Everyone seems to be insisting that Toys was an abomination of a movie. But I liked it!

Regardless of our potentially disparate taste in movies (and if so, hmph), one thing seems to be undeniable: Toys looks like a forecast of how the military and air force are using video game concepts to operate predator drones from a safe distance away at the seat of a computer.

If you've never seen Toys (1992)—and you totally should—the film makes an odd transition [spoilers] from the quirky lifestyle of toy factory designer Leslie (Robin Williams) to a corrupt, military take-over by his uncle, Lt. General Leland Zevo (Michael Gambon). The general's intentions are to put kids in front of "video games" and let them attack from the seat of a predator drone.

But this idea isn't so far from the development of the MQ-1 predator, which first flew in 1994. Take a look at our video—produced by our own Chris Person—for a quick look at the history and comparison.

NEW YORK - TEEN PREDATORS [Vice]

War Is Halo: Killing real people becomes a video game [Slate]

• WATCH: Did Toys predict the development of predator drones? Take a look in our video above.
• WATCH: A rap love letter to Square.
• PLAY: Draw Something is our Gaming App of the Day. Seriously, play it. I'm addicted.
• PLAY: Solitaire Blitz is now available on Facebook.
• WATCH: This is the kinda shit Zelda fans say.

Did you see a particularly interesting video on the Internet? Know a friend who puts together awesome video game movies? If you have suggestions for Watch This, Play This, drop me a line at tina@kotaku.com and you may just see it featured here the next day.

I don't know how many Zelda fans actually say any of this, but this Shit Zelda Fans Say video is kind of amusing if only because it's so damn specific.

Now let's all agree to stop making Shit People Say videos. Thanks in advance.

Shit Zelda Fans Say [YouTube - thanks, Andy!]

PopCap's latest Facebook Blitz game is Solitaire Blitz. Playable on Facebook, the treasure-diving solitaire game pits you against friends to win underwater treasures. You can learn more and play here.

Do you want a challenge? I'm not talking about how well you can aim a headshot, or the dexterity of your fingers that speaks to how good a platform gamer you are. I'm talking about communication. OMGPOP's Draw Something is a drawing game that challenges your ability to take a concept—like "dolphin"—and translate that into a drawing.

The game component comes into play (see what I did there) when you send that drawing off to an opponent. Your opponent then has to decode your undoubtedly clumsier-than-expected drawing and enter the word that represents the original concept. It's like Words With Friends but with charades. You're still working with a specific set of letters to form words, but they're tied to the image sent to you. Although the game is inherently competitive and you'll compete for coins, it is also collaborative.

You can choose between lower level concepts like "bell" and "meatball" or more difficult options like "windmill," "Britney," and "metroid." Based on your choice, coins will be awarded to you accordingly.

The best part about this drawing game is that it's unintentionally hilarious. Poodles and bowls of salad come out looking like a mess of lines, and if you're using a smaller iOS device you might curse the game for making you feel like you have chubby fingers.

The game also creepily lets your opponent watch every move you made while trying to draw out your prompt, and even while trying to guess words for the drawing you received. Watching a recording of my aborted drawings and my scrambling to erase them while my opponent is clearly observing confusedly is a bit of light comedy that I wasn't expecting from Draw Something.

Another bonus to playing this game is inventing mini-challenges for yourself. I found I was often trying to solve the puzzle before my opponent had finished drawing it. It let me give myself mental pats on the back whenever I was successful. I also like to be a little cruel by drawing out elaborate scenes and making my opponent sit through the creation of my masterpiece before cluing them in to what they are looking for. For "wedding" I drew an entire ceremony. I drew a detailed landscape painting complete with beach loungers for "bay." Sometimes I liked to mix it up and would draw a cat, "+", fish for "catfish." I'm really just a bundle of joy.

During the first few rounds of the game, it might be uncomfortable to jump straight into the more difficult categories. You're only given a limited set of colors: black, red, blue, and yellow. If you want access to more specific colors—like green, purple, and orange—you'll have to fork over your hard-earned coins. Or you can purchase them, but I'm pretty sure I know how everyone will feel about that one.

