July upon us...

    As this auto-posts on the HQ, the 2nd night of 4 is about half way done, and I'm starting to get stoked about coming home to my Pretty Gal!! She had an appointment today that shortened her work day by half, and she's doing her Friday thang today, so she'll be able to sleep in on Saturday to catch up on her rest. Sunday, the Good Lord willing, I'll be napping for a little bit, and then joining her for the long 4th of July holiday weekend!!! Awesome!! Effie, I love you, my darling!! I'll be home soon!

      I did manage to play the new Call of Duty: Black Ops 'Annihilation' maps this weekend. I played exactly one game on each map, against the bots. And, not to put too fine a point on it, I played them at Recruit level. Frankly, there's just too big a leap in inhuman perceptiveness and weapon accuracy in the bots from 'Recruit' to 'Normal' difficulty, much less 'Hardened' or 'Veteran'. I found the maps really interesting visually, perhaps too much so. With all the jumbled textures, it seemed really difficult to pick up enemy targets against the backgrounds. Maybe it's just me, since I'm an old fart who never saw very well even in his youth, lol. Moving on...

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 'Annihilation' map pack reviews: Attack of the Fanboy; DigitalTrends; VideoGamer. Plus: Three things Dads need to know about the Call of Duty: Black Ops 'Annihilation' map pack.
• 'Annihilation' map pack impressions: Co-Optimus; IGN; Tom's Guide; VGRevolution; Guardian UK.
• [1Up Feature] Battlefield 3 versus Modern Warfare 3: Which is more promising? Both are going to be hits, I'm thinking...

• Crysis 2 level editor available. 
• New foliage system in Unreal 3 will blow you away.
• Donkey Kong 3DS review: Nintendo gets its nostalgia wrong.
• Zero Punctuation reviews Infamous 2. (Not safe for work language, as usual.)
• 1Up's Zelda: Skyward Sword preview.
• Respawn Entertainment teases game with blurry image.
• OnLive CEO reveals 'entirely new approach' to wireless. Allegedly, Shannon's Law no longer a barrier. Bonus: video of the Columbia University presentation on YouTube.
• [Video] Tribes: Ascend preview on GameInformer. Allegedly, Shannon's Law no longer a barrier.
• [Satire] Rock, Paper, Shotgun goes free-to-read! LOL.

• Astronomy Picture of the Day: Pandora's Cluster.
• Fusion thruster for space travel.
• [Op-ed] How and why we must colonize Mars. And also: The economic viability of colonizing Mars. See? get your ass to Mars! 
• [YouTube] Fox News interview with ISS crew after their evacuation.
• Scientists develop sensitive skin for robots.
• OCZ RevoDrive solid state drive blisteringly fast at 1.5/1.2 gbps read/write speeds.
• Samsung tries to bar import of iPads, iPhones to US, claiming patent infringement.
• Hackers disable Al Qaida website. Good.
• Faked news photo embarrasses Chinese officials.
• What the first-ever website looked like.