Warning: Potential spoilers for Gone Home follow.

If there are eight million stories in the naked city, how many are there in a single home? Look through your own living space. How much does each thing, even down to scraps of paper, mean to you? To the ones close to you? What do you remember when looking at them? What would someone assume about you if these things were presented with no other context?

Gone Home is the story of a family - the Greenbriers. You play as the elder daughter, Kaitlin, who’s returned home in June of 1995 after spending a year in Europe. You came in on the red-eye and caught a shuttle home. It is dark, it is raining cats and dogs, and no one is there when you arrive. A note on the door from your younger sister, Sam, asks you not to tell your mother and father what you find.

From here, Gone Home becomes less of a game and more of a first person story. You walk through your temporarily abandoned house, finding pieces of a family life you’ve missed out on in the past year. There’s the invoice from the movers, the postcards you sent expressing astonsihment as the new familial address, and your mother’s hand-drawn map from home to work. There are the books for parents of teenagers and the book for a teenager on how to make friends, with a well-meaning note to little sister Sam signed “Dad.” For good measure, you also discover early on (depending of course on your own path through the house) that this new mansion is refered to by locals as “The pyscho house.” Did I mention it’s dark and raining really hard?

As you walk through and examine these pieces of the Greenbriers’ lives, you as the player are presented with journals from your sister Sam has left for you. She’s a high school junior struggling to fit in in a new town, struggling with her feelings for the girl she’s drawn too like a human supernova. The homosexual nature of the relationship means that not only is Sam dealing with her own inner turmoil, but there’s bound to be some tension with the family, too. That’s not the only source of conflict in this game though; you learn of your father’s professional struggles, your mother’s triumphs, and how their marriage is changing as they approach their anniversary. These secondary and tertiary stories are all told through otherwise innocuous objects in the house: a book in the master bath, a letter from an editor in the study, a bookmark under a bed, a pamphlet in a cabinet with highlighted dates.

What populates your living space? Are there ghosts of loves past? Would your music collection allow someone to guess when you started questioning authority? Does the family photo beside your bed show your loved ones as they are or how you want to remember them? Play Gone Home. Allow yourself to be Kaitlin Greenbrier, and walk through the lives of this family. It will stick with you.

I can count the number of interactions I had with Ryan Davis on one hand. They were fleeting, insignificant Twitter messages between a fan and a public personality, between a subscriber to a website and someone providing customer support. he steered me towards sociaimprints.com when I had an issue with a t-shirt order. He retweeted a photo of my beagle-corgi mix when I engaged Eric Pope in a joke about Sleeping Dogs, and, in a message I've cherished even before today's tragic news, he called me a motherfucker.

It's easy to think we know the guys who make up Giant Bomb. The site stands out because each member of the staff injects so much of his personality into what they cover and how they cover it. Each week, there's a Giant Bombcast that opened with Ryan's infectiously enthusiastic "Hey everybody, it's Tuesday!" kicking off a two to three hour discussion of video games that usually, quickly, devolves into four friends sitting a room, talking about their lives. Quick Looks and the Endurance Runs are just as much about how the crew reacts to a game as the game itself. But for as much as Ryan, Jeff, Patrick, Vinny, Brad, Dave, Drew, and Matt have been willing to share with us over the years, the reality is they spend a small portion of their lives being honest with us in front of a camera or a microphone, and then go lead separate private lives. Some members of the community have struck up wonderful friendships with Ryan or other members of the staff, but the reality is I remain a fan, not a friend, and this is why I'm having so much trouble processing the news of Ryan's death.

Even though I never met him (being in the same room for a PAX East panel hardly counts as meeting someone), it's clear that the people who did know Ryan loved him. The tributes from Casey Malone, Max Tempkin, and Justin McElroy put this into words more beautifully than I ever could. But I think Ryan's honesty with the community here at Giant Bomb, the way he let us into pieces of his life make it easier for us to empathize with those who truly knew Ryan. For the rest of us, we knew him in our own one-sided way. I knew him as the host of the Bombcast and various live shows. Those podcasts and show archives meant quite a bit to me, as listening and watching helped me deal with my own stresses and anxieties.

