Meat Bun - Cool Video Game T-shirts

Scott says: I measure my love for a game by how many nights it keeps me up playing it past 3 AM.  Since October, it looked like Demon’s Souls had my Game of the Year locked.  Beautifully crafted armor and weapons, awe-inspiring bosses, brutal game play, the perfect creepy vibe… it all clicked with me.  Unfortunately, I was playing with Mike’s borrowed copy of Demon’s Souls, and he needed it back to review for Kotaku.  My love affair with this gem was tragically cut short, just like my neck upon meeting Executioner Marilda for the first time.

But that left an opening on the inside of turn 10, and Forza Motorsport 3 forced its way past.   Once in the lead, it never looked back.  The 360 Wireless Racing Wheel has become a permanent fixture in my game room.  I catch myself admiring the crazy attention to detail each car model has been rendered in.  I’m not sure how racing games are going to get any better than this, without resorting to some bat-shit insane hydraulic setup. I have even started using Forza 3 to plan my next real-life automobile purchase.  I think I have settled on the perfectly balanced 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia once I come up with, uh, 250,000 credits.  Luckily, I was able to purchase it in a DLC Holiday Pack for $5.

Jason says: It wouldn’t be game of the year season without hearing someone say, “There are so many amazing games this year it’s too hard to pick just one” or “This is, yet again, the best year in gaming ever.”  It happens every year because it’s true. The games we play keep getting better, in every way, year after year. It makes this GOTY shit really difficult!

When it’s all said and done though I can say, with confidence, that Red Faction Guerrilla is my 2009 game of the year. It’s nowhere near the prettiest, doesn’t have a great story and is a little glitchy; BUT it’s the game I was the most impressed with this year by far. My reasoning is simple; it’s the only game that significantly raised the bar on a genre. The amount of destruction, physics and feedback from the world is on a level that’s never been seen in an open world game. Volition refined their “Geo-Mod” tech from past games, brought the series back from the dead and upped the ante. It’s really hard to play any other action game after this and not get the feeling that it’s dated. If you shoot a rocket launcher at something and it doesn’t blow to a million pieces with crazy-ass physics it just feels lame. Now that other developers have had more time, I think we’ll be seeing this tech in a lot of other games next year; but for now Red Faction’s got blowing crap up locked down, along with my 2009 pick.

Daniel says: I really enjoyed games this year. Demon’s Souls was the game I spent the most time at work obsessing about. Resident Evil 5 was my favorite co-op experience this year. Uncharted 2 raised my expectations for pacing and presentation in video games. Assassin’s Creed 2 was my pick-up-and-play game this year. But without the ability to download games, I would’ve missed out on the best.

This year, my game of the year goes to Trials HD. For $15 I got a completely addictive, time-cooperative experience that is a nod to the best of gaming past. The motorcycle mechanics are simple with just gas/brake and the ability to shift your rider’s weight, but the combination of these elements is limitless. It’s one of those games, like Mega Man or Bionic Commando, that reward you for practice. As I perfected my techniques, the interactive leader boards kept me coming back to replay old levels and show my friends what I’d learned. Trials HD isn’t about flashy graphics, it’s about competition - the foundation of video games - and why I’ve played this $15 game for months. And the new $5 Big Pack expansion has brought things to the game I hadn’t thought about before. Weightless motorcycle moon-physics, anyone?

Collective runner-up goes to the five Fallout 3 expansions released in 2009. Each one was completely unique to the main game and to each other, but since they couldn’t be played without 2008’s game of the year it doesn’t really seem fair to include them.

Mike says: Well, if no one else is going to do it I will. Demon’s Souls was the one game that surprised me with its terrifying richness, it’s lure to play again and again, despite the pain of its incredibly difficulty, and it’s refreshing take on the Japanese role-playing game genre. What may have made the experience better was the bitter taste that Demon’s Souls initially left in my mouth, well before I understood how to play the game. Eventually, after soliciting some advice from friends and the oft-cited Demon’s Souls Wiki, the FromSoftware game grabbed hold of me, forcing me to put in more hours than almost any other title this year.

