Well, I'm back. After five days in San Diego and a few back in the office, I've had some time to reflect on my experiences at Comic-Con this year. I shared a bunch of them in the HotSpot, conveying mostly my affinity for the convention and the kind of atmosphere it engenders. But, despite all the fun I had hosting hours of live video and walking the show floor, there are some things that have stayed with me that I wish I'd done differently. So read on, dear reader, to read a reasonably readable list of some of my Comic-Con regrets.

1. Not taking a free pedicab ride. There were rows and rows of eager young bicyclists ready to haul me around the Gaslamp District in kingly fashion, yet I ignored them. I was happy to stretch my legs after hours in the Hard Rock suite/studio, though I can't say the same for some of my griping co-workers - four blocks isn't that far to walk for dinner, folks! It was the sponsored ones that offered free rides that I wish I had ridden, if only to lord my luxury over all whom I surveyed.

2. Not talking to Danny Pudi. So I sidled up to a urinal to make good use of it, and shortly realized that I was relieving myself next to Abed from the NBC comedy, Community. "Hey dude, I love your work on the show! We always quote your character in the office the day after a new episode! My wife and I are huge fans! You rock! Troy and Abed in tha MOOORnin'!" All of these lines remained unspoken as I evacuated my bladder in silence. By the time I was done, he was gone. Strangers At A Urinal Code upheld, opportunity missed.

3. Not buying books with pictures in them. This oversight was driven home when I unveiled my show floor haul to GameSpot EIC Ricardo Torres, who instantly admonished me for buying only books with words. I was happy with my purchases: a cheap copy of A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (gotta see what all the hype is about) and Embassytown by China Mieville, a modern British fantasy author who is one of my favorites. But c'mon! It's COMIC-Con! No comics? Not even a graphic novel?! In my defense, I would have grabbed some Buffy and Angel & Faith from the Dark Horse store, but the line was really long. Like, soo long. Not much of a defense, I know.

4. Not seeing Joss Whedon or David Jaffe. As you may have gathered, I'm a fan of Joss Whedon, and when I saw him three Comic-Cons (Comics-Con? No, Comic-Cons.) ago, I really enjoyed it. So when Community Maven Synthia came back to the work room late one night with a signed poster and news of more Dr. Horrible, I sighed a heavy sigh of regret. I would have loved to see the Twisted Metal panel, too. I'm not a big fan or anything, but David Jaffe is very passionate about the stuff he works on and has a lot of respect for the fans. I really enjoyed seeing him talk last year. This year, I had to content myself with watching the Twisted Metal panel video we shot.

5. Not buying this Martin Hsu print. I mean, look at it. So pretty! So colorful! So whimsical! So I-really-don't-have-a-good-place-for-it-in-my-apartment!

6. Not rebuking the Lord of the Rings: War in the North player during Tonight on the Spot. Check out that dude I talked to starting around five minutes in. He's all, The Lord of the Rings is super wordy! And I'm all, whatever dude your game froze I gotta go! And I shoulda been all, if you don't appreciate the elaborate world-building of a true literary master than maybe you should just hold your tongue, knave! Buuut I didn't. Ah well. Check it out below, and keep watching to see me, Jody, and Maxwell pose with Gandalf. True story.

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The equipment is packed, the truck is away, and folks are starting to leave the office on this, the Friday before E3. An odd calm has started to creep in, and I find myself reminiscing a bit about past E's 3. This year is going to be quite a bit different as I'll be spending a lot more time on stage for our live show. Hosting demos up there is positively electric - the games are awesome, folks are stopping in the aisles to look, and the chat room and email are just silly with questions from the viewers. I'm really looking forward to it, and I hope you'll enjoy watching!

Here's a little souvenir from my jaunt down memory lane. This is my first E3 badge, from three years ago. Guess who else was there with me?

