Runic really *really* needs to be able to release this way before Diablo III comes out.

Torchlight 1 was excellent for scratching the Diablo itch except that it painfully lacked multiplayer/coop -> that was what made the Diablo series really really fun and was very sorely missed. All in all that was my only Torchlight gripe, and was why I stopped playing it after a while. Collecting randomized bling ain't as fun if you can't show 'em off and trade 'em with others.

If this comes out at roughly the same time as Diablo III, it'll not only be a problem of gaining wallets+mindshare, but also the big one of timeshare.

People playing other games means less time playing your game, and with multi-player games, critical mass of players is very very important. It's really frustrating at how there aren't enough players to play with who have decent pings if you're in Asia, like with Streetfighter IV on PC and Borderlands.

If there aren't enough players online to play with, it'll make the game a little less attractive.

Anyway, Runic did a good job with Torchlight. The modest system requirements were a big plus too as it allowed you to run it on netbooks with less horsepower. Hope they're able to push the sequel out the window in time to avoid being slaughtered by Diablo III.

Speaking of ammonia, the crew on the ISS are in a pretty interesting relationship dynamic.

I mean everyone up there's drinking the recycled pee of their crewmates.

Shhh! Don't tell kids who're aspiring Astronauts!

Dear troll, it depends on whether you are on the light side or dark side. You'd be losing your heat via your body's radiation.

From NASA article Staying Cool on the ISS:

What I found hilarious was the Crysis series: developers were running out of bad guys to portray so they picked the North Koreans because those are the only guys they can't sell games to. :P

It's why you have this huge slew of World War II FPSes because the bad guys were very clear in these cases.

It's interesting how other nations are now being portrayed less and less as bad guys because they're potential paying customers. More and more, you're seeing games which allow you to play other nationalities as your team like in the Battlefield series.

This is why most FPS games have no civilians, something I miss given the richness of detail gamedevs put into creating maps and environments.

It's like you have entire cities composed of ghost towns occupied by nothing but soldiers, something that detracts from the experience and atmosphere.

On a similar note, there are also no children or killable children in most "violent" video games. They were not put in Oblivion and made unkillable in Fallout 3 because of moral objections. You don't see 'em in the GTA series too for the same reasons.

I didn't quite get it. Can you explain it Fermi?

Say what you will about Adrian, but his razor-sharp wit is absolutely hilarious. Check out his Q&A at Formspring.me where you can ask him anything (do it now! :D). Unlike other whiny angry h4x0rs, the dude is an absolute geek comedian.

His candor is pretty refreshing and his comedy rebel streak is a bit reminiscent of Banksy.

Oh, and he's also to public face of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly on Facebook.

You, sir, are a complete poser. US electronica duo The Crystal Method is one of the big pioneers of the genre and is still very much alive and kicking.

I see what you did there! MrKaos made a clever use of the term "alarming" based on the headline. Huzzah!

Amber lamps, for those who didn't know, is a reference to Thomas Bruso (aka Epic Beard Man)'s African-American ghetto punk arch enemy whom he encountered in a bus ride.

See video.

After talking smack to Epic Beard Guy, harassing and then hitting him, Epic Beard Guy hit back at Amber Lamps, thus making Amber Lamps say "I need an amber lamps" because of his bleeding nose.

Alternatively, you, can also, try reading it, as, Christopher Walken, would.

This is a reference to the encoded pictures in the dinosaur .wav files that were put into the recent March update of the Valve game Portal which were teasers for the upcoming Portal 2.

For those born after 1982, this is a reference to the Happy Days spinoff sitcom Mork & Mindy, where Mork from the planet Ork (played by Robin Williams) is an alien sent to Earth on an observation mission by his superior Orson.

Parent is, of course, referring to gaming usage of the term "raid" wherein players undertake a type of mission in an MMORPG like World of Warcraft where the objective is to use a very large number of people, relative to a normal team size set by the game, to defeat a boss monster.

If the players attempting the raid are of insufficient level, they will tend to die or "get wiped out".

Parent is also very clever because at the same time, he *also* refers to the technology acronym aspect of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent/Inexpensive Disks) by implying that attempting to create a RAID without sufficient experience will often lead to disaster.

I'll see your [picard_facepalm.jpg] and raise you a [picard_double-facepalm.jpg]!