It’s that time of year again. Matt is off to get his yearly dose of some disease. Go and meet him at PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) this weekend in Seattle, WA he’ll probably be at a table playing games and sharing needles.

Well now that I’m getting back to writing these things, I suppose I should keep up on the blogs.  Hope you guys enjoyed Don’s stint as full time writer/cartoonist.  Unfortunately during the move we really didn’t have the time to get our heads together much on the scripts.  Pax is coming up this weekend, hopefully I’ll have a few Pax based strips for you in the near future.  If you want to contact me during the show as you know I’m @straightfacing on twitter.  I’ll try to check it semi often, for the most part I plan on hitting the board game areas, I want to take a look at DnD Essentials and check out some fun board games with some from friends.  You’re welcome to join us.

Even if you don’t play Starcraft you may know someone who does.  These people are constantly talking about build order and strategies. If they aren’t doing that, they are watching recordings of previous games and maybe even listening to some sort of strategy guide.  If none of these technologies are available, they will be using anything their minds can turn into unit representation, movement and counter strategies. To those people who have to live through this, it will be over eventually… or just hope it does. For the sake of the of the children… if they aren’t used as pawns in this high speed chess game already, right?

If you don’t want to read about the starcraft OMG moment, skip the next paragraph.

After getting a chance to play through the Starcraft sequel a bit more, I’ve come to the conclusion that as long as Blizzard (the company that makes Starcraft and Warcraft) keeps broadening the reasons to play a game their audience is going to expand more and global domination will be in their future. This game not only keeps the solid base of the original game, but also uses a larger net for getting a wider range of types of gamers involved. If you are into the old school space invaders there is an in-game arcade machine to play that has this type of game. If you love making goals for yourself there are preset achievements/goals set for you to play the game a specific way to earn either decals, insignias, trophies, badges and character portraits. For the single player, there are different difficulty settings with various goals on top of your regular story mission, in addition there are hidden achievements that you can stumble upon. The single player campaign is also restricted to a linear path, you are allowed to choose your missions. You are also given choices on permanent upgrades that you can use throughout your campaign. The multi-player ranking system now makes sure that each team you’ve grouped up with gets ranked appropriately so you don’t have to worry about your ranking getting affected playing with your noob friends or uber awesome friends. One final bit about those concerned about online play, it is FREE. What more could you ask for?

In my eyes, the re-playability and capability with friends determines a games worth. This game definitely has high marks for both of these categories and if I haven’t converted you to try the game out, maybe the next sequel will have features similar to the SIMs and also include gambling and fantasy leagues along with free Beer Me services to round out the remainder of the male audience.

If you are a bug, you’d find my skin delicious. I don’t know what it is that attracts bugs to just bite me all over and unfortunately for me I’m allergic to their bites. From dust mites to mosquitoes, these bite marks swell up and some even puke up serious grossness and are ridiculously itchy. I could be wrong, but this is probably the worst way to become a hunchback and then again there probably isn’t an easy way to become one.

Unfortunately for Matt and myself, I really haven’t had time to work out the scripts he has written or just hashing out ideas. Last Monday’s and today’s are just my stab at writing and drawing. We’ll get back to our regular Matt writing and me just drawing the strip soon. Let me know if you’re dying inside that Matt is cheering on the sidelines with a short skirt. If you ask nicely, Matt may even provide pics.

I’ll be heading to Seattle for a short vacation. I hope to have something done tomorrow for Monday’s post, but if I don’t finish it before I leave I’ll still post what I have and upload the complete version after I get back.

When Matt moves, only the writing can be affected. When I move or do some sort of unorthodox activities, the comic may take a backseat in terms of time management. It is currently 2 am and got my computer setup around midnight and now I’ve gotten a chance to just straight draw to the computer as my scanner has yet to be setup. If you haven’t guess it by now, the cat is out of the bag and I just spent the last 4 days moving. How much stuff can you accumulate in 5 years at the same place? Apparently a lot. Lots of “important” and “essential” stuff made the move. This strip wasn’t written or approved by Matt, but it definitely gives you a glimpse of actual events that transpire in my life. For those wondering, yes I do have turtles and yes I also have dinosaurs that do my bidding. Also, sorry for the art. I blame the turtles, they don’t have opposable thumbs.

After so many years of moving, I never want to do it again. The worst move is probably one where you move to the next building over, primarily because you think that it should be easy and you won’t need a truck. Unfortunately, the thought backfires when you’ve spent more back and forth trips than you’ve ever run a marathon. “Oh I’ll just carry everything over, piece by piece.” I think everyone has some weird or strange moving stories, unless you’ve never moved. What’s your worst moving experience?

PAX is coming at the end of the month.  I will be there.  I assume I’ll be spending the lion’s share of my time in the the board game lending library.  If you’d like to game with us or just stop by either hit me up on my twitter @straightfacecomics or send me an email matt @ straightfacecomics.com.  People ask me if I’ll be getting a table at a given con, I hope to never get a table at PAX, the experience there is too damn fun.  It’s not so much a convention as it is a geek playground.  For those of you who have been to a con, most have a lot to look at and experience, but PAX has a lot to do, it has the traditional panels, but also it’s got Wizards of the Coast run DnD groups, a board game lending library., a bring your own pc gaming area, the mother fucking Omegathon, even an area full of bean bag chairs to play your DS/PSP at.  Also thanks to Sara for inspiring today’s comic.

The Devil is not written or directed by M. Night.  They slapped the name on it to sell some tickets.  The big problem with that, is he hasn’t made anything decent since Unbreakable.  Lady in the water was watchable as was the beginning of signs then it turns to aliens in the water and you make an angerface.  I have a confession, I didn’t like The Sixth Sense.  Once you get past the twist there’s not much movie there.

I wish I could say that this was the first time that Don has drawn his own ass.  At least he wasn’t airbrushing hair on mine this time. I’m sorry for the short updates recently.  Usually I give you guys the heads up on what’s going on with me or, at least, how my recent game night went. Sorry to say, there hasn’t been a recent game night recently.  I’ve moved up to Northern California recently with Tina, she was promoted and I am currently her pool boy/chef.  As we are getting settled here and are on a strict budget until I get some sort of gainful employment, this means no going out. And we only have a couple of friends up here, so in house stuff is slim to none.  I’ve been playing a lot of Age of Conan lately but I don’t really think me revisiting old games typically makes for a spicy blog sammich.  Hopefully in the near future we’ll have more to talk about.

Two things: buy your Star Craft 2 it’s pretty amazing, but don’t leave it on the fucking startup screen it will melt your goddamn video card. Yes you, with the sweaty balls, that bought their 500-hundred-dollar card that from the space heater section at Lowes. Link to article with fix.

Please welcome our newest super hero character to Straight Face Comics.  Rape Falcon Will Join the ranks of Ricardo Montedjinn, Cream Man, and the Can Opener, and of course Mortimer the Brontosaurus (if you think psychology is super).