No more Gaming pic of the Week

We skipped last Tuesday's Gaming pic of the Week, because of the lack of a quality picture to post. Today it's Tuesday again and I still couldn't find any. Therefore, I decided to stop the Gaming pic of the Week "section".

I'll still continue to post fun gaming pictures on an irregular basis (whenever I find some good ones), but I won't do it every Tuesday like I did before now.

Stay tuned though, as I'll soon make a quick review of the ones posted to this day, so that we can end this properly. I wish I could've continued to post them regularly, but this is something that doesn't depend on me.

In the meanwhile, have a great week and don't forget to follow iTalkGames on Twitter, as I'm planning on launching a contest once I reach 1000 followers.

Blog traffic observations

I know I've posted more non-gaming blog updates lately, but I did say when I started Talk Games Online that this blog is by itself an experiment. So don't panic.

The experiment is showing more and more results to me and I managed to gather valuable data for what's to come (I can't say more about it at this time).

Speaking of which, the blog finally has enough traffic for trends to be somewhat viewable now. So I noticed an interesting fact: the weekly traffic peak is on Thursdays. And it's so obvious that it saddened me each Friday during the last few weeks when I saw the traffic dropping a bit on Fridays.

But then I set myself the right mind frame and realized that the traffic wasn't dropping on Fridays, but was simply increasing slowly until Thursdays, peaking that day, then going back to normal.

It's quite interesting to notice that traffic is lower in the weekends (after the aforementioned peak), but I guess people need more distractions during the week, maybe to get some fun or simply some reading after a hard day's work (at their job or school).

Also, sorry for not posting the Gaming pic of the Week this Tuesday. I didn't find anything worth posting, so I preferred not to, rather than posting something bad.

That being said, stay tuned for more stuff cool. Have a fantastic weekend!

Gaming pic of the Week #15 - Rockstar Logic

Hello guys! As I promised last week and this Tuesday, it's time for the second Gaming pic this week, to make up for the skipped one and get back on track.

Wisps: The Redeeming - an awesome indie game!

Hey there guys, check this freaking awesome indie game out. It's called Wisps: The Redeeming and it's a top-down arcade game. You're supposedly a wisp god who controls a firefly to guide your demi-god son through a complex labyrinth of trees in the dark woods of some fantasy land.

New gaming YouTube channel - Villain Zone

Villain Zone is a brand new gaming channel on YouTube, which promises to bring original content to the table - one of a kind exclusive reviews for indie games (and not only), awesome gameplay videos and cool walkthroughs with commentaries.

Gaming pic of the Week #14 - Video Game Platforms as Teachers

After our short "vacation", we're back with the Gaming pic of the Week we should have posted last Tuesday. To try and make it up to you, we're posting it as early as we can - in fact, earlier in the day than we ever posted a picture, or an article altogether.

We're back!

In the past week there hasn't been much (visible) activity around here. Even the Gaming pic of the Week that you got used to seeing every Tuesday has been missing.

As I said in a previous post, I have been busy making some changes in the back-end of the blog, changes that now start to reflect in website traffic analytics.

But now we're finally back and things will be more awesome than ever. Don't worry, we'll make the time you spent waiting worth it and we won't just leave the last week be skipped. Instead, we'll post two Gaming pics of the Week the following days, one Tuesday as usually and one some couple of days later or so.

Thank you guys for understanding. Cheers!

Blog update - no poll for October & more news

I made some changes under the hood of the blog in the past few days and more are to come. I also submitted the blog to various Web directories. I really hope that these changes will be reflected in the visitors rate for the following weeks.

I also believe that the poll might cause some problems between the blog and Google's crawler (the thing that jumps from link to link to search the websites), so at least for October there will be no poll.

I am going to spend some time during the following days to make more similar updates and, hopefully soon, I will unleash a big surprise upon you guys.

Thanks for your understanding!

XCOM Lead Game Designer goes Undercover

As you may or may not know, in game development there's two main branches: developers and publishers. The publishers are those who promote and sell the games (to stores and gamers as well), while the developers are those who create the game.

