Borderlands: Head Shots

New Super Luigi U: Where's Mario?

I read an interesting theory regarding the New Super Luigi U DLC: maybe Mario is dead. That could be a possibility. Mario is virtually wiped from this version of the game.

That leaves the question of how he moved on to the life beyond.

Regardless, I'm sure Luigi is glad to have some time in the spotlight.

I got the chance to demo the game at E3. The timer starts at the 100 count for every level, levels are shorter and they have be reworked to fit Luigi's physics. Veteran Mario players are aware that Luigi is a little more slippery and floats more than his more stout brother.

The Last of Us: Shiv Master?

My mind has been recently immersed in the world of The Last of Us. It's desolate and, if it wasn't for the constant companions, lonely.

Crafting items is done in real time so it's best to prepare an arsenal before opening that door. Choices must be made as there is rarely enough resources to craft everything that's desired. Molotov cocktails and first aid kits share the same ingredients, so you're often choosing between the two.

Is it worth healing to leave yourself defenseless when the clickers come or will a molotov be useless when you get swarmed by runners?

It's a simple choice really, but each choice makes you approach each situation differently which is the magic of the game.

The one thing that is definitive: Shivs are the most important piece of equipment you can craft. They can open locked doors, allow you to perform stealth kills and, after upgrading a specific stat, can help fend off attacking clickers.

Man of Steel Doesn't Think Much

The biggest issue I had with the Man of Steel is captured in the image above.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Zod's ship was terraforming Metropolis, that's where most of the initial damage was coming from.

When Superman arrives, he doesn't show much concern for the city other than Lois Lane. If he took two seconds to think he could have figured, "hey, the city is in pretty bad shape. If I'm going to fight, maybe I should take it to a remote location."

Even after hitting a satellite, both Kal and Zod manage to bring the fight back to Metropolis.

Seriously Supes, think a little about what you're doing. Just because you can drag someone's face across a building doesn't mean that you should.

I enjoyed the movie for its action and effects, but much of it was impractical and unbelievable, even for a super hero movie. Lois Lane just happens to be at the same building when Zod's spine is snapped, that's just a little too perfect.

Super Smash Bros: Mega Man vs. Samus Aran

Mega Man! He's the big news from E3. Check out the announcement trailer below:

The Blue Bomber is officially added to the Super Smash Bros roster for the upcoming WiiU and 3DS games set for release next year.

It's time to see who has the better charge shot: Mega Man or Samus Aran.

The above comic is more like my tribute to the news. I still felt it needed some tweaking, but with all drawings, sometimes the artist just needs to stop. I'm glad with how it came out.

Super Mario 3D World: Cat Suits

Do you like the Tanooki suit? Well too bad, Super Mario 3D World gives you a cat suit. You'll now have all the abilities of the everyday house-cat.

I was able to play the game at E3, but I didn't get the chance to use the cat suit in all its glory. I took the reps advice and picked a level that was more traditional Mario.

Here's a video of me playing the game (I'm only playing in the first level shown):

The cat suit is likely more fun than it sounds, but the game itself is pretty great. The cool thing is that it supports up to four players, which can get pretty hectic if you all don't work together.

I was really pleased with the Nintendo booth at E3 and I enjoyed all the games I was able to play. My opinion of the console is now in the black zone (econ reference) and I'm likely going to pick up the WiiU when I can. The addition of Mega Man to the new Smash Bros game was also a huge selling point.

E3: Sony Shows Up Microsoft

I haven't been this excited around E3 in a while. Sony knocked it out of the park this year. Virtually everything they could have done to beat Microsoft, they did.

No DRM.

The ability to play used games by just inserting the disc.

Cheaper price point by $100.

For a gamer, that's a no-brainer. Sony clearly catered more to gamers than Microsoft did. Sure, there aren't as many exclusives, but most of Microsoft's exclusives were laden with shooters.

Nintendo is also showing a lot in terms of games. The big kicker for me is the addition of MegaMan in the new Super Smash Bros games.

It's a big week in gaming and the plan is to reflect and comment on all this news in upcoming comic strips.

I also have another project in the work with a friend of mine. We should have some stuff to show my the end of the month.

Pokemon: Sent Some Money Home

I've been playing Pokemon Gold on my phone. After every battle, my character sends a little money home.

Eventually I get a call, saying that mom bought something and deposited it in the inbox. The lady is home all day, no husband, she must be doing something to stay busy. Plus she has this money coming in. I'm sure a some of it goes toward 'personal' items.

This is the heaviest comic in terms of text. Boxing and lettering is still an art I need to practice. I'm pretty happy with the way this came out, but it did take a bit longer than my other strips.

Strip Search: Religion and Candy Comic

I wish I started doing the Strip Search at home challenges a lot earlier. They're a lot of fun and challenging at the same time.

Here is Tuesday's elimination episode for those that want to watch:

The topics for this episode are religion and candy. I was raised Christian, so I used what I know and figured Easter fit in nicely.

Peter is one of the 12 Apostles, so I did a little play on the name by mixing in Peter Cottontail.

This one was tough to come up with but the comic came out looking rather nice I think.

A Hard Day's Work in the Mushroom Kingdom

Toadstools are pretty useless, considering they're supposed to be Princess Peach's guards. To be fair, they don't have any kind of weapons or defenses that they can use.

Still, if not for their carelessness, we wouldn't have many Mario games. It'd be nice though if Toad did more than say "Your princess is in another castle." How is it that Toad is always at the end of those castles?

