Got some new fan art for your consumption.
This is from azelito, so gaze upon an entire comic called The Frohman Show.
From Edward, Frohman introduces a rope-and-pulley operated beating machine to allow the citizens of Ravenholm to get that City 17 experience.
From Flavius, Frohman and his pals celebrate after getting revenge on the anti-litter metrocop. Ouch.
Not that this has any particular meaning for me, but Valve recently released a 64-bit version of Half-Life 2 and Lost Coast.
Techgage has a review of the new version, and when comparing it alongside the regular 32-bit version, they don’t seem overly impressed.
As the saying goes, “No man is an island.”
Especially not this dork. However, he is on an island, the island in the lagoon of the gm_construct map.
And with that awkward set-up, you’re probably asking “But wait — why is Dr. Kleiner on this island? Why is he anywhere on the map, seeing as how he can’t even fight?” Good question. See, I thought I might try a little bodyguard action, a little VIP treatment…
…courtesy of Gordon Frohman. Three of them, in fact, each armed with a different weapon.
One has the powerful Combine pulse rifle, or AR2.
Another has the shotgun.
And the third has the sub-machine gun.
Why all this protection, you might ask? Frankly, you’re asking a lot of questions today. Shut up.
And meet the enemy.
We’ve got seven of these feisty buggers lined up on one side of the lagoon…
…and seven on the other side, for a grand total of 14 antlions (standard issue). They come armed with razor sharp pincers and teeth, not to mention they can fly, which allows them to cross the water like no other monster in Half-Life 2 can.
Will our Fighting Frohmen be able to protect the absent-minded and defenseless Dr. Kleiner? There’s only one way to find out!
A horrible buzzing noise fills the air, followed by the winged antlions as they carve deadly parabolas across the sky, descending upon the tiny desert island. The Frohmen open fire as Kleiner looks on in horror, or perhaps the gentle bafflement he generally uses when looking on.
It’s mere seconds before the antlions have touched down on terra firma… or is that TERROR firma? No, it’s terra firma, according to Webster’s.
But the Frohmen are prepared. Blasting away with three types of ammo, it’s not long before the first wave of aliens are crumpled heaps of exoskeleton, and choking clouds of antlion innards fill the air. Kleiner innocently greets the newly arrived antlions like a host at at Chili’s, while still more aliens buzz their way over to the island like insectile helicopters, and the bodies of the dead float away like giant dead floating bugs.
Back, you bugs! The next wave has landed on the sandy shore and scuttle up, fangs bared, only to be met with several shotgun blasts and one perplexed physicist.
Yet still they keep coming. So far, Kleiner has yet to be injured and the Frohmen are holding their own, double-teaming the remaining scattered antlions.
But just when things seem safe, a wounded antlion manages to sink in a pincer, and the Frohman with the SMG slumps over in death! NOOOOOOOOOO!
There is little time to mourn, however, as a holdout chooses that moment to make an airborne attack.
It is safely blown out of the air by a shotgun blast, cascading giblets onto Kleiner’s bald, clueless head, while the Frohman with the AR2 mops up a couple stragglers on the shore.
Gotta love my boy Frohman, wading into the depths for a clear shot at a cowardly (ant)lion who never made it across the water.
And with the final antlion crumpling into a heap, our match is over. We lost one Frohman, but not in vain: Kleiner survived and may continue a life of peering at computers and saying vaguely scientific things.
At least until the rematch.
Since websnark appears to be turning into more of a personal blog than a webcomics blog these days (not that there’s anything wrong with that), you might direct your attention to fleen.com, a new webcomics blog that’s all about webcomics.
And wouldn’t you know it, there’s a nice write-up about Concerned.
The entry also raises the question about how Concerned, and other comics made from games, should be categorized. Is it a Gamic (game + comic)? Is there another term for it? Do comics made from gaming screenshots need to be differentiated from other types of webcomics? Weigh in by leaving a comment after the Fleen entry if you have any thoughts!
Judging from the amount of people who e-mailed this to me, everyone in the universe already knows about it. But in case someone missed it, here’s the notarget fix for G-Mod version 9. It also gives you a few other NPC control options.
Thanks to lon3_assas from the G-Mod forums for devising a fix!
[EDIT: Looks like you need to be a registered member of the Garry's Mod forums to download it.]
Got a few games for Christmas this year, which is nice since I rarely buy myself any.
One of them is Call of Duty 2, which I spent great swaths of time playing this weekend. Very intense World War II combat, playing as various Allied soldiers, starting with the Russians, then British, and finally Americans.
The combat is extremely nerve-racking, chaotic, and frantic, heightened by the game’s excellent sound effects. The yelling of your comrades, pointing out enemy locations, along with the distant (or harrowingly close) call of the German troops, and the solid voice-acting, makes the situations feel urgent and real. The visual effects, like swirling snow (in Russia), choking dust (in the British campaign in Africa), and smoke (from smoke grenades or explosions) are fantastic as well.
There’s no health meter and no medkits, which I find sort of refreshing. You know you’re injured when your screen goes red, your vision blurs, and sounds get distorted, at which point you have to find cover and heal for a few seconds. Not realistic, but neither would be the presence of instant-healing medkits, so it’s a nice change, and this way you’re not taken out of the game by having to hunt around or locate a medic. Ammo is ridiculously plentiful, but this is offset by the fact that your enemies are very hard to hit; they hide behind cover extremely well, so spraying endless rounds won’t help you anyway. You’ve got to spend a lot of time aiming carefully down the iron sights of your guns, without the help of crosshairs, an act that slows you down enough to make grenades a real threat. You’ll spend plenty of time peeking around cover, lying prone, running in a crouch, and especially searching for a way to flank your enemies. You can’t save wherever you’d like, something I don’t generally care for, but the game does auto-save often enough that you aren’t having to start from scratch every time you die or repeat huge chunks of the missions.
There’s not a whole lot of variation in gameplay. You’re generally on foot, trying to advance and clear out Germans, and then hold the locations as the Nazis send in reinforcements, but it doesn’t really get tiresome because the game is so visceral and intense. You drive a tank a couple times, which isn’t terribly exciting but provides a change of pace, and some missions will have you manning anti-aircraft guns or sniping German MG42 gunners, running up to tanks to plant stickybombs or calling in air-strikes, or taking out vehicles with heavy guns.
The game is very linear, but it generally isn’t all that noticable. Often, you have multiple objectives that you can accomplish in whatever order you’d like, which makes it feel a little more free-form. Creeping through rubble-strewn streets, you might stumble upon a nice position to flank the Germans that doesn’t feel stage-managed — then again, there are always barricades or collapsed walls hemming you in, which does. It’s a decent balance, though, keeping you in on the path without feeling too claustrophobic, and there are some nice touches, like planes dogfighting overhead or distant columns of smoke, that make you feel like you’re part of a larger struggle.
Another bonus, as far as I’m concerned, is that while you are part of a squad, you don’t have to micromanage or babysit your squadmates. They do their own thing without any input from you, and (with the exception of grenade avoidance) their AI is solid. They take cover, advance, lay down fire, and point out enemy locations, helping you out without getting underfoot or needing guidance. I know squad-based shooters are getting more common and popular, but I’m not a fan of having to direct or protect computer-controlled allies, so this is a plus.
I’ve only just started the American campaign, and I haven’t tried the multiplayer yet, but so far I’m enjoying COD2 a great deal and give it a thumbs up.
Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday. It’s been a big month for Concerned, with mentions in two magazines, a full article in a third, and a brand new, quickly evolving Wikipedia entry. All of this happened only because people keep spreading the word about the comic on various forums, blogs, websites, through e-mail, word of mouth, telepathy, and, in at least one instance, by gunpoint.
So, thanks for all the support, and have a nice holiday weekend! I’ll be taking Monday off, but there will be a new comic up Wednesday, December 28.
Well, I didn’t get a new To The Death! done in time for today. With the holidays and new job stuff, it’s just been a busy week. I’ll try to have at least one done for next week.
I’ve also downloaded a program called Fraps, which allows me to record in-game video, so I may try to put together a couple small To The Death! motion pictures. Screenshots and running commentary are fine, but you can’t really appreciate an antlion clawing someone to death unless you see it in action. I tried it out last night and it’s pretty cool, so I just need to find something free or cheap to edit the video with, and I’ll be ready to roll.
Comics-wise, I’ll be taking the next two Mondays off, but should have comics up on the Wednesdays and Fridays for the next two weeks.
As usual, when our To The Death! match-ups seem a little one-sided, we make some drastic adjustments in the third match. This time, it’s a hardware upgrade for our Metro Cops.
Say hello to my little friend, the submachine gun, or SMG. With a 45-round magazine, it allows for a high rate of fire with only the occasional pause for reloading, which is good because the cops aren’t the most accurate shooters. In fact, they couldn’t hit Xen if they fell through a Volatile Resonance Cascade Tridimensional Entanglement Portal! Am I right, guys? Ha ha! Ah, but I tease the cops.
Anyway. We’ve also taken out a few of the explosive barrels. Look, they’re fun, but they keep ending the matches a bit too quickly. To compensate, I’ve opened up the gaps between junked cars a bit, to allow the zombies some easier access.
