Light Brigade

Just your standard WW2 story where a group of U.S. infantry are recruited by the immortal Centurion Marcus Longinus to stop a fallen angel and his army of near immortal half-human offspring from igniting an archangels Wrathful Sword upon the ever-burning Cross of the Nazarene and using it to overthrow God. So you know, same old same old…

Plus its drawn by Snejbjerg who I’ve loved since way back when he was on Books of Magic. And here he gives Frank Quietly a run for the money in the ability to draw humans that have been shot to fuck and back…

But the main appeal here is the story again. Which is kind of Devil’s Brigade meets Zulu meets Demon Knight. So you know, its chock full of awesome and plenty of scenes where Nazi’s get shot…

Sam gets welcomed to the ‘cast.  Jonathan talks about Gen Con and Ex Illis, a game he didn’t have the opportunity to actually try out, but still has opinions on.  Alex goes on and on about GameStop again.  Then we get into headlines!

The News:

• Three Brothers Killed Over Xbox 360
• A bunch of game announcements and release dates that’ll take up too much space to link individually.
• Guard plays Plants vs. Zombies. Inmates play Run Away!
• Bow Wow Loses $100k to the Game in Madden Beatdown
• NCSoft sued for making games that are too addictive.
• PS3 Cracked via USB Dongle
• Australian iPhone Censorship, Developers Threaten Pullout

See ya next week for a headline that ballooned into its own topic!

Sidescrollers

Some days you just want a story about three slackers and their quest to stop the douche football jock from scoring with the hot new girl. Also included: beat downs inflicted by girl scouts, scorpion shenanigans, video game jokes, cereal mascot mockery, ninja stealth mode and Ceiling Cat vs. Basement Cat. All at no extra cost…

Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire: Seer’s Digest by Michael Terracciano

This is the first collected volume of Michael “Mookie” Terracciano’s long-running webcomic. “Seer’s Digest” introduces the strip’s two main characters: Dominic Deegan, the grumpy but kind-hearted Seer, and Luna Travoria, a talented mage afflicted with tusks and crushingly low self-esteem. The comic starts out light enough, concentrating on Dominic’s frustration and contempt for the majority of his clients. It quickly gets more serious (well, mostly more serious), introducing Luna’s mother and her attempts to get her daughter killed. Added to the mix are arrogant knights, infernal wizards and really creepy necromancers…

A good deal of long-term set-up takes place in this volume. Future stories involving Dominic’s brothers (one a optimistic “White” magic caster, the other that really spooky necromancer), the crazy-ass Chaos cult The Chosen, the Knights of Callan and the demon-tainted Infernomancers. One important warning though: many of the characters can’t seem to resist punning. *shudder*

Maintenance vol.1: It’s A Dirty Job… written by Jim Massey, illustrated by Robbi Rodriguez, tones by Jared Jones, lettering by Douglas E. Sherwood

Maintenance has everything you could want in a book about two janitors who work at a mad science lab that supplies super-villains. Its got man-sharks and aliens and time-travelers who look like Captain Caveman and zombie kittens stuck in the vending machine. Even secret crushes on the cute secretary. “Heroes” Doug and Manny are likeable everyman schlubs. Just like you! If you had to clean up living fetid piles of goo and get sent back in time occasionally for your job. Which you might. I don’t know…

But you probably don’t! So why not live the dream vicariously? By reading Maintenance!

We start about talking about music. You knew it was going to come up, so we take care of it right away.

Piracy and why ebooks are now viable.

The inconvenience of living in a market transition. What do you do when you own a book in paper but you want it digitally?

Point of view: what is a book to a reader, a writer, and a publisher. Here are some of the things consumers should take into account. Here are some of the things the industry should consider. Let’s all work together, eh?

The Big 6 of Publishing: Random House, Simon and Schuster, Penguin, Macmillan, HarperCollins, and the Hatchett Group. Will they survive the transition to digital publishing? Do they have relevance when paper isn’t involved in books?

Organic growth, market share, and why ebooks are a certainty. Here is the projection graph for 2010 sales that Joe mentioned.

What happens when a book doesn’t sell

Want to learn more about the industry? Look into Pimp My Novel, Nathan Bransford, Janet Reid, Kristin Nelson, GalleyCat, Publishers Weekly, Publisher’s Lunch, and others. There is a lot of information out there.

We’ve got Sam (also known as Neosect on the forums) along for the ride, and we’ve got some answers from Brad, one of our Australian listeners.

If you’d like to follow along, you can check out the questions in the forums, and be sure to post your own answers there, as well, when you’re done listening.

Next week: Sam’s Top Ten!

Wednesday Comics written by many, art by various

For those who don’t remember Wednesday Comics was a weekly DC title, done in an old-school Sunday comics style. Each issue featured 15 different stories in one-page installments. Which varied in quality and in how well they took advantage of the change in format. The collected format is a huge-ass coffee table sized book. Too big for me to scan the cover even. Really, really, REALLY big. Also with single pages of two titles that didn’t make the cut, Plastic Man written by Evan Dorkin and art by Stephen DeStefano and Beware the Creeper written by Keith Giffen and art by Eric Canete…

First up is Batman written by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso, colors by Patricia Mulvhill and letters by Clem Robins. This one basically Azzarello’s 100 Bullets. With Batman in it. Nice and all, but nothing truly special. B-

Next, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth written by Dave Gibbons, art by Ryan Sook. This one has the feel of the classic Prince Valiant comic strips. Plus Gorilla-Men and Tiger-Men and guns and violence in a post-apocalyptic feature. Very cool. A+

Superman is written by John Arcudi, art by Lee Bermejo, colors by Barbara Ciardo, letters Ken Lopez. Which is very much a Superman story. A super-whiny Superman story. Superman deals with aliens who make him angsty and whiny for 6 or 7 weeks. Truly disappointment. D

Murdered circus aerialist Boston Brand is tasked by a Goddess to help the world as the ghostly Deadman written by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Jared Fletcher. Good use of the format, nice story involving vengeful ghost ladies and demons. B+

Then Green Lantern written by Kurt Busiek, art by Joe Quinones and letters by Pat Brosseau. A perfectly well-scripted story and some nice, crisp art. But theres nothing here that couldn’t be a regular floppy issue of the comic. Plus its about Hal Jordan a test pilot who fights aliens with a magic ring and still manages to be one of the dullest fucking characters ever.. C

Metamorpho the Element Man written by Neil Gaiman, art by Mike Allred, colors by Laura Allred and letters by Nate Piekos. Here Gaiman and Allred really try to experiment with the format and do some truly interesting pages. Like the one set out as board game or where Metamorpho and Element Girl, who can turn into any element, chase their evil counter-part across a Periodic Table of the Elements. The stories a little slight though. B+

Ugh. Teen Titans written by Eddie Berganza, art by Sean Galloway, letters by Nick J. Napolitano. This one is just terrible. One its the only one that tries to fit in with the regular DC ongoing continuity. The story goes nowhere, the art is a giant mess and the characters are less then one-note. A total waste of of space. F

Happily the next one is Strange Adventures by Paul Pope. Which is about Adam Strange, an Earthman who is transported by a teleporter ray to the planet Rann where he hangs with his space princess true love and has crazy space adventures. With ray guns and jet packs. And in this story crazy blue babboon aliens. Pope goes all out creating a wild pulp-era scifi story. Lots of love for this one. A+

Bringing us to Supergirl written by Jimmy Palmiotti, art by Amanda Conner, colors by Paul Mounts, letters by John J Hill. Most of this is Supergirl chasing an adorable Krypto and Streaky. And I do mean super-adorable. Plus some really amusing pages involving Aquaman and later Dr. Mid-nite. All-around fun and cute 90% of the reason I’ll eventually check out Palmiotti and Conner’s work on Power-Girl in trade. A

Then its Metal Men written by Dan DiDio, art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan, letters by Kenny Lopez, colors by Trish Muluihill. Yep this is certainly a comic-book type story about the robotic Metal Men and their creator Dr. Magnus. Stopping a bank robbery. And its even got a predictable appearance by regular Metal Men foe Chemo. And ends with most of the robots getting broken. Really its like 90% of their stories minus any crazy. C

The next one I seem to be one of the few who liked. Wonder Woman by Ben Caldwell. The early pages have a whole Little Nemo-dream adventures thing going on. And yes this is probably the most panel-heavy of the stories. But honestly this is one of the few times I’ve seen a solo Wonder Woman story and felt interested in getting more. A

Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. written by Adam Kubert and art by Joe Kubert. Whats to say. Its Joe Kubert drawing Sgt. Rock. He and easy company will overcome the bad guys and kill lots of Nazis. There is nothing wrong here. There also isn’t anything that really makes use of the format. B

But this next one probably takes the best advantage of the format. The Flash written by Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl, art by Kerschl, colors by Dave McCaig, letters by Rob Leigh. All kinds art tricks, concurrent split-page story telling funky panel lay-outs. All helping tell a very sharp story where Gorilla Grodd tries to take out the Flash using his own powers against him. Plus it manages to make me care about DC’s second-dullest character Barry Allen. A+

The Demon/Cat-Woman written by Walter Simonson, art by Brian Stelfreeze, letters by Steve Wands. So Cat-Woman steals from Jason Blood (who is the host for Etrigan the Deomn) which leads to fighting against Morgana LeFay and then Blood and Selina are dating. Or something. Its nice enough but nothing really special. C+

The last one from the original issues is Hawkman by Kyle Baker. This one is just full of crazy awesome. Its like each page is trying to top the last page. Hawkman goes after terrorists. Who are aliens! And the plane crashes on an island. DINOSAUR ISLAND! And Hakwman has to fight a T-Rex. With Aquaman. Who has his giant sea-horse put a choke hold on the Rex so that Hawkman can fly into its mouth and stab it! A+

Average Grade: B

Finally as I mentioned at the top are one-page samples for a Plastic Man comic by Evan Dorkin that has a great cartoon look and feel to it. And Beware of the Creeper looks like it could have been a really..well creepy crime story. Either of which would have made for a better choice than the shitty Teen Titans story. Then again photos of the DC employees cats would have been a better comic than the Titans garbage…

Episode 33 is coming soon.  We’ve delayed the recording date thanks to Alex’s new job (discussed later), so you’ve got ’til Saturday to send us in responses to our questions.  Love to hear from you!

Jonathan talks about Prince of Persia and his reasons for giving Bayonetta another shot, while Alex talks a bit about Record of Agarest War, Ancient Trader, and his new job at GameStop.

We try to keep Alex’s Microsoft fanboyism at bay, but there’s some big news out of Redmond since our last show, so the headlines section is a bit slanted.

First, the Kinect has a price, has a bundle, and can apparently be finagled into recognizing seated players.

Second, 1 vs. 100 has been cancelled, and Alex is distraught about that.

Girl Genius story by Phil & Kaja Folio, art by Phil Folio with assistance by Brian Snoddy, Mark McNabb & Laurie E. Smith

This pocket-sized black&white omnibus collects the issues that originally ran in normal print. Before the Foglio’s realized that trying to sell another floppy on the racks was a sucker’s bet and switched to giving it away for free. Which ended up giving them better financial stability…

For those who don’t follow the webcomic, Girl Genius is set in a fictional past Europe. One where the main political powers are warring mad geniuses. Or Sparks. The poster child for the Steampunk genre movement at times. Or Gaslamp Fantasy as Kaja Foglio describes it…

The story follows a young student named Agatha Clay. Up until an attempted mugging causes her to lose a family locket, she’s never managed to build anything that works. But without it, suddenly the vast and maddening world of the Spark opens up before her. Which leads to her having to deal with robots (or Clanks), talking cats, getting kidnapped by Europes premiere mad overlord and alien monstrosities aboard a city-sized dirigible. And something about a secret destiny and a romance inclined Mad Boy or two…

The Holmberg, Clyde & Tim review…

Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Studio: Rockstar San Diego

Owned by EA? No

Longshot written by Ann Nocenti, drawn by Art Adams, inks by Whilce Portacio, letters by Joe Rosen, colors by Christie Scheele

X-Men. Alien Messiah. Rebel Leader. Hero. All that and the dreamiest eyes in all of Marvel-dom. I mean according to the ladies. I haven’t noticed. Ahem…

Anyway, Nocenti’s origin for Longshot has him awakening on Earth as a complete tabla rasa, no memories of his past and no clue about the present. So of course he’s immediately involves himself in the rescue of a baby from a pack of alien beast-men. What else do you do when your mind is blank but your heart is pure?

Nocenti delivers a story where Longshot is confused, lost, innocent, naive and above all heroic. And she manages what I’ve rarely seen since. She makes Longshot’s nemesis, the other-dimensional tyrant Mojo seem both alien and terrible. Plus she adds in Dr. Strange for the second half and actually makes the character fit. Another rarity…

We’re still looking for your thoughts on Episode 33.  We want your contributions, in any form you choose.

Games discussed:

• Ancient Trader
• Red Dead Redemption
• Singularity
• Ghostbusters
• inFamous
• My Japanese Coach
• Picross 3D
• Just Cause 2
• Civilization IV Complete
• Frogger

See ya next week!

War. Hunh. Whats it good for?

