Digital Comics?

Hey all--long time no post.

I wanted to pass on that I was browsing my normal strips and Scott Kurtz (of PvP) had the following link on his blog (his comes with a comic strip :) ).

http://balak01.deviantart.com/art/about-DIGITAL-COMICS-111966969

It's a new perspective on comics--digital webcomics that aren't videos. It's clever, so pop on over and check it out.

Also, for any girl geeks out there, I recently discovered Girls with Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto. If you're a guy geek, stay away--some of it won't appeal, I promise. But then again, if you're adventurous, maybe it'll give you insight into us females? *shrug* I doubt it, but maybe.

http://www.daniellecorsetto.com/gws.html

God's Sandbox

Two short notes--

1. I recommend that everyone go and look at this strip from xkcd. If you've EVER had to do any statistical analysis, it'll totally make sense.

http://xkcd.com/539/

2. I'd also like to recommend a free game to all of you called God's Sandbox. Hope over to http://www.vertigogaming.net/index.php and download it. You get a set of miracles/plagues to cast upon the earth in each of several eras and the order you pick changes the results. You can make volcanoes or rabbit-men or nuclear war. You decide.

It's a simple game, but the idea is you keep going back and trying again (on different planets? Lol.) to accumulate all of the possible outcomes on your checklist. 7 rounds later, I've got about half of them.

A comment on Mother 3

I've been away from Mother 3 for a while because I was stuck on a level boss (New Fassad or whatever his name is. Techno Banana Man, let's call him).

So, long story short I picked it up earlier this week and got through him finally. No profound reasoning--I just used shields instead of Defense up Omega.

What I want to share with those of you who don't play much of the Mother series is a little taste of what comes after. For reasons I won't explain, your character is trying to get to an island south of the main village and your ride has a faulty jaw. So you land on the beach and a local tells you to talk to the sea. ...I'm like, um ok?

Thus the underwater level begins. The first thing you see is a pair of pig soldiers (bad guys) with a merman (as opposed to a mermaid) and the merman kisses one of them. "Air supply replenished" it says, and the soldier comments about how much he doesn't like this particular contraption. The other pig is like, "Oh really? I kinda like it." Oh pigs.

Ergo, what I want you all to envision is this: your character doesn't breathe underwater naturally either. In fact, none of your four characters do. So, every minute or so of going through the level you have to stop at an air machine and fill up. It kisses your main character (who I've named Eddie) before it cuts away to a blank screen and you hear three more kissing sounds. When the game cuts back to them, everyone but the superspy guy is blushing. Ah Mother. I didn't even know dogs could blush.

And of COURSE it's mermen. Of course.

Explosives and Chinese Assault Rifles

Most of you have tried Oblivion. Some of you have trapsed into the Capital Wasteland. So, what's the hype all about, right?

I think the most valuable part of Fallout in comparison with Oblivion is that Fallout out is plausible on some level. (Y'know. Aside from the fact that the wanton destruction was supposed to have started in the 50's. Devil's in the details and all that.) The weapons all (could) exist, and the places used to be real for the most part.

Let's be honest--I love the fantasy genre, especially in the open-ended form it takes in Oblivion. I mean fireballs? Who doesn't love casting fireballs? And I'm not the Grey Fox for no reason either.

But I also love sci-fi, and Fallout is just enough of a deviation of reality to satisfy my sci-fi tastes. (I would/could take more, but I'm not feeling greedy.)

But let's talk about gameplay. One of the biggest differences that I've found is the levelling-up systems. For example, in Oblivion and Morrowind before the levelling-up came from dedicating time to your main skills. In Fallout it comes as part of gaining experience and flat-out killing things. I like that I don't have to use a lame skill to improve it.

However, if I'm already using a good skill (sneak for example...oh the joy of being the Grey Fox) I don't automatically gain experience in it. I still have to spend my skill points on it in Fallout. Truthfully, this doesn't entirely make sense. When is my character improving her explosives skill when she earns all of her XP with a Chinese Assault Rifle?

I guess it doesn't have to make sense, though, does it?