I know I promised Jim would be the only regular cast member missing from Podtoid 108, but Linde leaves around the halfway point for, shall we say,thermalreasons. – Samit’s games of the week – Topher is tired of yourBlazBluegraphical bias – Sam Raimi is directing aWarcraftmovie, ambivalence ensues –Arkham Asylumreview shenanigans – A ton of listener questions Our favorite question came fromable_to_think, who asked about trading challenge for narrative....

Something introductory. This week’s Podtoid was fueled by questions from listeners like you, which means it’s even more random and weird than usual (in a good way). As always, you can get the full episodehere. Highlights included: – The season of too many games – Normalcy, as defined by Captain Falcon – Do you want a mature, technically impressive examination of crime, or a game with godlike foam hands and septic trucks?...

The cure for a problematic blank screen, a messy desk, and the urge to answer a phone while it’s ringing isPeggle. I’ve been using it for years to avoid doing what I’m supposed to be doing or to procrastinate even more. It’s not quite bourbon, which does the same job I’ve discovered, but it’s good enough. Andas promised, is now available on PSNfor the first time ever. Hard to believe it didn’t touch the PS3 beforehand....

Remember thatJapanese Sega countdown teaser pagewe told you about? The one with the mushrooms and Nintendo-ish 1UP sound? People were throwing out wild guesses, going as far as to suggest that Nintendo and Sega were in bed together. It turns out that it’s nothing like that. Those that guessed at some kind of parody game were on the right track, though. Sega’sChindouchou! Pole no Daibouken (Eventful Journey! Pole’s Big Adventure) was revealed in the latest Famitsu issue....

Capcom has announced thatResident Evil: The Mercenaries 3Dwill boast a demo for the company’s other 3DS RE offering,Resident Evil: Revelations. Games with demos on them? This 3DS thing reallyisthe future! The demo will put players into the shoes of hentai victim Jill Valentine, as she investigates a spooky ocean liner and deals with a number of “mysterious creatures that emerge from the shadows.” It’s not yet announced whether the demo will be available worldwide or is restricted to specific countries....

We’ve had our eye on thegames within a gameDS titleRetro Game Challengefor awhile now. Theseone-offslook, sound, and play a lot like our favorite titles from the 1980s. We gave an early version a tryback at E3and really dug it. Now we’re nearing the February 2009 release date, and the official Web site has launched. Retro Game Challenge‘s Web site has the full details on what you can expect in the game....

This week’s Rev Rant is about the implementation of morality systems in games likeFableorBioShockorInFamous(though I recorded this before playing the latter, getting 2/3 of the way through it has done nothing to change the basic points I make in the rest of the video). This is probably the ugliest of the Rev Rants thus far — for some reason, Final Cut Pro thought it’d be adorable to make everything look jaggy, randomly make parts of my shirt disappear, and do this weird thing where my voice keeps going while my mouth stops moving until the next shot starts....

May kind of snuck up on us, but man was it a kick-ass month for gaming. We reviewed a bunch of great games, and had a few surprises (a few failures too). There were so many great reviews you could have read throughout the month and tons of games to learn about. I bet you spent all month enjoying our reviews on multiple gam… who am I kidding? As the artwork for this month shows, all anyone wanted to read was ourRed Dead Redemptionreview....

Last generation’sChronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Baywas a critical success and, apparently generated enough sales to warrant a remake. Then, like so many other games, the project fell victim to streamlining in the wake of the Activision/Blizzard merger and its future became uncertain. Today, Atari has announced that they will be publishingChronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. It’s going to be more than just a simple retread with updated visuals, also....

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Riddled with Rumors, your Sunday dose of speculation and gossip-mongering. As always, we have another collection of barely-researched claims to post which exist only to drive pageviews and give us something easy to write about. As a special treat this week my sources have done some digging and discovered yet more juicy information on Harmonix’s Beatles game, whichwe revealed last weekasThe Beatles: All You Need Is Blood....

There has beena lot of talk latelyabout offended retailersrefusing to stockthe all-digital PSPgo. Feeling burned by the lack of ability to sell games for the new system, a few large stores in Europe have boycotted the handheld, and it looks like Australia’s largest retailer, EB Games, could be joining them. The PSPgo isn’t listed anywhere on EB’s Web site, despite the fact that the machine has a worldwide release date of October 1, a little under two weeks away....

“Well placed sources” tellThe Inquirerthat mega-corporationSkynetGoogle is looking to acquired darling independent developerValve. According to the report, the deal could happen “any second now.” We’ll wait … Nope, nothing yet. The acquisition would make some sense. With Google looking to get into the digital distribution space, Valve having already nearly dominated it withSteam(at least on the PC side), they could work well together. This past August, in a conversation withGamasutra, Valve’s Doug Lombardi stated that they’d be open to acquisition, given the right suitor....

As you’ve heard, theWii Fitpart of this story is the most solid. In the Japanese Trademark Database, aWii Fit Pluscomes up. Great name, Nintendo. Very inventive. We’ll act totally surprised at the announcement on Tuesday’s press conference at E3.Siliconeraalso found a couple of other interesting title names in the database:Art Academy andBonsaiBarber, with the latter being a domestic WiiWare release. I wonder whatArt Academyis. The Mario and Zelda rumors come from an analyst firm that seems to be making sht up — sht that just about anyone in this industry could’ve guessed....