Baker is an unapologetic leftist liberal pinko type. So its no surprise that his book on the Iraq War is more than a little critical. He takes aim at fraudulent recruitment policies, under-equipped and under-armored soldiers, U.S. employed mercenaries and so on. His lead’s are a teen-age high school drop-out and felon and the autistic Zone…

Baker’s story reads like an action movie in parts, which works to highlight the criticisms he’s making. And his insurgent bad guys are over-the-top stereotypes that could come from the most conservative hawk’s imagination. They have secret piles of WMD, engage in beheadings and suicide car bombs and their leader’s main motivation is that he hates freedom. Its surprising at times how bitingly and darkly funny the whole thing ends up being. Well less surprising if you’ve seen some of Baker’s regular super-hero work…

One thing missing from the collected version are the news articles and reports Baker used to base various parts of the book on. That factual base I think truly helped make the satire work better. I’m also curious as to it being labeled Book 1. Especially given the explosive ending…

Resources in Solium Infernum Saturdays come in four flavors: ichor, hellfire, darkness and souls. Acquiring them requires one of the precious orders that you’re allotted every turn. You have no control over what you get; it’s a matter of a die roll. However, the quality of what you get is dependent on the charisma rating of your avatar. The higher the charisma, the more selection you get, and the better the selection tends to be.

Everything in the game requires resources. They are the material components for rituals. They are the price for everything you buy in the bazaar. You need a lot of them to increase your avatar’s attributes. They are what you demand when you make a demand of another player.

And very often, you will feel like you can never get enough.

When you request resources from your minions, you’ll be offered a selection of them from which you can choose. At low levels of charisma, there is very little choice; you’ll have to take what you’re given. As your charisma gets higher, you’ll get more “draws” from the resource deck to choose from, and you’ll be able to get the type of resouce that you desire.

Resource cards have two qualities: type (ichor, hellfire, etc) and number. So a single card could give you one hellfire, three souls, or two ichor. If you’re really lucky, you’ll get a single card with multiple types of resources. For instance, you could get a single card that gives you two souls, two hellfire and one darkness.

There is no “change” in hell. If you want something that requires one ichor and all you have is a resource card that gives you four ichor, you have a choice to make. You can either let it go in the hopes of getting an ichor card with a smaller denomination before someone else snaps up whatever you’re trying to buy, or you can buy it with the four ichor card and just swallow the fact that you’ve wasted three ichor.

Souls are the most common resource, in that you’ll usually be offered a few when you request resources from your minions. Nearly everything you do in the game will require a tribute of at least a few souls. They are the universal currency in the inferno. Not only that, but souls act as tiebreakers when two or more players happen to vie for the same item in the bazaar at the same time. When that happens, the game awards the item to the person who threw in the most souls. If you REALLY need something in Solium Infernum, it’s always a good idea to throw in a few extra souls to beat those who can only afford the minimum bid.

Hellfire is necessary for the nukes in the game. If you want to power your destruction rituals, you’ll need hellfire to do it. Hellfire is also needed to raise an avatar’s wickedness attribute, which strengthens destruction rituals and makes more of those rituals available. Players will also need a healthy allotment of hellfire for artifacts, which are “equipment” that you add to legions and places of power to make them more powerful and durable.

Ichor is tied to the martial aspects of the game. You’ll need it to raise your wrath attribute, buy legions and purchase praetors.

Darkness is probably the second most useful resource after souls. You need darkness to do the dirty deeds in the game. Deception rituals (the type that steal resources from other players and misdirect their units) need a healthy amount of darkness to take effect. A lot of darkness is needed to increase an avatar’s Cunning attribute, which powers Deception rituals much like Wickedness powers Destruction rituals. Finally, darkness is necessary for relics that can be bought in the bazaar.

So in closing, resources are a necessary evil in Solium Infernum. You don’t get them automatically, like you would in Catan. Gathering them requires sacrifice in that they take up orders that would otherwise be used for buying things, moving legions and strongarming your opponents. The very effort to gather them is what makes diplomacy so important. When a player makes a demand for three resource cards from you, it’s no small thing. You have to make the choice to give up what you’ve worked hard to gain or open yourself up to be hit by the enemy player.

With regards to how things are going in the game I started blogging about in the series, it’s tough for me to say with any sort of detail. As I mentioned in an earlier post, since I’ve been knocked out of the game, I can’t get any sort of choice information about what’s going on and who’s making a demand of whom.

However, I can say that they game is still far from over after 43 turns. Death is way, way, way in the lead with 314 prestige and a per turn gain of ten prestige points. Meche is a distant second at 119. The other three surviving players had better start making some deals to take him out. However, who knows what deals could be made behind closed doors? Perhaps someone will make a play for second place rather than vie for first and request a blood vassalship.

What’s a blood vassalship? That’s next week’s topic.

We want you (yes, you) to talk to us about how much money you’re putting in towards gaming.

We talk about it a little in the just-posted Episode 30, but for your convenience, we’re putting some of our suggested questions here.

1. On a monthly basis, how much money do you spend on games? Let us know if you regularly add more hardware and factor that in however you want.

2. How much do you estimate you would spend if money were no object? Would you go hog wild and get everything, or would you be more stingy?

3. Are you the type of gamer who goes out and gets games on the first day of release, paying full price, or are you a gamer who’s willing to let the price go down a bit before you get a game?

4. Do you lean towards physical copies or digital copies?

5. Would you say you get a good gaming value for your dollar?

6. You’ve described how you usually buy games; what’s the key factor that breaks you out of that pattern and has you chomping at the bit to get a game no matter what the cost?

7. What was the first console/game you bought for yourself?

You can send in your responses via email at feedback@thewayofthegame.net, but we’d rather hear from you in person! You’ve got a phone, right? Call us at 203-794-GAME and leave a voicemail.

If you’d like to actually be a guest for this show, send us an email and we’ll try to make it happen!

We’ve got a headline show this week!  But first, banter.

We put off talking about games ’til next week, because we’ve got a ton of stuff, and the Steam Sale was still going on, so who knows what all may have been purchased between recording and releasing.  We do talk, though, about preparations for a topic show in Episode 33, which we want your participation in.  Also, OnLive appears to have a plan to make money.  (Shocking!)

Headlines!

• id Software’s Rage Leads Game Critics’ E3 Noms
• Junction Point taking the (mean) Mickey out of Epic Mickey
• Reggie confirms 2011 launch for 3DS on Fallon
• Alleged Kinect hardware specs claim two active player limit
• Retailer says Kinect pre-orders are “very low,” blames guessed-at price point
• Market Research Firm: Kinect (and Move) will have “negligible impact” on market
• Microsoft: Kinect Not For Core Gamers
• Introducing Hulu Plus: More wherever. More whenever. Than ever.
• Redbox Dabbles in Game Rentals

Bonus feature after the credits: Alex has an interview with American Idol winner, Jordin Sparks. The interview has nothing to do with gaming, it was just a “something interesting happened this week” event.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Oh man. This one. So let me lay out what your ’87 eight bucks got yhou. A story involving a group of teenagers from the South Bronx. Slippery Sam (Jew), Slag (Black), Sharon (Black/Vietnamese), Rafael (Puerto Rican) and Wheels (White boy in a wheelchair). What do these five inner-city youths have in common? They’re all ninja’s in training by Mr. Mack. Who is a Black man who learned ninjitsu from a Chinese woman while in the Navy. To fight an ancient ninja cabal called the Nine. Who were a countering force for the Ten Righteous Men of Hebrew myth. Yeah. I know…

I mean man. Larry Hama and ninjas. And though I can’t recall seeing anything with them recently the Wolfpack is part of regular Marvel continuity. But still. So crazy. Though seeing that the editor for the book was Ann Nocenti some of that crazy begins to make a little more sense…

Also I’m not that into the pencils but Portacio and Baker on inks? And I’ll be honest. I would pay good money for a Wolfpack book set in current Marvel by Nocenti and Baker…

The populace seized on the date printed on the declaration and the 4th became the commonly perceived date of America’s independence. This lead to a humorous quote by future president John Adams.

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

Nothing he’s written in his reflection refutes or changes my initial position regarding his opinion, and so I’ll just point you there and leave it at that.  Since Ebert continues to think we as gamers can learn nothing about other humans by playing a game, though, I’ll see if I can dig up and post my analysis of Shadow of the Colossus.  I (and several of my professors) believe it qualifies.

The first up is Space Marine.

You apparently play as a lone Ultramarine against a horde of orks. It should be entertaining, and might give people who aren’t necessarily fans of strategy games a taste of the 40k universe. One of the screenshots from the game apparently has a Space Marine charging a Killa Kan solo. I’m not completely familiar with the rules behind that, but I’m pretty sure that’s suicide in the actual tabletop game. In other words, don’t expect Space Marine to hold true to the actual rules of the game. It might be best to think of it as a simple rollercoaster ride, 40k style.

However, the release of the video had me thinking back to our first hint that there was a Space Marine videogame coming out with this leaked gameplay video posted months ago.

There are a few similarities. You seem to be guiding a Space Marine through an environment, hacking and blasting your way through enemies. However, the Marine doesn’t wear the bright blue armor of the Ultramarines and there’s naught an ork to be found.

Another title THQ revealed was Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium Online.

There’s no concrete word on a release date, but some sources say something will be announced as early as August. Armies that I could see in the video were Space Marines, Chaos, Orks and perhaps Imperial Guard. I also saw an Adeptus Mechanicus holding a rifle in one of the shots. The gameplay looks action-packed with fighting on foot and in vehicles, so it might be a must-get for 40k fans. I normally don’t play MMOs, but if I can be an Imperial Commissar shouting orders from a Baneblade, I might be persuaded…

THQ also unveiled Red Faction: Armageddon, and while I know it’s not a Games Workshop title, it’s still the sequel to one of my favorite games of 2009.

I’m going to go ahead and say it: Volition, what the hell are you doing to Red Faction? They’ve followed up a terrific sandbox title with social mechanics with a bug hunt shooter. Sure, there are some things that are cool, like a gun that shoots ultrapowerful magnets that will rip off chunks of buildings and send them hurtling towards your foes. There’s also an arm brace that will apparently allow you to bring destroyed items back into existence.

However, that’s just a little too similar to the paint/thinner mechanics of Epic Mickey.

Feel free to pore over the art and screenshots.

Captain Dynamo was one of Earth’s greatest heroes. Blessed with super-human strength, flight, enhanced vision and eye-blasts, telepathy and shape-changing. And then he was found dead, naked in a motel room. Which lead to his wife finding his little black book and learning he was a philandering asshole along with being a super-hero. Seeing the city he protected up for grabs from his old foes Maddie, the widow, tracked down five kids from her husband’s affairs. And then exposed them to the radiation that gave her husband his powers. Each of them then gained one of their previously unknown natural father’s powers. And joined together as Dynamo5…

Faerber writes good old-fashioned super-heroics with just enough of modern day dramatics to keep things interesting. Though the most enjoyable part for me is how well Faerber crafts non-standard families as team books. He was one of the few people other than Nieceza I liked as New Warriorswriter and he also writes the ultimate in dysfunctional super-hero families Noble Causes. WithDynamo5 you can see the five Dynamo kids organically grow and bond together, both as a team and as siblings…

As I mentioned in Part V, I’ve been taken out of the game that I’m using as the basis for this blog. I won’t lie, this is making it extremely difficult to follow what’s going on. Players who are eliminated from the game can monitor what’s going on as far as the game board goes, but they don’t get the turn-by-turn reports about who’s demanding what of whom, what events are being played and such. I’m basically blind, but I’ll do my best to keep up.

Also, apologies for not having a map this week. It takes a fair bit of time to construct the maps, and I’m already behind schedule.

Baphomet worked his way north until he reached a point when he was within striking distance of Lillith’s stronghold. Lillith realized she was in trouble and approached Baphomet with a proposition. She said that she’s excommunicated, so she can act against anyone with impunity. Lillith argued that if Baphomet allowed her to live, she’d work on his side, afflicting Baphomet’s enemies with rituals from afar so he can sweep in and finish the job.

Baphomet accepted Lillith’s terms.

And on the next turn, he smashed Lillith’s stronghold.

Baphomet, otherwise known as Eric on the Podgecast, explained his reasoning.

“The idea of an alliance with an excommed player was tempting, don’t get me wrong, but the game is just too fickle for me not to take the chance to complete my Wrath objective right then and there.”

When I asked Lillith (Andrew/Wintjen/Jim Brown) why she didn’t play the Writ of Rescindment event that could have eliminated her excommunication, Andrew replied, “that was a total smokescreen. I was hoping to slow down or deflect aggression away from my stronghold.”

That’s what makes Solium Infernum special. Sure, you can play the game straight, without any sort of communication between players. Once you start talking, however, that’s when the true drama kicks in. Since the players are playing devils vying for hell, everything’s on the table. There is no honor.

Here are the standings on Turn 28

Death is solidly in the lead with an impressive prestige gain per turn from Places of Power. Baphomet may have taken Lillith’s stronghold and fulfilled his Wrath objective, but even that won’t get him anywhere near the prestige he’ll need to win the game without taking action against Death.

It’s worth mentioning that Andrew is shaping up to be my personal archnemesis in Solium Infernum. In another game, he and I were in the lead as far as prestige goes when he got hit with an event that would lead to his excommunication. We saw the writing on the wall. We advanced our legions to the front line, each of us positioning units within striking distance of each other’s stronghold. In the first turn after Andrew’s excommunication, I defeated his stronghold and he defeated mine. In one turn, because of one event, the two leading players had knocked each other out of the game and the other players started grabbing up our territory.

Today’s lesson in Solium Infernum deals with a subject I’ve been avoiding for some time: Rituals. They’re basically magic spells that you can use to mess with your opponents.

There are several rituals, and I’m not going to go into all of them in depth here. That’s what the Solium Infernum manual and the Scriptorium are for.

