Saying goodbye is, when speaking in terms of someone you care about, probably the most difficult emotional interaction two human beings can share. It isn't so much the idea that you're never going to see this person again, because chances are that's not true. What hurts is knowing that someone who has been a staple of your life for years will no longer be there in a communal sense, that the companionship you've grown so accustomed to will be missing. When you care about someone, either romantically or platonically, you give them a piece of yourself, a piece they take with them when they leave.

Sometimes though, we get lucky, and our goodbyes are formed out of hope and optimism rather than loss and grief. Chris Grant, Justin McElroy, Griffin McElroy and Arthur Gies are walking into a brighter future for themselves and their loved ones; we know this because these are men who truly adore what they do, and the only thing that could pry them away from Joystiq's embrace is the promise of an even better tomorrow, which we hope they find as soon as humanly possible.

This is the transition between Joel and Mike, or Jason and Tommy. It's scary, but everything is going to be okay. We promise.

Ice World (Brawl in the Family)
Fungible Assets (Penny Arcade)
Skyrim's Most Wanted (Virtual Shackles)
Tall Order (Extra Life)
Videogames, am I right? (VG Cats)
Modding (Nerf Now!!)
The Sky's The Limit (Awkward Zombie)
Rattatattack (Life in Aggro)
Sacrifice (The Gamer Cat)

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What's your game called and what's it about?

Zigfrak is a game of deep-space conflict and discovery. Players begin in the midst of a human civil war, complicated by the invasion of technologically superior aliens.

Is the Zigfrak story inspired by any real-life events? How pivotal is the story to the gameplay?

The underlying story draws inspiration from historical and modern day events. Ronald Reagan gave an address to the UN in the '80s, at one point positing that the conflicts between human nations might dissolve if we were to be confronted by a truly alien threat. A big angle of Zigfrak's story is that his statement probably wasn't true -- that humans would continue on with their petty squabbles, even when faced with annihilation by a superior alien adversary.

The backstory is also inspired by the American Revolution and the contemporary debate surrounding the security theater. I try to present this nonpolitically, leaving the door open for players to interpret events however they are most comfortable with.

Zigfrak's story helps to prop things up, but is auxiliary to the many approaches one might take when playing. Each hub of content is a platform for telling a self-contained and lighthearted short story, with the player taking on a pivotal role.

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Perhaps "remade" isn't the best word to describe what the team at Infamous Adventures has done to Sierra's 1987 classic Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge. "Lovingly rebuilt," perhaps, or "delicately hand-milled," if such a term can be considered applicable in a programming sense. (We've decided it can.)

Infamous Adventures' reproduction features "hand-drawn backgrounds, hand animated characters, a full voice pack featuring over 4,000 recorded lines and a whole lot of extras," according to the group's official website. We don't know what's more touching, the fact that a small group of people completely rejiggered a classic out of love for the original, or the fact that the fruits of their labor can be downloaded for free.

Watch those system requirements though, the PC version requires a whole meg of RAM.

Myst 3D is coming to the 3DS in March, and a video from publisher Maximum Family Games offers a glimpse into all of its dimensions -- and they're falling flat. Joystiqer Tom P. points out that the main action shown in the demo video takes place on the lower, non-3D screen. There is some discovery gameplay on the upper, 3D screen, but since Maximum Family Games is billing Myst 3D as a game with "sharp 3D environments," we were expecting a game with sharp 3D environments.

As the friendly warning at the beginning of the demonstration states, we aren't able to see the true 3D effects in the video, and it's possible that the Myst holding screen on the 3D panel looks utterly outstanding. We'll keep both eyes out for more Myst 3D gameplay videos -- mostly because you can't see 3D graphics with just one eye.

Originally discussed back in August, talk of a remade/remixed version of Adeline Software International's Little Big Adventure (known stateside as Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure) has resurfaced during an interview between GoG.com and the creative minds behind the series, Didier Chanfray, Frédérick Raynal and Sébastien Viannay.

Other than confirmation that a rerelease of the original Little Big Adventure is in the works, the team also hinted at the possibility of an eventual Little Big Adventure 3: "We obviously have a lot of ideas for a third part, our best fans already know some of them, but before telling you more we need to test some of them with the remake. Games are different nowadays and we don't want to be stuck in 90's." If only every developer could be so self-aware.

In addition to Amazon's EA sale going on now through its PC digital distribution network, there are a couple noteworthy additions to the roster today and tomorrow. Today, Crysis 2 is available for $10, a 75 percent discount off the regular price.

Starting 2012 with a flashbang, Amazon will have Battlefield 3 for $30 on the first of the year. Also relevant here is customers who have purchased anything from Amazon's "best-selling games of 2011" should have a $5 coupon that can be applied in the new year, bringing it down to $25. That's a great price for a game that's been beta-tested since launch to the point of playability.

You go to a fortune teller and ask what will happen in 2012, expecting her to repeat rejected phrases from the Panda Express fortune-cookie line in a wistful, croaking manner. Instead, she busts out this ratings list for coming XBLA titles and you tip her 200 percent, leaving with your mind blown and open to a whole new world of mental planes and spiritual awareness. Little did you know: that fortune teller was Jordan Mallory in a dress. Try excising that image with incense.

A batch of freshly rated XBLA games from around the world include titles we knew about, such as I Am Alive (MA 15+ for Australia) and Spelunky (PEGI 7 for UK), and also some unknown games, including Wreckateer, a submission from Microsoft rated for Korea. The list is provided by XBLA Fans, and can be found right here.

Well, it's not technically space, but it's as close as you can get without the help of some Russian rocketeers and their flying machines. As a token of gratitude, the Icelandic MMO moguls at CCP will be placing the names and pictures of every currently subscribed player character in EVE Online (as of 23:59 GMT tonight) into a capsule, which will then be sent into near-space via high-altitude balloon.

