Week In Review: 03/20

Among this week's highlights were more Portal 2 features, a look at the making of our Game Infarcer cover, and a couple of video game ads that were actually funny. Go figure. It's time for the Week In Review!

We started off this week's exclusive features with some GDC leftovers: Meagan looked at the art direction of Arkham Asylum, as well as the style change Borderlands underwent. Meanwhile, Bertz covered Valve and Blizzard's thoughts on the PC as a gaming platform, discovered that DICE built Battlefield 1943 in their spare time, and interviewed the heads of BioWare, which he posted as a three part series. 

Non-GDC exclusives this week included a look at the creation of our Game Infarcer cover, and two popular features from last issue: Anatomy of a Character: Kratos, and our Zombie Apocalypse Flowchart. We also debuted our God of War III Launch Hub, which contains all of our GOW III coverage in one easy-to-find location. Plus, our Portal 2 coverage continued with three exclusive features: an interview with the men behind Portal 2's music, a Valve-led walkthrough of designing a Portal 2 test chamber, and our video introduction of the Portal 2 team. Additionally, you can head here and ask us anything you want to know about Portal 2 for an upcoming special edition podcast!

We also kicked off our Mario Madness event. What's Mario Madness, you ask? It's like NCAA's March Madness, only with video games starring Mario. We picked the 32 best Mario games and split them into brackets based on the NCAA tournament rules. But it's up to you to vote for the winner of each match to see which game is finally crowned the greatest Mario title of all time. So get voting already!

Start voting for your favorite Mario games now, or Mario Paint might win

Then there were our recurring exclusive features. This week's Game Informer Show covered God Of War III, GDC, and the PlayStation Move. Replay was all about Actraiser, while The[Crafty]Gamer featured Shawn Smith's Shawnimals. Impulse Weekly covered Rage of the Gladiators (reviewed here) and the return of Perfect Dark (reviewed here), while the 23rd edition of CosBlog featured Cosplaying. And finally, we introduced a new recurring feature: Thanks to the never-ending requests we've received from readers, we'll now be posting our Game Informer Staff Page online every month.

That might be it for exclusive content, but we still had plenty more to offer our readers. Here were this week's new reviews: Gaming's kid-friendly version of crack, Pokemon HeartGold (and SoulSilver); Galaxy exploration sim, Infinite Space; RTS mainstay, Command & Conquer 4; Does-this-game-even-need-more-content expansion, Dragon Age Origins: Awakening; JRPGWTF, Resonance Of Fate; and post-apocalyptic shooter, Metro 2033.

We also had a couple of new previews this week. Meagan took a first look at the dark fantasy co-op dungeon crawler, Hunted: The Demon's Forge; Nick wrote up some detailed impressions on the ranged combat of BioWare Austin's upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic; And I tried my hand at some stealthy crotch-biting in Dead To Rights: Retribution. Perhaps I should clarify: You play as a dog in that game. Let's move on...

Actually, that's not so stealthy

Enough about us – let's take a look at this week's news. We got a glimpse of BioShock baddies that were left on the cutting room floor, while Tim Turi shed some light on Sonic 4's first zone. New details of Final Fantasy Versus XIII surfaced, as did news of the XBLA/PSN brawler Final Fight: Double Impact, and we found out that Episodes From Liberty City has been delayed for the PS3 and PC. We heard the rumor that Gears of War 3 might be out next April, which Epic's Mark Rein laughed at. Another rumor suggested that an upcoming Xbox 360 update may allow for game storage on USB devices, which Microsoft hasn't laughed at yet. The pre-order bonuses for ModNation Racers were also announced, as were the release dates for several games: MGS: Peace Walker, Skate 3, and Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. Crackdown 2 also got a release date, and a new trailer, which we will now use for transitioning purposes.

Other new trailers this week included: UFC Undisputed 2010, EA Sports MMA, F1 2010, Shin Megama Tensersomething: Strange Title Journey, and Transformers: War For Cybertron.  Medal of Honor got a new trailer too, though it didn't seem all that new. There was also a trailer for a big boss from 3D Dot Game Heroes, dual launch trailers for God of War III and Dragon Age Origins: Awakening, and new screens for Iron Man 2. We realize that last one isn't a trailer, but if you click between them real fast it's pretty much the same thing.

There were also a couple of funny video game clips that surfaced this week. The first featured Jason Lee for Skate 3's new skate school tutorial. Then there was the Bad Company 2 PSA that spoofed Modern Warfare 2's grenade spam warning, only without any offensive acronyms. A new trailer for Naughty Bear is a shot-for-shot remake of the chest-exploding scene from Alien. Finally, Sony released an ad for the PlayStation Move, which pokes fun at Nintendo and Microsoft. It's actually really funny...even if Move is still a stupid name.

It's disturbing and adorable at the same time

Let's talk DLC: Infinity Ward detailed its upcoming Modern Warfare 2 map pack, and announced a higher than usual price tag, which irked some gamers. Additionally, Microsoft patented a new way to deliver DLC. We also heard the official reason why BioShock 2's DLC was already on the disc: Not doing so would have split the player base. But doesn't all multiplayer DLC split the player base anyway? Speaking of unconvincing arguments: Microsoft's Aaron Greenburg apparently sees the lack of Blu-Ray support for the Xbox 360 as a good thing.

Forget such trivial matters. It's time for the stories that are too important for a segue! This week Alpha Protocol's producer stated interconnected sequels are a possibility for the future, assuming the game gets a sequel. There were complaints from players having problems with Final Fantasy XIII freezing. A new Kane & Lynch movie is set to star...Jamie Foxx. Turtle Rock Studios, the original developer of Left 4 Dead, has risen from the grave. Valve started deploying user-made content in Team Fortress 2. Hey Valve, how about deploying any TF content for the 360 version? Sony launched a new website for users to share ideas for future PS3 improvements (like Hulu support, for instance?). Jeff Cork came up with a good idea of his own – he forces his son to use his Pokemon pedometer so that he can reap the in-game benefits. And in breaking news, Meagan reported that Bad Company 2 is popular. 'Nuff said.

Finally, here's my favorite random story from the week. The fictional Sam Fisher (who is supposed to be on the run from the U.S. government, mind you) now has his own Twitter account, which he's using to lament his current predicament. My favorite tweet from the international super spy? It has to be this one:

"my mom ran away before I was 2 – some scars run deep enough to last a lifetime. who knew this is how i'd end up?"

I guess Sam is too busy for capitalization...Also: What is this world coming to?!

For even more content from the GI staff and the community at large, check out Blog Herding. See you next week!