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This week, it's some good old fashioned game talk. Amnesia The Dark Descent! Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker! Alan Wake! Plus: Games are too buggy, Richard sings (twice), and stay tuned after the credits for some impromptu Halo: Reach chat. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, Richard Naik, and Tim "Let's Grow a Beard Together" Spaeth.

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Games discussed:

• Amnesia: The Dark Descent
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
• Alan Wake
• Halo: Reach

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

Bored of the Rings

HIGH The cutscenes will make you wistful for the superior films.

LOW My wrist. Ow... Ow; my wrist.

WTF Who is this game for!?

Been spending some more time with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the PlayStation Portable. Like I said in the last post, it got off to a slow start but it's really been picking up. After putting a few more hours into it and getting past the fifth boss, I think what I like most is that it's both stripped down (the tactical stealth action) and complex (the Outer Heaven sections) at the same time.

I've been trying to push forward in Red Dead Redemption, but after putting a few hours into it, it still hasn't grabbed me. Great graphics, plenty of content, blah blah blah… I think the thing for me is that I'm a big story guy. Stories and characters matter to me, and if a game gets off on the wrong foot then it takes a lot for me to stay with it. I know a lot of people say that Redemption really pays off in the end, but it just starts so poorly that I can't find the motivation to continue.

Change is Good, but Soul is Better

HIGH The pulse-pounding boss fights are some of the best in the series.

LOW The story is easily one of the worst.

WTF Sanitized or not, I never thought I'd see a torture scene in an Ys game.

Adol the Red is Back and This Time He Brought Friends

HIGH Bringing down a boss that has over 100K hit points in short order thanks to the fluid and fun combat system.

LOW Whenever the game forces players to stop killing things and advance the uninspired story.

WTF Really? A princess in disguise and a prison scene? Come on, RPG writers...

Game Description: Ys SEVEN is the latest installment in the long-running Ys series which first debuted on PC in 1987. This is the first iteration to be built specifically for the PSP system, taking full advantage of the widescreen format and hardware. The battle system consists of a three-member battle party with enemies engaged on the field map in real-time for fast-paced combat. Old fans of the series and new players alike will be immersed into the rich vibrant world containing over 30 hours of gameplay.

I absolutely adored the first Valkyria Chronicles on PS3, and felt guilty that I didn't play it in time to praise it on my top ten last year. After being reminded by a reader of that particular oversight, I figured I should probably get to the sequel this year to make sure I didn't make the same mistake again.I'm extremely early in the game so I can't speak on it definitively, but what I've seen so far is quite a mixed bag.

Something Old, Something New

HIGH The first time I dominated an encounter after fully comprehending the battle system.

LOW Another last boss? Why can't this game just be over!

WTF Japanese developers really love their quasi-Christian bad guys.

I'm trying to decide what to tackle next… No decisions have been made yet, so I'll probably just try a few random things I've downloaded and then go to bed. However, while on the subject, it does bring up the issue of 2010—specifically, that there's only about eighty days left in it.