Valkyria Chronicles has exposed the whirring mechanical core of our relationship, the meshed interests that probably lead to the creation of the site ten years ago. It's a wholly new tactical experience, a gridless affair that manifests artistry from top to bottom. We overlap, here. We overlap, too, on the more lavish cutscenes. Neither of us has any enthusiasm for the banal insights into human nature that many Japanese games traffic in, but even there we have agreement. He has zero interest in upgrading squads, researching ordnance, customizing loadouts, matching personalities, and the other tasks that are required to maintain Squad 7's edge on the battlefield. Bookkeeping is not his heart's delight. Me, you know, I'll keep a book.

This is the sort of post that could quickly get out of hand, especially with me at the rudder.  Don't worry, I'll make it quick.

Hinterland has been out for a little while, but like Eschalon before it, the system I use to determine what goes on Greenhouse next is that:

The Child's Play Charity dinner auction is coming up on December 9th. This is always an amazing night and one I look forward to all year. 

The first two panels were an actual conversation. The third is what we might call an extrapolation.

Here's my latest painting. I really like the way this one came out. It's much larger than anything I've done before. The canvas is actually 19"x30" which was intimidating at first. I really tried to focus my color choices on this one and I think it works. 

A while back I mentioned that I recorded myself making one of the pages for our Prince of Persia project. That video is available now and I'll just go ahead and link it here.

Kiko still jumps on, I think because he saw the comic, and took pity on my diminished station. Now that several days have elapsed, I'm seeing people percolating up into my Steam and Xbox friends lists, blinking rapidly, as though having emerged from a dark cave.

MuchSLO.  Go with that, it's better.

DOES IT?!?

Seriously, Though?  ButtFlo.

I may have mentioned before that I'm sort of a gadget fiend. I am especially fond of getting new cell phones. While I loved my iPhone I was also patiently waiting for that "iPhone killer" to come along. As time went on I got more and more tired of my iPhone. The problem was I couldn't justify switching it out because nothing else available really compared. Eventually my thirst for a new gadget outweighed my better judgment and I picked up the new At&T Fuze. This is just their version of the HTC Touch Pro. I was interested in the slide out keyboard, but mostly it was the promise of their "TouchFLO" interface that got me excited. I've had the phone now for about three days and I can honestly tell you that TouchFLO is a pile of shit. 

In the most incredible season of electronic entertainment on record, I'm not ready to be yoked by a single game - to pull a plow with my neck through some frozen continent. It's the classic pendulum swing, away from persistence and toward immediacy. I have a feeling the game will still be around when things swing the other way.