Okay, time for the To The Death rallying cry! Everybody:
Things begin the way they usually do. The zombies snarl, knock crates and barrels around, and the cops empty their weapons into everything but the zombies. One zombie pushes through the gap and is felled by gunfire. And then…
The zombies seem to have come up with a new strategy. As a second of their number falls in a hail of semi-accurate gunfire, the zombies begin stalking away from the match!
Is this a forfeit? Are they throwing in the blood-soaked towel?
Or could this be that elusive entity they call Artificial Intelligence? There is, after all, a side-door to this chamber, and several zombies appear the be headed in that direction. We could be witnessing a brilliant move by the zombie team. Realizing that the situation is no longer in their favor, they appear to be adapting and trying new tactics!
Still, artificial intelligence isn’t limited to alien-controlled animated corpses. Alien-controlled police officers have their own reserves to draw on. One cop has sensed the scheme, and pulled back, opening fire from the side-door. Clever.
On the other hand, he still can’t shoot worth a damn, so the zombies slowly, but surely, close the distance.
He drops one, falls back a few steps while changing clips, and opens fire at point blank range.
Our brave patrolman manages to fell another two zombies just moments before he takes a claw to the throat and folds up like a cheap card table. Still, at least five zombies are out of the match, with two cops still in fine health.
The other two cops have been distracted this entire time by a couple zombies lurching around the front door, but finally notice that one of their own has been cut down. One cop opens fire through the gap in the barricades.
He shreds one zombie who has staggered forwards, swiping insistently at a crate he apparently blames for his condition, but makes no move to push through the gap at the cop.
Meanwhile, um… certain zombies have taken it upon themselves to explore the rest of the map. We don’t know what they’re looking for… some sort of tactical advantage, perhaps some weapons of their own, or maybe they just aren’t interested in fighting today. Who truly understands the mind of a zombie?
Or, for that matter, the mind of a metro cop? This one is standing safely behind the barricade, doing nothing of value. This match… this match could take a while.
The cameraman has gotten instructions from the booth, and takes out his ‘remover tool’, which he points at the barricade that has slowed this match to a crawl. Moments later, we’re back in business!
With the barricade gone, the two cops take out a handful of zombies, though the headcrabs don’t take this lying down. They detach from their floppy corpses and leap into the fray. Meanwhile, some of the zombie stragglers make their way back toward the side door, where one of the cops waits to greet them.
He drops one, but its headcrab owner makes a flying leap, doing some damage to the cop, who calls frantically for back-up. (Really, he actually called for back-up, shouting “Officer needs assistance!” or something similar. I dig it when they do that.)
The next few hours just whizz by, with the cops shooting from the safety of the doorway at distant, wandering zombies, who eventually, one at a time, lumber over to the door. Eventually, one actually makes it all the way there, and slaughters the cop.
We’re down to one cop, two zombies, and a headcrab that is scuttling around, oh, Lord only knows where. Miles from the action, at any rate. A few more days pass. The seasons change. Universes are born, grow, collapse and return to cosmic dust. And the last cop manages to eventually bring down the remaining two zombies.
So, now it’s Cop vs. Headcrab in a battle to the hopefully eventual win! The excitement of this duel is simply…
… it’s, uh… Well. This could quite literally take weeks. The heaccrab is walking around in circles, oblivious to the distant gunfire, and the cop has about as good a chance of hitting his tiny target as Eli Vance has of growing his leg back. Am I right? Ha ha! Ah, I kid the one-legged Eli Vance.
Finally, the headcrab draws near. (With only a little luring by the cameraman, who briefly turned off ‘notarget’. Hey, we have better things to do than watch two enemies slowly creep around at opposite ends of the map. This ain’t Counter-Strike, you know.)
And, huzzah! The cop finally manages to sink a bullet into something fleshy, and the match is over!
Well, despite the length of the match, we got to see some proactive thinking by both the zombies and the cops, which almost offsets the fact that it took six years for them to finally kill each other. Next time, we might have to confine the contestants to a smaller arena, impose a time limit, or just involve some more bloodthirsty, determined combatants. Until next time, aim for the head!
Just in case nobody noticed, I updated the sidebar on this page a little. I’ve included links to some of the other web comics I read — nothing obscure and probably nothing new to most of you, but there’s always the chance you might have forgotten about a couple of the comics, or are looking for something to kill a few hours. Some, like Jay Pinkerton, Leisuretown, Jerkcity, and Maakies, are intended for mature readers, so if you’re under 17, you’ll probably enjoy all the profanity even more than your elders.
I’ve also added a “Mod Watch” category, which is just a few links to some mods I feel are worth keeping an eye on. I’ve added a couple sites to the HL2 / Gaming News links, to include a couple general gaming blogs like Kotaku and Joystiq.
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