@cgrajko ❤

Finally found time to edit some videos. Ah… memories.

OK, I love you guys BUT remember, there’s a value attached to your time. The time you all have spent belly-aching about the ME3 DLC farce equates to the retail cost of about 3 special editions. You guys are silly.

Mass Effect 3 is the one game this year that I’ll pay retail for with a smile on my face. That art book (and some figures) will also be owned. That’s all I have to say about that.

Yeah, I think it’s time we all flaunt @unmanneddrone-made avatars. It’s the Squad Sig v2.0.

@sinfony No worries, I had money on it being wording since I already know you’re a straight up sorta guy =P Part of the responsibilities of friendship is keeping people grounded, and chances are, you’ll have to do it to me sooner then we both think.

@unmanneddrone did you get my submissions?

Also, this evening’s 7 man NMRiH run starring myself, @bluesforbuddha, @bowlisimo, @scribl, @shingro @impynickers and his roommate was just another example of why multiplayer amongst the Squad needs to happen more often. Simply an epic 2 hours 😀

@unmanneddrone oh god, that was amazing, it’s barely past noon and I’m pretty sure nothing this week is going to top that 😀 I submit… triple faces XD XD XD
I want to believe that under the steel isn’t the normal padding, but cardboard from Keiji’s box fort. We really need a title or something that we can tag whenever you do one of those, because they’re amazing and mustn’t be lost =D

@sinfony DWARF FORTRESS!! Man I love myself some dwarf fortress, took me some time to get into it at the start, even for a roguelike veteran there’s some serious interface and options there. Got to one economy and then after my entire fortress became homeless and destitute because they couldn’t pay their rent since maybe 6 gold coins in circulation and only half had jobs. I decided that next game I was going to turn economy off but still never managed to Delve Too Deep, what a great great great game though. My favorite things are the artifacts and seeing what crazy thing they come up with and imagining the story that had to have come from that. The best artifact ever came from that actually

That’s right, they made a silk thong with the image of the horse on it, It was quickly nicknamed “The Stallion” and my friends and I decided that clearly my dwarves were porn stars, The engravings all over the dining hall with the phrase “The Dwarf is raising the thong” took on a whole new meaning when we suspected that he might not be using his hands to do so ¬_¬ Hysterics abounded.

I got out of DF somewhere around the time toady started work on the medical stuff (a year +ago?) so I’m well due to go back in and see how everything works again =) Perhaps we should fiddle with the idea of doing our own Succession Game Boatmurdered style? I doubt anything would top the crazyness that went on there, but we might have our own crazy story. Either way if you need members for a mission, I’m entirely game. Heck I might need to make another effort to wrestle a friend of mine onto these boards since he was one of those guys who did Projects in dwarf fortress (Glass tower with growing trees on top and a waterfall pouring off the edges, dunno if he ever got all the parts of it done)

It’s really interesting the different ‘methods’ and types of dwarves people tend to make, mine tend to be serious farmers and have a strong surface presence defending themselves mostly with crossbows and such, Dave scoffs at me and calls them elves, he equips his dwarves with obsidian and a huge military of naked dwarven wrestlers. There’s no accounting for taste =P

And a warm welcome to @wrdsmth! Great to have you on board!

Hey guys, I saw Chris post on Facebook inviting wayward Squaddies to rejoin the conversation. The biggest reason why I’ve been away is that I find it hard to keep up with this single feed. The conversation moves pretty quickly!

Also, my job kinda restricts how much I can talk about games publicly. (Maybe I’ll create a new WordPress account. This username is already somewhat associated with my real name.)

On the topic of ME2 though… Your choices in ME1 really don’t have much of an impact on your ME2 experience, but if you’re really concerned about it, EA released a motion comic on XBLA that you can pick up for about $4. It summarizes the events of ME1 and lets you make all the key decisions of the first game.

It’s called Mass Effect 2: Genesis. It was originally created for the PS3 version of ME2 because ME1 was never ported.

