While some of the delay is us getting caught up in bugs and/or some of us getting caught up in other jobs, most of this delay is due to the fact that we just keep making the new design better and better. Unfortunately, our overachieving antics come at the expense of time. We are still toiling away here and will get it up as soon as possible. All staff members will be contacted in the coming week to get all of the details. If you are interested in being one of these staff members, contact me and let me know how you would like to get involved. Mad skillz (writing or otherwise) will be reimbursed with games and/or moola and more on that coming soon as well. Head to the forums in the meantime.

Also, some input please for your friendly CDG editor: the community side of the site is pretty much done (most of the work) with content (reviews, gender bender, CWDP) to go. Would you all like to see just the community go up in the meantime? Or see it all go up in one shebang?

Well, we were originally supposed to be celebrating 2 huge game releases today, but alas, LittleBigPlanet has been delayed for a week due to some Qu’ran references in one of the songs licensed for the game. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why oh why this could not be fixed in a post-launch patch and spare the many many games that are headed for the garbage bin, but I guess that’s Sony for ya. So, here I am sitting by the door waiting for the UPS guy to bring me my Fable 2 Collectors Edition pre-order. On a personal note, amidst all the awesome games on the horizon, this has been THE game in my sights. I know CDG is currently sorta kinda down as we prepare to bring you the new and improved CDG (now with more bounce!), but I promise you that once we get it up and running, the site will be chockfull of rants and musings on these latest of the great games - another of which is Dead Space. This game totally and utterly caught me by surprise. As a girl who shakes in her shoes from the Ghostbusters films, I am not the biggest fan of survival horror. But I’m pressed to even put Dead Space in the survival horror category. As an action game, I can only shower it with praises. I played it straight through - non-stop over the weekend, only stopping for food and bathroom breaks. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so into a game and it was so exhilirating. We will bring you the full review upon relaunch, but if you’re looking for another game to pass your time, pick it up. I promise you will not regret it.

On the relaunch front, it’s going a bit slower than I’d like because little ms. overachiever that I am, we keep adding more features. We’re going to start testing the site for bugs soon (at least the new community section) so if you’d like to get involved, contact me and I will put you to work! Again, I thank you for your patience and promise that it will be well worth the wait. In the meantime, head to the forums and dish about all things gaming.

The CDG relaunch is prepping to look totally awesome if I do say so myself. We are putting on the finishing touches and making sure everything is up to my incredibly high standards. Until November and until you have more awesome games like LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, Fable 2 and Gears of War 2, you should definitely turn out your lights and head to Hotel 626. I won’t get into any details, but it’s an incredibly frightening minigame of sorts sponsored by Doritos and since it’s free, it is definitely worth a go. You can only get into the hotel after dark (or if you reset your clock), but be prepared, it’s mighty spooky.

As always feel free to email me with any comments, questions or concerns about the relaunch. You can find me at dot (at) chicksdiggames.com

Our friends over at Diverse Nerd Association are throwing a gaming tourney shindig this weekend. So, if you live in the city, work out your thumbs and prepare for a fun evening of gaming!

So, it’s pretty obvious that mot much is currently happening on the site. As I’ve mentioned we’ve been busily preparing the new site, so I thought that I would just use this blog until then to let you know what we’ve been doing, what’s working and what you can expect. It’s like those fun little Advent calendars kids get at Christmas . . . except it’s virtual chocolate.

Anyway, the community is almost all complete. We’ve got customizable profiles and member blogs all functioning. You’ll be able to rate your favorite articles and review your favorite (and least favorite games). With the community almost complete we’re going to start transferring the old site over to the new site. Until November 8th, head to the forums and chat about all the exciting upcoming games. I promise this long and annoying wait will be worth it.

Last night I was playing Infinite Undiscovery. Yeah, yeah, I know that there are better games out there and I could be nurturing my growing Spotted Chomper tribe on Spore or leveling up my toon for the Wrath of the Lich King release, but you know I am an RPG girl. Infinite Undiscovery (awful name, I know) is two discs. It’s a pretty expansive game. What else would you expect from Square Enix? And it was released  to entirely mediocre reviews. It is not a great game. It is, in fact, filled with quite a few glaring problems. But, like many mediocre games, it is evident that many, many hours of heartful work went into the game and it is enjoyable enough that it is worth a go . . . but perhaps not worth forking over my precious gaming monies or the many hours it takes to complete a game. These days videogames are LONG and EXPENSIVE. Most of us only have limited hours and limited pennies to throw at gaming per day . . . month . . . year. As I progressed through Infinite Undiscovery and found myself somewhat charmed by the awkward pacing and beautiful, if not entirely perfectly animated evironments, I found myself wondering what happens to these “mediocre” games that are given a cold 7.5 by review sites and then sent on their way? The experience of gaming is so unique to the individual that I am not entirely sure this couldn’t be a great game to someone out there. And it’s sad that with our limited time and limited gaming pocketbooks, so many of those games aren’t experienced. Games aren’t like the crappy movies you eventually rent because you have nothing else to do. They are pricier and offer up a much bigger commitment. How do we choose? If we only play the great games, we miss out on a lot of the good games.