Every avatar has five attributes: Martial Prowess, Cunning, Intellect, Wickedness and Charisma. For every point you gain in Cunning, Intellect and Wickedness, you essentially gain the ability to cast a new ritual. There are Martial and Charisma rituals, but you only get them at high levels. There are relics you can buy at the Bazaar as well that will give you access to certain other rituals as well.

The Cunning attribute determines an avatar’s skill at casting deception rituals. Those rituals specialize in weakening legions and stealing resources from other players. Players who build avatars strong in Cunning often steal artifacts, relics, praetors and even whole legions from other players. Not only that, a high level in Cunning unlocks the Ritual Masking ability, which allows you to make it appear as if the ritual you’ve cast is coming from someone else.

Wickedness determines an avatar’s ability to cast destruction rituals. These are the “nukes” of the game. Players with just a little Wickedness start off with a ritual that inflicts direct damage to enemy legions and places of power. Once higher levels of Wickedness are attained, more dastardly deeds are made available, like the ability to banish a praetor to the abyss directly, to destroy a legion’s combat cards and “disarm” the legion of equipment, and even to reduce the number of turns an enemy player gets. It’s not all fun and games, though. Destruction rituals require you to have a vendetta against the player you’re targeting. That requirement is eliminated, however, when you have the Ritual Masking ability unlocked.

Intellect allows an avatar to cast prophecy rituals. These rituals allow you to peek at the stats and holdings of enemy players, which are normally hidden from view. Once your intellect gets high enough, you can influence fate itself. When you draw event cards, you’re able to draw more of them and pick the one that you want. Another ritual builds up your resistance to deception rituals, while there’s also one that will increase your political influence (since you can see what’s coming, you know exactly what to say, that sort of thing). Prophecy rituals are tricky beasts, since they don’t have the instant gratification effect of deception and destruction rituals. However, they do allow you cast those rituals more efficiently. Plus, players have ways to conceal their holdings, and prophecy rituals allow players to find them and target them with other rituals.

So that’ll do it for this week’s Solium Infernum Saturday. Stay tuned for more blood, brimstone and betrayal next week!

Alex, on vacation from the world, basically, spent the week playing with a ton of XBLA games his brother “gave” him: Castle Crashers, Snoopy Flying Ace, Toy Soldiers, and Beat Hazard.  Also distracting him from his E3 watching duties has been Splinter Cell: Conviction.  Apparently, it’s quite good.

Jonathan has been focused on the E3 coverage, and so hasn’t played much.  The rest of the ‘cast is devoted to the announcements from E3, and who won what.  Our choices might surprise you.

Before we get into that, Alex talks about some of his recent micro-purchases, including a table for Pinball FX and a couple of games in the XBLA Game Room.

Jonathan has received his invite to the OnLive Service, and after a few days playing with it, he has some thoughts.

Once we’re done with that, we get into our lists, and we’ve got contributions from around the web, as well: Tim White from Return to Northmoor, Tony Mast from the Back Seat Producers, David Pinilla from the Podge Cast, Chris Engler from Wapcaplets, RiB from Down Under Gamers, Mike from Bear Swarm, and Jim Brown from the Internet!  We’ve got some surprises, and we’ve got some really obvious choices, but all in all, I don’t think you can really complain about any of the games on anyone’s list.  They’re all awesome.

Enjoy!

The Rabbi’s Cat by Joann Sfar, with colors by Brigitte Findakly

Joann Sfar is probably my favorite European comic artist, especially with his normal partner Trondheim. Here he tells the story of an Algerian rabbi and his beautiful daughter as narrated by their cat. Literally so as the cat becomes able to speak to humans one day…

Sfar’s art richly supports the simple story of the widowed rabbi’s attempts to teach his cat proper morals, followed later by his work to come to terms with his daughter’s marriage to a Parisian rabbi from a cosmopolitan Jewish family. I especially love several panels where the cat is shown reading the Torah. And those involving the rabbi’s cousin Malka who travels with a rifle and lion…

I’m out. As expected, Lillith’s Chosen struck my stronghold, overcame its defenses and conquered it.

However, not all went as planned for my betrayer to the east.

A unit cannot occupy the same space as a place of power, so the game positioned the Chosen in a random adjacent territory it could occupy. That space happened to be the exact space where I was moving my Chosen to help reinforce my stronghold. Even though my stronghold was taken over, I was still considered in the game until the end of the round. My Chosen attacked Lillith’s Chosen, which was slightly weakened from the fight with my stronghold, and my boys were victorious.

Sure, Lillith took me out of the game, but I made her hurt for it. She’s excommunicated, she only has two units available until her Chosen respawn (every player has a legion of loyalists that respawn after they are defeated. It might take a few rounds for the respawn, and they are significantly weaker when they come back), one of which requires upkeep. Meche’s Lords of the Pit have flapped their way within striking distance of Lillith’s stronghold as well, though it’s being protected by Lillith’s Sons of Typhon.

However, Lillith claims she has an ace up her sleeve. Even though she’s excommunicated and has no access to the bazaar where she could buy more units, she says that she drew the Writ of Rescindment event this turn. If she plays it, she will be allowed to rejoin the Infernal Conclave and her excommunicated status will be rescinded. The odds of getting the Writ of Rescindment immediately after being excommunicated are extremely small, but I just attribute it to infernal luck on Lillith’s part.

Meanwhile, Baphomet is sending forces to the north, around Dante’s Peak, in a move to assault Lillith from the south. While that’s happening, Death is forming a formidable force on the Haberdasher’s eastern border. However, The Haberdasher’s Hell Blades are intimidating, with a praetor and an artifact called the “Orb of Oblivion” that has a good chance of instantly destroying the legion that kills the unit holding it.

And since I’m out of the game, all my units go away, all my territory is now fair game, and my hold on my strongholds is no more.

So since I’m out of the game, I’ll reveal my strategy. That will require me to touch on the topic of avatar creation.

There are three main parts of avatar creation: Rank, Attributes and Perks.

I’ve already explained Rank in Part II. Attributes can wait until next week, since they’re tied into Rituals. However, Perks played a big role in my strategy.

As I said in Part I, every avatar (player character) has an objective. I chose Wrath, which would have given me a tidy little package of bonus prestige at the game if I knocked a player out of the game.

During avatar creation, I chose two Perks for myself: Master of the Sword and Playing For Keeps. There are dozens of Perks to choose from, each of which give you a secret edge in a certain part of the game. Master of the Sword gives my units a significant boost to their melee score. Playing For Keeps allows me to call a blood feud with only two vendettas.

So let’s go back to the issue of diplomacy. Normally, a player can’t attack another player directly without a vendetta. Even if that vendetta is granted, though, a player can’t attack another player’s stronghold without a) one of the players involved already being excommunicated, or b) a blood feud between the two players. Normally, a player may declare a blood feud against another player only if they’ve successfully completed three vendettas. The Playing For Keeps would allow me to declare a blood feud against a player who would think I still have one more vendetta to make good on.

At the very start of this game, Lillith and I knew there was a high potential for a clash between us. We made a secret deal. We’d avoid conflict, I’d expand west and Lillith would expand east. Later, we made another deal. Lillith had the Gates of Hell and the Lust objective, which would give her bonus prestige if she ended the game with the Temple of Lust in her possession. I said I’d hand over the Temple of Lust if she gave me the Gates of Hell. That way she gets what she wants, and we’d each get one vendetta against each other so no one’s ahead of the other.

However, she wouldn’t know I have the Playing For Keeps perk, so if everything went according to my plan, I’d essentially get a vendetta against Lillith for “free” and I’d only have to make good on one more to be able to launch an attack on her stronghold.

Unfortunately, I was far too busy trying to scheme for a vendetta against Death to gain the Altar of Abomination to notice that Lillith could make a quick 1-2 combination that would knock me out.

And that’s the first real lesson of Solium Infernum: People lie.

I can only pray that Lillith will be the next to feel the icy blade of betrayal sliding between her ribs…

You’re going to want to pull up the press conference video for this one, folks, otherwise it could be really boring in spots.  We used the official feed from Microsoft (which has been redirected to GameTrailers.com), and started the video at 31:30.  We also provide a bit of description of what we’re watching as we’re watching it, so if you get your feed from somewhere else, you’ll hopefully be able to sync up with us.

Let us know what you think of the press conference, our comments, or the commentary experiment in general in the comments below or our forums!  And be sure to join us tomorrow when we give Nintendo and Sony the same treatment, hopefully in quicker order.

We want you to contribute to our Best of ’09 show in a couple of week.  Deets are here.

Our E3 preview covers the Nintendo 3DS, next-gen motion controllers, the new keytar, and which company has the most to prove (Hint: their name starts with an “S” and ends with an “ony”).

Nomad: Girl Without A World written by Sean McKeever, pencils by David Baldeon, colors by Chris Sotomayor, letters Joe Sabino & Clayton Cowles

Ok so heres the set-up. Rikki Barnes is originally from an alternate Marvel Earth created by Franklin Richards as a place to stick Onslaught or something. Don’t ask, Rob Liefeld was involved. But there she was Bucky to that world’s Captain America. And then in some heroic self-sacrificing thing she ends up on the regular Marvel Earth. Once again don’t ask, Leifeld AND Jeph Loeb this time. After an attempt to meet the new Captain America after Steve Rogers death she ends up changing her id and costume to those of a d-list Cap ally named Nomad. Then she has to deal with mind control at her new high school. The whole thing being written by McKeever, whose last teen supers book was a simply dreadful Teen Titans run…

BUT despite all that this was an enjoyable mini-series. One that leaves me interested in continuing to follow the writer and character on the upcoming Young Allies. Its McKeever writing at the level he was at before going to DC for awhile. Makes me wonder if its just the different editorial styles of the two companies…

On that turn, we were notified that Lillith, my next door neighbor to the east, had bought both The Beast and the Sons of Typhon, another extremely powerful unit that required upkeep to keep around for any length of time. I talked with Geoff (Death) about Lillith’s choice soon after I processed the turn.

me: &#!*, Lillith bought both the Beast AND the Sons of Typhon!
Geoff: she wont be able to hold them long
me: Yeah, but it makes me wonder what she’s going to do with them.
Geoff: Good question
me: yeah, I’m going to have to talk with Lillith to make sure I don’t interfere with whatever she’s planning.
Geoff: what if you are what shes planning?
me: She’d need a vendetta. That takes time to achieve.
And time isn’t on her side right now.
Geoff: Think shes going to make a move on pandemunium?
me: good point, didn’t think of that.
&#!*, if that happens, I don’t have a whole lot of options
I can only access her territory in one hex.
Geoff: and she could fly the beast over once she excommunicated and take our strongholds
me: Hm
Not seeing anything in the way of a solution
Except maybe combat deception (which is one of several rituals I haven’t delved into yet in this feature series)
Geoff: and nuking her units with destruction (more ritual talk)
me: No, I’m talking before Pando. (My preferred abbreviation for Pandemonium)
Geoff: oh, not much there I think
me: The soonest the Beast can attack is two turns from now; one move, one attack
The sons of Typhon will probably be left behind as a reserve to prevent sneak attacks on her capital.
Hm…
What if the attack isn’t from the Beast, but from the Chosen of LIllith?
With the Beast as Support?
Geoff: still two turns to do
me: True, but we don’t know who to combat deception, assuming someone has the ritual to do it.
Geoff: I will next turn, but then it will be to late
me: Yeah, I got to talk to Eric (Baphomet). I need the green light to enter his lands, and he needs to move his forces south in a hurry.
Want to send out the call for aid, or shall I?
Geoff: You can

Then I sent out an email to all the players except for Lillith:

Lillith has bought both the Beast and the Sons of Typhon. That’s a lot of heavy firepower that requires upkeep, and she doesn’t have a vendetta to act upon.

1. Baphomet, I’d like to insult you this turn. Call a vendetta on the following turn and opt for something other than single combat (praetor on praetor combat, something I’ll go into later). Go for something that’s going to take multiple turns. That will allow me to sweep my forces through your territory, to the north of Lillith’s stronghold.

3. For the rest of you, the best option is deception. I’ll need combat deceptions on either the Beast or the Chosen of Lillith not THIS turn, but the turn after that (assuming he moves his forces towards Pando on the next turn.) Also, if you can loot his vaults, do it. We need to hit him in the pocketbook to keep him from paying his upkeep.

On Turn 22, as expected, Lillith moved The Beast towards Pandemonium, close enough for a strike on the unholy capital city of Hell. However, some other very interesting things happened. Players started playing Events.

Events are powerful, potentially game changing occurrences that can be triggered at will by players. Every turn that goes by, one player is designated regent. The regent not only has initiative in the round he plays and a minor bonus when buying things, but he also gains an event card. It could be minor, like “reduce the prestige of a random player by 2d6″ or “destroy a random legion.” In some cases, it can be a major event that turns the tide for a player. Usually players can only have one event in their “hand” at a time, and a wise player is very judicious about when the event is played.

In turn 22, two events were played. One completely shut down rituals for the next four turns. I haven’t gone into rituals much yet in Solium Saturday, but it plays heavily to the militant player who has a lot of units and against players who specialize in messing with people from afar. I’m fairly confident Lillith played that event to prevent players from messing with her during her takeover. Remember, once she attacks Pandemonium, she’ll be excommunicated, which means it’s open season on her; anyone can mess with her, and the protection granted to her by the Infernal Conclave is revoked.