I can't figure out why I'm taking this so hard, especially when one of our only meaningful interactions was him calling me a motherfucker. Actually, it's because of the spirit in which he called me a motherfucker. There was some discussion, either on the Bombcast or on Twitter or in Quick Look, where Ryan made a reference to The Color Purple. This was when he and Gary Whitta were regularly pulling down the e-trousers and comparing their...Klout. I sent Ryan a tweet along the lines of "Since I can't give you +K in The Color Purple or Toni Morrison, I gave you +K in Morrissey." His simple, honest, endearing response to someone he had never met was "you motherfucker." I took it in the warm and friendly spirit in which I'm sure it was offered.

I miss Ryan Davis, and I never even knew him.

I can't help it: I'm excited for E3. I know there's an expectation this will be a subdued year with no hardware reveals from Sony or Microsoft, and game reveals will lack impact because studios and publishers are waiting for the next generation of tech to unleash heavy hitters. I think being in this kind of transitional period is exciting, but that's not the reason I'm excited. Last June, for reasons that completely escape me, I downloaded my first Bombcast from iTunes and spent three hours listening to Gary Whitta, Stepto, E, and Jon Blow engage in one of the most interesting conversations about user experience, technology, and games in general. The next day, I heard David Jaffe be David Jaffe in a mostly unfiltered environment. I'd been a member here for a while, but that week's wild-ass decision to listen to the long-ass E3 podcasts got me hooked.

In the past year, I've listened to the Bombcast archives from the beginning through the first 20 minutes or so of E3 2010 Day 3 (If you've listened to this day's audio, you know why I stopped) and am planning to spend this week re-listening to the 2011 audio before getting back into the archives. I'm excited for E3 because despite the technical difficulties the staff has been fighting through, I trust them to find interesting guests who are outspoken, well spoken, or both to talk passionately about an industry that's on the verge of a generational shift yet still clinging to many remnants of the past in terms of design and the business model. I'm excited to hear Patrick during his first Giant Bomb E3 experience. I'm excited to watch these live, despite being on the East coast. I'm excited to learn the names of more people in the industry I should pay attention to because they're doing new or interesting things.

I hope there are new games, products, and initiatives introduced at E3 that interest me. If not, at least I'll be entertained after each day's show.

I watched the live-stream of Thursday's Pancake Party, and the outrage and immediate emergence of the pessimists and doomsayers wasn't surprising. I'll even admint that I"m highly disappointed that we'll see less Whiskey cross-overs, as I've come to love Will, Rorie, Gary, Norm, Joey, and a lot of people I'd never heard of before they showed up on a TNT or a Quick Look. While that's a big bummer for me (and probably the Whiskey vrew who appeared to love working together), I'm not worried about CBSI "sucking the soul:" out of Giant Bomb or muzzling the way Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Vinny, Patrick, and Drew cover games and the gaming industry. There are a few reasons for this, but the two most important (and related) ones are these: Jeff said things won't change much, and, presumably, we're here because we trust the Giant Bomb guys. That last part, so important it needs to be bolded, is worth repeating: We're presumably here because we trust what Brad, Jeff, Ryan, Patrick, and Vinny have to say.

I've said what I'm about to say before, but it bears repeating because I imagine a lot of people have similar stories. As a gamer in 2007, I knew about GameSpot and read them occasionally, mostly when I was looking for a review of a game I was on the fence about or looking for news about something that was coming out and I was super-excited about it. I didn't pay attention to the by-lines on reviews, and I tended to just look at the numbers and use those to help inform my buy/wait/rent/avoid decision. When Gerstmann-gate broke as news on Penny Arcade, it was a kind of a wake-up call in that it made me more aware of everything that went into games coverage, for better or worse: game publisher and developer input, the outlet's editorial work and management, and individual bias and opinions on games. Believing the rumors, now confirmed, that Jeff was fired largely over a poor score given to an advertiser made me aware of who Jeff was and made me want to see what he did next, because I appreciated that kind of integrity in reviews and coverage of any medium.

