Over the weekend I started my odyssey into PS2 online gaming, trying out Tribes: Aerial Assault, SOCOM and playing around with the demo disc that comes with the adapter. Of the games I played, SOCOM is clearly the leader, although I'm really surprised at how much I'm enjoying the off-line portion of the game (talking to myself has never been this much fun). So far I haven't had any problems finding plenty of SOCOM and Tribes games in progress, but what I did find pretty strange is that when I fired up the Frequency demo, there wasn't a single game in progress. Nor was there anyone else in the entire world playing the game. The chat rooms were like ghost towns. This wasn't even some random time in the middle of the night...it was 3:00 EST on Sunday afternoon. Very strange. I'll have to try again at some other point. Look for more impressions in the near future, and eventually a full write-up on the whole experience.

	BMX XXX Snubbed by Retailers Acclaim might enjoy the publicity they're getting over the raunchiness of BMX XXX, but they probably won't too thrilled that Wal-Mart, Toys R' Us and KB Toys have all said they won't be carrying the game. Best Buy apparently has plans to carry a censored version, although there has been no official statement from Acclaim on this.
	Blizzard Classics Q&A GameSpot has conducted a brief Q&A with Blizzard's Bill Roper, talking with him about their plans to resurrect several of their classic games for the Game Boy Advance.
	Shinobi Preview Also at GameSpot tonight is a preview of Shinobi, Sega's PS2 revival of their classic Ninja franchise. It's accompanied by a bunch of new screenshots.
	Little Bundles of Joy This is a good week for gamers...Nintendo has started shipping their $189 GameCube/Mario Sunshine/Memory Card 59 bundle, while Microsoft's new $199 bundle goes on sale tomorrow. No word on any reaction from Sony as of yet, but it certainly seems likely.
	Big Metroid Push Coming According to Cube.IGN, North American retailers have started receiving their Metroid promotional items, with lots more on the way. Aside from the six-foot tall Samus cutout, there's a commercial directed by Dark City director Alex Proyas that will be hitting the airwaves around the time the twin Metroids hit store shelves. If that's not enough for you, MSNBC is reporting that Nintendo is considering offering a rebate for anyone who purchases Metroid Prime and a GameCube system.
	Dead to Rights Rated X in Japan Okay, so not really. But it is the first game to be given an 18 certificate rating, because of the ability to use hostages as shields. Sounds good to me.
	Panzer Dragoon Orta Update Some new details from Panzer Dragoon Orta can be found at PlanetXbox tonight, and you can head over to GameSpot for some new screenshots from the game.
	Serious Sam Preview Xbox.IGN got their hands on a build of Serious Sam for the Xbox, and have posted their impressions of the game. On a related note, the official site has gone live.
	Misc. Screenshots GameSpot has posted some new shots from Crimson Sea (Xbox), while new footage from Resident Evil 0 (GC) is up at Computer and Video Games, along with new shots from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire (GBA). And finally, Capcom USA has launched their official Steel Battalion site, devoted to this Xbox game with the freaky controller. The site has new shots, but not a whole lot else.