@rocgaude Amen to that. Also, I await your response to my Hero Academy challenge. Decided to finally jump into that game – I need to find something to compete against you since Words with Friends isn’t going my way 😉

On a related iOS note, anyone have Ticket to Ride? Been curious about the new asynchronous multi option and would rather play with friends than strangers….

Finally, just got through all 5 threads of Katawa Shinjo so I am ready for the Squadcast experience. Pushing play as we speak 😀

In the middle of a big move right now but seeing @tolkoto, @jeffgrubb, and @sinfony back in action makes me feel all special and stuff.

@allayous I was resisting the urge to clarify my position based on the rollicking conversation it started (which is really the only outcome I’m ever looking for), but enough people have expressed bewilderment that I think I’ll try to explain just a tad.

Indeed, the Squad is a place to talk about whatever games you’d like. Absolutely, 100%, not even an issue. However, what has happened a couple of times recently is that the discussion has spun so rapidly around a particular topic that anything else gets thrown clear, Dyson tornado-style.

I’ve watched over the past couple months as certain topics get posted (no lie, I’m one of the affected) and then immediately get steamrolled in the excitement about the latest flavor. It’s disappointing, and while I can’t say for sure, I feel it has something to do with the absence of some of our “centering” ranks as Chris put it.

Without getting too sappy crappy, this is a special place with special people, and you don’t find that often. I think we all get protective of what we’ve built here in our own way. That’s pretty much where I was coming from. Well, that and the fact that I don’t want to see any of you guys on next week’s To Catch A Predator.

That is all.

Very interesting discussion overall going on around here. And like @Bowlismo, I get both sides.

I understand where @Feenwager and @CMWhittington are coming from as most of our recent discussions have centered around more esoteric games. I would probably place myself in the more ”centralizing” category to work with @CMWhittington ‘s notion from earlier. I am currently working through Bayonetta and have Saints Row 3, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Uncharted 3 ready to go. The last thing I thought I would enjoy was Christine Love or Katawa Shoujo but what the heck, turns out I do. If it weren’t for the crazy level of discussion that went on here, I would have never even considered them. I am thankful for the Squad presenting me with these experiences. Another classic example of that is Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden. The Squad gets wrapped up in these ”off-center” games and off we go. And yes, probably much more than many of the AAA titles that come out but I think there are other reasons for that.

In my mind, this occurs because most of us do not follow the release schedule of these games and play them on our time. Some games (Mass Effect 3 comes to mind soon… not for me though) will be exceptions and most of you will play it simultaneously and those it will lend itself to further discussion. Most of the time though, one of us will play it on release and the rest at varying points after. Thus, when someone posted their impressions, there isn’t as much feedback because no one is playing along at the same time. It is either recalling their previous playthrough from some months back or saying ”I will get to it soon”. This is my experience commonly with most games I play (Most recently Bayonetta and Chrono Trigger) and post here but that’s fine. I don’t always expect to start a crazy 2 page long thread with my posts. If that happens, cool, Otherwise, move on to next topic.

Games like Katawa Shoujo, Christine Love and Barkley increased discussion because they are generally short experience that either free or dirt cheap, hence more people are likely to play at the same time.

In short, I understand the issue but see it more as circumstance than anything else.

Carry on 🙂

@impynickers <3. I'm more thankful then you know that you straight up brought the concerns I sorta hemmed and hawed around. Much appreciated, you're a gentleman and a scholar =P

@squad anywho, I'm out for the day probably, headed down to Brighton to get together with a crew of my old fighting game tourny buddies to put SCV through some more multiplayer paces. Bringing Raphael as main and Tira as sub. We'll see! Will probably have some (brief) commentary on it eventually. (also if anyone wants to friend me on PS3 as Shingro_ I'd love to fight with you guys sometime :D)

To @feenwager‘s point, I’ve also found the discussion here lately to be far outside of my interest level. I agree that the Squad is a uniquely mature place that’s perfect for discussions like these but the balance just seems to be off. @unmanneddrone made a great point that many posts get ignored while the obscure game discussions reign supreme. I’m sure that some kind of restructuring of the discussions (like what @bluesforbuddha has alluded to) would help out a lot.

