This is how I picture Yahtzee, he is so dreamy

In love. In the way that two men who are not currently incarcerated together can love each other and have it be socially acceptable. He is a kindred spirit filled with angst, wit, sarcasm and profanity. He had me at hello.

He has done a couple of reviews previously but he scored himself a regular gig at The Escapist called Zero Punctuation. Check out his review of the Heavenly Sword demo (PS3 lol), and the Resident Evil 5 trailer. I'm not responsible for your side splitting afterwards.

I wish I could use zero punctuation, but I usually never use it correctly anyway, so it's just there for aesthetic reasons.

Interplay's revenues driven by the sale of the Fallout IP to Bethesda skyrocketed an incredible 2,431 percent year-on-year. I know that sounds awesome, but it's easy to rack up numbers like that when your revenues for last year were almost non-existent. I will give them credit though for reducing total debt by $56 million in the last 6 years:

Interplay CEO Herve Caen said in a statement, "I am pleased with the progress the company has made, particularly with our debt load, which has improved from $59 million in December 2001 to less than $3 million today.

"With that difficult period behind us, we are focused on securing funding for development of a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) based on the popular Fallout franchise. Along with our strategy of leveraging our existing portfolio of intellectual gaming properties, Fallout Online will play a key role in the future of Interplay."

Fallout Online's key role in the future of Interplay would be that of last chance to remain solvent. Remember, if Interplay drops the ball, Bethesda gets the MMO rights back, and Interplay's golden rocket stops spinning.

There is much rejoicing among the under 18 and have no credit card group today as this was posted on Blizzard's official WoW site:

We're pleased to announce that we're now able to accept PayPal payments for World of Warcraft subscriptions. Both current and new subscribers can now assign their PayPal account as their automatic payment method on the Account Management page. If you wish to open a PayPal account or want to learn more about the popular online payment system, the PayPal website has the details.

Now you can pay for your WoW account and farmed gold with the same method! Brilliant!

News from AO WarCry:

After hyping up for the last couple of weeks, the All American Rejects "live" performance streamed on huge screens inside AO, but just like everything innovative it faced problems.

The major technical issues revolved around desync issues and failed streaming to many clients, which aired exclusively to North American players through MicroSoft's recently acquired Massive Pioneer advertising network.

I don't think Funcom should be worried, this kind of stuff never works right in Second Life either. Unless it's streaming porn. It's like the internet just knows which 1's and 0's are more important.

There are train wrecks, like VH1's Rock of Love, which are enjoyable to watch and there are train wrecks like the huge dramabomb that was played out before the internet recently that involved a man, his wife, and a guild full of her cybersex partners. I haven't even gotten close to the end of this horror show but it's proving to be more entertaining than The Hills and Newport Harbor combined. Most of the links in the story from AFK Gamer are dead, but when your exposed as a morally flexible hoochie to 9 million people who think the pinnacle of human evolution is Chuck Norris, you're already a Google Superstar.

MMO players are a separate species from the rest of humanity. There's no other explanation.

At the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson had the opportunity to discuss EVE Online at great length and point out the differences between standard MMOs and CCP's space game:

Petursson explained that EVE started off as an MMORPG, but has now "become more of a virtual society," drawing a distinction between "themepark" MMOs like World of Warcraft versus "playground" MMOs like EVE and Ultima. "Ultimately, its about the kids who are playing in the sand box," he said. "CCP just has to make sure the sand is clean."

"When you give people the tools, which can be small and not particularly complex, complex behaviour emerges," he continued. "What surprised us was how fast the players came up to speed on the potential of the tools in the sandbox."

Right now, I'm looking at 42 days of training in the sandbox to hit Battleship V.

Press releases that end up in the Junk Email folder because of the publisher's name are awesome:

Gamecock Media Group today announced the release dates for the first two titles to be published under its banner. Fury, the killer PvP MMO developed down under by Auran, will be available for PC on October 9.

Full press release after the jump. Also, stating your press release is originating from the Cockpit in Austin is interesting to say the least.

I'm not going to say where you can get it, but if you're not above stealing from EA, it's been reported that Madden 2008 has been ripped and is out in the wilds of the intertron. I feel no need to play anything other than my used copy of Madden 2005, where the Seahawks rule and Shaun Alexander is a god.

Watch out for that bug

I just watched this and as luck would have it, when it was over I checked my email and it looks like Tabula Rasa is now available for Pre-Order. I recommend you check out this video and then apply for the Beta, you don't want to miss out:

Whatever class Sarah Morrison is, that's what I want to be.

DAOC hasn't been out quite this long

This news comes from the Camelot Herald:

This afternoon, we'll be launching our new and improved patch client to live servers. This client provides new functionality such as links that provide immediate access to game news, patch notes, and important announcements as well as a fresh new look. Players will also find handy links to the Camelot Herald's knowledge base, customer support, feedback and more.

There are a few issues that may be encountered when using the new patcher. If you're having problems, please read on.

