Yesterday's visit to Medieval Times was a total bust. I did not enjoy it at all. As a kid, I had gone to a similar spectacle in France where the performers were actually wearing full-body armor and doing real jousting and combat for the duration of the event. The Medieval Times people make WWE look like the real deal, and the two-hour show was mostly filled with failed attempts at a story, some horse tricks, about 20 minutes of sword fighting and laughable acting. Well, at least the food was half decent ....

We also watched It Might Get Loud, a movie with guitar heroes Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2) and Jack White (White Stripes) talking about their love for the electric guitar and how it all got started for each individual. It was definitely a joy to see Jimmy Page at work, and it was easy to see that the others were awed to be in the presence of such a legend.

Duke is back once again, and that's definitely good news. Jason is at PAX and has had a chance to check it out, so we should have his hands-on report shortly.

Meanwhile, we're in Los Angeles planning a few trips to keep ourselves occupied in this scorching heat. In the afternoon we are checking out Medieval Times, which includes knights, kings, jousting tournaments and some good old-fashioned eating — without utensils! Should be a good time ...

While hiding from the 100+ degrees weather (37 degrees Celsius), we watched some more Special Ops Mission episodes and are loving it!

We've safely reached our destination, and it is hot, hot, hot just the way I like it. Watched some "Top Sniper" and "Special Ops Mission" last night, and they were awesome!

It's the first day of PAX, and numerous announcements and updates are already rolling in. It'll be difficult to stay on top of things when the gorgeous weather is beckoning, but we'll rough it.

Yesterday was a productive day. We did some work, watched a few episodes of Rescue Me, Smallville, played Metro 2033, Greed: Black Border, C&C4: Tiberian Twilight, and a whole lot of Puzzle Quest 2.

Tomorrow we'll be having some exclusive footage from Call of Duty: Black Ops for you, so stay tuned for that.

My hearing is slowly coming back, and everything is almost back to normal. We just realized that yesterday's Slash concert was the kickoff to the North American leg of his world tour, which made the gig somewhat special. There was a live recording being offered after the show, but we passed on it — something we probably shouldn't have done in light of this information.

PAX is upon us. We'll have somebody on site to check out some new titles, so keep your eyes peeled for some coverage. Prior to that, we have a trip to LA to check out Call of Duty: Black Ops and then off to Seattle to pay Microsoft a visit.

Not much TV time today. We only watched some Rescue Me, but tomorrow, Covert Affairs should be available via On Demand.

Wow, that was one loud concert! My ears are still ringing, and I was even wearing earplugs to muffle the sound a bit. The gig was great, though. Lots of the new songs but also several Guns N' Roses ones and a few from Velvet Revolver. The vocalist Myles Kennedy was damn good, and if Slash only owned the GN'R material/band, that guy would even be a fitting replacement for Axl Rose. Surprisingly enough, the opening act, Taking Dawn, was rather engaging and made quite a valiant effort to warm us up for the main course.

Prior to going to the concert, we watched Burn Notice (good) and The Bounty Hunter (entertaining).

It was quite nice out yesterday, but it was also equally windy. We went to a local food event where dozens of food carts were offering their very tasty creations. We're not talking little ice cream carts or hot dog carts, but full-fledged food trucks selling all sorts of Asian, French, Mexican and other types of cuisine. There were numerous "fusion" tacos, beef brisket and paella (Gerard Nebesky won against celebrity chef Bobby Flay in a throwdown).

Tonight, we're heading to the Slash concert, so we're hoping it'll be a good gig. We've gotten a few of his solo albums, and the most recent one is quite good. However, since it's a collaboration with various artists (mainly on vocals) such as Ozzy Osbourne, Kid Rock, Iggy Pop, Lemmy (Motorhead) and even Fergie (Black Eyed Peas), it remains to be seen how well that material is going to translate on stage.

Movie plans fell through, as our friend already had plans for last night, so we decided to veg and watch Psych instead. Maybe we'll try to see Takers later today or maybe we can still find Salt playing somewhere. Yesterday I also watched The Crazies (with Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant), which turned out better than I anticipated

Today I picked up the latest Avenged Sevenfold album "Nightmare," and so far, I am enjoying it a great deal. Good stuff.

The weekend is upon us! In addition to the Slash concert, we are also going to some food festival, hopefully with lots of yummies.

Tonight we might see the new Takers movie, which seems eerily familiar to Armored Truck, which also starred Matt Dillon. We'll let it slide ... for now ...

Currently listening to Iron Maiden's The Final Frontier. It's different than what I expected. Sounds like they are trying to add some new flavor to their formula. It's not bad, just a far cry from the old Maiden.

As predicted, the weather was much more tolerable today. It was sunny and warm but not sweltering, and there was even a nice breeze now and again.

