My mouth is agape! I truly did not see Bastion coming at all. Torchlight? Saw it coming, and adored it. Diablo III? Duh. We knew that would get made someday. Bastion? Wow. Just wow. This is the kind of game that screenshots simply do no justice to, so look at this trailer! It closely resembles pure bliss.

Is that not just dripping with enjoyment?

Bastion is slated for a 2011 release on PC and consoles, and is being developed by Supergiant Games, a new studio founded by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon. Rao worked on Command and Conquer 3 (Huzzah!) and they both worked on Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3. (How unfortunate.)

An interesting track record for a studio wanting to make a new intellectual property in the vein of Diablo. In any case, I absolutely love the Diablo franchise, Torchlight, Titan Quest, and probably one or two others I’m forgetting, so I am very, very excited to see how Bastion turns out. What do you think, dear readers? Doesn’t this look wonderful? Tell me your every related thought below, in the comments!

Oh, and just so we’re clear: This is completely different from The Last Bastion, which we covered at QuakeCon. For screenshots of Bastion, check out this post on GiantBomb!

…took them long enough.

Microsoft’s Major Nelson brings us what seems like it could only be fictional: an Xbox 360 controller that has a working, high-quality directional pad. And yet, here it is…

The video is only two minutes long, but here’s the essentials:

• This new controller has a completely re-done D-pad, which morphs from the “disc” shape we’re all used to into a traditional “plus” shape by rotating it. According to Major Nelson, the new design is patented! Pretty cool!
• The whole controller has been given a monochrome treatment. No more colors! Well, except for the “X” on the Xbox Guide button.
• This controller will only come with the Play & Charge kit.
• It’s being made in North America on November 9th, and Europe sometime in February. (Probably.)
• It will retail for $64.99.
• It will be available to play with at PAX Prime, if anyone will be there this weekend.

So, what do you think? The D-pad we all currently have access to is almost universally despised, so as far as I’m concerned, any change is good. But please, tell me what you think! I’d really like to start featuring great comments from the community again, but to do that, we need your feedback! Tell us everything. We’ll love you forever! Seriously.

Golden Sun. That’s a name that you probably haven’t heard in a while. After all, the second entry in the series, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, came out (in North America) in 2003. But this year, that all changes. That’s right, this year. November 29th, 2010.

There’s still not much to go on, but at least we now have this delectable trailer:

Tasty, eh?

In case you’re just now hopping on the Golden Sun train, here’s the skinny: It’s a gorgeous Japanese RPG series on the Gameboy Advance in which you take your party of four characters on a magnificent journey, battling all kinds of crazy things and learning to cultivate the franchise’s form of magic, called “Psynergy”. Psynergy is used both in an out of combat, to do everything from healing to manipulating your environment. In fact, one of the biggest things that sets Golden Sun apart from other JRPGs is the strong puzzle element. From lifting rocks to rearranging pillars so you can jump across the tops of them on the floor above, if you’re stuck in Golden Sun, you probably just need to change the world around you a little bit. Be honest, how many times have you been playing an RPG and thought, “You know, I can summon the gods themselves to rain down fire and death, but I can’t move this stupid rock?!” If you’re anything like me, the answer is all the time.

You also collect creatures called Djinn, which come in the four classical elements: Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. Each of your four characters correspond to one of these elements as well, and as you collect Djinn, your characters gain strength and abilities through their presence. Before long, you’ll be able to use your Djinn to summon truly awe-inspiring creatures to devastate your foes. Summons are tricky though, because a Djinn which is ready to summon is not “set,” which means it is not bolstering the statistics of the same elemental character. It’s this amazing balance between survivability and damage, rendered in such beautiful graphics (especially for the GBA) that make Golden Sun’s combat so righteously addictive. Here, check it out! Just keep in mind, it looks a million times better when it’s actually in your hand.

I have loads of fond memories about the first two games, and I daresay I haven’t been alone in waiting for a third with bated breath.

If you’ve never played Golden Sun, fix that. Right now. And then, be sure to weigh in about Golden Sun: Dark Dawn right here! Are you shivering with giddiness? Comment away!

Oh, it’s the Heavy from Team Fortress 2! And…Tycho Brahe? Max, what are you doing here? Strong Bad?! There’s no way this is a real thing, is there?

Apparently, there is. Telltale Games, makers of many episodic games, such as (the newer) Sam and Max and Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People series,  have released this excruciatingly short teaser trailer. The picture above is basically all there is to it.

Oh, and we’re supposed to “find out how” this all works on September 2nd. Here’s the trailer:

Stay tuned, everyone! I can’t make heads nor tails of this. Updates will follow as soon as updates are made available.

In the meantime, what do you guys think? How in the world can Penny Arcade Adventures, Team Fortress 2, Sam and Max, and Strongbad mix?