So I was obviously aware of journalist Tom Chick from his QuarterToThree.com blog/industry messageboard, as well as his excellent monthly columns in the sadly defunct Computer Games Magazine, so it's good to see him turn up at The Escapist with a new weekly 'Shoot Club' column.

Even more bizarrely, I went and looked up Tom's Wikipedia profile and found out that Tom is also an actor, and "...his best known TV roles are as Oscar's lover Gil in the US version of The Office and the hard-hitting reporter Gordon in The West Wing." Whuh? Certainly the video game journalist/actor combo is not one I'm particularly used to, but this is extremely cool. (Yes, I'm aware you all knew this already, shhh.)

Anyhow, the first Escapist column is typically smart, sardonic, and a little more about human follies than games - which is great: "Gentlemen, welcome to Shoot Club," Trevor announces. He is overweight and losing his hair, which is too long. There are Doritos in his beard. The godmode ON T-shirt is fraying. It might even stink. But he doesn't care. We're just a bunch of dudes. "The first rule of Shoot Club ..." "... is you don't talk about Shoot Club?" the new guys offers. "Heh." Trevor fixes him with something like a glare. "Actually, you should totally talk about Shoot Club. If people didn't talk about Shoot Club, guys like you wouldn't be here.""