That's GameSpot's own Shaun McInnis hanging out back there, timing it just right to appear like a little homunculus over my shoulder. What a delightful individual. I suggest you check out his E3 video blog for a last round of candid interviews with some of the GS staff. Pretty well done stuff. For a little homunculus.

So as you may have guessed, a significant amount of my time has recently been spent working on the Homefront review. As I fought my way through the brief campaign, I had a chance to meet some of the folks that populate this harrowing vision of America's future. Some of the chattier ones stayed with me throughout the adventure, forbidding me climb ladders before they did and exhibiting a superhuman resistance to bullets. Others I met in passing, exchanging a few pleasantries as we both went about our business.

And some wouldn't talk to me at all, content to live in their own selfish little worlds. I'm talking here about the children. The only time I got close to any whippersnappers was in the visit to Oasis, a makeshift community out in the wasteland of vacated suburbs. The first ones I approached ignored me completely, content to "slumber" near the fire even though it was midday. One of them appeared to be having a bad dream. Either that, or he was pooping in his sleeping bag.

My next encounter with a wee one proved to be a bit dicier, as this one was guarded by a grown-up lady. She wasn't about to indulge my curiosity, and I didn't want to tell her that her baby looked dead. Fortunately, she seemed to notice something was amiss herself, which saved me the awkwardness of having to bring it up.

After I made my exit from this den of weirdos, I emerged into the backyard to find the weirdest weirdo of all. A child on a swingset. He seemed innocuous enough, engaged as he was in the honored childhood past-time that also makes most adults nauseous. Yet upon further inspection, it became clear that this was no child, but some strange misproportioned homunculus. Perhaps the settlers were keeping him as a sort of psychological warfare, or perhaps he just wandered in one day and no one had the courage to expel him and his overdeveloped shoulders.

As my dramatic language can attest, this little fella became quite the phenomenon around the office. Actually, I need to give credit to Shaun McInnis for spotting him during his time with the preview code. It was Shaun's initial reaction that led to the elevation of this "child" to near legendary status. For such a creature, no mere screenshot will suffice!

The least I could do was spring for the laser light background. If you want to see this lil' guy in action, check out the video review and scan forward to the 5:30 mark. You'll see. Then come back and let me know what you think. If enough people take a liking to this fella, I'll add an epilogue that includes a grim theory about his origin story.

I had a pretty great weekend. Yet in a weekend filled with naps in the sun, gorgeous sunsets, happy hours, a Super Bowl party at my place, indoor climbing, movie night, and spending time with my two-month old niece, the thing I'm thinking about on Monday morning is the Killzone 3 Multiplayer Open Beta.

I spent about five hours over the course of the weekend playing as the Field Medic. I invested every unlock point I earned in that class, discovering such delights as the Medi-Droid, a little flying gunbot that helped me earn a bunch of kills and assists. Even after I had been mortally wounded, I'd wait to respawn as long as my droid was alive and there were enemies nearby, chuckling as the droid shot up confused enemies who thought they had properly dispatched me. The little guy ain't much for stealth, but it did alert me to the presence of some flanking foes in time to save my hide.

Another favorite unlock was the ability to basically revive myself. This third-tier unlock lets you "stand up" after you have been mortally wounded and the respawn timer has ticked down. You can do it only once per life, but it's great ability, especially when your enemies don't take the time to finish you off. There were an astonishing number of players who didn't take the time to kill me when I was down and wounded, and you can bet your sweet bippy that I cackled with feral delight when I stood up and gunned them down.

I'm sensing a full-blown fever coming on here. And the only prescription is more K3 multiplayer.

Edit: Oh, and they are totally doing that good good stat-tracking. Check it!

This blog is a part of the scavenger hunt.

Share a couple of items on your Christmas wishlist this year.
Life Blu-ray (narrated by David Attenborough)
The Muppet Christmas Carol DVD
Civilization V for Mac
A high-quality umbrella

What games will you play during the holidays?
Though I'll be travelling and won't have much time for games, I'm hoping to get in some Halo: Reach multiplayer when I can. I might be hosting some friends for New Year's Eve, in which case Rock Band 3 and Dance Central will be in full effect!

