That guy's a Maniac...

Remember gaming? Remember this blog? Ha! Well if there's one game to bring us out of apathy-driven retirement it's a new Pokémon game. I've not read many reviews, does anyone do reviews anymore? Is Zero Punctuation still going? There's something fairly unique about Pokémon video games in that we here at TGAM have been playing them for 20 years now and to the casual Pokémon player who dips in and out, it's easy to think that it's been the same game across all of those 20 years with the occasional roster update. But for those who are in deep. Too deep. The mainline Pokémon games is 20 years of iterative design and with Sun and Moon they've finally expunged many of the 20 year old mechanics and choreful quirks and built on designs that have been experimented on since Red/Green and Blue. Of course, some old skool players are going to hate these changes. If you've wasted spent hundreds of hours breeding and training that perfect IV shiny Pokémon then yes

And so the sun rises, and the moon sets on a new pokemon challenge. And we bid farewell to the ORAS generation of games. Fittingly we at TGAM decided the best way to celebrate this was with a Pokemon Battle. Using only Gen 3 Pokemon. Here is the annoyingly lengthy, boring and  low quality vids. and: Shockingly this actually only counts as our first foray into videos on the TGAM site... well whatevs.. We were bloggers, not vloggers. Love and Mimikyu Richie X

A while back my 3DS was dominated by the Pokemon flavoured Diablo clone: Pokemon Rumble World, a F2P game I actually spent money on... It was a great wee game but it got pretty grindy/repetitive/boring towards the end... I hit 719 Pokemon (yes I know there are more, but not in Rumble World!) And I'm done... Why am I telling you this? What is so fucking brilliant about completing the game? Whoop-dee-doo? Well, first of all that last one is not a question, and secondarily clearly you are interested since you are posing more questions. The real reason is I am not done, there is a plethora of other "achievements" one such would be to get every version of Areceus. This is the opposite of fun, this is grinding upon grinding. And there is plenty more like this, gaining all the "formes" of all the Pokemon with formes... So this is it, line has been drawn in the sand. I'm done, no more Pokemon Rumble world for me, no sir. Kaput. This is an Ex-F2P time sink.

Almost all of us play mobile games, as a time-waster (or avoiding eye contact) waiting on or in public transport. I tend to have a few on the go at one time, I recently "Finished" the Family guy: quest for stuff game, which is wholeheartedly one of the most shallow city-building/farm building games out there. I have not spent a penny on that, it wouldn't even be satisfying to spend a penny on that either. Another gem I have been plugging away at for the past few months is Evoker  which is an oddity you set 5 cards which have different attributes and abilities. You level up cards, through solo play which uses and energy mechanic, or PvP which uses a second energy mechanic. Essentially you can only play for roughly 3-4 mins before you are locked out for about 2 hours (more at higher levels). But that was fun collecting the "team" you wanted to face off your opponent with... etc. BUT Its suffers as a Pay2win title, if you spend money on it you, and I suppose this

Last month was a hard time for me. In part I was overjoyed at the exposure thatguys.co.uk was getting with that Kill Screen article. However it was also a dark time, my Pokemon Black Cartridge got put in the washing machine corrupted. This cart contained many of the pokemon who were on a par with the length of time played and connection with that Omastar , so as I am sure you can appreciate the joy of being featured was ever so slightly tainted... As you can imagine, I was more than distraught. I considered trying to salvage my save using PC adaptors, or perhaps re-starting with a new save and using editors re-create my pokemon with their original stats. I could even send some of the “event” pokemon, those pokemon I queued for, or downloaded that are no longer available. That would be legit right, its not so cheaty is it? I decided against it, to follow on from the Omastar article there is an emotional attachment to these guys, if I were to re-create them what would I create

Last weekend, once again we went through the humiliating ritual of busting down to the nearest GAME with our DSi and copies of Pokémon White and Pokémon Black Version 2 to download Legendary 'mon Meloetta. That takes us up to a sweet 648/649 (Deoxys aaargh) in our eternal mission to Catch 'em all , this generation of Pokémon is the closest we've come. In all our years of playing these ridiculous games, Nintendo seem to have finally realised that yes, Europe is a viable region and that some people do play their multi million selling game series. For previous generations we'd get shafted over special events and event only Pokémon meaning that unless you turned to an Action Replay you were destined to have to live with empty spaces dotting the pokedex. That's not to say that all regions are treated equally. Oh no. With Pokémon Black and White Version 2 there's now a multitude of ways to receive special gift pokémon and items from Mother Ninty. gifts

So, Pokemon X and Y announced and we at thatguys have kleenex on standby. And this latest Valentines video shows us the newest evolution for Eevee! But no-one knows what type it is! In the Previous Generations it looks like this: Gen I Flareon: Fire Jolteon: Electric Vaporeon: Water Gen II Espeon: Psychic Umbreon: Dark Gen IV Leafeon: Grass Glaceon: Ice Which leaves Steel, Bug, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Flying, Rock, Ghost or Dragon. This Eevee evolution has been named Sylveon. Which rather annoyingly does not divulge the typing the prefix "Sylv" could refer to may things: Silver , indicating it is a steel type, however it does not look very steel-like. Sylvan, meaning foresty or arboreal, but we already have a grass type. Sylph,  which is a mythological air elemental, this could indicate a Flying or Ghost type, but nothing about it really screams either typing, except maybe a scarf that flaps in the wind. Or maybe a connection to Silph Co. the manufactur

So Warcraft decided to put Pokemon in their latest expansion but is it any good? Well sort answer is no, but there are some plus points to it. Mainly it shows Pokemon could be an MMO of sorts, but it also uses some nice graphics to do it. It actually puts the old Pokemon stadiums to shame because the pets actually interact with each other during attacks, as opposed to the shoddy cutscene of an attack being done, then cut to attacked Pokemon flinching in pain. But there are many, many issues with the "Pet battles" within the WoW interface. The biggest and most annoying one, it is buggy as hell: There was several times when playing through my character would be facing the wrong way, sure its just an aesthetic thing but, cmon... Its cheaty! now I read this may have been fixed now, but apparently there was something wrong with the RNG with pet battles, I found that the AI was able to dodge attacks way more than I did, making it frustrating to beat the gym leaders.  Some

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. WE'VE ABUSED ALL CAPS TOO MUCH IN THE PAST, THIS TIME WE MEAN IT. The Official pokemon website is running a vote for a pokemon that will be featured as a download via the Pokemon Global Link. It is clear that TGAM are poke addicts but it ain't all rosy . This could change everything. Here are the current rankings of pokemon people have been voting for: For the love of god Pokemon players. VOTE FOR DEOXYS! Deoxys has never been available in the UK. The empty spot in my almost living pokedex drives me crazy. It is a constant source of dismay to me and the people around me. Whoever the fuck is voting for ditto and pikachu needs euthanising straight away. Not metaphorical euthanising, deliberate hunting down, slaying dissecting and grotesquely displayed in public areas as a warning to others. As for the people voting for Arceus, sure, it is a nice third choice but there was an event for it a while ago. You missed out. Sorry guys. VOTE DEOXYS. For all that is

The Norwegian Postal service logo looks like a pokeball. That is all. Logos and balls, Richie X

So all of our readers we complaining about the lack of updates... Well its inexcusable I know. BUT in our defence there is Marvel vs Capcom to play through. And frankly dear readers, we have bad news, Pokemon Black & White is out, and we are already playing our little hearts out. So just be aware there will be updates, but more than likely it will be along the lines of: OMG, JUST GOT DESTROYED BT THE 1ST GYM LEADER CHEATY POKEMON! JUST CAUGHT A BIDOOF FML ZOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMGGGGGG SHINY!!!! etc etc. (Not really, we have just had some pish IRL stuff, we'll be back on track, using the word "cunt" soon) Black and White, Richie X

Our whole world is crumbling around us, we have been playing Pokemon for 12 years. Ugh... We just spotted this today... Caterpie and Venonat evolve in the following way: But upon further perusal this should clearly be: Ok so the distinction in the Caterpie - Metapod - Venomoth evolution line is not overly obvious. But the Venonat to Butterfree similarities are astounding!Observe the Antennae, eyes, mouth, hands, and colouration. Without giving into the horrible realisation that Nintendo fucked up, and have been lying to us; to stop ourselves swapping their positions in the pokedex, turning off the DS and never returning to pokemon again. There may be a way to explain this, from an Evolutionary stance: 1. Theory One: Venonat is a derived form of Butterfree. If we can assume that Butterfree has remained Morphologically similar, there is a possibility that the species branched off at an earlier point in which may have found a flightless niche exising as a

See here for what this nonsense is about. Basically, I've successfully transferred 490 bits of code from one DS cart to another! Erm, yay me? Can't wait to do it all over again when Pokemon Black and White come out.....

Books innit? In between writing about games, listening almost exclusively to gaming soundtracks and reading about games on the Internet we occasionally find the time to actually play some games. Rarer still, we find time to pick up a game related book and give it a bloody good read and now is a good a time as any to be reading about games. This time five years ago, you'd be hard pressed to find any gaming based literature in your local book shop. Now, for the discerning reader, it is hard not get buried by it. First up, we've been reading The Second Life Herald: the virtual tabloid that witnessed the dawn of the metaverse by Peter Ludlow and Mark Wallace. This book is 3 years old now but charts the early days of the growth of things like The Sims Online and Second Life and where interesting stuff happens with emergent behaviours in games. If you completely missed this chunk of gaming history but want to know more about why people bother with second life, what the Upskirt Museum

We got a DSi XL from our favourite person in the world. It is a thing of beauty, an object d'art. The screens are huge and I can now check the internet from the toilet which, is pretty much living the dream. In addition, because the old DS touch screen was broken it now means that we can unlock those extra outfits on Project Rub, Spin that record in Resident Evil Deadly Silence and most importantly MATCH THE FACES! MATCH THE FACES, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, MATCH THE FACES, MATCH THE FACES, MATCH THE FACES, match the faces, match the faces, MATCH THE FACES! Match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces, match the faces

Play a Guitar hero or Rock band game from start to finish (or endless setlist etc) with the pokewalker strapped to your strumming wrist. (I got 12,000 for Guitar hero: Greatest hits). Love and Hey! I wonder how many steps your average wank would produce with this set-up? Richie X

Recently, we were commissioned to review the impossibly cute Wiiware, My Pokemon Ranch. Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity but we ended up with a couple of gigs worth of extra images that we sadly couldn't use so here's the b-roll. This is the official longest serving Pokemon, my starter on Sapphire. That was [Checks wikipedia and sighs] 'a number' of years ago now. This guy saw service in Sapphire, Fire Red, Colosseum and extensive duties in Diamond. Also saw action and one of the few mon not to perform abysmally in the Epic Clash . Needless to say he's earned the break on the farm. Yes, it is actually he of comic fame . Let's not pay too much attention it goes to his head. A shiny Crobat. I wonder why this image wasn't used? I played ten hours of Pokemon Channel and I all I got was this lousy Jirachi. Also, an early contender for the gayest screenshot of the year? I played 30 hours of Pokemon Colosseum and all I got was this lousy Ho-oh? The Ar

Many of you may have taken a stroll around Amity square with one of your 'cute' pokemon friends. Can I ask that as of today everyone boycotts Amity Square as it is nothing more than RACISM AT IT'S WORST. Yesterday I attempted to take a Kabuto for a walk around the square only to be told that it wouldn't be allowed in because it wasn't 'cute' enough. Not only is cuteness subjective but the Nazis at Amity Square define cuteness as pink normal types (with a couple of exceptions). Quite how this barefaced racism is tolerated in Hearthrome City comes as no surprise- the religious rednecks there have even built a church opposite the entrance.

Zorua Zoroark Apparently a dark type, if it was 3 stage I'd like to think it could have been a starter. I'm fond of the idea that the starters could be something other than Fire, Grass and Water again. Dark, Fighting and Psychic seem the most viable. But I digress... It's been announced much in the same way as Lucario of Generation IV as he'll be in the TWELFTH movie!  Love and still waiting on HeartGold/SoulSilver, Richie X