[05/09/2003]   Well, I leave in just under 12 hours, as of this writing, on my long car trip to E3. Amish leaves not long after me and has college paper writing duty to attend to in the meanwhile, so you're stuck with me this week. I have some fairly interesting things to bandy around, so be patient while I babble a bit.

   Our next update marks Points of View's third anniversary, as well as the end of E3 and the birthday of two RPGamer staffers. While we typically have wacky hijinks in store for the lot of you, our planning this year was rather rushed, so we're not doing anything massively crazy. What we are doing is repairing all the minor issues with this blue layout that have cropped up for us over the last year and making it look more-or-less identical to every browser. This will spell only good things for those of you who haven't been using Internet Explorer, since it means that the black borders around tables will actually be visible now. A small touch that gives the layout a much better appearance. Also, we're planning to compile some statistics, ALA BLAlien of two years past. Don't hold us to that one since we'll be at E3 during the time we expect to be doing this and anything could happen that could pull us away. Lastly, and also not necessarily anything we can promise is a guest appearance by Paws. It's really up to her as to whether this happens, but if I know her she won't pass up the opportunity to patpat her fans and work on her baby. So... We'll see.

   Since this is to be the last ever Booboo posted on Points of View, I will leave everyone with some words of wisdom (or what I presume to be words of wisdom). The general rule for writing reviews is the same as for writing anything else with any degree of competence. You must read what you want to write so you can find out for yourself what mistakes people have already made and avoid them. Novelists don't just pick up a pen or keyboard one day and write a book without ever having read one. Poets don't write great poetry without knowing the basis of their elements. And text book writers don't amass their knowledge without research and reading other text books. This golden rule is true for reviews, too. I've made my fair share of mistakes, so if you're itching to beat on me for something (and don't pick my Wind Waker review, please) go find the FFIV and FFA reviews as an example.

ASV: A new face, Lord Craxton, brings in some long needed reviews for the PC half of the RPG world and a not-so-new-face, Solon, goes silver while covering bases on three consoles. A fine time was had by all!