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[The Defense Force is an article series that roots for the underdog, plays Devil’s Advocate and otherwise defends the indefensible. If something’s hated, and we deem that hatred unjust, you can guarantee the Defense Force will mobilize.] Quick Time Events, otherwise known as QTEs, are the black sheep of the gameplay family. The mere utterance of their inclusion in a videogame elicits groans and gripes from gamers around the world. They have been accused of many things — removing the sense of immersion, breaking the game’s flow, or simply being lazy design....

Isn’t it crazy how a minigame from anunreleased Sega CDtitle has been so crucial in helping to raise money for charity? Don’t get me wrong — most of the credit goes toLoadingReadyRun, the group who uses said minigame for its fundraiser — but still. It’s kinda hilarious how it all turned out, in a way. It’s the sort of inspirational story that would usually be made into a movie and even though I wouldn’t go see the film in a theater, I’d appreciate that other people had the opportunity to learn more about such a heartwarming tale....

Happy Start-of-the-Weekend from everyone at the Destructoid show! Well, mostly just Max and me. Tonight’s episode is chock full of that special seasoning we sprinkle on every Friday show (better known as crack). Having said that, let me preemptively apologize for the first minute of today’s show. You see, it was a light news day, so instead of our usual introduction, Max saw it fitting to share an embarrassing story from his teenage years....

Sorry, I’m a little late. Okay,reallylate. But a game likeAdvance Wars: Days of Ruintakes some time to cozy up to. It’s anAdvance Warsgame, baby — you gotta light some candles, get comfortable, kick back on a plush couch and/or armchair of your choosing and wait for the right moment. Then, of course, you have to suffer through 26 missions of brutal cruelty where your every misstep is preyed upon by an evil, evil computer....

I already know what you’re thinking. It’s a mahjong game, right?How good could it be? Well, it’s a bit different from your standard mahjong game you’d pull up on your PC. Sure, it’s still basically just tile matching, and you could likely be using that much-touted number crunching power of the PS3 for something a bit more interesting. But it’s nice to take a break every once in awhile, right?...

Today’s episode of Destructoid was one of beginnings. It was our first episode of 2011, and I’m nothing but excited to see what the rest of the year has in store for the show. And on that note, I’d like to thank Max for doing a bang-up job on his first episode as my co-host. I’d say he hit it right on the head. The tip, even. And so with another year, brings a whole new plethora of video game news....

DJ Heroturntable controllers and Xbox 360 demo discs have made their way to eBay… and nobody is buying! That could of course be chalked up to the fact that the starting bid forone failed auctionwas $300… close to two hundred dollars more than what the game will sell for at retail when it hits shelves on October 27. At the time of writing,one auctionhas a few hours left to go, with a starting price of $142… or you may buy it for $362....

This morning, the Internet was immensely wrapped up withDuty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm, a parody made to help promote People Can Fly’sBulletstorm. What’s so special aboutDuty Callsis that it’s an actual game. You can download it for PC and your computer won’t blow up or anything. We were waiting to report on it until one of us had tried the game out for ourselves, but apparently I wasn’t the only one on staff who ran into issues....

Everybody is currently feasting upon cloud computing’s nuts at the moment, with services such asOnLivepromising a streaming videogame experience that could change the world forever. Dyack isa firm believerin the power of such cloudy chicanery, predicting that it could signal the end of the “golden era of videogames” and usher in a new dawn. “2009 may be the end of the golden era of video games as the first cloud models for games are announced,” he states....

Even though I’m aDynasty Warriorsfan, I’ll gladly admit that the series has been one long rehash. That’s why I’m quite interested inStrikeforce, which hopes to useMonster Hunterstyle four-player co-op and character customization to reinvigorate the franchise on PSP. I briefly played it in Tokyo last year, and noted some rather uncharacteristically aggressive AI and a pretty big boss fight. The game is out in North America on April 28, and although the chances of me finding other players with a PSP and a copy of the game are minimal, I’m still looking forward to checking it out in full....

Chew on this for a second: every non-playable character in BioWare’s upcoming PC MMOStar Wars: The Old Republictalks. Every single digital denizen BioWare has created to populate the game’s universe will have something to say. Useful dialogue or not, this is an impressive feat — an industry first, as we were told during Electronic Arts’ E3 press conference this afternoon. We’re not exactly sure how big the BioWare’s version of George Lucas’ galaxy is, but we’re guessing it’s not going to be small....

I know a lot of people were upset whenHalo ODST’sprice was announced. I thought $60 was way too much for what Bungie was calling an expansion back at TGS 08. After seeing everything thatODSThad to offer so far from my meeting with Bungie, I think the price is actually justifiable. ODSTtakes place between the events ofHalo 2andHalo 3and the main character you play as is the new recruit to the ODST team....

I know it may be too early to say this (I still have a ton of games left to play today), but I think I have found my favorite game on the E3 show floor. What is this game, you ask? Well, I will give you a hint: it rhymes with Bario Band Buigi: Kowsers’s Kinside Kory … oh, and it is also written right above the header image and after the “E3 09: Hands-on with” part....