Essential Mid-Week Blog Reading

(Picture from one of my favorite webcomics, Toothpaste For Dinner -- check it out!)

Did you know the brand new Game Informer website has been live now for over two years? Actually, since spending countless days working long hours into the evening to get the site up and running, most of the Game Informer staff (myself included) have lost the ability to tell time in any meaningful way. Thankfully, we've maintained and sharpened our ability to write blog posts on all sorts of topics, as have all of you, our wonderful community. With that in mind, I thought I'd take a second to point out some of the awesome blog posts that have gone up in the last week, both from editors and the community!

The 10 Batman Stories You Should Read After Playing Arkham Asylum
Despite being insane video game prodigies, we can't just play video games all the time. Sometimes we have to read comics. Especially comics that have inspired games we love. Still high on the awesome experience that is Batman: Arkham Asylum, Reiner decided to share his love of the caped crusader with everyone but recommending 10 great Batman comics and graphic novels that inspired the game or are otherwise just awesome.

What I've Been Watching: Let's Play Cat Mario
And other times, we just want to watch other people play video games. Or I do. Listen, it's not as weird as it sounds. Read my blog post to find out about the Let's Play phenomenon and my clumsy attempt to explain why it appeals to me.

Tips For Halo 3: ODST's Firefight Mode
As our reviewer for ODST, Jeff Marchiafava has become an expert in the game. Or at the very least, he can last through Firefight a lot longer than me (which isn't a terribly exciting feat considering I've usually drained my team of lives in a matter of minutes). If you're like me and desperately in need of some hints on how to make it a few rounds longer, check out this post.

If You Play Video Games, This AARP Video Might Give You An Aneurysm
Dan Ryckert shares one of his favorite YouTube videos with the GI community. And I mean it when I say one of his favorites. I sit next to this guy, and he has this thing on repeat from 2:30 to 4:45 every day. At least now he's figured out that "the controller actually controls it." That was a major roadblock for him on the path to playing video games.

Valkyria Chronicles Is Awesome And You Should Play It
Joe Juba's blog post is correct, and you should read it.

Things I Want: Entry #2
Meagan continues her series chronicling cool things that she wishes she owned. This entry's choices include the Complete Batman: The Animated Series set, which I do own. So basically I'm just here to brag about that.

Uncharted 2: A Player's Hands On Review
Just in case our official review wasn't enough to get you excited, user Shawn has posted his own impressions after some time with Uncharted 2. The game hits stores today, so read up while you're still able to pull yourself away from your PS3!

Feel Good Gamin'
GI community member Spencer wrote up this brief, fever-induced blog post about his games of choice while sick. Do you have certain games that you go back to when you just need to feel good? Check out Spencer's post and leave a comment there with your own choices.

Guards! Guards!
I tend to strongly dislike stealth games, mostly because I'm impatient and suck at them. However, user Virgil's excellent post on why Thief II is his favorite stealth game definitely has me wanting to revisit this personally overlooked classic.

Community Update - 10.11.09
For a ton more extremely good community post, be sure to follow Matt Brooker and keep up with his Community Update posts. The posts he highlights this week cover a ton of ground, including favorite game composers, thoughts on Visceral's new Jack the Ripper game, and much more.

Remember that you can check out all these blogs as they get posted for yourself by clicking the 'Blogs' tab on the front page. You can even sort blogs into editors, users, or both. Read up and start contributing your own posts!