That guy's a Maniac...

It's been a couple of weeks since we tuned into the Nintendo Channel to see what's up on ninty's very own TV channel. That's deliberate because the channel has a relatively low turn over and the videos seem to be programmed by a mental who doesn't really understand how marketing works. So we've matchsticked our eyes open long enough to suffer through the latest crop of hit-and-miss offering. What's new? There's a couple of Resident Evil Revelations videos up. They are as dull as the previous ones sadly whilst at the same time giving us the feeling like we've played the game already. More nonsense Mario Kart " Player challenge " vids. Yet another 'series' on the channel that just baffles. Initially these videos introduced challenges in a range of games and we're all for lengthening the long tail of interest on titles older than two weeks. Now, however, they're just Mario Kart 7 time trial videos. If you really are des

How long has the Metro been doing games coverage properly? It is even in the Life section of the magazine! For so long we've been used to newspapers coverage of games being a single game review bundled in the bit-that-nobody-reads or in 'gadgets' or next to the radio listings. Not only is the (weekly) metro coverage a double page spread, they review the latest games rather than games that came out four months ago and the writing ain't that bad either.  Of course, it is entirely moot as anybody interested in games gets all the information they need online. It seems quaint to have to "read a newspaper" for reviews but it warms the cockles of our little hearts that games are finally getting the mainstream recognition that gamers seem to crave to justify their 'hobby/lifestyle'. Even if it is moot coverage and even if the gaming community does its level best to remain toxic, inane and offensive to anybody they suspect of not being a hardcore gamer.

This month goes to... Bug Village. This mobile pile of buttrape is designed purely to part you with your money. Sure on the outside its all cutsey insects and big cartoon eyes, but underneath lies the soul sucking villainous heart of a corporate moneygrabber concept. Just to clarify I played this on the Windows Phone. Windows phone has quite a few games on it and has the added bonus of being able to contribute to your gamerscore. Microsoft have released quite a few free games that do this too, simple crap like Minesweeper, Sudoku, but also some fun ones like Breeze . They are not all bad, but still suffer from just being mobile games. Then about a Month ago another free one hit the marketplace; Bug Village by Glu. Glu have been around for years making shitty mobile games since the days of the nokia brick phones. But this new "free" addition to the Windows Phone games is just fucking terrible. At every turn it tries to get you to pay money, there is an in game currenc

It's always nice to find yourself in the household of a fellow gamer. By far the best bit is perusing their game collection and is also why we hide Shadow the Hedgehog from public display, at the back, in a box re-sleeved with a CoD insert. It is also is a prime time to play those game you wouldn't have bought yourself but are mildly curious about. Hence how we ended up playing House of the Dead 2, 3 and Overkill . Way back when, our family had a Mega Drive and so I grew up on all things SEGA. Sega at home is fine. Arcade SEGA though? Ugh. Unlike rigid and structured games for the home consoles Arcade games are noisy, flashy and 'loose' a bit like your mother. Arcade games are a Waquila suicide* to home games single malt whiskey. Created to rinse your wallet they lack the structure I need to not go foetal and I still shudder when I have to choose 'arcade mode' from a game menu. It's why I'd been avoiding HoTD. I got over it though and HoTD is fu

NEW FEATURE ALERT! NEW FEATURE ALERT! Not content on bringing you the hottest content on video games on the internet we're launching yet another feature setting us aside from those 'other' internet 'sites' bringing you the 'news'. Each month we'll be picking our favourite NPCs from the amazing and magical world of video games. This month is..... It's Only Our Own Bloody Correspondant Alcamoth Citizen! Any thoughts on being our very first NPC of the month bird lady? It is literally, metaphorically and stereotypically no wonder why we picked her to be our new correspondent  from inside video games with a wit like that, inside sources at the Ministry of Records and such a fine pair of head wings too. Interesting fact you might not know about Alcamoth Citizen is that she can be found standing rooted to the spot in Alcamoth City in the Day-Time. Every. Single. Day. Check it out, she's always got something to say about the latest video game

