Having been delayed in our return flight multiple times, the last time I saw on the clock before I was overcome by sleep was 3:59 in the morning. I didn't recognize my room when I woke up in it. Then, I missed the last couple stairs and landed in a heap. I'm seriously wondering if I will be able to type without injury.

Arc System Works' BlazBlue has, much as their Guilty Gear before it, forcibly created a domain for itself in our minds. It exhibits another strange feature, something rare in a fighter, and something I've only seen in the Guilty Gears: I don't actually mind losing. Winning is exhilarating, to be certain. But I can fail without anguish, which means I am likely to play again, which means I am able to grow in skill, which has as its happy result an increased chance of victory in the future. It's a circuit I am delighted to travel.

"Ham Doctor" was just one entry in a horrifying list we made up to shock the future.  Here are the others, if you are so inclined:

Seeing an article about the naughty language policies on Xbox Live generated two corollary effects:

I just got word that we will also have about 20 "blank" CTS figures at Comic Con. These are just white, unpainted figures. If you'd like one of the blanks they will be $75 and I'll be happy to draw all over the thing for you.

Good news! The CTS figures made it here this weekend, which means we'll have some of them down in San Diego. Comic Con will be the first place you'll be able to get these but they will be going up on the store soon. I think we'll have about 150 of them available down at the convention. I can't be certain obviously but I have a feeling that if you want one of these you should probably try and swing by within the first couple days of the show. 

I sometimes ask friends who work at Microsoft why it is that they can't just be happy with absolute dominion over the realm of personal computing. Why they must prowl and scrape, why there is snarling, why there is lurking under bushes and (most importantly) why there is a subsequent leaping out to grip customers and then drag them with their powerful jaws.

A curious fact one can learn if you actually read the article you're sourcing:

Battlefield 1942 is almost seven years old, if you can believe it. Obviously, the events depicted are much older - but we've been playing the Conquest gametype now since 2002.

Internet just came back at the office, which allowed me to see a typographical error that has apparently been festering up there all day.  I am suffering retroactively.

There was a point at which Gabriel and I decided we would be Mixed Martial Arts enthusiasts for some reason, and I don't recall exactly why. Fascination with "combat systems" is not out of the ordinary for boys of any age; and speaking personally, any new conceptual space is loaded with jargon, sparkling in rich seams, and fighting is particularly dense in this regard. I have an urge to begin simply listing the radical, mind-expanding lexicon of this space, but I wont.  Krav Maga! Okay, that one just slipped out. Glaive-Guisarme! I'd better get a new paragraph going, for real. 

When you come across two Gods creating universes from scratch, it can be worthwhile to compare their approaches.

I jumped into a live game of 1 vs. 100 on Friday night and had a really great time. Originally I was just going to jump in and take a look. Then Kara ended up joining me on the couch and before we knew it, two hours had passed. We had a blast and we never even made it into the "mob" much less got chosen as the "one". Playing from the crowd as they call it is still incredibly entertaining. You're still competing for real prizes and watching the action between the one and the mob. Cheering when they choose to battle the mob and booing when they take their money and run. I'm hooked now and plan on catching as many of the live shows as I can. The announcer was great but in my fantasy Microsoft comes to Tycho and I, and asks us to host a version of the game filled with only video game trivia. 

When Gabe told me that he and Kara had taken 1 vs 100 for a spin, enjoying it thoroughly, I asked him if he'd tried Extended Play - the relatively no-frills trivia offering - or a Live Show, which features a more robust ruleset, prizes, and living host who comments directly on the proceedings. He didn't know that was even a thing. He made the time, and came away impressed.

Immediately upon returning to my gloom-wrought domain, I cranked up my 360 and downloaded Battlefield 1943. I'd seen it at New York Comic Con, pulsing in some cluster of kiosks, and its familiarity was a comfort to me. I didn't really understand what it was at first, but it quickly became apparent that they'd made a subset of Battlefield 1942 on Bad Company's Frostbite Engine. I'm fundamentally alright with that. We were in the beta for the inaugural Battlefield title, and enjoyed it thoroughly - what's more, I think that console gamers need Wake Island, even if they don't know what that is. They are missing a critical vitamin, and when exposed to it for the first time, I am certain their bodies will respond.