Valve (makers of the famous Half-Life series of games) just released a bundle of five games that I find incredibly compelling. They’re calling the bundle The Orange Box. Three of them are brand new games, and they threw two previously-released games into the bundle just to make it super-compelling for the price.

I couldn’t say which game is the best, but after watching this trailer (also embedded below) for the game called “Portal” I couldn’t help but get excited. The mood they create in their games is incredibly thick. I find it irresistible. Their games seem much deeper to me than would be required by a simple “shoot everything that moves” mentality, and I appreciate their contributions for that reason. Gaming would be better if more games were like theirs.

On a personal note, there are arguably five platforms on which one might release a game these days: the PC, the Mac, the Xbox 360, the Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii. I own a Mac and a Wii. Valve has released or is about to release The Orange Box for the other three platforms. There are no plans to make The Orange Box for the ones I own.

Thank God for Boot Camp. Now, to buy a Mac that can run these games well.

Not only is this YouTube video set to one of my favorite Daft Punk songs, it’s silly and it’s bizarre. I think that’s the Josh Lewis Trifecta. I’d imagine this guy had to work pretty hard to get his timing right, so, enjoy!

Give it about 50 seconds to get going. Nothing really happens until the vocals start.

Stephanie and I are lucky enough to live near one of the eleven worldwide locations in which a 7-Eleven store has been converted into a Kwik-E-Mart. We paid the Kwik-E-Mart a visit tonight, took some photos and video, and I got a Squishee. (But only because they were sold out of KrustyO’s, donuts, and Buzz Cola.)

Check out the photos on Flickr (all taken by Steph), or enjoy the slapped-together video I’ve just uploaded to YouTube. Gotta love that music.

Thank you, come again!

Yeah, baby. It’s a good day. Go get yours.

Don’t blame me if you start playing Desktop Tower Defense and are no longer able to hold down a job, have friends, or go to the bathroom.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Dang, that’s a really fun little game.

If you haven’t read Apple’s press release head over there and do that right away. I’ll wait.

The gist of this whole thing is that for 30¢ more than a “normal” iTunes song, you’ll get one at twice the encoding quality with no DRM restrictions on it. That means your music will sound better (especially on a good set of speakers) and you’ll be able to move it around, convert it, and play it on just about any player. I can’t stress how huge this is, guys. To me, this is the announcement of the year, if not decade.

Many people don’t realize how bad DRM is, and certainly haven’t thought of how bad it could become. Think of it this way: with DRM, someone else owns the key to your filing cabinet full of music you paid for. True, they might be trustworthy, but do you really want to risk that? But now that DRM is being stripped from the music, the key is being given back to you. If you start voting with your dollars now and start buying the DRM-free, higher-quality tracks, the other record labels will get the idea and follow suit.