We prefer to think of each other as being outside gender altogether, and we go through terrible contortions to avoid even the possibility we may actually come into contact. To put it clearly, there is nothing in his pants I want to know about.

I don't remember GDC historically being all that rich a trove for our kind, "our kind" being the ravenous consumers of electronic entertainment, as opposed to those who produce it with the sweat of their brow. I might just be imagining it, but it has started to become a sort of fixed firing position from which the "big dogs" of the industry fire salvos in advance of E3.

For example, you might have seen the two Gamespy pieces on the next Xbox, based not on internal information but what they've gleaned from developers currently using the kits. I know that it isn't one hundred percent correct - as I understand it the machine is superior to these prophecies in one major area - but the power of the equipment they are describing is already enough to set the heart alight. More interesting even than the raw numbers are the policies they plan to implement for developers, which they suggest are things like compulsory live functionality, custom soundtracks, widescreen, and 720p.

We'll see concrete details on "Xenon" today, I'd imagine. Call it a hunch. Or insider information, or whatever.

Information of this kind demands a response, and I'm curious to see what form it will take. Interesting news of other sorts is also oozing from the event: Sega has finally succeeded in stripping Sonic from Sonic games altogether with the advent of Shadow the Hedgehog. This dark anti-hedgehog now sports a firearm, a sentence I could not imagine myself writing before today. There's also a robust preview of the Rifts game that is landing on the NGage - it's a surprising platform for it to end up on, to be sure. I only dabbled in the Rifts universe, but the Palladium system it was based on virtually defined my adolescence, and I know its varied settings occupy a hallowed coordinate in the minds of our people. And again, it was a long time coming, but the NGage has started to deliver on some exclusive tactical games which the hardware is actually capable of performing. I can only imagine the exultation of the long-time owner.

I will be gone for the first week of April, my family is prying me away from life-giving technology and forcing me to some tropical paradise. I will sulk for the duration and read terrible science fiction. While I'm gone, I've tried to arrange for several "guest stars" to distract you while I gallivant worldwide. Usually when I leave, I just keep writing straight through - in fact, last time I was gone I actually wrote more because the guilt is practically unbearable. Presumably you can get on by yourselves but I do cherish the time we spend together.

(CW)TB out.

this is how the lucky feel