Twitter update - we now have 500 followers!

Great news everyone, we just reached 500 followers on Twitter.

I first announced our Twitter account on this blog on September 1st, so it's only been a little over a month since that time and we already have half a thousand followers. It's been a very rapid progress, things have been going better and faster than I expected.

If things keep evolving this fast, I think it's safe to say that by the beginning of November we would have exceeded the thousand Twitter followers milestone.

If you're not following us, do it now 'cause we'll all #TeamFollowBack. Ka-chow! :D

Resident Evil 6 - IGN Review [and Game Trailer]

IGN editor Richard George posted a nice review of Resident Evil 6 that I though I should share with you. Check out the video review here, or read more information about the content of the review below.

Gaming pic of the Week #13 - Gay Mario

Welcome to the 13th edition of Gaming pic of the Week, a number that's very lucky for us. Why? Cause I say so and cause I don't believe in bad luck. :D

This Tuesday we have another cool comic with quite an interesting turn of events. Our friendly plumber Mario is even friendlier than we though. Check it out below.

End of September poll

Another month went by and with it one more poll closed. It's time to take a look at it and see what the people decided.

Gaming pic of the Week - Review #1

We've had 12 posts in the Gaming pic of the Week category so far and the 13th is approaching rapidly. So, just like we did last Tuesday with the quotes, we should review what we had so far.

Gamer's Anthem - Fight to Win

I've known this song since it came out (more than a year ago), but I never thought of posting it here until now. Fight to Win is a song by Your Favorite Martian, a band having Internet celebrity Ray William Johnson as the lead vocalist.

Gaming quote of the Week - Review!

I started Gaming quote of the Week in mid-July and although I stopped posting regularly in this category, I did not end it completely. Even so, let's take a look at what we had so far:

Gaming pic of the Week #12 - Monopoly

Today we have a more different image for the Gaming pic of the Week. Even though it's related to games, it's not related to what we're used to call gaming. It's about the board game Monopoly. Enjoy!

Gaming pic of the Week #11 - Gamer Shame

It's time for another awesome gaming pic and this time we'll keep things short. So enjoy!

Looking for content writers

Talk Games Online has grown over the past few months and it now requires a more constant stream of articles in order to expand to the next level.

Gaming quote of the Week ends now!

We've been together for 7 editions of the Gaming quote of the Week sections. Today it is time to retire it. I know I got you all used that every Thursday a new quote will be posted here, but things have to change sometimes.

Gaming pic of the Week #10 - Girl Ninjas

Finally the 10th "edition" of the Gaming pic of the Week has arrived. These past two and a half months since we started this have been really great. We enjoyed together many epic pictures and I'm sure we will in the time that follows.

Gaming quote of the Week #7

This week we have a very popular game quote, coming from a 1988 video game. 16-bit shoot'em up game Zero Wing is remembered to this day for it's poor grammar, due to being translated to English by a person who, well, sucked at it.

The following quote from Zero Wing went viral on the Internet in the 2000s:

All your base are belong to us.

To keep the context, here is the entire dialogue containing this quote:

Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It’s you !!
CATS: How are you gentlemen !!
CATS: All your base are belong to us.
CATS: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.
CATS: Ha ha ha ha …
Operator: Captain !!
Captain: Take off every ‘ZIG’!!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move ‘ZIG’.
Captain: For great justice.

As you can see this game was abundant in spelling errors, making many more lines worth remembering. It is sad though that few of the people who know the quote actually know where it came from.

Well, that's it for today. Come back next week for another dose of game quotations.

Epic Assassin's Creed Parkour Cosplay

I've got an epic video for all cosplay lovers out there. And if you love Assassin's Creed at least 10% of how much I do, you'll have an amazing time watching it.

The video, featuring a man practicing parkour (also known as free running) dressed as the main character from one of the Assassin's Creed video games, is directed by Devin Super Tramp, the same person who directed most (if not all) of Lindsey Stirling's music videos that we featured a few months ago.

