Not every man of the Belmont clan is constructed for proper vampire combat, as today's strip reveals. PS2's been busted, so I haven't had a chance to play this new one. I heard it was alright. We had considered doing another Crimson Skies comic, but determined that we've probably said everything already. It really is remarkable and has no right being as good as it is. I would put last night's Flag Heist match on Windy City up against almost any other multiplayer game experience I've had. Picture eight planes flying through the rain, in a map that consists of the tops of skyscrapers that poke up through the cloud layer. "Jaunty" Jack Burton and SixSidedDie coming for the flag, Gabe and I on D as LCDXX and BreakmanX tried to come back with it. If you have Live, please give the game a try - shit, it comes with two free months of Live play, maybe you'd be sick of it by then anyhow. Who knows.

So, Crimson is the game I'm playing with other people. There's also a fair bit of Desert Combat going on. By my lonesome, I sometimes jump on to the Halo demo and try to figure out whether or not I like it. I don't have the performance issues that I often read about, at least not graphically, but the networking on that game is really, really variable. You can play on a server that makes you wonder what they were thinking even putting it out one minute and then get on something smooth that reminds you of late-night Xbox LANs on Blood Gulch. The ping doesn't seem to indicate shit. It would be like if the server browser had a column for "Mint" and then some servers had it and some servers didn't. Ping is like that in Halo PC. I have no idea what it is supposed to represent, and even if I did know I wouldn't know how to detect the presence of that quality in a first person shooter. It might be best to focus your time on dedicated servers, as you would in Battlefield, but there's never been a slot open on one of those since the demo was released.

My special, personal Tycho time is spent with Etherlords II, and even typing its name makes my heart pirouette. It's like being able to play the collectible card games that I crave without any of the guilt associated with harvesting healthy young livers to pay for them.

One last thing: Neil has cracked out a new version of his PAINT app, the Penny Arcade Internet Notification Tool. It has so many new features that if you used the old one or would simply like to know when we make posts, it's probably best for you just to go and get it. Gabe and I don't really synchronize our posting at all, so it's often the only way I know whether or not he's said something about Tracy Chapman.

(CW)TB out.

i got a plan to get us out of here

I put a couple hours into Castlevania: Lament of Backtracking the other day. I got bored with it and figured I’d never play it again. I decided that it deserved more than that though so I went back to it on Saturday and really invested some time it. Unfortunately it didn’t change my opinion of the game any. It’s just okay. It’s not a bad game but it’s also not great. Any other month I could see myself really getting into it. The problem is that it came out at the same time as Crimson Skies, which is a fucking great game. When I look at the next couple of weeks and see games like Final Fantasy XI, Top Spin, Call of Duty and Gladius I just can’t imagine investing anymore time in Castlevania for a long time. I decided what I would do is stick it on the shelf and wait for next summer when game releases are few and far between. Then I’ll crack out Castlevania and I’ll probably really enjoy it. Like an old lady canning vegetables for those lean winter months, I’m packing away games now during harvest season in the hopes that they will nourish me through the long dry summer.

We are leaving for the Las Vegas Comic Con on Thursday. We’d love it if you came out and said hi. Our good friend Kiko was originally supposed to share our booth with us. We ended up getting a huge chunk of floor space and the plan was always to split it between PA and Gameskins. Then the Devil Winds showed up. Apparently the fires are raging just a few miles from Kiko’s house. Personally I’d say there is no better time to go to Vegas but apparently he doesn’t feel the same. He has decided to stay and battle the Devil Winds. The problem for us is that Kiko was supposed to bring the shelves. I understand this is not as big a problem as losing your house to a wild fire but it still puts us out a bit. So those of you who come to Vegas will be treated to a giant empty booth where you will see all of our merchandise scattered around the floor in piles. It should be pretty funny.

For those of you unable to make it to Las Vegas this weekend there is still hope. Our online store is up and running again. Please feel free to go there and purchase things .That is what it’s there for after all.

-Gabe out

Hi, do you work at Paypal? Can you help me with my mother fucking business account?

-Gabe out

I just got a mail from a PA fan who works at a “Chicago-based brand strategy circus monkey and market research firm” Okay I added the bit about monkeys but it still sounds like a blast. Anyway I guess they are doing some kind of test and they want to know what you think of online games. Here is the message he asked me to post:

We were wondering if some of your readers and their friends might be interested in participating in a two-hour discussion about their experiences gaming online. In order to participate in the study, potential respondents must fit the following criteria:

- Live in Chicago or the surrounding area, or be able to get to downtown Chicago relatively easily

- Be able to bring 3 to 5 fellow gamers to our office in downtown Chicago to participate in this study

- Be passionate about talking about gaming and gaming experiences

In exchange for their time, each group of friends will be paid $100 (in cold, hard cash, no less), and receive all the pizza they can eat (in addition to being able to talk about games!). To find out if they qualify for the study, participants need to complete a brief questionnaire right here

If you are in the area it seems like a decent way to make a few bucks.

-Gabe out