Several weeks ago Seb Wuepper posted a critique of Far Cry 3's design at Gameranx that I did not find compelling. Wuepper's argument reads less like criticism of Far Cry 3's design per se than a complaint about the fact that this game is not Far Cry 2. I am sympathetic to his point because I also prefer Far Cry 2. However, I don't feel that not being some game I like more is a fundamental argument against design quality.

Bigger, Better, Badder

HIGH A new Monster Hunter is finally available! It's not a dream!

LOW The game’s first few hours are painfully slow.

WTF How many damned carpenterbugs am I going to need here?

Seriously Expanded

HIGH Finally I get my hands on a laser cannon!

LOW The whole first level is just a mess.

WTF It's official: Any super-sized enemy can be a boss.

In Space, No One Can Hear Me Yawn

HIGH Dismembering Necromorphs still offers some visceral thrills.

LOW Being forced to fight wave after wave of cannon fodder enemies in the game's multiple kill rooms.

WTF Ellie's romantic interests seem to change pretty easily.

Nuke It from Orbit

HIGH That box art is pretty nifty.

LOW The alien is crouched in front of me, ready to spr- no, wait, it's still crouching... still crouching while I shoot it... Now it's dead, and its buddy has come to crouch in its place.

WTF How did a major title get released in this state?

Few booths were as busy at PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) East 2013 as that of Supergiant Games. Over the last two years, the Bastion creators have become indie superstars. Despite the circus, I found a few minutes to speak with Logan Cunningham, the voice of old man Rucks from Bastion, on how it feels to reprise his narrative role trapped inside of the eponymous weapon in Bastion's next venture: Transistor.

A Joyful Noise

HIGH The perfect build and delicious release of "Only a Man."

LOW Hitting a retro cartridge by accident during a perfect run on high difficulty.

WTF Please, please tell me that those aren't Reverse Merman's balls.

In other games news, I've been tooling around with a few things randomly. With the wife currently in command of my Nintendo 3DS (she's working on her own Monster Hunter character, of course) I've hopped back onto the PlayStation Vita and have been trying to catch up with what I've missed during my recent 3DS binge.

Hallways… In… Spaaaaaaaaaaace!

HIGH The second half of the game.

LOW The first half of the game.

WTF Why is there so much filler here?

I've been touched by some of the response to the Shooting Straight post that I wrote a few weeks ago. I wrote it in reaction to the spate of layoffs that we'd seen from IGN at the time, and the layoffs really shook me because that could have been me out there had I found the courage to trust in my talents and go for a paying job in the gaming press. I don't know how I would've handled being suddenly let go, having to scramble to salvage my future, and wondering where to go from there.