I'm not sure if there is a slipperier slope than trying to determine creative primacy, and the slope in question is further lubricated by the fact that we're talking about not only popular culture but also literary heritage and folklore. Everyone borrows. Some borrow more than others, and we have laws to govern that sort of double-dipping. But it remains to be seen whether the court will find in White Wolf's favor where the movie Underworld is concerned.

If you could take a second and help us out with a little survey in the forum that would be swell.

I thought I would share some new CTS artwork with you all. Click on the thumbnail below to see the full image.

There are lots of good questions in the forum and since only ten of them will get picked for the interview I figured I’d answer a few here.

Guy's Night Out for us is essentially the same as Guy's Night In. I don't think they like it very much, but we take the Cube over to Lanwerx a couple nights a week with the GBAs and play Crystal Chronicles. It's just some neutral Switzerland everybody can get to.. We don't, um... pay them anything, we just go over to the couch and plug in our own console. I doubt that's regulation. They haven't said anything yet, though I really try to emphasize it when I purchase a Jolt Cola from the vending machine, as if to say "These Quarters Weigh A Thousand Of Your Earth Pounds."

A few people asked who is in the picture up there. So from left to right you have Porkfry, Tycho, and Brad. I am the one taking the picture. We don't look anything like the characters in the strip because we didn't realize the characters were actually us until the second year. If that makes you angry I don’t really care. You’re ugly too, so stop fucking mailing me about it.

I suppose if there is a problem with Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, it’s that only four people can play. This can result in some friends feeling a bit left out.

Comixpedia is asking the community for questions that they will then ask us in an interview later this month. If you want to ask us something post your questions here.

Sorry it took so long but here are some great pictures from our last Lanwerx Gaming Day. I’d like to say thanks again to Bungie for coming down and showing off Halo 2 as well as Halo PC. Also thanks to all the PA fans that showed up, I hope you all had as good a time as we did.

We played Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles for about six hours straight the other day. I respect the fact that lots of you are not interested in this game because it requires so many hard to find peripherals, like GBA’s, link cables and living breathing human beings.

Just a quick update here, a bunch of really interesting news popped up today.

Explaining this strip would be impossible, except to say that it is - like the Claw Shrimp strip - a precise transcript of a conversation. I know that there are people who come by Penny Arcade exclusively for the cock talk, and who are we to deny them?

I just thought I would post his comment here since the link to it seems to be getting hammered. It’s interesting that he believes that saying he’s not going to post there anymore is some kind of punishment to the community. He is a PR guy. That’s like the fucker who fills my inbox with Viagra spam telling me he’s sick of my attitude and so he won’t be sending me anymore mails about turning my dick into a monster.

This strip won't make as much sense if you haven't read Alex "Marweas" Rodberg's now legendary quote from this RelicNews forum thread. And let's be absolutely transparent - he and I do not disagree materially on the quality of forum discourse in the most general sense. In fact, I believe I'm quoted as saying that they "appear to incubate and empower a twisted menagerie of fucking assholes." And no-one knows better than I do how difficult, almost impossible it is to please truly dedicated gamers. These are all matters quite apart from how the public face of a company should comport itself.

Here is an excerpt from a letter I got from a game store employee. I chose this letter because it covers many of the same issues I got from other employees.

Otogi is like Shinobi only with better graphics, better music, better level design, a more robust combat system including the ability to purchase new weapons and magic that will alter your characters stats and combos, tighter controls and a camera that actually works. The fact that most stores are only ordering half of a copy though means it might be difficult to get your hands on one. Once again the Pre-ordering system fucks the average gamer in the ass. It's the same thing that happened with REZ, ICO and APEX. They don't get many pre-orders so they only get in a few copies. Then everyone realizes what an awesome game it is and you can't fucking buy it anywhere.