Gabe has been experiencing the Hostile Gospel of on the job training in counterterrorism, and I've been trying to draft on his accumulated wisdom. In the manner of a pearl, there is a nettling grit that forms the center of it - and that is "getting your fucking ass kicked over and over." Inside all its Bond-tier gadgetry is a lethal, mean as hell shooter. So, it's difficult, but it also means that any round might be your round.

I had an absolutely amazing time at PAX West this year. Now that the show is over though, I have entered recovery mode where I replenish my batteries by being alone and playing video games. Before I get back to Star Wars Outlaws though I want to share some of my favorite things from this year's show.

Here is the strip that we drew for the Make-A-Strip panel, which (aside from being a twenty year PAX tradition) has become in recent years a platform to raise money for Child's Play.

It looks like I was wrong about the time for the Pin Trading community event today. It's actually at 3pm in the community room over in the Summit building. I'll have some pins to trade and I'm happy to sign stuff. Jerry says he will try and stop by as well so you might be able to catch both of us. After that I have a little break and then I'll be getting into costume and joining my friends on stage for tonight's Aquisitions Inc. live game!

-Gabe out

There's a bug on PS5 during the premium access period for Star Wars Outlaws where any time on an earlier version is essentially unrecoverable - the new version fixes it, but it can't fix the saves. Full-on progress locks tend to be pretty rare in released software, but the fact that it's connected to a higher cost version of the product makes it feel particularly bad.

I'm not on Twitter anymore because it's a hive of scum and villainy so I'll be posting here on PA about PAX. The boys and I checked out a bunch of games today in the tabletop area and I wanted to share two of our favorites. 

I love walking around PAX during setup and watching everything come together. Even after 20 years it still amazes me how fast it all happens. While doing my rounds this year I found these incredible photo cubes with pictures from the first PAX in 2004. There's even one of Jerry and I with the original Omeganauts. I looked like such a baby I had to snap a pic in front of it just to illustrate the ravages of time. Check this out!

We actually liked the trailer for The (new) Crow! Like Fox Mulder, I long to believe. If something is bad I'm happy to comport myself with reality, but I'm always ready to be surprised by a creative person. I've seen all kinds of shit - even the benighted Direct To Video era we reference in the strip showed human beings were capable of surprises even with the most meager tools. Not in this case, apparently! Not always. But I think we've all found a cool stick and become a sorcerer for a time; magic is where you find it. Or make it.

I don’t attend every PAX these days because traveling and crowds are difficult for me. I probably should not have invented a massive gaming convention then but you know what they say about hindsight. I am very excited to be at West this week though and help celebrate 20 years of PAX! If you’d like to see me at the show, here is a breakdown of my schedule over the weekend.

I can't stress this enough - Gabriel is a feral, protohuman wretch who routinely gnaws on human bones. I've tried to disabuse him of this behavior, suggesting that it's ghoulish not only figuratively but literally, but he says that all this bone stuff is just "his thing." That said, regardless of his unique diet or hulking, bestial frame, his allegiance cannot be bought - though many have tried. I on the other hand am utterly for sale. Consider me his inverse: I'm ready to engage in the sort of thing you meticulously scrub from your browser history. Liking a trailer for you is so mundane it doesn't even appear on the price sheet.

If you like weirdo story crap - and I do - Soulslike games might be the foremost genre. Twisty-ass stories you need to almost literally wrest from their hideous talons, even genre entries not made by The Progenitor tend to inherit a certain kind of ethos, ambient storytelling, and horror roots. I'll tell you straight up: I think I might not be buying these games anymore. Most of the fun I get out of them is . I like to make fun of myself or whatever for having had the temerity of getting old without the noble grace to die, but even at the shining zenith of my powers I wasn't gonna be accomplishing these feats. Ninja Gaiden, I could do - I made it my personality for a time. Those were fast! The New Difficult is a very peculiar, spiky kind of slow. All I want is the lore, and I can't get it! It's like I'm in a life or death fight with a book.

I mentioned that I'd jumped into the Krahulik Family Server for a few rounds of the new Rainbow Six, or… the newest Rainbow Six, which at this point we sorta gotta say is the old Rainbow 6 because it came out in twenty fucking fifteen. A couple things to note: even as a proponent of technology in general, and even with science fiction as a guide, the ubiquity of technology in family communication still shocks me a little bit. And two, playing games with the younger cadre - ones who haven't aged out in decrepitude, filth, and loss - is pretty baller if you like winning.

At first I was just playing Rainbow Six because my boys are into it and it was a way for me to play a game with both of them. After a week or so of playing I was honestly ready to give up. To say that this game has a steep learning curve is a criminal understatement. I was dying constantly, usually within seconds of the round starting and most of the time I never even saw my killer. I felt like not only was I not helping my boys, I was actively dragging them down. In fact I told them at one point I had no business playing this game. I was trying to decide if I should keep trying or just give up. 

It’s nearly time for the annual Child’s Play Charity Auction and we would love it if you joined us. This year’s diner auction will take place on November 22nd in downtown Seattle at the Seattle Convention Center Skybridge. You can also get a special discounted rate on a room at the Sheraton across the street. I did this last year and it made the whole night super convenient not having to worry about driving home after the event. You can get your tickets for the auction and see details for the Sheraton rooms right here.

I don't know what all of it means, yet; nobody does. I'll be right backstage when Phil Spencer discusses the manifold futures that may occur. Outside of a couple very specific instances - and I think this applies almost exclusively to a few Sony owned, marquee studios - the exclusivity that once allowed a platform to differentiate its silicon is just a new way to lose money. Helldivers 2, whatever else it may be, showed Sony and maybe everybody else what good it was keeping your toys to yourself. Square Enix learned that the tentpole games it wants to make barely make financial sense as exclusives, even on a console with almost sixty million units. So what does it look like when you represent the most massive agglomeration of game development talent, brands, and resources that has ever existed? Is exclusivity real in that case? Is it real, chat.

Pictured here: young Noah, who for some reason shares a fascination with Alien and Aliens with my own youngest creature. Called Ronia, she has red hair and blue eyes, which I think is the rarest phenotype. Anyway! These youths could not be more different, but they are absolutely united on this: Alien and Aliens ball hard. That is to say, they ball out of control.