Fortnite was always trying to get me to add 2fa, like… a lot, but it wasn't until Apex hit that they started pushing free Battle Passes on me. My email was full of it, and through the blinds as I was waking up I thought I saw a cloud shaped like a Fortnite entreaty. Then, when I ironically opened Tik Tok it came up at the very beginning, obscuring the e-girl factories, Senzawan permutations, and the unlikely, enduring vigor of Mia Khalifa.

We have sponsored streams today, a couple of them more or less back to back, one for a game I own but have been too intimidated to learn and one for a game I have taught many people to play. It's all happening on our Twitch thing. Thanks for stopping by, Level99!

The last time I really took PC gaming seriously was honestly around the time the comic strip started. So, about twenty years ago I guess. I can still remember keeping up to date on the latest improvements in Voodoo graphics cards. As time went by I played on consoles more and more until I had fallen off the PC entirely. I usually had a laptop or something that could run a game or two but I lost track of where the technology went. About a year ago I decided I wanted to give PC gaming another try and so I bought a computer for the sole purpose of playing games. We even made a comic about it at the time.

EA's premium digital offerings - EA Access on Xbox and Origin Access on PC - grant early play for their titles. Except when it doesn't work, and you got the same error message people were getting in the betas. I once suggested that EA games came with "free misery," nearly ten full years ago, and it's a policy they've maintained with pride.

The main new things I've learned about Apex Legends are as follows: one, the Wingman is the return of the old Pistol from Halo. Remember that? How it was a pistol, but also kind of a sniper rifle? Yeah. Except here there's also a mod for it called a Skullsplitter; I'll let you tumble to its purpose on your own. It is surprisingly, perhaps even comically effective.

Gabe heard Titanfall downstairs, but on multiple axes - none of which made sense. His sons were playing multiplayer, which they were able to find enough players for somehow, and Kara was playing the single player campaign.

There was a spike of normal functionality mid-week, like one might expect from a modern city, but just as soon as we'd tasted civilization it was gone again. Brenna went shopping for the End Times, like she was stocking for a radical shift in governance from something like we have now - with established channels of authority from Federal, State, and County - to a marked declension of it centered primarily around tattooed despots with shotguns on quad bikes. It has served us well.

I was watching Ninja stream Apex Legends this morning, and the title of the stream implied that while it had previously been a sponsored stream, he was now playing it because it's fun. I mean, I think so too. We just made another comic about it. It's had twice Fortnite's viewers on Twitch since it came out, but of course that's two-fold; the dynamics are such that you can pay a person to play your game, but you're also paying them not to play the other game for a 2x perceptual swing bonus. I'll be very curious to see where this is at in a week's time. But, again: it's always worth remembering that royalty is a temporary condition. I have a theory that suggests these cycles of Fame to Famine are getting shorter, with more explosive crests and more subterranean falls, but that's mostly because it seemed weird to me how quickly they seem to reboot Spider-Man.

The only bad thing about Apex Legends is the name. And it's… You know. It's probably too late to change that.

It finally happened: after well over a year of playing Battle Royale style games, Kiko and I were finally able to win one. We even had an audience . Of course, like all victories, this one is a catastrophe for someone - ironically, it's me. We spent a profundity of corporate resources manufacturing a brand build entirely around failure. We even have merchandise that celebrates that failure. We could win forever, as long as we lost. And now that's gone.

The only thing I actually know about Kingdom Hearts is… Well, I guess its density has drawn me in a few times, in a few different ways. I can't claim worthiness to enter the temple but I can enjoy the occasional minaret.

Hey! So, at 4pm PST, Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team makes its triumphant return to the Twitch Stage. Coming in hot off the premiere at PAX South, we could not be more excited to get back in the groove of weekly shows. Indeed, to celebrate this storied return, we offer a pin whose purpose to to fearfully and reverently honor the viewer - the Shadow Council pin:

I feel like Gabriel reaaally had fun drawing this strip. I dunno! It's just the vibe I'm getting. Of course, while he was drawing it on the stream, he said that he feels compelled to draw extra hard when he finds the script lacking. But, you know, joke's on him: it's mostly his script. What do I do here? God only knows. I effervesce, you know? I refresh.

It's ironic, obviously, but I feel as though I've have done my job correctly when no words are required.

I experienced all sorts of technical difficulties with the Anthem demo this weekend. Just logging on and getting into the game was a crap shoot. When I was actually able to start the game I ended up getting the infinite loading bug whenever I tried to jump into the first mission. I kept trying though and eventually I was able to get in and play a few times. I think it is a testament to the quality of the actual gameplay that I kept coming back to it. It felt like there were a lot of things trying to keep me from playing Anthem this weekend. Technical troubles first and foremost but then there is this interminable quest hub they dump you into. No running allowed here, and they put you as far away from your rad robot suit as possible. Next there is a menu system whose designer should honestly be tried in the Hague. Should you manage to navigate all this horse shit though...wow. Anthem is really fun.

Some of the best memories I have are of a game called Demolition Company I used to play with my son. About a demo's worth of content was all that was ever required back then for him, and for some reason the version of the demo I found was in German so there was an extra "puzzle" layer on top of it just to use the menus. Being in German, which is not English, we were granted useful linguistic tools. If we had to wait in line somewhere, something young people have historically been against, I could shrug my shoulders and say, "Spiele wird gelaten, son. Bitte warten."