I was first introduced to the web comic Penny Arcade my senior year of college. Its acerbic and insightful commentary on the video gaming culture industry quickly made a subscriber of me. It was a timely introduction, as I was gestating my senior thesis on media representation of gaming and gamers. Gabe and Tycho allowed me to compile some of their relevant strips into an appendix, offering gamers' perception of media representation of gamers. (They later linked to my thesis from their blog) I appreciate their graciousness, though their cooperation was a small gesture compared to greater contributions to society and gamer image they've since instigated via their non-profit, Child's Play.

Now comes yet another venture for Penny Arcade. It's not unheard of for a popular video game to transition to a comic. But who expected Penny Arcade to go from comic to game?

But today marks the release of On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, the first in a four-chapter series of games based on Penny Arcade. Trailers have been available on YouTube for almost a year, though just as informative was a recent interview with Gabe abd Tycho conducted by Xbox Live's Major Nelson (also available via iTunes). It's a Lovecraftian affair set in the Roaring Twenties with plenty of adventure and RPG elements… exactly what you'd expect from Penny Arcade, no? (No.)

There's no more evaluative experience than hands-on gameplay, so check out these playable demos for your platform of choice:

• Windows
• Macintosh
• Linux

The game is also available from the Xbox Live Arcade. Give it a go … but watch your step — and your fruit.

It's a mere month from today that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots sees its international release. As an exclusive to the least-popular next-gen game console, MGS4 will have a far more limited audience than its more recent predecessors. So to tide over those of us who will be going without, a trip down memory lane seems an appropriate alternative.

Gametrailers.com is currently producing an exhaustive reflection on the history of the venerable Metal Gear series, dating back to its solidless origins. Presented in multiple installments, the first episode is a hardy 20 minutes long and covers only the first two games for both the MSX and NES:

When my brother and I got our NES as a joint birthday gift 21 years ago this month, one of his first additions to our nascent library was Metal Gear. Though not as focused on espionage as its descendants, this progenitor offered challenging gameplay and an intricate world and storyline to decipher and. When Metal Gear Solid came out, the highest praise I was surprised to give was that it often made me feel like I was playing the NES original.

I never cottoned to the NES sequel — the side-scrolling action sequences gummed up the flow for me — but I always knew series mastermind Hideo Kojima considered it mostly apocryphal. The above retrospective reminded me that there was a truer sequel for the MSX that was republished for the PS2 as part of Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence — a more accessible (and legal) alternative to MSX emulation. I passed on Subsistence two years ago, but now a bout of nostalgia prompted me to look for it.

I first looked in Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection, released two months ago for the PS2. This pack compiles all three Metal Gear Solid games into a single $30 package. I checked IGN.com's review to see if the MSX titles were in there … but they are not. Only the core game of Subsistence, which was originally packaged with a second disc of bonus content, is present in The Essential Collection. Consider further that The Essential Collection's version of Metal Gear Solid is the PSOne original, not the superior and remastered GameCube edition The Twin Snakes, and that it does not include the separate disc of VR missions, and there's little reason for a veteran of the series to re-invest in this archive.

Until I'm successful buying Subsistence on eBay, thus granting me a 25-year-old computer game to play in lieu of a new PS3 title, Gametrailers.com offers plenty more reminders of other games I've missed. Part two (of three?) of their Metal Gear retrospective is is predicted to be released this Thursday, with plenty of other histories already available, including for franchises Final Fantasy, Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda.