Forgot that I'd reviewed Resident Evil Zero. It's here now… so… watch out.

Now that the holiday rush is behind us, release dates have been updated for all systems. There are several games coming out for all consoles, but PS2 owners can also look forward to drowning in games this coming March.

One thing about Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance on Xbox: slowdown. Whenever there's plenty of action to depict, the game seems to slow down. It's especially noticeable with the rain in the opening outdoor sequences, which reduces the game to a painful crawl compared with its other environments. People wonder how Splinter Cell will ever translate to the vastly underpowered GameCube and PS2; I'm wondering how they ever translated MGS2 to the Xbox.

Merry Christmas and other associated holidays. May whatever deity you believe in, if any, see fit to bless you and your household this holiday season.

The holidays were good, having delivered unto me a variety of gifts that weren't video games, but are nearly relevant: the Spider-Man DVD gift set (the most unexpected and appreciated gift of the year), the Back to the Future trilogy DVD set ("1.21 gigawatts?!"), the Once More, With Feeling soundtrack CD (note to self: preorder Buffy Season Three DVD set), and the latest CD by DS9 alumnus James Darren, Because of You (note to self: preorder Deep Space Nine Season One DVD set).

I finished Metroid Prime last week, with a final tally of 12:30 playtime and 75% of items/data found. Since then, I've already spent even more time than that playing just the VR missions on Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance for Xbox. I glanced briefly at the Snake Tales, but am strangely fascinated by the VR stuff. Much of it is repetitious, accomplishing the same missions with different characters. I was one of the odd few who loved the VR Missions disc for the original PlayStation, though, so I guess it fits that I've somehow been sucked in again.

No review this week – all the better to enjoy the holidays. I have some other material to work on as well, and some long-planned site changes that, knowing me, will simply become longer-planned, but let's hope not.

The 'pewter's back. My thanks to Eric Shepherd, Tony Diaz, and the good folk at Syndicomm, who recommend DiskWarrior, which recovered in ten minutes a volume that Norton Utilities considered lost. Both are indispensible, and I shan't be caught without them again.

As for games, I missed out on the commercial for Haven: Call of the King, but if it makes the game look as good as I've heard it does, then I missed the work of a very talented filmmaker, as the game does not approach anything that could be deemed "quality". But then, maybe I feel irritated by any game that distracts me from Metroid Prime these days. I certainly wasn't too impressed with Rygar.

Also, the lack of sample pictures from this calendar do it injustice. It's really quite lovely.

Any crash you can walk away from is a good one, right? Then I spent my Thanksgiving grateful that I survived where my computer did not. Until the hard drive is repaired, I will be scarce online, so grab a Snickers and play some games. If you haven't beaten Metroid Prime yet, then you definitely have not earned your allowance of online time, so please disconnect and plug in to your GameCube. This has been a public safety announcement.