After that initial day at the SakuraCon, we tried to imagine an event that could possibly feel more hostile to us. Of course, that con turned out alright, so who knows. We have provided the flyer in the strip in case you want to publicize an event which is not real.

I have a strange gaming condition that I simply must reveal to someone.

If I have a single excellent game - let's say, Planescape: Torment, which I am quite prepared to call the finest fantasy RPG ever created - if I have a single excellent game, I can reasonably be expected to focus on it until completion. I can even juggle one or two with a good chance of success. But at around three games I truly want to invest myself in - right now, let's call them Phantasy Star Online, Raven Shield, Planetside, and "I can't say because of the NDA" - something weird occurs. Instead of opening Excel or something and trying to graph how many hours each game one may consume before a switch is necessitated, I'm seized by the need to save these games for some future point - perhaps to be played amidst the wreckage of civilization after a nuclear holocaust. I mean, shit, I don't know. I just know, like I know I'm talking to you now, that I need to stow these things away. That doesn't mean that I don't play games - far from it. I just have to find new ones, small ones, to take the edge off like methadone. I found a number of great games this weekend through various sources, and should you ever require respite from X where X equals some stupid bullshit, allow me to help.

I was actually over at HomeLAN reading an interview I believe when the whole thing started. They have a link on the right to a game called Marble Blast, which I figured for a Marble Madness clone but is instead a Monkey Ball clone. Well, mostly. It has a series of interesting powerups that switch up the gameplay a bit, in all it was a great way to keep my mind off famine and global conflict. HomeLAN also had a link to Orbz, which looked cool but I was busy playing the other games I'm about to mention. Orbz is from 21-6, whose puzzle game Cyclone ain't bad, neither.

has cooked up a little game called Starscape that manages to combine space shooting with RPG. Two great tastes, "You got your shooter in my RPG, no you got your, etc." It may consume you, I'm just giving you fair warning.

is, I suspect, run by foreign nationals. Their games are also available for seditious alternative operating systems. All is forgiven once you play their excellent shooters, derived, and then purified from classics like Robotron and Defender. The games look and play great - I mean, well.

is also staffed by foreigners, strange foreigners whose pungent spices flavor a host of truly unique dishes. They sometimes turn their hands to the production of Videogames, and God bless them for it. Their mouth-watering Star Monkey was there for me when last I needed stimulation, and my return visit proved fruitful. Red Ace Squadron features hot biplane on biplane action and even includes multiplayer. The main thing I came away with was Ultra Assault, which takes the space shoot-them-up Star Monkey and does it one better. Indeed, Ultra Assault is essentially a modern Alcon, which is a very good thing.

I also played A Tale In The Desert, but that could be a post all by itself. Every one of these games can be played for free in their demo form, and all are extremely cheap to upgrade for full use.

Alright, this is the last Magnetic Fields quote, I promise. The simple fact is that once you own the album "69 Love Songs," you just don't need anything else.

(CW)TB out.

astronomy will have to be revised