Another event played opened a fissure near Lillith’s stronghold. I’m not completely sure about the logic of the fissure, but it apparently limits the ability of the Sons of Typhon and Lillith’s Bane of the Righteous from going south towards Pandemonium.

So anyway, in true Lost/Illuminatus fashion, the true drama happened on turn 23. Here’s the map.

Lillith’s Beast attacked Pandemonium and failed to conquer it. The city is down to 6 hit points. Lillith has been excommunicated. This was cause for great celebration.

me: MWAHAHAHAHA
Lucias: That can’t be good.
me: Lillith attacked Pandemonium
Excommed.
COULDN’T TAKE IT
Lucias: OH SNAP

So I was considering my next move, thinking about how I should move my forces towards Lillith’s stronghold to take her out, when I came to a sudden, horrible realization.

me: &#!*. I just realized something
Geoff: ?
me: He’s within attack range of my stronghold
And he has the initiative on me
I’m dead
Geoff: If she goes through with it
me: Instead of going to pando?
There’s no reason not to take me out
Geoff: Ya, but will she see that as her move or try to protect herself
me: That move takes every threatening legion within several hexes away. If he doesn’t make that move, I’d chalk it up as a mistake.
Geoff: ya, good point
me: damn, I’ve never been taken out in a game before.
Humbling!

Geoff: Can I have your castle when youre gone?

So that’s what happened in just three turns of Solium Infernum. Lots of surprises, lots of dirty dealings, and potentially the end of the game for yours truly. Fear not, though, I’ll keep you updated on what happens in this game, and the games to come if it comes to that.

Until next Saturday, my fiendish friends!

We talk about games this week, because that’s what we’re all about!

Our early discussions are prompted by listeners.  Jonathan has been tasked with talking more about the PS3, but he’s having a hard time saying anything nice about the user experience.  Consoles are all about the games, and the games are worthwhile, but that’s about it.  Meanwhile, Alex gripes a bit about the genre change Front Mission: Evolved is going through, tying it to Shadowrun.

In other news, Jonathan picked up GameFly and doesn’t reference Alex in the process, costing him twenty bucks.  Jonathan’s also getting in on OnLive with an offer he couldn’t refuse.  Here’s hoping it’s not crap.

Games Discussed:

• Demon’s Souls
• Red Dead Redemption
• Star Wars: Empire at War
• Solium Infernum (of course)
• Borderlands

Finally, Alex is excited about the upcoming launch of Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, and (possibly) Hulu on Xbox Live.

Here’s an excerpt from the press release from Focus Home Interactive:

Coming from the Old World’s coldest lands, the Norse have proudly made a stadium from their own lands available for the new Blood Bowl season! Make sure you take warm clothes, as it is a snow-covered, outdoor pitch! Norse teams are composed of real heavy-hitting warriors. Although their teams include traditional ‘ball-handling’ players such as throwers, blitzers and runners, the Norse feel more comfortable in all-out assaults utilizing their brutish Ulfwerners. They aren’t afraid to block even the strongest of opponents! And if their natural berserk playing style is not enough to take down a particularly tough opponent, they can still count on a little helping hand – or huge helping claw to be more precise – from the Yhetees, shaggier, fiercer and much wilder than many of the big-guys from other teams!

Looking at the stats for the Norse team, they’re halfway between dwarves and humans. Everyone has a MA of at least 6 and everyone has Block. Their armor value is in Wood Elf territory. Their lineup consists of mainly linemen as usual, and while they do have a decent range of specialist players, they can’t have more than two of them on the team at a time. The “Yhetees” are the monster unit, and should come with Loner, Claws, Disturbing Presence, Frenzy and Wild Animal.

As usual, there’s no mention of how much Legendary Edition will cost, the extent of its compatibility with Dark Elves Edition or a concrete release date. All we have is Q4 of this year. Still, I look forward to fielding a Norse team. All of the blocking ability of a Dwarf team, the mobility of a human team, and unfortunately, the frailty of a Woodie team.

And you gotta love this shot of the arena.

Essential Godzilla King of the Monsters written by Doug Moench, pencils by Herb Trimpe or Tom Sutton, inks & letters by many and various

In these two dozen stories set across Marvel Earth the Big G faces:

- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Red Ronin the giant battle-robot
- Dr. Demonicus and his monstrous minions
- Devil Dinosaur
- The Champions of L.A.
- The Fantastic Four
- Cowboys
- Alien monsters
- Getting shrunk down and then as he grows back in size deals with rats, muggers and a fist fight with DumDum Dugan

Also featuring Robert Takiguchi, the boy who loves Godzilla so much he never stops crying. Seriously this is one weepy dude…

There have been no major moves by anyone in the last few turns, but the stage is being set for conflict. Death continues to be a grim presence on The Haberdasher’s eastern border as The Haberdasher attempts to retain possession of the Iron Staircase. Not only that, but Lillith’s Bane of the Righteous lurks just outside The Haberdasher’s Palace of Gluttony, and since Luke doesn’t have any territory adjacent to it, he can’t bring a legion into place to help protect it.

Meanwhile, Meche has moved his units back towards his stronghold in an apparent effort to take the Mines of Gehenna, at which he lost another unit during an early assault. The Lords of the Pit are plenty powerful with a praetor and two artifacts, and the Blood of Meche are nearby to provide support, so I expect the Mines to fall to Meche very soon.

As for myself (Bel), I bought the Harbingers and reinforced the Temple of Lust and Wall of Envy with combat cards, which are explained in the following lesson.

Here are the standings at the end of Turn 20. Remember, under normal circumstances, the player in the lead with prestige wins the game, the player with the second most prestige gets to be his lieutenant, and the rest are also-rans. The conclave tokens represent the clock of the game. Every turn that goes by, there’s a chance a conclave token will be drawn, bringing the game closer to the end.

This week’s lesson looks at the combat system of Solium Infernum.

Every legion and place of power has five statistics: level, ranged, melee, infernal and hit points.

Under normal circumstances, there are two rounds of combat in which the ranged, melee and infernal statistics of the two sides are compared. First the opponents’ ranged attributes are compared, a winner is determined and the loser receives damage equal to the difference of the two scores. Then the melee attributes are compared and damage is assessed, and then the infernal attributes are compared and damage is assessed. After that, another full round of combat will occur, going through those phases once more.

So, using an extremely simple example, a unit with 3 ranged, 3 melee, 3 infernal and 10 hit points will fall to a unit with 5 ranged, 5 melee, and 5 infernal in the melee round of the second round of combat. The first unit will suffer 2 hp of damage in every phase of the battle until then.

However, the level of the units plays a unique role, and it’s almost the wild card. Before the battle is joined (and this happens automatically, without influence from either the attacker or defender), there’s an opposed die roll with the unit’s level as a modifier. The unit that wins the roll gets a +1 or +2 to a random statistic.

The level of the units also matters because it determines how many extra stuff you can put on the unit to enhance its statistics or hurt its enemies. The higher the level of the unit, the more stuff it can have in its “inventory.”

That “stuff” is combat cards, artifacts and praetors.

As I mentioned in Part I, praetors are lieutenants. When attached to legions, they add to the stats of those legions. For instance, the praetor Phenex is attached to my Chosen of Bel, boosting its ranged and melee statistics up three points. Each praetor has unique bonuses. For instance, Naphula, who is currently attached to the Slaves of Death, prevents the opposing legion from playing combat cards.

Combat cards are one-time bonuses that a legion holds onto until its next battle. They can boost statistics, weaken enemy statistics, add hp and more. Combat cards are cheap, they can be crafted to fine detail, and their strength is dependent on the Wrath attribute of the avatar who creates it. The higher the Wrath, the better combat cards can be. Once the combat card is used, it is destroyed. Until then, however, opponents can’t see what a combat card does, so getting into a fight with a legion or a Place of Power with a combat card can be a bit of a crapshoot.

Artifacts are items that are purchased in the bazaar. They function much like praetors, boosting an attribute and perhaps having more unique powers.

Lastly, there is the matter of support. If a unit involved in the fight has an allied unit in an adjacent hex, half of that unit’s strength in ranged, melee and infernal are added to the fighting unit’s stats. It’s a great help, but it can be a tricky thing to organize.

In the next Solium Saturday, we’ll touch on resources – how to get them and how to use them.

Jonathan is accused of poop-socking Red Dead Redemption.  He denies it, but it’s kinda true.  Alex has been playing Aliens vs. Predators, and wishes there were others to play with him.  Solium Infernum comes up (shock shock), as does a brief mention of the upcoming third season of Table Saw Blood Bowl.

In the topic section, we discuss EA’s new multiplayer strategy, and explore whether it’s a good idea or not.  We also compare it to the decisions other companies are making with regards to DRM (we’re looking at you, Ubisoft), and even discuss the fashion industry for a moment.  (This is a pretty fascinating TED Talk.)

Originally Decoration Day, the holiday came into being to celebrate Union soldiers that sacrificed their lives to preserve the country. First celebrations were actually held by freed slaves in the South to celebrate their emancipation. The name was not officially changed to Memorial Day until 1967.

The day was so synonymous with the Civil War that veterans of the First World War received their own day of recognition, Armistice Day (now Veterans Day). It has since grown to not only recognize the dead but to thank the living who still serve. Many cities and towns hold parades, dedicate streets in a person’s honor (Boston has 1,230 “hero squares”), hang wreathes, and plant flags at cemeteries.

If you don’t see these kinds of things in your area, perhaps you should consider beginning the effort yourself. Remember those who fell so you might stand.

Civil War: 625,000 dead, 281,881 wounded (Union only)
World War 1: 116,516 dead, 2004,002 wounded
World War 2: 405,399 dead, 670,846 wounded
Korean Conflict: 53,686 dead, 92,134 wounded
Vietnam Conflict: 58,209 dead, 153,303
First Iraq Conflict: 382 dead, 849 wounded
Current Conflicts: 5,491 dead, 37,865 wounded

Crogan’s Vengeance by Chris Schweizer

The concept behind Schweizer’s The Crogan Adventures is simple enough. Each volume contains a story of a member of the Crogan family. The tale of adventure is used by a present-day Crogan as a means to entertain and teach his kids. This first volume covers “Catfoot” Crogan, a pirate in the Caribbean at the start of the 18th century…

Catfoot is a seaman aboard a merchanter, with a cruel and petty captain who holds a grudge from Cromwell’s day against the Crogans. In fact the pirates that attack come just as Catfoot is being hung on false charges of mutiny. So young Crogan is more than willing to sign on with the pirates alongside the rest of his crew. After that its clever plans to sieze a treasure ship, sword fights and desperate battles. Good stuff…

Hey, Alex the Producer here. Luke from the Podgecast and I have been wanting to blog about our ongoing Solium Infernum game for a while now and figured we’d give it a go. Don’t expect a post very often; if we get one done every week or so, I’ll be more than happy.

Okay, what is Solium Infernum? It’s a PBEM turn-based game made by Vic Davis of Cryptic Comet in which the players take on the roles of devils in Hell. The infernal throne is vacant due to mysterious circumstances, and it’s up to the remaining devils to war over the inferno to determine the next big man.

Detailing the tactics involved in this game takes a while to explain, but let’s start with the map. Click it to embiggen.

A careful eye will notice some weird things. Some of the landmarks and units near the border of the map seem to be replicated elsewhere. That’s intentional; in Solium Infernum, Hell wraps in on itself. There is no escape. There is no “corner of the map” where you just have to worry about foes coming from one direction. You are, by all accounts, surrounded by enemies.

This particular map was made randomly by the game, and is from the “Dante’s Peak” theme. It’s dominated by a large, uncrossable volcano that takes up four hexes. There are other mountain ranges that can be traversed by units with mountain walk. There are also big, ugly fissures that can only be jumped by flying units.

There are six players:

Alex – Baron Bel
Luke – The Haberdasher, Marquis
Andrew – Baron Lillith
Ron – Prince Meche
Eric – Baron Baphomet
Geoff – Duke Death

So in addition to our strongholds (which are our seats of power, and if we lose them, we’re out of the game) and our units, there are other landmarks littered around the inferno. They are the Places of Power, and the player who secures them will have an easier time gaining the infernal throne.

It’s a good time to talk about how we win the game. There are a few ways:

1) Have the most prestige by the end of the game. There is a time limit to the game, and though no one knows exactly how long it will be, there is a rudimentary clock in the game. If the clock runs out, the player with the most prestige wins first place, the player with the second most prestige wins second, and the rest are considered the dregs of the inferno.

You earn prestige through a variety of ways, mostly through the ownership of Places of Power. Each player also has a stated goal that earns him prestige if he can accomplish it by the end of the game. Geoff has chosen Gluttony, which means he has to eat 35 souls (part of the currency of hell). Luke chose Greed, which means he has to steal things from other players. Andrew chose Lust, which means he has to end the game in control of the Temple of Lust. Eric, Ron and I chose Wrath. That gives us bonus prestige for knocking at least one player out of the game through means of force.

2) Capture and hold Pandemonium for five turns. Pandemonium is the landmark halfway between the Stronghold of Bel and Dante’s Peak (which I have forgotten to label on the map, but I’ll fix that for the next post). It is extraordinarily strong, but not impossible to conquer. Once a player attacks Pandemonium, they are excommunicated; they’re shut out of the market and it’s open season on them for everyone else in the game.

3) Power Behind The Throne or Kingmaker: These are rare ways to win the game. When the game starts, players are able to spend creation points on certain perks. Maybe you want a bonus for melee, or you want swankier gifts from your servants. With the Power Behind the Throne perk, you win the game if your Blood Lord (a player with whom you have created a special diplomatic bond) wins the game via method #1. With the Kingmaker perk, you win the game if you predict at the very beginning of the game who will win the game via method #1.

