Yes, Sean Bulloch, it is also your birthday.

Let me take a moment to extend heartfelt birthday wishes to Alex Green and Mark Wadley.

Readers are writing in to tell me that Riverworld is a series of books. They are also telling me that the movie sucked ass. I guess I will have to go get the books and decide for myself. The next "New Jedi Order" book doesn't come out until April 29th so I have a couple weeks to read something new. Thanks for the heads up.

My take on McGee/McFarlane:

Safety Monkey has a friend named Wally, who I often refer to as Wallingford, or by his handle Xarion. They're friends to this day because of Meridian 59, which they played years ago, and he used to visit from Wisconsin from time to time. He has no accent to speak of, except when he says Cat, which comes out like "Kyat." In any event, he doesn't need to visit anymore because he lives here. This story is from when he didn't.

I think these guys have their thumb on the pulse of the gaming community. Also, the fishing community.

Seeing the new McFarlane "Twisted Land of Oz" toys got us thinking about American McGee's Oz, about which fairly little is known. We do, however, have some insights on his next project.

I would say that visually he does kind of stick out. It's hard say though what kind of character does or doesn't fit when the game has little girls with swords and giant purple monsters with exposed pulsating hearts. I'm saying that his moves at least mesh well with the game. He PLAYS like you would expect a new SC fighter to play. More so at least in my opinion than Heihachi or Spawn. In fact I think Necrid is the character who seems most out of place. His look and moves just don't jive with the feel of SC for me.

You say that Link actually meshes well with the other characters, but every other preview I've read says that he sticks out like a sore thumb.

Transcending history and the world. A tale of souls and swords, eternally retold....

Savvy readers have directed me towards this Data Patch for Master of Orion 3, which is impossible to find unless someone reveals it to you. In any case, the patch I alluded to - one that resolves a fuck-ton of issues - is slated for later this month, as I understand it.

Though excited about the free expansion to Return To Castle Wolfenstein, there really wasn't a whole lot of information about what it would actually represent. This new article explains a lot - and details some intriguing choices.

As today's strip illustrates, we do not have a hobby that can be discussed in polite company. Walking near the metal detector for my flight to Kansas City, I wisely truncated a tale I had begun regarding "hunting men." It really is nothing to us, it's as though we're talking about "the game" or what have you, but the terminology and graphic depictions we gleefully relate are actually fairly hideous to the other people in line for groceries.

Ross Mills just let me know about the new Matrix Trailer, if you haven't already seen it. Hot damn.

He wanted me to wish him a happy birthday, and now I am doing that. I apologize to anyone who came here looking for actual content!

You probably know her best as "That one girl who took those pictures with the REZ vibrating thing on her Bajingo." Her name is actually Jane and she also happens to be the editor of Game Girl Advance.com. Normally I don't design mascots for other sites but I figured that I owed her on behalf of fan boys everywhere for her REZ article. So when she asked me I said I'd do it, and I'm really happy with the way it came out. She is working on a new site design now to incorporate the new mascot but I figured I'd just post a picture of the drawing here in the meantime.