Later today, we'll be tossing up a new contest to give away a few hundred Age of Empires Online beta codes. Keep an eye out if that sounds like something you might want to check out.

Going to do some research on a new gfx card later today and see what's good and decently priced. Maybe I'll finally have time to piece together that Quad Core sitting in the middle of my office so I can stop tripping over it.

Hope everybody is having a nice Easter weekend!

Damn, it's already Friday. This week has sure passed by quickly.

Not much going on this weekend. Since it's Easter and all, we'll most likely lounge around, watch some movies and shows on the DVR, and play video games. We have people coming over on Sunday to celebrate Easter, but apart from that, it's a whole lot of nothing. Just the way we like it!

Seems like Amazon bit the big one yesterday (and problems are still ongoing) as  technical problems at one of its data centers has left tons of customers (regular people and businesses alike) without service, including Stronghold Kingdoms!

I finally managed to put some time into Portal 2, and it's good, funny and quite sarcastic (slyly calling you fat and dumb on multiple occasions). Haven't put in any multiplayer time in yet, but I'm looking forward to playing some co-op, especially with Chris, who has the PS3 version.

Keep an eye out later today, as we'll be handing out a few hundred beta codes for Age Of Empires Online!

Last night we watched some House, Kitchen Nightmares, and had some delicious homemade tacos to go with it.

NOTE TO SELF: I really should stop having people over in the evening and having some wine. This is some serious Kryptonite and makes me sleep(y) like crazy.

Going to do some catching up on the news bits and then maybe check out Portal 2 and see what Chris is all raving about.

Damn! Some awesome chili and cornbread last night, paired with a few glasses of wine, and that resulted in nothing but an almost instant snooze-fest!

We tried watching some Stargate Universe, but the force was too strong, the couch too comfortable, and lights were out within minutes.

So, who's picking up Portal 2 today? Everybody! If portal-placing puzzle-solving fun isn't your bag, then there are quite a few other titles shipping today, such as Mortal Kombat, SOCOM 4, and probably a few other knickknacks.

Well, I'd better get to it ...

Damn, this weekend flew by in a hurry!

Apart from going out for some tasty breakfast, we mainly watched movies. There was a Toy Story marathon on TV, so we watched the first two of the trilogy, some Bones, NCIS, Supernatural, and we went to the theater to see Source Code. If you haven't seen Jake Gyllenhaal's latest movie yet (also starring Russell Peters, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan), then I won't spoil give any spoilers, but the movie was quite good and the last minute is a head scratcher in a good and bad way. Also watched Just Wright with Queen Latifah and Common, and it was surprisingly good for a romantic comedy.

We suffered through Machete, and wow, for all the high-profile cameos (Robert De Niro, Don Johnson, Steven Seagal and Jessica Alba), I did NOT like it at ALL. What a waste of time.

This weekend, we're going to see either Source Code or Hanna. There's not really much else we're interested in seeing, although The Conspirator looks interesting but something we'd relegate to DVD.

Not quite sure how to feel about the Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie. Making a prequel to such a classic movie is a hard nut to crack, especially after the not-so-brilliant remake from a few years back. The first teaser trailer is all over the place, but the demeanor of the ape in the last scene is just plain creepy.

Been playing some more War Inc., and while there have been patches/tweaks and updates every day, the limited content (3 maps, 2 modes) in the closed beta at the moment is making it hard to stay interested. Hoping there will some new goodies soon, but what's there is pretty good ....

Back when War Inc. was announced I was rather interested to hear more about it, but for some reason, nothing popped up on my radar until the closed beta announcement yesterday. I quickly signed up and played a few rounds, and I am quite impressed with the game. Not too many people are playing just yet, but the level of detail and graphical quality is impressive. However, the main drawback is the dreadful sound of the weapons, which is pretty horrible.

We had a good time on Monday with the birthday celebration. Stuffed ourselves with food twice, some awesome cake in between, and topped it off with a Queens of the Stone Age concert.

Not quite sure if QOTSA should still be considered "stoner rock" as lead singer Homme's previous band Kyuss. The crowd sure did not seem too bothered with that notion, as it was sometimes difficult to see the stage through the billowing pot smoke.

Other disturbing news is that Hangover star Bradley Cooper, who recently starred in Limitless and The A-Team, is said to be in the running to be the lead in a remake of The Crow, an action movie primarily known for starring Bruce Lee's son, the late Brandon Lee.

Today's news coverage will be a bit spotty (if you hadn't noticed yet), as we're heading out to celebrate our most esteemed managing editor's birthday. Lunch is planned, and the cake has been ordered.

Most of yesterday was spent inside. We had lots of watching to do, with Bones, The Event and a few episodes of Blue Bloods. Afterward, we saw Your Highness, which turned out to be quite good and also surprisingly filled with raunchy adult humor. Right up our alley!

Later today, we are heading out for a pre-birthday breakfast with some friends, as tomorrow, our most beloved editor Judy is putting on the party hat. Since the festivities are set for Monday, expect a slow news day. We're not doing much else but watching some more shows on the DVR, playing video games, and hopefully finding a good deal on a new graphics card.

On Monday evening, we're heading out to see Queens Of The Stone Age!

It's official: E3 is approaching. Today, I got my first request to book an appointment. This also means the time I dread the most is coming up — checking on travel plans, booking a hotel, making schedules and all that fun stuff. I hate it ...

The weekend plans are pretty thin, but later today, we are going to see Your Highness, so hopefully that will be entertaining. While we are in that area, we'll check out Best Buy for a new gfx card.

