Mmm, excitement rising? I think so! I have to admit that as we inched closer to Aion’s September 22nd US launch date, I wouldn’t have bet my bottom Aion Kinah on us getting any sort of open beta. It wouldn’t be the first time that a highly anticipated AAA title decided to do away with the common courtesy of  try before ya buy. Thankfully this doesn’t seem to be the case, we now have hard details on Aion’s Open Beta, Pre-select and Headstart programs… details which I’ll share with you in a wee bit, first, on to other news!

Cor, blimey! We just got done with Gamescom and Blizzcon and there’s another major gaming event just around the corner, are we gamers spoiled or what!? PAX ’09 (Penny Arcade Expo) has been growing in leaps and bounds since the inaugural ’04 expo. Last year nearly 60,000 people attended and this time the convention floor has been significantly expanded to deal with the anticipated flood of fans.

NCsoft is looking to have all three of their big guns on show at the expo, with booths for Aion: Tower of Eternity, Guild Wars 2 and City of Heroes. Convention goers will be treated to the very latest playable build of Aion, patch 1.5 - The Shadow of the Balaur. Guild Wars 2 fans can look forward to a Q&A session and news on the upcoming novel, The Fall of Ascalon. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in checking out City of Heroes you’ll be able to check out the upcoming Power Spectrum update, as well as get your hands on a nifty “PAX ’09 only” in-game costume.

In other Aion news, NCsoft’s come up with a crafty bit of cross-promotion between Aion and Guild Wars, all you need to do is pick up a physical first edition copy of Aion and you’ll be rewarded with a special emote that allows your Guild Wars character to sprout in impressive pair of Aion-esque wings… you won’t be able to fly around with them though, the wings are just for show. Still, pretty cool no? More details and a nifty vid here.

Did you thoroughly enjoy the Aion Live Theater I linked to in my last post? Are you just itching for more ill-advised “art” inspired by NCsoft’s upcoming MMO? Well look no further than Gamezones ah, interesting fist entry in a series of five fan-fiction stories that chronicle the journeys of two characters as they “embrace their destinies as Daevas”. (It’s a trap!)

More on PAX, this time coming from Bethesda, they’re going to be showing off Brink, WET (sounds dirty), and Rogue Warrior (sounds generic) every hour on the hour, in addition to having playable builds of Doom II and Quake Arena Arcade on show for you to get your sweaty little hands on. It’s going to take a while to get used to the thought of Bethesda now owning Id Software – still, if it means we get Bethesda RPG’s powered by Id’s amazing Id Tech 5 engine, I’m not complaining.

There’s not a massive amount of World of Warcraft news doing the rounds at the minute, seeing as how Blizzcon just wrapped it’s understandable the folks at Blizzard need to catch a breath. That said, they’ve been kind enough to put up their catalogue of pictures taken over the course of the convention for your perusal. The catalogue covers images taken from the StarCraft II, Diablo III, and WoW booths, and you won’t even have to fork over any gold to have a look!

In PS3Land, it seems Sony fans are getting a little riled up (understandably so) at the thought that it might be EA’s fault that they aren’t able to enjoy the benefits of universal custom soundtrack support, and more importantly, cross-game voice chat.

No need to get too worked up though, here’s something to brighten the mood a bit. The Official US PlayStation blog conducted an interview with Final Fantasy XIV producer Hiromichi Tanaka. It’s short, but there are some interesting nuggets, especially for current FFIX players looking to make the jump when XIV finally comes out.

PlayStation Blog: You recently talked at E3 about how the game closely relates to Final Fantasy XI. How have the monsters and races changed from FFXI to XIV.

Hiromichi Tanaka: Because we’re using a new graphic engine, the graphics are really different from FFXI and you can see more details on both monsters and races. Regarding the races, to encourage people to shift smoothly from FFXI, you will see very similar types of classes. But if you actually make your own character, you’ll be able to select your own colour of hair, skin, eye color, shape of your face, etc. There will be a wide range of variety to customize.

PSB: After E3, you mentioned there might be a way to transfer your name over from FFXI. Is that still planned – are you still working on that? Is there a plan on how you’re going to do it?