ANNOUNCING In October last year the TGAM board of directors met to discuss how Second Greatest Video Game Blog On The Internet, That Guy's a Maniac (TGAM) was performing. We've listened to our consumers and things are going to change around here. First off, there's going to be no more features that we startand don't finish (like TGAM top 50 ultimate TGAM top games best list of best games of all time ever , Unit of the Month  or That guy's Interviews ) also we've listened to you and what you want is more Resident Evil coverage. We are called That Guy's A Maniac and should honour that legacy. So we'll be seeing some changes around here. Changes we think you will both like. Also, stakeholders have been complaining that TGAM is a it of a sausage fest when we aren't pretending to be women and we need to be covering video games from the female perspective a bit more Which brings me neatly onto OUR BRAND NEW FEATURE: INTRODUCING.... Yes, we know we do

This landed in our feedreader from the normally OK EDGE magazine. Self-styled "game director and alleged psychopath" David Jaffe has kicked off Twisted Metal's marketing campaign in typical style, inviting players to fire an automatic weapon from the comfort of their desks. "I'm here to tell you about the epic return of gaming's most sick, depraved franchise," he says. "It's Twisted Fucking Metal on PlayStation 3, and it's back, bitch." Self-styled "game director and alleged psychopath" David Jaffe has kicked off Twisted Metal's marketing campaign in typical style, inviting players to fire an automatic weapon from the comfort of their desks. "I'm here to tell you about the epic return of gaming's most sick, depraved franchise," he says. "It's Twisted Fucking Metal on PlayStation 3, and it's back, bitch.

Remember the GMAs? You know the Games Media Awards? Well it is a UK awards thing for people who write about games. one of last year's nominees was Chris Scullion who writes for the Official Nintendo magazine in the category SPECIALIST WRITER PRINT. Sadly he didn't win and presumably he was having an off day in OPM 79 when he writes the following about Dragon Quest X: Also making the decision tricky [about whether to get the Wii or Wii U version] is the fact that, as it's the first RPG [on the Wii] to focus more on online adventuring (much like Monster Hunter Tri)... Is it the first or is it not? Snark snark snark.

Aaaaaargh. I hate it. Stupid records like 'World's Most Successful Pokemon Playing Family'. That isn't a proper record. 'World's largest controller' IT WAS PURPOSEFULLY BUILT FOR THE BOOK. How does that count? What an utter nonsense. Combining the world's most pointless record keeping organisation with one of the world's most pointless leisure-time endeavours surely deserves a record for the world's most pointless collaboration? Also 90% of these records are absolutely contested, instantly out of date and very poorly monitored and some come from the INTERNET of all places. We all saw King of Kong are those guys to be trusted? Woooooah. Amazing. Did you know that: The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall has 750,000 NPCs? And that the fastest speed run of Tomb Raider is 2hrs and 39 minutes by a woman! Did you know that Resident Evil 2 is the most popular RE on the PS2 ( change the record dudes )? Did you know that Darkstalkers umm mash up/spin off 

The other character is supposed to be Lightning from FFXIII but is pretty poor The Dragonborn looks the part though! And I love the arrow in the knee! Love and There should be a word to describe being bored and trawling though YouTube, Richie X

You know saying things are "like Marmite", is like Marmite you either love it or hate it. That's right there's no middle ground its black or white no shades of gray, no 6 out of 10's, its either 0 out of 10, or 10 out of 10! They are opposite ends of the spectrum, Violet and Red. missing out all the greens, blues, oranges and yellows in between. And Squaresoft are apparently the same, their games are either "teh SuXXorZ" or "Epic wins". After a slew of Epic wins: VII, VIII, IX, X, everything just seemed to go wrong for them, they made a very girly sequel to FFX, an expensive niche MMO (for PC AND consoles), a single player MMO at the end of a consoles lifecycle, and then XIII finally! After nearly 10 years since FFX, Square made an actual RPG where you level up your dudes and you know chocobos and stuff. But something was wrong... there was grumblings in the internet there was horrible talk of a 30 hour training section, but still we