What are the kinds of food or drinks you must have during the holidays?
Homemade Christmas cookies are always a must, as are hot drinks to keep me warm. Hot cocoa, hot cider, and hot toddies!

ORNAMENT HUNT ANSWER - CLUE 5

Here at GameSpot we make it a policy to, whenever possible, use assets that we have taken ourselves in our reviews. This means that, as a reviewer, I take a lot of screenshots and video when playing a game. Not all of them turn out well. Some are blurry and some are of nothing, but there are always a few that come through looking absolutely ridiculous. I refrain from posting these to our galleries, but I have a fair amount of shots on my desktop in a "Screenshot Rejects" folder, just waiting to be internetted. The time for action has come.

So without further ado, Dead to Rights: Retribution, as seen through screen captures that didn't make the cut!

Jack is a pretty athletic fighter, but this move would not look out of place is Swan Lake. He's not far from a full-on split!

A fake in-game ad for a movie called Fathom Crash, featuring the tagline "Pressure Builds, Fear Rises." Notable because they have put a freaking SHARK MOUTH on a GIANT MANTA RAY!! That is rad and terrifying and hilarious all at once!

Try to figure out how that guy's arm got there and you will hurt your brain.... you're trying aren't you? And now it hurts, doesn't it! Told you.

Snoozing or Snorting?

Another dose of in-game advertising, this time featuring an actual real life movie! I like how they added the date so as to ensure this content would be almost instantly outdated.

Is Shadow getting too enthusiastic? Did Jack punch a man so hard that he liquified? WHERE IS ALL THAT BLOOD COMING FROM?!

For the last image, I've compiled some helpful tips for you folks on how to perfectly execute Dead to Rights: Retribution's most iconic attack: The Scrotality.

Happy mauling!

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6190380/index.html

I'll be playing as Riverdogs on the 360. Possibly on the PS3 as Riverdogs14. Come out to play!

So I'm officially in the thrall of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I stay up too late playing it at night and I think about it way, way too much. When I'm not playing it, a part of me always wants to be playing it. Killzone 2 was the last online multiplayer game to grab me this completely, and I dare say BFBC2 might have a stronger grip. So much awesome!

But on to my anecdote and the question posed in the title of this entry. Last night I was playing on the 360 (I also dabble on the PS3) and decided to grab a few achievements. Signed on at about 11pm and got "Mission... Accomplished" in my first game. Two hours later in my this-is-the-last-one-for-real-this-time game, I got "The Dentist."

The Dentist achievement is rewarded for scoring a headshot with the engineer's repair tool. Normally reserved for fixing up friendly tanks or sabotaging enemy vehicles that you manage to sneak up close to. It's not exactly an anti-personnel device:

I mean, even the medic's defib pads are more sinister. But with the prevalence of recon players it isn't exactly rare to stumble upon a player so absorbed in his scope that he doesn't hear your approach. Then it's just a matter of pulling out the repair tool instead of the knife and BOOM! Headshot. Well, more like zzzZZZZ! ZZZZ! Z! ZZZZZ!!!! Headshot. It might have just been my positioning, but it really seemed like I had to take a few seconds to grind through the guy's skull in order to gib the grey matter inside.

I imagine that many of you, like me, feel an extra sting when you get killed by a knife. Maybe you carelessly let someone sneak up on you, maybe you just lost a knife fight. Either way, it stings. So I've got to imagine that realizing you were killed by a repair tool stings in the same way, but worse because your killer clearly went out of his way to pull out an unintuitive weapon and go to town on you. There's a mocking edge to it that the knife just doesn't have. So here's the question:

Does it make it better or worse to know that not only is your killer mocking you, he is earning an achievement for his troubles? Do you forgive him his affront because you sympathize with achievement seeking? Or does it rankle even more knowing that your humiliating death is now permanently enshrined in his profile and gamerscore?

