i heard burch plays the pink piccolo...

You guys previously spoke of a legendary triangle that, when brought together, created the perfect game. the corners were: graphics, gameplay and story.
The first game I thought of when you said this was Valkyria Chronicles.
I tried to remember if any of you guys played it but couldn't.
I thought the gameplay was excellent. Turned based stratagy games haven't seen any major change in a very long time, and this game did a great job of putting a very unique twist on it.
As for graphics, I think they 'hand drawn' look of it makes it possibly the most beautiful game to date.
And the story is actually very good, especially for an anime game as...well... I think we all know they haven't done a very good job of telling unique stores in a long time. If you can get past the random 'Welkin talks to animals!' parts it is actually quiet good. It is hardly an amazing story but it is good.

blahblahblahblah, anyone else even care?

Almost forgot, why did you do such a thing to Samit last week (the music playing during his games of the week)? Though I laughed quite hard when the music came in, I felt bad for him... Samit, you're the man, not getting angry against them.

Ps: Do you plan to do it next time ?

In the Alan Wake interview feature, was the still image intentionally chosen to show Oskari being hypnotized by cleavage?

Q: I remember when I first played Halo, I'd always try my damn hardest to keep all my marines alive anytime I had them at my side. It wasn't because they were particularly useful, although sometimes one would chuck a lucky grenade and manage a kill, but because they were pretty funny, and handy to have around should a warthog section come up. I'd even go so far as to reload my game if enough marines died, so my question is this: what are some video game allies you cared about for reasons other than extreme usefulness or a "Game Over" screen, and why?

@Issun : I highly doubt that the crew of Podtoid plan on doing a similar music and sports chant over his games of the week section again this week.
Jokes loose their meaning and appeal if you repeat them too much.

Will the jokes about Samit only playing sports game continue?
You can count on it.

With Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Ultimate Alliance coming out soon, what would your perfect roster for MvC2 or UA3 be?

In the interest of game snobbery...what's the most obscure game you own?

Is there any level/stage music from the more recent generation of games and IPs (PS2 and onwards, licensed music games excluded) that you could see video game bands covering 10-20 years from now, the way that they do with Megaman and Metroid tunes? While lots of games have great music, they're treated more background. The only ones that I think of are Shadow of the Colossus and Katamari Damacy, but what songs drilled their way into your skulls and refused to come out?

Which is better the better series MGS or Half-Life?

I hope I win, cause we all know that you guys are going to talk about this for the entire freaking podcast

Have you ever played a game that has either A) Ruined an entire genre or subgenre of games or B) Made you physically react negatively to the game?

For me, for both, Star Ocean: Till The End of time. I am not kidding about how much that game enrages me. I felt sick while playing it. I had numerous times throughout the years where I would try to complete it just to prove I could, but to no avail. I tried playing Tales of Vesperia recently, thinking I may have gotten over my JRPG alergy. I was wrong. I felt sick.

So, yeah.

Games like Scribblenauts and BonerQuest are being raved about by the gaming industry, however not in the public eye. What do developers need to do to get these good hard games out there?

Why do people usually insist that you have to pick a favourite game between widely different games? Why can't they be happy with more than one?

To the Podtoid Crew: Is there a genre of games that you suck at playing?

(I suck terribly at arcade fighting games...but I still play them)

When is Jim moving to England?

Do you think that "casual" games such as the ones on the Wii are nessasary so that the general public that don't "hard core" games can progress into videogames easier so that the first game they play doesn't simply just frustrate them and cut them off from gameing completely? I think these games are needed so that gaming can continue in the future, what do you guys think?

I listened to an old Pdtoid episode with Tiff on it, and Samit guesting, and discovered a terrible truth - Samit is lower in the chain of abuse than Tiff was! Samit was burned by Tiff about sports! :(

To a question: Samit, are you really as nice and accommodating as you seem to be, or do you have voodoo dolls of all the cast ready to enact your terrible vengeance upon?

With Podcastle on a (indefinite) hiatus, Destructoid needs a new podcast. What do you think of these suggestions?:

1. The Samit Sportscast (or "The SS"). Games of the Week will be 2 hours long.

2. The Anthony Burch Discussion Group. Every week, Anthony and a small group of intellectuals discuss the latest artistic, philosophical and metaphysical issues surrounding video games.

Why does everything have to be an MMO? Don't just say developers like money, either. Is there some kind of latent idea in the back of people's mind that says, "Sure (X tv show/game/movie) is cool, but wouldn't it be better if I could kill rats for a few hours?"

