I'm acting as Gabe's proxy in this strip - essentially, he's "broken up" with Lost. It's complicated by the fact that he holds weekly "Lost Nights," where Lost-themed snacks are sometimes offered, but he's come to conclusion that there's no story actually being told. He no longer believes that events are happening according to some overarching plan. Watching the show now is apparently awful, because where he once perceived a carefully revealed structure he now just sees a couple guys out back beneath a tarp, flashlights held under the chin.

Tycho’s wife Brenna is actually a professional costume maker. We roped her into creating some Halloween costumes for the boys this year. Kara and I decided to make Gabe a Moogle and Tycho wanted Elliot to be a Crocolisk. Yes I know we are huge fucking nerds.

Is a completely different game.

Recently returning home on a terrifying sky journey, Gabriel tried to explain that he couldn't shut off his game system - couldn't - because the Mana Tree had just released some kind of surge, unleashing monsters upon isle of Illusia. His aircraft's stern women were unmoved, even by the delicacy and imminence of his imaginary plight, because the genuine danger posed by airborne videogames was simply too grave.

As I mentioned a few days ago, Gabe and I created two Europeans out of thin air - created men, as the Gods do. Well, maybe just their Live Accounts. But as we logged on, Gabriel was seized by a new kind of fear. That fear is the subject of today's comic offering.

Welcome to the show notes for Downloadable Content 10/20/2006, "Advertising In The Future." The episode is available for direct download at this link, or feel free to subscribe to our iTunes compatible feed here. This one is pretty weird - Scott Kurtz was over, and so there was a lot going on, and not everyone is always perfectly audible. Might be best enjoyed on a pair of headphones. On the off chance that some portion of it might amuse you, we have made it available.

I’m pretty frustrated with Tiger 2007. Based on the demo, I picked up a 360 for my Dad. He really liked playing Links with us and I figured Tiger 2007 would be perfect. So I got him all set up a couple weeks ago with the box and a Live account. I told him once the game shipped I’d mail him a copy and we’d have some fun. Little did I know the game would be completely fucking busted.

You probably heard a few weeks ago that there was a Rainbow Six demo dropping today, and there is - in every region outside the United States. On these blessed shores, Official Xbox Magazine has it on lock for the coverdisc.

Gabe and I both have been cutting, shooting, and also choking our way through Splinter Cell: Double Agent's single player campaign. They've done away with the explicit "light meter" that told you when you were safe in absolute terms, replacing it with a more general purpose "spider sense" type of equipment. Early in the game, it's mounted right there on the wifebeater you are wearing in prison, and it doesn't really seem to bother anybody. We found that odd.

We have invested a prodigious amount of our spiritual resources in Tiger Woods '07, first when it was merely an eventuality and then intensifying as the recent demo gripped us with a grip everlasting.

Don't forget to come see us tonight at the Comic Stop out in Lynwood. Scott Kurtz has been visiting all week and he'll be there with
us. Come out and get something signed or get a sketch. Things get started at 6pm.

I'm disappointed, in a way - the scary stories about Battlefield 2142's subversive and dangerous spyware engine apparently aren't true. Well, hold on. It's true that it does watch what you're doing in a level - how long you looked at their advertisements, when exactly you looked at them, from what precise angle they were viewed, how far away from the ad you were standing in virtual "feet," and so forth. That's all happening. But some of the more nefarious tales I heard had to do with the application snooping around in your cookies and so forth, ogling your bookmarks, and then populating the in-game ads with your terrible secrets. Nothing like that! That's where the disappointment began to set in. I think my predilections would make for unique decor.

We’ve got two new shirts ready for your money. The first is a brand new Twisp and Catsby design based on our very first limited edition print “tea with the moon”.

The Burning Crusade expansion for WoW is coming, so named because of how the game devours human lives, leaving them a smoldering ruin. It offers up a new race for Horde players in the form of the Blood Elves, whose potent innate abilities and supernatural homestead almost - almost - make up for their unstoppable urge to feed on demonic energies.

They aren't a part of 1up's official, front-page content, but one "Joe Rybicki" has put up two complete songs  - "The Beast And The Harlot" and "Misirlou"  - on his personal blog, performed at the expert level.  I crave this kind of stuff, but then again:

<-- huge dork

(CW)TB

If you follow PA you know that Robert and I played a lot of Splinter Cell multiplayer. The demo dropped this weekend for the new multiplayer portion of Double Agent and for me at least it’s a huge disappointment.