Because the patcher must download the new graphic files before they can show, players may notice some graphical oddities the first time the new patcher is launched. If this is the case, allow the patch to finish. The next time the patcher runs, the correct graphics will display.

Vista: Players using Windows Vista may get an "Error 308" with Vista when it tries to patch itself. Here is the fix: rename the Camelot.exe file (or camtest.exe if you are patching Pendragon) to anything else (so camelot2.exe works). Then run the re-named file once which downloads the correct Camelot.exe (or camtest.exe) via the patcher. Once this is done, you will be able to run Camelot.exe again with no issues.

2) Mouse stickiness - Sometimes the patch client window can get "stuck" on a user's mouse cursor. If this happens they simply need to move the patch client to the edge of the screen and click the mouse button again while it's over the patch client. We've made it so that you cannot move the patch client off of the screen; therefore you can't accidentally push it off and not be able to click on it. As always, enter (to play) and ESC (to exit) will work even while stuck on the mouse.

I should probably check out Dark Age of Camelot again sometime. It was something I played post-UO and Diablo and pre-Jumpgate. It was also the shoulder I cried on when Anarchy Online launched straight into its hellish nightmare of lag and crashes.

In this not surprising news, Funcom has announced that Age of Conan will be delayed until March 25th, 2008. I say not surprising because how can you launch a game in 2 months when it would seem that all of 10 people outside of Funcom have actually been allowed to play it. I know they say they're in Beta, but if I'm not in a Beta, it doesn't exist. Anyway you can read the full press release after the jump and since I've been gone for a week, here's a nice Conan video to ease the pain of having to wait 5 more months to play:

Everyone needs some time off, even me

The time has come for me to take a break. Sure I get to travel to exotic locales as part of this wonderful gig, but sometimes it's nice to know that I'm not due anywhere for at least a week.

I'll be hanging out with my 10-yr-old clone, playing many video games and talking about how awesome a cartoon The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is. I fully expect to get defeated at pretty much every game we play together. Except for World of Warcraft, where I will give myself huge ego boosts by ganking the hell out of his Level 16 Tauren Hunter with my Level 51 Night Elf Rogue. Then since I'm a good dad, I'll explain that it builds character. And then talk about character builds and how a Hunter should spec his Talents to beat a Rogue.

I'll be back on Monday, August 13th and everything will be rainbows and butterflies once again here at Razorwire.

Fact checking is for wussies. Some guy at GameRush said this was true and even though I can find no mention of a Stanton Weekly for Stanton, California, I'm gonna run this anyway. It just sounds like the type of thing a spoiled brat from Orange County would do:

According to Stanton Weekly, the parents of 12-year-old Damien Rollins decided to take away his World of Warcraft video game after they say he became addicted to it. That night, the 12-year-old apparently left his room and vanished.

"He got it [WoW] for his birthday and hasn't stopped playing it since," said Damien's father, Thomas Rollins.

"It got to the point at which he would play all day and throughout the night. More than 15 hours nonstop sometimes," said Dorothy.

After looking for hours, the parents finally gave up and called the local authorities. When police arrived, Dorothy received a phone call from her son.

After his World of Warcraft was taken away, Damien apparently became upset and stayed in hiding at a friend's backyard before making the call home.

Damien should spend the next several years in military school.

This update from the game launcher and official DDO Forums:

Server Merge: Phase 1 Complete!
Aug 02, 2007 16:39 EST

The first phase of the server merge is complete!

If you played on the following servers:
Aundair
Riedra
Khyber

You will now find your characters and belongings on Khyber.

If you played on:
Xoriat
Tharashk
Thelanis

You will now find your characters and belongings on Thelanis.

NOTE: If your character has been renamed as a result of the server merge AND you need to contact a GM, you will need to log-out and then login again before you contact the GM.

ONE MORE NOTE: Don't forget that your friend's names may have changed! When sending mail to a friend, be sure that you have the proper name or your email may go to the wrong player. Customer Service cannot reverse sent mail or return lost items accidentally sent to the wrong destination.

Don't forget that all other servers will be coming offline at 2am EST on Monday, August 6th for phase two of the server merge. Until then, you can continue to play on your regular server.

Thank you all, for your patience during the merge process. Enjoy the game!

My server gets Mabar merged with it on Monday. I hope all goes well. At least I won't be losing any of my character names over it.

This just in by way of email:

Guild Wars: Eye of the North Guided E3 Demo Video Now Available

At this year's E3, Guild Wars: Eye of the North was demonstrated for media exclusively, but was not available on the show floor. Now for the first time gamers will be able to see this exclusive E3 demo in its entirety through the Guild Wars: Eye of the North guided E3 demo video. Gamers will see more of the new regions contained in the Guild Wars expansion, including the Eye of the North, Gunnar's Hold and Rata Sum. The demo, which is narrated by design lead Ben Miller, also features a detailed look at one of the dungeons, Aracni's Haunt, the highly anticipated Hall of Monuments, and much more.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North will be available on August 31, 2007 for an estimated retail price of $39.99 in North America. For more information please visit http://www.guildwars.com/.

You can check out the video after the jump.