Penny Arcade: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 2

If you liked the previous episode of Penny Arcade: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness then you will like this one, which means if you like funny games set in a steampunk-like 19th century fighting giant robots with fists, guns and hoes and has no replay value, then---yeah.

Compared to the previous incarnation of this game, this game has a lot more swearing. A lot of utterances of the word fuck. It also has slightly trickier puzzles, with one section involving the twisting of hexagonal pieces to make pathways through the brain to prevent insanity.

Like the previous incarnation of the game, it has your hapless custom character in search of a home, accompanying Gabe and Tycho in a fight against such foes as obnoxious lovers, rich people and fruit fucking robots.

It's certainly funny, with quests to obtain a million dollars so you can buy a bracelet and fights where your enemies hit you with such attacks like throwing a box of chocolates at you. I guess the only down part about it that it has the pitfall of any adventure-based game with humor attached to it in that it doesn't have much replay value at all. Sure, there's an option to play the game in "insane mode" for secret items and such, but really, when you go through it once and have heard all the jokes, there isn't much incentive to go through it again. Also, the quest should take you about ten hours to complete, so the game isn't very long to begin with.

It's available for PC, Mac, Linux and XBOX Live for $15. Pick it up if you want to be entertained for a short while.

Downloadable Content

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins at San Diego Comic-Con 2004

Downloadable Content is a sporadically-posted Podcast that documents the creative writing process between Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, the driving duo force behind Penny Arcade.

I would like to say that if you like Penny Arcade you will like this podcast, but that is not accurate. I think it's more accurate that if you like video games and have friends who like to discuss video games at length, and wish everyone was funnier, then you will enjoy this podcast.

A lot of this podcast centers around Mike and Jerry writing their comic. They put a lot of care into the writing; they take the whole thing seriously. They discuss whether they've used jokes too many times, how to make what they've written better, what to cut out, what not to cut out. They don't stop working on the writing until they are satisfied that what they have written is the best they can do. Interesting stuff.

The rest of the podcast often centers around (shock) video games. The podcasts come out sporadically, so naturally the more recent ones have more relevant content. Since the podcasts go back to 2006, you may find them talking about things such as "I don't think the Playstation 3 is going to come out in November" and "I don't know what they are thinking with the name 'Wii.'"

Beyond the comic-creating process and video games one gets to listen in to Mike and Jerry discuss such things as personal ideosyncracies, such as how Mike will stab through the candies a See's candy box with a knife in order to find the few candies that he enjoys and then throws out the rest, which he says is around "Ninety percent."

You can also hear about Jerry and how, when he was in a band, he had to be on the same bill as a band named "Anal Cunt." Thus followed a long discussion as to why the band had picked that name and how they must have trouble selling t-shirts. Stories like these are pure entertainment.

So download the podcast and enjoy. If it is the sort of thing you like.