A Puzzling Game

I finished Carrion and while I enjoyed the game, I was left a bit disappointed.
While I am not a fan of playing the «bad guy», being the monster was novel. Being able to freely move around rooms and tunnels was smooth and enjoyable and was probably the reason I played the game to the end.
You think a game with such strong movement and premises would be centered about you killing or evading the human opposition but… not really. Yes, there are enemies and there is combat but for the most part, they don't hold a candle to your tentacular might. Humans are extremely fragile and slow your monster has enough HP to just brute force most encounter. The mechanized enemies are a bit stronger but not enough. Even if you die the savepoints are plentiful and never take too long for you to go back to where you died.
The meat of the game is puzzles. You have doors you need to open, usually by pushing a lever. Later in the game, you'll need to use one of your abilities like shooting a web to push the lever but it hardly go more complicated than that. Use invisibility to bypass a laser, user armor to bypass a bomb… you get the gist.
It's not even the puzzles are bad, they mostly rely on you figuring how to use your ability to maximum effect. For example, they never explain your invisibility may bypass the laser and figuring it is the «challenge» but given both laser and invisibility are introduced together it's not that hard.
So you have this superfluid, badass monster who spends his time playing around with levers until the game ends. It's not the game is bad, just I feel it was a wasted opportunity.

It Doesn't Count If It's Not Canon

This was supposed to go up on the obvious date but I had a rough april fool's… dentist, flu shot and some assorted buying I been postponing for a while finally got done.
Arrived at home wasted and when I woke up was too late but it's not like everybody would check this on the correct date anyway. If anything I prefer this to be up later since April Fools is sometimes filled with (bad) attempts of corporate humor.
Now the question is… is the orgy or the strip itself which is not canon? Maybe both? Maybe neither? Maybe going up later was all part of the plan!

Send In The Clowns

This was supposed to be a strip about Balan Wonderland.
That game reminds me a lot of Might Number 9… a game from a famous Japanese developer (Yuji Naka) who left a famous gaming company (SEGA) and now is launching his thing.
But it's not just the career trajectory that reminds me of No. 9. The most pressing thing for me is how both games look amateurish and unpolished.
Perhaps Yuji was used to work with seasoned veterans who could do the job with minimal input. You can kind of see the idea of a full game there but the ideas are mostly not properly developed. I can't stop but think Yuji is a diva with lots of ideas, but not interested on the boring part of execution.
Example: Sometimes you see those «people» dancing in the field and when you get close they just… fade out of existence. I guess the idea is the game is a big play, like a musical, and the ghost people were supposed to be your backup dancers to reinforce this idea. However, the idea was never properly implemented. I can totally see a message coming from higher up asking to «put people dancing in the map» and that's it. They never allocated resources to change the map so the dancers could have a mini-stage to dance or a unique model with some proper dance that doesn't look super floaty. They just re-cycled some models, put some stiff dance, and moved on. The reason they disappear is so people don't try to interact with them.
This for me is what makes both Balan and No.9 similar… the amateurish delivery. Though truth be told, Balan is more professionally made. No. 9 seemed to be made by total amateurs and Balan seems more like a direction issue.

Morality Police

Got new glasses, still getting used to it.
I'm glad I can pretty much work with my eyes closes at this point…

Not Funny

Please, don't laugh.

Top 10

I remember one time reading a list that put TF2 Heavy Brass Beast as one of the Top 10 weapons in gaming and as an ex-Heavy main this pretty much offended me.
If someone like IceIceIce from Dota decided to make a Dota Hero tier list I can perhaps look at it to see his reasoning but unless the creator(s) of the list has some pedigree I always assume those lists are pure fluffy and lazily put together.

Grammar Nazi

Can I even say the word nazi those days? I hope people don't read too into it or think I am somehow making some fascist propaganda or something. I'll probably trigger some bad algorithm anyway.
Some people may believe this is a jab at all the people who point to my English mistakes but the truth is… I don't care. I mean, obviously, I want the English to be correct but this comic is a one-man show, and if some mistakes pass I accept it as part of trying to juggle too many things at once.
Still, I usually ask people to review the strip itself and I use some online grammar corrector for the rant itself so the number of errors is considerably lower those days.
Also, some people just take joy in pointing mistakes so I like to think any error will make their days. Remind me when I used to work in publicity and my colleagues would put an obviously ugly graphic element so the client would have something they want to remove instead of trying to fix an otherwise good piece.

Refined Humor For The Cultured Gamer

I should have used a Paramite Pie but chances the uncouth masses won't even get it's a reference from Oddworld so I had to use the more accessible Mudokon pie even EVERYBODY know Paramite fits slapstick better. Mudokon is for dramas, for god sake.
To work for savages, his work misunderstood, is the plight of the auteur.
Le sigh.

Remaster

For those out of the loop, Diablo 2 remaster covered the Sorceress underboob and the Amazon butt in the remaster.
I don't mind Diablo 2 remaster censorship much. I am not happy about it but you barely notice the change on the Sorceress outside the selection screen and on the Amazon case, she gets it covered after you get higher-level armor anyway.
Hell, I'll give that perhaps today's culture doesn't like the skimpy armor. Times changes right? However, it made me think… who knows how the next generation will look at TODAY's videogame designs. Humanity never really agreed on how much (or how little) one should wear and I am seeing lots of form-fitting clothing and cleavage out there.. maybe tomorrow's people will find those offensives too.
Or maybe the pendulum will swing the other way as it will always do eventually. This would be fun.

Unreasonable Request

I am surprised at how many people enjoyed covered-up Widowmaker.
I suspect when Overwatch 2 pop out, Widowmaker 2.0 will have a slightly different outfit. No, I don't expect her to be covered head-to-toe but I am fairly sure the cleavage will go and maybe the bubble butt too.
I like the outfit (except the blue skin) but I find it a bit goofy, especially the walking animation. This said, lots of Overwatch outfits are goofy so it's not to say she is the only one dressed like a clown in the game. McCree thinks he is a cowboy, Reaper thinks he is death and Mercy thinks she is an angel so I guess Widowmaker thinks she is a stripper?