This week on the Barrel Roll Show, Wes joins Jonah and Jesse for some Uncharted 3 multiplayer chat. Jonah and Wes also talk about Diablo 2 and how it holds up.

But before that we get into that, we discuss the games we’ve been playing over the last week. Jesse gave Ace Combat: Assault Horizon a shot to find it a bit of a mixed bag. He also played through Aliens Infestation which it turns out is a pretty good video game.

Wes has once again been sucked into Borderlands and the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC. Perusing the games on his Steam list that he’s never gotten around to trying also prompted him to boot up Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich.

Meanwhile Jonah is flabbergasted by how much fun he has been having with Scribblenauts Remix, even after finishing the game’s 50 levels.

All this plus the new releases for the week and the gaming news on Barrel Roll #138, “Jonah’s Ironic Rugby Challenge”.

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On the one-hundred and thirty-third episode of the Barrel Roll show, Jonah is incredibly distracted by a teething baby. There may also have been some discussion of video games, or it was all a dream. Possibly, the guys were actually dead the entire time and in purgatory.

After the news and new games coming out this week, Wes returns to give us his Borderlands progress. He also redid our intro song using Cambox and does a comparison with Vidrhythym. Adam Milecki is back to tell us about Rock of Ages, Section 8: Prejudice and his initial impressions of Bastion. Jesse finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution, played the crap out of some Star Fox 64 3D and also gives us the rundown of SkyDrift. Meanwhile, Jonah was sucked into Disgaea 4 and may never be heard from again.

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On this one-hundred and thirty-first episode of Barrel Roll, Jonah is joined by returning guest host Wesley Johnson for a most excellent adventure. It seems even though they both graduated high school in the late 90′s, they have to gather up famous figures from history to turn in one final report so they can graduate, start their band, and save the future through bodacious music.

The show starts with the regular news and new game releases, then moves on to our “games what we played last week” segment. There the guys haven’t had time for much new stuff, but have been enjoying Borderlands as well as the SNES classic Earthbound. Jonah has also given the Onlive service a try for the first time and gives his thoughts on that.

After the main show, be sure to stick around! Jesse has just returned from PAX 2011 and is here to give his thoughts on some of the stuff he played there. All that plus more on Barrel Roll #131, “Wes & Jonah’s Excellent Adventure”.

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Math is fun when it’s fun. Especially in space. And Grover is there, apparently.

On the one-hundred and twenty-third podshow, we are joined by our long lost co-host, Wesley Johnson. He returns from times and places unknown where he was no doubt on a most excellent adventure. He brings tales of Galaga Legions DX and the mechanical wizardry of Trenched. He also speaks of mysteries and hobos in Condemned.

Jesse has delved deeper in the strange mecha-filled lands of Danball Senki, and is joined by Jonah and Adam in talks of the ancient games from Game Boy’s past. Namely, Super Mario Land (AKA: Why Mario is boring now) and Kirby’s Dream Land (did you know extra mode adds in challenge?).

Together, the guys discuss recent Supreme Court decisions on violent video games, games that are coming to Europe but not North America, and why Jesse thinks James Pond is one of the worst games ever made.

All this and more on Barrel Roll! #123 – “Astro-Grover”.

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"Looking for treasure... just like the Goonies."

In any given RPG, the wooden sword and cardboard shield you start with aren’t going to be the ones you keep forever. Usually you get rid of them by the time you hit your first town. But when you buy that new set of gear and equip it, only to find your character has only changed in numbers and not in appearance, it is a bit of a letdown.

If you are talking about old school sprite based games, I will concede that it was more trouble than it was probably worth to put visible loot into a game. Re-drawing that many sprites would be time consuming and prohibitively costly. Where 3D character models are involved, there aren’t a lot of excuses left when you are dealing with stat driven games and RPG mechanics.

There is nothing quite as addictive to me as a progressive, well thought out loot system that is reflected on your character.

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On a very special fifty-third episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, we gather around the campfire while being serenaded by our own Wesley “Ukulele Master” Johnson.

This week, there are a lot of things discussed when talking about what we’ve been playing. Of note is Jesse’s completion of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle on the Wii, Wes’s acquisition of a Wii and his playing of various Zelda related titles as well as Muramasa, and Jonah’s noticeable lack of Wii playing.

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"Archive Footage"

2009 was a busy year for me. I had just started a new job, I launched WingDamage with my bro and suckered a few friends into writing for us. A ton of amazing games came out. Here I present to you my personal favorites. This is my top ten, and it doesn’t quite line up with the majority of other people’s that I have found online. That’s just fine with me.

Some releases, while I liked what I played, I just didn’t have enough time to get a good enough impressions to rank them one way or the other. That said, I give you my top ten games of the year.

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Reflecting back on 2009, we found that it was a really great year for gaming. Not only did we see the return of beloved franchises and a resurgence in classic gameplay styles, but some games we originally hadn’t been following or maybe just didn’t hear much about ended up being amazing.

So take a look at our biggest surprises of 2009 and let us know in the comments what yours were.

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"No Photoshopping Required"

On a very special forty-forth episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, the announcement that Mega Man 10 will be coming out this March is discussed, much to the joy of one Jesse “writes for the Mega Man Network” Gregory.

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"And don't mind the tumbleweeds"

Hey everybody.

You may have noticed that this week we have been uncharacteristically light on the updates. The long weekend threw off our schedule pretty badly. We now know that long weekends lead to not wanting to be productive on the site.

You may have also noticed that Jesse has made some changes to the site, most notably the new featured articles bar at the top of the page. This will be a great resource for us to highlight those articles we are really proud of, reviews of the hottest new joints, giveaways, etc.

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