It happens a lot, English-speakers get wind of the free beta period running on some odd, inventive MMO hauled from the Game Mines of Korea. There's a bloom of activity, and then I never hear about it again. It's possible that it already happened for Shot Online - if that's true, I apologize. If not, I mean... This is pretty wild. The game told me I could play until what they called "Level 10" for free, but as far as I know there's no charge at all currently.

Let's talk about them vidyagames.

Nearly every morning I'm treated to a kind of "after-action report" where the rigors of the evening prior are related. These tend to be action packed, and sometimes involve him acting out key portions in a meticulous fashion. One recalls the odd dance of the honeybee upon returning to the hive, instructing his fellows by virtue of these motions, and I have seen Gabriel's pantomime with such frequency that I think - think, now - that I could successfully defend a abandoned orphanage. Supposing such a thing were ever necessary.

A few people mailed me to tell me that Lowtax over at SA was pretty upset with me for something I did five years ago. He has a little history of SA post that mentions the efront scandal that we were both caught up in. It's true I was pretty pissed off at him back then but I had no idea he was still mad. Honestly I don't have any hard feelings for the guy anymore. He made a decision back then that I thought was bullshit and I called him on it. Now looking back on the whole situation I honestly can't blame him for it.

I just remembered! There is a way to find out exactly what sorts of things you would like us to make for the store. I can just ask you!

Hit up this Engadget post (though I also saw it on Evil Avatar) for a fairly thorough accounting of the Xbox 360's steaming guts. I believe the current nomenclature is something like "These stats be off the chain!"

I picked up a new memory stick for my PSP over the weekend and I’ve been loading it with goodies. I’ve had a few requests for some special PSP packs with PA comics formatted for the PSP screen. I had some time today and so I whipped up a little Fruit Fucker pack. You can download it right here. Essentially it’s all the Fruit Fucker comics and I’ve taken the time to re-size them so they fit perfectly on the PSP screen. Check it out and let me know if this is cool. In the future we could release other packs like my favorite strips or Tycho’s or maybe a sort of readers top fifty or one hundred or whatever. Send me your thoughts.

Gamespot is saying that kiosk I mentioned is from the upcoming MTV special - and they have some different takes on things - I maintain that the jack on the bottom is for a headset, but I'm willing to give them the slots on the right and left of it being some kind of charging thing. Anyway, they also wrap up a few of the other recent revelations/"leaks" etcetera, like customizable skins and so forth. Worth a look.

I guess I shouldn't assume you've all seen this stuff, so let me provide some links: here's a shot of what looks like an E3 kiosk for the new system, and here's a shot (also from Engadget) of a wireless controller. You have, of course, heard that this controller will work with the next version of Windows. There are some things you might not have heard about it.

I played quite a bit of Hot Shots over the weekend on my PSP and I really like it. Tycho just downloaded a save file from the internet and immediately had access to all the courses and gear. I on the other hand decided to earn my content the old fashioned way...I wasted my entire weekend paying golf on my PSP.

E3 is fast approaching and we will of course be there. Last year Ubisoft was kind enough to offer us a portion of their booth for the purpose of meeting our fans. They’ve made us the same offer again this year and we’d be crazy not to take it. Those of you who have tried to see us at E3 will remember that before we had booth space security would just kick us all out onto the street. I have to admit that the line system we pioneered last year is far superior to the crushing mob seen in years past.

We think of the things we do here as extremely ridiculous.

My Xbox Live friends list has been full for a long time. I've realized though that I never see half the people online and the other half just play Halo 2, which is just as good as never being online. So I've cleaned out my list and I want to fill it back up with people who play Splinter Cell. So if you're into Chaos Theory and you play more than once a year go ahead and send me an invite. My tag is just Gabe.

I'm trying to maintain this cynical... thing, I guess, about Guild Wars and it's just not working. I'm completely charmed by it.

Stormy has bleak premonitions about a grim High-Definition Apartheid in the coming generation of consoles - it's the first time I've ever heard this position enunciated.

I just wanted to take a second and address some of the casting rumors that are circulating all over the net with regard to the imminent DRDTB movie. I saw a couple articles over at Aint it Cool News saying that Burt Reynolds had been chosen for the role and I can assure that’s not true. I think Smokey and the Bandit is the number one best movie ever made, followed closely by Smokey and the Bandit part II- The Bandit Rides Again. However, when Burt auditioned for the lead role in DRDTB he just didn’t have the same fire in his belly that I saw back in 1977. Then I heard that Tom Cruise had mentioned in an interview with Vanity Fair last month that the role was his. It’s true that we looked at Tom for the part but we decided to pass on him after he showed up drunk and proceeded to stumble and slur his way through his audition. In the end we settled on an actor that I had been pushing for since day one. Donnie Wahlberg will be playing the part of Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood and you heard it here first. I told the studio I wanted him because of his stellar work in “Boomtown” but honestly I’m just a huge New Kids fan.