Winning the game comes down to two requirements: 1) being able to interpret the drawing, and 2) being able to unscramble the set of letters on the screen to properly guess what the image might be. If one or the other fails, you can always rely on the alternate requirement to help you along. Unfortunately I've noticed that a lot of people like to cheat. That, or they are downright terrible artists. A big yellow blob does not immediately tell me "Pac-Man." Writing "Blah, Slam, Blah" and me guessing "slam" correctly totally does not count.

I absolutely love games that let you interact with people—strangers and friends alike. Even if these interactions are minuscule compared to the more robust games you might find on your console or PC, it's a fun and bite-sized way to add a bit of enjoyment and socialization to your day. Draw Something takes it to another level by adding a very unique kind of gameplay that is incredibly addictive. I have 11 games open right now. I'm pretty sure I'm addicted.

Draw Something [iTunes]

Draw Something [Android Marketplace]

Remember the glory days of SquareSoft, when the role-playing giant could seemingly do no wrong? Richie Branson does, and he's got a little song about it. Want to hear it? Here goes.

Branson's letter to SquareSoft is riddled with suggestions on what franchises he wants to see resurrected, and what character crossovers would have fans throwing money in Square's face. He echoes a lot of what we already hear all over the Internet: bring back Final Fantasy VII, make a legitimate Chrono Trigger sequel, we love Secret of Mana. And he'll be damned if he's going to call the publisher by their proper name, Square Enix.

His suggestions get a little crazy (mainly in the name of rhyme — Sega does go well with Vega), but it's all about nostalgia and love. I'm right there with him.

Richie Branson - Letter To SquareSoft [YouTube]

Stuff to play, stuff to see, here comes Watch This, Play This. Confused? Read this.

Fans have expressed outrage at the apparent reveal that developer BioWare used a stock photo as the basis for one of Mass Effect 3's main characters.

Angry gamers sent a barrage of e-mails to Kotaku's tips hotline last night with links to the stock photo and the spoilery reveal from the action-roleplaying game, which was released yesterday for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Warning: The photograph below contains spoilers for one of Mass Effect 3's characters.

The photo shows an in-game picture of Mass Effect 3 character Tali, who appeared in both previous games but has never removed the mask covering her face. Tali's newly-revealed face seems to be a modified version of a stock image by photographer Matthew Leete, which is freely available for commercial use to anybody with a Getty Images account.

"This HAS to qualify for some form of lazy art," one gamer told us.

"Looks like more BioWare bullshit to me," another gamer said.

BioWare is no stranger to Internet hatred. A large contingent of gamers seem dedicated to attacking the development studio. They harassed BioWare writer Jennifer Hepler during an Internet campaign last month. Yesterday, review aggregator Metacritic had to delete some of the user reviews on Mass Effect 3 for violating its terms of use in what appeared to be a unified effort to spam the game with low scores.

We've contacted BioWare and publisher EA for comment and we'll update if we hear anything.

For as long as there've been video games, there've been attempts to classify the various types of people who play them. It's a bit of a parlor game that reveals bits of human behavior. What do you call the person who tries to parse a game's inner workings? Legendary designer Sid Meier's coined his own categories and says that each personality type can help creators figure out various aspects of games they're working on.

So, the Civilization creator says the take-no-prisoners Mr. Kick-Butt is great for testing difficulty levels. All he cares about is winning and see the hardest settings for a game as the challenge most worthy of his skills. Ms. Genre, on the other hand, is defined by all-consuming love of specific genres but any deviations from that category will generate complaints. However, the feedback from a Ms. Genre would be useful for understanding genre conventions, just how far to stretch them and where to break them completely.

Then you have Mr. MinMax, Meier offered. He needs to understand every algorithm in a game and how to squeeze out every possible benefit the These behavioral proclivities can let a designer understand how players engage with a game's mechanics, since Mr. Minmax tries to reverse-engineer a game and find advantages in exploiting the way it works.