What you see on the map is the status of the game at turn #5. We all started with our “home units” (Chosen of Bel, Slaves of Death, etc) near our strongholds. As we step our forces into empty hexes, or cantons, we take ownership of them. Once you have ownership of a hex, other players can’t merely enter your territory. Doing so requires diplomacy, but since we haven’t had that happen yet, I see no reason to explain that in this post. Don’t want to blow your minds too early.

So Luke and I have struck first in the process of capturing places of power. My home unit, the Chosen of Bel, made a beeline to the north to capture the Temple of Lust. Pretty standard stuff. What wasn’t standard is what Luke pulled off. In the game, there is a marketplace called the bazaar. That’s where we can bid for troops, artifacts (legion boosters), relics (avatar boosters), manuscripts (collectibles that can be very powerful if you’re successful in gaining all the pieces of them), and praetors (lieutenants that boost your units and duel for your honor). Luke noticed there was an extremely powerful flying unit called The Beast. The price for the Beast is in line with other units, but every turn you keep it, you have to pay it tribute.

Tribute is souls, ichor, hellfire or darkness that you obtain by spending an order requesting your followers to get them for you. It’s the currency of the inferno.

So it’s early in the game, and there’s no way Luke had the upkeep cost. However, he didn’t need to keep it around; he just needed it for a turn. It spawned next to his stronghold, and in his next turn, he flew the unit over the chasm to his west and into the Palace of Gluttony. The unit wins the battle for the palace, it becomes his, he fails to pay the upkeep, the Beast returns to the Bazaar, and now he’s earning two prestige points per round until someone takes it away from him.

Other items of note:

Meche had two units, but he apparently messed up the math on the battle with the Mines of Gehenna and his attacking unit was killed. Now he’s licking his wounds while the Mines regenerate HP.

Death has been completely and totally still for the whole game. If it wasn’t for the fact I regularly get turns from him, I’d think he wasn’t playing.

Luke has essentially called dibs on the Iron Staircase by surrounding it with his territory.

That’s all I can think of saying for the moment. Stay tuned for more game updates!

PART 2

Well, it’s taken a little longer than usual to decide when and where to post part one of Solium Saturdays, so that’s why there’s a jump of approximately ten turns between the first part and this part. Let’s start with the map. As usual, click to expand.

There’s a lot less in terms of available space, and battle lines are starting to be drawn. I’ll attempt to recap the last ten turns.

From my perspective, the star of the game between blog one and blog two has been Death. If you remember from my postscript from blog one, I mentioned that Death was staying absolutely still to the point where I wondered what the heck he was doing.

The answer to my question was apparently “gathering the resources I need to keep buy and keep the Beast going for a while.”

On turn 7, Death bought the Beast. On turn 8, he used it to take the City of Dis, a Place of Power that not only gives him a nice income of three prestige per turn, but also gives him a +2 to his tribute roll, which determines the quality of the resources he’s offered when he requests them from his loyal minions. In the following turns, Death marched the Beast steadily to the north, following the fissure that separates his realm from mine, and he eventually took the Altar of Abomination. He now has possession of it, earning him +2 prestige per turn and a +1 to his Wrath attribute. If I could take a lesson from this, it’d be to beware of sleeping dogs… they wake up. Eventually, Death either couldn’t or wouldn’t pay the upkeep for the Beast, and it happily returned to the Bazaar for the next fellow with a lot of cash.

On turn 6, The Disciples of the Haberdasher attempted to take the Iron Staircase and failed. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I’m inclined to believe he didn’t do as complete a job performing the combat math as he’d like. The Haberdasher recruited the Hell Blades, fortified them with a praetor and eventually took the Staircase.

Baphomet has been cut off from every Place of Power he’s attempted to obtain. The City of Dis is a hard nut to crack. Meche swept around a fissure to take the Wood of Suicides through the combined might of his Blood and the Lords of the Pit. Lillith took the Gates of Hell before Baphomet’s Abyssal Striders had a chance to take them, and I (Bel) still hold the Temple of Lust.

So today’s lesson on Solium Infernum is going to be about one of the most important aspects of the game: Diplomacy.

There are rules in the Inferno. Once you take territory or a place of power, it can’t be taken from you without some political maneuvering. That’s where insults, demands and vendettas come into play.

Demands are a player saying to another player, “Give me X amount of resources or I’ll mess you up.”

Insults are a player saying to another player, “I bet you couldn’t mess me up if you tried right now.”

Unmet demands and insults can trigger vendettas, which is when territory can trade hands and blood can be spilled.

So let’s have an example. In the turn immediately preceding the one pictured in the map, The Haberdasher’s Disciples were still close to his stronghold. Death had his Grinning Legion and Slaves on The Haberdasher’s eastern border. If Death got into a fight with The Haberdasher and attacked the Hell Blades in a way that his two forces could combine their strength (something I’ll probably explain in more detail in a future blog), the Hell Blades were looking like they’d be defeated. So Death, sensing the advantage he had, made a demand of The Haberdasher. He spent an order (basically an action) to lodge a demand of four resource cards. The Haberdasher had to make a choice: either pay up, or give Death the green light to call for a vendetta on the following turn. Sensing the odds were against him, the Haberdasher paid up.

Here’s another example. As the Beast was clawing its way up to the Altar of Abomination, I had the feeling that he couldn’t maintain the Beast for very much longer. The Beast requires three souls of upkeep per turn, and though I couldn’t see exactly how many souls Death had (or could I?) I could guess that he was running out of gas. I thought it was an opportune time to call for an insult. By doing so, I was basically putting up some of my prestige points in a bet that Death couldn’t succeed in a vendetta against me. The Beast was the only unit in a position to do anything against me, and I knew that Death would be hard pressed to make good on one.

Basically, when you get in a vendetta, you have another bet to make. You can bet that you can destroy a certain number of legions, take a certain number of enemy hexes, conquer at least one enemy Place of Power or engage in a Praetor duel.

Death had no praetor at the time, while I had at least one, so a duel wasn’t an option. He couldn’t take my territory since he had to connect any hex of mine with a hex of his (the fissure prevented that), and taking my Wall of Envy was going to take more upkeep than I thought he had. If he chose to attempt to kill my Chosen, he’d have to successfully guess where I was going to be at the end of a certain turn, so it was likely going to be an upkeep sink as well. Death chose to accept the insult, which means he lost the same amount of prestige I bet, while I got that prestige as well as my original bet back.

That leads the discussion into Rank. Looking at the map, you may notice that the strongholds mention the players’ ranks. Lillith, Bel and Baphomet are Barons. The Haberdasher is a Marquis, Death is a Duke and at the very top is Meche, who is a Prince. When avatars (devils) are created, we spend a certain amount of creation points on our rank. Lillith, Bel and Baphomet chose to put their creation points in other places than rank, so they only bought enough rank to ensure they weren’t lowly Lords. Meche sacrificed in other areas to make sure he was at the top of the heap when it came to rank.

Where rank matters is in diplomatic actions. When a player makes a diplomatic move against another player, the effectiveness of their action is dependent on their rank. If the acting player outranks the targeted player, they can ask for the moon. If the acting player is outranked, their demand or insult will be underpowered and trifling. If their ranks are the same, the diplomatic actions are fairly balanced.

Stay tuned for a game update and a look at how combat works on the next Solium Saturday!

There’s not a lot more to add here, but it may be worth noting that Jonathan has picked up Red Dead Redemption for the 360.  While we’ll no doubt be talking about that in Episode 25, if you want to posse up with The Holmberg, his gamertag is StingRayO2.

Enjoy!

Killraven written and drawn by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer, colors by Gregory Wright, letters by Pat Prentice

Killraven was a 70s-era character from Marvel’s Amazing Adventures whose concept involved a world conquered by Wells’ Martian invaders. When Davis was asked by then Marvel EiC what character he’d like to work on he responded with John Carter. But since Burroughs’ properties were owned by another company Davis was asked if he’d be willing to use a different sword-swinging human who fought Martians…

Davis’ art is, as always, spectacular. Ex-slave rebels in near fetish gear, mutants, costumed bandits or alien war machines. Alan Davis makes them all jump off the page. The story is a fun call-back to old-school post-apocalyptic sci-fi stories…

Three days later, Roger Ebert made a proclamation that video games, no matter how they try, can never be art. The Internet exploded, as the Internet is wont to do.

I initially thought, “Great! Plenty of research material.” Then I realized that my space in the discussion was quickly shrinking. With so many people writing about, responding to, rebutting and rebuking Ebert, where could my voice fit in? Where would I be able to carve out a niche that wasn’t just a repetition of someone’s already published opinion?

I felt like I didn’t have time to carve out that niche, and I dropped the initial premise. The project went in a different direction, and we even talked a bit about the subject in a recent episode of The Way of the Game. I still wanted to respond to Ebert, though. My geeks hackles were up.

“I know!” I thought, “I’ll write a scathing satirical response! I’ll attack his favorite medium and turn his empty statements and dismissive tones and utter ignorance right back around on him!”

But when I started to write the piece, I just felt tired. When I went over his article, I felt less and less annoyed and more and more sorry for the guy. And then I realized why.

Roger Ebert is a crotchety old man.

Seriously. Look at the guy. This is not a man who is ever going to understand video games. This is not a man who will ever agree with any artistic point of view that isn’t his own.

He’s a critic. His job is to formulate an opinion and stick to it. When it comes to movies, I think he performs that job quite well. He’s knowledgeable. He’s experienced. He’s film-literate. He’s watched more movies than all the people in my family combined. I trust that when he comes up with an opinion about a movie, whether I agree with it or not, it will be an opinion based upon solid evidence with substantial claims to back it up.

When it comes to video games, Roger Ebert is ignorant, naïve, and utterly illiterate. His opinions are based solely on his gut reaction, rather than any sort of experience.

When I look at Roger Ebert, I imagine trying to explain my connection with games to my grandmother. Why do I feel this connection? What do games inspire in me? How do they affect my perception of the world? I can’t answer these questions. At least, I can’t answer these questions in a way that my grandmother would understand.

And if I can’t explain it to my grandmother, a woman who loves me and takes interest in my life, how am I supposed to explain it to Roger Ebert?

I’m not sure it’s worth trying. Let him live with his beliefs, while I live with mine. All art forms have gone through this phase, and there are people far more knowledgeable than I who can argue for the side of video games.

I just want to wish Roger Ebert the best. When he finally goes to his reserved seat in the sky, the only people that will remember his anti-game stance will be the geeks.

With any luck, we’ll have the good graces not to mention it.

Next up, games this week:  Alex plays some FFXIII, Jonathan finally cracks open Heavy Rain, and David talks about his newfound love for Halo: ODST.

And that’s right, David is back with us.  Our discussion in episode 22 ran longer than intended, and we didn’t get the opportunity to grill David on his Top Ten.  Due to time constraints, we still don’t grill him on his Top Ten, but David does have some great honorable mentions we get into.  Next week we’ll have his Top Ten (for real this time), and you can also head over to our forums for a sneak peek and to contribute your own.

I Kill Giants written by Joe Kelly, art & design by JM Ken Niimura

Barbara Thorson is a champion. She kills giants and keeps everyone safe. Or she’s a young girl who’s going crazy from avoiding the horror that lives in her home…

I Kill Giants is about grief and avoidance and desperation wrapped in childhood. It’s a morose fairy tale that still manages a happy ending. And giants…

We talk about a ton of stuff, and Jonathan (who’s writing these show notes) is swamped with finals, so the show notes are going to be a bit light, even if the show is full of topics.

Here’s some of the inspiration for this episode:

• Venezuela
• Switzerland
• Australia
  • Zombie Protest
  • Atkinson steps down
• “Conclusively” proven study about game violence being bad for children
• Roger Ebert strikes again
• Supreme Court takes on video game regulation case.

EA says the Online Pass will enable “online services, features and bonus content.” The feature will roll out with Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11.

Curiously, the press release also mentions that GameStop “has shown support of EA’s digital strategy by selling Sony PlayStation Network cards and Xbox Live Microsoft Points cards with the purchase of new and used EA titles.”

Isn’t that what GameStop has always done? Why mention it now?

The bottom line is, if you wait to pick up an EA Sports game used, chances are you’ll have to shell out another $10 if you want to play it online. However, EA is going to provide a seven-day trial pass for free, so you’ll be able to test it out before you make the commitment.

In other, more personal news, Tom Clancy’s Endwar is available for download from the Xbox Marketplace for $30. I’d highly suggest checking it out and looking me up if you want to play online. It is not a perfect game; it’s just real close.

- Alex “WMD Bravo”

Addendum: I got in touch with EA about exactly what the restrictions are on the Online Pass. According to them, the Online Pass is good for both the console that it was redeemed on AND the account of the player who redeemed it.

So, if you have a roommate and both of you play on the same console, both of you can go online with the same Online Pass. If you redeemed an Online Pass and you go over to a buddy’s place, you’ll be able to go online from there as well.

It may be cliche, but it’s the way things are, and the Way of the Game is no exception. Lots of things have changed, and we think it’s all for the best.

First off, we’d like to give our thanks to Joe the Writer as he closes up GameLocus.net. It was Joe who invited me and Jonathan to contribute to his video game site. Little did he know the extent to which we’d take the idea and run with it, producing a weekly podcast that far exceeded what he asked us to produce. He could have pulled the reins, but instead he just decided to let us go, and that’s why we’re where we are today.

