We've had such terrible experiences in one way or another with so many iterations of EA's Tiger Woods franchise that they've probably scared me off permanently. I was one of the annual purchasers who felt the shock of their next-gen transition, the one that decimated the course roster, but choked it down; it wasn't until it became clear that their mechanism for multiplayer matching and gameplay simply didn't work that I gave up.

You may recall that, early in the beta period for Rise of Immortals, we said mean things about it and then made a comic about it which was also mean. But! Look what they just did!

Well I am hooked on the new new Tiger Woods. It's been quite a few years since I enjoyed a Tiger game and honestly I haven’t liked a golf game this much since the original Links 2004 on the first Xbox. This year’s “Total Swing Control” is awesome in my opinion and a huge improvement over the previous swing mechanics. Your shot is now 100% decided by the skill with which you swing the club. You can still apply some spin once you’re in the air but otherwise you will succeed or fail based on your manipulation of the left analog stick.

We both watched Life 2.0 at different times in the same week, more than a year past when we had meant to see it, because of time and its, like, inelasticity or whatever. I never got around to seeing this film just like I never got around to playing Second Life, the "game" its based on. These are only two examples of things I always meant to do, but did not; I could go on.

I was talking about how you could upgrade your original Polo a couple days ago, and said you should just cut out the logo from the front of the shirt as a proof of purchase. This was mainly because it seemed way cheaper than shipping us the whole shirt! But if you really want to send us the whole shirt, that's no problem; we will make sure it passes into a new stage of life with grace and dignity. This is actually something that will happen! We will really do that. It's not like when your dad tells you that your dog lives on a farm now or some shit when he's actually buried under the new driveway.

I picked up the New Tiger Woods today and I have to say I'm really impressed. I've only played a few rounds but I am really enjoying the changes to the swing mechanic this year. I have not tried the Kinect controls yet but I'll give that a try tonight and let you all know how it goes. Honestly though this is the first Tiger game in a few years that I can see myself investing some serious time into.

First Party has returned, and we're back with the 2.0 version of the polo. What does that mean?

As occasionally happens, our conversation continued after the previous strip, nourished by the rich loam of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. You can get pretty far out there and still remain canonical. I had a bit in there about the pungent natural oils a wookiee paw might secrete, but I removed it because it couldn't be supported by the text. I can't be titillated fully unless my erotic fantasy realms are internally consistent. I've had to disentangle myself from a Trandoshan 3-way ("hrokk'nos") because there was something seriously wrong with their bandoleers.

for a "Han Came First" shirt, which is COMPLETELY YUCK

Word that something called the Florida Family Association had imagined some alternate universe version of Star Wars: The Old Republic was simply too juicy a vittle to resist. They're clearly obsessed with RuPaul, I know that much. Presumably, being a Florida Family Associater involves a tremendous amount of Ru-search. A nontrivial portion of their conceptual argument is grounded in the mental image of a cyborg drag queen version of Darth Vader rendered in such excruciating detail that it is clearly an act of erotic worship as opposed to moral outrage.

You have almost certainly heard of "Retake Mass Effect" by now. One of many grassroots efforts to get a new ending to Mass Effect 3, it’s part community, part online petition, and part (here is where things get complicated) Child's Play Donation Drive. They have stopped taking donations now partly because they basically won and partly because we don't know how to feel about this use of the charity.

You almost certainly know about Draw Something already - like Words With Friends or Hanging With Friends or Inadvertent Castration With Friends, it is an asymmetrical nod to some absolutely commonplace entertainment which modern life has made difficult.

Like any other "interactive experience" from thatgamecompany, it doesn't take a long time to "consume" Journey. This sort of thing used to bother me a lot. I think it's valid to assess how much entertainment you get out of something per dollar, but if it's the only metric it privileges a very specific type of genetic in our discourse. Dear Esther might be a "bad investment" on this classic and utterly pragmatic axis, but it must exist. And we can ensure that it does exist, by being the kind of ecosystem out of the way ideas can grow in.

We got lots of 'em. Lots and lots.

1. Erika and Kenneth redid the PAX Site, and it's awesome. Check it out.

It occurred to us that, like the Council of Elrond, we had the power to unite the mortal races against a common foe. We could just make our own new ending everyone could rally around.