Tanaka: It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but we would like to give incentives to the players. First of all, FFXI has 32 worlds, and they may have the same name across different worlds, as I’m sure you know. Each name in each world has to be a unique; there can’t be conflicts with other players. However, when we have FFXIV, we still don’t know how many worlds there’s going to be yet, but players might have the same name if they all move to the same world, so there may be conflicts. So, to avoid that, what we’re trying to do is add a surname to their name, so players can keep their main name, but they can add something else to their surname – that way players with overlapping names can keep their names from FFXI, but they can add something on to it to make it unique.

It all sounds really good for current FFIX players, but I’m hoping it’s different enough from its predecessor to be interesting, wouldn’t be great if you could somehow transfer all your FFIX  gil over to Final Fantasy XIV? Fat chance though.

If you live in France (LOL, you’re French! –  I kid) and you managed to snag an early copy of Halo ODST, for the love of Balaur, do not play it yet unless you want to be banned from Xbox Live. This is the warning issued by Microsoft to gamers following the latest Halo leak, well not in so many words but you get what I mean.

Alright, alright, time to get down to business, what’s the deal with the Aion Open Beta, Pre-select and Headstart business?

Open Beta Information: Version 1.5 (The Shadow of the Balaur) will be made available between the 6th and 13th of September, version 1.5 “will include numerous Western enhancements, including improvements to Aion’s innovative character customization with a host of Western styles, as well as new zones, instances, skills, quests and continued game balancing and improvements”. There will be a level cap of 30 in place for the duration of the open beta for both the Asmodian and Elyos classes.

Pre-select and Headstart Information: If you’ve pre-ordered Aion (and you have… haven’t you!?) you’ll get access to a Pre-select and a two-day Headstart period that will give you the opportunity to explore, organize and progress through the game prior to the official launch. Pre-Select will take place on 18th September, while Aion’s Headstart will begin 20th September. If you haven’t already pre-ordered Aion, now would prbably be a good time as you’ll also get that nifty Guild Wars emote.

Welp, that’s all for today, time for me to see if I can go make a niusance of myself round and about EpicToon HQ.

See ya Tuesday folks!

Dessert:

- Mario Kart: The Movie: The Trailer.

- 5 Reasons Why Gamers Make Better Boyfriends. Dunno ’bout you but I needed the ego boost.

- By Chris Coker

Game over, man! Game over! Blizzcon’s come and gone, and it’ll be another year till we’re treated again. No reason to feel down though, as much like Santa disappearing up the chimney on Christmas night, we’ve been left goodies!

First up we got an utterly schwing-worthy trailer for the long-rumored expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Granted, it’s got  Blizzard designer/author/artist, Chris Metzen doing a dodgy “in-a-world” impression, but the visuals more than make up for any lack of vocal gravitas, also, it’s just plain cool to see how different all the once familiar areas look after the re-sundering of Azeroth. In addition, the trailer does a pretty good job of listing all the major changes and additions we can expect, thank you BIG YELLOW TEXT!

To reiterate:

• New Horde Race: Goblins (kind of like Gnomes, but less hairy)
• New Alliance Race: Worgen (kind of like Wolfen, but not)
• Flying Mounts in Azeroth (their emphasis, not mine)
• New Race/Class Combinations
• New Monsters (Grrr! Argh!)
• New Dungeons and Raids
• Azeroth Reforged: Classic Zones Forever Changed By The Cataclysm
• Level Cap Raised to 85 (still feel it should have been 90)
• Hundreds of New Quests (Dr.Evil-pinkie.jpg)
• New Secondary Skill, Archaeology
• Herioic Classic Instances: Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep (for the masochists out there)
• New Battlegrounds With Rated Team Play (’bout time!)
• Guild Leveling System and Achievements
• New Character Progression: Path of Titans

You just know that like the Night Elves and Blood Elves before them, everyone’s going to be rolling a Worgen alt ‘cus they look so darn cool.

Once again the guys at Kotaku have done an excellent job with their Blizzcon coverage, there’s this nifty picture piece that shows off dozens of hand painted StarCraft II space marines custom designed by Blizzard employees, have a look. It’s hard to pick a favorite but if push came to shove I suppose I’d have to settle on the Hello Kitty space marine.

Now, if you couldn’t make it to Blizzcon yourself (LOL, you have a job and responsibilities!) you can drool over the swag bag here, and if you really do have a job and can’t quite figure out what to do with all the mint green paper you get at the end of every month, you can throw some of it at a stranger and actually buy a swag bag on Ebay… for $500!?!

