'Round Back

It has been fun to watch a new generation of fans discover Penny Arcade. Stumbling upon 30 years of comic strips, shows, and podcasts must be pretty fun. They have their own Discord server and they asked Jerry and I to pick winners in a PA fan art contest they were holding last month. We each picked our favorites but there were so many great pieces that I wanted to share some of them here on the site. If the only thing Penny Arcade did was occasionally inspire kids to make art I would consider this entire endeavor a huge success. 

I liked Onimusha but I certainly wasn't waiting with baited breath for a new Onimusha. In some ways, in all the ways that matter perhaps, it seemed as though Capcom had onimooshed its last.

Because PAX Houston is in the process of becoming a real event you can attend, I gave a ton of interviews this time. That's typically not something I do, for a couple reasons. It started to seem like I had been asked and then subsequently answered every question imaginable, which made me feel like there wasn't a way to be a real person inside that context. Also, there is a type of hostile person who uses the rules and framework of the interview to be a dick and minimizing contact with that kind of thing while I'm doing a show is just good opsec. So coming back into the light after being away put the differences into relief. For example: there are people so young that you can't imagine it.

Anjali knows our good friend Jasmine, so we were able to hook him up. It's all good.

Now these Zero Company strips are just gentle prayers to those let go; given its quality and level of success I I would be very surprised if the ending of that story were all bad. But you do get a Jedi on your roster at some point in the game, through a narrative conceit rather than from the squadmate creator, probably because if you could have four Jedi running around a lot of people would probably do that. I don't know if you are super up on your lore, but Jedi are space wizards with infinitely sharp swords made out of lasers. Trying to fight them with regular swords and guns would be dumb even if they couldn't also read your thoughts.

I had seen it when it came out in 1995, but I got snared by the Vampire and Netrunner card games instead - I did a lot more roleplaying than reading comics.  But, holy shit.  The story of these guys attempting to summon this "dead game" from the deep and then actually succeeding somehow got hold of me so much that we just talked about the game itself and its history for awhile.  Invincible and The Walking Dead are thoughtfully rendered here, in a game that simply has no points of reference to the dominant species of this genre.  In some ways it plays like traditional card games, where you play through a series of discrete, card limited hands.  It gives it a really interesting texture, with muiltiple victory conditions and comeback opportunities.  I dunno!  You should take a look.

(CW)TB

I just found out that Bitreactor let almost everybody go from the Zero Company before it launched, which might be why my computer is so hot. Now there are lawsuits and countersuits and tons of reasons to discuss things that aren't one of the best outings the setting has ever had.  If it isn't too painful, I hope they like the dumb comics we made.  I think the one that goes up Friday is even better.

PAX West is coming up this week and I will of course be there PAXING it up with everyone else. Here is a look at my schedule and the best times to find me at the show.

Zero Company practically from the jump has been described as - and literally embodies - the Ayurvedic concept of "Star Wars plus XCOM." I think it's best to resist this kind of mathematics when you're thinking about these things, it collapses too many variables, but then again I'm obsessed with lineage in games and so the two might be considered parents…? It doesn't really matter, though. You can say that phrase, and recognize that it refers to a truth in our world, and still not really know what it would mean. XCOM, like many wargames, tells a story through mechanics that the mind is only too happy to fill with context.  That happens here, too.  But it also has a baller story, good writing, and some startling suprises.  If we gotta get our Star Wars from the computer now, this is a great start.

I know that all my Foon Fiends are already logged the fuck in, but Mork and I somehow wriggled our way into the realm of the Podcast - and further incursions into the mainstream can't be far off.  If you already know what the show is, then that's good.  If not, I might just go in blind.  I just listened to the first half, and I can verify that everybody but me was incredibly funny.

(CW)TB

I eventually bounced off the first Mortal Shell because it was too fucking hard, but I ended up screwing around with the Open Beta for the sequel and it got its hooks in. That's one of the best demos I've ever played for a game, and it did a mean trick where there are invisible forcefields at certain points to halt your progress. I mean, I guess they can't give the whole game away, but God Damn if that didn't inspire a purchase. Now I know exactly what's behind that shimmering curtain of force: death, death, and more death. Which I should have guessed from the jump.

I'm obsessed with Lanterns. We both are. And even though our affection for justice is roughly equivalent - even though I'm the only one who knows what Sector we're in - still, the ring chose him. I have a rubric for keeping myself unmolested in this time, and it involves recognizing if something is green or not. Historically, green has been an inviting color - that's what makes it all so insidious.

I have been spending a few hours each weekend working with traditional tools. My family started requesting Pokemon and I’ve been sharing some of my progress over on my BlueSky. I know not everyone is on social media these days so I’m sharing here:

I haven't even seen any of the leaks; they are effervescent, and quickly boil away. I just know that there are a steady set of leaks for a game that is considered synonymous with the industry, and it only blooms narratively from there: now in addition to the data heist we've got crypto, and for a brief time there was a supposed Dead Man's Switch that would have released the game to the world if anything happens to him. Just unbelievable stuff. I hope the "Cyberleek Entity" is having fun while it lasts. You know? Order DoorDash or something. Do it up.

I always thought the comparison between "Actual Play" and Pornography was kind of a silly joke that had a little bit of truth in it, like all jokes which have the capacity to endure. Apparently this is something that people fought over, and were subsequently dissuaded from, all before I ever got to it. It's certainly never stopped me before. Previous interlocutors might have been dissuaded on account of their social station or desire to appease a cryptographically cycling moral framework. In my degraded state, laid low by my…. Well, by my "me," currying favor is not only beneath me it's literally impossible.

Whenever Gabe gets a bee in his bonnet about something, I tend to benefit. So do you, ultimately. When he got seriously into Formula 1, somehow by the end of it we were operating a racing reality show via Motorsport Manager with larger than life characters and life-changing stakes every week. I guess the actual cars were also cool.