I'm leaning towards the rankle. What do you think?

These quotes come largely from Mordin's loyalty quest. The embedded video is taken from later on, after acquiring the IFF, I believe.

Get a load of this guy:

Mordin Solus. This quirky Salarian genius cracks me up. His speech is so halting and abrupt, yet he is one of the most expressive characters in the game. I managed to scratch down some snippets from his quick delivery, though I must admit that I was loath to turn my attention elsewhere while he was speaking.

Mordin On Diversity

"Outliers in all species. Geniuses, idiots. But human probability curve offers greater variety."

Which raises an interesting point about galactic diversity. Sure, the Asari and the Krogans look very different from each other, but within the species, how much diversity is there? You never see a pink Asari, for example, or a Krogan that doesn't look angry as hell. Skin color is an outward racial identifier among humans upon which no shortage of prejudice is founded. I wonder, do Turians make judgements about each other based on their facial structure or the angle of their pointy head thingies? Does the height and curvature of a Salarian's horn-type dealies indicate his racial heritage? Or perhaps other species in the galaxy follow Mordin's urging when evaluating each other:

"No, ignore superficial appearance!"

Mordin On The Genophage

"Genophage not punishment. Simply alters fertility to correct for removal from hostile environment."

Probing Mordin on his work with the genophage produces some of the most interesting moral discussion in Mass Effect 2. Learning about the Salarians' role in first accelerating Krogan evolution and then retarding it is fascinating to me. That one species could so radically affect the other, yet still coexist on the galactic stage! Mordin, on behalf of his species, acknowledges how destructive it was to use the Krogan as soldiers against the Rachni. Anyone who has visited Tuchanka knows how the advanced weapon tech led to the repeated destruction of the Krogan homeworld. The Salarians seriously meddled with Krogan civilization, and in your dialogue options you get to choose how understanding or critical you are of their actions (for my part, I went the understanding route in hopes of getting him to talk more!). Aside from wanting to be a part of one of the most challenging scientific undertakings of his age, Mordin's actions are rooted in his personal philosophy:

"Rachni extinction tragic. Didn't want to repeat. All life precious. Universe demands diversity."

Mordin On Coping

"Personal. Private. Not appropriate for team."

When the genophage was successful, the result was devastating to the Krogan. Mordin tells about how he went to a Krogan planet to see the effects of his work, to fully comprehend what he had wrought. His recollection of seeing piles of stillborn Krogan young is heart-wrenching. Salarians may process emotion much faster than humans, but Mordin still uses seemingly universal mourning mannerisms when he talks about this tragedy. His voice gets quiet, his speech cadence slows, his gaze lingers a little bit longer in one place. He's very emotive. Perhaps, too much so?

I keed! I keeeed!

Mordin On Krogan Scientific Progress

"Good. Hate to see that."

'Cause if them Krogans learn them some anti-genophage science, hoooWEEE! That'd put us in a pickle.

Mordin On Stage?

"Gilbert and Sullivan. Always had me do the patter songs."

O RLY?

I watched this with my jaw on the floor. Then I exploded with laughter and delight. Then I watched it again. And again.

**WARNING** This series will contain Mass Effect 2 spoilers. Before I get into spoiler territory, I will try to note how far along I was when each entry was conceived, but I make no promises. Proceed at your own risk.

Intro

I make a habit of keeping a small notebook next to me when I play games at home. Sometimes, it just kind of sits there while I busy myself with shooting people in the face. Other times, I use it to jot down ideas, record quotes, or describe memorable moments from the game I'm playing. It's become an amusing log of my gameplay adventures

Given the volume of pages that has thus far been taken up by Mass Effect 2, I decided that it's high time I use these notes in a more productive manner. To that end, I'm starting a blog series called The Quotable Mass Effect 2. Using quotes I pulled from the game as touchpoints, I'll be revisiting moments from the game and sharing my thoughts about them. With any luck, some of those moments will have resonated with you folks as well, and you'll add your own perspective in the comments. And should you feel so inclined, please feel free to write your own volume of The Quotable Mass Effect 2!