Favorite Suda51 moment?

This question is for Anthony Burch, and it is a long one. I invite the entire podtoid crew to answer it.

While I do agree with the sentiments of Anthony Burch's rant where video games need to start providing experiences that aren't fun to not just invoke other emotions to games but to be taken as a serious medium, there are a few problems with making a work like that. For the purposes of this question, I substitute the term "video games" with "interactive multimedia". I can only name a few of these problems, due to having written about them in a few college papers (I did get an A). But for the problems I haven't mentioned, what solutions would you offer to the narrative problems of interactive multimedia. What I am getting at here is a game like say, Phoenix Wright, is a detective story that relies on the competence of the player for the story to progress. When the player is unable to make the game progress due to their inability to figure out the particular puzzle (and the puzzles in Phoenix Wright are significant to the story, and not like puzzles in Resident Evil where it's only to open a door). This leads to some of the audience to have incomplete or prematurely ended experiences. Another problem with interactive media is that to invoke an emotional response, one must build up a relationship between the audience and the characters. When given interactivity, this can lead to the possibility of having the relationships be improperly built.

It is my belief that if these problems and other problems from making a work in this interactive multimedia medium can be overcome through their designs, more publishers will be willing to take their chances at publishing them.

So please, what problems do YOU, of podtoid, think need addresses so that video game and interactive multimedia products can mature into something more than mere fun. How can the audience be rewarded in other ways than the simple joy of accomplishing a goal (think of a story where the protagonist fails by design of the story, but the protagonist is directed by the player)

Also, if you feel that some existing video games have addressed this issue, please point them out. I apologize for the question being as long as Anthony Burch's rant, but this issue is a significant one to me, and I'm quite interested in everyone's opinion.

Clearly this David Jaffe/Anthony Burch thing is far too big for any of us mere mortals can deal with.

What does Jim Sterling, KING OF VIDEOGAMES, decree as the final say in this matter?

I haven't played a new release while it was new since Street Fighter IV, and before that, I can't remember the last time I got a game within almost a year of it being released. I haven't played any of the games that have really come and gone, because I simply don't have money to spend on games.

My question is, do you guys agree with me that anyone else in a similar situation plays games far after all major interest in a game is gone have a more honest look at the game, seeing how it is without any sort of real hype for the game, and things such as the graphics being amazing now being moot, as they would have already been outdone?

Or am I just spouting nonsense?

What do you think about the length of games? Games like Persona 3 are 100+ hours long which some consider to be to long but I personally like and others like Heavenly Sword with it's 4-5 hour length are considered to be to short. What do you think is a good length for games in general and do you prefer games to be longer or shorter?

With downloadable games like Braid, Castle Crashers, Fat Princess, Battlefield 1943, and many more, it seems that your getting a better deal for your buck with these cheap games.

Have we gotten to the point were downloadable games are a better option than store bought games?

I didn't get a chance to comment on the Rev Rant/Jaffe Rant business in a timely manner due to the weekend site shittiness. But I have to ask you, Anthony, do you really not get Jaffe's point and why he made that video? It has almost nothing to do with your point of "There should be games about other stuff besides pure fun", and more with how you delivered it and the belligerent way in which you directly dismiss and trash talk Jaffe's own product, God of War, and similar games, referring to them as immature games for 12 year olds, and speak in a way that could be interpreted as accusing them and the developers who work on them of actively hurting the games industry, working towards the comic book fate of perpetual irrelevance. Of COURSE the guy's gonna be pissed off at you. You were trivializing his career and most successful creation.
PS Your point was stupid, there are already games that aren't about fun. Harvest Moon, Daggerfall, any grindy JRPG, gaming is full of examples of moderately successful, or at least profitable enough to become franchises games that have a distinct lack of fun that make up for it with story, or experience, or emotion. Not to mention that a general claim of "fun" is subjective. Is that purely enjoying the act of playing, or can it mean other things? If I play Morrowind for the joy of exploring that world, is that Bethesda only focusing on fun? If I play a porn game because I want to look at some digital titties, is that the Japanese only focusing on fun?
The best selling, AAA titles aren't even focused on fun first and foremost anymore, but graphics. You need to have a certain level of shininess anymore before people will even look at your product. Second to that, sure, fun's king, but then for movies The Dark Knight made a hell of a lot more money than Citizen Kane did. The type of experience you're pointing towards the movie industry of being able to create while claiming the games industry can't or doesn't is almost purely the product of indie films and niche market products. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie trailer on TV that didn't have an explosion in it.