Dead Beat Coming Soon!

After many weeks of self-debate, I have decided to restart my old middle school comic, Dead Beat. The first issue is currently in the works, though I haven't set a strict release date on it, nor do I plan to for it or future issues. That said, I'll give you a quick rundown of what to expect:

Dead Beat is a comic about a man named Dead Beat
(don't ask, not even I know).  Inspired by such
things as boredom, excessive caffeine consumption,
and Dragonball Z, Dead Beat makes about as little
sense as you would expect from a comic with such
a name.

Dead Beat's world is one of complete insanity,
devoid of even the slightest hint of reason.  He
and his friends and family fight against an evil
that is every bit as random as the world around
them for some good not even they understand.

Do not expect this comic to make sense, do not
expect it to be coherent.  Each strip is its own
series of nonsensical events all brought together
by something that could only be considered a plot
in the crudest sense.

That said, I do not take any responsibility for any physical or emotional damage resulting from reading this comic.

Enjoy...when it arrives.

Random Thoughts

Well, seems Dungeons and Dragons Online is getting a new server, which rules. Still playing Guild Wars, doing different stuff, beating the hell out of various things and people for little to no reason...the usual.

However, on to a more topical...topic, I'm going to talk about this swine flu scare. Why? Because I want to.

Honestly, swine flu, aka H1N1, isn't the new "super virus" that everyone is so worried about. You wanna know who typically dies from this disease? Who else but very young children and the elderly; or, in other terms, those with either not-fully-developed or weakened (due to age or disease re HIV) immune systems. Every disease has this potential. Every disease. Its just the common flu with a few new bells and whistles. As for the vaccine? If you don't want to have to take off work or school (who in their right mind wouldn't, though?), then get one. Its just like every other vaccine out there. The only reason they are making metric fucktons of it is because people are pissing acid from the fear that dumbasses like Bill O'Riley and Faux Noise create.

What do you do if you happen to get swine flu? Stay home, get plenty of rest, and drink some juice. Maybe watch some TV or play a few rounds of Tetris or something.

The only time any flu has been a real big problem was in the early 20th century during that fuckoff huge Spanish flu outbreak where hundreds of thousands of people died. Nowadays, we have things like aspirin, NyQuil, and pseudoephedrine that make things like the flu nothing more than a moderate annoyance and a good way to get out of school for a few days. So don't worry, sure, you'll have a headache, you'll cough, and you'll wheeze, but chances are, you won't die.

First Post...Time for a review.

Since this is my first post, and I'm a gamer, I'm going to kick things off with a game review. Which game will I review? That's a very good question... Hmm...

Before I choose, I'm going to give you a run-down of how I plan to do these things. No, I will not give numeric scores. Why? Because a game's pros and cons cannot be weighed with some easily quantifiable system. Want an example of what I'm talking about? Google "Zero Punctuation."

Also, I'm kinda scatter-brained, so there really won't be concrete sections, either. I'll try to keep things as organized as I can, though.

With that out of the way, let's move on.

I choose the Thief series.

I love these games. Seriously, I fucking LOVE these games. In fact, the Thief II demo was my very first true 3D game. I still play them, The Metal Age in particular, and probably will continue to play them until the day I die.

First off, the gameplay itself was, and, in my opinion, still is, very unique and innovative. Instead of playing off the tropes of other first-person games before it, your character isn't a walking tank. In fact, Garrett can't take much damage at all before he falls over in a bloody heap. Instead, you have to rely on your wits and senses. If you don't take your time to listen and watch for other people, you could end up with an entire division of sword-wielding rent-a-cops after you.

The single most important tool in your arsenal is the Light Gem. It lets you know exactly how visible you are at all times. Of course, Garrett has a myriad of various other gadgets at his disposal to help him in his thieving escapades. One of particular note (in the first two games, at least) is the Rope, and later Vine, arrow. These arrows allowed you to turn conveniently placed wood surfaces (and metal grills with Vine arrows) into very creative points of entry and allowing you to get to places that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Moving on, the level design itself was ingenious. Given the natural freedom of movement allowed in true 3D games, in combination with tools like Rope/Vine arrows, and even crates, you could go almost anywhere, given some ingenuity. One mission, from the second game, of note is Life of the Party. This mission takes place on the rooftops of Dayport and provides you plentiful areas where you can exploit your environment and a particularly crafty player can completely avoid detection through the entirety of the mission. Not to say that that's the only mission where one can "ghost" through. In fact, the fan community created a whole new, self-imposed difficulty level based on complete non-detection; which includes such things as not extinguishing torches (or relighting them, but that's very, very dangerous) and never being seen or heard.

That brings up another point, the fan base. The fans of Thief (and all Looking Glass games) are one of the most creative and surprisingly cool-headed fandoms out there. TTLG.com's forums is one of the largest and most well-known gatherings of Thief fans from all across the world. It is from this very place where a great many fan missions are authored and shared, and is even the site of such things as the Open Dark Engine, Dark Mod, Thief II Multiplayer Patch, DarkHook, and Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age.

However, moving back to the games themselves, another thing that I love about the game is its writing. Not just the in-game books and other readables, of which there are a multitude, but the dialogue, not just from the main characters, but also the random NPC's you encounter throughout the various missions. The main character, Garrett, for instance, is a snarky, dry, somewhat anti-social anti-hero who was taken in by the Keepers to be one of their acolytes, but left because their whole "keeping the balance at all costs" shtick started to grate after a while. Of course, this doesn't mean that the Keepers don't keep pushing him into situations where he has to save the world despite his desire to just go around town and steal shit and be left alone.

Even the third installment, which is seen as a massive turd by many fans, was OK in its own right. Of course, if you judge it alongside its predecessors, it falls flat on its face, but by itself it is a solid game, albeit with its share of flaws. Of particular note is Garrett's marked loss of his ability to swim and the loss of rope arrows. Yeah, the graphics were jerky and the whole game felt fairly rushed, save for the Cradle, which is scary as hell, but that isn't really the fault of Ion Storm (the developers), as it is the fault of Eidos (the publisher) rushing the game into oblivion.

Well...I'm done with this one. To reiterate, I love Thief. If you haven't played it yet, do. Even if you have to pirate it or buy it from some shady Russian behind a seedy bar who wears a trench coat and reeks of bourbon.