Gears of War 3 hasn't been announced -- although the game's teaser debuts a week from today, and the game itself will be out in April 2011 or later. So, why am I thinking about Gears right now? Well, the recent "Girls & Games" PAX panel and its accompanied discussion about female characters made me think about how difficult it is to portray women in a male-centric story without making it seem like the entire gender has been forgotten and/or passed over.

... And we're now officially more than halfway through the final season of Lost. That went by quick, no?

After last week's Alpert Explained episode, a few of us Phoenix Lost-watchers were talking. Specifically, we were talking quite about how it seemed like there was basically nothing to talk about after each of these episodes.

Don't ask me why Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (author and artist of the webcomic Penny Arcade) chose to back their dramatic entrance with Katt Williams' "Every Day I'm Hustlin'," because they didn't tell the audience why, and no one asked. However, they did explain the origin of the fruit fucker, advised those of us with new-to-gaming parents on which games were "appropriate," and unwittingly advertised sharkbanana.

The Video Game Orchestra opened their Saturday night concert with this medley of classic Super Mario tunes, and followed that up with some equally familiar Super Mario Galaxy. The rest of their set included songs from Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, a metal version of Castlevania's music, some Silent Hill, and more.

As I write this, I am waiting for the Video Game Orchestra to begin their set at Saturday night's concert – yes, this blog is as live as it gets, since I'm sitting on the theatre floor with my laptop out. The in-between set playlist included DJ Party Ben's “Galvanize the Empire,” a mash-up that any Star Wars fan would almost certainly enjoy, so props to the sound guys for seeing to it that the wait is no chore.

The Penny Arcade Expo, aka PAX East, finally has arrived. 60,000 gamers hit up Boston to celebrate their hobby/obsession, check out sweet new releases, and meet the convention's hosts, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the webcomic author/artist duo of popular gaming webcomic Penny Arcade.

As soon as I reached the con's vicinity, I began to scout out for fellow geeks.

Horror buffs with a discriminating palate and taste for gore meted out in small, varied portions would do well to check out "Tapas of Terror" tonight at 10 pm at the Boston Underground Film Festival. TOT is the brainchild of one of Boston's most esteemed patron of the (dark) arts, whose particular brand of horror is not for the squeamish.

Prior to his voyage on the Black Rock, Richard Alpert took part in some amateur crime-fighting.

Last week's Lost ... what happened again? Something about Sawyer and Charles Widmore and Miles and Claire and Charlotte and Smokey's mommy issues? Plus some new woman who's apparently the key to the whole show (more on this in a minute)? I seem to remember thinking it was pretty good at the time, but as with a surprisingly large number of episodes from this season, I didn't find it particularly memorable.

GameCrush.Com launches today, and the service has already been hailed (by 600+ commenters on that article) as one of the dumbest things that the internet has wrought. Gamer girls proven to be cute via home-brewed glamour shots will play video-games with you online ... for a fee. Oh, and by the way, some of them might have boyfriends and most of them won't be seeing clients as potential love interests -- so stop those Pretty Woman fantasies before they start.

Mass Effect: Redemption, a series of prequel comics to Mass Effect 2, hit shelves last year. Now, a new Mass Effect comic about the events of the latest game is on the way. The comic spin-off plans to "follow the second game" -- hopefully that means new light shed on the story, rather than just a retread.

^{Illustration plucked from Nedroid's amazing Lost gif bin}

Maybe it's just because it had an unusually high Ben Linus/Everybody Else ratio, but last week's episode, "Dr. Linus," was (in my humble opinion) pretty awesome. To briefly recap: In the Sideways Universe (also known as "Degrassi High: The Alternate Timeline"), disgruntled history teacher Ben -- initially egged on by Sideways Locke, no less -- tries to blackmail Principal Reynolds in order to claw his way to the top, but aborts mission when it threatens to ruin Alex's shot at getting into college.

Above, the new trailer for Tron Legacy. The film's a sequel to Tron, a cult classic about computers that came out 28 years ago. Yes, holy shit, 28 years ago. Jeff Bridges, who starred in Tron as programmer and arcade owner Flynn, was only 33 back then (and looked even younger). He'll be revisiting the role in Tron Legacy and using his Serious Actor Chops, for which he has recently been commended

Gamers, feast your eyes on the new PlayStation Move. Does it remind you of anything? Just kidding -- the PSmove was bound to look a bit like a Wii-mote and nunchuck. The main difference is the lack of a wire connecting the two pieces (nice!). The PSMove works with the PlayStation Eye camera, and it'll be released in late 2010.

I know. Video mashups have been lame for kind of a while. And for some viewers, Battlestar Galactica got really lame really quickly. But still, this shot-for-shot recreation of the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" video using clips from BSG is about perfect. I love Fat Lee Adama eating something where the donut-eating shot appeared in the original.