As any casual observer might note, I’ve put up a new design for the site over the past couple of days; it’s still a work in progress, but I hope everyone finds it easy to read and navigate, and hopefully a little more gentle on the eyes.

Got to put in more time with Empire: Total War during the course of the week, and have been playing my way through the first campain, which covers the settlement of America; some of the battles can certainly get quite epic, but I do see a lot of issues with the general pathfinding of units, as they often seem to pick the least desireable route possible to get to their destination.   Also got to sink a few more hours into Lost Odyssey, and I can say in all honesty I’m finding it really, really boring so far, for reasons I intend to cover more in-depth in an upcoming article.  Master of Magic also continues to occupy a lot of my spare time, and all I really have to say there is that when my Shuri the Huntress and her legion of Doom Drakes shows up, your pitiful city walls aren’t going to help you.  Also bumped out a few more Scout achievements in Team Fortress 2, and I look forward to the continued raging debate over whether or not The Sandman is broken, lame, or both.

-Joel Haddock

Alas, Persona 4 is making me increasingly a liar, as every week I say that this is the week I’m finally going to finish it, and every week it proves me wrong.  I’m 55 or so hours in and have finally gotten to (more or less) the end, so if I don’t finish it by the end of this coming week, I’ll officially have to turn in my PS2.  In other news, I picked up both MadWorld and Resident Evil 5, both of which have been great, parent’s guild-baiting, violent fun.  Madworld may in fact be the most violent game I’ve ever played, enhanced only by the fact that the color red is the only color shown on top of the bleak, “Sin City Come to Life” comic book style visuals.  Resident Evil, on the other hand is much more subdued in its violence, and while the core elements are there, it just doesn’t feel like Resident Evil anymore…..look for first impressions of both games from me over the weekend.

-Jeff Feeser