Games industry isn’t all bad. It’s just going through a REALLY bad patch after a boom. When you’re in it and making games and not worried about your job, it’s utterly fantastic. Either that or I have selective memory.

I appreciated the THQ scoop, I was mystified as to why there was so little news on the issue after I read the sad tweets about it last week.

In general the development studio gossip was very interesting. There’s no way in hell I’d get into game development — going for job interviews every six months is no way to live.

We’ve been having fun at the Frostback household, my son is into Sonic games so we’ve been alternating between Sonic Colors (on the Wii), Sonic Adventure and Sonic Generations (both on Xbox 360) trying to get past hard stages on all three. When that becomes too frustrating we switch over to Kirby’s Return to Dreamland.

Surprisingly my son is having a lot of fun collecting Sonic soundtracks in Generations and can relate them to levels in previous Sonic games just by hearing them. I’m not sure where he picked up his ear for music but an interest in videogame soundtracks and gaming can lead nowhere good.

In general the Sonic gameplay mechanic of being invulnerable so long as he’s holding a ring is extremely clever and makes for a challenging but not overwhelmingly frustrating experience.

Kirby RtD is a good-ish game, not as clever as Epic Yarn, but fun and attractive. Some people complain about the Wii not having HD graphics but there are ways to design around this and I think the various Kirby and Mario games have always looked great.

Kinect is getting a bit old. My son and I have fun shouting “XBOX!” at the console dashboard, trying to get it to listen to us, until he eventually gives up and presses the required button on the controller. Somehow I don’t think this is what Microsoft had in mind when they said Kinect made for great family fun.

But hey, you take your fun where you find it.

Seriously though, Child of Eden with Kinect is an awesome experience and if you have a Kinect you owe it to yourself to try it out.

(Some might say that you’ve proven the opposite, but ignore the nay-sayers!)

For Christmas, my six-year-old gamer is getting Kinect (w/gunslinger and fruit ninja bundled in) and Sonic Generations for Christmas. He’s a huge Sonic fan and has been devouring the old tv series on Youtube.

I was debating the Spyro Skylanders set, but that came to my attention after already buying the Kinect set.

If his friends get Skylanders and the little figures become a big deal at school I might pick it up for him in the new year.

Good stuff, George!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all and may your gaming be angry!

Wow, I can only imagine how an open world Call of Duty would work. A whole Middle Eastern city mixed up in tribal or proxy warfare, with missions, vehicles, and secret stuff to find. It might play kind of like Far Cry 2. Whether you think that’s good or not is up to you.

That problem about player tricks in Battlefield 3 is one of the main reasons that I hate competitive online multiplayer in video games. Truly, once the community of children and full-time gamers get a grip on the maps, there’s really no chance for lightweights.

Whew…I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels underwhelmed about Skyward Sword. I was very excited about it when I first read about it, but I don’t feel especially excited anymore now that I’ve tried it. Piloting the flying beetle with the Wiimote sucks. Trying to make Link jab with the sword works about 10% of the time. The few reviews that I’ve read that actually mention these problems have drawn the rage and ire of the League of Hardcore Zelda Fans (a.k.a. “mindless cocksuckers”), so I think that most sites are just playing it safe and gushing. Fight for the truth!

Having grown up with cartoons in the 70s I love anime and I like JRPGs but they’re kind of embarrasing to buy .. I think the last one I was interested was packaged with a mousepad with breasts and I sure as hell wasn’t going to be seen buying it.

It’s amazing how companies will spend hundreds of thousands on art and development.. then spend almost nothing on the writing. That and sound, eh George?

I’m still not sure about Rage. I never had much interest in it as I can’t see what makes it stand out from other shooters. However, I suspect it will get its hooks in me if I give it a shot. I need to keep in mind that I didn’t feel excited about Uncharted 1 or Just Cause 2 until I gave them some time.

I, too, have read some rather stinging articles about Mr. Jobs over the years, and I haven’t quite discovered the point when he transformed into an industry sweetheart. I guess the tremendous achievements of his company really changed the public’s perception of him.

I’ve already got Dark Souls, and it has a hold on me.

I’m very excited about Uncharted 3. I just can’t wait to see Drake’s next adventure.

I feel certain that Skyrim will be good, and I’m going to buy it, but strangely, I don’t really feel excited about it. I’m not big on first-person hand-to-hand combat, but I think the long-term, RPG satisfaction of the game will make it worthwhile.

I’m sure that Batman will be good, but somehow, I just don’t really care about it.

Then there’s Zelda. Nintendo won’t screw up Zelda, but man, without HD and full voice acting, it just looks so far behind today’s big games. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, though. I haven’t been let down by a Zelda game yet. Well, except for Wind Waker, which was way too easy.

Hardly anyone seems to be playing it online during the week… I hate to say this but I predict CoD is probably going to continue dominating XBox live for the next year or so. During it’s launch week GoW mustered less than 10% of the online players when compared to CODBO. (Not official stats, just what I observed over a couple of evenings playing on Live from Montreal.

However maybe Battlefield 3 will prove me a lousy prognosticator… we shall see.