Some people love it, some people hate it. For those of you that hate it, I will not be using the new style anymore on Penny Arcade. I love it but it just isn’t PA. For those of you that like it, I will be using the new style for Over Easy and any other side projects we might do. So it’s not like you will never see me draw this way again.

It's fine and everything, but there's all these people out there playing Master of Orion III, and none of them are named Tycho. Or Jerry.

There's a multiplayer beta out now for IGI2, and it's pretty neat. The most easy way to describe it would be "an amplified Counterstrike." The most difficult way to describe it would be without using adjectives.

This one is mostly about cats. Mostly.

Oh, I think Lucasarts and Verant are as worried as anybody else about their game turning out like Everquest. That's why they brought in new blood and have entertained some very forward thinking play concepts.

A few people have asked to see a larger version of the middle panel from today’s strip, minus the test box. So here it is.

I got a lot of really good responses to my idea for an official Penny Arcade Guilty Gear XX tourney here in the Seattle area. At first I thought it would just be a local thing but some of you have emailed saying you are willing to make the trip from as far away as Southern California. It seems to me like this could be a shit hot event if we can pull it off. Once I have more info like when and where it will be I will create a special website just for the tourney. I am also going to try and get in touch with the guys over at Shoryuken.com and see if they can offer some advice since they have a lot of experience setting up these kinds of events.

I thought that I had uploaded the comic, but I also thought I was a ninja for a time, which culminated in a grievous leg injury. The strip is up now, for reals this time.

I was talking with Batjew a bit this morning. He is a huge fan of the Guilty Gear series as well. It looks like we are both going to order ourselves one of these fighting sticks today. It’s hard to find a good fighting stick for the PS2. I’ll let you know how this one performs once I get it.

Last night everyone decided to watch some French romantic comedy. I have a hard time sitting through these kinds of movies when they are in English so I escaped into the computer room about half way through. It was right after you find out that the girl and the boy like each other but right before the misunderstanding that makes them think they don't like each other.

Over at Gabe's yesterday, I mentioned that Guilty Gear XX was one of the most complete, satisfying experiences in any genre. Thinking back on it, that may have been hyperbole. I was drunk with victory at the time I said it, so that might be connected.

I talked to the lady from Entertainment Weekly again and this time I didn’t hang up on her. She says the article on PA should appear in the issue that hits stands next Friday. That’s one week from today. I don’t know how robust it will be but some people asked about it so I thought I would share the info I had.

Kiko and his lovely wife are visiting us this week all the way from San Diego. The cool thing about having Kiko here is that he loves 2D fighting games as much as I do. Sure Tycho will sit down and play a fighter with me for a few minutes but I know his heart isn't in it. I don't know exactly when he stopped liking fighting games but I know the last fighter I can remember us both playing together in a very serious way was Tekken 3. Fighting games continued to come out after that and he never really seemed interested. The more I think about it the more I think that after Tekken 3 aliens may have taken the Tycho I know back to their mother ship and replaced him with some kind of mandroid. Sort of like Last Starfighter only I doubt he's off saving the galaxy. They probably just needed him for some kind of intergalactic Iron Chef show where human is the secret ingredient. He always did look especially juicy.

We only know two people who don't live within a half an hour of us, and with Kiko's arrival a couple days ago they've both been here in the last three weeks. We have decided to celebrate this event as we celebrate all other things, which is to say, play videogames. We also play videogames when we are not celebrating. I'm not really unhappy with the system, I'm just making a note of it.

I was absentmindedly reading Blizzard's interview with the Ghost team when I saw something that brought me into the present moment.

I got a lot of mail asking me to respond to Scott’s rant over at PvP. So I went over and read it this afternoon and I wasn’t really surprised. I am sure you are looking for me to do some kind of point counterpoint shit but that’s not going to happen. Instead of coming away from his rant upset I am mostly just disappointed. See we have had a sort of friendly rivalry with Scott for something like four years now. We’ve chatted on the phone a few times and I met him in person once or twice. The thing that always stood out about Scott to me is just how much alike we are. You wouldn’t know it if you only read his comic strip but Scott is a son of a bitch just like me. We both enjoy saying things that piss people off. He cusses like a sailor and talks shit about everyone and their mother. And I think that is why we have always gotten along pretty well. What I never understood though is why we hardly ever see that side of Scott in his comic strips. I think that Kurtz is at his best when he is being satirical. His parodies of other webcomics are still some of the best work he has ever done. When Scott actually puts some of himself into his comics the stuff he comes up with is really special. I’m not saying I don’t like PvP, I think it’s generally a pretty good read. I enjoy the occasional fart joke just as much as the next guy, but It’s just that when I see a rant like this from Scott it reminds me what a fucking firebrand he really is. Sure I think everything he wrote is total bullshit but that doesn’t change the fact that I respect him for saying it. He knew it would piss people off, he said it anyway, and I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that son of a bitch cracks a little smile every time he gets another hate mail about it. Then I look at his comic strip and it just feels so watered down in comparison. I know you like to cuss Scott, I’ve heard you do it. Just write shit for God’s sake. I mean it’s not like we don’t know what S#!% is anyway. Just spell it the fuck out man. I know you have opinions. I’ve heard you say some stuff about Keenspot that is not only vicious as fuck but balls on accurate. Scott is probably the finest cartoonist in the medium of online cartoons right now. He can outdraw anyone else in the game. Many of you never saw the artwork he did on his other comic strip Wedlock but he had something fucking magical going on. All I’m saying is, why not put a little of that piss and vinegar you show in your rants and in real life into your comic strip. If he combined the razor sharp wit that I know he has with the raw artistic talent we’ve all seen the man would be unstoppable. Like Juggernaut, only he wouldn’t have a suit or anything. I mean he could get a suit but he wouldn’t really need it. It would just be like for show.