If you picked up the PlayStation 3 version of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two recently, buyer beware: folks further along than you are claiming their games-saves are being corrupted.

Reports from readers, as well as the PlayStation Forums and Penny Arcade forums, are pointing to games saved during the World’s Fair segment of the episode as the most problematic. That problem? An inability to load your end-game save.

It appears that the Hothead Games team is already aware of the issue affecting the new Penny Arcade Adventures episode and is “looking into this.” With the holidays mucking up the work schedule, we’d say it’s probably best to take a holiday from your game progress and hold tight for a patch.

Rather than selling them on eBay like any sensible person, the fools are putting them up for grabs on this very Internet. To stand a chance of winning, just go to the forum link below and post a reply in the thread – 5 random posters will be plucked from an imaginary hat on Halloween.

Please note, though – most of the thread is made up of one line ‘gimme’ posts. As Kotaku readers we trust you can do better than that. Make us proud.

Penny Arcade Adventures Giveaway! [Evil Avatar]

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two will be out this time next week for $US14.95 on computer platforms or 1200 Microsoft points. Hit the jump to check out the Xbox Live Arcade version’s achievements while I get all excited.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two

Achievement One (SECRET)

Achievement Two
Name: Millionaire
Description: Earn $1,000,000.
Gamerscore: 15

Achievement Three
Name: Moving On Up
Description: Find the key to the Riverbrook Apartments.
Gamerscore: 15

Achievement Four
Name: Arsonist
Description: Destroy a building with fire.
Gamerscore: 15

Achievement Five
Name: Endgame
Description: Find a ticket to the World’s Fair.
Gamerscore: 15

Achievement Six
Name: Can’t Nobody Hold You Down
Description: Complete Episode Two.
Gamerscore: 15

Achievement Seven
Name: Steel Cannibal
Description: Fully upgrade all party member’s weapons.
Gamerscore: 20

Achievement Eight
Name: Lab Assistant
Description: Complete all Bonus Missions.
Gamerscore: 15

Achievement Nine
Name: Reluctant Hero
Description: Refuse to join Gabe and Tycho. At first.
Gamerscore: 5

Achievement Ten
Name: The Strength To Rule
Description: Achieve level 30 with all party members.
Gamerscore: 20

Achievement Eleven
Name: POWER SURRRGE!
Description: Max out one party member’s hit counter.
Gamerscore: 25

Achievement Twelve
Name: Pack Rat Strikes Back
Description: Win a fight using only items.
Gamerscore: 25 LAUNCH DATE SET FOR EPISODE TWO OF PENNY ARCADE GAME

The Comedic RPG-Adventure Romp Turns Spooky In Time for Halloween

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Oct. 22, 2008 – Grab your gardening tool and watch out for giant spiders, out-of-control asylum patients and wacko sanitarium administrators! Hothead Games announced today that Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two will be available via Xbox LIVE® Arcade and via the Greenhouse digital distribution platform (www.playgreenhouse.com) for Windows®, Mac® and Linux® next Wednesday, October 29.

The madcap Penny Arcade experience continues in Episode Two of the RPG-Adventure romp! Rejoin Gabe and Tycho and go crazy in a whole new episode with more puzzles, areas to explore and levels to gain, all while moving ever closer to solving the sinister mystery hidden deep in the heart of New Arcadia. Players can jump right in with a fresh character and new customisation options or carry over their looks and stats from Episode One. Plus, new difficulty settings allow gamers to play it safe or go insane, battling bigger and badder enemies than ever before.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two will also boast music from The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, a Canadian rock band dedicated to promoting the literature of H. P. Lovecraft and a recent performer at the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo gaming festival. The song, entitled “Some Things Man Was Not Meant To Know,” will enhance the game’s closing credits.

“This game is all about the strange and insane world of New Arcadia and the Penny Arcade-style humor to be found in it,” said Hothead CEO Vlad Ceraldi. “With the cool gameplay additions we’ve made, including longer gameplay, completion tracking and difficulty settings; extra Lovecraftian overtones in the world and music; and the perfect time of the year, everything just came together.”

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two is expected to offer players six to ten hours of gameplay, and is priced at $14.95 for the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions on Greenhouse and at 1200 Microsoft points via Xbox LIVE® Arcade. The game has been rated “M” for Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board for all platforms.

Along with the big announcement, Hothead has released a list of trophies you’ll be able to unlock in the game, which we’ve hidden somewhere after the jump. Can you find them in time, or is the world doomed?

