Penny Arcade

I think I was probably content to let another Sonic game pass over me and through me, until I saw a video review at GameTrailers that used words like “Best” and “Game” and “in Decades,” all in rapid succession.

It approaches the whole of the Sonician ouevre via some kind of mystical craw that consumes and regurgitates beings from different times.  That’s great if you’ve managed to retain some kind of currency over your twenty-year span, but there’s also a lot of cultural shrapnel bound up in that idea, and upon closer examination those irregular hunks are the only legacy of these obliterated mascots.

Vectorman and Gex were also considered for the third panel, but the idea of a tiny, now irrelevant star seemed especially tragic.

Purchasing Uncharted 3 was complicated, but not for any of the normal reasons.  My wallet is a source of endless amusement for the tiny Valkyrie that coalesced in my home, it’s full of modern totems whose precise function is known but whose power is palpable.  These things are occasionally “misplaced.”  So when you try to buy something with a card that does not exist, when you reach for a sheath that contains no sword, nothing happens.  It’s cool, I found some money in Robert’s desk.

The best, that is to say, the most thoughtful review of the game is Simon Parkin‘s at Eurogamer.  You may know that this review, which scored a mere eight out of ten points, was considered so scandalous that the site allowed the game’s lead designer to respond on the site itself.  How gruesome and irregular is that?  In the future, perhaps they should simply have the lead designer review the game as well; that should head off any unsightly deviations.

(CW)TB out.

i could sell you tomorrow

The Child’s Play 2011 season officially started yesterday! We kicked things off this year with an incredible new website design that should make keeping up with all the different CP events much easier thanks to a new calendar. We’ve also got a brand new map that his been updated with more hospitals for 2011.

We don’t really start talking about Child’s Play here on Penny Arcade until November but it has really grown in to a year round event. Yesterday may have been the official launch but if you look at the main page you’ll see that we have already raised almost half a million dollars this year!

So please take a look at the new site. Check out the calendar and find an event you’d like to support. Or hit the map and pick a hospital to donate to directly. No matter how you choose to support Child’s Play you are helping to improve the lives of kids in hospitals all over the world. The opportunity to sit down a play a video game is sometimes the only bit of normalcy these kids get in their lives. I’ve read the letters and shaken the hands of grateful parents and seen them cry when they talk about all the good you guys are doing. I never cease to be amazed by the incredible generosity of our community.

When gamers give back, it makes a difference.

-Gabe out

**UPDATE**
I just found these numbers and had to share them. You guys are amazing!

Annual totals

2003: $250,000
2004: $310,000
2005: $605,000
2006: $1,024,000
2007: $1,300,000
2008: $1,434,377
2009: $1,780,870
2010: $2,294,317

Running Total: $8,998,564

I went back and found my very first Child’s Play post from 2003. It’s fun to go back and read how it all began.

Any preorders received before 11/20/11 will be signed by everybody here, just like last time around. t Here’s one of the bonus episodes, which is something like a Fourth Panel that didn’t result in a strip.  It’s my associate and I trying to figure out how to be better at our other job, which is “attempting to producing psychologically whole beings.”

Recall that you can preorder a couple different ways: the set itself, both seasons together, or with the shirt/mug if you so desire.

(CW)TB

Our newest limited edition Laser Cell is now available in the PA store. This particular one features the Lookouts and you might remember it as the cover to the PAX East guide last year. In fact is was requests at PAX that made us decide to turn it into a cell.

Only 1000 of these will ever be made and each one is signed and numbered. The Laser Cell process actually makes these things look really sharp. In fact I don’t think the pictures do it justice. We’ve done a number of these over the years and I think they make a really nice collectible.

Also, this reminded me of the other Lookouts drawing I did that year. This was my first concept for the cover that I eventually scrapped in favor of the one above. I still think it’s a cool drawing.

-Gabe out