Hey there again. Your friendly neighborhood Editor in Chief reporting in for some DPAD updates, changes and overall goodies.

First, I'd like to start with a staff announcement. The brain trust at DPAD have decided to consolidate our three departments' management in order for all staff to have input in other sections, as well as bring an easier plan to produce wonderful stories that you all like to read. The new position is Managing Editor for DPAD, and that will be headed by our very own Robert "robertj15" Rodriguez. For those who have worked with Rob as I have, his dedication and enthusiasm within DPAD for over a year have brought many tears (joy and sadness) to our staff and readers. So, congrats to him!

Next, I wanted to give you a little insight on what we're working on for this month, because it'll be exciting! Like last year around this time, we came out with a Game of Year Awards, and this year will be no different. Your favorite writers and critics will weigh in on this year's best from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, as well as an overall list, combining all consoles. I've ever made the Official DPAD Game of the Year thread, which will be stuck on our message boards for the rest of the year, so chat it up! Also expect some reviews of Mass Effect and Unreal Tournament III.

For those of you who love to contribute with news and community related articles, you can do so, and have your articles and new posts linked to our site outside of the forums. It is really easy to do, just fill out the community news form  and submit it. Our editors will read through the articles, and publish them if they are in the interest of the community!

Game Night will soon be upon us. The community seems to have chosen Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (COD4) as the game of choice. All the rules and regulations are being sorted out through our legal department, which consists of several well trained chimpanzees and panda bears, so we'll give you the details once they come up with something. For the top 3 players (non-staff) we'll hook you guys or gals up with free Prime Access. To the winner we'll toss ya' a $25 gift card to Best Buy . On the chosen night expect to see staff favorites, Robert "robertj15" Rodriguez, Michael Murray, Bill "WildBill" Selles, myself and maybe more!

Our very sophisticated monitoring system has also been telling us we've been getting a lot more visitors to the DPAD site, so if you're new to the site, welcome to DPAD, have fun, feel free to chat with readers and staff, you can send messages to anyone on the site using our Gmail (GotFrag Mail, don't sue us Google) messaging system. You can even email me at MAntebi@GotFrag.com o for those who have been referring from great sites like Digg.com and N4G.com , welcome!

Almost done! We are still hiring! We'll probably have another hiring post up soon, but while I have you, if you're interested in getting free games, writing and contributing to DPAD, take a look at the open positions and apply! Its fun, I promise!

Finally for those who lurk on IRC.GameSurge.Net , we have just opened up our very own IRC Channel, cleverly named #DPAD . So come and find us, chat it up and enjoy!

Signed,

Mike "Australia" Antebi - DPAD Editor in Chief