It takes two HTTP servers to keep the site running smoothly, and the main one - the one I publish updates to - is housed at a co-lo facility that was having some kind of router problem. Many of you were getting in just fine, hooking up to the other of the two servers, and many of you were (more than likely) just timing out. Sorry about the trouble, it's nice to have you with us and that behind us.

With the newest Jedi Order book just around the corner, the announcement of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, the recently released Episode 2 trailer, and the imminent Jedi Knight II, it seemed as though a Star Wars strip was probably in order. Today's comic product does reference an older item, and some newer strips will probably reference this one. Don't think that I mean unbroken and uncouth continuity though, God no. Let's try to keep a level head about this.

In my most recent post, there was wild gesticulation as I imagined what a united GBA and GameCube might be able to accomplish. I did it mainly to enjoy myself. Things like using the GBA as a display, or secondary controller, though? The Nintendo Rep came by (PA reader) Belabor's store, to hard-boil my lofty dreams while they were still in the egg.

"You can't do this. Nintendo is currently downplaying this sort of ability because, as it turns out, it's not possible. The most we are going to see out of the GBA-GC link is the kinda stuff in Sonic Adventure 2/Sonic Advance. It can download/upload files, but it won't actually act as a 'controller' or a 'secondary display' for the GC. Nice how they tell us now? Or in this case, just not tell the actual gamers anything at all. The Nintendo rep came in to our store to tell us about this. Granted, she knows less about this stuff then the idiots at EB, but she seemed to know what she was talking about with this... as if she were told by superiors to tell us specifically about it."

I've received mails all day countering these claims, and I've collected them in the comments section below.

People have been telling me for months to hop on-board the Ragnarok Online MMORPG train, and ride it to wherever. I signed up weeks ago, but I couldn't find any place on their own (belabored, foreign) site to get the beta client. There's links when I look there now, but good luck getting anything from their distant machines - if you'd like to try this thing out, I'd recommend trying to grab it from FilePlanet or Khabal Gaming, where I got it. You really can't beat free, and if you have even a cursory interest in things Massively Multiplayer you should treat yourself to it. My experience with it so far has been that it runs real well - and there's a good chance you'll be charmed by the feel, situated as it is somewhere between Precious Moments and Final Fantasy. The scenery, characters, and hats are wondrous to behold, and to look at them is to let your eyes eat.

ADORABLE.

How does it play? Shit, I don't know. Hard to say, yet. Like any offering from this genre, you begin your adventuring career without any money, possessions, or motor skills, like a very tall baby. By way of example: I was slain outright by an evil ball of cotton, which I can tell you from personal experience makes you feel like a big, big pussy. But taking that gelatinous mass they give you, and working it into something worthwhile - it's the first twenty levels of these games that I cherish the most, and I'm right in the middle of it. The shine still hasn't come off, so I'm still making a jubilant noise when I travel from zone to zone, or move the camera around. I like to click and click on monsters that haven't done shit to me, sell their organs, and then find other monsters that look like the other one, and ask them if they've seen their friend Bob. "I thought I saw him over there," I say, barely concealing my glee. "I wonder where Bob is."

Hey! Wang-Fu shirts are again available, in any size your mind can envisage. We'll be restocking other shirts (and introducing new ones, zero to drunk, etc.) as we can fund them, but the shirt that sold out first seemed like the best place to start.

(CW)TB out.

if you can hear a piano fall
you can hear me coming down the hall