Gaming pic of the Week #9 - Game Break

It's Tuesday again and after being late last week, I now wanted to post this Gaming pic of the Week just in time. Today it's all about gaming's superiority over animals.

New poll for September 2012

It's September, school starts, so it's time for a new poll. This time, about game (player) modes. So go ahead and check out the top of the blog's sidebar, right below where it says "Favorite game mode?".

We're on Twitter too!

A bit more than a month ago I announced that I created a Facebook page for Talk Games Online. Well, now I have even more good news for you all - I also made a Twitter account.

Steam Greenlight - What, why and how?

Steam Greenlight is a system that allows registered users (Steam Community members) to choose whether they consider an indie game is worth being published on Steam or not. On the other side of things, developers can post information about their games for the users to see and judge.

Funny Google searches that brought you here

Today we're gonna discuss a few Google searches that brought some readers here. As I check the blog's statistics, I sometimes find some really hilarious ones. I won't show them all, as they're way too many - and I won't even show the best ones, as they're too... let's just call them dirty. :)

All about Valve's Steam Box?

I feel the need to talk a bit about Valve's rumored Steam Box. Or, by now, we could say it's not a rumor anymore. With all the information that Valve provided, we know for sure that it's only a matter of time until they release this PC-based gaming console.

Gaming quote of the Week #6

Another week, another quote. As you may or may not remember (especially if you're new around here), we're posting weekly quotes from games, or at least related to games and gaming (usually by people in the gaming industry).

Gaming pic of the Week #8 - Gamers' Mentality

Hello guys! It might not be Tuesday, but this is the Gaming pic of the Week. We're one day late and I'd like to apologize for that - this week's kinda crazy.

But just because I'm late with this post, it doesn't mean I have to skip it altogether.

That settled, let's get to the whole point of this post - the picture.

End of poll for August 2012

It's not quite the end of August yet, but just to make sure I have enough time to post the results for this poll and post the next one before September, I decided to stop this one now, even if it's a bit earlier.

10 amazing Grand Theft Auto V Screenshots

Recently, Rockstar Games started posting screenshots of their upcoming AAA game, GTA V, on their Facebook page. Now it's time for us to show you the awesomeness.

As you may already remember, if you've been with us for a while, we posted the Grand Theft Auto 5 trailer a long time ago. Watch it now, if you haven't already done it, then check out the pictures below as well.

Gaming quote of the Week #5

One more Thursday, one more weekly quote. Today we have a pretty fun and interesting one. Let's see it first and talk more afterwards:

Gaming pic of the Week #7

Here we are, in the 7th Tuesday since we started doing the Gaming pic of the Week section, so I though I should post something special.

50 posts and counting...

We've been around for a few months now (close to four, to be more precise) and we gathered a pretty nice number of posts. So far we have 50 of them (51 with this one) and we're not planning to stop too soon.

Gaming quote of the Week #4

This week's quote is gonna be just a little bit different from the previous ones. How so, you ask? Well if until now we had quotes from real people, this one's gonna be taken from a game.

Gaming pic of the Week #6

This week I've got a pretty cool one for y'all: some gamer sarcasm in the form of a picture/meme. To keep things short... as the french say: voila!

No gaming quote this week

Hey guys, just a quick update. We're not posting any Gaming quote of the Week today. I know you already got used to us doing it, but this time we'll skip it.

I don't have any time to find a quality quote to post, therefore I'd rather just skip it altogether. But don't worry, this section will still exist.

Thanks for your understanding!

10 Sexy and Cute Gaming Cosplay Photos

This is gonna be the hottest post on Talk Games Online so far - both because of the girls' sexiness and because of the fact that I received requests to make it for a while now. So here we are, for your own enjoyment.

Mission Improbable 3. That escalated quickly!

You may be wondering what's with the title. Well, I visit 9GAG now and again. And also, the creators of this mod (yes, Mission Improbable 3 is a game mod) posted the following description on Mod DB:

Mission Improbable is a singleplayer mod for Half-Life 2: Episode 2. In it, Gordon Freeman is tasked with re-activating a Resistance listening post. From there, things quickly escalate.

