March Mayhem Top 64 Announced

[Souplex]

But this is where things get a little bit tricky for me. Most of those things you described were the spawn of DOOM, WOLFENSTEIN, or if you're only referring to the last decade, HALO.[footnote]As an aside, isn't it interesting that those titles use all caps?[/footnote]

The thing that confounds me the most is the "minority sidekick" comment. Usually, when someone says that, they are referring to the character being a Peter Molyneux-esque ethnic stereotype given shape instead of their actual skin tone--can you clarify what you mean by that? Additionally (and slightly tangentially) I haven't noticed much of a romantic subtext between the player and Alyx. Did I miss something?

That's where you'd be wrong; despite Halo coming before Half Life 2, we didn't see the major surge of them until HL2 came out. Everyone was content to let Halo fill it's niche.
Besides,Halo has always been colorful except for the flood levels, there are no shoehorned in gimmick weapons, Master Chef has a personality; he just doesn't have a face, (Apparently in the books he has greasy curly brown hair, and freckles. Not your stereotypical action hero appearance.) and the aliens actually have reasonable motivation.
The romance thing isn't there so much in the first part of 2, but the episodes start to lay it on thick. Especially episode 2. I will always hate my friend for telling me I couldn't judge the game after quitting halfway through the first godawful vehicle section. (Quite possibly one of the worst vehicle sections in gaming history)
The

Okay, I can dig it. My final question is this: Do you have any beef with Valve games besides Half-life? It's the only one you've mentioned by name, but you claim to loathe Valve as a whole--would you care to elaborate?

Also, The to you too.

I also don't like L4D because Co-Op shouldn't mean gimping everyone so they're functionally useless on their own. I have nothing against Half Life 1, as it was good. It's Half Life 2 that things became problematic.
I also hate Valve because they run the largest digital distribution platform.
Valve frequently takes credit for other people's work. (Counter strike, portal, etc.)
Also, Gabe Newell is fat.

It's not a reason to dislike him as a person, but I was just listing their faults, and I figured with all the valid reasons to hate them, I should throw in a stupid one.

 

[KefkaCultist]

Mojang, Team Ico, Bioware, Blizzard, Valve, and Insomniac are my favorites.

Personally hoping that enough people have been absorbed by Minecraft so that Mojang will win.

EDIT: Oh and Zynga should be killed off asap. I wasn't on the site for March Mayhem last year but I hear that bad things happened.

 

[KissofKetchup]

Zynga?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[HEADING=1]WHAT THE F#$*ING HELL IS THIS SH&@!!!!![/HEADING]

They're a million times worse than even the worst of Activision and EA (back when they were really horrible)

 

[Sean Strife]

Don't worry gentlemen... ABZ is back and on the prowl! AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[nuba km]

GEARBOX I CHOOSE YOU! USE AWESOME GAMES AND ACTUALLY RELEASING DUKE NUKEM FOREVER! *we will find out how effective that is*

 

[Sean Strife]

I bet the odds this year will be a little more stacked towards the casuals (although I work at a bookies and I didn't catch the latest in-play betting on this event - bizarre).
Personally I can't stand Zynga and all that they stand for, but didn't they do surprisingly well last year?! Certainly took me by surprise.

They basically pointed their minions in the direction of the escapist. All it takes is one post on their facebook to get them to spend 5 minutes signing up using facebook and 1 minute to vote. The rest where 4 chan trolls i'm sure.

Edited, not sure what i meant by that second sentence.

Actually, I think most of the 4chan people voted for Valve in that round but trolled us saying they voted for Zynga.

As far as my favorites go: Mojang and Valve. Valve for obvious reasons, but Mojang has also created the internet darling game. With that said, I think Valve's gonna go for two in a row.

 

[Spinwhiz]

If people had actually used Twitter, Zynga (and over half of the high seeded studios) could have been out the first round. It levels the playing field for everyone.

 

[CosmicCommander]

It's back already? I can't believe it's nearly been a full year since the last one... Ach, I'm getting old, the years are becoming interchangeable.

I really need to get a life.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

If people had actually used Twitter, Zynga (and over half of the high seeded studios) could have been out the first round. It levels the playing field for everyone.

Spin, its not the fact that they won a lot of the rounds that upsets us, its the fact that Zynga is infamous for their seedy business practices, stealing content from other developers,their constant brushes with the law and overall attitude toward their players and employees that makes us mad. You're sitting one of the most unlikable development teams in the world against teams like Bethesda, Bioware, Nintendo and Valve. Its like naming Bobby Kotick among some of the greatest men in gaming.

We shouldn't be rewarding them with a slot reserved for the most dedicated, original and renowned developers when they choose to take shortcuts and copy the works of others.

 

[Sean Strife]

I'm not gonna sit here and ***** about Zynga being in it, because while it took us a while, we DID eventually get them out. Now we know what to expect from them this year and we can band together and try to get them out early.

With that said, how about a first round of Zynga versus Nintendo?

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I'm not gonna sit here and ***** about Zynga being in it, because while it took us a while, we DID eventually get them out. Now we know what to expect from them this year and we can band together and try to get them out early.

With that said, how about a first round of Zynga versus Nintendo?

Doing so would mean Zynga has to be the bottom seed of the West Coast, they were ranked 11th last year and if they're being ranked by success, they'll probably be higher this year.

 

[philzibit]

After not only making Red Dead, but adding Zombies to it, I'd like to see Rockstar San Diego at least get passed the first round. Other than that, go Treyarch & Valve.

 

[philzibit]

I'm also fairly dissapointed that Yukes is on the list, because as far as I could tell, all they've done are those shitty WWE and UFC games.

Those shitty WWE games are pretty fun.

 

[Low Key]

I wear my MM badge with pride after what happened last year.

 

[XT inc]

I think last year showed that this thing gets trolled to death just like the greatest villain showdown last year. I wonder who is going to get troll support this year.

 

[Xan Krieger]

The mods are just giving themselves extra work by having Zynga on there. They know it will cause a shitstorm of unholy magnatudes but they added it anyway. I mean sure you're gonna remove and ban people but you could avoid all the work of having to ban a ton of people just by taking Zynga off the list. Do it for the escapists convenience and because it's better to stop a shitstorm before it starts instead of picking up the pieces after it blows through.

Voting either the Creative Assembly or Relic.

 

[subtlefuge]

Looks like DoubleFine, Mojang, and Valve are getting my love this year. I still love Bioware, but it's gonna need ME3 to be fantastic to ever get a top spot again.

 

[Colour Scientist]

"Zynga"

Welp, here we go.

It was fairly entertaining last year. If nothing else it makes it more interesting.