I was playing Hero Academy yesterday and realized that while I was playing with a lot of Squaddies, only @angryjedi posts here regularly. The lack of “centering” voices from the others (@iscariot83, @bigdaddygamebot, @zegolf, @scribl, @ajguy) is really missed around here. I’m going to reach out to them.

Much love to my Squaddies.

Hmm, this is touching on a point that has been niggling at my brain recently so I think it’s time to get out the soapbox and that tri-corner hat again, over the ridge!

For myself I’ll back feen but I’ll also say that regardless of what group you belong to there’s a far more graduated sliding scale of it. I’ve met ‘enthusiasts’ who seem only pleased to talk about what they don’t like about their hobby, and ‘nerds’ who can rationally talk about a topic. Attitude has far more to do with who is willing to go after people and enthusiams then the level of ‘hardcore-ness’ you bring to your hobby. I’ll describe myself as an otaku, but I’m a rational otaku, I’m more then happy to say what’s good about what I enjoy, but there’s nothing wrong with what other people enjoy, be it shooting/sports/whatever.

If you tell me the concept of ‘moe’ is a pox upon the human race, great, sounds like the starting point for a good discussion. Paint ‘weeabo’ on my door in blood, well… I probably won’t be happy with you exactly, but neither is that a reason to hate the whole group of whatever that person belongs to. Similarly, no reason to paint all nerds with the same brush just because some of them lack any tact or are unable to get distance from their own fandoms. A high level of enthusiasm for a topic or item does not necessarily make your very nature insufferable. (or at least that’s how I see it, I suppose it is possible to hate the nature of enthusiasm, but I don’t think any of them would survive here, wrong PH levels. Just to find the squad you have to be a pretty hardcore enthusiast (that includes you feen )

And there’s still so many missions waiting out there… I don’t think we’ve ever talked any Microprose, Space Quest, Kings Quest, Police Quest and how that informed things like Heroes Quest/Quest for Glory(depending on how early you got it.) I don’t think many missions even poked at the early console days. There’s a lot of history left in gaming and I don’t think it is getting looked at. Now, more then ever things are starting to draw back to that cyclical area, and the old is becoming more relevant then ever. Even looks at modern things with that informed awareness of the past is important.

Tim Schafer’s Kickstarter showing that maybe the problem with Telltale games isn’t an intrinsic problem with the genre. the X-com and Syndicate reboots, and how x-com got a sequel Them taking another stab at tactical x-com even! The indie space too is a veritable primordial soup of new ideas and evolutions of gaming just aching to find it’s way to dry land. Biggest winner of game of the year 2011? Portal 2, but Portal 1 was a school project a scattering of years ago. now you can’t move for indie-made-big games (bastion, minecraft, terraria, etc.)

We are (or at least were) all about the really deep dive to end all deep dives. I challenge you to find another gaming podcast anywhere on the internet that talked about how Persona 3 was related to the ancient story telling history of the Tarot, (if someone does, by all means pass me a link. =P) It is (or was) our most unique and interesting feature it was “The Mission” to find games that no one talked about and talk about them, and it seems somewhere along the way as the squad grew it picked up enough ‘specialists’ to

I dunno, the squad is made up of everyone, we sometimes roll up for the most casual of suggestions “Hey guys, dead space 2 is pretty good, give it a try!” and sometimes we drop walls of text on the nature of life as seen through the lens of gaming. both are totally fine, and we all have perspectives to speak at the table, be welcome here =) but I will shed tears if the deep analysis goes away, because there are still important things left to say. If not us, who?

Sure we don’t necessarily have the people and expertise for a full and comprehensive review of everything that has ever been done in gaming, but we’re a pretty damn sight further and more comprehensive then anyone else I’ve seen. Besides, isn’t that sort of the purpose of being a squad in the first place? Different people have different specialties, and if you don’t know, it’s likely you have access to someone who does, and if you’re lucky if they’re a real die hard true blue nerd they’ll be so excited to talk about it they’ll drop everything to talk about it for free. It won’t always be 100% right out of the gate, and maybe we won’t even have the right specialists… but it’s a starting point, and if someone rages for an inaccuracy that’s just another opportunity for a great and enlightening conversation. Where else can you say that happens regularly?

