Penny Arcade

The continuity continues!

I mentioned Friday that I had started reading THE DAVINCI CODE. Well as I neared the end I realized it was one of the best books I had ever read. I knew immediately that I had to get Kara to read it and so now I’m reading it over again with her. If you haven’t read it yet I highly recommend picking it up. Every five minutes I was running to my computer to look up something I had just read about just to see if it was actually true. Really Amazing stuff.

I wanted to apologize again to Club PA members who have not received their gift for last month. Tycho left me the wrong password to access the account and so He will have to send out the gift when he gets back. On a related note I am running a poll in the forums in order to pick which video game character I will draw for this months club gift. The choices are Wolverine, Nova (from Starcraft Ghost), Trinity or Talim. These are characters I have wanted to draw for a while but I could never make up my mind on who to start with. So you guys get to decide for me. Once we have a winner I’ll draw the character and Club PA members will get it at the end of the month.

There is a really interesting look at SNK vs. Capcom over at the Magic Box that is worth checking out. The Madman also has some play test notes on his site. I’ve read as much information as I can find about this game and I’m not sure what to make of it yet. It seems like for every bit of information that makes me excited to play the game there is another tid bit that makes me question what the hell SNK is thinking. I guess I’ll just have to reserve judgment until I actually get my hands on it this summer.

In order to fill some space here a few of you suggested I mention what games I am currently playing. It’s actually kind of an odd selection right now. Believe it or not most of my time is spent on Mario Sunshine. I imported the Japanese version a month or so before the US release and played it until I could not get past the language barrier. I think I had collected about forty or so shines before I got sick of not knowing what the fuck was going on. I shelved the game and never bought the US version because I didn’t feel like playing back through all that shit I had just done. Now though, months later I suddenly had the urge to finish that game and so I grabbed a used copy at my local Software Etc. and dove back into it. It’s actually been quite a different experience playing the English version and I’m having a really good time.

I’m also just about to wrap up Lost Kingdoms 2 which is sad. The game was fantastic though so I can’t really complain. I’d love to see the next version contain some online features, not even necessarily one on one battles against other players. A cooperative mode that let two players work together to clear insanely hard dungeons could be a real treat. Think about it, one player could focus their deck on attack cards while the other stacked their deck with helper creatures that boosted attack power or healed. Or how about two on two team card battles, where four players meet in arena type environments to do battle with each other. There are so many cool possibilities but Nintendo’s lack of interest in that goddamned INTERNET is fucking disheartening. “Sure we could allow players from all over the world to race each other in F-zero. We could link up the arcade and home machines in a way that would allow players on both systems to compete against each other head to head. There by breathing new life into the stale arcade industry while at the same time revolutionizing the concept of online games on home consoles. OR we could scrap that idea and let them plug their memory card into the arcade machines. I think the choice is obvious.”

The only other game I’m playing right now is Soul Claibur but that’s more training really than Playing. I’m gearing up for the Penny Arcade gaming day out at Lanwerx in Bellevue this month. I need to be in tip top shape for our SC2 tournament. Check out this page for all the information if you haven’t already done so. The SC2 tourney will be at 6:00 at night I believe but we will be playing games there all day. There will be three televisions playing Soul Calibur 2 all day and a whole bunch of computers for you to get your PC gaming fix on. We will be bringing some PA loot to give away throughout the day so get the 23rd off from work and come hang out with us. It should be a fucking blast.

The last thing for right now is just a little note just to let you know that my e-mail is a mess right now. I am working on new t-shirt and poster designs as well as about three other projects I can’t really talk about yet but are super cool. I am still reading every bit of email I get but I have gotten way behind on answering it. Just so you know, if you don’t get something back from me it’s not because I hate you. I don’t even know you. I mean, I might hate you if we were to ever meet but at the time of your correspondence to me I have no such feelings. Unless of course you are a person who I did actually meet and hated and you are mailing me to follow up on our meeting. In that case I am not mailing you back because I do hate you. So to sum up, no mail from me means there is a good chance I don’t hate you and that I am just super busy.

-Gabe out

We saw something our last day in Rome that shut me right up.  We went to something called the Cappuchine Crypt, where an order of monks made sculptures out of the bodies of brothers that had been returned to them.  Each of five or six small rooms had their floors spread with earth from Jerusalem, and over this they combines different bones into patterns, flowers and other designs.  An effigy of death itself held hourglass also made out of bones, for example - and a scythe made out of shoulder blades.

Between Venice and Rome, I’ve seen about nine different varieties of Monks, Priests, and Nuns.  What do these differences represent, I wonder - is it for intramural sports?

At the vey least, I’d imagine that each type has different skills and bonus feats.

(CW)TB

My grandfather once told me that he could make smoke come out of my ears, and I believed him.  We were talking about a being who could produce money virtually on demand, and also appeared to have a limitless supply of bubblegum.  I was willing to see this for myself, people made smoke rings and so forth, perhaps this procedure was related to that.

He took a long drag, and then stared intensely at me.

Then he burned my leg under the table with his cigarette. 

I was shocked and hurt.  What the fuck was this?  Not only was my granddad exposed as a charlatan of the worst sort, he had also burned my leg.  I learned an important lesson:  Some games are simply not worth playing.

We had been warned by absolutely every person we know about “Italian Drivers” and the danger they represent to humanity.  I had no interest in trying to actually drive there, that would have been suicide.  It would have been comitting my body entirely to game with indistinct rules, playing with a nation of opponents who are professionals at the sport. 

Walking there is no problem, though.  At least, not if you know about Ethernet.

The way we are used to utilizing our streets in, let’s say, Seattle is that we as pedestrians cross when we have the light, and we as drivers go when we have the light.  It reminds one of the Token Ring network topology:  each node, Vehicular or Pedestrian, gets the token and has access to the media.  Then it switches, the other guys go, and it goes on like that. 

By comparison, if you want to see as compelling a demonstration of Ethernet as you are ever likely to see in your life, head on over to Rome and try to cross the fucking street. 

Don’t wait to cross it, they’ll never stop.  Everyone goes at once.  That’s right, there are forty motorscooters and tiny Smart Cars and what looks like a motorized wheelbarrow going where you’re trying to go at the same time you’re tring to go there.  They’re crossing your path right to left as you are walking straight ahead.  You may momentarily feel as though you are floating in a sea of careening metal.  That is actually fairly accurate.  But you are in no danger.

(CW)TB

Here is the best info I have seen yet on SNK vs. Capcom. These guys are down in Japan right now and videotaped their adventure to go play test the new fighter. Not sure how their site will handle the link but they sent me an email asking for it.

-Gabe out