Now that we've taken care of the mystery of the title and found out a bit about the mod itself, let's see more information.

Gaming pic of the Week #5 - Retro Games Ties

Time passes by so fast over here at Talk Games Online that we reached our fifth week of showcasing a gaming-related picture. This time I'm showing you something more serious... under normal circumstances: today I'm showing you some ties.

New poll - August 2012

Today we're finally having our second poll released upon the world. It concerns a few upcoming game titles (2012 and maybe 2013), its title being "I can't wait for...".

Gaming quote of the Week #3

Here came the second Thursday and third week for posting our Gaming quote of the Week. In case you have forgotten, in this section you can read one weekly quote about gaming or an area related to it.

Gaming pic of the Week #4

Time flies so fast - it's Tuesday again, so it's time for another Gaming pic of the Week. Unlike last Tuesday, today we only have one image for your enjoyment, but I personally consider it to be better than all the previous ones and then some more!

Gaming quote of the Week #2

As I told you last Friday, I'm going to post the Gaming quote of the Week section of this blog on Thursdays. So it's time for the second post on this topic.

Gaming pic of the Week #3

Because it's Tuesday and third time is a charm, for Gaming pic of the Week #3 we have two pics! Yes, that's right, not one, not three, but TWO! Enough '70s TV-like advertising, though. Let's skip all this bull feces and get right to business.

Guest post: 5 SEXY male characters from video games I would MARRY in a heartbeat!

Our first guest post comes from Felicia, a 19 year old gamer whose passion for gaming knows no limits. Make sure you visit her blog at GoodGameFelicia.wordpress.com (Romanian) and read more of her thoughts on gaming.

Oh, I am not the wifely type and I am NO WAY planning to ever marry. But there are some male characters in video games that, with little to no amount of persuasion, could make me change my mind. I am sure none of them would ever ask me to do the dishes.

We now have a Facebook page!

Good news, everybody - starting today, we're on Facebook! Feel free to visit us for exclusive content, updates on the blog's best posts and more cool stuff.

Haven't I already told you that I like to keep everything fresh and have new stuff at all times? Well this is it - first our poll (speaking of which, we'll have exclusive polls on Facebook as well), then the Gaming pic of the Week and Gaming quote of the Week campaigns and now Facebook.

And I'm not planning on stopping here. But until something even newer and cooler comes up, go ahead and Like us on this new, fresh and awesome Facebook page.

Cheers!

End of poll for June-July 2012

The first poll of this blog has finally ended. and I'm ready to show you the results. Unfortunately, there haven't been as many votes as I would have hoped for, but it sure will get better with the next polls. After all, we're still just starting out, right?

Gaming quote of the Week #1

Because Gaming pic of the Week seems to go well and because I want to write even more on this blog than I already do, I decided to start another similar "campaign" - this time with quotes instead of pictures.

The Last of Us in Australia's PlayStation Magazine

The guys at Naughty Dog posted a really nice photo on The Last of Us' official Facebook page. It has no description to tell us more about it, but it shows an issue of the PlayStation Official Magazine - Australia.

Battlefield 4 announced by EA

EA has presented gamers with a pretty sweet deal - and a new game announcement on top of that. Those who pre-order Medal of Honor: Warfighter Limited Edition, according to IGN, will get exclusive beta access to Battlefield 4 next year.

Gaming pic of the Week #2

It's Tuesday, so it's time for our second Gaming pic of the Week. This time we come with a mock-up poster of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (or any other number here). Well... it's not really a poster, but it sure is a mock-up.

Terraria - Minecraft in two dimensions?

I've known about Terraria for many months now. I first saw it in some gameplay videos from TobyGames. And I have to admit - I wasn't impressed at all. It seemed like a cheap 2D clone of Minecraft and I couldn't understand why it was so popular.

Gaming pic of the Week #1

Because I always like to bring something new in what I do - be it my life in general or a project of mine, starting today we're having a picture showcase every week.

