The gaming industry's 2009 Q4 is undeniably packed. With heavy hitters like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 2, DJ Hero, Dragon Age: Origins, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed 2, The Saboteur, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii coming out in quick succession, competition is stiff, and some good games could potentially wind up getting left in the dust. Something tells me that one of those games is going to be Brutal Legend, the upcoming Tim Schafer production.

By all accounts, Brutal Legend looks like it'll be a fine game. Previews have been positive, and the buzz from those who have gotten extended time with the game is that it's both fun to play and well written, containing a pleasant helping of humor in its dialogue.

Take "This American Life", replace Ira Glass with a more witty, tech-savvy host that has the voice of a stoner, and make each show somehow related to gaming (or other parts of geek culture). You now have "A Life Well Wasted," the new monthly podcast by Robert Ashley (formerly of "GFW Radio" fame). 

The first episode of "ALWW" takes place on the 1UP offices' rooftop during a get-together commemorating the death of one of the gaming industry's most important magazines, EGM. Ashley, with his likable voice, interviews key figures from EGM's history, resulting in some conversations that are purely humorous, and some that make listeners truly recognize the level of impact that the magazine had on the history of gaming.

There once were three kids who lived in the same town. Despite numerous child-labor laws, all of the children worked at different locations in the local mall. Mike worked at a smoothie place, Sonny worked at a coffee shop, and Nina ran an ice cream stand. Mike, Sonny, and Nina didn't really have any personal problems with each other despite the fact that they were, in a way, competition (Nina wasn't really considered a competitor by Mike and Sonny, since ice cream is a totally different type of product. Because of this, they didn't mind that she got the largest number of customers out of the three).

For some reason, there were some people who only liked going to the coffee shop, and there were some people who only liked going to the smoothie place. There were a metric buttload of old people and little kids who loved going to the ice cream stand, and a lot of them just enjoyed sticking to their ice cream as well.

It's pretty common for gamer "bros" across the world to run into a similar problem: their girlfriends have absolutely zero interest in gaming. I'll admit that there are lots of girl gamers out there, but most girls would rather punch themselves in the ovaries than play video games. Plenty of guys with non-gaming girlfriends would be stoked to finally get their loved ones in on the action, and Castle Crashers, available on XBLA, is perfect for doing so.

I've always been interested in writing, and I've always been an idiot. Thus, I wrote this totally bad "comedy/fantasy" novel when I was about 11. I recently found it while cleaning out my closet (it was on a near-death floppy disk), and I've decided to share it with you guys. I put a lot of work into it, and it's a fairly decent length for a "short story" (I'm not entirely sure but it's probably around 12,000 words). As I scanned through it today, I realized a number of things about myself:

There are a couple hundred registered users here, so I figured that I'd give you guys a chance to respond via the comments section and name your top 5 games from last year. Sure, I'm a little late to that party, but by now you've all had time to sit back and contemplate your picks. You don't have to give reasons behind your top 5 (although you can), just list them like this!

I'm a HUGE N+ (and original N) fan. Realizing that I had no idea WHO created that particular game, I went online and sought out the developers, my mind full of questions to quiz them with. The two creators of N, Raigan Burns and Mare Sheppard, agreed heartily to my request for an interview and met with me via Google Group Chat earlier today. What follows is the exact transcript of that conversation

(Note: Mare makes a reference to the companies VMC and SDL. VMC is an organization of professional game testers and SDL is a translation service. A google search would have told you that, but I figured I might as well save you readers some time. I also separated the text every time that I speak, making readability a bit easier.)