Over the past two days, we've been play-testing a new title that's due for release soon, so we'll have some early coverage of that coming up, as well as an interview and, of cours,e a detailed review when it launches next month. Tomorrow, there's a Spider-Man gig in town, so we'll have a chance to check that out, and we'll have more on that shortly as well.

We watched the newest episode of Covert Affairs, and I have The Crazies queued up for tomorrow.

Yesterday was hot, hawt, sizzling and scorching! I like warm weather, but working in a room filled with computers only adds to the heat. Unfortunately, the forecast is that it will get cooler later this week and be crappy by the weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, after a few weeks of no concerts, we're back at it. On Sunday we're going to see Slash, former Guns N' Roses lead guitarist, top hat included.

Busy day yesterday! I expected it would be quiet after GamesCom, but no such luck.

Summer finally kicked in around these parts. While the rest of the country has been dealing with sweltering heat for the past few months, we have had a mild summer thus far. We finally hit the upper 90s, and today we're expected to hit the 100s. Yay!

Last night, we watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and apart from a few funny comments, the movie sucked. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Yesterday we went to see our first Class A baseball game. A friend was celebrating his birthday in the VIP area with a tasty BBQ, and while we love baseball, the game wasn't very exciting. Luckily, the food was good and the beer was chilled ....

Once we got back home, we watched Burn Notice, Entourage and The Spy Next Door, so it was quite a relaxing day overall. We're ready for another week with plenty of press gigs to attend (Disney stuff, Spider-Man, and a few others).

Yesterday was quite the interesting day. We decided to check out the local Art & Soul Festival. While neither topic is exactly of major interest to us (not that we're cultural heathens or anything), we were mainly there to check out all the street food vendors and ... MC Hammer! That's right, Mr. "Can't Touch This" was performing. While we may be 20 years late, we couldn't pass up on the chance to see his baggy pants hop around stage. Unfortunately, the area was so massivly packed that we didn't see a damn thing. People  even climbed on statues and street poles just to get a glimpse of the performance. Can't figure out why wasn't he on the main stage, which was much larger. After only 20 minutes of hearing MC Hammer, we bailed and went home to watch She's Out Of My League, which turned out to be hilariously funny and even somewhat romantic.

Last night we entertained some friends for dinner, wine, and a movie. A good time was had by all.

We watched The Fourth Kind with Milla Jovovich and Will Patton, which was much better than we'd anticipated. Whether or not you believe in what transpired, it is quite interesting and was left open for interpretation. It had us discussing for quite a bit afterward, analyzing the movie, the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and so forth. It was fueled by wine and beer, so it was quite fun either way.

A good night's sleep feels so refreshing! Wish I had more of those...

Some friends came by last night, and we ended up drinking beers for a few hours, solving the world's problems one at a time.

Eventhough GamesCom continues for a few more days, it should be slowing down news wise from today on, the extra days, and especially the weekend, is mostly attended by consumers (unlike E3, which is trade only).

Tonight we're having our friends over again, whipping up some dinner and then we're going to watch The Fourth Kind.

There's an overwhelming amount of announcements and assets coming out of GamesCom. It almost feels like there is more going on than at E3 this year.

Very sad to hear about Real Time Worlds and APB. Hopefully a solution can be found. After all the CrimeCraft drama, a lot of former players and friends have migrated over there, so it would be most unfortunate. A much-heard complaint is with the combat system, but it's more a matter of getting used to it.  The sheer amount of customization and in-game items (vehicles, guns, etc.) is mind-boggling and sure makes up for that.

Today, GamesCom in Germany starts, so there should be quite a bit of interesting news coming over the next few days, such as the Age of Empires Online announcement. That sure came out of left field.

We don't have any other special press trips on the books this week, but next week, there's something happening almost every day, so be on the look out for some preview coverage and interviews.

Last night, we watched Fanboys, and I managed to stay awake from start to finish. It was rather good, but the amount of cameos (such as Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Jason Mewes, Ray Park (Darth Maul), William Shatner, Kevin Smith and Billy Dee Williams) sure raised the quality level.

Another beautiful day around these parts, but we decided to stay in, relax, plop ourselves on the couch and watch Burn Notice and Entourage. We planned on watching Fanboys, but some family stopped by, and that killed that plan.

I did, however, manage to get to work on swapping out my motherboard, hard drives and power supply to my new case, so hopefully the airflow will be much better now.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The weather hadn't been this great in weeks, so we ventured out a bit, did some shopping, and went out with friends for all-you-can-eat sushi (SO stuffed). We also saw The Other Guys (with Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell, also starring Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson) which turned out to be rather funny, even though we are not big Ferrell fans. To top it off, we also watched the pilot for Warehouse 13, a sci-fi series we've been meaning to check out. The trailers did not really do it justice, as it is better than we anticipated.

No special plans today, I foresee some walking, eating, and movie watching in our imminent future.