Shit damn Ninja Gaiden is hard, it's so hard that your friends will die. It's also completely great - once you've gone a few levels, just start a new game real quick and take a look at the guys you thought were bad-asses before. Those guys are feather pillows compared to the beasts and murderers you rub up against later.

For a geek, my resistance to gadgets is extremely high. I wish that I could say that it is because I know only too well the speed with which obsolescence grips that genre of consumer technology, making my reticence in this regard a function of great wisdom as regards largely unnecessary but indubitably sensual equipment, but that's not quite right. I waited until Internet capable cell phones had large screens and full, comfortable keyboards before seriously considering one, which I thought exhibited the utmost restraint in the face of such pleasures. Instead of it being particularly wise or pragmatic, it's more that I believe if I wait long enough they will eventually put all the devices that have caught my eye into the same machine. I only want to go to the store once.

I like my Hiptop quite a lot. It's an excellent, ergonomic data device and a passable phone. Jay-Z owns one, and I think of myself as tasting the player lifestyle each time I send a text message to my dogs. Mainly, though, it's friendly. It is never mean to you, and the way that it works makes sense to most people. My wife Brenna has one and loves it, which is odd because she has said (perhaps not in as many words) that technology is a force for evil in our world. That the Hiptop won her over is a feat all by its lonesome. On the other hand, the idea of that phone as a fully functioning "platform" really hasn't materialized for end users. There is a development kit available, but regular humans never really taste the fruits of those endeavors, and the company is too secretive about the future of the platform to interest me in waiting around. The customization options common on even the most basic phones don't exist here. Unfortunately, now I'm hooked on a large color screen and sizeable qwerty-style thumb-board. I need something that does all the stuff I have now, only it's hooked into a major platform like Palm or PocketPC for apps and is more comfortable to hold against my face.

Basically the MPx is the phone that springs fully formed from my head. It can do every last Goddamn thing that occurs in your science fiction communicator wet dreams. They aren't even saying how much it will cost yet, which is nice for me, because it lets me imagine I'm the kind of person who could own one.

I have no idea why sites persist in utilizing RealMedia compression when there are viewers that molest a user's machine to a much lesser degree. It would be one thing if installing Real's stuff didn't involve braving about four hundred menus, each one of them dense with peril, you can tell it not to do shit but none of those buttons are hooked up to anything. Every now and and again I'll find a questionable video that I'm willing to install it for, but once the novelty of sex in zero G or the lego version of Star Wars wears off I uninstall immediately. Well, there's a player that watches Real video that I don't mind leaving on anymore - check out the Real Alternative if you too are fatigued by the cycle I just described. Apparently they also deal in Russian brides. I wonder if there is a way that I could know true loneliness. Oh, I know - I'll marry a foreign woman who secretly despises me.

(CW)TB out.

like a river flowing around me

But I have found them! Apparently the site I linked to for information about the MPx removed the photos, which strips away the reason for linking that page in the first place. Never fear, you may see the three modes here, here, and here.

(CW)TB

Digital Extremes just sent me a press release about their new title, Pariah. Generally I don’t post this sort of thing here but they attached some really cool screen shots. Here is a snippet from the release:

Top independent game development studio, Digital Extremes and global interactive game publisher, Groove Games today announced their partnership on a new first-person action game based on an original intellectual property created and owned by Digital Extremes. Best known for creating the multi-million unit selling Unreal® franchise, Digital Extremes has set the standard for fine-tuned gameplay and technologically impressive graphics in the first-person action genre. With such award-winning hits as Unreal Tournament and Unreal Championship, Digital Extremes is looking beyond the Unreal universe and is working to raise the bar again. The new game, ominously named Pariah™, has been quietly in production for the past two years and is currently planned for the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft and the personal computer.

And here are a couple shots of the game.

Check out the official site if you want more info.

-Gabe out

I am kind of curious if you guys find stuff like the above post valuable. There are so many sites out there that post news, I just never figured it was something we needed to do. I mean, we are on all the same lists that these other sites are on. I get the same press releases they do. Would you guys like it if we posted this sort of thing more often?

-Gabe out

Okay, about fourty-five minutes and seven hundred emails later I think I have a pretty clear idea of what you guys think about more “news” posts. It’s actually pretty cool how much alike all your answers were. I’d say about 99% of the emails I got sounded pretty much like this one:

The way you guys promote only the things that really catch your eye is what makes your site different to me. I don't want another news site, but I do like it when you post up something that catches your eye like Pariah. It’s like my buddy telling me "I saw this new game, it looks bad ass, see?" News sites just don't have that same effect. You're gamers, not journalists to me, and that gives your word more weight. Please don't dilute that weight.

It’s funny because Tycho and I have always felt like our news posts were more like conversations between friends. It seems like a lot of you look to PA as a sort of news filter. If something makes it past us and on to the page, you feel like is worth checking out. I know Tycho and I don’t want to do anything to ruin that. Obviously Pariah looks awesome, and it’s coming from a group of guys I trust a lot. I don’t have any intention of posting press releases about the next Mary-Kate and Ashley game.

So thanks again for all the great feedback. It was super interesting to read through all of that.

-Gabe out