The Halloween 2015 set has entered the Pin Vault, and a terrifying newcomer has arrived as though from a seasonally appropriate GRAVE:

In the same manner that Childe Roland must occasionally sidle up to a Dark Tower, sometimes you gotta go to a place you rarely go and see someone you haven't seen for awhile to get something you need.

At the very top of the Google Doc we write strips in rests a crown of potential comics, suitors who want only for you to love them. They want to be clasped; brought up the the big leagues.

So much about a given Sonic game turns on whether you accept that "Sonic Games" constitute their own space with their own relative scoring system, or if they are part of the overall body of work we call videogames. Context matters also; in the same way that a brackish puddle may provide some respite from the heat of the desert, there's things I'll play when there's nothing else, or shows I'll watch only on a plane. The flight to PAX Aus, for example, has a unique desperation around hour twelve that I'm willing to stuff literally any media into.

Puttin' it back up, to see if anybody missed it. Here's what you know:

I don't know; once we started writing about it, it was hard to stop. And then it got into some PKD type shit about digital consciousness…? This is basically what I want to do all the time.

Here's what you know:

This is exactly how I play these games, in general. I'm not, you know, proud of it, that's just the pattern. But Horizon might break me out of it, just because it doesn't have the same segmented arc at all. It's not race/menu/race/menu. It's an open world game where your body is a car, and what they've got me doing in there is far, far more varied than I was expecting. I also wasn't aware of developer Playground Games' pedigree - take a look at the Wikipedia page, which is essentially a spreadsheet of every racing game developer you've ever loved. I learned that from somebody in the channel of the stream we did, actually. We played some on "the Twitch," which gave me a chance to see how much farther along in this CarPG continuum Gabriel was than myself.

The big bad monster in the Thornwatch print and play is the Swamp Choir. I thought I'd share some of the progress pics I took while I was drawing it.

There are a couple opportunities to PAX it up with our partner ReedPOP. Here are two jobs in Norwalk, Connecticut, which you should absolutely check out:

Gabe is playing an Xbox game at home, alone, and without compulsion - specifically, Forza Horizon 3. I don't know what caused this to happen, but it's happening and we have to deal with that. Specifically, I have to deal with that.

I never waver on whether a computer is the best place to play games; that's a given for me. Consoles will always be like a weird friend of Gabriel's I am forced to endure. Where I do occasionally wander, where my position does occasionally vibrate ever so slightly, is how much I like engaging in Satanic rituals as a prefix to my leisure activities.

I like to give Tycho a hard time about PC games but I actually spent some time this weekend playing on mine. I do not have a dedicated place to play PC games and I think that's part of the problem. I spent some time this weekend working on resolving this problem. For my birthday on Sunday I got a Razer Turret. It's a little wireless keyboard that is built into a lap desk. It also comes with a mouse to use along with it and both of them fit into a slick charging station when not in use. I hooked my laptop up to the TV and sat back with the keyboard and mouse on the couch. I played some Battlerite and a few other Steam games I've been meaning to try. I really enjoyed playing this way as opposed to sitting at a desk in front of a little screen. I was super impressed with the Turret as well. The keyboard feels great and the magnetic mouse pad is so smart. I know there's lots of solutions out there for playing PC games from the comfort of your couch but I played with the Turret a bunch this weekend and came away really impressed.

I'm working through Destiny's Rise of Iron campaign, as one does, shoveling savory collectibles directly into my craw. I saw Gabe in orbit last night and thought it might be nice to wrap things up with another human; what wasn't immediately clear at the time was that he was upstairs watching Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and not actually there. Our ships wobbled in intimate proximity for a long while; no words were said. I feel like there's a metaphor here. Or maybe a literal?

I had played Paladins at an earlier point in its development, a couple months ago I believe, and while Overwatch was definitely front of mind as a character shooter for some reason I pulled something else out of it - like a mad sommelier warbling about "catcher's mitts" and "seafoam," I was catching hints of WoW Battlegrounds, Tribes, and peppercorn. Because of my sophisticated palate, you see. Grob Grob has another position, the position of people generally, which is that Paladins is Overwatch not with the serial numbers filed off, but with the serial numbers worn at a jaunty angle like a hat.

I don't know about you all, but my family had a blast playing Rise of Iron last night. I had to make Kara promise not to do anymore story missions until I get home from work. My son Gabe was worried and asked if his Mom and I planned on doing quests after he went to bed. It was clear he thought this would be unfair. I smiled, messed up his hair and said "of course we are son."