The weekend of May 31st is this summer's big Pokemon event at Toys R Us... and this time the downloadable prize is Darkrai, a secret legendary pokemon that was ruined for all of us by hackers about three minutes into the release of Diamond/Pearl. NP also says that ALL DS games will be $5 off.

After that ridiculous three-hour install, MGO is merely OK.

It's all right. I had some fun standing on a roof and killing enemies as they tried to climb up my ladder. It's only a beta, but I bet it's awfully close to the final version. Is MGO still a free pack-in with MGS4? I don't even know any more.

Metal Gear is such an engrossing solo experience for me, that I'm not at all excited for a big online multiplayer iteration. Unless I knew like twelve guys with PS3s, but that seems highly unlikely. At the least, MGO shows the visual depth we can expect from MGS4.

Pirates: the continual disappointment.

So each new Pirates set has some kind of cool-looking new ship type, which gets you all excited about buying boosters. And then you find out that the new types are super-rare and you'll never ever pull them.

The latest set, Fire and Steel, comes with special cannonball pieces that simplify the always-tricky range issue. Something like that ought to be a game-changer, ought to be the kind of thing that makes the game easier to play and thus readily available. And yet I've been through several boosters with nothing but the same normal, boring-ass shaped ships that I already have by the landfill-full.

And what's up with the rarity distribution? I've had several packs with NO rares or uncommons, and then I scored one pack with three rares! Hey dumbasses, I realize you can't fit that many ship cards in one booster, so how about changing the rarity scheme so that you only have commons and rares. And each pack has one rare and two commons. This is hardly a shocking revelation, but buying booster after booster with nothing but goddamn commons in it is killing my enthusiasm.

Monty Python Fluxx!

Not that I'm thrilled to see Fluxx become the themed-Monopoly of indie card games, but Monty Python Fluxx is an instant win.

Tony Tollin emailed me!

Fanboy gush! Anthony Tollin was the colorist on a large percentage of early Ambush Bug books (mid-80s, mostly), and he found my Ambush Bug website! He emailed me with kudos.

Since one of Keith Giffen's running gags was to include the names of the creators in the book (largely to poke fun at them), this is almost like getting emailed by a member of the Bug's supporting cast.

This week's best bit from work.

One of the funniest things we do at work is spontaneously creating characters, usually vulgar or inspired by a twisted view of one of our fellow employees. Like Franz the German guy who likes balls (yes, those balls), or turning someone else in the department into a polite-yet-dangerous sexual predator. This week, the guys were pissed at me over some imagined slight, so it was my turn to be characterized... as the guy who will no longer be invited to Game Night.

Them: "Sweet game night planned... Brawl, Olympics, Guitar Hero... SHHH, here comes Joe."

Me: "Hey guys, did I hear a game night?"

Them: "Yeah, no. Not really, shame you can't come, right?"

Me: "Oh. Oh, sure. I guess I am busy. Still, I can meet up online, right?"

Them: "Right, yeah. Online. We'll all totally be in, uh, Endless Ocean around, say, nine. We'll see you there; bring your, uh, fish!"

And the final scene was me in SCUBA gear, alone, waiting in the Endless Ocean lobby zone for hours, listening to a single MP3 looping over and over again... Billy Joel's "Captain Jack."