Boredom

Posted by Bob on October 29, 2004: Today's comic, for all intents and purposes, is cursed. Here's the story. We orinigally wrote the comic differently. Then, I told Steve we didn't have a comic for Halloween, so I was gonna have Bob dressed as Steve and Steve dressed as Bob. So it would be a Halloween comic that wasn't really a Halloween comic. So, I drew the whole thing and had four panels inked and ready to go. Then Steve says that my idea for the costumes was kinda strange, what with two random guys dressing up as...two random guys. So, he decides that Bob and Steve should be dressed up, so I re-drew the comic. Once we decided this, the comic got rewritten a bit, so it actually was a real Halloween comic. No problem. So, I scanned and colored the whole thing, everything was ready to go, minus the lettering, which is the last step in a comic process for me. Then, on Tuesday, I go to wrap things up, and my computer is acting funny...Wouldn't you know it, my Hard Drive completely crashed. Thus, deleting the comic that wasn't backed up onto anything. So of course, I had to redo it. Steve said we could post a quick sketch and an explanation, or a black and white comic this week. I wouldn't let that happen.

That being said, this comic isn't the greatest looking one I've ever done...I did a much better job on the first draft of it. Ah well. Onto the links.

Here is something that'll make your head spin. It's absolutely captivating, and one of the coolest things I've ever seen online.

I absolutely hate hate hate to have to link to IGN (after all, you can't spell ignorant without IGN!) but hey, it's the only FAQ I've seen for the PSP. I don't think I'll get it on launch day, as 200 bucks for a portable seems a bit much, but maybe at some point. Although to be fair, I've got every GBA game anyone could ever want and I rarely play that. So who knows.

Jesus. This has got to be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen.

Here's a neat Tron-esque lightcycle game. It's pretty fun, and definately worth a shot.

Oh, in case you hadn't read, Superman has been cast. I still think Brendan Fraser would have been absolutely perfect, but I figure Bryan Singer knows what he's doing. Rumor now is that he wants Spacey as Lex Luthor, which as you may or may not know, is something I've been saying would be perfect casting for a couple years now. I can only hope!

You know what pisses me off? The fact that Tyra Banks wears a bra that costs more than I'm ever gonna make in my life. Yikes.

Neat! Here's how to make your own mini nail gun! I may try this, if I have the time.

Awesome, awesome flash game. If you dig puzzle games, check this one out.

And I close with hot fruit action. Awwww yeah. Back in a week.

Posted by Steve on October 29 2004: So, it's new comic day. I think Bob told the strange story of today's comic fairly well, so let's move on to other things.

In case you didn't notice, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas came out this week. I want to like it, I really do, but I just don't. I've put in about 3 days now, and I don't think I've had a single bit of fun playing it.

First thing you'll notice is that the framerate is for sucks. It really gets choppy in a lot of spots. Not a deal breaker, but noticeable. That's just a minor complaint, really. A bigger complaint, and maybe I notice it more because I play a lot more on the GameCube and Xbox than PS2, is the game kinda looks like ass. Not just the usual jaggies and shit that the PS2 throws up, but the colors are just awful. I guess they're trying to mimic the smog in L.A., but basically the city is orange all day long, sometimes enough to wash out the whole screen, and a lot of times it makes figuring out who's wearing green or purple or black damn near impossible to distinguish. I thought maybe it was just me or my TV, but here's how I explained it to Bob, and he saw it too. Take the back of the box for San Andreas. The first picture on the top is a guy on a bike. Hold it close and really look at it, and it looks green. Hold it at arms length, and it looks black. For me, that's what the whole game looks like. I had a shootout mission once, and I just stood there, thinking about how I couldn't tell my guys from there guys.

More problems. Everything that's annoyed me about the series since GTA3 is still there. The combat system, though slightly improved, still blows. You'll still find yourself in the middle of a shootout, wondering why the lock on is targeting the hooker with her hands up, and not the guy next to her shooting you in the face. Losing a wanted level about 1 star is still pretty lame. Pay and Spray, bribe, or nothing. Seeing as how you can now jump fences and swim, you'd think they'd take that and finally give you the ability to really "lose" the cops. Say, take a bike down an alley, hop a fence, jump in the small lake, swim to the other side, duck in one of your safe houses, and lay low till the coast is clear. Sounds a lot more fun than trying to pull into a Pay and Spray while the stupid AI keeps mindlessly ramming into your car. (If you can do this, then I apologise. But i haven't had it happen in three days of playing, so I'm assuming it's not there.)

***UPDATE***

It happened. I had a two star wanted level, ran off, ducked into a barber shop, and when i came out, it went to one. Not sure if that works on higher wanted levels, but its a start. I'm trying, I really am. It's getting a little better, but I've just given up and started cheating through shootout missions, cause those controls are hopeless.

***END UPDATE***

And finally, one last note to Rockstar. Enough with the "one small piece of the map playable at a time" shit. Just start the game with the whole thing unlocked. Even if there's really nothing you can do yet mission wise.

Look, I'm not trying to just bash the game for the sake of bashing it. If you liked the other games in the series, then by all means pick it up. You'll probably love it. I just can't get into it so far, that's all. I'll try some more, but there's too many releases on the horizon to spend time waiting for a game to be fun.

That's enough for now. See you next week.