The Walking Dead video game from Activision

I'm a big fan of TV shows. I watch lots of them all the time - from dramas such as House M.D. (too bad it ended), to mystery and investigation shows such as The Mentalist or The Listener. One of the more recent TV shows that I got interested in is AMC's The Walking Dead.

Diablo III Live Stream

If you're one of those who like to watch instead of doing it themselves, here's an (almost) eight and a half hours long recording of a Diablo 3 gameplay live stream. According to the title, it fully covers Act 1 and Act 2.

3 Awesome Browser-based MMORPGs

Really good browser-based games are truly problematic. Not for whatever weird reasons you may think of, nor because they may squeeze more money out of you than a Triple A retail title (popular game bought from the store/Steam/other online platform and played on your PC/Mac/console), but because they can become addictive in a relatively short amount of time.

Sleeping Dogs 101

Here's a "trailer" from Sleeping Dogs' developer, together with a partial transcription of the narrative content from the video. By the way, Sleeping Dogs will be released August 14th 2012. So here we go:

SimCity - E3 2012 Gameplay Trailer

About three weeks have passed since the E3 2012 and I still have only covered only a part of the games presented there. But how could I, when the Electronic Entertainment Expo is such a huge event with thousands and thousands of people attending and I'm only one person?

Watching Gameplay Videos

I was thinking about how more and more people like to watch gameplay videos on sites like YouTube. And it came to my mind that there are a few types of videos (along with the different reasons to watch them). So here it goes:

Multiplayer mode in The Last of Us

A few days ago The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog announced that their game will feature a multiplayer mode. There aren't many details on this, but let's analyze things a bit and see what we can come up with.

Need for Speed™ Most Wanted (2012 Video Game)

One game to be expected this fall (October 30 to be exact) is the new Need for Speed™ Most Wanted. It's important to keep in mind that the title rather suggests a sequel of the 2005 video game, rather than a remake.

Unity 4 and Indie Game Developers

In case you've got nothing to do with game development and you're just a gamer, you probably don't know what Unity is. Or, if you're a Linux user, you might think I'm talking about Ubuntu's Desktop Environment. I'm not.

New poll - June 2012 (and later months)

Starting now, I'm adding a poll in the sidebar with what I hope to be some funny questions and answer choices. Considering this blog is very new right now, I'm going to keep the first poll on for an unlimited amount of time, with the following polls being held for shorter periods of about a month.

Top 10 Free to Play Games on Steam

It's been a while since Steam first published a Free to Play game and, by now, its collection of freemium games has grown significantly. Here is a partial list, according to Steam's Most Popular (Free to Play games) tab:

TobyGames - I Can Swing My Sword

If you haven't heard of Toby Turner (a.k.a. Tobuscus), you're not a real gamer. Or, at least, you're not a real gamer who watches YouTube stuff. Toby constantly posts various gameplay videos on his YouTube channel TobyGames - and they're pretty damn funny.

Zynga's Casino Games

Social gaming company Zynga had a real success with their Facebook games in the past years. Besides famous titles such as FarmVille, CityVille, CastleVille, FishVille and other non-Ville ones, Zynga also has a few casino titles.

Unreal Engine 4 Demo Showcase & Development Walkthrough

The E3 Expo is about more than just games being showcased - it's also about game technology. And Epic Games surprised us all by releasing the Unreal Engine 4 at the expo merely hours ago.

E3 2012 - More games to come!

Second day at the E3 Expo, so it's time to mention some of the games announced or simply discussed. We'll keep this one short, so let's go.

E3 2012 - Sony's Press Conference

Sony had a great conference today. I saw some really interesting things related to their products, but also to the games targeted at their platforms (PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita). They showed some really nice gameplay of The Last of Us (you already know how I feel about this awesome game), but that's not what impressed me the most.

E3 2012 - Day 1

E3 2012 started today, June 5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and I've seen some really amazing things. No, I'm not there! But I've watched some of the press conferences online and - guess what? - you can too.

