For some reason I though I had an extra week between now and Christmas. I was thinking about all the shit I have to get done before we go back to Spokane and I figured I had plenty of time. Everytime I thought about all the comics we would have to do for the week we will be out of town or finishing the Samus wallpaper I just planned on getting them done during this imaginary week I had before we left. I felt like I had plenty of time so I spent most of the day yesterday playing Guilty Gear XX. This game has a grip on me and I could not put it down. I recently learned however that Christmas is this week and we are in fact leaving on Sunday. With this new information I think that my time yesterday was probably ill spent.
However if you are going to casually shrug off your responsibilities to well over a hundred thousand people and blow a day playing videogames I highly recommend you try out Guilty Gear XX. I will try and have a more complete review of it up after I get back from Spokane but I did want to talk about it just a little before I leave. If you are unfamiliar with the Guilty Gear series... well then I am ashamed of you, get out of my sight. Okay come back, I can't stay mad at you. GG is at its core a 2D fighting game with extravagant character designs and extremely deep play mechanics. Guilty Gear XX takes these core concepts to a level so high that if someone were to stand atop it they would no doubt comment on their ability to see their house from there. I am talking about a game that gives you three or four ways just to cancel out of a move. Air Throws, Negative penalties, Roman Cancels, Faultless Defense Cancels, Dust Attacks, the list of special abilities and tricks is insane. However Guilty Gear XX also sports a combo system that is simple enough for any new player to jump in and really deal some damage. Button mashing will only get you so far though and eventually you will need to invest some real time in learning the more advanced techniques. Well this is already longer than I intended it to be and I have not even gotten to the graphics yet. Let me just finish by saying the game is a work of art. You have never seen a fighting game that looks this good. Guilty Gear XX is currently an import title for the PS2. The whole game is in English though so there is really no reason to wait for a US version if you have the ability to play imports now. Speaking of Imports, Safety Monkey is currently ass deep in Zelda: The Wind Waker. He has promised us a very detailed write up about his time spent with the game.
There is a new Hook Up available. This week Storm Shadow tells you how to handle the rats nest of cables behind your television and how to adjust your TV for optimal picture quality.
Kiko has three new shirts available at Gameskins.com. You might not know this but Kiko actually does all the Gameskins shirt designs himself. His latest stuff is pretty fucking sweet, and I am not just saying that because I accidentally killed him with a frag grenade in the Army game the other night. Also please don't mail Kiko and yell at him because there aren't many PA shirts available right now. He just prints them and sends them out. It is our job to restock them. Our problem is that they tend to sell out in one or two days. Each time we do it we think we will have enough and we never do. The next time we restock them I think we will just order like a hojillion and see how long they last.
Watch out for the 26th annual Penny Arcade "We're Right" awards starting on Monday.
-Gabe out