Since we have been playing Battlefield Play4Free the past few days, we decided to dig up Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142. The latter's Titan mode is as much of a blast as it was five years ago.

This weekend, we're going to see Your Highness. We've seen the trailers for a few months, and it looks hilarious. If we have some extra time, we'll also snag Hanna, which looks simultaneously disturbing and intriguing.

This weekend, I might be shopping around for a new graphics card, since the ATi Radeon 5870 seems to have some sort of issue and my older GeForce 275 is a bit outdated. Hope there's a sale somewhere!

Gaming-wise, I'm still working my way through Crysis 2 (enjoying it, although the story is all over the place) and Stronghold Kingdoms. On the TV, we watched Stargate Universe and Castle. Tonight is Camelot!

After more than a decade of development, Duke Nukem Forever is about to see the light of day, in spite of a recent delay. The Duke Nukem curse lives on, as a press event scheduled for us journalists to check out the multiplayer portion of the game was postponed as well. Go figure ....

Now that I have Crysis 2 working like a charm, I've been playing it quite a bit and thoroughly enjoying it. The campaign is pretty solid, and I always like to wrap the single-player before I hop into multiplayer, so I'll have to get back to you on that later.

Today, I decided to replace my Radeon HD 5870 with my older GeForce 275, to see if it also makes Crysis 2 shut down my computer at a specific point in the game. Whaddayaknow, it didn't! I'm going to try out AVA and Project Calypso later on and see if the issues I was having in those games (similar shutdowns) are still present. If not, then I guess the mystery is solved: a faulty gfx card.

Will Smith is hooking up with M. Night Shyamalan for a new sci-fi movie (also starring Smith's son Jaden). Tell me if this sounds familiar, It takes place 1,000 years in the future, where a boy and his father travel across a desolate, postapocalyptic Earth looking for hope after their ship crash-landed. Hmm, sounds a bit like The Road meets The Book of Eli — oh wait, it is co-written by Gary Whitta, who wrote the latter. Been there, seen that!

We watched some more Southland and wrapped up the season, so now we have two seasons of Criminal Minds to catch up on and a bunch of Leverage episodes. Almost there!

Been playing quite a bit of Battlefield Play4Free today and loving it. The LMG could use some tweaking because combined with the medic ability, that class seems a bit overpowered.

The bedbugs sure didn't bite last night! ZzzZzzz

Despite having no particular plans yesterday, it was busy. We went out with friends to dim sum (too much food!), bought and planted flowers (spring is here!) and then relaxed on the couch afterward to watch a few more episodes of Southland. A day well spent, I'd say!

A shout-out must go to one of our readers Keith, who contacted me to discuss our similar musical tastes and turned out to be a genuine rock star back in the day with his band MultiView. \m/

Nice and quiet day yesterday. Not much happening apart from running a few errands, doing some chores, and watching this new Camelot TV series.

Rutger Hauer, an '80s actor who made a few decent movies like The Hitcher and Blade Runner, must have fallen on hard times to come out with a movie like Hobo With A Shotgun. Looks more like he did not have to act very hard to get the part.

In a couple of weeks, we're going to go see Queens Of The Stone Age, but we've also acquired tickets for Y&T later this summer. Then ALL the way in October, we're going to go see Journey, Foreigner and Night Ranger. With a lineup like that, there's no way we're missing that show!

Sorry about the lack of news yesterday, but since it was April Fool's Day, a lot of the news stories are usually bogus. That also leads to people not really bothering with legit news items. I'm not a fan of April Fool's Day jokes, and I'm glad I managed to avoid them *knock on wood*, but I have to say that most of them were pretty lame anyhow.

Not much else happening. Played some Stronghold Kingdoms (our House was at war with two other teams, so had to keep an eye on my villages), a little bit of Homefront multiplayer (enjoying it despite the fact that it feels VERY much like Call of Duty) and DC Universe Online.

I have yet to figure out why Crysis 2 shuts down my system in the exact same spot every single time, but I'm going to try a few things to see if I can narrow it down. I bought some new thermal paste, which didn't resolve the issue, so now I'm going to switch out the graphics card, and if that does not work, I'll have to check the PSU and RAM. I also bought a water cooling system for the CPU, but I want to make sure it's not something else before I open the box and can no longer get a refund.

Another week has almost rolled by, and I'm glad to report that it hasn't rained all week. It has even been sunny and warm for a few days. Time to work on my monitor tan!

No big plans for this weekend. Probably mess around with OnLive Game System, hook it up to the HDTV and see what gives. Source Code is opening this weekend, so we might see that, but apart from some dim sum plans with friends, nothing is on the schedule.

Keep an eye on our official WP Twitter feed today. We're going to be handing out PSN and XBLA codes for Swarm, and no, that is NOT an April Fool's joke (beware!).

I've been messing a little bit with the OnLive Game System, and while I haven't actually connected it to the TV yet, I have to give props to OnLive for putting together a great package. Most game systems these days (Xbox 360 comes to mind) do not include a variety of cables that you need to hook it up, whereas OnLive adds everything into the bundle: cat5 cable, spiffy controller, and even the HDMI connector. I did check out the service through the PC, and it's quite impressive to be able to select a title and be playing it within 5 seconds without a download or lengthy installation process.

Just noticed this new Spielberg series Falling Skies, starring Dale Dye, Moon Bloodgood, and Noah Wyle. It looks quite interesting, even though it made me think of The Walking Dead right away. It premieres on TNT this June (two-hour premiere on Sunday, June 19 at 9/8c), so I guess we know what to add to the DVR when it starts.