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A week's worth of 360 related Penny Arcade comics
This past week had all three of Penny Arcade's comic had to do with 360 titles, namely Stranglehold's demo, BioShock's demo and street date breakery. Soft Targets gives insight into the Precision Tequila Bomb, and Gabe's definition of "headshot," and the Achievement that should be awarded for proficiency therein. Our Continuing Series is a public service announcement to parents and the dangers of their kids splicing with plasmids. Finally, A Dark Recipe goes to show the lengths at which Tycho would go to secure a copy of Bioshock before the street date, obviously he didn't hear about our contest.Read: Soft TargetsRead: Our Continuing SeriesRead: A Dark Recipe
Readers pick best webcomic: Rare candy
While some may scoff at the scatological references in this week's VG Cats, the life-or-death (literally) decisions of what to put in Life's Great Skill Slots boosted Scott Ramsoomair's VG Cats into a very strong lead in this week's webcomic wrapup. The silver trophy goes to Dueling Analogs, and Penny Arcade just edges out over the competition for bronze. Thanks to everyone who voted and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!
Rumor: XBLA could get Penny Arcade game
According to Gaming Target, EGM is reporting that Penny Arcade's first game could soon join their innumerable picture packs and themes on Xbox Live. The mag brings the news in their September issue that Penny Arcade Adventures Episode One: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness will appear on the Xbox Live Arcade in the fall.Developer Hothead Games isn't confirming the news at the moment, but with PAX a scant three weeks away, they could just be trying to keep the tabby in the satchel so Gabe and Tycho can reveal the news at the show. For our part, we'd love to launch PA's game from our Cardboard Tube Samurai-themed Dashboard, the theme we shall continue to rock until something better comes along, in other words: Forever.[Via X3F]
Rumor: Penny Arcade game may come to XBLA
Gaming Target is reporting that the September issue of EGM reveals that the PC-exclusive Penny Arcade Adventures game will be making its way onto the Xbox Live Arcade. The Penny Arcade game, ever so conveniently titled Penny Arcade Adventures On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One, was previously announced for release on the PC, but developer Hothead Games has always been open to releasing the game to other platforms saying that a console release could happen "someday". So, hopefully EGM is right and "someday" ends up being soon with a Penny Arcade XBLA release by the end of the year. Who knows, maybe the Penny Arcade gang will be making an official announcement at PAX in a few weeks and surprise us with Penny Arcade Adventures On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One Xbox Live Arcade Version of Total Awesomeness.[Thanks, John]
Penny Arcade becomes obsessed with Eye of Judgment
Upon seeing this Penny Arcade comic, our own Nick Doerr breathed a sigh of relief saying, "Awesome. I finally feel I'm not the only one strangely interested in the game." You're not alone Nick -- in fact, there's an increasing interest for this unique real and virtual card game. The synergistic qualities of Eye of Judgment give it a strange appeal. The nerd-king Tycho explains in his blog: "The physicality of card placement and interaction has its own virtues. Cards are recognized in a second or less, so watching them transformed is actually a very interactive, exciting process. You don't actually need the PS3 to play it - the game can be played on a regular table without any electronic accompaniment. But you'll probably find, as we did, that having a perpetually available neutral arbiter who will track all numeric systems is pretty convenient." We were impressed by our brief time with it at E3 ... and it looks like Penny Arcade is too. Slowly, but surely, it appears that positive word of mouth is spreading for this incredibly innovative and unique card game.
Play Pink Godzilla Dev Kit at PAX, win fabulous prizes
Itching to play Pink Godzilla Dev Kit? Going to the Penny Arcade Expo? If so, you're in luck. Pink Godzilla Games recently informed Joystiq that they will be in strong showing at PAX 2007 in Seattle. In addition to offering copies of PG Dev Kit for sale, Pink Godzilla will be hosting a tournament for the game, with prizes for the top three competitors, and a very special super-secret prize for first place.According to Pink Godzilla co-owner Greg Hess, the tournament will be held in rounds of three-player, single-elimination games. Space will be limited, so Hess recommends signing up at the start of PAX. Sign-ups will be located at the free-play tables for PG Dev Kit. The winner will receive $200 spending money, and a very special prize that Pink Godzilla doesn't want to announce quite yet. Suffice it to say, it's pretty darn cool. Any rampant speculation?
