If you translate what she’s saying from “Pokespeak” into English, she says: “Please help me. Everyday they inject me with a serum that makes me talk like this. I can’t bear this high-pitched, prepubescent voice any longer. I fear I may be going insane.” Stay strong, Pikachu lady. Stay strong

EA put up a site recently with a mock up of the logo for GTA4 and a countdown. As for what’s it’s counting down to, well, that’s up for speculation. EA has announced plans for a game to tie in with the upcoming Simpsons Movie, which would fit with the general layout of the page. But, more importantly, the source code for the page is littered with the word “Simpsons.” My best guess is that the countdown is for when the real site launches with some initial screenshots and information on the game. Or this could be EA’s way of warning us of the coming apocalypse at the hands of an evil being, calling himself “Simpsons.” Either way, I’m stocking up on duct tape and canned goods.

From now until May 11, Steam is knocking the price of X-Com: Terror From the Deep down to $2.45. Some of you may remember this as the sequel to the highly successful X-Com: UFO Defense. The gameplay centers around a surprisingly involving strategy system, where you command a team against alien invaders. It’s an oldie, but at a price like that, you get a really huge bang for your gaming buck. So check it out. Do it. Do it now.

There are new screens up for Disciples III: Renaissance that show more of the switch to 3D for the turn-based RPG series. Will one of the character classes be “Undead Figure Skater” this time? There’s only one way for you to find out.

Well, you’ve seen the trailer, now you can see the Cybertron Edition of Transformers: The Game. For those of you who don’t recall, Cybertron was the Transformer’s home planet, where the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons began. For those of you that do, well, I’ll just say that you’re in my age group, and leave it at that. Those of you that don’t, you missed out on some good cartoons. That’s all I’m saying.

Now, for a premium price of $69.99, you can get all of the following:

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This week’s Valve / Steam Update brings some good news for Half-Life 2 fans: Episode 2 is nearing completion. While the update is sparse on details, it does feature three pieces of concept art (one can be seen to the right) that are said to be part of the finished product we’ll see soon.

In addition, Steam added to its catalog. Some of the new additions include Sid Meier’s Railroads, Railroad Tycoon II and III, and even XCom: Terror From the Deep! If you’re hooked on Steam, you must have XCom. Not getting that one is tantamount to not being a gamer.

In his most recent podcast, Major Nelson, a well known XBox PR outlet, has said that Epic Games cost Microsoft a BILLION dollars. Apparently, Epic Games was single-handedly responsible for the decision to include a 512 MB RAM chip in the 360, rather than a (supposedly) proposed 256 MB chip. This was brought up in relation to the recent debate over Microsoft charging for the Gears of War Map Pack. You might remember, Epic Games felt that the map pack should have been provided for free, and Microsoft wanted to charge for it.

Maybe it’s just me, but if Microsoft is allowing a single developer to chart the course of their console development, they need to take a long, hard look at their development process. Now, if Epic said, “Hey Microsoft, we really need 512 MB of RAM in this console so that we can make some seriously great games that will help sell your XBox 360,” and Microsoft said, “Hey, sounds good to us,” then what’s the problem here? Microsoft benefits by more console sales and associated hardware, Epic gets to make Gears (which rocks) and reap the rewards from that.
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Epic Games has launched the official site for their upcoming shooter, Unreal Tournament 3. The new site features an official trailer, a few screenshots, and a chance for gamers to sign up for a newsletter that will keep them updated will all the UT news.

I’ve been excited about this one for a while. As a huge fan of the original Unreal, as well as the whole UT series, I just don’t think this is a title you can afford to miss, especially if you consider that Epic is hot on the heels of the hugely successful Gears of War.

For all the Perfect Dark fans out there, your day has finally arrived. The Perfect Dark mod for Half-Life 2’s source engine has been released, at least in beta.

So far, it looks great. So, if you’re a Perfect Dark fan, head over to the FileFront Network to download and try out this mod.

In March 2007, the free-to-play MMO Second Life attracted 1.3 million users, up 46% from January.

If you’re still living in a cave, and haven’t heard of Second Life, it’s a virtual world created by Linden Labs.
Players can create their own avatar to interact with other users, they can build homes, get jobs, and earn Linden dollars. The interesting thing is that you can buy Linden dollars with real money, and if you accumulate Linden Dollars, you can change them back into real dollars.

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