2011: A Year in Review, Columns and Comics

Given that you read the site each and every day, we know it’s not very likely that you missed any of our best articles in 2011. Still, on the off chance that you may have overlooked any of our most popular items over the past year, we’re spending this entire week counting down the most popular stories and videos we’ve done all year. Yesterday, we showed the ten most popular feature articles. Today we’re showcasing the top ten columns and comics, based on reader interest. Be sure to come back tomorrow and all through the week for more.

You switch off your microphone before Houston can respond. The whole reason why you took the assignment was to get as far away from stupid bosses as possible. Well, that and the opportunity to walk on the moon. Long ago you decided that if you couldn’t be the first to walk on the moon, you would be the first to walk on the moon twice. You gaze out of your shuttle’s window, at the surface of the moon, strikingly bright at this distance. You are the only person in history who is seeing a familiar view. You missed being the first on the moon by a year. But sequence doesn’t matter, all that matters is standing on the lunar surface, and giving the finger to the entire Earth one more time. (Read More)

As promised, I’m going to give out some quick capsule thoughts on a selection of the third party game trailers from E3 to discourage anyone from getting excited, but first I’d just like to quickly address David Jaffe’s statement The Escapist reported on last week: that game critics need to call developers out more often on always doing the same old shit. Fuck yes, man, and I’m doing the best I can from my end of the trench, but I think everyone has to split the blame for the state of the industry – the press, the creators, and the audience that keep buying it. Besides, this coming from David Jaffe, David “Twisted Metal, Twisted Metal 2, Twisted Metal Black, Twisted Metal Head On: Extra Twisted Edition and Twisted Metal Again” Jaffe, smacks a little of a five-year-old faecal artist trying to blame his older sister for not tattling on him fast enough. (Read More)

Green Lantern opened last week to underwhelming box office (particularly in light of its huge budget) and disastrous reviews, and is now shaping up to be one of the biggest financial and creative failures of 2011 – a pricey dud poised not only to torpedo its own burgeoning franchise, but the proposed run of DC Universe movies that Warner Bros. was hoping would replace Harry Potter as its yearly cash cow. (Read More)

A few months ago I dated this bisexual girl. We went out for about 5 weeks, before she broke up with me in a very strange way: She told me she only dated me to see if she was capable of being in a relationship with a guy. Evidently, she couldn’t. I got angry at her, mostly because I felt like she used me. Eventually I got over her, but there’s this anger and uneasy feeling I get whenever someone asks about her. I don’t know why. I want to stay friends with her, but all I feel is anger. What should i do? (Read More)

In the process of writing this column, my blog, my webcomic, and my video series, I get to hear from a lot of really interesting people from a lot of different areas of gaming. Kids. Senior citizens. Casual players. Developers. Journalists. Fans. Critics. PC players. Console players. Handheld players. Tabletop players. I love hearing from people. I love discovering new folks and I enjoy finding new ideas and new ways of thinking about games that I’ve never encountered before. It’s a great reminder that videogames are like Disney World – nobody, nobody can know the whole thing. The best you can do is to pick a spot that interests you and explore it as far as you can. (Read More)

Interesting experiences often require alternative game forms, and the dating sim in particular is a fascinating bird. Since the gameplay is all about hooking up – whether gauzy romance, sexual conquest or something in between – the challenge to the designer is creating a framework that make the characters and scenarios meaningful and plausible. (Read More)

One thing I have learned in over a decade working with music is that a song is never truly finished. You can spend three days or three months recording and mixing it and there will always be something that jumps out at you when you listen back later. It could be a clumsy lyric that you later learned was losing its linguistics and language in limitless, ludicrous layers of liberal alliteration, a line that you could have sung better, a synth pad that got lost behind a wall of guitars, a snare drum that could have used a boost or cut to certain frequencies, an effect on a solo that didn’t quite do what you thought it was doing … there are endless potential flaws in a mix and endless definitions of “flaw.” (Read More)

Duke Nukem Forever is out and in the hot little hands of the public. Much to the chagrin of Gearbox Software and 2K Games, the reviews are brutal accounts of the linear gameplay, the badly imagined content, the weak and thoughtless multiplayer, the dated graphics, the load times and so much more. I’ll leave the actual business of reviewing a game to the professionals. What I want to take a look at is how Duke Nukem Forever came into our collective consciousness, built up steam, generated hype and then came crashing down. (Read More)

Please check back tomorrow for more Top Ten awesomeness.