Because their shit tends not to work at launch, and because by the time it does work I'm typically enamored of some kind of free to play browser strategy nonsense, I stopped picking up most EA titles new. Gabriel won't be without golf titles though, his allegiance to the courses of his youth demands it, and he has rededicated himself to the sport. So.
When we did our Kickstarter last year we thought it would be funny to include a few joke backer rewards. One of them we decided to pull right from this Penny Arcade strip about Kickstarting things. The reward was that I would shout your name while chasing a duck. I want to reiterate that this was a JOKE and we did not think people would actually expect me to do it.
Today’s Strip Search episode is pretty powerful I think. Tycho and I have a policy here at Penny Arcade. It’s to show you everything. Even when it’s embarrassing, or makes us look bad. We share it all with you guys through the comics and everything else we do. Well it doesn't get much more “real” than this episode of Strip Search.
I asked Gabriel if the Luigi's Mansion that just came out for the DS had a multiplayer mode, and he didn't know. I certainly hadn't read anything to that effect, but games for the original DS had a way of hiding fascinating multiplayer gameplay experiments on the cartridge somewhere for play from a single card. The next day, he came back with news: it did have multiplayer. Good multiplayer, in fact. Even if describing how to play it is just inherently profane.
I picked up Monster Hunter for the Wii U and for the 3DS in the hopes that I would finally get into this series. I tried the Wii U version first and got bored pretty much immediately. I clicked through a bunch of tiny text boxes and then got sent out to kill what amounted to a prehistoric cow. I beat on this thing for a while and then got a quest to go kill a couple more monsters. If a game doesn't capture my interest within the first 30 minutes to an hour I’ll usually never play it again. I realize this has probably kept me from enjoying some great games but the reality is I have no shortage of fun games to play right now.
I have gone into what makes Doctor Who simultaneously so Doctor and so inexpressibly Who before. We have family in town for whom The Doctor and his Blue Box are borderline offensive nonsense, so I haven't seen the new episode yet. But I have, kinda. Right? Regardless of the content of this particular extradimensional excursion, its rod and its staff, they comfort me.
Today’s Strip Search episode is a real doozy. This challenge was about dealing with fans/trolls on Twitter and we brought in guest judge Scott Kurtz to critique the artists on their social media skills.
Because of the way our kind experiences time, doing what you want to when you want to can be a complex undertaking. For example, I am writing a newspost right now when what's really needed is for me to play Bioshock Infinite for a super long time.
Wow what a weekend. PAX was a crazy big success again, thanks to everyone who came out and made it so awesome. One of my favorite things this year was seeing the incredible response to our new Pinny Arcade pin trading. I can’t even count how many pins I gave out but it had to have been in the thousands. By Sunday we were sold out of pins at the merch booth and it was awesome to see all the trading going on at the show. Not only did you guys seem to really love the pins but the exhibitors did as well. After seeing how popular it was we had so many companies come to us and ask about making pins not just for PAX Australia and PAX prime but for other conventions like E3 and comic con. We even had publishers asking about putting special Pinny Arcade pins in collectors editions of their upcoming games. I am so excited to watch this thing grow!
We are bullish on Lego City Undercover, which looked like it was basically gonna be GTA minus the G and the T, which is basically true. It's also incredibly silly in that Disney Pixar sorta way, in that it fights a Two Front War against children and their parents with physical humor and references that aren't meant for every member of the intended audience.
In the very first Elimination episode of Strip Search, I ask my co-conspirator Gabriel if we are even capable of performing in the way we ask contestants to during the challenge. I asked it partially because I thought it might be a good line, which you might be able to triangulate from my wholly manufactured "high gravitas" tone, but also as a real question, because the methods we use to determine who is best - when hiring, or for the show - are incredibly intimidating. And I can tell you, just from my own perspective, it's very strange when you build a company staffed by such competent people that you probably couldn't get hired there.
Want to watch all the cool stuff happening at PAX East this weekend but can’t make it to the show? Well Twitch has you covered. They will be streaming tons of great content from the show all tree days. You can find all the details right here.
It's PAX! PAX is today.
It is incredibly strange to have something be true for the first thirty seven years of your life and then cease to be so. I found my parents' divorce at eighteen quite startling, but that was a Deeply Localized Fact that did not have an effect on incarceration rates. Remember that all of this hubbub is about a substance that has, as its primary effect, the not doing of anything.
Brian asked me to let everyone know what he’ll have in the merch booth at PAX this weekend.
I got a lot of interesting responses to my post on Monday. It sounds like I’m not the only one out there who avoids things because they are illegal. With the laws about Marijuana in Washington flipping I’ve heard from quite a few people in my position of being mid to late thirties, never having tried the stuff and curious what it’s all about. So I’ll go ahead and break down my first experience with it. Get ready for REAL TALK part 2.