The story you are about to read is true.

But that's just his side of it. While Batjew was in town last week, he and his cohort Gabriel - brazen and unchecked in their feverish hortations - also played Medal of Honor, while the notorious S. Monkey and myself kept Nazi populations low. They, however, began play without first connecting to the Goddamn GV. That's the rule. If you're going to play a game, MoH for example, Gabriel, you start by hooking up to Monkey's GV. You do this because that's where your teammates are. You don't just nip off to some burnt-out hole in France to hunt the Axis with your pal Batsomething there. I guess I have no great reserve of sympathy for a man who can't be bothered to click fully three (apparently, very strenuous) times.

Speaking of the crew, we hope to give that Renegade Multiplayer Demo a try on Monday night, if we can. You might recall my being very impressed with what was shown at E3 last year - I'm wondering if what you can download doesn't include the highest quality art assets, because the multi demo I've got here (with requisite patch) doesn't look anything like what I saw there. The geometry is about right, but what I'd seen at the expo led me to believe that these basic (but certainly serviceable) environs would be dressed for the dance with fairly lavish textures. That's not what we've got. As an enthusiast with my predilection toward team-based action, it's hard not to be enamored with the overarching conceit of Renegade - playing out a round of CnC from the ground level. Yes, please - I've left room. But there had better be some real cream filling in that son of a bitch if they want me to put up with these rough edges.

We're going to be getting rid of NewsPro soon - not because it hasn't served us admirably, but because it was never exactly what we needed. It was good enough as a proof of concept, and I think we all like having the ability to append items to the post - but we need something that's actually archived along with the main body of the content, so a year from now you can know if Gabe called me a Crappopotamus or not. The same twisted genius that fashioned our web-searchable archive is already well underway on something that'll give us precisely what's required, along with a slicker overall presentation and titillatingly exposed wrists and ankles. I'm so excited that I'm considering a small amount of physical movement.

Let me tell you something about being in a band. When your band disintegrates - and this disintegration is an immutable phenomenon, like January - these intimate partners of yours are going to get new rock bands that you aren't in, the sonic equivalent of girlfriends, and you'll be invited to a practice where you listen to them and get kind of embarrassed that they ever wasted their time with you. Because you can sing, you began to get the impression that maybe you should, and the ability to tell genuine epiphany from run-of-the-mill hubris is something you might want to investigate.

I'm sure I'll get a hit more stuff up here later Monday or Tuesday, but for the time being I'm pretty wiped out by the drive back from SpokAngeles. That, I guess, and the fact that the Lipton MOHAA server has no trace of that infernal Omaha Beach, whose perpetual return - like an infested and unwelcome zombie pet - is the only thing that shocks us away from the game. I'll hitcha again soon.

(CW)TB out.

it's the hive of my bee