High-altitude balloons cannot actually leave the Earth's atmosphere and enter legit outer-space, but they are capable of traveling hundreds of thousands of feet into the air; high enough to see the curvature of the Earth against the blackness of space. The event will take place during CCP's own Fanfest 2012 in beautiful Reykjavik, Iceland.

It's been a critical success and now developer Supergiant Games has revealed Bastion is also a commercial success. The recent Steam and Xbox Live Arcade sales helped to push Bastion over that 500,000 mark, the developer's blog states.

"When we set out to make Bastion, a sales number like that seemed astronomical to us, so it feels great to have hit that mark," creative director (and Bastion writer) Greg Kasavin said. "It goes to show that a lot of folks out there like what we're doing and want us to keep going, which is great, because we intend to stick together as a team and do just that." Considering the universal praise for the studio's first game, we can all agree that's a very good thing.

Ska Studios' I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 has been a dominant force in the dark, lonely lands of the Xbox 360's indie games section. Now its Windows Phone 7 counterpart, Z0MB1ES!!1 (on teh ph0ne), is ready to attack on January 4.

The $2.99 Z0MB1ES!!1 (on teh ph0ne) app is a "suite" of twin-stick shooters, which includes I MAED A GAEM W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!1, "spiritual sequel" Time Viking, infinite arcade labyrinth mod Endless Zombies and the ability to put faces from your photo library into the game.

Getting the Z0MB1ES!!1 theme song stuck in your head comes at no extra cost.

Glasses-free 3D is hardly anything new (how are you guys digging the 3DS?) but how about high-def 3D without the frames for your peepers? That's a bit more impressive, especially considering this isn't an expensive television set we're talking about. It's an expensive phone and tablet line from MasterImage 3D.

The company's 4.3 inch smartphone and 10.1 inch tablet will be on display at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a representative told Joystiq earlier today. Each device will showcase full 720p high definition in 3D and utilizes MasterImage 3D's Cell-Matrix Parallax Barrier Technology to produce "brighter images, reduced moiré effects (or rippled appearance) and the ability to work in any orientation -- portrait or landscape." We imagine it'll also play Angry Birds.

We've contacted MasterImage 3d for more information on the company's new tablet and smartphone.

Among the modders eagerly tinkering away at Fallout: New Vegas, arguably "correcting" what they see as deficiencies in the original design, is ... lead designer J.E. Sawyer. Sawyer has developed an optional patch for the PC version, which reduces the level cap to 35, halves XP acquisition, cuts water and food drop rates, and tweaks a bunch of other variables, all detailed on Sawyer's Formspring. You can download the mod here.

So why is this a mod instead of an official patch? "In addition to technical reasons," Sawyer said, "some of the mechanics changes make the game significantly more difficult (base health / stim changes) or at least more of a hassle (carry weight, stims having weight, H2O/SLP/FOD rate increase). I'd rather have people opt-in to those changes than make them the default in a patch." This is also something Sawyer is doing in his spare time, as nobody is officially working on New Vegas anymore.

Here we are at the end of the year two thousand and eleven (it's so much more majestic without numerals). Over the next few days we will announce members to our Best of Joystiq 2011 game society, along with revealing our staff's "Best of the Rest." So, stop on by this weekend for plenty more on those topics.

What's everyone playing? Can you guess #1?

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I'm sorry it's taken me so long to address Pushmo. I feel bad thinking that there's some hypothetical person out there who may not be playing Pushmo yet, simply because Joystiq hasn't put its seal of approval on it. I'm not being conceited, just worrying that such a thing is possible.

Intelligent Systems' Pushmo is definitely one of the best games on the 3DS, and one of the best puzzle games released this year. It's this year's Picross 3D. And it's seven dollars.

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This is a column by Jason Schreier dedicated to the analysis (and occasional mocking) of his favorite genre, the Japanese role-playing game. Whether it's because they're too antiquated or just too niche, he believes JRPGs don't get enough attention in the gaming industry today. It's time to change that.

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Nintendo, Electronic Arts and Sony Electronics have apparently followed the example of Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance, and have removed their corporate monikers from the list of supporters for the increasingly unpopular Stop Online Piracy Act. None of the three companies have commented on why they reversed their position on the controversial bill, but we imagine its because endorsing it makes the internet pretty angry with you. When asked, EA corporate told Joystiq this afternoon, "EA never expressed a position for or against SOPA." Sony and Nintendo had yet to respond as of publishing.

Note that not all of Sony's miscellaneous branches have rescinded their support, as Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Nashville still appear on the list. Also, the Entertainment Software Association is still shown as a supporter -- an organization which the aforementioned publishers (among others) belong to. Whether the group will remain on an endorsement list which exactly zero of its members appear on remains to be seen.

On January 1, 2012, Microsoft will remove firearm props it deems unsuitable for Xbox Avatars. What does that entail? Your guess as good as ours, since our request for a comprehensive list is still working its way through the machine. What we do know is that Gears of War weapon props are out.

"Xbox Live Marketplace has updated its policies to provide further clarity for third-party publishers submitting content for approval. This includes details about weapons such as firearms. Xbox Live has always reserved the right to reject or expire from the marketplace any type of weapon prop content that is deemed unsuitable for its general audience," Microsoft informed us in a statement. "Because the Xbox Live Marketplace is accessible to members of all ages, it is important our policies clearly address what content is available to all. This policy provides additional clarity to publishers in advance of the content review process."

Since items purchased in these final moments of 2011 will still be accessible to your Avatar after the content is yanked, take this as the final reminder to grab any Avatar prop "weapons," "firearms" and "gun-like" content before it's pulled.