I've been a reader of Giant Bomb since it's founding, and a member for some time, and a paid subscriber since they started (I think) because I've found as I read and watch and listen to Giant Bomb's content that I trust what they're telling me is an honest representation of how they feel about a game. That doesn't mean I think the same thing or agree with every opinion - how could I when you have such differences on staff like how Patrick and Jeff had such different views on Catherine, or how Vinny fell hard for Dark Souls while the rest of the team mostly saw it as a masochistic exercise in futility? Even on this past week's Bombcaast, we had a rehash of Brad vs. Everybody on the greatness of Flower. While Jeff's firing and integrity were what brought me here, I find I'm closer in my gaming tastes to Brad and Ryan, with the COD-tendencies of Vinny to try to collect everything - and that means both in-game and in ridiculous and largely unneeded peripherals.

Giant Bomb has built an incredible community that I'm fortunate to feel like a small part of. I also feel like when one of the staff members gives an opinion or passes judgement on a game or an event in the gaming world, I know where their opinion is coming from and can make my own reasonably informed decision about how that's going to differ from mine and to what degree. Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Vinny, Patrrick, and now Alex are NOT my friends, but I feel like I know them (or at least their tastes and inherit biases*) well enough to trust them when they tell me that the site's content and approach isn't going to change. I'm not going to pretend to know the business situation of Giant Bomb or Whiskey media, but I'm willing to believe that when Jeff says things aren't going to change much, he's not just blowing smoke up or collective asses, and CBSI is genuinely interested in preserving the community and content of Giant Bomb because those are valuable commodities to them.

There are going to be changes, and I might not like them all. But before grabbing the pitchforks, torches, and red nWo Wolfpack shirts (if I can even still find mine...), let's give the Giant Bomb crew the same benefit of the doubt we given them when looking for gaming news, reviews and criticism.

I've had my Vita for just under 7 hours and have had it with me or beside me the entire time. Following my post on why I was excited for the Vita, I thought I'd give a few quick hit, from the hip impressions.

• It's both a good size and a bit too small for my big hands. I don't feel like I have my hands cramped up playing it like I used to with a PSP, but the non-touch sensitive area on the back seems to be a little small for a big guy with big hands. If a game doesn't use rear touch, no problem. But I anticipate we'll see a LOT of launch and first party titles trying to take advantage of all the capabilities.
• I need a soft cloth. The Vita's pretty, but it attracts fingerprints like a glossy black piece of tech tends to do. When I look for a case, maybe I'll try to find a package deal with a case, cloth, and some other trinkets I don't really need.
• The download speeds have been pretty zippy. My major gripe with Sony is the frequency of firmware/title updates and how slowly they download on my PS3s. Granted, one if about as far from the wireless router as it can be with no line of sight, but the other is not. With the Vita so far, firmware, apps, and a Wipeout 2048 title update have downloaded pretty quickly. Not at all what I expected on launch day with a lot of people probably banging on the servers.
• So far, I find near fascinating but confusing. I'm not really sure how to use it "right" or "best," but I love tapping around in it seeing what I can find near me. I have the manual favorited on the web browser, so I will RTFM at some point, soon, because I don't think I'm going to just pick this up like most apps. If it wasn't so damn interesting, I'd probably just bag it.
• Netflix runs like a dream once you get past the horrible UI. Watched a full episode of Bones with no buffering or frame rate issues or hiccups. This will be a nice option until the iPad 3 hits.
• Oh yeah, it plays games. I've only played a three or four races of Wipeout so far, but snagged that, Hot Shots, Mod Nation Racers, Little Deviants, Uncharted, and Lumines thanks to various Buy 2 Get 1 sales. Wipeout's fun, but the load times are ASS. I'm going to try some Hot Shots later tonight for sure, so hopefully that's title specific.
• I'm really looking forward to seeing how buying a full title works out. I know it should be old hat by now, but I want to see first hand how the download process goes for a full title and how much mem card space I have to sacrifice.

My big two anticipated releases are still The Show and MK, and my experience, albeit limited, with the Vita hasn't dampened my enthusiasm yet. We'll see how I feel in a few days after trying out more of what matters: the games.

