I'm actually feeling quite chipper today it's true. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it might have something to do with the fact that E3 is only about four weeks away. Mr. Howarth over at VE3D seems positively put off by the whole affair. Maybe he is talking about some other E3, some kind of elephant expo or something I don't know. This year's electronic gaming expo promises to be one of the best in years as far as I am concerned. On the PC side you've got Unreal II, Unreal Tournament 2003, Knights of the old Republic, Never Winter Nights, Star Wars fucking Galaxies, and Doom 3. Oh, and a couple of little games from Nintendo called Mario Sunshine, Zelda, Star Fox and Metroid. I'd bet money Sega will be showing off Shinobi somewhere on the show floor. Namco will probably have Soul Calibur 2 and Square should be showing Final Fantasy XI. These are just the first ones I can think of off the top of my head. Last year was nice what with the new consoles and all, but this is the year we get to see what these consoles can really do. Add to that the fact that each year we always see a bunch of stuff that we had never even heard of until E3. In fact a little bird actually told me what Nintendo has up its sleeve this year and when he told me I punched him in the face and called him a liar. When he got back up he promised it was the truth, and I believe him. I don't want to say anything that will get anyone in trouble but I know I'll be heading to the Nintendo section first this year. Maybe Mr. Howarth just hates video games or something. If it makes him feel any better I heard there might be some press releases there.

Last time, I promise. I talk to somebody in Xbox PR almost every day, on pretty good terms, but they know I love them deep down. They make it pretty hard not to. What's more, I'm afraid that Deathbunny will hurt me if I don't.

I got a press release in my e-mail today from a company called Wild Things. Maybe you guys over in the UK know about them but I had never heard of them before. I guess they are coming out with a bunch of new Game Cube accessories. Normally that isn't something I would feel the need to post about but their GC organizer actually looks really cool.

Clem Samson-Samuel, warped map genius and sovereign of the bottomless pit, took time out from SoF2 to mail me back, which is very much appreciated. What's his take on Das Boost? Read on, true believers...

I am absolutely in love with the Soldier of Fortune 2 multiplayer test. My favorite part of the game is setting people on fire with the incendiary grenades. There is nothing quite as satisfying as slow roasting a terrorist. It’s only fitting that I spend most of my time defending the briefcase from attacks through the kitchen. I only wish I could add an apron to my player model and maybe one of those fancy chef hats.

I just got this from Brad Grier over at BioWare:

I've never felt it was proper (or possible, really) to speak with familiarity and sincerity regarding the passing of this celebrity or that celebrity. I do, however, enjoy telling stories.

For the discriminating hypertext enthusiast.

Today's comic has plenty of words already, and as such does not require much of an investment on my part. Suffice it to say that it concerns idiots, briefcases, and Soldier of Fortune 2. When the illustrious Justice Cat called us pussies for using the crosshairs, I knew then that our race was doomed. No-one could possibly be smart enough to counteract that much stupid. So, Universe, it's been great being bipedal and everything, though I feel like I got fucked out of a grasping tail. All in all, I give existence an Eight.

Thanks for all the great input on Land of the Rising Fun. It seems like lots of you would like to see us cover games that won't be coming to the US at all. Also many of you requested reviews of GBA games since you can play Japanese games on your US GBA without any special modifications. I also got mail asking us to look at older games for systems like the Saturn and the Dreamcast. These are all great ideas and we can certainly do all of them. One of the ideas that seemed to come up a lot was a sort of import gaming 101 article. Lots of people avoid importing games simply because it's so damn confusing. What hardware will I need? How do I get a MOD chip? What the hell IS a MOD chip? I think this is a fantastic idea. In fact I would like to start collecting questions for it right now. If you ever had a question about importing games but you were afraid to ask please send it to me. The more questions I get the better this article is gonna be so please hook me up.

Wow I wake up and check my mail to see that once again I have managed to piss off an entire community. It’s like I have some kind of goddmaned gift or something. While scrolling through pro boosting messages I also saw quite a few people suggesting that my screw job of the news system this weekend is a good thing. It seems some of you like having something new to read on Saturday and Sunday. So I figure since I’ve gone this far why stop now.

I don’t see anything wrong. It looks like the same old news to me. I don’t know what could possibly be wrong with it. I am sure I would notice if there was something messed up and I don’t see anything messed up so it must be perfectly normal. Yup, must be.

Is something messed up with the news? It seems messed up.

Tycho told me that uploading news on a non strip day was tricky. I was all like "Yeah, okay whatever man.” Then I go and fuck it all up. When I made my last post all the news from Friday got bumped into the archive. You can see it all right here.

Please note that this anonymous fun is in response to the anonymous fun posted earlier today.