It's a placeholder date. You honestly think they would release this game on the very last day of the year? Christ...

Even in the second picture?

So if any of you guys accessed the Steam store during April Fools yesteryday, you probably saw this:

Those of you with LED monitors may already see the Aperture Science logo inside the circle surrounding the lamdba. Otherwise you will have to try tilting your monitor up and down to get a faint outline of it.

After lowering the contrast in Photoshop, this is what I got:

These results are easily replicable if you just google search for the April Fool's Half-Life 3 logo. The one I chose was the first result on Google for "half life 3 steam april fools" with "Large" filter.

What does this mean? I have no clue. Maybe Valve's trying to troll us again. I just figured I'd bring it up since no one else seems to have noticed.

I never grew up with an understanding that it's offensive when I use the word retard in a deragatory manner, the same way I've never considered it offensive to use "blind", "deaf", or "dumb" in deragatory manners. Regardless, if you're going to make it a violation to use the word retard do you mind blocking out the word in the comments to begin with instead of having me write a comment from my mind and only finding out later that I violated the rules? It's already been done on the forums for the titles and I'd like to see that for the comments.

$300

But the console needs a powerful launch lineup, not like 3DS. I also really want a wireless Classic Controller Pro with rumble so me and my bro can co-op.

The analog stick doesn't actually improve precision. Neither does it improve sensitivity. Not a single DS game changes as a result of using the analog. This has been the case with all the DS games i've tried thus far. Super Mario 64, Animal Crossing, GTA, Metroid Prime, Final Fantasy, they all feel the same.Raiko101

It'll be a while before I get a 3DS so I was wondering which games I should finish off on my DS and which I should save for the 3DS because of the analog stick. My friend says the stick works really well for games like Okamiden but not for Pokemon.

The games I'm wondering most about are Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Radiant Historia, Trace Memory, The World Ends With You, Zelda, and anything else you think is worth playing.

I'd imagine with Final Fantasy it'd be nice to run around with the analog stick but not so nice in battle because then you'd have to use the D-Pad on the bottom.

When DS first came out I wondered, "Is that screen really necessary?" Fastforward six/seven years. The DS has some of my favorite games ever and I consider it a very important part of my gaming life. Do I still think the second/touch screen is useless? You bet I do!

So far the games I have played I mostly use the normal button controls (Pokemon, Pheonix Wright, blah). When they force me to use the stylus I moan, pull out the stylus, reorient myself on my chair, couch, bed, and think about how much nicer it would be if they just had a godamn analog stick. Often times if I can forgo the stylus and just use my thumbs, and it's actually quite nice. But generally the dual screen and stylus are just big letdowns.

That brings me to my main argument, why do console developers force these gimmicky controls on us. Sometimes it works, I'll admit. Nintendo Wii obviously worked most of the time. But with PSP2 and 3DS coming out, you can't help but feel terrified that you have to pay for these pointless controls that developers stuffed in there just because they thought climbing a vine would be cool with a back touch panel. No, it's not. It conflicts with the normal controls and ultimately pulls me out the game until I get off the vine, then tosses me back in. All this for what? Climbing a vine. Nothing much else it can do (wait, I forgot you can make hills and roll things). Pretty much the only new controls from PSP 2 I like are the right analog stick, gyroscope, and froint touch screen (oh hey R2 and L2 buttons, long time no see! Wait, you're not coming on the PSP2? Huh...).

Now that Nintendo has revealed the 3DS, I feel pretty cheated. I never cared about 3D, and I probably never will. Now included with my useless second screen and stylus, I get to pay premium for 3D, just to play console exclusive I know I'll want to pay. I'm hoping later on they realize "Wow, no one's buying this expensive piece of crap" and release a cheaper 2D version, but who knows, I'm willing to bet there are enough Nintendo fanboys who buy it, maybe I'll even buy it (damn you amazing launch lineup). It'll never happen but in the end, I just wish there was a Gameboy Advance 2 with dual analog sticks and a touchscreen, sporting my favorite Nintendo titles and the awesome "Gameboy" name that raised me as a child.