"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius"

So I got a bunch of votes, which makes me feel all warm and cuddly inside. Thank you. I am beloved. (Or maybe I'm the only one of those developers with a public website, the nerve to go canvassing for votes, an ego the size of that one big country in Africa that I can never remember the name of (Mbundo?), and a bottomless hunger for PR. Give me attention! I crave it!)

I promise to return the favour with two arse-whomping games, heading your way, filled with all sorts of adventure-y goodness. And also strawberries. And amazing graphics. With bananas. And a scoop of ice-cream on the side.

Games. Yes. Wednesday after next, it's going to be all about the games. That's when E3 begins - the biggest darn game industry trade show there is - and I'll be there to talk to the "lucky" few about what I've been working on this past year. Wheee! The preparations are a bitch, however (can I say "bitch"?), and, to top it all of, I'm sick with a bad cold. I've been sick since I came back from Paris. And I keep expecting it to pass...but it just doesn't. Luckily it's another week until I'm flying to L.A., so I'll probably recover by then. Recover...or die. Maybe it's SARS. It could be.

As part of the preparations, we got a brand new demo PC yesterday, and it's the cutest, coolest PC I've ever seen. It's manufactured by Creative Labs, and it's called Slix. It's a "barebone PC" - a box with a motherboard - to which you can add a video card, CPU and memory, hard-disk(s), and a CD/DVD ROM. Plus, you know, monitor-keyboard-mouse-speakers-whatever. Point is, it's small. Real small. You can't put much into it, but hey, who needs to? Our setup includes a P4 2.5GHz, an Audigy2 sound-card, a GeForce 4 Ti-something-or-other (very, very fast), a 120Gb HD, a hybrid DVD-CDR/W drive, and a gigabyte of memory. Plus a wireless Microsoft keyboard and mouse. Pretty sweet. In a geeky way. All in a tiny, brushed metal box that wouldn't look out of place in a stereo rack or right under the TV. I'm getting one of those myself, soon as I can afford it - it's not very expensive at all. I hate the big PC towers that make a lot of noise, and this one looks - and sounds (quiet, like) - more like a Mac than a PC. Esthetics are important, y'know. You'll fall in love with it when you see it - guaranteed.

What will we be using it for? Presentations, mostly. We have a demo that we're showing to a few invited guests, as well as lots of artwork and screenshots. We have a closed room at E3 where we'll be displaying The Longest Journey related stuff, plus our Big Secret Game (that has been sort of announced (our "Next Big Thing"), but is still a looong way off from being shown to anyone except, well, VIPs).

How is the next TLJ proceeding? Very well, thanks for asking. And that's about all I can say until we're past and beyond E3. Why? Because it's secret, that's why. And also because we want those little golden nuggets of information and news to be distributed carefully to all and sundry over the course of the development. No need to rush things. We've got a ways to go. Be patient. When it finally arrives, it will rock you so hard. Oh yeah.  ¶ 11:56