After yesterday's blog post about Pikachu, Tom Mc Shea scolded me for posting a blog about Pikachu. To which I responded that just to spite him I would start posting pictures of Pokemon every day from here until eternity. Jokes's on you, Tom! Here is today's picture of a Pokemon. It's Psyduck. 

I mean, tell me which one is more adorable. (Hint: It's fat Pikachu)

Working in the games press, you run into a lot of situations where you find yourself wanting to write something only to find out it's on a list of banned phrases. Terms like "mixed bag" and "in the graphics department" are common idioms in normal life, but they're anathema in games writing.

Not anymore.

I have a plan for 2012 to open up my range of writing options while also sounding classy as hell. I'm going to start taking those banned phrases, translate them into French, and try to pass them off as a super high-brow cinema terms. Example: Halo 4 is a bit of a sac mélangé in the département graphique, but it is nonetheless a fine game.

Get ready, Internet!

You know what? Nevermind. I could easily fit three times as many toys here. AND I WILL.

...and this is the result. Next thing to learn is how to animate bodies. Which seems tough! This was more of an experiment to nail the Mass Effect style lighting.

Like MOBAs? Great! Because you're in luck. Kevin VanOrd was kind enough to dump 10 SMITE beta keys in my inbox this morning, so throughout the day I'll be giving them away in the comments of this blog. Here are your instructions for redeeming the keys:

1) If you don?t already have a Hi-Rez account you can create one here

2) To download the game simply click the download link located on the homepage.

3) After you launch the game, click Enter Beta Key on the Game login screen to activate your account.

Ready for the first key? Here you go: CB25E6C0187739451D86CE083

From now on, I promise to only use this power for good.

Video embeds are a wee bit borked on GameSpot blogs right now, so click the image below to go straight to the Vimeo page.

Which games are you guys looking forward to?

You may be asking: what the hell is this? Well, friend, let me direct you to the lastest episode of Ask GameSpot to find out! As a bonus, learn all about Dishonored! It's made by French people. So you know it's interesting. Just not as interesting as my game.

I've been messing around with the Skyrim Creation Kit since its release a couple days ago. After working on a level layout, I decided to try making a character. I think the result speaks for itself: