Both of the campaigns Microsoft is running these days - the ones about finding laptops and the newest one, with a cost/benefit analysis of the Zune Pass - just aren't very robust. That is the polite way of saying that they are dumb. Saying that they are dumb is the polite way of saying they're disingenuous, and saying that they are disingenuous is the polite way of saying that the people responsible for them should lose their jobs.

So we have a great big hardcover anniversary book coming out early next year. It's called the Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade and I think it's going to be really cool. It's got our favorite comics from all ten years, all our major story lines, including all the CTS strips. It's got a big section about how we make the comic and articles on Child's Play, PAX and the history of PA. It's also got a section of Penny Arcade artwork from some of my absolute favorite artists like Stephen Silver and Scott Kurtz. It's going to be a really great book and I actually just finished up the cover for it yesterday. Here's a sneak peek.

It seems like my players just can't stop twittering during our Monday night D&D games. Kiko actually ends up making a pretty complete log of the evening with pictures and everything. I've had a few people ask me about one of the pics he uploaded from our last game.

Just because he dreamed it doesn't mean it isn't true: The Gambler is on his way to Rock Band. You might recall that Gabriel is attuned to the song, in almost spiritual sense, and the announcement was cause for celebration.

We have discussed before how some field projected by Gabriel sends forking cracks through the machines in his life, bringing them to ruin. Brenna has a similar effect, but the underlying mechanism is different.

There was a lot going on, perhaps too much, and when this happens we know someone who can manage this sort of thing reliably. He said/she said entanglements of the sort the Garriott lawsuit is comprised of are fundamentally not fascinating. Might be best here to assert a kind of sci-fantasy undercarriage to his complaint, and move to the next item.

I posted these on my Twitter yesterday, but I wanted to make sure you all saw them. These are pictures of the prototype CTS figure.

It sounds like the blame can be spread around on the PC side of the equation, but even on the Xbox 360 version of Broken Steel - sharp bit of naming, that - users are making a their strange issues known. Broken Steel is the one I waited for, the "real" expansion which would deepen the charter of the original game. There's a rumor going around about a fourth content drop for Fallout 3 - in what wretched state would such a creature be delivered, I wonder? It's enough to make one consider divination, even taking into account the inherent dangers.

I picked up the new Wolverine game on Friday and put maybe five hours into it over the weekend. I've heard it's about ten hours total so I'm only about half way through, but damn this game is a blast. I'm not done with the game yet obviously but here's some stuff I really love about it:

-The lunge move! Locking onto an enemy and then leaping at him like a wild fucking animal is awesome.
-All the combos and finishing moves. Even at the five hour mark I am still killing guys in new and gruesome ways.
-Classic Wolverine costume. The only thing better than dismembering people is doing it while wearing bright yellow tights!
-The skill/mutagen system. You can upgrade wolverine's abilities and slot new mutagens to customize his powers.
-The graphics. They are sweet!


Things I don't like:

-The "Boss fights". Sometimes a giant monster will come after you and the fight quickly devolves into you dodging and then leaping onto his head and pressing x over and over. Not much fun.

This is one case where a demo sold me on the game. Wolverine really wasn't something I had planned on picking up, but I grabbed the demo and had a blast. So far I have not been disappointed with the purchase. If you like a good brawler I say go grab this one.

The other thing I did this weekend is finish my latest painting.

I've been colonized by some invasive organism, origin unknown, and I can feel it breeding and pooling in my substructure. I've realized that I always preface posts written under these conditions with the assertion of my illness, and the reason I do it is to warn you. My grip on English is tenuous, even in the full flower of health. This preface is a ragged man waving a makeshift flag, shouting, "Turn back, friends! A poet haunts these woods!"

Cable problems are a fundamental part of the human condition, but even in a chorus of the damned Gabriel's cries pierce the din. His relationship with technology has always been a briar maze, one I have done my best to hack down, though this was a much simpler task when our computers occupied the same room. These days he must contend with Tech Support, which I understand has been outsourced to Gehenna.

Between the time this comic was written and now, the natural motion of the Internet has shifted the story somewhat - let me catch you up to speed. Everything more or less started with a discussion on the Star Wars: The Old Republic boards about their profanity filter, which included words like "gay" and "lesbian" along with garden variety naughties like "fjorded" or "hamhocking." No doubt the spirit of this act was was to keep such language from being used as a cudgel.

In the hooting menagerie of your typical thread, wisdom is in short supply. Even by these debased standards, the discourse is a shit spigot with the valve snapped off. Post after wriggling post, the mendacity is unrelenting. We're not representing ourselves very well to the universe. In a fantasy I return to often, I'm called before the Zikzak World Eater to make a case for the planet Earth, which they call Kak'rak. After a few moments of consideration, I shrug. A hundred gallons of foul saliva rolls over the slavering jaw, or mandible complex, or whatever passes for a mouth among the Zikzak warrior caste.

This is just a quick heads up that out Juice bringer Knight poster is now available online. Originally the plan was to make this for Sakuracon but the demand for it was pretty crazy so we put some extras in the store.