Another odd footnote in this Quality of Licensed Games thing, it would appear - even Transformers has been treated with affection!

Speaking of City of Heroes, the last time I exited the game it began downloading the first content update, called Through The Looking Glass. Don't know how much of this stuff is going to be available to a lowly level four Magic Defender, but it looks like I probably picked the right day to start playing.

This is the pilot for a new series on Penny Arcade, called True Tales Of The Industry. We've always wanted to run a rumor column that was sixty percent fabrications. Suffice it to say, if we are calling forty percent truth good enough, we know enough things already to crack these out until the heat death of the universe.

This was interesting, I thought. Sean Epperson writes:

If you live on the west coast and you’re interested in coming to PAX you might want to think about the West Coast Supertrip! You can read all about here in the PAX forums. These are the basics:

Well, that's something we can work out. We can get you in. In fact, we can three of you in. And getting in is really easy.

I didn’t just stumble upon that skunk picture in my daily search for polecat porn. A kind reader sent me the link because apparently the creator dislikes Penny Arcade(as well as PvP and Sinfest among others). I checked the rest of his site trying to figure out what sort of person he was and found the weasel erotica. People always seem to think it is important that I know whenever they find some website that hates PA. I’m going to go on record right now and say it’s not that big a deal to us. If you don’t mail me every time someone calls me a dick, that’s probably okay.

If you are a fan of Songfight already, then you might already know this. They're doing another one of their live battles down in Tejas on the 18th and 19th of this month - this very weekend - and it seems like quite a treat. I wasn't able to attend the one in my own town, I was on the opposite side of the country, but if you're down near Austin you might want to take a look-see.

Had I just read the reviews of Front Mission 4 and not actually played the demo I might not go buy it today. Thankfully I did play the demo and I know that the reviewers are full of shit. I just want to make sure that others aren't steered away from the game by misleading reviews. If you're still hesitant at least rent it and check it out.

I'm just afraid that Gabe will learn the wrong lesson from this experience. He'll come away from it with a fear of shrubs or young men when all that's required is that he be more circumspect regarding his dalliances.

I have all the information about what's going down at the Guildhall in Texas, and another meet later that night. Here's the data, if you're in the area.

When another man questions your throughput, I mean, it's on. Driving music begins to play and you have to use your crane kick.

I’m a big fan of the new maps for Splinter Cell:PT. I think that they have a visual polish that far exceeds any of the original levels. The Osprey hovering around the beginning of the Bank level is a real treat.

You can play Four Swords with four people, three people, two, or one - but, unlike the GBA version that comes with Link To The Past, the experience doesn't change depending on the number of players you have. So, if you're playing with two people, each person gets two Links that can move in different formations. It's pretty fun, I doubt that you'll become incontinent with joy while playing it but it's better than a kick in the dick. It also uses the GBA connectivity in some new ways - any time you fall in a hole or enter a building, basically any time you are not on the overworld adventure map, you enter (or in some cases "fall into") the Gameboy. If you do decide to play it, though, you might as well familiarize yourself with the archetypes.

We're currently downloading Federal Bank and River Mall - I'd heard they were going to hit in an hour or so, but they're right there for you if you want them.

I did a piece for the new Blizzard fanart section. I thought you guys might like to see it.