Shooting

Montgomery Scott. Kaylee Frye. Lucca. All are capable of fashioning a soup can, a book of matches, and some rocks into a warp drive. From this line of quirky mechanical geniuses comes the Engineer, Team Fortress 2's resident miracle worker.

After playing Hitman: Absolution at PAX Prime, I felt a lot more confident about it and decided to put $5 down at Gamestop in order to play the Sniper Challenge demo level.

In this episode, Brad is freshly back from PAX Prime and gives us the low-down on what he saw there. We then go into a huge, spoiler-ridden discussion of The Walking Dead Episode Three. Don't worry, we tell you before we start talking about it. Stop being paranoid. With Chi Kong "Mr. C" Lui, Brad "Richie" Gallaway, Mike "Potsie" Bracken, Richard "The Fonz" Naik and Dylan "Arnold" Collins.

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Woken Up

HIGH Dominating the street races with my Velocita.

LOW Flipping a mission-critical van when I was two feet away from the destination.

WTF Why did Activision cancel this game again?

When I wrote a post about the Camp aesthetic in games a few years back, I suggested that one of the greatest areas of camp potential in games lay in violence. A commenter suggested I take a look at Rogue Warrior, a universally-panned game inexplicably starring Mickey Rourke as real-life SEAL team commander Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko. The game did not disappoint: Rogue Warrior is a great example, perhaps the best example, of a game that in its violent excess becomes unintentionally comic.

Tonight, we talk games. Lots of games. Sleeping Dogs, Risen 2, Darksiders 2, Papo & Yo, Spec Ops, Way of the Samurai 4 and so many more! We're back and in full force, ladies and gentleman! With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Richard "Children must be taught to draw from birth" Naik, special guest Jeffrey Matulef and Dylan Collins.

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Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

It's Deep

HIGH It's a well-rounded and substantial add-on.

LOW It's tough to revisit the game after the controversial ending.

WTF It really takes Shepard too long to figure this out.

In a recent commentary on Valve's Half-Life 2 Episodes, Marsh Davies criticizes much of Episode One for its "failure to make your navigation comprehensible, either spatially or narratively." He goes on to praise Episode Two for remembering to provide the player with an overview of its regions, so that the spaces allow the player to see the places he has been, or is going to. As I was reminded in my own recent replay of the original Half-Life and its companion games, this is not a recent improvement by Valve, but a return to form.

Welcome to the World of Shooting Gallery Horror

HIGH The triumphant return of Hunter Gammas!

LOW Instant-death QTEs in a rail shooter.

WTF It is impossible to decapitate a zombie with a shotgun. Make of that what you will.

A Serious Trial of Suspending Disbelief

HIGH Occasional funny dialogue.

LOW Zero gameplay variety or innovation.

WTF Make me feel guilty after forcing me to murder 200 people? Yeah, right.