Mass Effect is odd in that it is simultaneously an argument for and against the 360. Utilizing their northern devilry, BioWare managed to jam a ridiculous amount of content onto a single platter. They've realized their cinematic ambitions in a way that will deeply alter your expectations, and they've done so in real-time sequences that probably kept the game from ballooning to three or four standard DVDs like other RPGs on the system.

At the same time, Microsoft's dogged insistence that they retain a model without a Hard Disc has done the game a bad turn. It's an experience that either needs a full install option or a significant cache, and it's got neither. So you're stuck in these ridiculously long elevators, or loading just for fun as you run down a hall. It's happening all the time, and the product is worse for it. The elevator in the Normandy is especially bad: other elevators in the game are long, so you're trapped in a box, but it's a box that moves quickly. The one in the core of the ship moves a centimeter at a time, inching its way to the belly of a ship the way a basketball might travel through a python.

The Shepard seen in the strip there isn't mine, of course: my evenings (and, indeed, my heart) are now devoted to a certain Sci-Fi lady. Her name is so long and so dense that looks like it may be encrypted. That's really the sign of a good name, in my opinion: that it might be mistaken for a PGP key.

I think Monday is the last one in the series, the last serious one, and just after that you'll be knee deep in Space Opera and will likely be lost to the world. Put in some more time last night, largely just a-ramblin', receiving distress calls, rolling deep on toxic alien globes. It's very talky, but, well... I'm me. Of course I like that.

Rock Band's downloadable content "story" has been revealed, and it's better than I expected. The idea that some individual tracks might go up to three dollars is a little troubling, but I don't know how common that practice will be, or if it's designed to get certain high-profile or brand-new tracks into financial striking range. The rest of it is more than tolerable: singles from one to two dollars, and three-packs for five-fifty. The "expectation" I alluded to earlier was that they would offer a better product for the same price, i.e. adding the drum and vocal tracks essentially for free while competing dollar for dollar with the Guitar Hero content. Offering more for less was not really a scenario I entertained. There are a lot of winners on the release schedule as well: Metallica's "Blackened" has been my fantasy from the very beginning, but I never thought we'd actually get it. There are other tracks, other good ones, but once I saw Blackened the rest of the list devolved into gibberish.

Child's Play update coming later today. Here's a preview: you are awesome.

(CW)TB out.

blistering of earth

You might have already noticed a new button under the comic strips. the "Buy A Print" feature is something we've been working on for a long long time and it's finally ready to go. So for $9.95 you get a high res 11x17 print of the comic strip on a really nice heavy stock paper. These prints are made directly from my original PSD files so they look awesome. Kiko took some pictures this morning so you could see exactly what you're getting.


I brought the donuts in this morning to celebrate the launch of the print service. They are only there for scale and are not included with the print.

Like I said the majority of the strips are printed out at 11x17 but some of the odd sized comics will be printed out at 11x11.

Clicking the Buy A Print button will automatically take you to our store and add a print for that comic to your cart. You can add shirts or books or anything else you like from the store to your order before you checkout.

You can purchase prints of just about any comic in the archive. We've done something like 1370 comics and of those only about 60 can't be purchased as prints because we don't have the high res PSD files anymore.

Going forward the Buy A Print option should be available as soon as the comic is live on the site. I know occasionally the comic will have some screw up in it like a misspelled word or the shoulder armor in the last panel of today's comic. Assuming you purchase the print before we catch the mistake you will unfortunately get the screwed up version. I personally like to think of those as "rare". Perhaps they will even become super valuable. Maybe in thirty years you'll sell A PA print with the word "artifact" spelled wrong and put your kids through college.

Probably not though.

In other store news we've added a new section called "Accomplices". As of right now our only accomplice is Guild Wars but we'll be adding more soon. As it turns out managing a functional store is actually sort of hard and it takes a lot of work. Not every developer or artist has the resources to operate one. Anyone who's followed PA knows that we struggled for years before we got the store to this point. It's pretty solid now though and we're actually in a position to help out our friends. That's why you see stuff from people like MC Frontalot, Optimus Rhyme and now Guild Wars. So if you're a fan of the game check out the Guild Wars section. We've got some shirts and prints that I think you might like.

Finally thanks for the feedback on my AC rant. It seems to me like it's a very divisive game and I realise not everyone is going to love it like I did. I was just worried that people might be making purchasing decisions based on these reviews and honestly I can't blame them. There's so many great games right now that it would be easy to skip over something with middling scores. I got quite a bit of mail from people actually telling me they had planned on doing just that before they read my post. The thing you need to remember is that these guys they have reviewing games aren't special. They do not have some magical ability to divine the true quality of an experience and then assign a score to it. You can certainly take their opinions into consideration but don't let their made up numbers determine what you play and don't play.

-Gabe out

At the end of November last year, Child's play had raised $260,000 dollars, which is super noble and I think we can all agree that it is a lot.  At any rate, it was a lot.  Now, it's shameful.  Because only two weeks into this month, we're already sitting at just under 200 kilodollars.

Here's my order for this year, and I might have overdone it, but once I saw that total it seemed like the bar was set pretty high.  Behold:



Seemed like a pretty good spread, and I like the idea that a DS is something they can really own  Also, I have to say that the passing of secret messages with Pictochat is also a prime motivator.

So, here we are again:  replenishing those stores that a year of hardships have run down, and doing so at an incredible pace.   Be sure to check the official site's list of events for more ways to lend your support, as there's some great things planned.

(CW)TB