Readers pick best webcomic: The Tournemon, Part One
We want a wall poster of the second slide from Penny Arcade's The Tournémon, Part One, this week's most popular gaming comic, so badly. We don't want to spoil it for you.Second place goes to Ctrl+Alt+Del and third place Extra Life. Thanks to everyone who voted and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!
New Penny Arcade Adventures trailer available for your inspection
We know how much you guys enjoy examining every scrap of new Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness footage that's released and then proclaiming it to be totally awesome/totally crappy. As we don't think ourselves fit to deny you that joy, we present the new Comic-Con trailer for the game. In our infinite wisdom, we refuse to join either side of this debate. It looks like the game is heavy on the solid writing and the beautiful art direction, so we guess that puts us in the underrepresented "totally what we expected" camp. Though we're attempting to stay somewhat neutral, we'd be lying if we didn't admit we were looking forward to seeing what the PA guys have cooked up. Now, let the ongoing debate commence once more!
Readers pick best webcomic: Worms!
Hungry for worms? No, hungry for wooooords, hahahaha!Scott Ramsoomair's VG Cats by and far took home this week's webcomic wrapup's top prize for making a disturbing connection between the game Worms and, well, worms. Second place goes to Truck Bearing Kibble and Penny Arcade is shucking third.Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!
Rock Band playable at PAX
Harmonix will have a booth at this year's PAX convention in Seattle Aug 24-26 where Rock Band will be playable. For those who during E3 didn't have an appointment with EA, get invited to the West Hollywood party or end up in the suite gathering, here's their chance to play with the general populace -- like Chris Furniss of The Weekly Geek Show. Furniss points out, "Sure you could play Harmonix's Guitar Hero-and-every-other-game-ever-killer behind closed doors at this year's E3 ... But it wasn't on the show floor. This just furthers my frustration with companies at this year's E3."Yes, the picture above created by and featuring Furniss does not actually use the Rock Band peripherals and he's using Donkey Kong bongos in place of the drums -- but it's still funny, darn it! Hopefully Harmonix will think ahead and have some plan set up for PAX and the mass of people who will want to play Rock Band. The 20x30 booth they'll have set up may only be for one set, which means PAX attendees will hopefully not experience the Nintendo Wii line of 2006 for their chance at the game. Thankfully, the game is just as fun to watch as it is to play.
Voicing concerns over VOIP
Some people on the forums are voicing concerns over the upcoming VOIP feature being added in Patch 2.2. For example, player Farnsworth is afraid that all he is going to hear is kids playing music. CM Drysc's response is /right click/ignoreEnjoy the silence.There are basic features that will be built in to the Integrated Voice feature such as being able to ignore individual players' voices. But the most important thing to remember is that the feature is optional. Just as the quality of online play varies with the people with whom you are playing, so does the quality of online voice vary with the people to whom you choose to listen. We all hope for pleasant voices from informed minds, but what we usually get ranges from the comedic to the downright scary, as illustrated here.Another forum thread (unfortunately, now deleted) suggested that no one was going to use integrated voice and that it was a waste of development resources. A different player asked "What do you think Blizzard is made up of? One guy named Bill Izzard who has to do everything?" Drysc responded withBill's a nice guy, but you're right, we also have Bly Zizzard. So, yeah, two people who do everything. But really I don't think it's important to justify our development pipelines, or explain that a programmer is different from an artist, or UI designer, or web designer. If you don't want to use the voice chat feature you'll be able to disable it.
Promotional Consideration: Come As You Are
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.If you missed our spotlight on Leo Burnett's "Communion Day" ad last Sunday, make sure to give it a glance. Even if you've already skimmed through our words on the award-winning piece, we've updated our summation with some insight from art director Rosemary Collini Bosso.This weekend's installment of Promotional Consideration takes a critical eye to an unconvincing ad that might actually drive away consumers. Read on for more details.
