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Saving Mega Man

Video Blips for April 18, 2011. Take a gander at the beauty of Battlefield 3, the bleakness of Rage, the excitement of Uncharted 3's multiplayer, and the gravity defiance of Inversion.

20 years ago, Japan ruled the gaming roost. Now, the “land of the rising sun” is on life support. Japan is “five years behind,” says Megaman creator, Keiji Inafune. Indeed, Japan is dead, buried, gone the way of the dodo bird…or so goes the old saw. The reality is far more nuanced.

The real issue that I have with higher difficulty levels is that they often substitute frustration for fun. There are a number of ways that developers can try to ratchet up the challenge of games, but too often they make bad choices. It's wonderful when they get it right, but horribly frustrating when they get it wrong.

Did you know what Nintendo still accepted service calls on the NES until 2007? That's just one of the weird things that happened in This Week in Video-Game History.

Even the best multiplayer games aren't perfect, but three incoming titles aim to improve on old formulas.

Thank the world for Uncharted 2 a game that saved my life. How would I have survived that weekend without it? That I will never know and I don't ever want to find out.

What life might be like without Shigeru Miyamoto, how one guy thinks the first Uncharted is kind of stupid now, playing 50 hours of Team Fortress 2, and more await in this edition of the Community Spotlight.

Can Guile's Theme really go with everything? You'll be sick of it before you find out.

After playing 25 minutes or so of a frosty oilrig level, I had a chance to talk with Killzone 3's Senior Producer Steven Ter Heide about how Uncharted 2 influenced Killzone 3's story, how 3D will improve your aim (sort of), and the pressure of living up to a CG target trailer....

Ever fail to see the appeal of a title despite knowing it was good? Love a game even though you realize it's awful? Share those experiences here!