Penny Arcade

Necrophilia?  Maybe that’s going too far?  I’m actually being quite charitable.  Kevin Anderson has a body of work that exists outside Dune which I’ve heard is pretty good.  Brian Herbert has a famous dad.  Together, they have conspired on a book that descends below the rankest Small Wonder fan fiction, diluting the Dune Universe down to one or two parts per million.  The book itself is condescending garbage, and while it holds forth the shape and form of genuine Dune books that structure is animated with the broad, explicit motions of a puppet show.  It’s clear that they read the original books, by which I mean plundered - raiding them, as tombs are raided.

I have a sort of ridiculous announcement to make.

I’m leaving town today, in a couple hours actually, to go down to Los Angeles.  It is my understanding that there are people on the development team of NBA Ballers who wanted us to come down for their release party.  We have a considerable affection for…  I’m not sure what he genre is called, exactly.  Urban is just a code word.  Hip-Hop Basketball games?  I’m not sure.  At any rate, we had a marked NBA Street 2 phase, where we would pass the right kind of rock and otherwise manipulate a lexicon we have only a passing familiarity with.  We aren’t indifferent to that type of game.  Also, I’m sort of honored that they would want me there.  But you need to understand that the gravity in my apartment is almost ten times that of the surrounding area.  It’s pronounced.  So there had to be something else to get me down there, some accoutrement, like the first phase of a space rocket.  Here it is:   

They are going to thug me out.

That’s right.  There will be a dresser on-hand, apparently, to adorn humans with jerseys and bling and what have you.  And Gabe just got back from Spokane, he’s not going anywhere.  I can’t describe how far outside my comfort zone the situation is - but I have a hunger for uncomfortable situations.  Like stories about Cowboy Killers or Bible Camp, I hope that my discomfort will provide you with much amusement.  Also, with John Romero recently becoming a part of the Midway Family, there is a chance I might see him there.  Rowrr.   

I had a chance to listen to the tape of Gabe’s interview with his granddad, and it’s already harrowing.  They touch on the new Vietnam games very briefly, and without going into much detail he wasn’t crazy about the idea.  My stepdad was in Vietnam, as I would imagine many dads were - step or otherwise.  If he’ll talk to me, and I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t, but if he did, I’ll ask him what it’s like to have someone make a toy out of your best friend dying in a jungle.

(CW)TB out.

i don’t have to deceive you

I got a lot of people sending me mail and asking if I would share my grandfather’s thoughts on the Call of Duty Demo. To be honest it was always my intention to do so. In fact Tycho and I are working on an article that will include the interview I did with my Grandpa along with some commentary from Tycho and I. I will tell you that my conversation with him has made me look at these games in different way. I think it’s a very important article and I want to make sure we do it right. So it may not show up on the website until next week sometime.

I can’t wait to see the pictures of Tycho from this Midway party he is attending. Obviously my well documented phobia of all things new and or exciting kept me from accepting their invitation as well. Tycho did promise to drink enough for both of us while he was there though. 

I have not read the Dune series Tycho is talking about but I have read a lot of Kevin J. Anderson books. Obviously I’ve read all his Star Wars stuff but I enjoyed those so much that I picked up some of his other Sci-Fi books as well. I’ve really liked everything I’ve read from him so I’m not sure what to make of Tycho’s opinion on the Dune books. He seemed really angry when he started telling me about them though, so I figured it was best just to nod my head and agree.

Speaking of Star Wars books I just finished the latest book in the New Jedi Order series. For those of you reading this series along with me I highly recommend Final Prophecy. I felt like the last few books in the series have been sort of lame. They aren’t terrible books but it seems like Star by Star sort of set the bar for the NJO books and no one has been able to come close to it in terms of action or suspense. The next bunch of books just sort of let the story sit and didn’t really push it along at the same pace as the earlier books. Just my opinion but I think Final Prophecy does a pretty good job of bringing back some of the momentum we felt after reading Star by Star.

I purchased a new camera a few days ago. We will be attending the Las Vegas comic con at the end of the month and since Kara and I have never been I wanted a nice camera. This means two things for you. Number one, you can expect some cool pictures of the convention. Number two, in the meantime you will be forced to endure pictures of my kitties.

Holy fuck, Jak II is fucking great!

-Gabe out