Breakfast Topic: Patch 2.U
Another patch has gone up on the PTR, bringing new visions of a possible future for World of Warcraft players. We've read a lot of patch notes in our time, agonized over what nerfs might be coming to our class, and waited with great anticipation new features and dungeons. Once we even saw how to write patch notes of our own! So now, imagine if you will, that you have the golden opportunity to design a future WoW patch, creatively entitled "Patch 2.U." You are now the temporary chief of the Blizzard Development team. You sit in your throne room and dictate what the contents of the next patch will be!... But only for about 5 minutes -- then you have to step down from your throne and put the chief's hat on the next person in line. Then that person gets to dictate the patch notes, making any changes they see fit.Let's say you can choose 5 items for your own personal patch notes here; what changes or new features would be most important to you? If you see any changes from commenters above you which you absolutely can't abide, feel free to change them back. This will probably give us an example of the absolute chaos this game would be if players were actually in charge, but it could be pretty interesting. Be sure to check out the "Guide to Writing Fake Patch Notes," and then... patch away![Patch note funnies by Penny Arcade!]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Dweebs
Not a day passes without some poor sap's waggling image being posted on Flickr or YouTube, their awkwardness immortalized for the world to see. Today's Penny Arcade comic is a cautionary tale for all the gamers out there who lose themselves in the Wii's heightened brand of immersion, flapping their hands and dressing in costume for that authentic experience. With Harry Potter mania being at an all time high -- several video games, a new movie, and the final book all within a few weeks' reach -- we're at our most vulnerable. Guarding ourselves against these embarrassing exposures should be priority one. Remember that the next time you start riding your mother's broom during a mock Quidditch match and notice a red light blinking in one of the room's air vents.
The absolute worst class duo
Our reader Josh wrote to us with an common and practical question, saying that he said that he and his girlfriend are looking forward to starting two new alts together and they would like to know what the best classes would be for leveling exclusively together, with no solo play in between. He said, and I quote: "what would the greatest, most face melting/ass kicking/uber pwnage duo in WoW look like?"Now, fortunately for Josh and his girlfriend, we've actually been asked this question before, and anyways this sort of topic comes up lots and lots and lots of times in one way or another. I'm happy to refer them, and all interested parties of two, back to those posts with comments from our insightful readers. Of course if you feel something has changed since those topics last came up and there's a new best duo in the game, feel free to let us know here!But in order to give this post some kind of interesting spin, how about we advice them what not to do! What would be the absolute worst class combination imaginable for two people to level with? It's not as easy as you think -- As our class encouragement breakfast topics have shown so far, each of the classes has their own form of face melting, ass-kicking uber pwnage, and they all seem to have abilities that complement each other, no matter who they're paired with. Still... there has to be a less-than-optimal combination in there somewhere, right?Ideologically, you'd think that paladins and warlocks just would not mix at all, but no, that's not true! Actually they work great together. From my own experience, I remember practicing as a 2vs2 arena team with a mage friend, who is an excellent player, but we still didn't do very well at all. I know it could be just because I may be a terrible druid, or my gear may not be good enough, but it's actually the only time in this game that I've ever paired up with a friend only to feel that maybe our class abilities didn't complement each other well. I thought that if I could level my rogue to join her we might be a lot more successful, but my friend thought that I just needed more practice. Maybe there is no worst class duo! What's your experience?[Check out the girlfriend's answer in the last panel of this great Penny Arcade comic above, and take it as a warning not to choose for your duo a new class that you like toooooo much, or else you might not be able to resist soloing with it when you have free time and your partner doesn't!]
