As you all hopefully know the Penny Arcade gaming day is this Monday at Lanwerx. We spent a couple hours last night working out the ladder for the big SC2 tournament that is scheduled to take place Monday evening at 6:00. This is a huge 64 player tourney and the logistics of it were pretty tough to manage. Earlier I had said it would be a double elimination tournament but as we began calculating the time required for that sort of event it became clear that we would be at Lanwerx until 3:00 in the damn morning. Seeing as they close at midnight this was not going to work. What we decided to do is make the tournament a single elimination tourney instead. I apologize if this ruins anyone’s birthday party. So here is how it’s gonna be set up:

Obviously, I have nothing to say regarding Gabriel's recent struggle at EB other than to offer some helpful advice. Lord knows I'm not the man to come to when your retail resolve falters, I just buy things - I can't help it. Even those ten dollar bins they have represent a danger to my finances that I can't even begin to describe to you.

I have gotten a few mails from people asking how they will be able to meet up with me in Star Wars Galaxies when it ships next week. The quick answer is you won’t. See, I’m not actually gonna get it. Not right away at any rate. I can’t really talk about why right now, I may make another post once the game ships. There is a good chance I’ll pick it up when player owned vehicles come around or I might just wait and take another look at it when the space expansion launches. Either way you won’t be seeing me in the game anytime soon. I apologize if this puts a damper on your galaxies fun. Don’t worry though, you’ll be having so much fun running for hours between towns that you won’t even notice I’m missing.

Despite rather expensive efforts to the contrary, I'm no more excited about a new Tomb Raider game than I would be to fish a quarter out of a urinal. It's not even that I have misgivings about it. I have nothing about it.

A new Hookup is available. We had the opportunity to hang out with Stormy down at E3 for a while and he represents and interesting dichotomy. First of all he does not look like us. That is to say he does not look like a dork. He is tall, in good shape and fashionably dressed. I’ll admit when he first came over and introduced himself to me I was not to keen on him. He was sporting some kind of ultra fancy motorcycle jacket and a pair of sunglasses that probably cost more than my car. He exuded confidence and he reeked of testosterone. He had a look about him that made it seem like he could at any minute begin lifting weights or fucking a woman. This is not the sort of person I normally hang out with.

Here is the list of people who have signed up for the Soul Calibur 2 tournament. Remember if your name is on this list we’d like for you to check in a half hour before the tournament starts. Since we plan to kick things off at 6:00pm that means we want to see your smiling faces at 5:30pm.

I just finished a beer that was so large that I had to lift it with both hands. Really, the

The new comic is up. With no Tycho around to torment I have been forced to turn my attention to my other friends. I called my buddy Robert a CockMonkey and then made an obscene gesture that involved a lot of thrusting on my part as well as some well choreographed hand motions. His feelings were hurt and I think he might have cried a little, but it just wasn't the same.

Thank you TriQuad for pointing me towards this great interview with Dan Brown, the Author of THE DAVINCI CODE.

***UPDATE***

Two things:

I keep hoping I'll see that fuckhole Rick Steves while I'm over here. Yes, that Rick Steves, PBS Rick Steves, Mr. Knows All About Europe, I'm Going To Punch Him In The Face Rick Steves.

A new comic strip can be found here.

The Necrowombicon is approaching and we here at the arcade are getting pretty damn excited. For those of you unfamiliar with the wombicon let me break it down for you. Imagine a two day Penny Arcade festival full of videogames, music and dorks just like you and I. Tycho and I along with a few members of the PA crew will be in attendance again this year. You can find all the details here along with instructions on how to register for the event. This will be our third Wombicon and I can tell you with all honestly it is shaping up to be the best ever.

As if the fact that the Nokia N-Gage is a pile of shit was not enough by itself to keep gamers everywhere from purchasing it, the head of Nokia’s entertainment division decided to insult his target audience. In an article over at Gamespot he had this to say regarding their competition.

On behalf of everyone here at PA, I would like to extend our best wishes to PA reader John who was diagnosed with cancer when he was 18. Now 19 his cancer has gone into remission and his friends tell me he is apparently doing quite well. This is just a note to let you know that about 2 million gamers are rooting for you John.