While you have probably noticed the tell-tale signs of a steady stream of “Quote of the Day” posts (as fun as they are to post…!), I would just like to take a moment to clarify the situation somewhat: Richard, Nabeel and I have all been beyond busy lately. I’m telling you, it feels so good to be able to write that down, even if it doesn’t change a thing: Busy!

(Kinda dig the earlier one - it doesn’t read “TORMENT” all over it…)

To write about games, you have to think about games. To do that, you do have to read and discuss them, too. Doing that properly means you have to play them first. The problem? The above chain of events simply never even gets rolling when you’re pressed for time! We try to take each and every post seriously and this sometimes means more work and delays.

Right now, our @slowdownvg Twitter feed is slightly more active than the front page, as is my own @martynzachary – if only barely.

The above problem has been further magnified by some of the games we’ve played not lending themselves to review or analysis as much as we had hoped: Originally, we meant to take an in-depth look at both the Left 4 Dead 2 demo and Borderlands, for instance, but nothing too specific materialized out of either experience. This is an obvious disappointment to us, as we do have a great affinity for the short unit, and not only because of their premeditated and planned nature (earlier, we went to great lengths discussing the Arkham Asylum demo, several Downfall demos, for instance).

Borderlands did somewhat surprise me in one respect – Gearbox took an interesting approach to its storyline, principally eschewing a proper narrative for a deus ex machina series of characters and situations freely flowing from one to another. It’s very intriguing, in that sense, how well Borderlands performed against several of the latest triple A’s: Dragon Age: Origins, Modern Warfare 2, Forza Motorsport 3. My Twitter feeds have been chock full of people either talking about playing Dragon Age or talking about wanting to play it. Many mentions of Torchlight, too, which seems to be a bit of a press darling.

Anyway! This post is our way of reassuring both you and ourselves that there are actual, full-fledged posts being prepared in the content pipeline; There is a combined response to Avataritis and Cherry-Picking Easy Targets that I have been writing, for instance, though it’s possible that it gets overridden by a bit on the all-inclusiveness of gaming. I’m also mulling over the term gameplay and trying to negotiate and define my position as a games writer.