TL:DR. The otakus are not always creepy, the nerds not always insufferable, some of us are rational and reasoned. Don’t shut us out, we just love some things very much, even the insufferable nerds at the core ‘only want to help you make the right choice’ misguided, not bad. The squad is made of all kinds, including nerds and nerd-kings. No reason to keep the squad ❤ from any particular people, they're more complicated then you might think. I'm pretty sure that everyone in the squad is here in good faith which is why we can talk between all levels of enthusiasm. Also: I love our unique brand of analysis and the amazing depth and perspectives some of you guys can take while looking at things. I hope beyond hope that always remains part of the squad.

Okay, finally have a moment to relay my thoughts about Chrono Trigger. Wall of text incoming.

Initial feeling: Holy crap I actually beat a JRPG! The last one I can remember prior to this was Super Mario RPG (I don’t count the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi Games as they don’t strike me as “true” JRPGs but I will leave that to the experts around these parts). I’m not sure how much the story really kept me going or if it was just my “Goddamnit I finally need to do this” resolve that the Giant Bomb Endurance Run spurned on. Not to say that the story wasn’t engaging (far from it) but there was a time where I completely lost track of what the heck was going on because of all the time traveling and the effects of what my party was accomplishing in each era. The fight with Lavos also felt strangely anti-climatic because I accidentally started the fight when it first becomes available to you, so I knew that in the end, I needed to remember the patterns of the “bosses” I fought previously. The march through the Black Omen felt more like the true final battle because I didn’t know what was coming with the Queen.

The game mechanics are what really got me. I am amazed at how well the game holds up after 18 years. The active combat system keeps the pace lively but doesn’t rush you through the point where you can’t think about your actions as you go. I never ran into the need to level grind – the game kept things lively enough so that my party was never at a disadvantage with the enemies at any stage. That eliminated a huge sore spot for me that usually dissuaded me from most JRPGs. The armour and weapon selection and upgrade process was also nicely streamlined – there is never a spot where you are really unsure about what to equip. There is always a clear choice which eliminates much headaches and the classic “inventory overload” syndrome that hits me usually.

There are things from the game that are clearly rooted in 1994 which took time for me to get used to again. First, no clear quest log – I really needed to keep track of my activities and my conversations with NPCs. Second, the need to speak with every NPC because certain mission elements (despite my understanding of where to go without the queue) won’t activate unless you have the right conversation. Third, the translation – the DS version appears to have been fixed somewhat (compared to what Ryan Davis and Klepek dealt with on the SNES) but some of the tech descriptions made ABSOLUTELY no sense. Finally, the DS version saved me with the map that it has on the bottom screen – made backtracking a little less frustrating (but not really – WAY too much of that in this game and unnecessarily so especially given the re-generating enemies that pop up)

Anyway, I truly enjoyed my experience and finally feel a slight weight lifted off my shoulders. Not sure I tempted to play that many more JRPGs but I’m open to suggestions from you on where to go from here on that front. Next up, I’m going to try and finish Bayonetta because I have unopened copies of Saints Row 3, Revelations, Uncharted 3 and Ico/SotC HD sitting here waiting for me. All the talk on the board here has convinced me to try Katawa Shoujo. Just downloaded it and while I will probably be on the @Feenwager side of this one, I figure why the hell not. Not costing me anything except my time.

Quick hitters to end this:

I use this moment to comment on the awesomeness of the Double Fine Kickstarter project. So happy that people (me included – went 30$ although the chance to be in the credits almost got me to 100$) were willing to pony up for a point-and-click adventure game. Beyond excited for this – especially for the documentary that will film the process. Interesting game changer here financially – although I hope most developers realize that this is only possible in certain situations and with a certain long-term credibility attached to them. I can’t wait for “THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE” articles that we’ll get in the near future 😉

Regarding the game scores topic, I have nothing to add to the debate except that you are all awesome and debates/conversations like that one are why I love the Squad 🙂

Wall of Text complete.

