So I am the big two nine today. I guess I have one more year of youthful indiscretion before old age is upon me. It seems like birthdays are a good time for reflection and so I hope you’ll forgive me if this is a little mushy.

Stop whatever you're doing right now and watch this video - offered in HD for Windows Media or Quicktime. That's Level 5's White Knight Story, and I must stress for readers that Level 5 is in no way fucking around. That's how you sell us a Goddamn Playstation 3. We are almost impervious to many of the brands that define Sony's hardware: for us, Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo emit no will crushing pheromones. Compare that to the White Knight clip, which is a fairly comprehensive tour of my private desires.

There's a game that will be downloadable on the PS3 called "Flow" or "flOw" which I read about over at Kotaku, and in the comment thread discussing it a user threw out the links to a version playable online - it's pretty interesting.  You can click that link to play it, and you can also head over here (highly recommended) to delve into the philosophy behind it.  I think you'll be intrigued.

(CW)TB

Otherwise engaged on Wednesday, Tokyo had a head start on us - its powerful newsings daring to accrue, even as we were being sodomized at the border crossing. Much of this content was indecipherable. But we can still point and shriek, like when a monolith descends.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3 is impressive in many ways, as I've suggested: certainly as a technical showcase, it's nice to have in your bag. As a catalogue of Japanese aggression toward gamers, it's clear now that future generations will refer to these advanced cups as a deeply scandalous exhibit. I have seen a Goddamn ninja weave a dark circle, disappear with a burst of leaves in some strictly Hattori Hanzo type shit, and then phase back into the physical plane to haunt our mortal hoops.

So I picked up my MacBook Pro a few months back and I would not call myself a convert but I do really like it. I’ve been doing all the basic iLife stuff, like making DVD’s of Gabe’s birthday party and photocasting pictures to the family. I am getting much more comfortable with the Mac but there are still some things I don’t quite understand and so I have a couple questions for you guys.

We were getting our hands on a four gig CompactFlash for the podcast recorder when the "friendly staff" gave us an idea for a new comic. Thank you, friendly staff! May nothing ever happen to your... staff.

I sort of have a reputation for being the hot headed one here at the Arcade. I think that’s probably fair to say. I have a habit of saying very mean things to people I don’t agree with. As much as I might try not to be that guy it’s just sort of become my role.

All the news about Nintendo's newest "thiing" is on the table, and now - with great consternation - the Internet responds. We obtained a digital audio recorder to make recording podcasts for you a straightforward enterprise, and I think we're close, but our extended meditation on today's facts and figures was somehow devoured by the machine I have just described. So, I'll try to remember the stuff that stood out.

Positive Sony news here, at Penny Arcade? I know, right? We shall redouble our efforts. The story all this was based on has been changed to say that none of it is true, or that very little of it is true (depending on who you ask), but if you're asking me I think the original story hit pretty close to the mark. The alternative - which is to say, that xFire technology would be used for a single game and no others - suggests that their service will be another briar patch of vendor "interpretations" of an online community, which can't possibly be true. I refuse to believe that, in this generation, they would leave something like this to chance.

Have you heard Weird Al's new song?  It's pretty much required listening for Internet Enabled Citizens - made even easier to recommend by the addition of a video animated by Bill Plympton.

(CW)TB
 

Wild of eye and manner, Gabriel burst into the room and offered up these choice morsels. Given the sensitivity of today's topic, I should stress that he did not offer up choice morsels of horse, horse morsels, which I suppose might be called horsels.

The whole reason I wrote that other post was to link the new article about it at 1up, and I didn't even manage to do that - here you go.  In a way, I'm glad I didn't link it before - in the intervening period, a new episode of the 1up show has dropped that has a ton of interview and video material for every part of Episode 2 - including TF2 and Portal.  It's the top video on this page.  Unbelievably delicious.

(CW)TB
 

A crafty puzzle/platformer 1) from the first person perspective and 2) with a unique gameplay hook which is also 3) set in the Half-life Universe is more than I can handle mentally.  The existing materials point toward a clinical, detached, (but most importantly) truly original sense of humor, which I guess is what happens when you hire Old Man Murray to do your writin's.

Another reason I have positive associations with it are that, yeah, this team is originally from DigiPen, our local game development institute - you can check out work and games from other students here. They showed their final project to the guys at Valve, and (to hear that interview tell it) before it was even over they'd been offered jobs developing an advanced version of their concept on their in-house technology.  Valve pulls directly from the community with extraordinary frequency, a philosophy so intensely moral I can hardly articulate it. 

Episode 2 is hitting along with Team Fortress 2 and Portal, in a single purchase, and it seems crazy that I would get all of that for twenty dollars.  They haven't announced pricing yet, and I imagine that's why.  I don't want to pay more than I need to, certainly, but one of the things I like about buying things directly from Valve is that I perceive it as being humane.   I don't want them to kill themselves entertaining me, and if they suffer at my expense, then I at least want to compensate them fairly. 

(CW)TB

Before PAX I mentioned that I had drawn a few cards for the World of Warcraft CCG. I posted the Leeroy Jenkins card and mentioned I had a few more. Things got crazy when PAX hit and I forgot. I remembered this morning though that I still had those cards to show you so here’s another.