The Bravely Default demo doesn't really scratch the surface of the game. To a certain extent, that concept is contained within the word "demo." But it communicates specifically incorrect information, a partial class list, and a couple systems are simply missing in action. It also makes the game seem like it has that sort of MMO statelessness, where you're just sort of floating around an environment hauling monster organs from place to place.

Today's comic strip actually came right out of a stream we did last week. I was playing AC and joking with folks in the chat about the shanties. We were all laughing about how a captain might adjust his "playlist". Tycho and I will be at it again today playing more AC IV. The plan is to start around 2:00pm pacific time.

Like the music pages in Assassin's Creed 3, mystical tunes flip around in 4 and they must be seized. The extent to which they must be seized of their own accord varies from brain to brain. Most "collectables" exert no force upon me; I can take or leave them. I might feel a twinge upon completion to see some minimal percentage, but I'm not getting any younger. Nobody is; that's not how it works.

Camera's on.

Comixology and Cryptozoic have put together an awesome digital exclusive for the Lookouts comic book. This bundle includes all six issues of the Lookouts book plus 50 pages of exclusive content, much of it never before seen. It’s got alternate covers, maps, character sketches and lots more. You can get the entire package for $9.99 over at Comixology right now.

We'd seen the Kickstarter for Bible Adventures: Call of Abraham mentioned all over, and it reminded us of The Bible Online strip we'd done a ways back. But that was very much in The Far Side vein, single panel type stuff, and I thought there was room to investigate it further. The new game is more of a single player RPG, but we couldn't leave well enough alone. That's correct: in our humorous .jpeg, we were less than entirely factual. Call the police.

The incentives for kindness in an environment where survival is a function of resources and nobody knows each other are… perhaps they aren't non-existent, but we can call them "ephemeral" and retain accuracy. Society is a story we have chosen to believe, because the alternative - while readily observable and undeniably true - is monstrous. And if you would like to see the most ancient human narrative played out in a kind of disemvoweled hyper-efficiency, I urge you to install and play Rust.

Here's a sneak peek at the next Pinny Arcade pin release. This is our Valentine's Day pin and should go on sale towards the end of this month!

I'm gonna do an afternoon stream today from the PA office. I'll be playing some AC IV. I'll probably start around 2:00pm pacific and you can watch it right here:

Thanks to everyone who showed up to play games with me over at Snapdoodle on Saturday. I ended up playing about five or six games of Forbidden Desert with a different group of people each time. I got to talk and trade pins with a bunch of folks and overall I’d say the night was a huge success. A few people asked if it was something I’d be doing again and I think I probably will. Also thanks to Snapdoodle for hosting us. They are a small store and we sort of took over the place. I saw people sitting on the little stools playing games on tables meant for toddlers. Everyone I talked to had fun though and I know the Snapdoodle folks were really happy with the whole thing.

I don't know what it is that makes me go for This Early Access game over That One. Independent of any philosophical considerations, Early Access as a business and cultural practice means different things, in just that way that a beta from Company X is more like an alpha, and a beta from GmbH ß is a relentless, rigorously polished marketing vehicle. So, I often give Early Access stuff a pass until it is closer to Regular Access just to give it room to breathe. Everybody is telling me Starbound is a thing, if not the thing, but just absorbing the rulebooks from all these skirmishy tabletop feasts rolling in lately has occupied most of my upstairs meat. Starbound isn't going anywhere, in any case. By the time I get in there, you'll be able to make croissants or whatever. It'll be fine.

They didn't actually cancel HBO, Game of Thrones is almost back on. But if you were carrying a sub to HBO specifically to watch people fuck in plate mail, it's an itch you could almost certainly scratch via these streams.

I'll be playing games and trading some pins this Saturday at Snapdoodle toys in Kenmore. Here are the details:

The first is "Account Manager for PAX Australia." You don't need to be from Australia to apply, but you should definitely understand if you apply for it that Australia is super far away. Check a map. B]

I was overjoyed to see it, too. It's a good match; it speaks well of both parties. I was curious what he'd think about something like Project Christine, that modular PC thing from Razer, and I don't have to wonder now because he just wrote about it.

For those who play the preview pane game, the snapshot for today's comic must certainly rank high; with no crass art gumming up the works, only my intention remains. But you can hardly parody these fucking names! Even so, people are probably more likely to take something called "lunesta" than they are to orally ingest (S)-6-(5-Chloro-2-pyridinyl)- 7-oxo-6,7-dihydro-5H-pyrrolo[3,4-b]pyrazin-5-yl-4-methyl-1-piperazinecarboxylate. At least, I would. It's a real mouthful. Where would you put the pill?