When Video Games Attack
When I first sat down to write this week’s blog I penned a two page ramble about video games. But after reviewing it I realized that it would be completely uninteresting to anyone but me. So here’s the condensed version. Gears of War 2 was pretty much exactly the same as Gears of War 1. Only more Emo and gay in that Frank Miller muscle-man kind of way -though between those videos it’s hard to tell. GoW is so silly that even other games make fun of it. I thought that since I have Xbox Live now it would be more fun. And it was for a bit. Online play was either the super-repetitive Horde Mode where you and 4 other players team up to battle wave after wave of A.I. Locust. That was fun for a week. The PvP action was less satisfying. Basically that broke down to getting really really close to the other team and putting your shotgun into their mouths. Pull trigger. Repeat. Yawn. Also everything moves incredibly slow! Which makes sense considering that you and everyone else in your world is an 8ft tall stack of mashed potatoes. It’s as if Frank Quietly designed a video game.
So feeling like I really hadn’t gotten my $60 back on GoW2 I traded it in and got Metroid 3 for the Wii. Metroid was both surprising and frustratingly disappointing. It looked good, and it was full of the great puzzle exploration stuff that made the original Metroid my favorite game as a kid. But unfortunately the stupid control combo of nunchuck and magic wand is just not good enough for anything but the most sedate of party games. It starts off fine, but as soon as the action starts and you get a little excited you naturally start moving the wand too far left, right, up or down, for the Wii sensor to “see” it. And then your character freezes, and you get more excited, and it spirals out of control from there. Basically, I have decided that I fucking hate the Wii. The only real score of the past two weeks was picking up Boom Blox. This is the sort of game that the Wii’s retarded control system excels at, and it is a lot of fun.
As nice as Boom Blox is though, it suffers from an extreme lack of shooting the fuck out of things. Also, I really like playing with other people. Luckily, I have Battlefield: Bad Company. No, SERIOUSLY. With RAINBOW SPRINKLES. and PIRATES.
In comic book news: The Q Review of KILLER OF DEMONS. I am so happy that people like this book. So happy.
Brightening up my week I came across this on MAROONED. “Just a quick note that I got my Atomic Robo volume 1 graphic novel in the mail yesterday. Oh MAN. It is absolutely GREAT. I can’t even say enough good things about it. I was laughing out loud, loving the artwork, loving the stories - it may be the best comic I have ever read in my whole life, I’m not kidding. I’m only halfway through the first volume! Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy.”
That made me feel good. In another week and a half I will be back at work on ROBO Vol.3, and I am chomping at the bit. The TORCH has been a nice break, but I miss my baby.
I dunno, that’s all I’ve got this week.
Oh wait one more thing! You can now watch CARL SAGAN’S COSMOS on HULU.com. Make a point of seeing it.
RANDOM SPLENDOR
-iBoobies. and this is what the new miracle of technology has come to. Sigh. (NSFW)
-Young Mad Scientist Alphabet Blocks.
-Mech Warriors to Battle Stations!
“For all your gay falconry needs.”
Can’t wait for your new torch comic coming out! Can’t wait for AR v.3 either thanks to this preview art.
Good to hear you like bad company, bad to hear you dislike gears 2, good to hear your warning about metroid 3. I suggest you pick up the orange box for your 360, such a great deal. gamertag: yayap91
Damn, you’re art is always great, and Ms Pattison is one of the best colourists in the business. It’s people like her, Isanove and Fco… something, I can’t remember his last name, but he colours Invincible, that really push the pencillers/inkers work over the top.
I LOVE Orange Box. Though I haven’t played Team Fortress in some time -they really need to update it (like the do the PC version)! Feel free to hit me up: Atomic Scotsman
Josh -Ronda is the bomb. When i first started this one of the key bits of advice I got was never to trust a colorist to fix your mistakes or improve your work. But with Ronda I have so much confidence that my work keeps becoming more open to let her work really shine. Wait until you see the TORCH stuff. She’s coloring that too. I’m experimenting with pencils-only on that and I am very excited to see what she adds to it.
Hooray for Robo V.3 Previews! The only thing that would make it better would be if the proper gentleman riding with Robo was sporting a monacle. Bully!
It’s too bad about Metroid Prime 3. I’d had high hopes for that style of gameplay. The sad thing is that the Wii is supposed to be a great console for shooting the f@#& out of things. It’s pretty much single-handedly keeping the light-gun shooter genre alive with games like Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and House of the Dead: Overkill. MadWorld may be worth trying out as well (especially since Greg Proops and John “Marcus Fenix / Bender” DiMaggio are the in-game announcers.) Plus there are all those great WiiWare titles (LostWinds, World of Goo, Mega Man 9, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People) none of which are waggle-fests.
Those new Robo pages are awesome!
@ John: That’s Charles Fort, if I’m not mistaken, so the lack of a monocle is based on his actual attire. Also, Robo looks the cat’s pajamas in that hat.
i’m not a gamer in any sense of the word, so for most of this blog all i heard was a bunch of CharlieBrown “wah wah wah, wah”- but that preview art is damn purty!
You’re getting even crazier with your angles now. Awesome looking stuff.
Don’t worry Scott, the updates are coming to the 360. Unfortunately at about 800 microsoft points. But hey, lots of achievements for us achievement whores.
Oh that’s cute. The PC owners don’t have to pay for updates, do they?
Thanks Matt
Hehe, “Holy flying mannequin bits, Atomic Robo!”
What’s that blue squiggly thing up there? And have Atomic Robo’s hand always been that blocky? I’m going to have to go read The first series again, and then the second one, and then see when the third series comes out again, that’s fast approaching, right?
Z -Robo’s hands have always been . . .vague. They give me a lot of trouble. Robo’s hand in panel 1 of the second page there is right on. the rest of that page was a victim of, “Oh fuck I need to get this page done!” There was about 3 pages of Robo and Fort sitting in the car and very little opportunity to pull the camera out of the front seat, so I went a little insane.
The blue squiggle -you’ll just have to wait to find out. (Next Month!!)
Does anybody else worry that Carl Sagan’s voice is trying to hypnotize them while he’s talking about the universe? And that maybe he has some secret plan for each and every one of us?!?!
I like Robo’s car-phone., but more than that I like his stylish golf cap.
Zeph -looks like my last reply disappeared. Robo’s hands have always been blocky, yes. They are the only part of him that is like that. as for the blue squigle, you only have a few weeks to wait before you can find out.
Dave -Carl is my personal Jesus Christ. I’ll do whatever the hell he says I should. Robo + Hats = Win.
God bless Hulu and shooting the fuck out of things.
Your own personal Jesus?
Scott has tons of Christian iconography in has house already. Dee has a thing for it…
We have Jesus-On-A-Stick coming out the wazoo. Mostly just because Dorinda is in love with the cultish aspects of Christianity. I gave religion a try again a few years ago when the Widget was really little, but it didn’t stick. The first time she said she didn’t want to go to Sunday School we were out the door before she’s finished the sentence.
So true!