New Comic: Applied Scheduling

Tycho: Now that I've finally got a dependable crew in the new Battlefield: Bad Company - and a bandolier stuffed with the fruits of my progress - it's time to let everyone who relies upon me down. Again. If there is a decision matrix that determines what game is going to be played, Final Fantasy exists at a point somewhat beyond that machinery.  The fact that I wasn't able to fully enjoy Twelve still haunts me to this day, because the story behind all that stuff I couldn't choke down really worked when someone else was playing it.  Good taste has ...

New Comic: The Straub Factor

Tycho: I can't say enough nice things about Kris Straub. I know this because I once attempted to do so, to reach that theorized limit, and after almost fourteen solid hours of compliments I think we both felt a little weird about the entire process. He had begun texting openly at that point, and I had been reduced to effusion about a mutinous stitch in his garment which was jutting - "capriciously," I suggested - just above his left sleeve. He has decided to live near to us now, blessedly near, and even works out of the office some days. Without ...

Gabe: There is a new episode of the PA series available today. This one kicks off a two parter in which we explore the hiring process here at Penny Arcade. We recently brought on a new associate designer and we had the camera guys here for the entire ordeal. I'll admit that this episode is a lot more serious than some of the previous ones. I think it's sort of tense and even uncomfortable but it's honest and I really like that. Oh, and before you start emailing me, no I will not tell you "the joke". -Gabe out

New Comic: The Opposite Of Poker Face

Tycho: I feel good! I saw some hummingbirds courting earlier, and it assured me of life's essential continuity. Gabriel - yes, our Gabriel! - has been playing Pandemic, entirely unbidden by me, and wanted to know where else he could go with cooperative mechanics. I recommended Shadows Over Camelot, a game which he seems to enjoy though most devoted tabletop gamers have long-since discarded it. He wasn't a Battlestar Fan, or I might have recommended that; Fury Of Dracula is more symmetrical, and isn't quite as devoted to the co-operative thesis. I considered recommending Arkham Horror, but... Actually, I did recommend ...

Gabe: Tycho told me to read a book the other day and I told him to tear out all of the pages and shove each one individually up his butt-hole. He didn't do that. Instead he opened the book to chapter near the beginning and told me to read just that chapter, only about four pages. I flipped the book over and read the back. “THE NAME OF THE WIND won't just impress longtime fantasy fans; it will absolutely blow them away -- an unprecedented, utterly breathtaking storytelling tour de force.” I kept reading things like the greatest story told in ...