Joe was the spark that got us working on Way of the Game, and we wanted to see his vision for Game Locus succeed. However, he realized that fulfilling that vision was going to take more than he had in him right now, and other projects were more important. So it’s a bittersweet development. Joe’s project is no more, but that’s only going to give him the time and energy to pursue other things, like his writing (he was called “the Writer” for a reason). Everything that was under the Game Locus feed is now going to the Way of the Game. Instead of the Way of the Game being a spoke on the wheel, now it’s the hub. Also, Joe intends to occasionally contribute to the site, so he still could pop up here from time to time.

However, that’s not the only change we’re making. In a long overdue development, we’ve hooked Way of the Game up with Spooky Outhouse Productions. It’s an obvious move on our part. They know us. We know them. It’s partly because of them that I decided to give podcasting a try. Part of that move also involved moving our forums, which were gathering dust, to the very active and fun Spooky Outhouse forums.

In case you’re reading this on a podcatcher and not on the site itself, we’ve also done a complete remodel of our website. Gone are all vestiges of our ill-named birth. It looks a lot better now, and there’s still a little remodeling to do.

Lastly, I have to give Jonathan credit for all the changes. He’s the one who’s been diving into code, finding out where the files go, looking up themes for the website, negotiating with Spooky Outhouse, and doing all the infrastructure work, in addition to doing his share of the podcast. I’ve been doing what I’ve always been doing: maintaining output, editing out “uhhhs” and putting in sound effects. So if you like what’s been going on (I know I do), he’s the one to thank.

As for the content of the podcast itself, I hope episodes 21 and 22 give you an idea of where I think we’re going. There’s always room for us to talk about the games we’ve been playing and the latest in gaming news, but there’s more to games than just that. Games are having an effect on culture and society. It’s worthy of a close-up examination. You’re not going to get that from the nightly news. You’re not going to get it from NPR, though they’ve done some great stuff. Podcasts are a great medium in which to delve into these topics and discuss their pros and cons.

To quote our podfather, that’s the Way of the Game.

-Alex

The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck: vol. 1, art & story by Don Rosa, lettering & titles by Todd Klein, colors by Susan Daigle-Leach

The first half of Don Rosa’s 90s series detailing the early life of the World’s Richest Duck. Rosa created the history using the hints dropped in the classic Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge comics. The story begins in 1877 Scotland with Scrooge at his first job as a shoe-shine boy. And even then he’s full of determination to strike it rich, taking inspiration from the “worthless” American dime he gets paid for his first shoe-shine…

In this first volume young Scrooge goes from Scotland to America. There he signs on with an uncle’s riverboat, eventually leaving that behind to become a cowboy, then a copper miner. Then he returns to save the ancestral McDuck castle. Having spent his copper mining money there he heads to Africa for another gold rush…

As Scrooge travels and gains and loses he never gives up. He knows that with hard work, a clever mind and being “thrifty” he’ll eventually become a success. And nothing will stop him. Not early encounters with the Beagle Boys, James Gang, McVipers or Flintheart Glomgold. One day he’ll succeed!

There’s no mention of what our latest games of the week are, nor is there a single mention (for once) of Blood Bowl. Our topic this week is simply too important, and will probably strike home either for you or for someone you know.

In our 21st episode, we sit down with Dr. Hilarie Cash, the executive director for the reSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program. When gamers go over the line – as we all know they are wont to do – her program is there to help them come back to reality.

We go in depth into the nature of addiction, her opinions about why videogame addiction gets less attention in America than in other countries, and how developers have learned to  juggle rewards and punishments in order to make gamers play hour after hour.  She also talks about the reSTART program and how it seeks to reverse the addiction and teach gamers how to achieve balance in their lives.

As usual, we’ve found something else to throw in after the credits, but it too has a serious edge to it. Alex and friend-of-the-podcast David pay their respects to Carl Macek, the executive producer of Robotech and the man who helped import several classic anime series to America. It’s as close to a heartfelt eulogy as two rampant fanboys can get.

The Winter Men story by Brett Lewis, art by John Paul Leon, colors by Dave Stewart & Melissa Edwards, letters by John Workman & Jared K. Fletcher

In the last decade or so there has been an attempt by the Big Two comics companies to tell “realistic” stories. And they’ve mostly fallen flat or worse. Because realism? Realism is that stuff has consequences. Realism is not being able to solve a problem by punching it. And that isn’t how the corporate-owned worlds of DC and Marvel work. So it doesn’t matter how much gore is added or how many kids are murdered to provide motivation. Its never going to be “real”. Realism is a cold Moscow winter and battle-armor pilots who’ve been decommissioned…

Kalenov the cop. Nikki the gangster. Drost the soldier. Nina the bodyguard. And the Siberian. The last remnants of the Soviet super-soldier programs. Once they wielded weapons that made them one-man armies, now they just do business like everyone else in modern Russian. But a case involving a kidnapped child is going to bring them back together and force them to confront everything about their past…

A little bit of noir. A sprinkling of supers. A dash of espionage. Mixed together with a giant heaping of Russian cynicism and dark humor. The Winter Men shows that nearly everyone else should be trying a little bit fucking harder…

We’ve got a long one this week!  We may have gone off for a little bit too long on Blood Bowl.  Just know that Alex edited out a lot more than he left in!  We discuss the R.U.S.E. beta ever so briefly (which is a good description of how long we played the beta, as well), and then move into headlines before Alex can get distracted by his Games Workshop fanboyism.

Headlines:

“Nintendo Wii made me nympho!”

Magazine editor claims Rockstar got him fired, the magazine claims the editor had it coming, and Rockstar just wants to stay out of it.

Microsoft has given MekTek.net clearance for the free release of MechWarrior 4.

Another free browser based game – this time Lord of Ultima.

Would you be willing to pay more for Xbox Live if you got television content through it?

Study claims that “brain games” do little to exercise that gray lump in your skull.

British video game retail chains owns its customers’ souls.  MWAHAHAHAHA!

We’ve got a blooper this week, and remember all that Blood Bowl talk we skipped over in the episode proper?  By popular demand, we tacked it on to the end of the episode.  If you’re interested in our thoughts on future prospects for Blood Bowl, Cyanide, Games Workshop, and turn-based tabletop board game conversions, be sure to listen through the credits.

Wanna get in touch with us?  We’ve got plenty of ways!

• Twitter: @StingRay02 and @Mollarom
• Email: feedback@thewayofthegame.net
• Voicemail: (203) 794-GAME (4263)

Asterix Omnibus written by Rene Goscinny, illustrated by Albert Uderzo, translated by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge

First published in 1961 Asterix has been one of the two pillars of European comics for FIVE decades. The tales of a fictional Gaul village in the 1st Century, holding out against the Roman conquest have sold millions of copies. This omnibus collects the first three stories. Astrix the Gaul which introduces the titular hero, his best friend Obelix and their village. Asterix and the Golden Sickle has the pair attempting to buy a new golden sickle for their villages druid, Getafix, and running up against a band of sickle smugglers. The last story Asterix and the Goths has Getafix kidnapped by the Goth chieftan Choleric, who hopes to use the druid’s magic to aid his plans for conquest…

The stories of Asterix are amusing as hell. Full of bad puns, running gags and broad physical humor. Its no wonder that for decades millions of people have been following the adventures of the clever Gaul and his friends…

So, I think we used to have a schedule for our show topics.  I’m not positive we still have that schedule.  We’re wingin’ it, folks!  Hope you enjoy the ride.

Games!

• Turf Wars Online
• iDuel Online
• Tiger Woods Online
• Blood Bowl Online
• Dawn of War 2 Online
• Magna Carta 2 Online

We also follow up on the ongoing melodrama between Activision and the former employees of Infinity Ward.  I’d link to the articles, but there are a ton of them, and I am really, really tired.  So, I’ll just link to Penny Arcade, and you can find the relevant links in their post!

Hooray for making use of other people’s work!

Nixon’s Pals written by Joe Casey, art by Chris Burnham, letters by Rus Wooton

Nixon’s Pals is about one of those simple high concepts that you can’t believe no one thought of before. In this case its this, Nixon Cooper is a parole officer for super-villains. Of course coming up with the concept is just the start. Casey and Burnham deliver a sharp bit of supers/crime mash-up fiction. With characters that have realistic motivations and problems and that are visually striking to boot…

And Nixon is perfectly done as an old-school crime/noir hero. Battered, pushed about and then battered again. But never broken no matter how much it piles on…

We start with our usual discussion of what’s on our radar this week, which led to a discussion of the merits (or should that be demerits) of Final Fantasy XIII.  Blood Bowl, Magna Carta 2, and Turf Wars Online are all discussed, as well.

We also put Mike through the Top Ten wringer, harassing him about his decision to flaunt some of our rules, while also admitting that he makes some valid objections to those same rules.  The list won’t make a show-note appearance, so you’ll have to listen to hear Mike’s shocking (Shocking, I say!) pick for Number One.*

*Mike’s Number One pick may or may not be all that terribly shocking.

Smoke and Guns written by Kirsten Baldock, art by Fabio Moon

I don’t normally pick something up just for the art. ‘Cause that’s how you end up like my roommate owning a copy of Oktane. But I’m a sucker for anything by brothers Moon or Ba and this was only 12 bucks…

Its a fun little piece, about gun-toting cigarette girls. Their city is divided into violently defended sales districts, but Scarlett keeps straying out of her Puff district into that of the Belles. Which eventually escalates into a war between the two crews…

An enjoyable romp with hot women and lots of frenetic gun play…

Cheaters never prosper, but apparently they can survive brain stabbings.

Hey folks!  We’re back to full strength this week.

Jonathan’s had some interference, and iDuel Online is his only contribution to this week’s Whatcha Playin’ section.  Alex has had a bit more luck, with Magna Carta 2 and Solium Infernum under his belt.

Headlines:

• Nintendo 3DS has been announced. Speculation abounds. Here’s hoping it’s not a 21st Century Virtual Boy.
• Blood Bowl Legendary Edition has been announced. Here’s hoping this isn’t an April Fool’s Day prank.
• Microsoft is already exploring technology for Natal 2. Here’s hoping they remember to release Natal 1 first.
• The Penny Arcade Adventure series has been cancelled. Here’s hoping lessons are learned from this.
• Alex is unnervingly pleased by the idea of GameCrush, and Jonathan can’t stop laughing.Here’s hoping Jonathan can control that during the interview scheduled with the GameCrush folks.
• Chinese CounterStrike cheater is stabbed in the brain, and lives. Here’s hoping they removed the cheater impulse along with the knife.

That’s it for this week.  Be sure to join us next week when Mike from the Bear Swarm Podcast joins us!  Woo!  A real guest!

Richard Stark’s Parker the Hunter adapted and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke

Most of you are probably more familiar with this one as the movie adaption Payback with Mel Gibson. Or maybe even the ’67 Point Blank with Lee Marvin. But the Parker in those two is a cuddly puppy of love and forgiveness compared to the original. And that brutal bastard is the one you see in Cooke’s adaptation. This Parker is out for revenge and his missing money. But he wasn’t so much betrayed and robbed as beaten to the punch. Parker is a master thief and a cold-hearted machine…

And not enough can be said about Cooke’s art here. His simple inks evoke the noir style better than anything I can think of elsewhere. Cooke brings the full emotion of the story to..well not the light. But to well-defined shadows…

Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

Studio: W! Games

Owned by EA? No

Games:

• Assassin’s Creed 2
• The Saboteur
• The Misadventures of P. B. Winterbottom
• Civilization IV (join the play by email!)
• Blood Bowl (join the league!)

See ya next week!

Note: This character is made for the rifts setting but uses the Savage Worlds mechanics, consisting of a 20-experience-point build and house ruled powers from the Super Powers Compendium to create an operator-type character.

Tom Daly has been traveling and fixing people’s gear for so long that they don’t even remember his name any more. They called him Mr. Operator when they were kids and now they have kids of their own. Everyone calls him Mr. Operator, and he’s okay with that. He likes helping folks. He likes traveling. He likes being on his own. The Confederated States had other plans. Tom was pressed into service at a late age to maintain the quote of CS operators. He does as he’s told, as long as he still ges to travel and still gets to help folks.

Attributes
Agi d4
Sma d12
Spi d8
Str d4
Vig d4

Skills
Fighting d4
Guts d6
Healing d8
Knowledge (Electronics) d8
Notice d8
Persuasion d6
Repair d12
Shooting d4
Streetwise d6

Edges
Arcane Background (Super Powers)
Contacts
Invent (step 2, house rule)
McGyver
Mr. Fix It

Hindrances
Elderly (Major)
Anemic (Minor)
Bad Eyes (Minor)

Powers
Interface
Invent (3 levels)

Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai by Stan Sakai

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai created this hard-bound short ghost story. In it Usagi is drawn into the woods in pursuit of a lost girl only to encounter an army of ghosts and demons. This night is one that happens every hundred years when the yokai or haunts walk the earth in great numbers and will try to bring their Witch Queen over. Luckily, Usagi’s friend Sasuke the Demon Queller is in the area to stop this so the samurai doesn’t have to face this danger alone…

Here are the things I learned about Brian Clevinger during the course of our interview. First, he works really hard.

• Atomic Robo
• 8-Bit Theater
• Warbot in Accounting
• How I Killed Your Master
• Nerdy Show podcast

Second, Brian doesn’t like to talk about himself. He likes to talk about other people. This is a shorter interview than the one we did with Scott because Brian is much more comfortable talking about Scott than he is about himself, and well, I had already interviewed Scott.

