So there's the minor internet rage going on called "1000 Blank White Cards." Now, it's no Dancing Baby. This isn't some insipid Flash movie where you push a button to make George Bush fart. In fact, I don't even know if it qualifies as a "rage," but I needed a starter sentence to the paragraph and that's what came out.

Anyway, here's the deal: it's a card game where everybody starts out with blank cards and a pen, and you just make up your own cards as you go. Credit: I first heard about it on the kokochi.com weblog, which led me to this site that explains the entire concept... and that site isn't even by the folks who actually invented the game. So there's something of an Open Source / Information Wants to be Free vibe to it already.

I finally started X-Men Legends this week. I originally picked it up back in October (on sale) the week before San Andreas came out. That probably ranks as my stupidest game purchase ever.

It's okay. It's pretty much the X-Men version of Diablo. Your team piles into a room and beats the piss out of whatever enemies are up ahead. The character powers are all handled well enough, if erring toward the dull side... but I'm still early in the game so I haven't unlocked anything earth-shattering. Maybe the Cyclops-tears-off-his-visor move is coming later.

There is a weird RPG element to the game, exactly like the spell skill trees of Diablo. Everybody gains experience and earns skill points, which you then use to add/boost powers. So you could make a Wolverine that concentrates on the healing factor over a damaging claw attack. Although realistically, my goal for the end of the game is to have Wolverine be awesome in all the powers... so me going through the motions of specifically assigning the skill points is a waste of time.

They're skating. The Ratchet & Clank team is officially skating.

You have to be suspicious when a franchise starts delivering the same core game every year. Lots of games try it; few succeed at it. After last year's brilliant middle child - Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando - this series was showing serious signs of being the rare success story. Unfortunately, the third R&C game offers very little above the second game, runs over some very familiar ground, offers the worst storyline yet... but then coyly attempts to sidestep the bad reviews with an all-new online multiplayer mode.

We're on a Tomb Raider curve here. Game 1: The world sits up and takes notice. Game 2: New features, new depth, a genuine classic. Game 3: More of Game 2... without even fresh paint. Since I like the series, I'm hoping R&C either snaps to attention for Game 4 (unlike Ms. Croft did) or quietly goes on hiatus until PS3. I would hate to see Ratchet & Clank turn into Crash Bandicoot.

I really expected Nintendo to screw the pooch on this one. I mean, the DS shipped amid bright shiny specs of wi-fi online multiplayer... and then not a single game supported it. Just the local proprietary wi-fi. Which is cool enough, but realistically not much different from the GBA wireless adapter, Nintendo's 2004 entry for Most Underutilized Peripheral.

Then months fly by with a bare trickle of DS games, giving Sony ample time to reveal that the PSP will launch with full-bore online wireless multiplayer. And when we finally do get a new A-list DS game - WarioWare Touched - it has no multiplayer of any kind. Except for a simple little Pong style game that requires both players to be on the same DS.

Picked up Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and Yoshi Touch & Go this week. I'd call both games sort of medium level... they're far from AAA titles but still good enough. More importantly, they're different enough.

Jungle Beat is the long awaited second game to use the DK Bongos. And it's the more ambitious title of the two, since the first one (Donkey Konga) is just a rhythm game. I know lots of gamers go all fashion snob on the bongos, but it's exactly the kind of bizarro crap I enjoy, so bleah. I'm always on the lookout for games that play to wide audiences. Ever since the 32-bit era and the birth of the million button controller, the average non-gamer has developed an blatant fear of video games... usually citing complexity as the main reason to never bother playing. So I like seeing games like Donkey Konga, Katamari Damacy, WarioWare, EyeToy, DDR... games that can be easily explained and easily played. Maybe not played great, but still played and enjoyed. These games are helping video games stay on the option list for families and casual gamers (just like board games and card games) and avoid falling wholly into the kneejerk abyss of "all video games are played by pale sociopathic teens."

The Origins Pre-Registration Book appeared in our mail this week. Four times. Somehow Rhonda and I are both in their mailing list twice.

The pre-reg book lists all the events that have been schedule for the con, plus the first look at special guests, celebrities and speakers. Last year, the big celeb appearance was Billy Boyd, who later bailed and was replaced with Sean Astin. This year, the biggest non-gaming industry name is "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan so I don't think they've lined up a valid celebrity guest yet. Sorry, Hacksaw. And of course, I fully expect the entire supporting cast from Babylon 5 and Stargate to show up again, as they do every year.

This is one of the best designed pre-reg books I've seen in a while, although the bar for that doesn't usually ride too high. Recently, they insisted on printing highly detailed and colorful cover art that obscured every other bit of text... so this year's more sensible and restrained layout is better. Plus, you can read the event listings without going blind this time, which is another bonus.

So, against all possible odds, there's no PSP for me yet.

Not because they're sold out. As usual, my perpetually confused Toys R Us had plenty of them, even almost a week later.

A guy at work brought his in. He traded in his DS to get it, and if I were the type of person who used smileys, I would insert a frowny face right here. I imagine you're going to see a lot of pre-owned DSs show up across the nation as folks bail out on Nintendo's latest baby toy in favor of Sony's upscale convergent media device. Rolly-eye face.

But my dear aunt sally is that thing nice.

I'm sure this was unintentional, but it amused me.

I never read the local newspaper(s), but I did manage to randomly see the Sunday comics this week. Which, of course, are awful. But what was funny was this unexpected convergence:

Dilbert, which stopped being funny about five to seven years ago, offered up this minorly scathing editorial.

And directly above it, Fred Basset - which has never, ever been funny - went with this typically banal and strained piece.

Man, the Sunday comics just suck.