Hilarious! I swear, I'm NOT making this up!

I was chatting with a co-worker this afternoon, (because I'm too lazy to walk one floor up and talk to him).  We're using MSN Messenger 7.5.  One time I clicked on "Send" but accidentally hit the "Search" button just below it, after entering the "Sick" smile. 

I get Google every time I enter the "Sick Smiley".  Wait until Scoble and Slashdot sees this

So, the single-player demo of F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is out.  After playing it for about 30 minutes, I'm 100% convinced this is the game I wished iD had created when they made Doom3.  Dark, creepy, at times horrifying, it sets the precise mood that this kind of game should achieve.  Their use of audio and visual cues to stimulate emotional responses if dead-on (if you'll pardon the pun).  Even better, the enemies in the game behave smartly.  They are not your typical stand-there-and-take-it-in-the-face characters.  These baddies leap through windows, work as a team using covering fire, and are creative in their use of weapons (and if you get too close, they'll turn your face into mush with the butt of their weapon).  And, thankfully, the game creators didn't resort to stuffing enemies in myriad hidden panels to pop out and claw at you (c'mon Id, that was plain stupid, what were you thinking?). 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to change my clothes...that last firefight made me soil myself...

Well, now that the August 2005 DirectX SDK is released, as well as the IE7 beta being made available to MSDN subscribers, I'm guessing it's only a matter of oh, say, minutes before somebody discovers this: If you try to install a DirectX sample using the DirectX Sample Browser, and you have IE7 installed, it will fail (basically it says, "Could not locate folder...").  The only workaround at the moment, sadly, is to uninstall IE7.

I'll post a new update to this blog, as well as to the MSDN Game Development Forums, once this changes.