For whatever reason, Atlus decided to give the US release of PS3 dungeon crawler, Demon's Souls, an alternate cover.  While it's a good design that probably kept the ESRB happy, it just doesn't send the same message that the original cover released in Asia gave players as to what to expect from playing this almost unforgiving game.

Personally, I'm considering covering my copy's cover with the original cover, and including a disclaimer to remind myself what kind of punishment I'm in for when I fire up the game (Includes profanity, not safe for work)...

       Before I get started, the boys over at Channel Z have their Dragon*Con video podcast (I still don’t know what the difference between “online video” and “video podcast” is), which includes GGP's very own resident jerk; me.  Check their Sept 20th 2009 update (or be lazy and click this word: Fig Apples) if you want to see me shamelessly promote this website and attempt to choke myself with a PS2 controller (or was it the NES controller?) after a few pages of horrible anime fanfiction.  You’ll probably want to see that later on, if you don’t already.

About a week ago, GGP staffer Chris Deguzman thought it'd be cute to do a small write-up on his experiences with an Xbox 360 he managed to snag.  Not only did I give it the "go ahead", but I had asked him to post it here after posting the same rant almost verbatim elsewhere.  Honestly, I've only heard one complaint, and it was from someone who also owned both a PlayStation 3 and 360 who preferred Microsoft’s console.  And I won't deny that I've been critical of Microsoft and some of their business practices.  I asked Chris to have the piece here (again, it was an opinion piece), not because I agreed with it, but because of where he was coming from.  Before, this was a guy that wasn't playing favorites, and didn't have a strong opinion of the 360.  It wasn't until he got a deal on one that he was absolutely flabbergasted with the lack of quality of the system.  He was more brutal than I could ever bring myself to be.

For those of you wondering, the Dragon*Con two-part special was written/uploaded no less than a few hours after news broke out about the swine flu incident at the Penny Arcade expo.  And to those of you that might have caught it, or another nasty flu that seemed to be spreading around (I understand one of the Penny Arcade chaps caught a rather nasty bug which resulted in some big name guest comics), you guys are definitely in my thoughts.  My wife/assistant/proofreader (yeah, the one spanking my ass with the Necronomicon ) also fell victim to a nasty bug of some sort that may or may not have been the flu, and I had to take care of her for the rest of the week.

Here's How!

In case you haven't noticed, we were down for a good 30-ish hours due to a DDOS attack on ApolloMatrix's main server. I don't know the specifics of it, but I do know that I'm going to keep doing what I always do and blame the Russians since they can finally afford enough computers to actually knock down servers, buy LiveJournal, sink that into the ground and plague every major social network with bots, therefore becoming the worse culture to use the internet since China got all pissy when Al Gore invented a new medium that allowed freedom of speech.

The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Guttergamers’ Paradise, ApolloMatrix, BlueHell Media or any of its affili—

Oh shut up, Lawyer-In-A-Box, you know that was sarcasm.

I just wanted to let you guys know that I there's going to be a delay in new content.  No, playing Rise of the Sin Tzu did not destroy my love for games, but because I'm low on volunteers actually doing anything, I don't have time to write everything I'd like to by deadline.  I have some pieces that I've began writing, but I'm not sure when they'll be hitting.  Thank you for your patience... all four of you reading this.

Too much life has been going on for me to really keep the deadlines I've set.  But it's not as if we have that big a following anyway, so no harm, no foul.  Besides, I got you three freebies on Sunday didn't I?!  DIDN'T I!?  Anyways, I don't have a specific topic to discuss, so you're all getting a mix bag this week.

Before I begin my Sunday rambling, I need to retract something. About a week or so ago, I put up a GUTTED article on an Atari 2600 game called Demon Attack.  I was under the impression that it was abandonware, as the game’s publisher, Imagic, went under long ago.  That is not the case. It would appear that Activision had acquired at least some of Imagic’s back catalog, as I discovered when I bought the PlayStation 2 version of Activision Anthology.  Demon Attack along with two other Imagic titles, Atlantis and Moonsweeper, all appear alongside Pitfall!, the 2600 version of Capcom’s Commando, and fifty-odd-something other games.  Go me for not doing any research!

Week Two’s flown by with hardly any content, but hey, I didn’t break any promises; there were at least THREE major site updates. The fact that there’s two games available for download, albeit one is only a year younger than me and takes up less hard drive space than a paragraph on this site, should make up for the lack of a “real” Brokeass Freeloading Gamer Friday and Weird-Ass Ads Wednesday. The former may already have to be renamed due to another site using an almost similar name for freeware on Fridays, while the latter may be dropping the “ads” part, as the more I explore old print, the more strangeness I find in the industry back in those days. Fable and Black & White fans/critics like to pick on Peter Molyneux for promising the sun, the moon, magic carpets, dragons, and 98 virgins in everything he’s developed since 1996. Personally, I like to pick on him for that sappy keynote during E3. But I’ve seen worse come from execs and developers, one coming to mind being an interview in an old Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Next update's coming along later than expected; hopefully by later tonight. Please be patient. This is going to be a GGP Special, but very brief.

I'm sorry about the lack of content this week; I've been sick, amongst other personal issues. Hopefully next week will be a bit more productive.