I think the PSP is a beautiful piece of hardware and I want to own one so bad it hurts. Sony has a way of designing products that scream cool in a way no one else can, except for maybe Apple. My problem is that as Tycho said the PSP's various features move it into the "gadget" realm. However whereas he is resistant to the lure of gadgets I am quite the opposite. I am drawn to shiny overpriced electronics in the same way Yogi Bear is drawn to picnic baskets.

FF XII was actually one of the first games I checked out at E3 this year. I admit I am a recent convert to the series. I only got into Final Fantasy games with X, and even then I played it nearly a year after it actually came out. I loved X so much though that I went out and purchased the rest of the games in the series and have been slowly working my way backwards through them. Besides the great stories in each game the thing I really loved about them was the combat. I liked seeing all my characters lined up on one side of the screen with the crazy vegetable monster or whatever on the other side. Each game had its new features. Things like Materia or the Sphere Grid were super compelling additions to the game, but they simply complemented the already familiar style of combat.

It may seem strange, but the first thing I did when I got home was play Rallisport Challenge 2. You'd think that you spend three days at E3 playing games, and it just doesn't work that way. You spend three days sampling small amounts of a couple hundred games, and those samples are typically drawn from such a truncated set of the entire game experience that it rarely satisfies. Booting Rallisport was like finally enjoying an entire meal after some 72 hour hors d'oeuvre marathon.

And it won't let me upload comics. Things might be goofy in the morning, I'm just warning you ahead of time.

When he came back into the room, the whole thing had a very "five more minutes, mom" kind of motif. I decided to wait until everybody was done using the computer before I woke up for real, which took a really long time because Gabriel was apparently writing his first novel. I could have gotten up and interrupted him, but I kept weaving into and out of a dream in which I had a lactating nipple on my wrist, like a watch that milk came out of. I kind of wanted to see where that one went.

I got the comic strip drawn fairly early and I told Tycho I was gonna hit the hot tub with some friends. He told me he was gonna stay in the room and write his news post. He made it very clear that if I came back and found him asleep that I should wake him up. Well the hot tub ended up being a warm tub and when I got back to the room Tycho was of course passed out in bed. I gave him a little nudge and said "hey buddy, you told me to wake you up." to which he replied "go fuck yourself."

Please come see us at the Ubisoft booth this Thursday and Friday, if you would be so kind. We'll be there from 1:00 to 2:00 both days, and we also have one-hundred printed versions of the PA Presents comics to hand out per day. I have a few copies here, and they look startlingly legitimate.

There are hiking trails near Mount Rainer, and if you want to brave such things that's fine, but the forest service does ask that you bring a few emergency supplies. This is probably to delay the onset of cannibal acts a few hours while rangers attempt to track down the next batch of city folk. It was these terrifically useful items I removed by the handful from the pack Brenna had been using up there, and I was relatively certain that I had gotten it all by the time I began replacing that stuff with the things I'd want to die in a forest with, like ironic game shirts and a phone charger that fits any outlet.

I was thinking it would be sort of an amusing, odd thing to have you color the picture. Then, I would look at the finished product, selecting from among their number as one would select an avocado.

La Pucelle has a number of systems for accomplishing various things, and young students at the eponymous demon hunting academy must face foes which frequently exceed Potterian standards. Primary among these mechanisms is Purification, which not only allows you to close dark portals but can also bring an enemy around to your way of thinking. Once converted you can train them up to improve their skills, or you may simply hurl them into battle against impossible odds. It's really up to you. Us, we go through about twenty bats a week.

At least, if your heart is within reach of warmth.

I was finally able to get my hands on a copy of La Pucelle yesterday. It’s totally fucking awesome just like I had hoped. The purification system is a real treat to play around with. Essentially there are flowing paths of energy that crisscross a given map. They emanate from dark portals and they come in varying colors, each of which has an elemental alignment. By “purifying” the square from which these paths of energy flow you can destroy the entire path. Any creature on the path will then take damage as the path he’s on explodes. A creature resting on a yellow square for example will take lighting damage if you purify the point at which the yellow path begins. That’s pretty fucking cool but that’s just the beginning. You can divert the paths and re-direct them towards enemies. Enemies can block the paths. Different colors of paths can be combined to create new colors with all new effects. Oh, and if you create a huge circle that surrounds a group of enemies and then you destroy it, you will cause a “miracle”. That’s when a huge God comes down and destroys your enemies with a screen filling super move.

So we are already giving away the ultimate videogame collection, and we're doing it at what is sure to be the ultimate gaming convention. For some people that might be enough, not for us though. We have decided that in order to win the OMEGA Collection you must first win the ultimate gaming contest. We have devised a grueling two day competition to take place during PAX. It will test your mind, your body and your… mind. I give you, the OMEGATHON!

I'm reposting the coloring contest - deadline is midnight tonight, the hour of BLOOD.

I don't even need to ask if most of you field calls at all hours of the day or night from family members perplexed that their desktop is "gone." I assume it.

My constant badgering convinced Gabriel to draw a more elaborate version of Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood for your enjoyment - feel free to click the picture itself for a larger version. I've also, just now, decided to hold a coloring contest based on the image - just send the picture in .jpeg format to yours truly. I'll find something cool around here to give you, I've got some Painkiller, some Pandora Tomorrow, might be able to scare up a little La Pucelle. Whatever. I'll make sure you're taken care of.