Off to bed I go…

Also: I love you guys. Where else on the Web could you find discussions that flow like the ones we’ve had here? You rock.

@Feen As long as you don’t mind I don’t =P you don’t strike me as the sort to disapprove of people in seriousness, and I’m not the sort of otaku that blames people for not being into what he’s into. Rational Otakuism! ask for it by name~!

Dawwww, that’s awfully nice of you guys, squad love ❤

Normally I roll with the 'no shame' theory (heck I referenced a pretty serious eroge in my greeting post way back when <_<) but what this game *might* have been isn't something aligned with my normal tastes and something that could easily get censure. On top of that, you never know what people will believe on the internets…

Still, Squad duty called.

Anywho, in the Whatcha Been Playin list has been: Revenge of the Titans (HARD!), Civ 5(One more turn…), Dungeons of Dreadmor(rougelike goodness), and Katawa Shoujo(@_@).

@unmanneddrone Understood. I always have a silly game like TF2 or Battlefield installed to be able to mindlessly decompress. “Sometimes you just need to chainsaw some orks” is damn right. Also, even if you end up not enjoying DE:HR, don’t feel bad about it. I don’t want anyone feeling pressured to like something. In fact, come here and proudly state why it sucked. ❤ Squad.

X3, I may go back to if I ever find myself craving SPACE! in a lull again. I'll probably just mod the game and forgo useless achievements to make it a less brutal time sink. I was just at a point where I had gotten much of the X experience that there is to offer, my fleet was devastating everything, and the piss poor UI got harder and harder to manage the more stuff you owned (I really hope they address that in the new game). There's sooooo much in X3:TC, but it's tailored to be the least accessible game ever.

Sorry about being an mp3 deadbeat, I'll send it in now.

Fellows, I was in the mood to try something a little different…as in, putting together a Squad music mix. If you’ve one or two music pieces – from any time, artist, genre, medium etc. – you’d like to put forward, I’d be interested in gathering them up and arranging them in a bit of a mix for all and sundry to listen to. It’d be quite interesting to see the different tastes and whatnot of the Squad.

If you’re interested – and in the interests of surprise – shoot me a DM on twitter.

Could be quite fun to listen to once its all arranged. Only if you’re interested.

—

Hope you East Coaster Squaddies are riding this out safely with minimal damage to property. As an Aussie and as a fellow residing where I do, harsh meteorological and geological testing of mettle is something I can immediately empathise with.

I tell you what, if the bomb dropped and the SoS were all hunkered down in some bunker somewhere, we’d be well equipped to helm culture from there on out. We’ve writers, musicians, thinkers, ruminators (the more ponderous of robots from the future) and scribblers.

Squaddies gone FS-mad. I approve of this sickness, this mania.

@mjpilon Sir, that is some righteous squad love straight up. Terrific stuff.

@Shingro I dunno, I think the best way to learn the basics is simply to jump into multiplayer. Although, the campaign is a great way to slowly build up your knowledge, as the inbuilt “tutorial” offers great scenarios with incremental difficulty to keep you on your toes. Either way, we should collate a list of our in-game names for everyone to add to their FS friends list. For a friendly firefight.

Oh, and apparently they’re going to patch in 2v2 down the line, but it’s a long way out yet. Doubles!

EDIT: This was suggested in answer to the Bracket question. Neat.

The lesson to be learned by Mark’s travels through GameFAQ’s forum is this:

Don’t talk about games in forums…come here instead.

That is all.

@unmanneddrone: Sorry I’ve been a bit out of the loop around here. Rather a lot of things on my mind what with the house move and all, yo.

Just read your Japan spiel, and let me add my thanks to you for a great, eye-opening read. Glad to have an “insider’s perspective” to call us out on things we have little way of knowing about!

In other news, you guys are awesome. While editing the last ‘cast, it struck me (as it frequently does) that we really do have something unique here. And I think Season 2 is going well so far. It’s only going to get better, too, as you’ll all see in the upcoming episodes.

