Nova Phase

This weekend I was sent an advanced preview of the first two issue of Slave Labor’s comic Nova Phase.  I hadn’t heard anything about the book before I opened my email, so I didn't know what to expect.  Any book that lists Cowboy Bebop, The Rifleman, and Snatcher as influences immediately has my attention.  When I opened the files and started reading I wondered why this didn't exist earlier.  Nova Phase is a lot of fun. 

This isn’t a comic book, this is an extended cutscene from an early 90's video game and I mean that in the very best way possible.  Written by Matthew Ritter with art  by Adam Elbatimy Nova Phase mixes a space western story with retro video game style art.  It stars a bounty hunter who trusts too easily.  She gets involved with a rag tag group of adventures who are on the run from an evil army.  I've only read the first two issues but I’m hooked on the series.  If you grew up playing those early video games the style is going to hit you right in the nostalgia.  It’s too early for me to say how deep the story is going to get, but it has that madcap rollercoaster of action feel to it.  I called it fun earlier and I meant it.

The first two issues will be available on January 15^th through Comixology.  If you prefer the feel of paper between your fingertips the first two issues will be collected into one issue and will be on sale in February through the SLG website and Amazon.  The rest of the issues will be continue to be released first on Comixology and then collected into print.  

All Swine’s Day 2014

This is my yearly reminder to tell you about the official holiday of That F’ing Monkey, All Swine’s Day!  This will be the fourth year I’ve been celebrating All Swine’s so I’m pretty excited to see there are people already excited for it.  So when is it?  What is it?  All Swine’s Day is the first Sunday of the New Year; so this year it is on January 5^th.  It’s a celebration of friends who are close enough to be family and a send off of holiday gluttony. 

The holiday originated with me realizing that as I get older, family and work obligations make it harder to spend time with friends during the holidays.  I picked a day that was close to the holidays, but should be far enough removed that most people no longer have those other commitments.  Since so many people talk about dieting after the holidays I figured this would be one last indulgence before everyone starts trying to work off those holiday pounds.  Because it is a bit of a pig-out, the day picked up a porky name and menu.

I’ve served the same thing each year.  I make bacon taco shells in the oven and then have things like eggs, potatoes, ham, and sausage to fill the shells with.  Obviously if you choose to celebrate this wonderful day you can pick your own menu.  After everyone’s eaten we usually break out the Cards Against Humanity, but the important thing is you’re getting to spend time with people you may have been too busy to see.

All Swine’s Day has become one of my favorite days of the year, hopefully it will become one of yours too.

Star Wars: X-Wing Miniature Game

Brandon and I text each other probably every other week about a game that we’d be buying if the two of us lived closer together.  Honestly I’ve been saving a lot of money by looking at a game and saying to myself, “I don’t really have anyone near me that would want to play this.”  When I was doing some Christmas shopping this Sunday I ran into a large store display of the X-Wing miniature game.  I haven’t been paying much attention to the game, but the display stopped me in my tracks.

The game is put out by Fantasy Flight and has really been gaining a lot of momentum lately.  The game is on its third wave of expansions so there are numerous different Rebel and Imperial ships to add to your dog fights.  Each expansion includes more than the ship model, it also includes things like the tokens and cards needed to use that ship in combat.  I’ve watched enough people playing it at this point that I really want to jump in.  I haven’t yet, but I’m pretty sure that at least the starter box will be coming home with me at some point. 

Of course I’m strange I don’t really want a bunch of the other ships, I’d just want to field 12 X-wings.  You should probably expect more updates about the X-wing miniature game in 2014.

Star Wars: Attack Squadrons

Some of the best Star Wars video game belonged to the X-Wing vs. TIE series.  It is probably one of the reasons I love the X-Wing fighter so much.  So I was very surprised to find out that a new game is currently taking submissions for beta testing.  You can go to www.starwarsattacksquadrons.com and sign up for the beta. 

The game is going to be a free to play and features 16 player dogfights.  They already list game modes as Free For All, Team Dogfight, and Base Defense.  The game is set to include ship customization, team play, rewards, and regular updates.  Since this is a free to play game, you can all but guarantee that it will also include all sorts of items that will cost real money.

I’m going to try not to get too excited for this, but I have already signed up for the Beta.  There will be more information on Attack Squadrons as it becomes available.

Guinness Red Harvest

If you noticed there haven’t been a lot of Hangover Thursdays lately.  There is a pretty simple reason for that, I just haven’t had much time to go out and drink.  I also had such a stockpile of beer in my refrigerator I didn’t need to go searching for anything new.  So when I finally went back to my friendly neighborhood liquor store I was pretty surprised to see that Guinness has a fall seasonal on the shelves.  The beer I’m talking about is Guinness’ Red Harvest.  It’s a pretty ominous sounding title and I’m a sucker for things like that so of course I picked up a four-pack.

Red Harvest Stout is billed as a smooth and alluring stout.  The package I found was a four pack of 14.9oz cans.  The new stout has an ABV of 4.1% compared to the 4.2% of regular Guinness.  While it pours the same creamy head of a Guinness, Red Harvest looks much different once everything has settled.  The familiar black is replaced with a dark red.  The taste is a bit sweeter than that of a regular stout, in fact it feels more like someone poured a mixture of a Guinness and an Irish Red.  If you want a hearty stout, this isn’t the beer you want.  If you want a something along the lines of a Half and Half this isn’t a bad way to go.  I’d rate it as an average beer.  There are better options out there, but you could do far worse.

Incoming Holidays!!

We are quickly getting to the end of the year.  With that brings all the normal holiday craziness.  I’ll be rushing to finish everything I need to accomplish at my real job so I can take some time off.  Next week should be pretty normal but after that updates will get more sporadic.  After all I have to start getting things ready for Christmas, New Years, and All Swine’s Day.  If you’re new to the site, there will be more about our favorite holiday next week. 

I also wanted to thank anyone who commented here, sent emails, or texts about the family situation going on here.  Without going into too much detail; things are headed in a positive direction.  The situation is far from over but it’s better. 

I did end up downloading Starbound.  It’s a dangerous, dangerous game.  I’m pretty sure once it finished installing someone snuck into my house and knocked me unconscious.  When I came to hours had passed and my little monkey person was hanging out in the underground house I had built out of cobblestone blocks.  I can see myself losing a lot of time to this one.  I think I need to check out another planet though; my starting one is inhabited by extremely aggressive, fire-breathing birds. 

Starbound Trailer

I’ve been following Starbound for a while now.  I haven’t really gone down the rabbit hole playing games like Terraria or Minecraft but something about Starbound really struck me when I first say it.  The game is in its Beta right now and YouTube is full of people already posting “Let’s Play” videos.  What I’ve seen looks impressive and I wish I had the time to jump into it myself. 

Pick your race, travel to different planets, and then explore at your own pace.  There are monsters to fight, items to create, and after that you’re pretty much left to your own devices.  What to build a giant castle?  Sure you can do that.  You can go on dungeon crawls and find all sorts of treasure too.  Take on giant boss fights?  They’re in there!  What you do in the game is really up to you. 

Don’t just listen to me though.  Check out the trailer that was released last week.  You can see exactly what the game is capable of.  I’m sure I’ll be spending some time on Starbound soon.  If you do get into the game, remember it is in Beta.  A lot of the streams of it I’ve seen have had random crashes in it, but that’s pretty much what Beta is for.