Kids get a bad rap in video games. Sometimes they’re beat up to pull emotional heartstrings, but mostly they’re just annoying. Is there a way for kids to be used or portrayed in games that isn’t exploitative or make you want to cause yourself bodily harm? Vinnk and Sean run down the appearances of children in games, from the NES all the way to the upcoming Mass Effect 3, across consoles and the PC. We also run down the history of unlicensed NES publisher Color Dream, and what their originally shocking games turned into.

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There are a lot of couples in video games, but is there romance? Mario and Peach, Luigi and Daisy, Link and Zelda, The Brooding Loner and the Star-crossed Japanese Flower Girl Who Loves Him, and — of course — Samus and the baby Metroid. Do any of these games do romance well, or is it just assumed? And how far is too far with player-to-NPC romance? Sean and Vinnk wonder if video games can truly ever be your Valentine as they discuss these problems, the likelihood of your characters ever finding true digital love, and the potentially unfortunate state of Princess Zelda’s armpit hair.

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So I’m gonna catch some serious heat for featuring a game which ‘hardcore gamers’ weren’t quite fond of, however, the important thing is that I enjoyed it, and if you give it a chance, you’ll enjoy it too. Dragon Age II is the successor the BioWare’s Dragon Age, a game that was a return to form to Bioware’s early fantasy epics such as Balder’s Gate. Dragon Age II takes the series in a slightly different direction from its precdecessor, and while it moves the saga along in unexpected ways, it turned off many of the series’ more hardcore fans.
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Wait! Before you bed one of the new hotties in the Normandy SR-2 crew, keep this in mind: your Mass Effect 1 romances are still active!

Find out about how (and why) Liara T’Soni is the only ME1 character you can pursue in Mass Effect 2 after the jump

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SimCity 2000 is the most well known entry in Maxis’ SimCity franchise. It expanded upon the original game greatly, adding new types of facilities. Would-be mayors can add everything from zoos, to prisons, to high schools. The game also added an underground plumbing system, a more complex tax system, and since the map was isometric (as opposed to top-down), there was also land elevation. You can play through several scenarios, many of which based off of real-world situations such as the economic depression in 1970s Flint Michigan. Even today, with more advanced city simulators being released, SimCity remains the gold standard in city building. If you have yet to play this classic, Gog.com has it on sale for $5.99.

With Halloween in two days, now is the perfect time to take a look at two terrifingly awesome games that are $20 or below. So with no further ado, lets go forward. Just make sure you got the lights turned on!
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Women in gaming have made tremendous strides, both onscreen and off, behind the scenes, or playing the games. Fans of the Female Shepard in the Mass Effect series — male and female alike — encouraged BioWare to finally put her in their advertisements and materials just so that other gamers would know she exists. It’s 2011; are women still being overlooked in gaming? Sean talks to guest panelists Sindra and Megan about what it’s like to be such a minority in gaming culture, and discuss their favorite heroines from the aforementioned Shepard, to “Lady Hawke” from Dragon Age 2, Samus in Metroid, Alex Roivas in Eternal Darkness, and more! And Sean tries to avoid saying “that’s what she said” for almost an entire hour.

[Listen to the episode after the jump…!]