Ms. Paranoid's behavior is self-explanatory, and she's always convinced that a game is rigged against her. This type of player thinks that the computer knows her moves before she even makes them and the entire experience is stacked in the game's favor. The lessons learned from Ms. Paranoid, Meier says, are how to let players know when they're getting the better of the game.

Gamers of the Mr. History archetype are incessant fact-checkers who want to pull apart the architecture of a game's fiction and point out plot holes and errors. So, make sure that architecture's tight, says Meier. Mr. Bubble Boy remembers only one bad part of a game and that memory becomes the whole experience. Coming to grips with this personality type is useful for learning how to present setbacks in a less hostile way.

The Firaxis CEO also talked about run-ins with people who have another game in mind that they wish you would've made. He call this type Mr. Designer and offered that the only real lesson such a person could teach is in setting expectations.

Meier said that he spends as much time playing the games he works on as he does coding or programming but didn't divulge which personality type he falls into. I'm thinking he's a Mr. MinMax all the way.

In today's design-minded edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter DrZaius looks at design elements of ten gaming classics (well, nine and Madworld) that could help spice up some of today's titles.

This has been boiling up inside of me for some time. This is the top 10 list of game designs I'd like to see in future games. The list is in order of age, from newest to oldest (more or less). If you've noticed a game that has adopted elements from the games listed below, please post them. If there's anything like the games on this list that came out after their time, I'd like to check them out.

10. Madworld's design. This game made quick time events more like FUN time events. Why? Because of the MOTION CONTROLS. This game did right with the motion controls. The battle system in general could've used some work, but the quick time events with the motion controls were PERFECT. God of War could actually learn from this.

9. Skies of Arcadia's design. What makes this game stand out like no other are a couple things... the beautiful environments and overworld map and the ship battles. What I enjoyed most about this game was the environments. From Ixa'Taka to that freaky moon. Flying around on the map, looking for treasures, was also superb.

8. WWF No Mercy's design. Yeah, there's Def Jam Vendetta, but that game was missing a create-a-wrestler mode and a branching story mode. Getting 100% for each belt in No Mercy was one of the most satisfying elements of the game. I hear there's a WWE Wrestlefest coming out, a remake of an older WWF game. I wouldn't mind playing WWE No Mercy. For the gameplay alone, if not for the updated yet mediocre roster. Sorry, but I'd rather have Ken Shamrock over John Cena.

7. Final Fantasy IX's design. It's a traditional, turn-based RPG with 4 characters and spells/special attacks unique to those characters. Plus, the cities are all prerendered and field icons show up on screen whenever there's a sign or chest nearby. Can't forget the Active Time Events that provide additional, optional story sequences.

6. Cruis'n World's design. I bought Cruis'n for the Wii expecting more Cruis'n fun. What I got was half a game. Seriously, even the manual was incomplete. I just want a silly racing game with various vehicles, solid controls, and (most importantly) a school bus. Cruis'n for Wii did not deliver. Cruis'n World, on the other hand, got it right. Exotica was okay but I thought too much was cut out of that game. World had MUCH more variety.

5. Final Fight 3's design. Final Fight 3 had elements in a beat 'em up that I guess came out too late for the series. There were branching paths and super moves. I'd love to see another beat 'em up (set in a 2D plane) with such features. It'd also help if it was lengthier since FF3 felt kinda short...

4. Super Mario RPG's design. Sure, Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi have come close but they have not quite matched the charm of the original Mario RPG. Super Mario RPG just had that Final Fantasy touch to it. You didn't need to use unique abilities to get through areas. You didn't have to solve big ol' puzzles in every dungeon. All you usually had to do was prepare and stock up on healing items to get from the beginning of a dungeon to the end of the dungeon. I always thought the best course of action would be for Square Enix to work on a Geno game with the same basic gameplay.

