Do not - I repeat, do not - write me about this comic. Short of transcribing it from dictation, the strip as you see it is completely Gabriel's doing and all mail of any kind should be directed to him. I'm the one who tries to be a good person, to see where others are coming from and to recognize each person's unique gifts. I am the one who mediates concerns and endeavors to minimize hurt feewings. I have indulged him in this matter because his belief that the perpetrators of the blackmail are "hippies" is very strong, and I thought he might explode if he were not able to fashion a response to them. So that's that. Ain't a bad strip, neither.

The more Viewtiful Joe I play the more I think that the lack of save points is a real pain in the ass. You can play for a long time without ever getting the option to save. You can buy extra guys in the shop which helps but it would still be nice if they gave you more save points. I just played for almost two hours and was not able to reach the next save point. I will be starting tomorrow again right at the beginning of the level I started today. I am willing to admit that I am probably just not very good at the game but I still think more saves would be nice.

Tycho mentioned that we had received copies of Viewtiful Joe and Metal Slug 3 from VGD yesterday. Both of them are awesome and I thought I'd just talk about each one briefly.

I had gone to Planet GameCube, obviously, to see if they had a FAQ for the machine and didn't find it. In my defense, I looked for three seconds.

I wouldn't go as far as this guy, withdrawing my support entirely from the Hiptop as a device, but T-Mobile remotely removing the suite of games from Color Hiptops is sort of shitty. I'm not even saying they were great games, they weren't. I've only been bored enough to access them three times since I got it. But God dammit, at least they were there, like the last Mento, in case I needed it for some reason.

The original Game Boy was the first dedicated gaming appliance I ever purchased, and I have kept up that tradition dutifully. It's a pretty slick package, and though the software that comes with it has some features for sharpening or smoothing the graphics, etcetera, the bottom line is that is lets you play Game Boy games on your television, a la the Super Game Boy. Any individual features are corollaries to that. A reader asked me if the device colorized older Game Boy games like the Game Boy Color did, and I assume so, but I don't know - I must have lost my older games in the move, which makes my heart ache. Another reader wanted to know if it can play imports, and I can't imagine why not, but I couldn't tell you one way or the other. I'll ask Travis, I bet he'll know. The only questions I can actually answer are about Advance Wars 2, I'm afraid. For example: Is it awesome? Yes.

Don’t fuck with Penny Arcade.

I read the new Harry Potter book, all nine hundred or so pages of it, before I went to bed that day. I got it early, passing the mailman wearing the wizards hat, pushing down a little girl. I drove home with the book in my lap, singing a song which could not be transcribed, because it was the audible form of joy.

It's a white GameCube. Oh boy!

As you might remember I came away from E3 thinking that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles was easily the best game of the show. Well now the Magic Box is reporting that Nintendo is planning on releasing a special FF:CC Gamecube bundle:

You can be knocked down in Star Wars Galaxies without necessarily being out, as shown in today's strip. Gabe was often waylaid halfway to some Godforsaken Tatooine shithole he had a mission at, waylaid by some kind of massive troll that would hit him until he fell down, and then once he groggily regained consciousness they would bop him like a field mouse in what I'm sure is a highly enjoyable game for Trolls.

When you sent me that Friendster request yesterday, I assumed it was one of those mails produced by a virus.

Just when you though I hadn't been an asshole for a while.

Last week I ran a poll in the forum to see what videogame character I would draw for this month’s club PA gift. Wolverine ended up winning and I just finished my drawing of him yesterday. Here is a little peek at it.

Now that the NDA is no longer hanging over my head I thought I would elaborate a bit on why I won’t be purchasing SWG right away.