And because no WoW round up is complete without mentioning her at least once, here’s a neat interview WoW.com did with the First Lady of Warcraft, Felicia Day. On Season 3 of The Guild:

WoW.com: Can’t wait to see it. 12 episodes per season, and it’s still in the same format — how has the length changed since you guys started?

Felicia Day: Season one was 47 minutes, that was when we were doing it on Paypal donations. 3-6 [per episode], I think six was the longest. And then for season two we definitely increased that, I think there’s an eight minute episode, and we had 12 episodes, so that ends up being 77 minutes. It’s a lot more content than we were making, we were able to have a budget, so at least a lot more content. And then this season I know is going to be probably feature-length. I would say at least eighty-something minutes.

On the topic of Warcraft related fan made videos, have a gander at the newest winner of Blizzard’s annual WoW movie contest, this little piece is titled “Don’t Make Me Get My Main“, it’s short but sweet.

Switching gears, let’s have a look at what’s going on in the world of Atreia, and focus for a bit  on Aion: Tower of Eternity. NCsoft Content Writer, David Noonan sat down with the guys at MMORPG.com for a fascinating interview that gives you a little bit of an idea of the kind of hard work, care, and attention to detail that’s gone into making sure Aion’s lore strikes a chord with western audiences, definitely worth a look.

Player attention is a precious currency, so we resolved early on to make every word you read count. If you play an Asmodian character, you don’t click the “Accept” button or “OK” button when you’re talking to Morheim’s brigade general. Depending on the situation, that button says something like “Blood for blood!” or “The task is mine.”

“Blood for blood!” is the Asmodian version of a military hoo-ah; it can mean almost anything in context. But its overt meaning reinforces two core Asmodian principles: an eye-for-an-eye attitude toward perceived wrongs, and the notion that all Asmodians are one big clan—all of the same blood. And “the task is mine” reinforces how seriously Asmodians take their duties. They don’t just undertake a task…they own it.

It’s just a little thing, sure, but those buttons subtly reinforce the Asmodian mindset. And it sure beats “OK.”

Then there’s this really informative ten minute video NCsoft released (on the amusingly named “Twitvid”) during Gamescom, it’s not exactly detailed, but it’s nice to get the information directly from Aion Lead Designer, Yongchan Jee (amazing mullet). Jee talks about his reasons for going with Aion’s unique PvPvE combat system, and you have to wonder what they’ve got up their sleeves regarding mounts given that by Jee’s own admission, the traditional use for mounts i.e. transportation, doesn’t apply to Aion.

You could say Gamescom was good to Aion,  however, Aion was not quite as good to Gamescom in return, well not always. While it’s true we got a ton of great new info and the interview shown above, they also saw fit to unleash this pretty terrible piece of Aion inspired Live Theater. I must apologise for linking to it, you can watch it at Youtube if you really must – I wouldn’t sit through that again for all the Kinah in Atreia.

Ahem, so… the three best mounts ever?

Artax: Atreyu’s horse in the Neverending story just beat out Shadowfax. I mean don’t get me wrong I’d love to wride Shadowfax, but no amount of wow gold could purchase a steed that by its own choice only allows Kings and Princes of Rohan on its back. Plus, Shadowfax doesn’t tolerate a saddle… ouch?

Estimated Cost: 20,000 wow gold

Panthor: What, you thought I was going to say Battle Cat didn’t you? Psh! In case you’ve forgotten half the time Battle Cat turns into Cringer, good luck winning a fight with him backing you up!

Estimated Cost: 25,000 wow gold

Vermithrax Pejorative: The amount of joy sheer joy derived from being able to strike cold fear into the hearts of the peasants below really cannot be overstated.

Estimated Cost: 50,ooo wow gold

Right, I’ve definitely babbled enough for today, now if you’ll excuse me I must get off here and go raid the office fridge for some Jammie Dodgers to munch on while I finish Mass Effect. What? We have snacks here at EpicToon okay!

Dessert:

Keyboard Cataclysm? Oh Blizzard! (Just click the barely visible keyboard seen underneath the art gallery)

8-bit Trip, or what you end up doing with your time if you can’t make it to Blizzcon.

-by Chris Coker

Photo by Stephen Matta http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_matta/ / CC BY 2.0

Shh!! Do you hear that? It’s the fearsome sound of 20,000 rabid MMO fans converging on Texas! Don’t worry, I’ll get to Blizzcon but first lets talk about that other games convention that took place this week.

