We didn't know what to make of Infinium Labs' mysterious "Phantom" gaming console, but I'm reasonably sure we have accurately portrayed its origins. Every new console has to go through this hazing procedure from us, even magical, spectral consoles like the Phantom which are made of ectoplasm. Feel free to examine their site for clues on what exactly they're doing. IGN pondered many of the same questions we did, it would appear. It seems like it's essentially a sealed PC with a broadband service component that delivers retail games. I mean, don't quote me on that. They could be selling goats for all I know.

Does everyone name their first SimCity Funkytown? I have a suspicion that this is true. What if you run that city into the ground, creating a hell on Earth that subverts God's divine plan? When you wipe that town, do you name the new one New Funkytown? I'm just wondering how common this is.

To be honest, at the moment I'm sort of afraid to invest myself in another town. Monkey and I had what we thought was a very nice town going, New Funkytown. It was the sort of town one exhorts others to take them to. We had some horses, some toxic chemical plants, in essence everything that makes America great. After we'd been playing for a couple hours and really become invested in the welfare of those friendly horses the game crashed to desktop. Now, this is a very different matter from the "bluescreen/restarts your computer" bug. If you've been having that, it's because (as Safety Monkey sussed out after hours of trial and error) the game simply does not like Anti-Aliasing, no way no sir, so if you're having trouble running the game at all look to your advanced video card settings and see if you might have left it on. When a game crashes to desktop with no error, though, no apparent reason, it gives one the impression that it could happen at any Goddamn time. As often as not, under these circumstances I wait until a patch is released before playing it again, because I really don't want to hate my games. A tiny bird told me that the "Bonus Transportation CD" I got when I bought the game can cause crashes under certain circumstances, maybe that's it, but when something says Bonus on it (Goddammit) that's supposed to mean something good. I uninstalled and reinstalled just the game, I will tell you how it goes.

Also: I don't know if you have played the Joe Millionaire drinking game - obviously, if you aren't this tall, you can't ride this ride. There are so many drink triggers in this show that the human mind could never unravel them all. As soon as the show comes on, just start drinking until the show is over. This is a game you can play with any show.

(CW)TB out.

i am a bike thief

It's nice to see some new screens from Crimson Skies after so much radio silence. These shots are fine by me, love them, but please, please, please tell me this game will be online. I was big into it on the PC, and I will cry myself to sleep if this game comes out with only solo play.

The Getaway comes out today. I really want to get it, mainly because I've been looking forward to it so long - I recognize that is a poor decision making strategy. Greg "Hot" Kasavin was not terribly kind to the game, but he gave it a fair shake. There are good and bad reviews out there, apparently the good bits are good enough for some people to overlook the rest of it.

Also, DOA: Xtreme Etcetera hits tomorrow. I said I'd give BMX XXX a shot a few weeks ago, but testers for the game assured me that there was nothing praiseworthy there. But DOA? I mean, I'm just sort of curious. I don't even know what kind of game it is, really. What the fuck genre is that?

(CW)TB

Microsoft - not Blizzard! - Buys Vivendi Games division, yadda yadda yadda. It's back!

It went away, and now it's back. The One Rumor. I have been hoping for Half Life 2 to show up as an Xbox exclusive for a long time, just because I want to see how people react to it. Riots in the streets!

(CW)TB

It’s that time again. If you donated to Club PA in January and didn’t get page four of Over Easy please send me an e-mail with “Club Gift” in the subject. Just tack on your receipt and I will get the gift out to you ASAP. It looks like this month Amazon decided not to notify me at all when people donated. I can look at the account and see that plenty of you did actually donate through Amazon so I am assuming their notification system is busted or something.

This sounds like fun. I haven’t done any entirely non digital artwork for probably four years. I think it’s time to crack out my watercolors and see if I can still remember how to work a brush.

Oh and a huge thank you to Brandon for the CTS sprite!

-Gabe out

I don’t generally read other web comics. I mean I read PvP but that's about it. Today I got sidetracked though and ended up looking at about five or six different strips and I came to a conclusion... I don’t bitch nearly enough about how hard it is to make a comic strip.

I get mail all the time asking me for advice on how to start a web comic and I usually say the same thing to everyone. It's the same advice that I got from another artist when I was just a kid. “Draw every single day and when you get work, never miss a deadline.” In my opinion you either love to draw or you don’t. I always find it a bit strange when I see people (especially the ones that do this full time) bitching about what a hard job they have. I will admit that this can be a tough job sometimes. It certainly isn’t for people who like a steady income or job security. But it still doesn’t get any better than drawing for a living.

So here is my advice to anyone starting a comic strip. First off, do it because you love it and because you feel like if you don’t get all the ideas in your head out on paper you might just explode. Second, make comic strips that YOU like and that YOU think are funny. Don’t listen to anyone else, remember you are doing this for yourself not them. Third, if you make a schedule like three times a week or, God help you daily you stick to it. The best way to keep people coming back to your site is to update when you say you will without fail. You start missing days and people will stop coming, I guarentee . Don’t feel like you have to do a daily strip either. We aren’t all cartooning robots like Kurtz. If all you can do is three a week, then do three a week but don’t miss a beat. Last but not least, no one wants to here you bitch and moan about how your dogs kept you up last night so you didn’t have time to draw strip. This is either something you can do or it’s not. I swear to God sometimes I think Piro is about three sad girl drawings away from a complete breakdown.

Anyway, that’s my advice. Take it for what you will. I’m not saying I have all the answers or even that there are answers when it comes to web comics and art but if this is really what you want do, then I think you could do a lot worse than following some of those tips.

-Gabe out