If you play PC games, you have to know Xfire. It's essentially the greatest program in the world for PC gamers. It lets you have persistent friends lists, voice chat, a server browser, and more across just about any PC game worth playing.

It also has official support for Hellgate: London.

While I can't disclose all the details just yet, sometime in the near future, Xfire and Flagship will be teaming up for a live chat. We've got some really awesome things planned for it, so stay tuned for more details - you won't want to miss it.

Howdy folks! With launch just a month away, it appears that some of the Hellgate: London fever is creeping its way into the most unusual of places. Let's look at Exhibit A below. Yes, those are pictures from the fabulous Nintendo DS game, Animal Crossing. Our very own UI Artist Authority Captain Chief, Jason Sereno, received the letter shown in the picture in his in-game mailbox. Pretty rad, huh?

Exhibit A

Now, Exhibit B is a little... jarring. Is this a hint at things to come? While we know some people here are dying for this to become a real project - *cough*Brennan*cough* - it's nothing more than some tasteful artwork done by, yes, Jason Sereno. Strange how all these things get traced back to the same guy. Is there something you're not telling us, Jason?

Exhibit B

In other Hellgate: London news, gaming mega-site IGN has posted a great story showing off some boss battles from the game. You should definitely check it out when you get the chance.

Elsewhere on the intertubes, the Guardian has posted an interesting bit about online gaming, featuring some insightful quotes from Flagship Big Boss, Bill Roper. Any story that starts off with the line, "If you can play with real people, why settle for robots?" is good in our books.

Last but not least, Futuremark's excellent YouGamers site has a short but sweet interview with Tyler Thompson, our Director of Technology. The subject? All things hardware related, including DX10 and multi-core CPUs, and of course, Hellgate: London. Read it, or forever hold your peace.

The fire alarm went off. The power went out. We all evacuated the building and waited in what felt like 100mph SF winds. What happened? Actually, we don't really know what caused the alarm to go off, nor on which floor the fire was on (or if there even was a fire). We can tell you that it wasn't at Flagship or Ping0, and that we're all safe and back at our desks. Sorry if you ran into any site bugs last night - we were in the middle of adding some features right when the power went out. A couple pics below for your entertainment.