding the death of the Racing genre. Speaking only for myself, I kinda lost interest in driving digital cars when I got my real-life driver's license.


M-Retroman's tribute to the Gameboy looks at music from some of his favorite games.
F-The State will soon be released on DVD. If you don't remember it, get off of BluDesign's lawn.


L-I was in a raid guild back in my EverQuest days, but I never got to this point. Thank the Lord for small favors.
L-This interview with THE TICK plays out just about exactly as I imagine it would in real life. I miss the old Fox Saturday morning show. The live action version, however, I invite to wrap its mouth around something both organic and unpleasant.
V-Sonic/Doom crossover fan fiction video. I know all of those words separately, but even having typed them together they don't exactly make a pile of sense.
C- This is edging into Forum territory. Not a total loss, but borderline. Congratulations on your new 360, though.


No egregious fail tonight. I shall accept this as Destructoid's early birthday gift to me. Thank you.

-(Qalamari)

FPoTD