What has he been doing while Mario is out jumping and cleaning pipes? It's some kind of conspiracy, like a deal that he's made with Bowser or something.

Xbox One: A Space Odyssey

If you haven't heard, the Xbox One is always on.

People just have to say, "Xbox, on" and the system turns itself on.

That means that the system has to be listening all the time and the Kinect has to be connected in order for the system to work. It's easy to draw some parallels from other forms of media.

How all this will pan out has yet to be seen. Microsoft's Kinect is no longer just a sensor, soon it will be able to watch and listen to you. That's some creepy stuff.

In the meantime, we'll just make fun of it and wait to see what actually happens.

Strip Search: Cats and Cars Comic

Today's comic is a little bit special.

For the past several weeks I've been watching Strip Search, an online reality show that attempts to find the next great web comic. It's run by the guys over at Penny Arcade.

Well, for every elimination, the creators have the two contestants make a comic with two random themes and they have 90 minutes to do so.

Today's themes were cars and cats. Here is the episode if you'd like to check it out:

New episodes are up every Tuesday and Friday, the same days I update my comics.

Anyways, the above is my at-home challenge piece. I used vector masks for this particular comic; it's a new technique that I just learned about.

Pong

I was talking about tennis lately and it got me all pumped up to go out and play a few sets. The weather is fantastic, so once I get over this cold I'll definitely get back out there.

It's pretty crazy how far video games have come since they started with the Odyssey and Atari. Pong was basically the translation of a tennis (table or court) match onto the TV while not exerting much physical effort.

Now we Virtua Tennis and Mario Tennis and other iterations. I guess those games got me interested to eventually pick up a paddle and racquet. Sports are great and I've picked them up fairly quickly and have gotten quite good at each of the games.

I don't think I ever played Pong with the old Atari controllers, so I'm adding that to my video game bucket list.

Street Fighter: Shoryuken

Street Fighter is great. I heard this joke from a friend and felt that it needed some images with it.

Some good news this week is that the fifth installment in the Ace Attorney games will be coming stateside to the 3DS via Nintendo's virtual e-store. I still do not own a 3DS, which is starting to become a problem...I'll try to fix that soon.

The Fuse demo is out as well. I downloaded it on XBox. The Insomniac game seems fun enough. The draw for me is it's special weapons and co-op game play. My problem is that I don't have people to play it with and I feel I have enough shooters. The demo is fun though and I highly recommend giving it a go.

Big news for next week is the unveiling of Microsoft's new system. I'm keeping my trackers on that since it's definitely something I'll pick up (sorry Sony, I'm already invested in my gamertag).

Angry Birds

The mobile game that took the world by storm. There are so many spin-offs of this game now: Seasons, Rio, Friends, Space, Star Wars. This game even has board games now.

Sure, it's fun, but we're on Angry Birds overload.

We were given some insight into the world of the pigs with the Bad Piggies game. You'd think that the pigs would wise up and just start messing with the birds. Why not just disguise the eggs as pigs? Maybe that would just make angrier birds, but it would be worth a shot.

Mega Man: The Toddler Years

Yeah, so Mega Man as a baby. Dr. Light must have had some serious baby-proofing technology.

I'm crossing timelines with classic and the X series, but those upgrade machines had to be tested at some point.

Iron Man

Iron Man 3 is out today (Friday). Being the Marvel fanboy I am, of course I went to the midnight screening. It was only fitting that today's comic be based on that invincible piece of metal.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and might go so far as to say it is the best of the three so far since it really stands on its own and depicts Tony Stark as a lot more vulnerable. Sure there are always those typical movie plot holes, but you don't realize it too much when you're watching.

There is a charming twist in the movie that I wasn't expecting. I'll just say that Ben Kingsley's character is my favorite in the movie.

Today's joke also pays homage to one of my favorite SNL skits with Will Ferrell, Christopher Walken and Blue Oyster Cult.

Yoshi's Island

I know we've all thought of it. What's exactly in those eggs that they're able to hop around. We all know what kinds of eggs that Yoshis hatch from, and those are the eggs.

Needless to say, their effectiveness would increase tenfold with a fetus inside each one. Nobody wants a Yoshi fetus on them...NOBODY!!!

I've only ever played the GBA version of the game, and it's pretty enjoyable. There's different kinds of eggs to throw, Yoshi transforms into a helicopter and submarine, the levels are fun, there's a lot to like about the game.

Maybe because the eggs in the game aren't produced sexually that this doesn't happen. But I thought all Yoshis were female?

I don't know how Nintendo will ever explain it. Oh well.

Dead Rising

I was long overdue for a zombie comic. Why not start with the best zombie game out there, Dead Rising.

Sure, shooting zombies is cool, so is hitting them with a frying pan or baseball bat. What's better though is judo throwing them or disemboweling them or slapping servebot masks on several of them and taking a choice photo.

The antics of Frank West were not to be scoffed at and one can only imagine how his special skill set my transfer into his career.

Fez Coming to Steam

Fez is a great game on the Xbox Live Arcade, albeit it does have a few technical issues, one of them being a very big one.

This might just be an XBLA issue especially because of the cost of releasing additional patches beyond the first 'free' one allowed by Microsoft.

The news is a bit old, but I just learned that the Fez will be coming to Steam. This should make patches easier and those in-game glyphs can be translated now with a quick Google search.

Without giving away any spoilers to the game, there a few items you acquire in addition to the reality shifting fez. Why not add different hats to the mix? It could be amusing. Above are just a few ideas.