Discuss Brian on our forums.

NEWS!

Rock Band 3 has been announced.

Ubisoft’s DRM has been cracked and their authentication servers have been under attack, adding new meaning to the phrase “paying customers.”

Activision has taken careful aim at their feet and opened fire, sacking the lead creative minds behind Modern Warfare 2.

Microsoft has decided it’s okay for gamers to come out of the closet on Xbox Live.

Gears of War 3 tech demo at GDC.

Gamers may not be as obsessed with achievements and gamer score as Alex has previously believed.

If you have a ton of money to blow on oversized, complicated, extremely cool gadgets, we’d each like one, too, please.

EA is expecting two million subscribers for BioWare’s MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. Apparently they need one million subscribers just to break even.  Good luck, EA.  Good luck.

Note: This character is made for the rifts setting but uses the Savage Worlds mechanics, consisting of a 20-experience-point build and powers from the Super Powers Compendium to create a dead boy-type character.

Finn O’Toole lied about his age so he could join the Coalition States military. He knew from an early age that he was destined to wear Dead Boy black and kill the mutants and monsters that threatened his home. The CS is the bright light in the darkness of an anarchic world. He’ll crack any skull and burn any freak he’s told to if it means keeping his people safe.

Attributes
Agi d8
Sma d6
Spi d6
Str d12+1 (d8 natural)
Vig d12 (d6 natural)

Skills
Clmibing d6
Fighting d12+2
Notice d12
Repair d6
Shooting d8
Stealth d6
Throwing d4

Edges
Ambidextrous
Arcane Background (Super Powers)
Power Points (x2)
Two-Fisted

Hindrances
Bad Luck (Major)
Heartless (Minor)
Loyal (Minor)

Personal Powers
Fearless
Speedster (1 level)
Super Skills (4 levels spent on Fighting and Notice)

Power Armor (Device)
Attack, Melee (2 levels on power fists)
Darkvision (helmet with optical enhancements)
Deflection (6 levels across all armor)
Leaping + Bounce (1 level + bounce in power boots)
Super Attributes (3 levels of Strength from power fists and 3 levels of Vigor from trauma-response breastplate)

The Dead Boy Detectives by Jill Thompson

The Dead Boy Detectives, Charles Rowland and Edward Paine, are a pair of young boys who are ghosts. The two first showed up in Gaiman’s “Season of Mists” arc of Sandman, where they refused to go back with Death when Hell was re-opened…

Here the pair respond to a letter asking for help from one Annika Abernathy, a girl at a private school worried about the disappearance of one of her friends. So the two ghosts travel to Chicago and help Annika and her gang investigate the missing Elizabeth…

The big appeal here is Thompson’s shoujo style of art and story-telling. The characters are exuberant and fun. And the story maintains a light and humorous tone throughout. Hell, the book has an excerpt from another Thompson created Vertigo manga where she makes Despair of the Endless cute. Thats no small feat indeed…

Portal 2 has been announced!
Steam is coming to the Mac!
OnLive is scheduled to launch June 17! (And they’re taking pre-registration requests!)
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is coming to XBLA and PSN!

On the game front, Jonathan’s been playing  a ton of indie games, Alex revisits an oldie but (maybe?) goodie, and we’re both psyched about our upcoming Greed Corp. two-way.

Links!

• Osmos
• Auditorium
• Eufloria
• Machinarium
• Section 8
• Greed Corp.

ps238: With Liberty and Recess for All by Aaron Williams

I may have mentioned my love for the comic ps238 a time or two or twenty. Aaron Williams has created one of my favorite super-hero titles. He starts with a perfect high concept, a grade school for super-powered children. Then adds in various characters, some of whom are loosely based on more well-known characters. But through it all he writes children like what they are. Kids. ps238 is fun and smart and funny and even exciting on occasion…

This first volume collects issues #0-#5 of the series, which introduces the faculty and many of the student body. Including the “evil genius” Zodon, the alien visitor Prospero, Suzi the Nucleur Girl and Tyler the non-powered son of two of Earth’s mightiest heroes. It even has Revanent, the Batman archtype created by Michael Stackpole and gifted to Aaron to use in his book and Tyler’s off-campus mentor…

Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

Studio: Bioware

Owned by EA? Yes

Scott Wegener is the artist for the Atomic Robo series of comic books.

Atomic Robo publishes 8-10 issues a year

The Iron Giant came out in 1999, not 1989.

8-Bit Theater

Marvel Internship

Jeff Powell stole Scott’s job

By unemployment, we meant welfare, but the principle was the same.

Aron at Ideology of Madness is a snob.

Joe knows the brother of Rob Schrab (creator of Scud). This makes Joe cool somehow.

Atomic Robo’s three seconds of fame

Heavy Ink dot com

Discuss on our forums

Alex is going to E3!  Jonathan is going to GenCon!  Alex has finished Bioshock 2!  Jonathan met Mario!  Alex has an almost disturbing amount of fun rolling digital dice!  I’m going to stop writing in exclamatives!  :-)

Now, the list:

Hope you enjoy!  Be sure to check out our forums, email questions or comments to feedback (at) thewayofthegame (dot) net, and feel free to follow Alex and Jonathan on Twitter.

It was his free time that Kyse looked most forward to. Then he would go to the shore and visit the boat captains. Kyse had an unusually adept sense for the weather, smelling the salt in the air and feeling the subtle changes in wind and temperature. Boat captains learned quickly to trust his predictions. One captain in particular, Brand, took a strong liking to him and tried to lure him away from Maggie. But Kyse had made a commitment and stuck with it. He spent his free time with Brand, getting a sense for the weather over water and how the tides worked.

When Brand’s son Willem challenged him for stealing his father away from him and insinuating himself into a boating role Willem felt was his, Kyse chose instead to leave Port Sumac and join the guard, where his efforts would not just benefit his settlement, but all of mousedom.

Age: 20
Home: Port Sumac
Fur Color: Auburn
Rank: Guardmouse
Cloak: Blue
Parents: Finn and Lilly the Harvesters
Senior: Maggie the Wheelwright
Mentor: Lieam
Friend: Captain Brand
Enemy: Willem (Captain Brand’s son)

Belief: The good of the many outweighs the good of the one.
Goal:
Instinct: Press on until you know for sure
Skills: Fighter (3), Haggler (2), Harvester (2), Pathfinder (3), Persuader (2), Scout (2), Weather Watcher (5)
Traits: Nimble, Weather Sense (2)
Wises: Thunderstorm-wise, Tide-wise
Gear: Hook and line, sling

Nature (Mouse – Climbing, Escaping, Foraging, Hiding): 5 (saves for winter, afraid of owls, weasels, and wolves)
Will: 3
Health: 5
Resources: 5 (works in the winter, parents work, frugal)
Circles: 3 (easily liked)

SHADOWRISE by Tad Williams – The rural kingdom of Southmarch has the distinction of being the last stronghold before the Shadowline, the demarcation between human civilization and the alien fairies known as the Qar. The Shadowline was raised by the retreating Qar at the end of their last war with the humans. But it has moved forward, and with it an invading Qar army, to lay seige to a Southmarch in upheaval.

SHADOWRISE is the third book in best-selling author Tad Williams’ “Shadowmarch” series. Originally billed as the end of a trilogy, the manuscript grew too large to be published as a single volume. (Readers of Williams’ TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER will not be surprised. That book was so large that the mass market paperback had to be published in two volumes.)

The king of Southmarch is held hostage in the south by the god-king of the Xixian Empire. His elder son is assassinated, his younger son lost behind the shadowline, and his daughter fled a usurpation by their cousins who covet the throne. All this and a large cast of supporting characters move through the pages of SHADOWRISE, tying together the various plot threads that were established in SHADOWMARCH and then frayed in SHADOWPLAY, the first and second books of the series.

Much like the other masters of the epic fantasy genre, Williams has a large ensemble of characters to explore his massive and richly detailed world. At times it may seem frustrating, focusing on otherwise inconsequential characters (we’re talking about you, Matt Tinwright) until their personal stories criss-cross with other characters and the overall story becomes a little clearer. The true majesty of the book is in its setting. The world is incredibly detailed with evolved social structures that appear more like the result of a twenty-year D&D campaign rather than the imagination of an author over the course of the past decade. Take a single creation story and evolve it through four different cultures over centuries of history and ritual and then see how those cultures abut one another because of their changed beliefs. This is the thesis of the Shadowmarch series and SHADOWRISE brings into focus the origins of those cultures. Just in time for the world to end.

The book is large, and its level of detail slows the pace at times. Some characters, like the aforementioned Matt Tinwright, delay the chapters of more appealing characters, but in the end, contribute to the world and its majesty. The slow pace was more evident in SHADOWPLAY where some chapters felt intentionally repetitious in an effort to match chronology of character actions so they could arrive simultaneously at the climactic event. Not so in SHADOWRISE. Everything moves along steadily without treading water. With so many characters, though, that pace can feel slow. Regardless, SHADOWRISE is a wonderfully crafted offering by one of fantasy’s luminary authors and should not be missed (more so because Tad has claimed that this will be his last epic fantasy–we certainly hope that’s just exhaustion talking).

The book offers a summary of the previous two books in its forward, but even that cannot prepare a new reader to the level of detail and number of characters offered. It is recommended that new readers begin with SHADOWMARCH and proceed through the entire series. It is certainly worth the reading.

SHADOWRISE by Tad Williams is on sale at your local booksellers today.

Atomic Robo: Vol. 1 Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne written by Brian Clevenger, art by Scott Wegener, colors by Ronda Pattison and letters by Jeff Powell

In 1923 Niola Tesla unveiled the world’s first artificial intelligence, in the form of a Atomic Robo. In 1938 Robo goes on a top secret mission for the U.S. government in exchange for full citizenship rights (the mission involves a secret Himalayan Nazi base). After that Robo goes on to form Tesladyne, where he and his selected action scientists engage the strange and bizarre. Like giant ants in Nevada or “walking” pyramids in Egypt. Or maybe secret, once lost Nazi science bases…

Clevenger’s sense of humor (familiar to those who know him from his webcomic 8-bit Theater) is what makes this book shine. Its not just watching a robot smash a giant ant with a car. Its clever and well-crafted jokes WHILE hitting a giant ant with a Buick…

The cast includes Sean Bean, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, and Mark Addy. But a pilot does not a series make. Numerous pilots are filmed every year and never get picked up for full production. A GAME OF THRONES in particular promises to be an expensive production in a genre that has cooled from its fervor seven years ago following the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy thanks to follow-up fantasy offerings from Ewe Boll and others.

With the strength of cast, strength of source material, and strength of buzz by fans who anxiously await the next installment in the series, HBO has picked up the pilot for a full 10-episode first season. Production for the season begins this June in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

It’s the Alex the Producer here. We got a TINY bit backlogged this week, so we’re shoving the normally scheduled weekly podcast back a week.

Not to fret, though, since the reason we’re backlogged is right here: an epic 2-way review of Assassin’s Creed 2 between myself and Joe the Writer.

We go in depth into what makes this game one of the best of 2009, along with the improvements over the first Assassin’s Creed and the things that made us throw our controllers in frustration.

And for those spoiler-intolerant types out there, we got your back. Not like Ezio, though, because he’d just put a dagger in it. No, we have carefully extracted the spoilers from the podcast and put them at the end.  The section with the spoilers will be nice and obvious, so if you want to know everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, stay tuned until after the end of the regular review.

Also, unlike our previous one-way reviews, this is no ten-minute show. Spoilers included, it runs just short of an hour.  We just wanted to do it justice.

Leave a message on the forums and let us know what you think!

SuperGirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade written by Landry Q. Walker, drawn by Eric Jones, colored by Joey Manson and lettered by Pat Brosseau, Travis Lanham & Sal Cipriano

I’ll be honest I’ve never been all that interested in SuperGirl. Not the classic pre-Crisis one or the other dimensional shapeshifter/hybrid angel one or the moody, annoying current one. I’m sure they all had some decent stories but I had no drive to hunt them down then I do any of dozens of other DC properties. But Walker manages to do something that is all too often lacking from the super-hero books of the Big Two. Present a story thats fun…

Here Kara arrives on Earth after accidentally getting into space aboard a Kyrptonian rocket. From the the colony of Kandor thats located in a pocket dimension, where it ended up after Krypton’s destruction. So Superman, after letting her know he can’t just send her home, gets her a secret identity as Linda Lee and puts her in school so she can get used to her new powers and Earth culture. Where everyone hates her of course. Or at least laughs at her all the time…

Soon enough though SuperGirl is dealing with a kind-of-evil twin, a strange new best friend, a super-powered cat, lots of glowing meteorites and of course, continuing to be crushingly un-popular. With only six-issues you get killer anti-Superman vehicles, time travel, magic imps, mind control, Kryptonite, clones, flying pets, heroism, teen angst and a dude who turns into an ice cream cone. So yeah. Fun…

Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

Studio: Bioware

Owned by EA? Yes

It’s our game-discussion episode, so without further ado, The List!

Game’s Mentioned

• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
• Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce
• Aliens vs. Predator
• Heavy Rain (and the talked-about-and-NSFW shower video)
• Torchlight
• The Saboteur
• Bioshock 2

Episodic Correction: Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce apparently has four-player cooperative multiplayer.  I don’t know if that changes anything.

Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter written by Kieron Gillen, pencils by Kano, Inks by Kano & Alvara Lopez, Colors by Javier Rodriguez, Letters by Blambot’s Nate Piekos

Its been a while since the last regular Marvel super-hero comic. And what better way to return then with the magic hammer wielding cyborg space man-horse, Beta Ray Bill. Keron Gillen has the Asgardian ally go forth on a quest to put a stop to Galactus. Seems the World-Devourer is responsible for the destruction of BRB’s people. But even when you’re a mighty cyborg alien with a hammer twin to Mjolinor Galactus is a bit out of your weight class. So he comes up with a fairly unique plan to stop the cosmic menace. One that might just work, but at a great cost to Beta Ray Bill…

Gillen’s story is exactly the type of thing that cosmic super-hero comics should be. It embraces the odd and the silly and treats it as normal. Then cranks the action up to 11. Kano isn’t my favorite artist, but he gets the job done, especially given the scope of what he’s drawing…

The volume also includes “The Green of Eden”, by Gillen and artist Dan Brereton, about a small group of Skrulls. Survivors from the most recent Skrull/Earth conflict they’re pilgrims seeking a new God and hoping they’ve found one in Beta Ray Bill…

In “local” gaming news, Alex has beaten Assassin’s Creed 2 and started playing Batman: Arkham Asylum.  Did he think the ending of AC2 was worth the thirty hours of gameplay?  Has Batman gotten his bat-hooks into Alex?  …. Maybe?

Alex has also been playing Solium Infernum, and Jonathan has been playing Blood Bowl, and we talk about that for a bit.

Headlines:

• The iPad has been announced, and the number of developers working on iPhone games has increased.
• Microsoft is shutting down Xbox Live support for original Xbox games on April 15.
• Sony’s making a lot of noise about charging for PSN.
• ESRB vs. Dead or Alive: A case of a company being TOO honest?
• FEAR THE SEX BOX! FEAR IT!
• Vinyl Fantasy 7: Gangsta Rap meets Game Music.

The Goon in Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker by Eric Powell, with colors by Dave Stewart

The Goon is normally a a dark and crude humor title that mash-ups horror, noir and pulp. For the “Chinatown/Mr.Wicker” story Powell basically drops the humor. As the first page says, “This Ain’t Funny”. The Goon is a crime boss in a world with zombies, demons and other monsters. He maintains his hold on his territory by being the meanest, toughest bastard around. Here we get two similar points in his life when he questions how he got there. The first is a flash back to The Goon re-encountering his childhood love Bella. The second deals with the incursion of a would be rival, the mysterious Mr. Wicker…

Its hard to adequately describe the pathos of the doomed relationship between Bella and The Goon. A series of full-page panels after the two part ways, where The Goon simply stares at his own brutish face and is left devastated, is emotionally riveting. As is The Goon’s rage-fueled, blood-soaked killing spree thru a gang of encroaching Chinese…

I’ll admit that Powell’s normal run doesn’t work for me. The few times I’ve looked it over the humor to it left me cold. But here, stripped of any attempt to be funny, Eric Powell creates a dark masterpiece…

“The End of Bliss”
A Story From the Third World
by Joseph L. Selby

Setting: The Forevergreen forest and then the Mashashony village of Foresthold.

Characters: Tanner Imsikwatash, our protagonist
A monster
Apothecary Kaneonuskatew
Horse Master Tumecsah
Soldier Hokolesquah

Jonathan has been swamped, and has absolutely no time to play games whatsoever.  As such, he bought Ghostbusters, The Saboteur, FarCry 2 and Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition.  Yeah, those’ll get played sometime soon.

Alex shares his thoughts on Assassin’s Creed 2, as he’s quite a ways through, and he wonders why the game’s so damn long.  Batman: Arkham Asylum, Darksiders, and MLB 2k10 are also on Alex’s to-be-played list.

We’ve got a topic this week inspired by a study via NewScientist: Do video games need more racial and ethnic diversity?

Phonogram: Rue Britannia story by Kieron Gillen, art by Jamie McKelvie

Yeah I know its Monday. But lets forget my inability to do something as simple as be on time with a weekly project. Let us instead turn our eyes to England. And to that musical phenomenon known as britpop. Confused? That is because you’re like me in that you have no fucking clue what britpop is or was (apparently Oasis and Blur would be some of the more mainstream representatives). But for some people it was a big deal…

Like David Kohl, phonomancer. That is a person who uses music and its culture as magic. Not making music, but listening to it. Being involved in its fandom. Taking a loosely defined genre and using it to form a sub-culture. Magic from that…

Kohl’s more than a bit of an arrogant prick and supremely self-involved. So of course he’s been tasked by the female divinity The Goddess to rescue an aspect of herself. Brittania, the avatar of britpop. And to do so she gives him The Curse until he’s done. After that things go very metaphorical and symbolical and shit until Kohl saves reality. Or at least the bit that focuses on him…

Phonogram isn’t for everyone. And who its for isn’t apparent until they read it. Or try. Its not the music. I loved the series and as may be guessed I’m clueless to the majority of the music referenced in it. To some its self-indulgent and/or pretentious. And that isn’t any inaccurate description. But for some it’ll catch hold and dig deep. So go ahead and give it a spin and find out which you are…

• Assassin’s Creed 2 has Alex thinking in Italian.
• Alex is also having a hell of a game in Solium Infernum.
• Jonathan slept between recordings.  What a slacker.

Headlines:

• Prolonged Gaming Blamed for Rickets Rise – News Media Still Looking for Next Scapegoat
• Final Fantasy 1 and 2 headed to iPhone.
• Bioware to release The Old Republic in Spring 2011
• Gran Turismo 5 the new Duke Nukem Forever?
• Duke Nukem Forever Not Dead (Again)?
• Cancelled Natal game’s design documents released by developer
• Game music to be included in this year’s Ivor Novello Awards
• Sony Defends Itself Against Equal Access Suit

Be sure to check out our next episode.  We’ve got something special planned for our first foray into double digits.

Sexy Chix: anthology of women cartoonists by various

Marvel recently announced an anthology mini-series entitled Girl Comics. Reactions have been mixed to say the least. Of course the majority of the negative reaction is on the silly name and the presumed “ghettoization” of the project. But looking over the creator’s listed I was reminded of this anthology of short pieces from Dark Horse. The two books share a lot of creators in common at a casual glance. Of course the Marvel project will be stories based around their super-heroes. While Sexy Chix’s pieces were more varied. Fantasy, bio, mystery, slice of life and so forth…

Of the different pieces I’d have to say my favorites are Jill Thompson’s “Love Triangle” about a mermaid, a sailor and a witch. Colleen Coover’s metaphorical poem “The Boogeyman” about grief and loss. And Carla Speed McNeil’s “Hands On” about an unconventional healer, that also has the same general feel as her Finder comic. The volume also features work by other noteworthy talents like Chynna Clugston, Colleen Doran, Gail Simone, Joyce Carol Oates, Amanda Conner and Trina Robbins among others…

Anyway I’d have to thank those (including the ones on my f-list) whose angry reaction to Marvel’s book made me think of this one. It had been awhile since I’d read it. I’d forgotten what a nice little book this was…

“The End of Bliss”
A Story From the Third World
by Joseph L. Selby

Setting: The Forevergreen forest, north of the Mashashony village of Foresthold.

Characters: Tanner Imsikwatash, our protagonist
The Forevergreen, a forest

Other reasons to listen?  We’re talking about games this week!

We’ve played some multiplayer, host-on-host Brütal Legend and Blood Bowl this week.  Jonathan died.  A lot.

Jonathan’s list:

• Assassin’s Creed 2
• Evil Genius
• Word Ace

Alex’s list:

• GameFly (not technically a game, but it will be… it will be…)
• Bayonetta Demo
• Vandal Hearts Demo
• 1 vs. 100
• Texas Hold ‘Em
• Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes

Can you tell who’s been on vacation recently?

Alex is editing next week’s episode, so that one will release on time.  See ya then!

Will Eisner’s The Spirit vol. 1, story and art by Darwyn Cook, inks and finishes by J.Bone, colors by Dave Stewart and letters by Jared K. Fletcher

Will Eisner’s Spirit comic strips are one of the oldest and longest running of costumed vigilantes. So DC’s decision to relaunch the character by the legendary creator had some controversy to it. But Cooke manages to capture Eisner’s mix of goofy fun and pulp noir quite well. Along with the Spirit’s signature dames like journalist Ginger Coffee, police commisioner’s daughter Ellen Dollan, international black widow P’gell and more…

The first volume concludes with a Batman/Spirit one-shot that was co-written by Cooke and Jeph Loeb. Which is, shocking given Loeb’s recent work, really very good. They’re Batman feels like a mix of the Dini animated Batman and the classic Silver Age version. So the two and their respective rogues mesh well together…

Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 by David Petersen

What, you need more information? Its Mouse Guard. Two of them fight an owl. An owl!

Petersen’s comic of mouse towns and the brave guardmice that defend them shouldn’t need any more hype from me. This second book directly follows the events of Fall 1152 collection. Seriously, go and get them you will not be disappointed…

Jarol was a member of the Springport militia until he was caught taking kickbacks from ship captains to look the other way while they smuggled illicit goods. Unable to find honest work where he could make a little extra on the side, he left Springport and headed upstream to Goldriver. He hopes to resume a post in the local militia and renew his efforts at self-enrichment or maybe sign on with an adventuring group and make some quick coin murdering monsters and stealing their stuff.

Ability Scores (15 point-buy)
Strength 12 (2)
Dexterity* 17 (7)
Constitution 14 (5)
Intelligence 14 (5)
Wisdom 10 (0)
Charisma 7 (-4)

Racial Benefits
+2 to any one ability (* Dexterity)
Skill Focus: Bluff*
+2 to Perception
2 favored classes (fighter and rogue)
Languages: Common, Elven, Dwarven*, Goblinoid* (* from Intelligence bonus)
Immune to magic sleep; +2 bonus against enchantment effects
30 ft base movement
Low-light vision

To Hit +4 (+2/+2 two-weapon fighting)
Hit Points 20 (2nd-level hd 1/2 average (4.5) rounded up instead of rolling, +1 hp for favored class)

Base-Attack Bonus +1
Fortitude save +4
Reflex save +5
Will save +0

Class Abilities
Bonus combat feat
Sneak attack +1d6
Trapfinding

Feats
Two-Weapon Fighting
Weapon Finesse

Skills (including 1 extra for favored class)
Acrobatics +5
Appraise +6
Bluff +6 (two ranks and *skill focus)
Climb +3
Disable Device +5
Escape Artist +5
Intimidate +2
Perception +6 (racial bonus)
Ride +5
Sense Motive +4
Sleight of Hand +5
Stealth +5
Swim +3
Use Magic Device +2

Equipment
Rapier
Dagger
Longbow
Chain shirt (-2 armor check penalty to Str/Dex skills)
Adventuring gear

Jonathan played a bunch of demoes (Bayonetta, Divinity II, and Dante’s Inferno) and wasn’t entirely sold on any of them.

Alex talks about Tiger Woods and EA’s continued relationship, more Brutal Legend, and the Blood Bowl league we’re joining.

Jonathan’s Most Anticipated 2010 Releases

• Transformers: War for Cybertron
• Super Mario Galaxy 2
• Mass Effect 2 (I dunno why they keep calling that random dude Shepard, but there you go.)
• Final Fantasy XIII
• Alan Wake
• Heavy Rain
• The Last Guardian
• Metroid: Other M

Alex’s Most Anticipated 2010 Releases

• R.U.S.E.
• Bioshock 2
• Aliens vs. Predator
• Elemental: War of Magic
• Warhammer 40k: Chaos Rising
• Yakuza 3
• Ghost Recon 4 (or Predator or Future Soldier; no one seems sure, yet)
• Crackdown 2

Dishonorable Mentions:

• Front Mission Evolved
• Dante’s Inferno

Chew written and lettered by John Layman, drawn and colored by Rob Guillory

Tony Chu is a cop with a “gift”. He’s a cibopath, which means he can psychically read an objects past by eating it. And after he’s found gnawing on the face of a dead serial killer he gets recruited by the F.D.A. Of course the F.D.A. is a much more powerful organization, what with poultry being illegal. Seems that several year earlier some kind of bird flu wiped out millions around the world (23 million in the U.S.A.) and so Congress made the sale of poultry illegal…

So Tony is partnered with Mason Savoy one of only two other known cibopaths (the last being a mysterious Russian). Together they’ll travel into the dark underbelly of illegal foods and the criminals that lurk there…

Layman and Guillory have managed to create a new twist on the police procedural genre. And Guillory’s loose and fluid art perfectly balances the bizarre humor and ugly macabre nature of it all…

Speaking of the illustrious Ormagöden-blessed roadie, the podcast starts with a discussion of Christmas loot, and Alex reveals that Brütal Legend is rocking his world. Jonathan is comparatively lootless, though as he explains, there is a good reason for it. Inferno Pool gets a new fan, and Dragon Age gets more Way of the Game love.

Niceties uttered, the Producer and the Holmberg start to dig into a recap of the year in games. Alex pulls out esoteric titles like Kodu Game Lab and Godfather 2, while Jonathan delves into Plants vs. Zombies.  Then they discuss — at length — the implications of future motion controllers like Project Natal and the  PS3 wand-thingy. Layoffs in the gaming industry are highlighted, and a single tear is shed for Duke Nukem.

One thing we didn’t cover in depth is our personal top games of 2009. You’ll have to head to the forums in order to see them. Feel free to comment and post your own!

~The Producer