Trailer: Grand Theft Auto V

One of the games I'm really waiting for in 2012 is Grand Theft Auto V. I've played all the previously released PC games of the series and I found them very exciting. But, in a way, I find many open-world games to be exciting. GTA V will be one of the biggest releases of the year. So here's the trailer:

Trailer: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

I've been a big fan of Counter-Strike 1.6 many years ago and even when CS: Source was released I still preferred playing the older one. But with Global Offensive... I might just give it a chance. Not because it's more similar to CS 1.6, but because it's totally different. That's right, it's a whole different game, while maintaining the same gameplay style.

Here's the trailer:

Sick days

Dear readers,

I know I just started this blog and it's not nice to interrupt posting on it so soon, but I have to call sick for a few days now. I will return with more posts, just as awesome as the previous ones, as soon as possible.

Until then I will really appreciate your patience and, just not to make you feel extremely lonely, I'll schedule some post for the next days with some game trailers. They're not much, but I hope they'll be better than nothing for you.

Thank you for your understanding!

Indie Game: The Movie

We've seen films made after game franchises and games made after movie franchises. But Indie Game: The Movie is a different thing altogether. It is a film about some North American independent game developers' journeys. This project has been in the making for over a year, according to their website.

The Last of Us - A Blast of Coolness

Later this year, or in the worst case early 2013, an amazing game will be released by Naughty Dog: The Last of Us.

A "genre-defining experience", as defined by the co-president of the aforementioned game developer, The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival third person game set in a post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas.

Top 10 Hottest Video Game Female Characters

It would have been very bad manners to have a blog about games and not post a top like this one. We all have our favorite game girl characters - some may be hot, some may be less so, but after all hotness is extremely relative. To prove this, there's a saying: "all women are beautiful when you look at them through the bottom of a pint of beer". And even though I'm not drunk at the moment of writing this, keep in mind that this top only reflects my personal opinion on the topic.

Notch's space MMO game 0x10c

We might be closer to the Matrix universe than we thought - and Minecraft developer, Notch, is confirming it through the new game he is developing.

0x10^cis a space MMO set in the year 281.474.976.712.644 AD. Each player has its very own 16-bit computer that is emulated to the lowest possible level. What this means is that you basically have not one, but thousands of computers inside your computer.

Four useful tools for gamers

For all the gamers who dream of making their hobby a profession (but not necessarily), I present to you a short list of 4 software applications that can help.

Lindsey Stirling and Game Music

Lindsey Stirling is an amazing violinist that's as cute as a button and as talented as one can be. You may know her from the fifth season of America's Got Talent (quarter-finalist).

Another place where you might have discovered her is YouTube. Her music videos reach millions of views each. That should tell you something about her talent. Either way, here is a short selection of her music videos containing covers for popular soundtracks of some game (and movie) franchises:

Top 5 Free to Play MMOs

Here's my personal top for Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs/MMOs). Now keep in mind that this list is not limited to Play4Free MMORPGs, but also contains other MMO sub-genres. Let's get started:

I took an arrow to the knee / Skyrim

I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

The above phrase is probably the most popular Internet meme of the period. In case you didn't know, it comes from the game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. All guard NPCs in that game have a certain number of preset lines to say and there's no doubt that this one is the most memorable of them.

Top 10 things to do in Minecraft

Let's start our journey in the gaming world with one of the most versatile games ever created - Minecraft. In case you lived in a cave in the past 3 years or so, Minecraft is an indie game created by Mojang's Markus Alexej "Notch" Persson. It's a sandbox adventure game where you make your own story. How come? Because you make your own world. Out of cubes. Millions of them. I'm just saying.

Welcome, gamers!

Hi and welcome to Talk Games Online, the blog where we discuss the latest trends in the gaming community, just like the tagline says.

I hope we're going to have a lot of fun together, browsing, playing, reviewing and criticizing all sorts of games: online games, offline games, games for browsers, PCs, Macs, iPhones, Android mobile phones, tablets and not only.