Here in about seven hours or so we'll be on our way to the fabled burg of Mael-Byn, or at any rate we'll fly to the place we will fly to Melbourne from, that extra little kick this finite universe must always get in. It's the first time we won't be home for Halloween, but I know that some of our number fully intend to bring a measure of it there, at such volume and to such an extent that we may discover what laws prohibit wholesale lolly importation.

In any case, those two things achieved a massive scale in our minds and I found it difficult to write about something not at that nexus. Hence, Underworld.

I've got maybe two hundred first-play hours installed on a laptop, ready to go, new stuff like Legend of Grimrock II and recent escapees from Early Access like Dungeon of the Endless alongside evergreen comp-stomp fare like Greed Corp and Moonbase Commander. This is just the ante of course. XCOM should be able to clear up any stragglers. And if I need to euphemistically launch nukes from the Sulaco (to engender epistemological certainty) the new Wasteland is on there. Just in case.

I am leaving just as Sunset Overdrive comes into phase, and I'll be gone over the Evolve Alpha weekend also. So, that's your homework, I guess. Let me know how those go. Preliminary assessments on Sunset Overdrive are +1 from me and -1 from Gabriel, resulting in an editorial voice of perfect neutrality. I literally like all the things he hates, and vice versa. I'll go into it in more detail later.

I was all geared up to entreat you to snatch up the last PAX Aus tickets, but they done got snatched; it's full up, now. If you are from there, you have no idea how well your normal pins trade back up here at the other shows. If I have a PAX Aus pin on my lanyard, shit gets Walking Dead pretty fast. Anyhow, I can't wait. I'm looking forward to getting back to a town where you walk into an alleyway to get "a Tuscan panino" instead of "stabbed."

(CW)TB out.