Dueling Analogs » Penny Arcade

All Too Easy

Steve Napierski — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:00:00 +0000

I’m going to climb this already over-saturated genre of gaming webcomic one way or another.

So I got an email from Matt on Saturday from PAX East. Unfortunately, I missed the called. Never found out whether he accidentally butt-dialed me or if he was checking to see if I was at PAX. Or maybe he was just gloating that he was at PAX and I wasn’t. You see the people I follow on Twitter have been tweeting the hell out of going to and being at PAX East for weeks now. It’s everywhere! So I decided to create this comic to make me feel better about the situation. Maybe next year.

I mentioned on Friday that I was going to have a big announcement today. Unfortunately, the final details of what I needed to know haven’t arrived yet. So it will have to wait until Thursday. I’ll just tell you it’s something good and something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time.

Until Thursday…

A PAX upon your house!

Steve Napierski — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:00:00 +0000

So there’s been a bunch of confirmed cases of the swine flu a.k.a. H1N1 a.k.a. Hamthrax reported from this year’s Penny Arcade Expo a.k.a. PAX [source]. Now to the best of my knowledge, no one from PAX has died from this. If they had, I wouldn’t be joking about it.

Now, the guys at Penny Arcade are doing their best to get the information out about what’s going on and what to do. Not sure, but I think Tycho Gabe and Kurtz might have been part of the lot that actually contracted it. Hell, if it means being able to have an excuse to take a day off, I might have contracted it as well… FROM THE INTERNET. Seriously, I’ve heard that once you get the results back of whether or not you have the swine flu you’re already feeling better. It’s like a mild to moderate case of the flu at best. Still, it does suck getting the flu.

We’re trying something new over at BigBoomBomb.com. Custom Rejected Mega Man Villains. Depending on the demand this item may be pulled from the site as early as today. I honestly have no idea how this thing will work. So if you do want one, now’s the time to act.

Lastly, I also added an article about my suggestions for new PEGI content descriptors. I thought I made some pretty good suggestions.

Hands On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness

Steve Napierski — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:06:25 +0000

So I mentioned in the previous comic that I would review Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness [link] at a later time. Well, that later time is now.

Before we begin, you need to know that the Penny Arcade games are episodic…meaning it’s only one small part of larger story. Why? Because the game itself is kind of brief. I’ve seen online where they mention it takes between 5-10 hours to complete… I finished it in just under five hours myself. And that’s with trying to find everything I possibly could and kill it. I know I missed a few things though. As one of the achievements is to find and kill every possible enemy in the game. And I didn’t get it.

Now being an episodic game is just fine. It let’s you know that there’s more to come in a timely fashion (unless it’s from Valve). But since it is just one of many, I feel the price point of 1,600 Microsoft Points (USD $19.99), or on Windows, Mac and Linux for $19.95, is a little high. 1,200 Microsoft Points would have been better. 800 Microsoft Points would have been ideal. But 1,600 still seems a little high. Especially since you have to pay that price over and over again for the latter episodes. But is it worth it? Um, yes…

Yes, I did enjoy the experience. The artwork is beautiful. The dialog is brilliant. And I did enjoy the game/story from start to end (minus a few minor problems: character movement a little sluggish and being at the right place at the right time to interact with objects can be a little tricky at times). It’s an amalgam of the classic point-and-clicks of the ’90s and traditional RPGs. It works well together and the writing makes exploring all options of dialog worth it.

Can I recommend it? For Penny Arcade, fans most definitely. For everyone else, if you like classic RPGs and/or point-and-clicks and good piece of literature… then yes. If classic RPGs and/or point-and-clicks are not your cup of tea… then no. Either way, they’re not hurting. The game itself had the third highest launch on XBLA ever [source]. And they’ll be getting my money for the sequels when they arrive as well.

Million Dollar Arcade

Steve Napierski — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:00:00 +0000

I wouldn’t say “unconditionally.”

Penny Arcade‘s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness came out yesterday for the Xbox LIVE Arcade, Windows, Mac and Linux. And… well… I haven’t played it yet. I meant to download it yesterday from LIVE so that I could discuss the game itself. But alas, fate had a different plan for me. I’ll review it later and post that in the news section. Instead let’s discuss why I want this game to succeed.

Penny Arcade is the godfather of webcomics. I know other well-known webcomics came before them. But Penny Arcade changed the rules. They took a format that was only seen by few and made it global enterprise (with lots of credit going to Robert Khoo‘s marketing prowess). The number one webcomic in the world. Largest video game convention in North America. And now their own video game: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. And if this game succeeds it can send the message that webcomics can make profitable premises for video games. Much like PvP and MegaTokyo did for print.

Kudos, Tycho and Gabe. This is definitely an awesome accomplishment.

What if Penny Arcade…

Steve Napierski — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:00:00 +0000

There’s not really much I can say about Penny Arcade that I didn’t already say in this previous comic/posting.Still… Penny Arcade shows us just how much a webcomic can accomplish if you are willing to work for it. They’re not raising the bar. They’re fraggin’ it and sending the violated remains to its mommy.

I’ve gotten numerous emails with suggestions of webcomics to do What if…?s for… like The Perry Bible Fellowship or Scary Go Round. Even though those are great webcomics, they’re not gaming webcomics (mentioned that requirement in the first one I did). Because of this self-imposed stipulation, I only foresee three more on the horizon. Which ones? You’ll have to wait and see…

Don’t forget to stop by on Friday for the second installment of The Miis.