As you've probably heard, the Nintendo GameCube has been delayed from Nov 5th to Nov 18th. Upon learning of this change of plans, I banged my head against the wall, just once, for symbolism. Seeing the GameCube go head-to-head with the Xbox in the same week was going to be one of my highlights of 2001. I wonder what Microsoft will do now?

E3 has also changed dates, from Thurs through Sat, to Wed through Fri. Though many people attend the show as part of their job, some do not, and I wonder if those people will be able to justify the extra day off from work.

One month until the launch of the new Star Trek series, Enterprise. Sharing the spotlight that day will be a truckload of video games, including Syphon Filter 3, Silent Hill 2, Soul Reaver 2, Spy Hunter, ICO…

I'm going to put reviews on the site a bit more slowly, to give various publications a longer lead in which to print them exclusively. I have a Floigan Bros. column to put up soon, followed by Skydiving Extreme. I'll start on Mario Kart Super Circuit, which ships tomorrow (Monday), soon.

For now, I'm trying to work my way through the third disc of Shenmue. Who knew driving a forklift could be so much fun?… Anyone?

Would anyone like to buy Toys 'R Us a clue? I called them to inquire about Xbox reservations. After being forwarded to three different people and being put on hold, I was finally informed that they're taking reservations on "the PlayStation 2 icon.". (I assume they meant ICO, which ships Sep 25) That's the only reservation info they had for me.

Software Etc. has stopped taking Xbox and GameCube reservations; Electronics Boutique and TRU haven't started.

I bounded out of bed this morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and headed to the local Software Etc., aware that today was the street date release for the Parasite Eve (Parasaito Ivu) DVD. I knew they'd have a copy, and I was eager for it to be mine.

But wait! What's this?! They sold their only copy last week!

As Lt. Worf once said, "I am not a merry man." (but I did save $11.80!)

And yes, the counter at the bottom of this page is broken. I'm waiting to hear back from my hosting company as to why.

Another sub-par PlayStation 2 game has been reviewed: Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. Floigan Bros. is next, with Mario Kart Super Circuit coming at the end of the month. I also see a PSOne game called Skydiving Extreme on the charts; the name is the extent of my knowledge, yet enough to intrigue me.

I've found that online polls rate customer anticipation for the Nintendo GameCube much higher than the Microsoft Xbox - yet advertising and word on the street seems to favor Xbox. I wonder which is a better indicator of sales this holiday season?

Also, a tip of the hat to the friendly folks at Enix and their PR firm, HighWater Group. I rate their web sites (yech) much lower than their service, which is what's really important.

Enjoy a review of Soldier of Fortune more than you'll likely enjoy the game itself, along with Dain Neater's second contribution to Gamebits: a review of F-Zero Maximum Velocity for Game Boy Advance.

Two minor changes to Gamebits.net: the Super NES index page has been reformatted, and I added titles to the navbar (move your mouse over a link).

I saw Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within last night. Though you may've heard good and bad about the plot, I found it to be decent enough to warrant paying attention for the duration of the film - which, sadly, is not true of of all movies. One of the premises revolved around capturing spirits, and the movie never explained to my satisfaction what a "spirit" is, exactly. Some of the ending was a bit skewed, and a few scenes seemed superfluous.

Regardless, the movie is visually astounding, with some of the most realistic CGI graphics ever, anywhere. The close-ups reveal a mixture of details: Aki Ross's hair just begs you to wonder what conditioner she uses, but her clammy skin and the not-quite-right lip syncing reveals her artificial nature. (I found Prof. Sid's character to have the most lifelike appearance) Yet I dare you to distinguish between live action and CGI in any scene shot from a distance, that shows general action and body movement.

Why must the villains always look so… evil? The General comes adorned in black leather (complete with gloves), a furrowed brow, and dark, slick-backed hair. Gee, guess he's not just misunderstood?

I had intended to spend some time with the PlayStation 2 version of WinBack, since I enjoyed the Nintendo 64 version so much, but the moment's passed - the voice acting isn't (good) enough to get me to play the whole darn thing again.

So with all this extra time and no game to play, I decided to update the web site. All the system web pages now list the game reviews in table format, with game title, publisher, and rating, providing you with more information in a neater (as in "cooler" or "cleaner", your choice - but not Dain Neater format. The Super Nintendo page does not enjoy this redesign yet; those are older reviews and the method by which I updated the other pages does not apply.

Some resulting changes: the "five newest reviews" are gone from the PSOne, N64, and Dreamcast pages; I'll prolly be expanding the newest reviews listing on this main page to compensate. All the game listings have been realphabetized (guess a few slipped into the wrong spots over the years); I fixed some broken links on the Nintendo 64 page, and also added links to two PlayStation game reviews that have been on the server but never got linked to: Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn and T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger, both by Activision.

Also added the News link to the navbar, where you can access all the news up to today. This main page will be kept trimmer.

Reviews of Dragon Warrior III (which I'm still playing) and Gran Turismo 3 (which I returned) are up. Sorry for the delays, but if you check out A2Central.com, you can see I've been busy.

The upside is that I am rejuvenated and filled with a sense of purpose for the next year. Reality is bending to desires so deep or subtle, even I'm being surprised. And that's just in my personal life. I'm starting to get the word out about Gamebits, and have rewritten the About page accordingly. Press releases and letters are going out and listings are, ah, being listed.

And the column won't even lag! This week I'm looking at reviewing Soldier of Fortune for Dreamcast, which I'm told is an excellent game despite load times in excess of a minute. More on this as it develops.