1UP.com - Games, Dammit!

Another busy weeks leads to a shortened lineup -- only Justin and Matt join Ray, but there's still plenty to talk about. Ray's been playing Game Dev Story and the "new" Time Crisis, and news deals with Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright's team-up, the far-outness of the new Command and Conquer, and Billy Joel in Rock Band, for starters. Plus, what makes a beard "pop?" The answer may surprise you. All this and more.

Ray, Matt, Justin and Alice hit the ground running in this uncharacterist morning taping of In This Thread. Impressions of Rock Band 3 lead the show, along with a bittersweet judgment on Sonic the Hedgehog 4. In News, it's the officially-official retail release of NBA Jam on the HD consoles, Mega Man Legends 3, Grashopper's new hires, OutRun's upcoming disappearance from XBLA, DOTA 2, and a few more bits. Then it's back into games with Alice's views on Kirby's Epic Yarn, and another round of post-release thoughts on Sengoku Basara. Rousing, you might say. And... you may be right.

In this special one-off edition of In This Thread, we talk to Eric Chahi and Guillame Brunier about From Dust, their upcoming simulation game on the way from Ubisoft. Chahi was also the creator of the groundbreaking action-adventure Another World (Out of This World), as well as the 1998 platformer Heart of Darkness. We discuss those early days with Chahi, as well.

Ray gets Matt, Justin and Scooter in the studio on a rare Hump Day recording, and things start with post-release discussion of EA's NBA Jam (and its price), playing Black Ops in 3D, a little more of Kirby's Epic Yarn, and Ubisoft's Kinect fighting game. In news, it's the weirdness surrounding Medal of Honor, an introduction to Panasonic's "Jungle" handheld, commentary on games from Guillermo del Toro, and the value of Hollywood partnerships with Ken Levine. Plus, Justin teaches Matt how to pronounce Japanese words.

Lots to talk about this week, starting with the Nintendo 3DS press conference update, where we go over the system's features before its launch next year; some light mudslinging from Bobby Kotick and EA; NBA Elite's delay and NBA Jam's new life; and in the second half, an honest-to-god discussion about new games we've played, including Ubisoft's Outland, From Dust, and more; Castlevania Lords of Shadow; Enslaved, and we forget what color taupe is.

The thread is packed to the gills this week, as we open with TGS leftovers, Who's Beaten the Donkey Kong High Score This Week, the Michael Jackson MMO, Billy Blanks' Wii game, the iffiness of GOG.com's death and return, Netflix in Canada, and tangents, tangents, tangents!

It's the big ol' Tokyo Game Show roundup with Ray, Scooter, Justin, and briefly, Alice. We go over Ray's big 3 "whats" (or "WTFs"): Yakuza, DmC, and Steel Battalion. Every other big announcement is talked about, too, including but not limited to Microsoft's hardcore Kinect games, The Last Guardian, Shadows of the Damned, Phantasy Star Online 2, and at the end, non-TGS impressions of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX and Kirby's Epic Yarn. "Epic yarn" might be a good name for this episode, too.

Ray welcomes Matt Leone and Justin Haywald back to the office following their respective road trips, and gets right into the news with both of them. Discussions include Duke Nukem Forever, the also-long-awaited MST3K-infused Darkstar, Stardock's layoffs, PS3 "jailbreaking," the sequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy, Noby Noby Boy's creator stepping away from the industry, and, you know... more!

The bulk of the 1UP staff is gone this weekend, but Ray still pulls in Scooter and Scott Sharkey for this week's roundup. There's much to be discussed about subjects such as the possible StarCraft and BioShock movies (and many others), the new Xbox 360 controller, Nintendo's Mario All-Stars revival, plus new impressions of Call of Duty Black Ops and Sony's Move launch games.

The news runs a somewhat typical gamut this week, from annoucements (DeathSpank 2), delays (FF XIV) and cancellations (This is Vegas), to more heady stuff about downloadable content, Portal in the classroom, and theorizing about the next Yakuza game. Scooter Nguyen and Jeremy Parish join Ray, along with special guest Aram Jabbari, PR manager at Atlus USA, who also lends insight to the discussion about Capcom trying to prevent PR disasters earlier and the pros/cons of digital distribution.