I’ve spent a bit of time with the recently released demo for ArmA II. The demo is huge, and contains a lot of content in the 2.5GB download. I have yet to see it all. The game is clearly rough around the edges. Before I could even get it to run I had to install a Direct X 9 redistributable. That’s ridiculous. Once I got it to run, I tried to set my keys. It crashed.

After accepting default controls, I finally got into it. Crawling around is great and when bullets start flying it makes you really want to find cover fast. It doesn’t take much to put you down in this game. I could see me owning this at some point in the future… when it’s been patched more and the community has really gone crazy with it. Definitely check it out if you are into hardcore infantry / vehicle combat.

I watched the entire Microsoft keynote for E3. Lots of cool announcements, but only two that really interested me: Crackdown 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. I’ve wanted more Crackdown ever since finishing the first one. I’m really looking forward to hearing more about that game.

Left 4 Dead 2 is very surprising to me…. usually Valve releases at the pace of Blizzard, i.e. hella slow. Also, they usually support their games with a hefty amount of post-release content. Will L4D2 mean that they are leaving L4D out in the cold? Time will tell. I can definitely say that I got my money’s worth out of the first one, but I’m not so sure I’d jump on the L4D2 bandwagon right at launch. I’ll have to find out more details.

Finally, I wrote a review for Plants vs. Zombies, if the million other such reviews weren’t enough for you.

UPDATE: According to this L4D 2 preview, the format of this release is not in stone. Hopefully we’ll see a discount for owners of the first game, or a possible inclusion in some sort of Orange Box 2. Valve has never screwed over its PC audience yet, so there’s no reason to think they will now.

I felt compelled to produce a quick comic (and I mean quick!) after hearing about the latest bug reports on ArmA II, a game that actually had its release date moved up! Hopefully this game gets polished up quickly… I won’t buy a game that I know is broken. View my chicken scratches here.

Back when The Orange Box came out, I didn’t have a PC capable of handling it, so I purchased it for the 360.  Despite the lack of a keyboard and mouse, I did have quite a bit of fun with Team Fortress 2, and got my money’s worth just with that game.

As everyone knows, Valve proceeded to make the PC version far superior to the 360 version, with tons of free updates. I don’t believe any of these have surfaced for the 360 yet but could be wrong on that one. I don’t really care anyway, since I just purchased it for PC since it’s on sale this weekend due to the release of the sniper and spy update.

A huge part of this update is the separation of weapon / item unlocks from achievements. You now randomly get items through some formula such as (length of play * faith in God / friendship). In the 3 or so hours that I’ve put in over the weekend, I have unlocked two items. I’m perfectly fine with this approach, since it makes for a nice surprise when it happens. It also avoids the problem of servers loaded with snipers and spies. However, if you read any posts about this update, you’ll find a lot of whiners complaining about how much time they’ve put in, only to receive nothing, or to receive duplicate items. Duplicates will be able to be traded in a later update. I saw someone post something to the effect of “I played for 20 hours and got nothing. 20 hours wasted!” Really dude? Your whole 20 hours was wasted? I don’t know about you, but I play to have fun, not to unlock some item that may or may not be all that much better than stock gear.

I’ve been playing the Witcher, and so far I like it a lot. I’m not overly far yet, and I’m hoping that it opens up a bit as far as what I can do. There are a lot of side quests, but the primary quest seems to be fairly rigid as far as how I progress. This could certainly change… character development seems to be very deep, with many different ways to make Geralt (the Witcher himself) better.

I have the enhanced edition, and it came with a small part of one of the Witcher novels. I’ll be picking those up.

I guess I don’t need to worry about playing Duke Nukem Forever any time soon… and that’s hoping that some publisher buys the unfinished work and finishes it. (I’m talking about 3D Realms shutting down, in case you didn’t know.)

In other news, don’t play the Plants VS. Zombies demo unless you want to spend $10. I think I played for 5 hours yesterday. Also, Defense Grid is on sale for $5 until May 13. If only they had put it on sale prior to me purchasing Plants VS. Zombies.

As you know, I’ve not been spending my free time making comics. So what have I been doing? Mainly playing Descent (the board game, not the ancient nausea inducing videogame). As for videogames, I’ve played a bit of Wolverine. It’s surprisingly good… and extremely violent, particularly the cut scenes.

I’ve also downloaded, and very briefly checked out a UT3 mod called The Haunted. It turns the game into a third person shooter with a couple of modes, the primary one being not unlike Left 4 Dead’s survival mode. I’ve only spent about 10 minutes playing single player at this point, but it seems like it might have potential. It’s amazing that I downloaded it all… I almost NEVER mess with mods.

As I mentioned, I’m working quite a bit of extra time at my job, and I also haven’t been very happy with how the comics have been coming out lately. As a result, I’m going to take a break from them for a while. I might look into doing something else on the site, but I’m not sure yet. Lately I’ve been more into my board game Descent than playing video games. However, I did just finish Resident Evil 5. That’s a great game, no doubt.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens. Comics or not, I’ll still update now and again.

I haven’t done much with the site in the last few days. I’ve been working quite a bit of extra time in my real job, so in turn the comic suffers. I have been playing Resident Evil 5 also, so that hasn’t helped.

I do have a comic sketched out… I just have to actually create it.

My latest comic now has a time lapse production video posted. This video is definitely better than the last one. Still not perfect, but I’m getting better at making them.

I finally got to play Descent with a real live person last night. He didn’t survive the first room of the dungeon.