In the meantime, keep the discussions flowing and the good times, they are a-rollin’.

It’s 1:30AM. I should probably sleep. But I’m half-tempted to play a couple of matches on Reach IKNOWIKNOWSHUTUPBEQUIETI’MEATINGWORDSIHAVEPROBABLYSAIDINTHEPAST BLAAARGH

Incidentally, I agree with what both @feenwager and @JeffGrubb said a little while back. There’s nothing wrong with the triple-A stuff. I know from a personal perspective I just give it shit because 1) a lot of those titles genuinely don’t appeal to me and 2) I know it provokes entertaining reactions. That said, Grubbles is definitely right about CoD’s technical prowess. Getting something that looks that good running at 60fps is nothing short of godlike. But, like he has no interest in Halo‘s subject matter, I have little interest in soldiers. I see them on the news every day.

Now, if they went and made a sci-fi shooter with a story that made sense using the CoD engine? Then I might get interested. Call of Duty: Future Warfare. Calling it now.

Playing through the 2nd time on Easy is going a long way towards my enjoyment factor. This is about rebuilding my Shepard, not punishing myself.

As far as the Halo thing, I get the heebie-jeebies when this group ventures beyond the “we like playing games, and talking about them intelligently, and if we can unearth hidden gems all the better” and into the “we don’t like anything popular, hence we are insufferable nerds” territory.

Luckily, it’s rare we toe that line, but consider me the nerd police. (dah dah dah duh dum duh)

Fellows, in a moment of reflection and rumination, I just wanted to again thank the brass of the SoS for getting this little corner of the net up and running, for the simply fact that it’s not populated by token internet peasantry.

Indeed, as you know, I’m rather fond of RUSE. In fact, it’s swinging mightily for my GOTY and has made the shortlist not long after the shrinkwrap was stripped away and the game slotted. If I share my thoughts here, unlike a certain mire that so calls itself the “preeminent video game industry discussion community”, I won’t be met with cynicism or have the interesting and lengthy cumulative output of a studio denigrated by charlatans and fraudsters. The SoS would never shrug off a title as “Well, it isn’t Starcraft 2 or Civ V, so it must be piss-poor!” Never mind the fact you can’t compare either game in that triumvirate to each other without gross generalisations popping up, along the lines of “It’s a game. With units.”

Not to mention people’s reactions to games yet unreleased, case in point one half of my Gaming Season choices.

It’s not a question of being defensive or “butthurt” (of which I got accused of when pointing out the majority of people who hated upon Section 8 probably never played it or didn’t play it enough to understand it’s a little more technical than Halo – objectively, not subjectively), more the sad nature of the internet giving a platform and megaphone to negative folks who talk a lot but don’t have much to say.

Here, the atmosphere is delightfully relaxed, the discussion is great and the cadence friendly. Much like @RocGaude said during our Giant Bomb discussion, it’s so civil here! If people don’t want to engage in discourse pertaining to a certain game, there’s no “looks shit, why would you?!” rubbish. A quick glance, a musing, a casual back and forth. Nothing is immediately dismissed with that token 21st century kneejerk negativity.

Squad, you’re a great gang. One of the last bastions of quality gaming-related waffling on the net, a granite spire of hope rising from the sucking dross of mediocre fly-by-night whinge and whine merchants. One of the last bastions of honest anticipation.

…and then Master Grubb appears with a lovely piece of snark. I love it!

Man, it’s great to debate shit here and not “out there”. I took a tour yesterday at other sites (both old haunts and undiscovered territories) to see what the scuttlebutt around the web was about the Giant Bomb deal and it brought me way down. Thanks for always bringing the fat chewing to a civilized level, everybody. 🙂

On the drive to work today, I got to thinking about the Medal of Honor ban at US bases and I think I’ve decided on my comment about it. I’ll be sure to share it on the SquadCast this weekend.

@ShotgunGlass Welcome aboard. Hope to hear more from ya.

