There is something about being surrounded by video game art and jamming out to chiptunes that makes me feel at home. Apparently I am not the only one, as Gallery 1988 on Melrose had a line wrapped around the block last night to see this year’sI am 8 Bitpremiere. There wasn’t an inch of room to spare among the throngs of geek hungry attendees. In addition to well loved artists likeLuke ChuehandAmy Sol, we got to check out the work of tons of other Gallery 1988’swicked alchemists....

WhatPortaldid for portals, whatBraidwill do for time manipulation,Polaritydoes for magnetism. A free, downloadable, totally awesome puzzle-platformer,Polarityis all about using different types of magnetism to make it through the game. The player is equipped with a dual-magnetism suit: at the press of a button, the player can turn blue and become attracted to orange items while repelling blue ones, or turn orange and have the opposite happen. Basically, you’ve gotta jump and magnetize your way through four levels full of dangerous platforming and wonderfully clever puzzles....

When Destructoid’s late and great podcastRetroforceGO!— something I was lucky enough to have a hand in producing — ended withEpisode 100, it was a very bittersweet moment. On the one hand, I was so proud to be a part of something so wonderful, and loved to see the retro-flavored podcast many held so close to their hearts end on a high note. On the other hand, man, did it suck to say goodbye....

2K approached Jhonen Vasquez, the creator ofInvader Zim,Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and other awesome things, to create an image forBioShock 2. The result isthis piececalled “The Sisters” which shows the Big Sister watching over two Little Sisters somewhere in Rapture. Jhonen wrote up a guest blog overon The Cult of Rapturewhere he details the process he went through in creating the freaky little image. Jhonen will also be at San Diego Comic-Con signing special edition prints of his “The Sisters” drawing at theBioShock 2booth....

While everyone was shouting aboutDuke Nukem Foreverat PAX, Rare and Microsoft quietly announced two new modes for the upcoming Kinect Sports — boxing and “Party Play.” Boxing is, well… it’s boxing. You’ll work up a sweat swinging your arms like a mad man, making on-screen Avatars pummel other ugly Avatar faces in the process. “Party Play” is… some kind of tournament-style multiplayer mode that will let your characters dress up like aliens and carrots and stuff....

How’s yourDragon Questknowledge? Nintendo’s looking to test it, in anticipation of the forthcoming release ofDragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelationfor the Nintendo DS. Get your pitchforks out anti-social media folks, this contest is Twitter based. Nintendo will be kicking off the trivia contest on its Twitter page,@NintendoAmerica, starting today. Let’s hope the answers don’t require more than 140 characters. Prizes sound pretty cool, with the first round offering up 100 t-shirts, the second round four copies of the upcoming DS game....

Our woman in the field, the lovely .tiff, has just come from the Konami Gamer’s Night with some delicious details of the newCastlevaniaDS game,Order of Ecclesia. You sawsome scans yesterday; now have some more clear screens by way of Konami. In this latest title, the Belmont family has disappeared, but Dracula himself remains as real a threat as ever. With the Belmont clan’s departure, many organizations have risen up to tackle the threat of Dracula, all without success — save for the Order of Ecclesia....

[Backlogis the ongoing quest to ridConrad Zimmerman’scollection of unfinished games. As voted on by the Destructoid community, Conrad plays each game from start to finish live onDestructoid’s Justin.tv channelevery weeknight at 8pm Pacific] We’re firmly into the Dante half ofDevil May Cry 4, which means a whole lot of running through all of the same environments we already explored as Nero. Thankfully, we’ve gone a fair bit past the mid-point and it seems more likely that I’ll be able to find my way around....

While America and Britain still consider their populations full of people who need entertainment screened like nations of giant infants, it seems thatat least one countryis sensible enough to let its people think for themselves. While the US version ofManhunt 2was edited to avoid the defacto banning of an AO rating and the UK/German versions are still banned like it’s the 1800s, our friends in The Netherlands have found themselves unable to ban the game thanks to perhaps the most awesome law in the world....

The latest episode ofThere Will Be Brawlis finally here. The new episode focuses on Mario as he tries to build an army to go up against Bowser and his forces. A lot more Nintendo characters die this time and we have no idea where Luigi is. This episode isn’t as exciting as previous ones. There is just one episode left to go though so they’re probably saving the big thrills for the finale....

Sorry for therelevance shocker, earlier today. Microsoft’s actual Deal of the Week is forMarvel Ultimate Alliance. This week only, you’ll be able to nab the Hero/Villian pack for 560 Microsoft Points instead of the usual 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. That’s a savings of, um, Points… The pack adds eight total characters to the game: Cyclops, Doctor Doom, Hawkeye, The Hulk, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Sabretooth, and Venom. As you may have observed, it’s split 50/50 between heroes and villains....

WithMass Effect 3announced — and scheduled to hit PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 simultaneously next year — PS3 owners might want to start playing catch up. They’ll have their chance whenMass Effect 2finally hits PlayStation 3 on January 18 of next year. Want to get an early taste? Electronic Arts and BioWare have confirmed that a demo for the title will hit PlayStation Network on December 21 in North America....

Weliterallyjust received a tip from a guy named Alex regarding Microsoft’s apparent contempt for giving away free gifts to its many Xbox LIVE gamers. A short list of other things Microsoft despises includes puppies, rainbows, and the laughter of children. Ok, so, here’sthe scoop;Gears of Wardevs Epic andMarble Blast Ultradevs Garage Games have both, quite recently, completed additional downloadable content for their titles, and being the kind-hearted folk that they are, they decided internally to release it free of charge....