There's a lot to read in these Pikmin 2 entries! I started this weekend, but it's taking some time to get through. I'll keep on keeping on, winners announced Friday at the latest.

It's almost midnight, so if I want even a passing chance at not being a liar I'd better crack out that Third Age thing.

Jesus Christ, sometimes I get the hiccups. I don't get them on purpose.

3 hours and 2000 entries later, someone came up with the correct number which was 874. I'll be sending a package of goodies out to Neil Horibe, who was the first to guess it at 1:51 pm. Thanks to everyone who entered. We'll have to do more of this sort of thing in the future.

Here are some quick thoughts about a few of the other DS games I checked out.

Here are some quick thoughts about a few of the other DS games I checked out.

Gamespot went live with their preview of Irrational's spiritual successor to System Shock 2, Bioshock. I just saw it was up, I haven't even read it yet. Here I go.

One never knows if they should be forthcoming regarding their fetishes, outside of some anonymous room in IRC or in the protected reserve of a convention exclusively for enthusiasts. I'm beyond protestations of normality at this point. I will triumphantly open my trenchcoat, and reveal my secret products: I think Myst is about as good as it gets.

I didn't know how Gabe was going to introduce his bit, but we were indeed able to scam our way into this event. It was accompanied by a rich torrent of media that you have probably been availing yourself of at news sites. The event itself is local, I mean, it's literally about ten minutes from my apartment, so their investment getting us there really is low to nonexistant. I drove my own car. I wonder if, upon reading what I have to say, they'll feel like they got their money's worth.

I have to say that I came away from E3 with absolutely no idea what the hell Nintendo was trying to do with the DS. What I saw there made no sense to me. After spending all afternoon with the DS I feel like I understand it a little bit better now. If nothing else I see potential in the device now that I did not see a few months ago.

Since we live in Seattle we were able to sneak into the Nintendo Gamer's Summit today. Essentially it's an event where Nintendo shows off all their new stuff to select members of the media. Tycho and I were both really excited to finally get our hands on a DS. Check back today and tomorrow for our impressions from the summit.

I keep myself fairly well abreast of things like this, but the fact that Microsoft is finally going to sell the Media Center version of their operating system caught me completely by surprise. Feel free to hit up this preview of it over at Game PC, if you're curious - I've used the current version, and found it more than pleasant. Of course, as I mentioned in the "first post," I've already got a Tivo that does pretty much everything I need in a device like that. I might consider one of them fancy DVD Tivos, or "TeeVeeDees" as I have heard them called, but that's about it.

For his birthday a couple years ago, I bit the bullet and bought Gabe a Tivo. I did this because, to a very large extent, the parameters of his life were defined by which shows came on at what times. Certainly being able to manage your stable of programs is a positive, humane development - but the main reason I have it is so I can skip commercials. Just before I obtained one of the devices myself, I could be expected to scream with all my vigor at the antics which lurk between show segments. It was essentially a Two Minutes Hate, except where the traitor Goldstein might have been projected I instead railed against Arby's vile, creatively inert Oven Mitt.

Nintendo was nice enough to send us three copies of Pikmin to give away. Well, the truth is that they gave us four copies, but Robert took one. I bought it when it came out, and they greatly diminished the elements (read: time limits) that obscured my enjoyment of the first one. Would you like a copy? The procedure really is ridiculously simple.

There is, I am told, some kind of bullshit where human beings are unable to see the comic. Until I hear that we don't have this problem anymore, I'll post links to the raw file. A thousand apologies.

We did not need to invent something ridiculous about Shadow Hearts: Covenant to prime it for inclusion in the site, that's true - but the game actually knows how ridiculous it is pretty much all the time, and it's right there with you, laughing along. World War 1 era superheroes who turn into bats and steal people's mailboxes.