Normally, I'm an early technology adopter, especially when it comes to gaming. There are a few reasons for this: I'm excited to see the promise of What's Next, I'm easily swayed by marketing hype (but if I know I'm buying the pitch, is it okay?), and I have more money than sense. When Kaz Hirai made his infamous reveal of the Vita's partnership with AT&T, I decided I was going to pass on the 3G Vita. I'm perfectly happy with my AT&T 3G service for my iPhone...but only because I HATE using my iPhone as a phone, and most everything I do on it is done over wifi, anyway. The extra $50 just seemed silly for a feature I wouldn't use that much. I stuck to my guns when it came to preordering a Vita, skipping the "Early Adopters" or "First Edition" bundle or whatever they called the 3G version people could get their hands on this past week. I'm glad I did, but I'm more excited for the Vita's launch than I ever thought I would be.

The Vita I get this week will be functionally the same as the First Edition, just minus that extra bit of connectivity I didn't plan on using. With that in mind, I've been reading Vita game previews, hardware reviews, and of course watching the Giant Bomb quick looks. Like Jeff has said on multiple occasions, I"m not sure I truly want "the console experience" in a portable device, but that's not what I'm seeing out of the Vita so far or what I'm looking forward to the most. Games like Lumines and Wipeout 2048 appear like they'll be good or at least good enough as launch titles, considering the low bar we've seen with recent system launches. The same goes for Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which seems worthy of a play through to test out the Vita's different control schemes. The four titles that have me the most excited though, seem to offer a taste of "the console experience" in smaller chunks, perfect for gamin on the go or as a diversion during commercial breaks or at night right before bed.

Hot Shots Golf, Mortal Kombat, Pinball Arcade, and MLB The Show 12 are my reasons for looking forward to the PS Vita. Assuming there are decent save mechanics implemented in each, The Show, MK, and Hot Shots all seem perfect for when I have limited time to pick up the Vita and play a few holes or a few fights or a few innings. Again, making an assumption about mechanics, these also might be ways to improve my console skills fopr games where I also play the "real" versions on the PS3 like MK and The Show. I'm also not too proud to admit I downloaded the "free" iOS Pinball Arcade and couldn't resist unlocking the four launch tables after a few rounds of each. I can't wait to see hoe it plays with dedicated shoulder buttons.

Do I expect any of these to be on par with what I get from a console game? No, not really. But for bite sized, quick gaming with capable hardware and controls designed for gaming, I'm optimistic about what's being launched this week.

At 1:30 pm Eastern, I almost flipped my lid again. I got an e-mail at my Gmail account that a password reset had been requested for my Windows Live ID. "Those Sons of Bitches!" I thought (and probably said out loud) as I sprung into action. I wasn't going to let these nefarious, probably foreign (because I'm casually racist) hackers get my account again. And with Microsoft on the case, no less! The indignity of it was too much.

As I was furiously trying to write down the bizarre, super-strong password I'd chosen for my Windows Live ID, I got another e-mail, this time from Xbox Customer Support. It was informing me the investigation was over, they had temporarily taken control of my account, and I would soon be seeing (HA!) an e-mail instructing me to reset my Windows Live ID password. Microsoft has identified fraudulent charges and refunded the price of the $1600 MS points, plus restored 2500+ points I had on my account. I knew the hackers had gotten some points, because I have the terrible habit of buying 6000 at a time and just leaving them there for impulse purchases. Or rather, I HAD that habit, before this. I got a code for a one month free extension of Gold and the offer of 800 MS Points to reset my Gamertag if it had been compromised. Luckily, it hadn't.

While I had visions of this being a drawn out nightmare, it really couldn't have gone more smoothly. A friend of mine did get his account hacked yesterday, and I hope the hackers didn't grab his GT off my friend's list. I'd feel bad if that were the case. I think it's been said that the unexamined life isn't worth living, so I asked myself if I learned anything that I could pass on. I think I did:

1. Take password security seriously. Use strong passwords and DON'T REPEAT THEM. I know I didn't get phished. I know I didn't get socially engineered out of a password. If I had used a little stronger password and not fell into the trap of using a moderately strong password in multiple locales, maybe I wouldn't have been as easy of a target to hack.

2. I should diversify my gaming habits. The thought of being 360-less this weekend, before a week abroad on business, was frightening. I have a Skyrim character to continue! I have an unwrapped copy of KoA: Reckoning to start! I also have a bitching PC and a stack of PS3 games 2 feet high I've barely touched. I need to get on the stick and clear out this backlog some. I hear Uncharted 2 is AWESOME.