3. SNES Shadowrun's design. This could easily work. I don't know why no one has worked on this. It'd be perfect for computers though I'd like a Wii version. People underestimate what the Wiimote can do for ported PC games. Anyway, I just want a game with the tone and setting of the SNES Shadowrun. The cool shootouts, ability to hire other Shadowrunners, and keyword system similar to FFII's make the gameplay in Shadowrun special.

2. Soul Blazer's design. Find new villages. Destroy monster nests. Unlock new areas in village. All set to a funky soundtrack. The sequels just never did this game justice.

1. Actraiser's design. I think a developer with enough guts could create a game that's part God of War-knockoff, part God game. The God of War part would have to be simplified, being able to kill off enemies with just a few attacks, instead of having to pull off the same combos over and over until you get the option to perform a fatality. Forget that. Just slash them a few times and make them disappear.

A second day of the Game Developers Conference ended sometime in the blurry evening several hours ago. The day had started pure of heart for me—a panel of game developers lobbying for the creation of romantic video games—and ended with the bang of corporate spectacles for massive and/or noisy new games.

In the middle of the day, I left the area of San Francisco where they're holding GDC to visit Zynga, that company behind FarmVille and most other popular Facebook gaming obsessions. More on that later, but up top, you're looking through a tunnel on the ground floor, out to their entrance.

Some observations and/or follies from day 2:

• I have trouble attending any convocation of game developers without stumbling into former EA developer Chris Hecker and a new chance to play his always-in-development asymmetrical two-player game Spy Party. He was stationed in the suite of Braid's Jonathan Blow for an evening session with his game. I'm still a better spy than a sniper. I wasn't supposed to get to this suite demo, because there were EA events running during it. But when EA events go bad, this is what you do. It feels right at GDC... flee the corporate stuff; find the indies.
• The first EA event was the debacle, showing that you do not follow a smart, strong presentation about Sim City by Maxis' Lucy Bradshaw with endless on-stage chitchat between a gaming reporter and a) the director of An Inconvenient Truth, b) the co-founder of Twitter and c) whoever-talked-third-but-I-left-by-then. EA clearly wanted to pitch this new Sim City as a responsible, civic-minded connected game that lets players have fun while encountering real world environment and economic problems (probably why they left the details of the game's super-hero and super-villain lairs out of their presentation), but it made for a night of Twitter mockery since, well, more than hour of not talking at all about the game at a supposed reveal for a new game is a bit much. Lowlight: the host reporter, struggling to get Truth director Davis Guggenheim to say anything that would interest the crowd of game reporters, recalls Guggenheim's work for an HBO western and says, "If you had to cast Al Gore as a character in Deadwood, who would you cast him and what would be his signature curse?" Flustered, Guggenheim declined to answer.
• The second EA event, for the new Medal of Honor and Battlefield was more successful, particularly when they let the game developers speak about the games and not people who don't make games. There's promise in this new Medal of Honor: Warfighter, though at first it appears as generic and expected as they come. I'll have more on that later, but, yes, I snickered when the game's producer, mentioning the series' move from its Taliban/Al-Qaeda theater in 2010, announced to the crowd, "We are pulling out of Afghanistan this year..." And there I thought we were talking about games, not politics.
• Day 2 was the day I encountered one game developer who only just saw Star Wars and thought Darth Vader was lying to Luke Skywalker in Empire Strikes Back and another game developer who confessed that they didn't know Super Mario Bros. well enough to have a conversation about it.
• Wii U chatter was mixed on day 2. A financial analyst told me Nintendo is screwed. Not enough time to be out on their own. A developer told me their fortunes are mixed. Good ambition on Nintendo's part, but, well... it's Nintendo, everyone says it's on Nintendo for the thing to succeed. Same as it ever was. It's almost all on them.
• I attended a lecture during which the game developer said "e-peen" with a straight face. Twice. More coverage on that to come...
• Number of games I saw on Tuesday that I can't write about yet: 1