There's also word of a 24-hour Dota 2 live stream for charity which is just about to begin. Taylor "Yatterman" Caines is about an hour away from playing Dota 2 for 24-hours straight for the Extra Life 2011 charity gaming marathon, which sends 100% of proceeds from donations to the Children's Miracles Network.

Caines has six Dota 2 beta keys to give away during the 24-hour window, one for the top donator (currently $200), one for a random donor of $5 or more, and four for random users watching the stream. You can watch the entire thing live starting at 6AM PST / 9AM EST at Yatterman's LiveStream, but if you want a chance at a random key make sure to register for an account on Livestream.com while you watch.

Bowling has always been something of an ordeal for me, mainly due to the fact that I'm not very good at it. Every time I roll a bowling ball down an alley, it inexplicably curves to the left. It has an impressive curl on it that might be mistaken for skill by a random passer-by - people occasionally even commend me on it - but I don't understand how it's manufactured. It means that any vertical pins that remain, alone and to the right, can taunt me freely. A bowling ball that initially seems to be headed directly for their snide little pin-faces impotently spins away a few feet from making contact, and I am shamed.

It's especially demeaning when another member of the bowling party is zipping into the lead at strike-laden lightspeed. After three consecutive strikes, I became convinced that my friend had some kind of a hack. Real life had transformed into Wii bowling, where that very specific upward flick sends every ball careening to a perfectly straight and perfectly centred strike. I confronted him on the issue and he denied it. Needless to say, he won't be around for much longer.

I should have just stayed in the arcade. They have that Big Buck Hunter game. It gives you a chance to shoot deer for the casual effrontery that their very existence provides. Next time I'll kill all those bastard deer with the respectable enthusiasm portrayed in this weekend's video. Nobody likes bowling, everybody loves light guns.

A return to war is inevitable. Two great armies mass their forces, readying themselves for the approaching battle. Meanwhile, the galaxy is rife with chaos and corruption. As the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire teeter on the brink of open warfare, a new generation takes charge; their actions will shape the future of the entire galaxy.

The full line up is:

Caspian Border - Relatively open vehicle friendly map with a forest setting within a valley.

Damavand Peak - Features a 500m tall base jump spot, more vehicles open up as map progress is made.

Grand Bazaar - Extremely tight infantry-based map which favors shotguns.

Kharg Island - Heavy focus on amphibious assaults.

Noshahar Canals - Mixed combat in an industrial setting, Noshahar is built around both ground vehicle and boat attacks.

Operation Firestorm - Reported to be the most vehicle-friendly map in the game. Wide-open desert combat.

Operation Métro - The primary map featured in the alpha and beta, infantry focused combat leading into, and out of, a subway.

Seine Crossing - Infantry and vehicle focus, but in downtown Paris.

Tehran Highway - Another infantry focused map, tight city streets.

Read on for some highlights from the interview and a few new screenshots.

• The developers went with a sci-fi setting because they “wanted to create a setting where players could have a common goal to unite under, but at the same time which would allow us to continue to expand for years to come.” Additionally, in a Sci-Fi setting there is “really no limit to the situations we can place a player into.”
• Work began in 2008 using the Torque engine. However, they bought indie license of Hero Engine in 2010. This naturally setback the project a bit, but it has enabled them to do cooler things. For instance, in the Torque version, player built cities used a pre-built layout. Now you can do things like build a house on any “pre designated area” that is unclaimed or part of your nation’s territory.
• Smith doesn’t think that the market is over-saturated with MMOs. In his view “this market still has room for growth, and that the main reason we see some of these titles as failures is due to elevated expectations and bloating budgets.”
• Smith’s all time favorite games are "the Ultima Series, Pirates!, Elite/Frontiers, Civilization, and X-Com," but the main influences on The Repopulation are Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies.
• The team is aiming for a 2012 release. Up to this point they’ve been self funding the title, but Smith concedes that “with funding we'd be able to finish the title more quickly than would otherwise be the case. So we'd certainly be willing to hear offers in that regard, so long as they were mutually beneficial.”
• Smith thinks that, for the foreseeable future, the big publishers will release MMOs that don’t shake things up too much. However, now that there are “affordable MMO-capable engines” available for indie developers, he’s hoping to see some great innovations from them in the next few years. While he admits that we'll probably “see a lot of bad titles as a result,” he’s optimistic that there will “be some diamonds in the rough.”

Time will tell if The Repopulation is going to be one of those diamonds in the rough.

I liked Marv’s comic book work, particularly The Tomb of Dracula. Additionally, I think that his name is awesome. However, I don’t understand the need to give a context as to why the guys in PlanetSide are fighting. That’s just what happens in Planetside. It’s like trying to give context to why the sun comes up in morning and goes down at night. Okay, I guess you could come up with a convoluted religion, complete with human sacrifices, to explain that one. If Mr. Wolfman’s work takes PlanetSide 2 in that direction, then I suppose I’m all for it.

So, JForce: Unstoppable is a top-down shooter. And if you watch the video below you may find that the hero looks like a deformed sperm, then transforms into a set of boobs, but ultimately you will see that it is actually a man. A man who needs your help. If you want to help Kickstart this game then you can pre-order over the next 30 days to receive discounts and beta access.

Key Features:

• fully animated cutscenes (some by the popular Egoraptor)
• 40 unique weapons
• online co-op
• online deathmatch/capture the flag
• endless survival mode
• level editor