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.

I've got a LAN this weekend at the venerable Ministry of Peace, and between that and E3 it it feels like bees are setting up shop in my lungs. Perhaps for you, intense enthusiasm takes some other form. For me, it's bees.

Not too long ago, I attended a LAN that was fairly small but still plenty of fun. That's the way of LANs, when you plug machines into each other there is just a default level of fun that is created and that level tends to be fairly high. But since everyone there pretty much gets along great, there was an element that was missing - furious anger. I want the best for my friends, I good things to happen to them over the course of a day and I want to rejoice with them in triumph. So if we're playing Jailbreak and all of our guys are imprisoned, I take a full accounting of my life and can usually find some offense for which I could rightly be incarcerated.

MOP LAN parties are, in terms of barely contained rage, like a clandestine cockfight in some barn an hour outside of town. The first time we attended one, we were forced to set up shop upstairs because the basement was full - this is already sounding like a parable. We were outside of the continuum that composed the bulk of the party, and the signals our species produces to establish familiarity were attenuated. The fact that we were physically situated above them, as though on a throne, as though on a gleaming starship over a wasted world was not lost on us. The things that occur in their filthy warrens do not warrant consideration. Indeed, those that dwell in such dark places to not merit membership in our club, a club whose only pre-requisite is humanity.

What I'm trying to tell you is that these Goddamn events are powder kegs. We've switched from the longtime staple, Soldier of Fortune 2, which I think we've played for twelve days total now. Unbelievably fun, if you haven't given it a shot somebody should put that on tap at the next LAN. Grab all the patches, and have the admin install Orange Smoothie to keep the peace. Anyway, we're moving over to UT2k4 for this one, CTF and Onslaught, which I already know is an absolute treat anytime bandwidth is not a consideration. I'll go into E3 on Monday before we fly down to the event itself, a few readers wanted me to cover something first:

Now that one can obtain Tribes 2 for free, it was suggested that we should again throw our support behind Team Aerial Combat 2 - this is something we have no problem doing. We played nothing but TAC2 eventually. Probably its most striking feature is that you die instantly if you touch the ground, so your vehicles are not only transportation and weaponry, they're life support. You can (of course) walk freely on bases, bridges, any object is safe. But when your team has left you swinging in the wind at some remote outpost, the isolation is a real thing you can feel with your entire body. The game also has a robust assortment of original maps that will test your resolve, in addition to a really unique gametype called Retrieval. In Retrieval, each team sends scouts out into the map to find the Artifact, which is placed at random. Once visually acquired and marked with a beacon, one player drives out a Jericho to obtain it and bring it back while under heavy assault from enemy vehicles. There are many reasons to like it, but in particular I like the naval feeling of the air combat as well as the fact that the huge transports have been toughened up and see heavy use over the course of actual games. In base Tribes 2, those things were essentially futuristic pinatas.

(CW)TB out.

life on other planets is difficult

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

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.

(CW)TB

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!

Feel free to read over the rules and then come back here. I'll wait.

Pretty fucking awesome, huh? The person who wins the OMEGATHON will truly deserve to own the OMEGA Collection. As you can see by the rules, if you want to have a shot at the ultimate prize you'll need to pre-register for PAX by August 10th. Man I get more and more excited for this convention every fucking day.

Speaking of the OMEGA Collection I've decided to go ahead and add a Neo-Geo home console, as well as some carts to the prize. We'll be adding more stuff soon and then I'll take some new pictures. I also wanted to mention that the sword you see in those photos is actually a PS2 controller designed to work with Onimusha 3. People kept mailing me and telling me it was stored incorrectly. Apparently a real sword like that should be kept edge up to avoid unnecessary wear. I'm not sure if the same rule applies for a plastic toy that plugs into a Playstation 2.

-Gabe out

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.

My head is spinning just trying to remember all the cool stuff you can do. Anyway, there’s tons more hot shit in La Pucelle, but you should just go play it. Visually it’s a real treat and just like Disgaea is pretty damn funny. I have a feeling most places didn’t order as many copies as they probably should have, so I’d hit up your local game store ASAP.

-Gabe out

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

Check out Ben's Game, over at the Make A Wish Foundation.

(CW)TB