Okay, I've been sort of the invisible man around here for a few weeks (iPhone launch, vacation, stomach virus), but I do return bearing gifts, or blog posts, anyway.

First up, QuakeCon!

One of the DMN's interns, Ian Hamilton, went out write a story on all the QuakeCon tournament and expo shenanigans, and you can read it here, and see a video of the event shot by one of our photo staff.

Second, I had a chance to do a one-on-one interview with id Software head honcho John Carmack, and he talked about why he's so excited about developing games for the iPhone (he says it's basically as powerful as a PS2 or Xbox), id's growth as a company (get your resumes in now), and his side project: building spaceships.

By the way, I didn't have space to address this in my article, but you may have read some of the headlines that Carmack said during his QuakeCon keynote speech that the Xbox 360 version of id's upcoming title Rage will look worse than the PS3 version.

I asked Carmack about this, and here's what he said: