I read the new Harry Potter book, all nine hundred or so pages of it, before I went to bed that day. I got it early, passing the mailman wearing the wizards hat, pushing down a little girl. I drove home with the book in my lap, singing a song which could not be transcribed, because it was the audible form of joy.

I have seen it discussed - is it good? Who cares. It's not like you get a new Harry Potter book every day, you have to treasure this shit. I don't slink home from the solar eclipse and be like, well, I've seen more invigorating natural phenomena. I know now the dark depths and dizzying highs of true fandom, and don't fuck with me about this because I've got a nine hundred page hardcover in my grip. I'll bat your head clean off and start running for first. First what, God only knows. I guess it all depends on where I kill you.

Shadows of Undrentide refreshes me absolutely, like a seltzer enema. It has scoured my entire apparatus.

Those are good things, in case you were wondering. I stopped playing Neverwinter before I was really finished with it, because it's best played with a stable group of humans and games kept coming out that would whisk one or more of us away. I had even uninstalled, because seeing that directory always made me mist up a little bit. I'm really enjoying Floodgate's take on Neverwinter's tools and role-playing in general, we're trying to play through the game as the biggest assholes possible and they've given us some excellent dialogue choices. Also, who doesn't like slaughtering kobolds. I mean, come on.

There's another expansion set coming out later entitled Hordes Of The Underdark, but I don't think think they've said much beyond the name. I will, of course, do whatever it takes to obtain it - but even when Neverwinter first came out, I had reservations about its graphical prowess. I don't get nauseous when I look at it or anything, but it's a bit behind now, and I worry that Hordes will look much as this does. It would probably be near impossible, just because of the huge catalogue of content, but I appreciate how Dark Age of Camelot expansions incrementally improve the visuals each time. I'm just afraid that a couple years down the line people won't give it a shot on that basis, even though there's a quite enjoyable multiplayer RPG in there - to say nothing of an avalanche of player created work.

I would talk about the Soul Calibur Tournament, because it was the best thing that has ever happened, but that was always Gabe's baby so it's his right to speak of it. Also, we both picked up the Super Nintendo, I mean, The Game Boy Player. Probably talk about that some on Friday.

(CW)TB out.

we did well together
but not forever

Tycho is right, the PA event on Monday was fucking awesome. I've uploaded some pictures here. As you can see from the pictures we had a full house.

I would like to take two seconds and talk about why I like Penny Arcade so much, I hope that you don't mind.

This event made me realize some things about PA. Penny Arcade fans are a special breed. The fact is that we packed this place with close to three hundred people and we all got along like friends. The vibe over on the SC2 machines was so fucking cool. It was like being in your buddy's basement passing the controller around. People were happy to show others how they did a certain move or just take someone who had never played through the basics. Not only was everyone super cool but I didn't lose a single controller or extension cable all day. I mean, I brought all kinds off connecters, dongles and cables and they were being constantly passed around. Not only that but we had two X-Arcade sticks floating around, each with their own set of adaptors. At the end of a twelve hour gaming marathon with 300 people I looked in my box and I had every single piece of equipment I brought with me. I'm telling you right now, Penny Arcade fans are the fucking best.

The event was such a huge success that I can't imagine us not doing it again next month. We are looking into ways to make the next one even cooler. Maybe some demos from a few of the game studios in the area. If you work at a game company or something and you'd like to be a part of the next event in some way just fire me off an email. Maybe you work for Nintendo and you want to bring down a copy of Crystal Chronicles or F-Zero. Maybe you work at MS and you want to show off some Halo 2 shit. The fact is, this event was huge and the next ones only gonna be bigger.

Aslo, congratulations to Jesse who took first place in the SC2 tournament. He was just one of a group of guys from the local SC2 scene that came down and played with us. If you’re interested in taking your SC2 game to the next level like them I highly recommend checking out the soulcalibur.com forums.

Thanks to everyone who came out. I hope you all had as good a time as I did. I'll see you guys next month.

ddd.kvmmbzixzwvhgliv.xln

-Gabe out

Don’t fuck with Penny Arcade.

American Greetings Profits Dip 55.7 Pct.

CLEVELAND (AP) American Greetings Corp., hurt by lower sales and pretax items, reported a 55.7 percent drop in earnings for the first quarter that ended May 31.

-Gabe out