The Disney/Marvel brand cinematic engine is purpose built, unrelenting in its aim, and terrifying thus far in its efficacy. It drives in deep rods that culminate in ensemble films, and then reaps gains while it girds the next one with a new round of worldbuilding and starmaking. These people have Star Wars, now. "Witness the firepower," as they say.

Jamie just delivered a massive Child's Play announcement and I wanted to share it with you all. Here's Jamie's post from the Child's Play site:

The best part about Call of Duty: Ghosts is the dog, you've heard that. You might even know it yourself. The strange part is that as I sit down to type this, it seems like the only part. The only part I can remember.

We have turned to people "in the company" to sort of project manage the things we want to accomplish. Jeff regularly harangues me about the Lookouts novel, and Mike Hayes (nee Fehlauer) prods Gabriel until he starts sanding the edges on the Thornwatch GM's Guide. Too hard at work, frankly. There's too much focus. He needs to ease off the throttle a bit, to reintroduce those lumps and failures and delicious oversights that have brought me such comfort in the past, that ones that have so pleasantly situated my place in the universe.

I’ve set a goal of this time next year as a release date for Thornwatch. Is that doable? I don’t know but I’m going to work as hard as I can to try and make that happen. So over the next year as I’m working on the game I’m going to share as much of the process with you as I can. I’m gonna start with a basic overview of the game and how it works because honestly I’m not sure I’ve done that yet.

I got this mail today and saw a tweet with the same sentiment last week. I figured my response might be interesting to more than just the person who sent the mail.

We received the finished version of the Killer Instinct Pin Ultimate edition here in the office last week. You can do all the awesome artwork and design that you want but it’s still scary waiting for that final version to come back from the manufacturer. This is one of if not the most complicated merchandise projects we've tried to build here at PA and I am so happy with the final product. When it showed up last week all of us on the pin team ran from office to office showing it off.

Of course, we're buying both; that's not some kind of potent metacommentary you've discovered. Call of Duty, like Halo before it, is the game almost everyone plays but must still afford themselves ironic cover. I played the last one a bit, aided by the WiiU's clever ability to let parents play M rated games privately, but (in the manner of some films) I don't think it really likes being squozen onto a tiny screen. I'm gonna try the next one for realsies, though. I've been away long enough that novelty has almost certainly been restored.

Kara's line in the last panel was delivered, by her, at the time; everything else must be considered l'esprit d'escalier.

I got some really great entries into my Eyrewood Halloween Costume contest. They were all awesome so I’m actually going to give everyone who entered a Tithe print pack! I did have some favorites though and I’ll make sure they get an extra special prize pack with some Lookouts pins and anything else cool I can stuff in the box.

The Pinny Arcade Halloween Set is now available in the store.

I had seen Krosmaster Arena for sale at PAX Prime and I immediately loved the art on the box. I wasn’t able to pick it up at the show but when I saw it again this week at a game shop near the office I had to grab it. The little figures were so awesome I even picked up a set of them as well before I had even played the game. I figured worst case scenario the game sucks and they will just look cool on my shelf. The good news is the game is fucking awesome. The bad news is now I have to buy a lot more of these little bastards.

A little while after Katie moved to Seattle and started working in the PA office we all went to lunch. The waitress recognized us and Jerry asked if she watched Strip Search. She said yes and then Jerry introduced Katie as the winner of the show. The waitress frowned. “I just started watching it.” she said.

It came up in conversation yesterday, but for some reason the closer we get to these new platforms the happier I am with the platforms I have. All the Orcs Must Die 2 DLC I never bought when it came out, like twenty dollars worth, is on sale for like six bucks right now. I had more than six dollars of fun with it last night. You can get a pack that includes all the DLC and the game itself for a little over six bucks. This is what I wrote about it when I was playing it the first time, and it holds up. That has to be one of the best deals I've ever seen, not simply as a mercantile transaction, but as a matter of dollars spent to joy produced.

I’ve had about a week with my Surface Pro 2 now and I wanted to share my thoughts. Full disclosure MS did give me this Surface Pro 2 since I was so vocal about my love of the first one. So what makes the Pro 2 different?

I already said that I liked The Stanley Parable; we talked about it after he had played it a bit thinking that we might get a strip out of it. Which we did, even if it wan't the one we set out to find.