Games [view: normal]

Tycho: The exact total is $542,107.01 - a jump of just over eighty-six thousand over last week's figure. We'll take it, certainly. But I warn you: my palm is poised over the knob labeled Stirring Rhetoric. I can crank this mode like you would not believe. Act Accordingly. Desert Bus 2009 is currently underway, and even though they've got over twenty-five thousand in donations and a min...

New Comic: The Fullness Of Time

Tycho: New Super Mario Brothers Wii is marriage poison. I wouldn't play this game with any person you want to see again. In its multiplayer interpretation, which I suggest be referred to as "Divorce Mode," choreographing your platform jumps in a way that does not interfere with another person's basic game interactions can be quite difficult - particularly in portions where player movement itself c...

Gabe: I was very excited about Gyromancer and I decided to grab it on the PC since I saw it right there in Steam when I went to play Torchlight. I remember now why I quit playing games on the PC. I installed the game game but when I tried to launch it would fail. I got some ambiguous error report about how the program encountered an error. I tried deleting and re installing the game a few times to...

New Comic: Grim

Tycho: I have to say that we found DJ Hero quite interesting, actually. I understand that it didn't sell particularly well, but that's never been an especially valid barometer of aesthetics. It's significant to me that the music you're playing in the game is new, purpose-built material. I've heard that the track list is one of the main problems with this experiment, but I'm prepared to call that ...

New Comic: Ne'er The Twain Shall Meet

Tycho: We've waged an unrelenting crusade to have Gabe give Modern Warfare 2 a try, to see if he wasn't enthralled by it, or if the experience wasn't (at the very least) preferable to solitude. Our aggressive sales campaign has apparently gripped him because he's double my level, and plays it even in our absence. We haven't talked about it yet, what it is about the game that has him bound thus, bu...

Gabe: Hello dear readers, I would like to tell you a story. Yesterday Tycho and I were in the process of writing today's comic when something very interesting happened. Now you should know by now that our names are not Gabe and Tycho. My name is Mike and Tycho's is Jerry. The characters in the comic strip have always been loosely based on us but I know perfectly well that Jerry does not look at an...

Gabe: We launched Child's Play 2009 last week and as of today we've managed to raise $455,863.80. I'm going to give you all a little bit of time to let that number sink in. Pretty fucking incredible huh? Already games and toys are flying out to Children's Hospitals all over the world thanks to you guys. What an amazing start! We've added a bunch of new hospitals this year. You can now suppor...

New Comic: Conclusive Evidence

Tycho: Emotiv's Epoc mind controller device thing doesn't allow you to control other people's minds, which I think is a disappointment to everyone. You can watch a video of Indigo Montoya using it, but since the gameplay is occurring within the confines of his skull, it's difficult to assess. Controlling things with your mind isn't an especially demonstrative activity, almost by definition, which ...

Gabe: I get a lot of mail from new DM's asking for tips. Some of the stuff I post here will probably be old news to veteran DM's but I think it might be useful to others. Something I noticed with fights against only one or two tough enemies was that they got sort of boring. The party locks up the bad guy and they just take turns beating the shit out of him. In my game on Monday I had an encounter ...

Gabe: I've been jumping back and forth between a few different games recently. There's just so much good stuff to play right now. -Dragon Age I've got maybe twelve hours invested in Dragon Age and I'm still really enjoying it. From what I hear the game's length is pretty ridiculous so I don't imagine I'll ever see the end. I really like the combat though and the story so far has been great. If I h...

New Comic: The Minutia-men

Tycho: I understand that Modern Warfare 2 is a big release - playing last night, the game informed me that my rank was over two million, and that's just on the Xbox. But the granularity of the coverage it's been receiving projects somewhat beyond the threshold of utility. Gabriel never took part in the many, many nights of the original Modern Warfare enjoyed by Kiko and myself, evenings which bega...

New Comic: At The Midnight Hour

Tycho: I once made it a point to attend midnight launches, if for no other reason than it offered an excuse to hit Dick's on the way back - around one o'clock or so - when that unassuming burger window becomes the capital of a spontaneous nation. Outside of something like PAX, though - a phenomenon which is about to become more common - being in the presence of those who share my affection for gam...

New Comic: A Truly Fascinating Phenomenon

Tycho: We spent quite a bit of time trying to determine how we felt about the Dragon Age situation described in today's comic - a character appears in your camp who offers a questline that is only available in downloadable content. The character is literally a salesman. Is this an act of abominable evil? Or is the mass of this evil sufficient to unfold itself - like a Popple - into a creature capa...

Tycho: It's back! The ultimate in friction-free, ultra-lightweight charity engines is here, ready to transform the slightest movements of your finger into much-needed respite for young people. Here's what's up: We've got New Hospitals this year, a tender cross-section of facilities you've directed us to over the past year. Focus your Charity Beam on Dayton, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Boise, Memp...

Gabe: PAX East is coming up quick and we're going to need some new enforcers to help us out. We will be bringing over about 150 of our west coast enforcers but we'd like to supplement that with another 150 new enforcers from the east coast. Enforcers get into the show for free but in return we work you like a dog. If this sounds like a fair arrangement to you then fill out this enforcer applicatio...

Tycho: I un... truncated it(?). In the future, I will assess all posts for truncability. (CW)TB

New Comic: The Price Of Loyalty

Tycho: Runic Games is doing the Lord's work, in an robust and unambiguous fashion. Torchlight has the bracing qualities we associate with pure mountain streams. Let's run with that, actually; elemental is the keyword here, and not just because many weapons bear enchantments which confer elemental effects. I'd have said that an action RPG without multiplayer in the year two-thousand and nine was a ...