@beige 1UP riffing off of us is nothing …

@beige 1UP riffing off of us is nothing new. Remember 1UP FM’s Backlog? I do…well, did.

I used to be bothered about the whole thing. @beige knows all about my crazed IM rants. Today, I couldn’t care less. They can rip off our format all they want but they’ll never have the key ingredients that make it work for the Squad…all of us.

@beige Yeah, the architecture thing appears to be a more apt parallel. I think it does away with a lot more of the high-brow fluff and pomp that doesn’t stand up to outsider scrutiny, though the crusaders for legitimacy throw up as reasoning – for better or worse. If described as creator interpretation-turned construct – a veritable artificial playground (undoubtedly a pejorative term for the Eberts and such, perhaps a cementing of the “it’s a juvenile pastime” defense) or a recalculated bento of stylised space-time (bordering on super-stretch?), then I think we’ve got a nice little piece of techno-business that will befuddle the dinosaurs and tantalise the newcomers.

Although, this legitimacy cry is, of course, a tiny section of dynastic change. We’ll laugh about those curious old days when the cultural relevance of the medium was questioned and challenged.

@feenwager In honour of the new SoS format, I shall go sans pantaloons for as long as possible today. You guys really were on fire on the podcast. Utterly loved it.

Oh, I threw this at the wonderful @angryjedi last night, but for anyone interested in an arcade-style Delve Deeper/Dungeon Keeper/Badman-esque Dwarf management sim (we’ve gone Dwarf-crazy here, it seems!), there’s a free open beta for…

Dwarfs Open Beta Deluxe – http://bit.ly/9HOoAM
Indiegames.com Preview – http://bit.ly/as5grr

According to the site ( http://bit.ly/9Mo2YC ), ““Dwarfs” is an arcade/strategy game set deep underground. Your goal is to explore a vast, randomly generated dungeon, while at the same time protecting your home town from harm.”

It’s good fun, and has a charming sense of humour. And free, so nobody can say no. Unless you hate dwarves…and that kind of discrimination went out of vogue a while back.

You know what’s awesome? The fact that we sit (perhaps with pants on, perhaps not) in our respective chairs, talk nonsense for a few hours, and people from around the fuggin’ world give us thoughtful, insightful commentary.

Humbling. You all rock.

Also, you guys rule. This is just like the old days. Keep it up. 🙂

It’s pretty bad ass how the conversation has literally picked right back up from where we left it. I just knew that having a Squawkbox would gather the kids back together. Maybe now mom won’t have to feign ear cancer anymore for attention and cheap chocolates.

So, E3…let’s get this topic kicked off right. While I’ve publicly admitted that this is the first one I’m not excited for, I’m finding that I’m eating my words again and full on accepting the fact that I probably won’t be getting much accomplished until the big 3 run their respective song and dances.

So, starting Monday, let’s gather up some collective cat calls about what looks nifty and what might wind up being Squad fodder.

You’ll notice there are RSS feeds for all the tags, too. Nice, huh?

I wish I could take credit for all this awesomeness. But I know jack shit about programming websites to do clever things like this. 🙂 Still, I found the theme. So I deserve at least, ooh, I don’t know, a cake or something, right?

@Chris the rss feed fits quite well into iGoogle as well. If that’s your sort of thing.

The mighty Alex (unmannedrone) has hopped into our new sandbox and there will be much rejoicing.

I wonder how much this will effect the Squad’s Twitter activity? Hopefully a mass exodus will happen but, of course, I’m biased. 😉

…and, holy poop on a stoop, the RSS feed works. My Google Reader feed hasn’t been this happy since the Squad’s golden days. Can I hear a “golden days are back again” one more time!? What what!

Oh man, Bowley’s even here. *snif*

We love you too, Chris! BRO HUG! BEARDED JUSTICE!

Is the Squawkbox going to be the exception to your “no social media” rule? 🙂 Cause you know it doesn’t really count as social media. We’re special. And we don’t play Farmville.

Do we? DOES ANYONE PLAY FARMVILLE?

I love you guys…and, no, I’m not drunk.