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[Editor's note: Community member SurplusGamer did a little Q&A on Tales of Monkey Island with Telltale's Mike Stemmle. -- CTZ]

In their heyday, graphic adventure games were one of the most popular PC genres around. Sadly, that heyday is fifteen or twenty years ago, leaving a lot of people like me pottering around the Internet and grumbling about how good things were in the 'old days'. If you played adventure games when they were popular, chances are you have fond memories of Lucasarts' classic Monkey Island series which arguably set a new benchmark for writing and humour in games.

In 2009, most fans had given up any expectations for a Monkey Island sequel, having heard nary a peep about it for nearly a decade. The news of Tales of Monkey Island, then, an episodic sequel from Telltale (a veritable haven for ex-Lucasarts employees and fans of the same) was incredibly exciting.

One of those ex-employees, Mike Stemmle, lead designer of the upcoming first episode, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal kindly took some time out to answer some of my burning questions about what is in store for the series which you can check out after the break. view full story + comments

Kill, kill, kill. Whether it's jumping onto heads or setting elaborate traps, an awful lot of it goes on in videogames. Most of the time, it's an exhilarating rush, whether it be something as carefree as watching a Koopa shell plow through a line of Goombas in a Mario game or as explicitly glorified as the likes of Madworld.

There's no denying it -- killing in games is satisfying. Some games, however, choose not to play on our base desires in such a simplistic manner, even if only for a moment. There are many ways that a game can make us feel emotions more complex than a simple 'HELL YEAH!' upon landing the final blow, which makes me wonder why it happens so rarely. Perhaps you question your motives. Or it could be you were once friends with the enemy. Then again, maybe the road to victory has been simply too wearying to feel triumphant.

Here, I pay tribute to three such bittersweet, sometimes even hollow victories.

Obligatory Spoiler Warning: If you haven't played Grim Fandango, Wing Commander 3 or Shadow of the Colossus and wish to, I highly recommend you do so before reading on as I will be talking about important moments in the games in some detail.
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[Editor's note: SurplusGamer takes a look at the difference between playing Left 4 Dead on Steam and Xbox Live for his Monthly Musings. -- CTZ]

I'm not an avid multiplayer gamer and so despite having bad experiences with playing Team Fortress 2 and a few other games on Xbox Live, I really didn't expect it to live up to the negative things I've heard people say about it. I knew just as well as anyone the particular kind of idiot you get when playing with random people on Live but equally I found myself quick to defend:

"Sure, those morons exist, but they must exist on PC, too!" I'd insist and I'm sure it's at least partially true.

Recently, though, I've had a chance to put this to a real test. After weeks of playing many public matches of Left 4 Dead on Steam, I got the chance to play it on Xbox Live for the first time over Christmas. Hit the jump to see how the experiences compared.

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[Editor's note: SurplusGamer talks about his attempt at making a videogame at the young age of seven for his A Time to Build Monthly Musing topic. -- CTZ]

This topic had me stumped for a couple of hours, not because I couldn't think of anything to write, but because there are too many things I could say on this subject. Gaming has been a part of my life for as long as I remember. Not only that, but as soon as I began to think about the fact that games are things actually made by real people, rather than materializing out of thin air, that whole process of creation has fascinated me. I can't help but think back to where this fascination started. See, you may be surprised to learn that I made my first NES game when I was six or seven-years-old.

Well, kind of ...

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[Editor's note: SurplusGamer writes about how much he hates random battles for his Monthly Musing. -- CTZ]

You've just found out that the king is secretly using his own citizens as test subjects in some terrible experiment. A complex web of intrigue has led you here but you are finally ready to confront him in his own throne room and find out what he has to say for himself. Is he truly evil? Or is he being controlled by some outside force, mysterious and ten hours of gameplay away? Whatever the answer, now is the moment of truth. You're prepared, the entrance to the castle laid out in front of you. The answers you have been waiting for are just seconds away! In just a few more steps-- 

$%#&!

The screen suddenly smooshes up and you find yourself dumped into a battle with a giant beetle, completely ruining the moment.

Yes - I hate random battles. view full story + comments