I’ve got some Child’s Play auctions to tell you guys about. Keep in mind that 100% of the proceeds from all these auctions will go directly to the kids.

Gabriel had to take me aside yesterday, on account of my generally unkind behavior toward our opponents. I'm not even aware I'm doing it. His position appears to be that, and certainly I don't want to put words in his mouth, but the implication is that I am allowed to chainsaw a person in half, but the ostentatious post-match sort of "end-zone boogie" phase is not entirely necessary.

If you’re going out to pick up Gears today (who isn’t?) and you pick up the collectors edition you’ll get a fancy art book. I’ve been told that the Gears fan artwork I did was so well received by the developers that they actually included it at the last minute in the book. I haven’t seen it for myself yet but I’m really excited to go pick it up today. If you missed it, this was the piece I did.

I've been wondering what would happen to Gears of War once people could actually play it. Would it survive the transition from the realm of eternal potential into our genuine world, where things are saddled with, well, reality? What if it's only a great game, well executed, but does not usher in an age of prosperity and consequence-free sexual abandon?

The mood in the office this morning is somewhat tense. We all spent the weekend playing FFXII and we came back today completely divided regarding its quality. I have to admit that after putting in nearly fifteen hours over the past two days I’m prepared to call it the best FF game I’ve ever played. I know that’s at odds with what I said on Friday but it’s the truth. Tycho and Robert are actually playing together and they’re at about the five hour mark. They came in this morning saying the game was trash and I can’t blame them. They’re knee deep in what I’d describe as the tutorial phase of the game. If you played Kingdom Hearts II you’ll remember that’s a game that doesn’t actually “start” until nearly eight hours in. I don’t mean like you don’t start having fun until then, I mean you literally don’t even see the title screen until you’ve dicked around with Roxas for eight fucking hours. FFXII felt the same way to me. It’s extremely slow to start but now I’m having a hard time putting the controller down.

In the three years Child's Play has been in operation, it - by which we mean you - has raised nearly one point two million dollars and delivered more than fifty-three thousand toys and games to children's hospitals.

1up delivered up a controversial 5.0 review and then pulled it, appending a heartfelt apology for something that was good enough to post earlier in the day. Reading it made me... unhappy, but its removal is not something I endorse. As I said during the Savage fiasco, (paraphrased) if a reviewer can only stand to play your game for two hours, I want to hear from that guy. I want to hear from every person with experience on the subject, from the reverent acolyte in the official forum to the sworn enemy toiling on a competing product.

The site refresh is now live, so head on over and see if we've got a hospital even closer to you this year.  If you live in Egypt, the odds of that are very good.

More info next week.

(CW)TB

I'm excited about the Wireless Headset, the 360 one that ships on the sixth, though I couldn't tell you why, exactly. Gabriel is correct when he says that it is almost entirely irrelevant.

Okay this is super awesome! So I mentioned above that I’m really into Heroes. If you watch the show you know all about Claire the cheerleader and her friend Zach. Well it turns out they both have Myspace pages. A reader pointed me to a recent blog post on “Zach’s” page where he says he’s a PA fan!

I got a lot of mail about the pictures yesterday. I should have been clear that I did not take those. Lots of you wanted to know what camera I used and the truth is Kiko took them. It’s pretty cool to have a friend who could easily be a professional photographer if he wasn't busy making awesome shirt designs. We just asked him to come over and snap some shots of the boys in their Halloween garb.

I'm acting as Gabe's proxy in this strip - essentially, he's "broken up" with Lost. It's complicated by the fact that he holds weekly "Lost Nights," where Lost-themed snacks are sometimes offered, but he's come to conclusion that there's no story actually being told. He no longer believes that events are happening according to some overarching plan. Watching the show now is apparently awful, because where he once perceived a carefully revealed structure he now just sees a couple guys out back beneath a tarp, flashlights held under the chin.

Tycho’s wife Brenna is actually a professional costume maker. We roped her into creating some Halloween costumes for the boys this year. Kara and I decided to make Gabe a Moogle and Tycho wanted Elliot to be a Crocolisk. Yes I know we are huge fucking nerds.

Is a completely different game.

Recently returning home on a terrifying sky journey, Gabriel tried to explain that he couldn't shut off his game system - couldn't - because the Mana Tree had just released some kind of surge, unleashing monsters upon isle of Illusia. His aircraft's stern women were unmoved, even by the delicacy and imminence of his imaginary plight, because the genuine danger posed by airborne videogames was simply too grave.

As I mentioned a few days ago, Gabe and I created two Europeans out of thin air - created men, as the Gods do. Well, maybe just their Live Accounts. But as we logged on, Gabriel was seized by a new kind of fear. That fear is the subject of today's comic offering.