Before PAX I mentioned that I had drawn a few cards for the World of Warcraft CCG. I posted the Leeroy Jenkins card and mentioned I had a few more. Things got crazy when PAX hit and I forgot. I remembered this morning though that I still had those cards to show you so here’s another.

It's available almost everywhere, actually, but we have it on our own store now if you do not already posess it.  I've seen a few out there in The Retail Book Fortresses, so should you desire a copy of Epic Legends Of The Magic Sword Kings, the process will be very straightforward.  I think it turned out really well, but I wrote all of it, and I get paid when you buy it.  So I might not be the person to ask.

Trivia:  The third book is called The Warsun Prophecies, which we already announced.  The fourth book is called "Birds Are Weird."

(CW)TB

FFXII's Gambit System is, and I am not exaggerating for effect, the mechanism by which you relinquish control of the game. 

There is some really nice HD footage from PAX available over at gametrailers.com now. They have a pretty slick behind the scenes look at how the show comes together as well as an interview with Gaybe and Tykoh from Pennies Arcadez!

I don’t read game reviews. I honestly don’t see any reason to. It’s not hard to rent a game and see for yourself if it’s any good. I don’t know why I should care what number someone I don’t know and will never meet has attached to the latest game. I picked up Enchanted Arms the day it came out because I’m a fan of classic turn based RPG’s. Now there are a lot of bad games in this genre but there are also some real gems. Series like Shadow Hearts and Shin Megami Tensei are proof that the genre has grown beyond just Final Fantasy. I’m happy to say that Enchanted Arms is another of the good ones. I’ve been hooked on it since I dropped it into my 360. Robert also grabbed a copy and we have little chat sessions every morning about how awesome the game continues to be. Tycho happened to hear one of these Enchanted Arms lovefests and was actually surprised. He told us that for the most part all the reviews of the game said it’s pretty bad or at the very best only okay. I was really surprised that reviewers could have gotten this one so wrong so I hit gamerankings to see for myself. I found the Games Radar review especially bad.

Like Chromehounds - another From Software game released to critical yawns - Enchanted Arms reviews haven't really communicated the game. I'm playing it over Gabe's shoulder, so I'm not the person to do it either. Were I you, I might keep my eyes focused on the area directly beneath this post.

I've read reviews that suggest Disgaea 2 basically the original Disgaea all over again - they say that like it's a bad thing. If you still have an appetite for Nippon Ichi's take on strategy after Disgaea, La Pucelle, Phantom Brave, and Makai Kingdom, then no force on Earth could suspend your ravenous hunger anyhow. Every time we load it we giggle and make little hopping jumps. Your mileage may very, especially if you have a low ceiling.

The comic is about toes. Also, bamboo. Technically it's about the interaction between toes and bamboo.

We actually created yesterdays comic on stage at PAX. After I had finished I started doodling all over the first panel. The fans in the audience made me promise to upload this version as well as the regular comic. So here you go:

It’s taken two days but I think the nervous energy associated with PAX has finally dissipated. Hopefully those of you that attended PAX 06 will agree that the event came off pretty damn well. Obviously there were some issues with the amount of people being crammed into that space but I think we made it work. The final count for PAX 2006 was 19,323 (almost 20,000 people!) and there is no doubt that we’ve outgrown the Meydenbauer center and thankfully this was the last year we will have to deal with that. PAX 07 will be moving to the absolutely gigantic Washington State convention center in downtown Seattle. We’ll have more than triple the space and we plan on putting it to good use. I was blown away by how understanding everyone was this year. I know we had some long lines and some big crowds but I never heard anyone complain about the situation. All I heard all weekend from people was how great the show was and what a good time they were having. You guys really are awesome.

It has become the Saturday tradition to do the next strip upon the expo's stark and terrifying stage, but since Armadeaddon needed its proper epilogue it got moved out to Wednesday. Gabe was highly indulgent of audience suggestions in the final version, far more than he is to me, adding many, many things based on them being called out from the microphone - he has a version with more additions still that he'll be putting up later today. But there are things in there like the blue ball in the last panel - to say nothing of the official "Hot-Dog Fairy" merchandise! - that began as anecdotes and have now graduated to true PAX lore.

There were some truly unconscionable spelling issues with the 1.0 version of that last post. I think I got them all.  But I am afraid to look.

(CW)TB
 

Here is the final sequence of Armadeaddon, which you may think of as a kind of bonus stage. The next time poor diet or exhaustion leaves us without rejoinder to infernal continuity, panel two should provide more than enough raw material.

I just wanted to give you all a quick update from PAX. Things are pretty crazy here but I thought you all might like to see a couple pictures Kiko took yesterday.

I could have taken more rigorous steps to prevent it, but circumstances have conspired to leave me in a hotel room the night before PAX, a heavy black mug of hotel cat piss coffee cooling on the nightstand while I thumb my post into the server from my mobile phone. I love to depict times like these in apocalyptic terminology, but the truth is that I love almost everything about them. I know it's ridiculous to find fault with my lot - it's boorish in a way, like complaining about the weight of your scepter. I hope it's understood that these posts are largely a pageant I hold for your benefit! I'm not actually of the opinion that staying in a hotel room on the eve of my convention constitutes "hard living."

I just read through one of the conduits of Leipzig gaming news, and was jolted by a piece of news: Xbox Live is going to be moving into classic board games.  I don't mean, like, Chutes and Ladders or some shit - though I don't doubt that GrowPot420 would snap that up on day one.  No, I mean like Settlers of Catan and Carcassone.  Pillars of the tabletop gaming community, so to speak.

This is probably the biggest news of that convention for me.  Getting people together to play these games, or finding people to play them with at all can be a trying endeavor.  This is near Goddamn optimal.

(CW)TB