Enter to win a signed WoW TCG playmat from WoW Insider
The other weekend, I went out to Schaumberg, IL to meet up with the guys from Upper Deck at the WoW TCG Darkmoon Faire. And not only did I walk away with a couple of interviews and a lot of pictures, they also hooked me up with these two rare playmats, which we're giving away to two lucky readers!The one on top was given away to everyone who participated in the main tournament at the Darkmoon Faire events, and the one on the bottom features art by none other than Gabe of Penny Arcade. Oh, and you can't see it in the picture, but both mats are signed by none other than Mike Hummel, head of Upper Deck's R&D, and co-creator of the WoW TCG.To enter, just leave a comment (one comment and only one comment) on this post right here. As usual, the contest is only open to US residents age 13 and up (rest of the official rules here). Tomorrow morning at 11am EST, I'll close the comments and we'll choose two at random to each receive one playmat each. Good luck, comment away!Update: Contest over, comments closed. Thanks for entering everyone-- check your email to see if you won.
Wil Shipley appears in Penny Arcade
Wil Shipley, he of the Delicious Generation's namesake, appears in yesterday's Penny Arcade comic, as a guy hopefully waiting in the iPhone line. (Little does he know that they'll have plenty there even after he makes his way to the front.)The appearance came out of last year's Child's Play auction, in which Shipley donated a nice amount of money to charity for the privilege of appearing in a PA strip. On his blog, he says that he originally planned to have his iPhone held for him (along with PA Gabe's), but that turned out to be a no go with Apple, so they did actually stand in line together. And PA isn't the only place he's been seen standing in line-- Wil also got featured in the Seattle Times as an iPhone linewaiter. And finally, for those of you who appreciate a little blue (as in NSFW) humor, the guys from PA even did a special version of the strip just for Wil-- maybe all of this iPhone line fame is starting to go to the guy's head.
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup: 'Penny Arcade did it!' edition
Did you know that every game-related webcomic is just a knock-off of Penny Arcade? Most of our commenters have, at some point, figured it out and/or cried "PA did it!" as loud as they can with Lucida Grande font. Steve Napierski of Dueling Analogs figured it out, and explains the gospel in his latest strip. Have you all seen the light now?Here are our picks for the best Penny Arcade-related webcomics this week. Be sure to vote for your favorite! (And let us know of any gaming comics we may have unfortunately missed.) A cold day in Aiur Undisputed champion (for context) Superb technique New gameplan The ongoing war (hey, it's game-related) Surf strike (part 1, part 2)
'Stay gold, Zelda-cube'
Inspired by the craftsmanship and generosity of Morpheon Mods' Zelda-themed Wii and DS Lite auctions, Australian Michael Page hacked together a Hylian GameCube of his own to sell, pledging a portion of the proceeds to Penny-Arcade's Child's Play charity.The black-and-gold-painted system (PAL) features 11 bright LEDs in total, four of which light up through the holes drilled above the controller ports to indicate their player numbers. Additional LEDs have been installed next to the vents and inside the disc tray. According to Michael, the image of Navi on the transparent cover "looks amazing" when the blue glow hits it. The Legend of Zelda's phoenix and Triforce emblem have also been slapped onto the controller panel for extra effect. All that's missing now is the trademark "secret" chime whenever you open its lid. Hop onto Epona and gallop past the post break for more photos of the mod.
ThreeSpeech podcast producer makes a statement
While we didn't see anything wrong with the ThreeSpeech podcast (mostly because the reference went entirely over our heads), Jared Rea of Joystiq and the guys at Penny Arcade (they wrote a strip about them? Jealous.) are just a couple of people who did. Ben Furneaux, otherwise known as "The Man Who Said Those Things On That Podcast What People Didn't Like", has made a statement about what was said as an attempt to cool the fires of fanboydom that are licking at his feet.The statement can be found on his personal blog. In it he stands by the comments he made and suggests that most of the ill-will that was received after the podcast came from confusion about what relation the speakers had to Sony's PR machine. The answer, seemingly, is none. Does that make what was said any more acceptable? That's up to you. Though fanboys have got away with saying far worse. Be sure to read Ben's full statement. We assume the ThreeSpeech podcast will be continuing regardless of this entire debacle. Though if you're looking for an official straight-from-Sony podcast, then you'll probably need to wait for the PlayStation.Blog to start one. Which would not be a terrible idea.