The Collectors

Note: This entry deals with an enemy encounter about 11 hours into the game, and I will try to write as if I was at that point in the game. As of this writing, I have currently played 30 hours of the game, and recruited every squad member currently available to me. I have at least one mission left before presumably rocking the Omega 4 Relay.

"We are the harbingers of your ascension."

This ominous bit of battlefield chatter comes from my first encounter with the Collectors on Horizon. I love how sinister and full of portent the word "harbinger" is. And speaking of sinister: insects. The cinematic before you land on Horizon shows the Collectors' first assault wave, those nasty flying bugs that paralyze their victims. As I watched the insects overtake the colonists, I thought to myself that the swarm was like an organic WMD. Of course, the point of the swarm was the opposite of mass destruction, so maybe chemical warfare would be a more appropriate comparison?

Either way, the swarm was such an effective weapon of war that it hardly seemed fair. How do you combat a plague of paralyzing locusts? Recruit a genius Salarian, apparently. As I prepared to land on the planet, I wondered about the Collector ship. It has the hard metallic lines of a proper spaceship, but the rough brown growths on the outer hull look organic. They remind me of termite mounds. Maybe that's where the Collectors house their insect swarm? Even the Collector weaponry mirrors the look:

It feels very organic. The o-word raises some questions about our suppositions about the Collectors. One current theory is that they may be working with the Reapers. But, don't the Reapers visit the Milky Way every 50,000 years to destroy all civilized organic life? It makes sense for them to work with the Geth, their little robot murder buddies, but the Collectors seem like a civilized organic race. Why would the Collectors collaborate with anti-organic genocidists?

SO HERE'S MY THEORY: The Collectors are avid harvesters, showing up intermittently on the fringes of galactic space to trade for odd things, then disappearing. This we know. Maybe they are trying to harvest the best elements of organic life and civilization in order to combat the Reapers! By incorporating technology and genetic code from the most advanced species, maybe the intelligent Collectors are constructing organic superbeings to wage war on the Reapers. Maybe they've been plotting this for hundreds of thousands of years, for many Reaper cycles, awaiting the day that they can strike at the Reapers and make the universe safe for organic civilization -- or to take their place as near-omnipotent galactic overlords?

Perhaps this is the "ascension" mentioned in the quote above. The Collectors come to assimilate humanity and, in their view, elevate them to a higher, more powerful, more evolved state. In the mission it seems that Shepard's Reaper-beating history and growing influence is showing up on their radar. If Shepard knew this was their plan, would Shepard collaborate or see them as an equal threat to humanity and galactic civilization?

It raises some interesting possibilities. Anyone up for some creative conjecture?

Bonus Codex Note

When you take your first steps on Horizon en route to the besieged colony, you pass a tree that is swarming with large insects. I instinctively went on high alert, because I just saw similar insects playing freeze tag with the colonists. But further inspection revealed that the insects were actually swarming around what looked like a nest in the tree. The Collector swarm couldn't have nested that quickly, I figured, as that wouldn't jive with the Collectors' hit-and-run strategy. So this must be a local species, which feels kind of like BioWare telling me a scary story and then saying, "BOO! Haha, gotcha!"

Of course, BioWare wouldn't just leave it at that. would they? As it turns out, no. From the codex entry on Horizon:

"Large flying insect analogues take advantage of the thicker-than-Earth atmosphere and low gravity to grow enormous."

Love the thoroughness, the attention to detail. Also, using "analogue" in this biological sense is my new goal. "I know this puzzle might seem tricky to you, but try to use your primitive brain analogue to figure it out."

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Thus concludes Volume 1 of The Quotable Mass Effect 2. Let me know what you think, and share any inspirations or reflections of your own in the comments. Try to keep things on the same spoiler level as this post, and if you say anything about the endgame I will be very very displeased. Cheers!