This is my plea to the development community - stop with the fucking bee guns. Or at least let me use them to squeeze some honey out to get extra health or something; let me zap my foes to put them in a bee suit looking like an extra from a Telemundo talk show.

Now, telekenesis - this is some awesome stuff right here. Bioshock has, hands down, the best implementation of telekenesis I've seen in a game - Half Life 2 and Psi Ops have been beaten. Offhandedly switching between weapon and mind control = pure rock.

Granted, that doesn't mean that I was always able to utilize it perfectly.

There were many a time when I found myself cornered by a Big Daddy and I'd use my amazing mental skillz to suck up and prepare what I thought was a nearby explosive barrel when suddenly I'd launch a fucking MILK CARTON right at his big stinky dive helmet.

"TAKE THIS ROSIE! HOPE YOU'RE LACTOSE INTOLERANT BITCH!"

Not long ago (in geologic time), we announced the sequel to Team Fortress. We’re thrilled to finally be just days away from unveiling Team Fortress 2. Starting this Monday, September 17, those who pre-purchase the Orange Box on Steam or swing by a licensed Valve Cyber Cafe can play the beta version of Team Fortress 2.

Many of you have asked for a way to track your stats while playing TF2. Rest assured that no gib will be forgotten: starting Monday, your Steam Community profile will include a detailed breakdown of your TF2 player statistics.

Our friends over at OCW seem to be talking to the right people here in Taiwan and have a bunch of information regarding the most expensive GeForce 8950GX2 that will be sold for $599 USD. It is rumored to be a dual GPU solution much like the 7950GX2 and will come with a total of 512MB GDDR-4 memory per GPU.

The second on the list is the GeForce 8900GTX which will replace the current high-end 8800GTX. It will ship at a retail price of $549 USD and sees total pipelines increased to 128 which is an increase of 32 or 25% as suggested by Fudo over at the INQ recently. It will also see the inclusion of GDDR4 memory which allows nVidia to increase the clock speed to a huge 2200MHz DDR. It also seems like the manufacturing process is being reduced to 80nm from 90nm in the latest batch of G80 chips.

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa Art Interview
NCsoft's Victor Meinert and John Mueller help us look into the visual aspects of their massively multiplayer game - Includes four exclusive screenshots

“We’re excited to get our most passionate players into the early Beta test, and to reward them with a special look once the game goes live on Halloween,” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “The Founder’s offer is designed for those die-hard fans that will have had time to really get to know the game during the Beta phase and plan on spending a lot of time with us online.”

Here's what you get when you pre-order, and/or decide to take the $149 plunge:

• A key to an exclusive Beta starting next week and ending October 7, 2007.
• One of four exclusive dye-kits1 that will give your hero’s gear a cool color theme right off the bat when Hellgate: London officially opens on Halloween.
• Eligibility to take advantage of the Hellgate: London Founders Offer, giving hardcore players a chance to purchase a lifetime subscription2 to Hellgate’s premium service for $149.99.

In other HGL news, check out a new developer diary at Krawall.

I was here in Kirkland running the West Coast review events, with a couple of dozen video game press luminaries and the odd newspaper filling up our lab. Our main role was simply to provide support – explain controls and deliver snacks. We mostly left the journalists to themselves and let them play through at their own pace, undisturbed.

We started at 9am and went through to 2am for four days straight. Our PR guys from MS and Edelman were true heroes, sticking through the entire event and helping arrange food for the starving journos. It’s obviously vital that we can’t interfere with them while they play and it was kind of eerie. In our lab they were playing on 1080p Sharp Aquos sets, with surround headphones on brand new Elite consoles, running the finished retail game.

Visit the John-117 Monument and get a hands-on look at the amazing detail that went into crafting this stunning tribute. The exhibit is filled with first-person accounts from the soldiers who were there, fighting for our very survival. From billows of smoke erupting from a cannon to the sweat dripping from a Marine's brow, you can explore this painstaking recreation of our greatest fight, and Earth's greatest Hero.

If you're ready for more check out the Believe Flash Site where you can whizz about the model, click on interactive links to learn about enemies, friendlies, and other such things and also take screenshots to use as wallpaper. If you return to the page on the 25th of September and 10th of October you'll be able to view a further two videos. Believe.

Update: Added a HD version of 'Believe' - well worth checking out to see the amazing detail in the diorama.

Sgt. Black can telekinetically move an object ranging in size from a stationary tank to a moving bullet so long as she has line of sight to her target. As a result, she can steer her shots mid-flight, even striking multiple targets with a single projectile. This makes her an extraordinarily powerful asset. However, the greater the force she exerts, the weaker she becomes. The ability physically drains her health causing bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth in extreme cases.

Black is the top rated sniper in the US army, thanks in great part to her telekinetic ability to steer multiple rounds in flight. She carries a highly modified and personally customized sniper weapon. To enhance her control it plugs directly into her nervous system via an NDI (Neurological Data Interface). Black’s rifle has been further modified to include an underbarrel grenade launcher.

Here's to hoping it's as much fun as Max Payne was on the PC.

PC

• Blitzkrieg 2: Liberation - Gameslave - 7.5/10
• Guild Wars: Eye of the North - PC.IGN - 7.9/10
• Guild Wars: Eye of the North - GameSpot - 8/10

  360
  

• Eternal Sonata - 360.IGN - 8.3/10

  PS3
  

• Lair - SI - 7/10
• NHL Hockey 2008 - GameSpot - 8.5/10

  Wii
  

• Metroid Prime 3 - Gamehelper - 9/10

  DS
  

• Heroes of Mana - Eurogamer - 5/10

1) Half-Life 2 Orange Box
2) Project Gotham Racing 4
3) ET: Quake Wars
4) World in Conflict
5) Halo 3
6) Stranglehold (PC)
7) Tabula Rasa
8) Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

Today's question:

Which of the above games coming out within the next 30 days most interests you?