My racing obsession continues to intensify and it seems to be catching. Judging by my twitter feed and the folks I talk to during my streams, Motorsport madness has gripped a lot of you. In fact just last night we had our very first Penny Arcade league race in iRacing and it was an absolute blast! 

The enduring vigor of Minecraft - at once a game, a place, and platform - is something I primarily observe from afar. But I like it out here. I can look in at all the stuff, and I don't have to do anything. It's my favorite place to be. But younger people have notions about their parents' omnipotence, namely that it extends in some way through all fields of endeavor, and Minecraft is a good opportunity to show that your dad is is strong in some places and at some times and in other places is as crisp and fine as a butterfly wing.

Are you getting more emails from your family members about The Beast, and his Mark? Because I am.

I think it might be sort of hard to manufacture the kind of spectacle a console launch seeks to embody if everybody is recording themselves on their phones with their headphones on. I'm not saying it's impossible but I definitely think it is less possible than usual.

I had to tap into our Technomancer Mike Buland in order to understand some advanced Math concepts for my own son's homework, except eventually he had to pass it on to his wife Amy, who has the Math Degree. She… she did it for fun. I asked her about one of the problems on a page, and she did all of them for fun.

I had to tap into our Technomancer Mike Buland in order to understand some advanced Math concepts for my own son's homework, except eventually he had to pass it on to his wife Amy, who has the Math Degree. She… she did it for fun. I asked her about one of the problems on a page, and she did all of them for fun.

There are fully four versions of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and it's crucial to know that the Ultimate version isn't even the most complete one. It's the one right before the Collector's Edition, so, I mean, technically it's the Penultimate Edition but whatever.

Unless it's a literally intractable hardware problem, like a jabbering hub or some shit, I am secretly delighted by a computer problem. Now printers, printers I hate. But anything else, put me in coach.

Fortnite as the candy shell for marketing payloads isn't new. I mean… they weren't uncommon in Club Penguin, even. I'm not trying to say that Fortnite players are no better than the writhing arctic birds you'd scrape off the dance floor at a DJ Cadence show. I'm saying that if you have a place people come to that place is a marketable venue - whether it exists in the physical world or not.

I definitely like racing, though I prefer the more arcade excursions - as an index for your use, I consider Ridge Racer Type 4, Project Gotham Racing, and Rallisport Challenge sorta the high water marks for the kind of racing I like. You'll note these games are quite old. Imagine my torment.

All true! It's all true. But we should keep our wits about us: it's really just an upgrade from "lethargy" to "several seconds, each round, of conscious activity." Even under this dilapidated rubric, I think the delta would still surprise you.

Gabriel and I are both very lucky to have sons we sort of understand. It's possible to get into fights because you're too alike, I don't know if you've ever seen any movies about fathers and sons, but it comes up. In both our cases we had to learn to take the Real World in small doses, like Iocaine Powder, until we had developed enough immunity to live there safely.

I got my very first podium finish last night in iRacing and I did it on stream! I have to share the VOD here. Tycho was even in the chat cheering me on. 

Social Distancing continues in today's strip.

Main cast in Final Fantasy VII Remake has mad polys; seems like it would make them easy to spot in a lineup but it doesn't seem to go that way. Then again, we need to consider the idea that these soldiers know perfectly well that they're looking at dangerous terrorists, it's just that they don't want to get chopped to pieces in three seconds. Because the tutorial is just you sharpening your sword on these goofs over and over, and they provide as much resistance to the blade as a room-temperature Camembert.

I’ve been investing my quarantine time in a couple of new hobbies. Not being able to leave the house makes sinking into a new obsession a real treat! I’ve already talked a bit about sim racing here on the site and my fascination with it has only increased. This is a good sign (or a bad one I guess) that this racing hobby will stick around. I’ve settled into two games that I’m investing my time in. The first is Assetto Corsa Competizione and the second is iRacing. I like ACC for its career mode, special events and incredible car physics. It’s also a beautiful game with a slick UI and a progress tracker that I find helpful in improving. I don’t play multiplayer events in ACC but that’s not because they are not available. I just have not dipped my toe in yet. I play iRacing for multiplayer driving and I love it. They have an incredible selection of official races and practices happening every day like clockwork. The cars feel great and the visuals are solid but that's not the focus here. This is a sim first and that means using a web browser to find races. It all works well enough but there is no question they need to get their beta UI up to speed.