On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One Trophy List – Yeah, I suppose that was a bit too easy.

Trophy One
Name: Stray Cat
Description: Earn a support character.
Grade: Bronze (15 Points)

Trophy Two
Name: All Together Now
Description: Do a Team-Up attack involving all three party
members.
Grade: Bronze (15 Points)

Trophy Three
Name: A Winner Is You
Description: Successfully complete the first episode.
Grade: Silver (30 Points)

Trophy Four
Name: Nine Lives
Description: Kill an enemy using the feline support
character Thomas Kemper.
Grade: Bronze (15 Points)

Trophy Five
Name: Pack Rat
Description: Find and collect all of the hidden collectibles
scattered around the game.
Grade: Bronze (15 Points)

Trophy Six
Name: Steel Devils
Description: Find and destroy all the robots in the game.
Grade: Silver (30 Points)

Trophy Seven
Name: Pacifist
Description: Win one battle using only counterattacks.
Grade: Bronze (15 Points)

Trophy Eight
Name: Silent, But Deadly
Description: Beat the final Boss without healing.
Grade: Silver (30 Points)

Trophy Nine
Name: Immortal
Description: Play and win the game without allowing a
character to die during combat.
Grade: Gold (90 Points)

Trophy Ten
Name: Fight ‘Em With Items
Description: Use every combat item at least once in the
game.
Grade: Bronze (15 Points)

Trophy Eleven
Name: Level Awesome
Description: Get all party members to Level 15.
Grade: Bronze (15 Points)

Trophy Twelve
Name: Clean Sweep
Description: Kill all enemies in Episode 1.
Grade: Silver (30 Points)

I think that it will [shift into a Hollywood-type model]. And I think that, ultimately, it has to. And I think we will shift to that model, but I think that there are a couple of things that have to happen before we really shift to that. One is that I think technology has to settle down a little bit. I think technology is moving forward really rapidly, and part of what a lot of teams do is exploring new technology, and I think that’s kind of hard to do with an ad hoc thing.

I think the other thing that’s going to have to happen – and this is a really big one – is we’re going to have to become unionized. Because I don’t think that you’re going to be able to grab all of these freelance people when you need them if there isn’t some kind of a union structure that’s over the top of them. You can’t really have a bunch of animators just floating around from job to job with nothing in between.

So I think there’s going to have to be a lot more structure, and I think that’s going to have to come in the form of unions – which, you know, I don’t know that I really agree with that; I think unions bring a lot of bad things to gaming, but I think they’re going to be necessary for us to move into that Hollywood model.

Interesting interview with a lot of content; worth plowing through if you’re in the mood for some interesting reading.

Spanking Death: Ron Gilbert Goes Episodic… And Loves It [Gamasutra]

For those after a taste of the retro, Metal Arms: Glitch in the Machine and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory can be downloaded from the Oz selection of Xbox Originals.

Hit the jump for descriptions of the games and links to the relevant sections of the Xbox.com website.

Metal Arms: Glitch in the Machine
Blast your way to victory in Metal Arms as Glitch, the gun-slinging, half-ton menacing bot of Droid City. Found as scrap metal, but transformed into destructive machinery, Glitch is determined to free his people from the evil clutches of General Corrosive and his maniacal army of Mil bots. Unleash a world of pain and salvage the robot race as you annihilate the General’s sinister plan to dominate the world!
http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/games/m/metalarms/

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
The next instalment of the critically acclaimed stealth-action franchise, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory sends Sam Fisher on a perilous mission to stop a cyberterrorist plot that threatens worldwide war. Also included is the all-new cooperative multiplayer mode as well as the fan-favourite Spies versus Mercenaries mode that was introduced in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow.
http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/games/s/splintercellchaostheory/

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
Join Jerry “Tycho” Holkins and Mike “Gabe” Krahulik, the creators of the popular webcomic Penny Arcade, on their wild adventure back into a stylised 1920s universe. As a member of the Startling Developments Detective Agency, you must resolve the chaos and solve the mystery in the world of New Arcadia. Classic adventure gameplay mixes with role-playing elements to provide a unique story. And for the first time ever, an Xbox LIVE® Arcade title will feature episodic content, with new material delivered on a regular basis.
http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/games/splash/p/pennyarcadexboxlivearcade/

Penny Arcade Adventures [Xbox.com]

As you recall, there’s no PlayStation Network version because PSN doesn’t support Torque, with which the game is built. Full fact sheet follows the jump.