Gamescom has come and gone, and by all accounts was a major success. As has been rumored  for about a year now, Sony did in fact launch a lighter, slimmer, cheaper PS3. New snack sized “app store” style games are indeed headed the PSP’s way, fifteen of them by on October 1st and a further thirty five by years end. What, you don’t believe that Sony actually finally unveiled the mythical PS3 Slim? Fine, here’s some proof, watch this unboxing video, now keep telling yourself you don’t need one right now.

On the 360 front, Lionhead Studios and Mr. Molyneaux were also kind enough to do more than just hint at Fable III,  he also promised us it’s gonna be absolutely awesome, oh, and if you’re a huge Mass Effect fan like me, you’re going to want to see this.

If you’re into Nintendo (and who isn’t these days), I told you not to hold your breath, and it seems I was right, the big N didn’t make much of a splash at Gamescom. Don’t worry though, I got a little sumn’ sumn’ for ya in the dessert section of this article

Across the MMO-verse there’s been a glut of information released over the past week.  Age of Conan (or AoC if you’re hip and with it) has had its first full expansion revealed in some detail. Rise of the Godslayer will take the skull crunching, combo queuing mayhem to the Far East and venture into the lands of the troubled  Empire of Kithai. It’s odd however, that Rise of the Godslayer will introduce only a single new class; the Kithan. Perhaps Blizzard’s approach to introducing WoW races two at a time (Wrath of the Lich King excluded) has spoiled us. Still, it’s early days yet for AoC and in MMO terms it’s still very much a baby.

Godslayer (which totally sounds like the name of a German death metal group) is promising oodles of new high level content for group and solo questing, no doubt in an attempt to appease disgruntled early fans of what I hereby christen “Classic AoC”, yes, original I know. New areas include the idyllic Chosain Province, the desert of Kara Korum, the jungles of Paikang and much more. So you want to see actual gameplay? Look no further. Never say I’m not good to you.

Now it’s been a while since I read up on my Howard, but I’ll bet my bottom Kinah there’s some nasty God that needs slaying, possibly a large serpentine one holding a scantily clad lass hostage.

Speaking of Kinah, Did you know Aion: Tower of Eternity has gone gold? Well it has. As a matter of fact we had a little tea party here at EpicToon HQ just to celebrate, unfortunately the EpicToon Intern brought diet instead of regular – bleh!

Ahem, anyway, MMORPG.com has this really neat little look at one of Aion’s primary Realm vs. Realm zones called The Abyss. Do yourself a favor, have a look-see and be reminded just how darn purdy Aion is.

Meanwhile, Kotaku has been kind enough to do a well written piece detailing some of the major changes to Aion over the past year or so. Changes including extensive localisation work, new character presets, revamped graphics, a new tutorial system, and brand new instances among others. All in all they sound pretty impressed, now just cross your fingers and hope NCSoft don’t pull a Conan… ooooh! Low blow, I know, I know.

Also at Kotaku, you’ll find some smart soul was good enough to take some pics from Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic booth at Gamescom. Still, apart from the announcement of the Sith as a playable race TOR seems to have had a surprisingly low key week.

If you were wondering just how similar or different Final Fantasy XIV is shaping up to be from FFIX, you’ll be able to get a bit of an idea by having a look at these two gorgeous videos of the game in action. Personally I’m glad it looks like they’re moving away from FFIX’s somewhat clunky combat system. It doesn’t look too radically different though, currency is still called gil, and you can bet there’s at least one character named Sid (or Cid) running around somewhere.

Meanwhile, The Guild have seen it fit to grace us with their latest piece of ungodly genius, this time it’s an eminently hummable tune called “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?” I should warn you though, it’s likely to get stuck in your head all day long.

Random thought number one: How much WoW gold do you think it would cost to buy a Luck Dragon? Do you think if I had Falkor between the sticks Felicia Day would want to date me? * shakes head vigorously * I digress.

So here we are, Blizzcon 2010 is finally upon us. Unfortunately, you’re stuck at home, unable to afford the plane ticket or make the time to head on over to Anaheim for the show. Fear not, Blizzard’s got your back… for a price. If you don’t have DirectTV (LOL, pauper!), you can head on over to this Blizzard page, fork over forty bones and sit back, relax and take the whole thing in, in gloriously choppy steaming interweb video. Ain’t technology grand?

But what can we expect from Blizzcon this year? Blizzard’s pretty good at keeping secrets, and everyone here at EpicToon HQ has got their fingers crossed hoping for some bombshells. In my earlier post I daydreamed a bit about the unveiling of their next big MMO but that’s unlikely to happen. I doubt Blizzard’s going to want to take the focus off the WoW: Cataclysm expansion, still, who knows for sure right?

On that subject, while we’ve covered most of what Cataclysm is likely to offer, the fine folks at GameTrailers (purveyors of fine er, game… trailers) have put together a video highlighting some of the features they’d like to see introduced in the next expansion, it’s another one of those amazing GT productions and well worth a minute or twelve,  if you can spare ‘em.

Anyway, bottom line is that no matter what Blizzcon brings, the cool thing is that you can be sure to be blown away.

Rounding out the WoW news, Blizzard’s put up a preview of the latest issue of the World of Warcraft comic, issue 22. Have a look.

Random thought number two: Why am I not playing Diablo III like these lucky basterds are?

And because I can’t mention one without the other, I expect you’ll want to have a gander at this StarCraft II clip, wherein we get to see lead writer Andy Chambers attempt to avoid the somewhat overzealous advances of an enthusiastic black microphone. By the way, does it please anyone else to no end how old school and utterly “hardcore StarCraft” that HUD looks?

Oh yeah, has anyone out there tried that Mobile Armory app for iPhone? Is it actually any good?

See ya Tuesday folks!

Dessert:

Free download of Legend of The Princess, a wonderful homage to Nintendo’s emerald clad lad.

-by Chris Coker

Photo by Stephen Matta http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_matta/ / CC BY 2.0

There’s nothing quite like a major gaming convention to whip gamers into a dribbling frenzy and kick off a new gaming blog is there?

After the bizarre motion control-centric theatrics of E3, most folks have pinned their hopes on this years brand spanking new Gamescom convention to deliver the goods in a big way.

If you believe the hype, and depending on when you read this, there’s a very good chance a new model of the PlayStation 3 – the fabled PS3 Slim – is just about ready to grace us with is presence. Not only will it be slimmer and lighter, it’ll also be considerably cheaper (yay!) you can put the pitchforks away now kids, that goes for you too Bobby.

Me? I’m (somewhat optimistically) thinking we’re going to be seeing the first wave of a relaunch and repositioning of the machine into a more mainstream space. Notice I said mainstream, not casual! I think it’s safe to say Sony’s got more up its sleeve than just the Slim announcement though. I expect to hear and see more of the now infamous “Wand” motion control technology displayed at E3. PS3 firmware updates, once popping up seemingly every few minutes are now conspicuous by their absence, and rumors abound of a mythical Firmware update 3.0 arriving that will be as much a jolt to the system as the 360′s recently released NXE.

Gamescom is also expected to bring with it some highly anticipated information regarding the PSPgo’s long rumored app store, supposedly heralding a new wave of iPhone-esque, lower priced, bite sized software that may or may not relate directly to gaming.

It goes without saying that this could potentially be a real game changer. The PSP has always been on the cusp of being regarded a true breakout success. it’s a marvelous piece of technology that’s received more than its fair share of unfair criticism and it’s even flirted with supremacy in the charts on the odd occasion, but few would disagree that it’s yet to really live up to its full potential. The next few days could well prove vital.

Xbox 360 fans shouldn’t feel left out though, just because all the pre-Gamescom chatter has centered around Sony doesn’t mean there’s no 360 news. Creeping past the rumor stage are leaks of an impending price cut for the top of the line SKU, the 360 Elite which will apparently now available for 300 dollars – conveniently in line with the rumored price of the phantom PS3 Slim!

Of course if this news has you bouncing off the walls in excitement you might just want to simmer down a bit if what I’m hearing about a reported UK price increase (however small) for the 360 Arcade is true. Let’s also hope that a price cut to the Elite, however welcome, doesn’t represent Microsoft’s ace in the hole. Considering the European focus of Gamescom (and how long it’s been in development) it’s not out of the realm of possibility to expect some news on Remedy’s Alan Wake. Hopefully we can also expect details on what Mr. Molyneaux and his Lionhead Studios are working on next, assuming their bizarre and somewhat cryptic teaser site is to be taken at face value (har! I made a funny!)

