It doesn’t get any better than this, folks.

The humble mo is a misunderstood creature. For 11 months of the year, it is often thought of as nothing but a bad taste remnant of the 70s. But for the month of Movember (formally known as November) moustaches are not only hip, stylish and desirable but indicate the wearer of said mo is a fine human philanthropist with the wellbeing of others on his mind.

For those that could never understand why during November half the male population was walking around with furry lip warmers, Movember is a charity event where men from all around the world grow moustaches and get sponsorship to raise money for men’s health programs such as prostate cancer research and male depression. I have been a supporter of Movember for quite a few years and while contemplating which style of face caterpillar I would don this year, I decided to drum up some additional support for the cause.

With this goal in mind, and knowing that my gaming brethren love to support a good cause, I set about organising the Australian Gaming Community Movember Team.  This is a group of games writers/players/developers who not only want to support a great cause but have no fear in showing a hairy upper lip to the world.

So if you would like to join me and many others in raising some money you can join our Facebook Group or join the team directly by visiting our page on the Movember website. The lovely ladies out there are more than welcome to join as a Mo Sista and help the fellas raise some money and provide support during what is likely to be an itchy time.

So wear your mo proudly, whether it be the Magnum PI, the Merv Hughes or the Uncle Chop Chop, and help change the face of men’s health.

The Black Panel has long embodied the principles of love and fidelity. If only the same could be said for our shamefully mercenary writers, who insist on fraternising with our competitors. This column allows us to monitor and catalogue their treasonous activities.

Black Panel contributor Jamie Dalzell wrote a fine piece for GameSpy about the iCEnhance mod for Grand Theft Auto IV.

Before You Begin: Blinging Up Grand Theft Auto IV

When GTA IV found its way to the PC back in 08, it was a poster-child for the simple port mentality; it ran poorly on most systems, lacking many of the customization options we’d come to expect. Thankfully, since then new hardware has managed to overcome most of these struggles, and today we’ll be giving this slightly aging game a much needed face-lift. There’s a slight problem though — figuring out how to install these gorgeous mods makes solving a Rubik’s Cube look easy.

Visit GameSpy to read and comment on the article.

Previous instalments of Big Brother: 04.05.11 l 06.04.11 l 18.03.11 l 01.04.11

Presented in glorious alphabetical order, New Media: Retail Roundup is your indispensible checklist of the home console and handheld titles arriving in stores this week. What will you be playing?

MICROSOFT Xbox 360 Nothing

NINTENDO Wii Nothing 3DS Nothing DS Nothing

SONY PS3 Nothing PSP Nothing

VARIOUS PC The Sims 3: Town Life Stuff

New Media: Downloadable Digest is your handy reminder of the new downloadable titles released during the past week.

MICROSOFT XBLA Bastion

NINTENDO WiiWare Nothing eShop 3DS Classics: Xevious DSiWare Nothing

SONY PSN Golden Axe * Limbo Minis Dr. Maybe and the Adventures of Scary Girl * JellyCar 2 * Me Monstar! Hear Me Roar * One Epic Game

VALVE Steam Air Conflicts: Secret Wars * ArmA: Cold War Assault * ArmA X: Anniversary Edition * Lucid * Runespell: Overture * Tobe’s Vertical Adventure * Trapped Dead * War Inc. Battlezone

Recent instalments of New Media: 17.07.11 l 10.07.11 l 03.07.11 l 26.06.11 l 19.06.11

Listerine has nothing on this stuff.

Swords & Soldiers developer Ronimo Games has unveiled its latest project, a frantic online adversarial title known as Awesomenauts. Players will take control of one of several oddball combatants (deranged cowboy, monkey with jetpack, brain floating in tank, etc) and fight for supremacy across a variety of 2D environments.

While Awesomenauts appears at first glance to be a fairly typical action platformer, Ronimo is promoting it as a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) title. The real time strategy subgenre, popularised by Warcraft III mod Defence of the Ancients (DoTA), generally involves a clash between two teams, with each player controlling a single character.

While the majority of games in the subgenre are presently found on PC, Awesomenauts will be coming to XBLA and PSN. Its playful 2D art style and side-on perspective should also prove a talking point in a genre dominated by top-down fantasy epics.

Publisher dtp entertainment, a company with a longstanding aversion to capital letters, is yet to announce a release date.