The deluge is on, and that means there is no time for anything except playing and reviewing games. I woke up and found that To the Industry had slipped its October date. Games have invaded even my dreams. I have Nancy Drew and Tony Hawk opening up a bakery, but the frosting has been contaminated by mercury which is melting down, covering everything. Meanwhile Sherlock Holmes is pursuing SpongeBob for stealing tarts. You get the idea.

However, some interesting flotsam has surfaced.

Games without gaming devices - Her Interactive took one of the best mysteries in their Nancy Drew series, Curse of the Blackmoor Manor and turned it into a game you can play on your TV using the TV remote as the controller. And it works! The game has been retooled so that with just the four cardinal directions and an enter button you can play the game.

Marvel Heroes Breakout DVD Game - It's both a DVD board game and is also sans a game device – it reduces game action to simply a click with your TV remote – click on your choice for the solution to the maze and it automatically plays out. It all begins to feel like interactive movies.

Strange bedfellows - Puzzle Quest combines two disparate game genres, Match Three and RPG. The game involves a standard quest, but when the battle comes up it is won by the person who gets the highest score on the Match Three game. Interesting form of battle – what next?

Golden Oldies - Some of the best Humongous titles of the '90's are being re-released and sold only through Target. Putt Putt, Freddie Fish, Pajama Sam, Spy Fox all in their most famous adventures.

Newsworthy games - Blackhawk made the news last month with the shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, and the information that they were immune from prosecution. Segue - I am a sucker for good graphics and so I kept this postcard for an EA game, Army of Two, to be previewed at the E3 2007 show. The copy reads:

"DID YOU KNOW … One company alone, Blackwater USA, currently has $500MM+ in government contracts – not including their secret "black" budget operations. As of 2003 the protection of America's most senior officials in Iraq has been conducted by Private Military Contractors. In 2004, under the decree of Order 17, all PMC's hired on government contracts were immune to prosecution."

Who would have thought to go to games for a scoop on the news?