The game that absorbed more of my life this year, simply in pure hours, was Left 4 Dead. Almost the same with Left 4 Dead 2, which would be my runner-up of choice for game of the year. It was only put aside to spend more time with Demon’s Souls, but I fully intend on going back.

Happy 09/09/09, Amigos! That last Labor Day sale cleared us out! Literally. Thank you everyone! We are busy processing and shipping.

We are also hard at work on the new Meat Bun site, and some special projects. We would love to tell you more, but that would involve spoiler tags and irate people who wanted to experience this new content for themselves.

Now go dust off your Dreamcast, find your old memory cards, and please… feed your Seaman. He’s hungry, cold, and pretty upset. We’ll see you in a bit!

For the next 24 hours — and the next 24 hours only — we’re eviscerating prices on all in stock Meat Bun stuff! That means 50% off of everything, from old stuff to new stuff to deluxe stuff as we make way for even newer, equally good stuff! Head on over to the store to grab whatever it is we have left and do it posthaste, because some items are in short supply.

The savings end at 11:59 PM Pacific time on Monday, so if you need some fancy new tees, don’t hesitate. Get some!

It’s worse than I could have possibly imagined.

I think the comments say it all:

I just died a little when Kurt Cobain said “YEAH BOYYYYY”

Courtney I’d expect… but Dave? Dave I used to like you… how could you sign off on this?

i’m pretty sure Kurt, in a freebase-induced dream state, saw into the future and watched this video. then he wrote his suicide note.

What is so upsetting is that while Harmonix was “terrified” with getting the Beatles right, it appears Activison couldn’t give a flying fuck.  Imagine Paul McCartney in the clip above, then imagine the shit storm he would rain down with his legal team.

But I guess that’s what happens when your estate is left in such competent and capable hands.  At least the executors of my estate know I am to be represented digitally as a female wood elf druid upon my passing.

Actually, he wasn’t.  Wesley Willis only said that because it rhymed.  He also said suck a male camel’s dick with Hoisen sauce.  And he headbutted me.  Mike was there, and can confirm this is 100% true.  But I’m getting off topic.

Kurt Cobain is in Guitar Hero 5.  Think about that for a second.  Here’s a guy who had trouble buying himself a “fancy” new car  (it was a Lexus if you’re wondering, and he returned it two days later when his friends made fun of it) after he became rich, and now he’s fronting Activision’s 5th installment of their dying cash cow they milked one too many times.

If Kurt knew he’d be polygonally immortalized wearing a cardigan and a shirt drawn by Daniel Johnston,  I’m pretty sure he would have never touched either ever in his life.  Maybe it would have been something a little less ESRB friendly.

So who’s really behind this commercial betrayal of everything Kurt?  Frances Bean?  I doubt it.  I’m looking at you, Courtney.

I’m in a bit of a gaming funk at the moment.  The only games I really want to play aren’t out yet.    And ironically, they are all the third installments of successful franchises: Forza 3, Diablo III, and now God of War III.  Check out these new GoW III screen shots from Gamescom in Germany:

They ooze perfect art direction.

So completely bad ass.  I am also realizing I’m a sucker for winged human form.  First it’s Morrigan and Lilth from Darkstalkers, then comes Kaelyn the Dove from Mask of the Betrayer, then Aion goes and hands out a set of wings to anyone over level 10, and now Kratos sprouts some epic feathered appendages of his own.

I’m so easily manipulated.  Here, take my money.  Tell me Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is a third installment as well, and let’s you fly, and I’ll plunk down cash for a pre-order for that right now too.  Just kidding.  You go have fun giving Bowser a rectal exam.  I’ll be playing GoW III, ripping Icarus a new one.