One of the "delights," which I guess I don't 100% mind but whatever, is that before I can get a newspost typed up over here I typically have to spend a half an hour or so fixing the computer I'm working on. I wouldn't even know how to compare the machines my parents own to my own machines or computers in general. I'm not surprised that people hate computers if this is their experience with them. Just as a point of reference, when I click the mouse on my computer, shit happens. Forces are marshalled and great engines roar. On my mom's laptop, there is a mouse attached, but it does nothing, like a vestigial tail.

We offer free booth space to game developers at the conventions, but it takes a little different shape depending on where you go: PAX 10 was the original "indie" showcase, at East it's similar but focuses on mobile, and the newest show in San Antonio focuses exclusively on tabletop offerings.

Running a total of four strips, Nightlight: All Through The House is a four strip Nightlight story about, you know. Things that permeate houses, I guess! You'll know when you see it.

It is really weird that there is a new Star Wars movie out! And they are just going to keep coming now. "There is another" hitting around next year around this time. I barely know what to do with this information, and even the information I do have is porous. I know that in The Force Awakens there is some kind of lightsaber person and one of the robots is round. That's basically the state of play. It doesn't seem like a lot to hang a movie on, but who knows.

Merry Christmas.

According to The Compact struck between Brenna and I, we must venture over the frozen Devil's Teeth every other year to the hated Spokane, a corruption of Sa Pako Chaon which in the Bureaucratic Mode of the Mid-Hell tongue means "That Place Which Is Arguably Worse Than Other Places."

One index of the esteem I hold Cliff Bleszinski in is that I can spell his last name without looking it up. He has been making games of one kind or another since basically forever. And, having spent more than a decade now in one long, perpetually interesting time, we're going to check in with him at the PAX South Storytime and see what's going on with him these days.

I mean, yeah; from a purely numerical standpoint the Child's Play Charity Dinner And Auction was a roaring success, with just under two hundred thousand dollars raised in a night. This must be considered a joy spigot. But upon the completion of our noble labors, it occurred to Gribz that he might wring out a few more bucks from people by having me remove my coat and perform a little dance that has been called "by turns sad and terrifying" and "the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse."

Something I have been trying to figure out for a while is this weird inferiority complex some people who write about games seem to have about games. I've been thinking about it for ten years or so, and I only figured it out last night.

I realized, with some horror, that we had not covered Gabriel's perspective on Rainbow Six, which is that it is "bad" and also "not good." What's more, perpetually descending into fortified lairs is not, for him, a scenario correlated with relaxation.

Otherwise, it'll be the shortest Q&A ever. Here is Robert's magical form you can fill out!

Most of the Heroes of the Storm we played happened in the Alpha, and then the Beta, beginning when it didn't really have anything like a unified interface. The general rule is that Blizzard doesn't release something as a Beta unless another company would release it at retail, and I think that mostly held true here also.

Just Cause 3, the game that launched a thousand streams, hasn't really been on our radar. There is always more than one game out when a Just Cause drops, which is inconvenient, and we've always been playing the other ones. But God Damn. I think Gabriil has more to say, but if you were wondering what his play loop could possibly look like, here you go.

I’m having a blast with Just Cause 3. It’s a sandbox game with a heavy emphasis on the “sandbox”. Like a real sandbox, I’d say that the amount of fun you have in Just Cause will be determined by how much of your own imagination you bring to the game. You can sit in the sand and complain that there’s nothing to do, or you can make your own fun. I feel like Just Cause 3 is pretty much the same. The tools they give you like the grappling hook, the wing suit, the explosives and all the crazy vehicles are there but it’s sort of up to you to decide what you want to do with them. I’ve spent nights assaulting bases and blowing shit up. I’ve also spent nights attaching cows to cars. The physics are pretty goofy but they emphasize fun over realism which is fine with me. I say give it a try, or at least watch some streams of it because some of the shit that happens in this game is totally bonkers.

One of the the things that make PAX the best show of its kind is the Enforcer corps - a elite cadre that makes the event possible. PAX South is a new show, there has only been, you know, one of them, and we need more Enforcers down there to help it while it grows. Does that sound like you? Sign up and let us know.

We're working through a backlog of Child's Play strips bought at auction, and Pat's got dialed in first. Pat, as rendered here, is our friend Patrick Rothfuss, whose book arrived in the mail one day and I have been a fan ever since. I judged that book by its cover, The Name Of The Wind, and was well served. Pat has also undertaken many excellent turns as Viari, noted sub-employee of Acquisitions Incorporated. I think someday we'll do something big together. For now, we've got this!