You should probably expect to hear something Halo related, if only because I can’t remember the last time we had a game conference where there wasn’t news about a new Halo game, sequel, prequel, expansion or piece of DLC.

Are you a Wii owner? Well… I’m not going to say don’t hold your breath, but don’t hold your breath.

And what’s in it for PC gamers? You really should be in for something of a treat seeing as how Europe is essentially PC-Land. I’ve heard that Crytek are ready to pull back the curtain on Cryengine 3 and Crysis 3, sending GPU’s everywhere scampering away in fear. I also expect EA and Bioware to show off Dragon Age, which comes out in under three months.

Speaking of Bioware, there’s a good chance we’ll hear and see more of their in-development Star Wars mammorpuguh, The Old Republic. However, if you’re like me you’re more excited at the prospect of seeing Star Trek Online (imaginative name there) in greater detail. Can you imagine what it would be like if we could somehow merge those two MMO’s into one big, massive nerdgasmic gamefest? Wookies and Bolians and Droids, oh my!

Then there’s NCSoft. With Guild Wars selling over six million copies it’s not out of the realm of possibility to expect that there’s going to be a Guild Wars 2. It’s also safe to venture a guess that NCSoft are crossing every digit hoping Aion: Tower of Eternity reaches similar levels of success. Having just gone gold, NCSoft is looking to show it off in a big way at Gamescom. My “out of the left field” prediction? Watch for either Aion, or Guild Wars 2 (or both!) to be announced for the PlayStation 3. Remember that announcement Sony made at E3 2007 about NCSoft MMO’s coming exclusively to the PS3? Yeah, well methinks the iron is just hot enough for striking.

While Guild Wars 2 is probably the most console friendly option for NCSoft, it’s hard not to be impressed by what we’ve seen so far of Aion. If the scope hinted at in this latest story trailer or this frankly bat-poop insane gameplay video are anything to go by it’s going to be a worthy addition to the MMO-scape. In fact, I have to admit that if we had to choose between WoW and Aion here at EpicToon HQ right now, there would probably be blood on the office walls, it’s that close.

Beyond Gamescom though there’s the elephant in the room… Blizzcon Babay! Cataclysm, Diablo III, Starcraft II, GASP! Might this just be the absolute best Blizzcon in the history of forever?

Rumor has it WoW’s latest expansion, Cataclysm, will bring major changes to Classic Azeroth, which will be revamped to take advantage of post Classic WoW gameplay additions like phasing and daily quests. Durotar looks like it’s going to be blown to oblivion, Orgrimmar’s probably going to be completely flooded and we’ve heard rumblings of new races (the Worgen and the Goblins) and even new race and class combinations. The level cap isn’t getting much a boost though, maxing out at just 85 but it sounds like Blizzard are going to make leveling more of a challenge, aiming for a greater sense of fulfillment when you gain a level. All you Onyxia fetishists can relax, it looks like the witch is back and she’s pretty ticked off, this particular raid having been tweaked and enhanced for Cataclysm. Did I mention Kalimdor and The Eastern Kingdoms will also be made flying mount friendly? Trays up the upright position if you please.

And hey, what if… no, I shouldn’t say it… but just what if Blizzard decide to show off that super secret next generation MMO that we all know they’re working on?

Without a doubt though, the absolute best thing about this years Blizzcon (apart from Ozzy) is that you can now live the dream vicariously through the magic of pay-per-view television. Yes, that’s right, experience the sights and sounds (thankfully not the smells) of Blizzcon from the comfort of your own couch for the low, low price of just $39.95! Operators standing by to take your order! Act now!

Okay, that’s enough hyperbole and speculation from me, at least for now, I’ll be back by weeks end to recap what went went down and you can all laugh and point at me because of how utterly wrong I was.

See ya Friday folks!

Dessert:

Randy Pitchford and Gabe Newell do battle to decide who gets to use the studio name “Gearbox Software” – It’s not as dumb as it sounds. Well maybe.

The toilet seat pet peeve… from a gamers perspective.

And finally, quite probably the most awesome videogame related thread there has ever been. (Warning, contains some spicy language. And David Bowie. Dance magic dance!).

-by Chris Coker

Photo by Stephen Matta http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_matta/ / CC BY 2.0