Bioware has very rarely faltered in my eyes and I need to take a moment and say that if you’re interested in Mass Effect 2 then you should really check out another game they released a few months back called “Dragon Age”. It is one of the best RPGs I’ve every played and I really do believe it’s a better story experience than the original Mass Effect (which is one of my top five favourite games of all time).  Sure, the dialogue system is archaic and the game is butt-ugly… but it’s still a great RPG that only a company as amazing as Bioware could pull off.  PLAY IT.

As an aside, episode 56 is the first comic rendered with my new Wacom Cintiq 12WX. Can you see the difference?  I certainly can.  I’m thinking of putting together an actual review of this thing… it’s just amazing.  Compared to what I was using before the Cintiq is literally a dream come true.  The speed at which I can render and the precision that I can execute with has made a very positive impact in my work flow.  I’m especially looking forward to is when it’s time to start working on the X10 print. That’s going to rock.

We’re going to be giving away a copy of Shadow Complex and ‘Splosion Man (two of the best games released last year on Xbox Live Arcade) on January 15th. Entering the draw is pretty easy, just become a fan of ours on Facebook! We’ll do a randrom draw from all our fans and then the winner will be notified by Facebook private message.

With that said, I need to get something off my chest. I’ve been trying to write this post for two months now and I’ve never quite figured out how to word it.  You see, my personal life has been quite traumatic as of late. There’s no easy way to say this so here we go: I was laid off at the beginning of November.

I was informed by my employer that they were shutting down my office and that as of December 31st my services would no longer be required. Another victim of a ruined economy. Yay!  As many of my readers can imagine, this upset my happy little life quite a bit. I was quite fond of my job and had worked there for over seven years.  The range of emotions that I went through was vast and scary but I won’t trouble you with all the wonderful details of the sleepless nights thinking about my children and how I was going to get dinner on the table in two months time. No, the pertinent problem for YOU was that 360Prophecy was created using hardware on loan from my ex-employer. No hardware, no comic.

This also explains my absence from pretty much every social network that I visit.  As much as I tried to keep a smile on my face, inside I felt destroyed and embarrassed. How would I ever face the world? Well, I couldn’t.  So I’ve only tweeted around five times in the last two months and my inbox has been completely neglected.  If you’ve sent me a message over the last eight weeks, I’m sorry.  I couldn’t focus on you, I needed to focus on my family. I needed to get a job.

I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to do just that. I’ve jumped industries (the old one was a little chaotic), and landed in a position with a lot of exciting opportunities and a boss who has been treating me great for the last two weeks. He’s mentioned that he’s a big Halo 3 fan, so I’ve got a feeling we’re going to get a long just fine.  I’m writing this post on my new company laptop and will have already started my first day by the time you read this.  Even better, a portion of my severance pay is going towards purchasing a Wacom Cintiq 12WX.  In my opinion, this is the second best tablet in the world and it’s a big step up from the Intuos 2 I was using before.

I think I’ve spilt my heart out enough for one day, don”t you think?  Let’s just wrap this up.  Thanks to all the fans for supporting 360P, we’ve got some wonderful things planned for you this year.  The start is going to be a little slow, but we’ll be rocking out soon enough.  Happy New Year!

~ Jeff

And so we conclude another season of 360Prophecy. For this year’s Holiday entry I thought it would be a fun idea to bring back the Elite. Bungie didn’t see fit to include him in ODST I figured his feeling might be a little hurt and a quick cameo would cheer him up!

~ Maranda [HotelQueen]

You’re leaving for a space trip and you have to bring only one game and one video game character with you, it would be…

Roger Wilco from the Space Quest series. Oh, the fun we could have! The brooms we could lose!

As you can probably tell it’s not a very serious interview, but would you really expect anything different from a guy who draws pictures for a living? It was also completed quite a few months ago so my “currently playing” is a little out of date. Thanks to Jay at GameFocus for the opportunity!

Don’t forget to follow GameFocus on Twitter!

When the Wii was first introduced we all assumed that it would bring the casual market into gaming, widening our audience and giving us more people to play with. If I had a nickle for every time I’ve heard, “They’ll buy a Wii and then upgrade to a 360 or PS3″ then I’d be a millionaire by now. The reality of the situation is that this just isn’t happening in any quantifiable degree.  The Wii hasn’t created new “gamers”, they’ve created a new breed of… something else.

Turn 10 Studios, on the other hand, has taken a game which was originally aimed squarely at the hardest of hardcore gamers and opened it up to everyone.  Instead of making casual party games accessible, they’ve made accessible hardcore games. Do you see the difference? It’s an important one and I hope every other developer out there is paying attention.

Another thing we should probably talk about is the, err, “controversy” surrounding this comic.  On Monday I tweeted, “LADIES! MS thinks the latest 360P may be “female unfriendly”. I need to know what you think! http://bit.ly/22pT15“

All the women who replied agreed, some more vocally than others, that it was not sexist in any way. In fact, I think I would argue that it is more “pro-woman” than anything else.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise since the comic is co-written by a woman. I know that Maranda doesn’t pop onto the blog as often as everyone else would like, but that’s just kind of the way it is.  She’s going to be taking a much bigger role soon though, and then maybe these posts will be a little more coherent. I’ve been told I tend to ramble.

Oh, and speaking of I seem to have gotten myself off topic. CONTROVERSY!

There were some people who replied with some not nice things about Microsoft and I just wanted to say that my friends there just want to be careful. The last thing they need is a post on Kotaku reading, “BREAKING: Microsoft hates women and puppies”.  The comic is distributed to every Live enabled Xbox in Canada, that’s a lot of people to potentially offend. We shouldn’t blame them for wanting to protect themselves. I certainly don’t.

Inspired by some of my heroes, I’ve decided to delve into playing some Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition with my family. I’ve never played before, but I think it’s something the kids would enjoy so I went to my  local Chapters and picked up the 4e starter kit. In it I found simplified version of both the players handbook and a DM guide, a set of dice, some dungeon tiles, pre-made characters and a short adventure to experiment with.  In essence, everything I need to begin an adventure. The PCs are getting their character sheets tonight so they can give themselves names and familiarize themselves with their skills and stats.

I really have to hand it to Wizards on the Coast for organizing those podcasts. It certainly sold me on their product and if the kids enjoy playing then I’m sure I’ll be putting together some more elaborate scenarios of my own in the future. I’ll post some pictures after Friday night’s game.

What I’m most excited about though is that ODST marks (at least in my books) the official start of the 2009 gaming season. And yes, it’s a little sparse as compared to some previous years but we’re still getting some amazing experiences with games like Forza 3, Dragon Age, Borderlands, DJ Hero, Assassins Creed 2, Brutal Legend, and Modern Warfare 2. Before taxes, that’s still almost FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS worth of games. I can tell you that even with this “lessened” calendar I will not be purchasing all the games I’m interested in this holiday season. While I’ve never asked them, I’m pretty sure my children don’t want me canceling Christmas so daddy can play video games. Oh, the sacrifices a father has to make!

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention that we’ve uploaded a final look at the print we’ll be bringing to X09 to our Facebook page.