Alchemical 9 (A.K.A. Roland Barker) is an electronica artist from Kauai Hawaii. Unlike most artists featured in Audiosurfing, not all of Alchemical 9′s music is available for free, but an appreciable grip of sample songs — including the one featured below, “Lonely Satellites” — is available from his Opsound page. The skysphere used in this video was created by Audiosurf forum user steeldevil.

If I hadn’t been fortunate enough to snag a code for it from Ben Kuchera’s Twitter feed, I probably wouldn’t be paying attention to Trials HD right now. I had written it off as a port-and-rename of the PC version, Trials 2: Second Edition, but there is actually more to it than that. There are a bunch of mini-games, unlockable bikes (with varying performance), and a level editor. The bike physics also feel markedly different — not necessarily better, but heavier. These heavier physics have made climbing easier, but it’s now harder to pull off flips and wheelies.

Although Trials HD’s features are a strong argument for choosing it over Trials 2, Trials 2 is no less of a good game than it was before, and it’s cheaper. There’s also the possibility that Trials HD will come to PC (where it would be HDer). A thread on the Trials 2 Steam forum has a developer response saying, “At the time is only for Xbox 360.” If I didn’t already win a free code, I would be waiting to hear more about that.

Unless “configure and run their own private servers” means mod support — which would be great news for players if true — I hope they have more than just private servers planned for subscribers. I say this because I want to see Quake Live succeed; it’s unfortunate that selling ads isn’t working out for them.

Don’t let them think crap like this is okay: stop using Digsby. I recommend Pidgin or Miranda IM as alternatives.

I skimmed this. Not because it’s so long, but because I realized that I don’t want to know everything about Rage before I play it. I don’t need to know anything else. No matter what happens, I’m going to buy it, and I’m going to play it. I did watch the trailer, though, and it made me happy.

In my recent post on games writing I made the assertion that podcasts will overtake text as the preferred source of news and opinion online. Over the course of each week I spend an entire day’s worth of time listening to podcasts. Not with my full attention, mind — I multitask. I listen to podcasts while playing games, while I browse the web, and while I eat. Listening to podcasts is, for the most part, an auxiliary activity. There are a few select shows for which I make an effort to devote special attention; I’ve decided to share.

Buzz Out Loud is a daily technology news podcast from CNet.com. Each episode is thirty to forty minutes long and is hosted by Tom Merritt with two or more others from a rotating group of regular guests. BOL has become a part of my routine; I listen to or watch the show with my morning coffee while I scroll through my RSS reader. As such, it’s my first stop for tech news and opinion. I still subscribe to the news feeds of sites like Engadget and Arstechnica, but much of what’s discussed on BOL every day is picked from their headlines anyway; it’s like a tech news “best of.”

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Beginning next week and continuing on through Christmas, a lot of high-profile games are going to come out. Naturally, this means information about delays (FREAK OUT!!), pre-order bonuses, and special editions is occupying news sites. This is wonderful if you’re a person who buys new games at release, but that’s not me. As such, news this week has been a let-down.

That is, except for this:

Geek-out on some Rage screenshots with me; these aren’t your daddy’s skyboxes. The PDF is worth a look as well, if you can make heads or tails of it.

Secret Six is the first on-going series in a string of supervillain team comic books written by Gail Simone, with pencils by Nicola Scott. Just as the mini-series that predate it (Villains United, Secret Six), Secret Six takes place in the main DC Universe.

Secret Six is a freelance team of six supervillains. The team was originally formed out of necessity when they refused to join and subsequently opposed Lex Luthor’s Secrey Society of Super Villains (see: Villains United). The Secret Six henceforth operate as a neutral team-for-hire, willing to take on jobs of any nature in the name of mutual self interest. Over the group’s history, its mainstay members have been Catman, Deadshot, Scandal Savage, and Ragdoll. The remaining spots on the team have been… fluid, to say the least. Former tenants include Cheschire, Knockout, a Parademon, Mad Hatter, Doctor Psycho, Fiddler, and Harley Quinn. The current team’s cast, however, is comprised of the aforementioned mainstays in addition to Bane (the supervillain who famously broke Batman’s back), and Jeannette (a Simone / Scott creation).

Make no mistake: every member of Secret Six is a miscreant. Some of them enjoy killing more than others, but not one of them is innocent; they’ve all got demons. None of them will lose sleep over a few dead bodies, if a situation calls for some. But due to Gail Simone’s unrivaled ability to understand and bring to the forefront the character within a character, you will sympathize with every one of them.

It’s the first week of August, so I thought I would begin the month with a selection from Monk Turner’s Calendar album, as I did in June. This song is all about the Roman emperor from whom this month derived its name, Augustus.

It’s justice, and it wants to eat your brains.

Ah, so it’s “BRINK.” I’ve been saying it wrong. There’s a lot of technical language in this interview with Splash Damage’s Technical Director Arnout van Meer. In summary: BRINK is building upon the Quake Wars tech; these revisions should, among other things, allow BRINK to take advantage of multi-core processors on PC. Finally, there’s talk about things that Splash Damage isn’t doing, such as moving from OpenGL to DirectX 11.

“… it says on the box: ‘No Hispanics’.”