3. Sometimes, the companies you do business with come through. I feel terrible for the people who have spent 30, 60, 90 days or longer without access to their Live accounts. If you're vehemently anti-MIcrosoft or anti-corporation, this won't change your mind, but they did right by me. I'm nobody special to the, just a paying customer, but some companies realize you need customers to turn a profit. I work for a large, multinational company, but it's a means to a paycheck. Ultimately, I want the company to be successful so I'm paid well, and we need customers for that to happen. Even a big company like Microsoft should recognize the need to be customer-focused on issues like this. I hope my experience is closer to the norm than those horror stories, and it's a sign Microsoft is improving in its investigation processes and tightening up the security gaps that made this possible.

And finally, I have a special message for the hackers who did this: I don't know who you are. I don't know what you wantg, exactly, but it appears to have something to do with FIFA and the Ultimate Team. If you are looking for rare cards, I can tell you I don't have them. But what I do have, besides the abiulity to rip off Liam Neeson monologues, is a sick, bizarre need to increase my Gamerscore by a set number of points per year. My goal for this year was 7000, and I just wanted to say thanks for getting me 20 points I would NEVER have otherwise gotten. Since I got my MS points and cash back, I almost feel like I owe you one. Almost. Thanks anyway!

Hack noticed: 10:20 am, Wednesday February 8

Hack Resolved: 1:30 pm Friday, February 10

Total Elapsed time: 51 hours, 10 minutes.

I have a terrible habit for a working professional: I can't resist checking my e-mail on my iPhone. I spend 8 to 16 hours a day staring at my corporate Outlook client, but when I hear my personal iPhone buzz, I have to look. Yesterday, I heard a buzz while I was in the middle of a conference call. Usually this wouldn't stop me from sneaking a peek, but I had one of my employees in my office with me. 40 minutes later, I was back to work with the buzz all but forgotten...until another one. The most recent buzz was some piece of spam, but the earlier message was from

MICROSOFT *XBOX LIVE with a subject of "Purchase Confirmation for 1600 Microsoft Points Bundle"

I'm not above adding something to my download queue for Live from the web interface from work, but I had definietly NOT purchased these points at 10:20 am on a weekday. I'm assuming most readers of Giant Bomb have read Patrick Klepeck's work on the "FIFA hack" or have heard about it from somewhere else; that's exactly what happened to me.

I immediately removed the credit cards I could from the account, changed the password and my Windows Live ID password, and left the office to call Xbox support from home to report the problem with my console info handy. The process was pretty smooth, and the support rep told me the investigation would take "3-7 days."

I'm going to try to document my experience as best I can, day-by-day. The unfortunate thing is that for business days 4-8, I'll be in England for work. I plan to let Xbox do their thing, and we'll see if I hear anything from Microsoft before that 7th day. If it wasn't for the work trip, these middle days would be a catalogue of my descent into madness.

I'm hopeful this is much ado about nothing. If this hits day 50 or so, there will be rage.

For the first time in a few years, I've actually been enjoying my time with Madden. I've probably played Madden 11 more in this first week of release than I did of Madden 09 and Madden 10 combined over their lifespan. While I liked hearing some new (or new to me) music in every year's release, I do think the use of more traditional stadium rock helps add to the atmosphere and create a more authentic experience. But then I hear   brief   gaps   of silence. I know these songs for the most part, I grew up listening to them and still keep "Machinehead" and "Welcome to the Jungle" on my iPod. The first cut I noticed was jarring, but it made sense. I understand EA and Tiburon shying away from letting Axl Rose scream "You're in the jungle baby...you're gonna DIE!" at pre-teens and even younger crowds. Then I heard Thunderstruck come on...or should I say "heard Thunderstruck start to play." When you hit a certain age, you learn words have multiple meanings, and there's a potentially sexual connotation to the word "come." It's a thinly veiled double entendre if you're of a certain age, but it IS veiled in the context of the song and AC/DC discussing a trip "through to Texas." 
 
If a songwriter has given himself plausible deniability, does censoring words with double meanings cause more problems? Have any parents had to explain why a song his or her kid has heard on the radio sounds different in Madden? This seems like a case of someone - EA, Tiburon, the ESRB - being hypersensitive. If you have to censor music (and I'm NOT advocating it, but I get it), use some common sense.