Better Than Nothing

If Only It Was That Easy

Wouldn't that be nice? A simple drag and drop replacing three afternoons of horribly sweaty manual labour. So the move is complete and my mountains of junk have either been sorted or reclaimed by mother nature. But I'm back in action as far as the comic drawing is concerned, look forward to some more Highscore Kid shenanigans, especially considering it's St. Patty's day this Saturday, as well as a return to the world of Daedalus. More on that in the coming weeks. It's good to be back.

Just Like That

So it turns out that in order to get a house all you have to do is become homeless! That's good news by the way, the Highscore Kid has a new home! Comics will be back on track this Wednesday.

Journey

A little tribute image to Journey, which I honestly can not wait to play. Sorry to everyone who shed tears over the lack of a drawing on Wednesday but things have not improved on the house hunt front. Ah well, we move on don't we.

The Glasses, They Do Nothing. Useful.

Check this out to learn more about the story behind the strip. In other news I regret to inform you, the audience, that the near future of the Highscore Kid blog is somewhat shaky. My flatmates and I are currently in the midst of a struggle not to become homeless and this may cause me to miss a strip despite my best efforts. So consider this a warning, slash disclaimer, and once more I thank you for your patronage.

The Return of Jean Runner

Can't Stop The Beat

The trailer in the strip can be found/watched here. I enjoyed the last one and this looks like an interesting set up. Best keep my eyes on it.

New Game +

So, like the comic says, I finished Mass Effect 2 today and already I'm pining for the next one. My Commander Shepard has gone a little off the rails in this installment and her Paragon status, while intact, is visibly slipping. I guess that after playing the good guy for a while you realise that violence and intimidation can sometimes reap their own benefits. It remains to be seen whether she will redeem herself in the next game or fall even further.

Shut Up and Drive

Something a little different for today. This took me for fucking EVER! Hope you like. Also, I've set up a Facebook page for The Highscore Kid so you can get updates when I post new stuff.

The Arms Race

Just Another Saturday

So logging in to Blogspot this morning I was greeted with some exciting news via Chris' wargaming blog. Colossi! In Warmachine! That's right, even more gigantic models to take up table space and create wallet space. I hope they don't look good cause then I won't have to give Privateer Press all my money.

The Inevitable

Real people, real requests.

I've been spending a bit of time on Mass Effect recently. Yes, that's right, Mass Effect the first. I've been hearing good things for a while now and thought that if I was going to play the third one I'd better get caught up on the story. Especially when half the reward of playing is to have your character move through the whole story arc. Anyway, I finished the game over the weekend and installed the second. I imported my character file and loaded her up (My Shepard's a female-colonist-soldier-paragon for those of you interested). I was pretty impressed with how the game transformed my old-graphics character into a new-graphics one. I was, of course, given the option to recreate her appearance from scratch but after spending 20+ hours with this Shepard I'm loath to say goodbye and start over.

So I Guess It's Summer

I've been checking out my stats lately and thought I'd share some with you. This is pageviews, by month, for the entire duration of this blog.

This is where my last months worth of pageviews came from.

This may all be boring to you but I'm not so secretly excited about the fact that there are more people reading this in the States than in New Zealand. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!? Anyway, thank you very much for your patronage, whoever you may be.

Dot-Con

Get Ready For The Next Battle

The Blackout

The Waiting Game

So apparently the mess with South Korea got sorted out and the game will be here shortly... Goodbye life, hello Sanctuary.

Best o' the Best

Daedalus, Part Four

Better Left Unsaid

Here We Go Again

Another year down...

Family Tradition, Part Two

As you can see the Christmas celebrations were a success. In other exciting news this comic comes to you from my new Wacom Intuos 4 tablet. All 8" x 13" of it. Can you see the increase in quality? Well, can you? Probably not, it'll take some getting used to this new device.

Family Tradition, Part One

Daedalus, Part Three

Roll On

Daedalus, Part Two

I felt kinda bad about posting the cop-out comic last Saturday so today I drew up an epic double size portion for your hungry faces. It's more Daedalus! Cause I know you want to know what happens next.

This Shit? Again?

Some of you may remember this comic from a few weeks back and well, this shit just keeps happening. Our end-of-year work party was last night and between that and my aching bones (don't ask) I was not in a good enough state to be drawing. It's times like these that I really, really, REALLY want a new tablet so I can draw at home again. One of these would be nice. Just saying. My other interesting story for the weekend is a glitch I encountered in Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Basically, I was about to throw some money to a beggar and accidentally stabbed her to death. This may sound extreme but these are the dangers of changing control schemes. So I threw out the money anyway to distract people from my horrendous MURDER. Looking across the courtyard I noticed a group of guards and thought I'd go make myself feel better by assassinating them. I managed to kill them all, with the hidden blade, without any sort of reaction. It was only when the first guard stood back up that I got suspicious. Basically this group of guards had somehow appeared with none of their AI intact. I proceeded to kill them a few times over and every time they would just stand back up, completely oblivious. It's times like these I wish I was playing on the PC. Fraps + Youtube = profit, amirite?

Daedalus, Part One

It's part of a larger story. There's a definite possibility of me doing more comics in this world.

Too Much Choice

Creation kit is on it's way. Time to build myself another house, just like I did in Morrowind/Fallout. Also considering making a bow that does ridiculous amounts of damage to dragons because those fuckers be annoying.

Killer Deals

Relax, Guy

Intuition

So our work day was interrupted by a loud thud this afternoon, followed by a high pitched whirring noise that died out. Blake's initial guess that a helicopter had crashed nearby proved true when we all looked out the window to see some veritable carnage. The viaduct is hardly a good place to operate a chopper, what with all the pokey uppy things about, but if you want to know why someone would do such a thing there's info around.

Groundhog Day

While the comic may be work specific I think graphic designers in general should appreciate the situation.

Meanwhile, Assassin's Creed: Revelations sits and waits patiently on my desk. I preordered the game and have had it for 5 days now. I still haven't played a second of it. At Victor's suggestion I'm saving it for now, at least until my Skyrim buzz wears off. This way I won't be torn between two awesome games and trying to decide how to split my time. Plus when I stop playing Skyrim, or the play time winds down, I'll have a whole new game to enjoy!
I just have to stay away from certain spoiling parts of the internet.

Keep Calm And Fus Ro Dah

Today's comic is rather self-explanatory I believe.
But I am thinking about making up a Keep Calm and Fus Ro Dah poster. Anyone want one?

The Old 'One-Two'

So now that I've played Skyrim - and by that I mean 11 hours playtime on day one - I can tell you that there is in fact NO UNARMED skill. Sure you can punch people as much as you want but the kung-fu shenanigans from Oblivion have vanished. Also, the only resemblance to an UNARMOURED skill is one of the alteration perks which improves magical protection while not wearing armour. There goes my wandering monk archetype.

Here's a little story from my travels.
It didn't take me too long to reach Whiterun, but frankly by the time I saw its broken walls I was sick of plodding around. On my first night there I shelled out a solid thousand gold for my very own horse and we set off to solve the people's problems.
I soon discovered that wolves like to try and eat horses. Yet even as I drew my weapon to fend off the attackers the stallion kicked out with his own. Turns out he's not bad in a fight.
Jump forward to my most recent journey, a long and winding road through saber-cat-country, and I come across a man sitting by the side of the road. He warns me that there are bandits about and asks if I will escort him back to his camp. Reluctantly I agree, but as I follow him I grow suspicious. Sure enough, when he goes to fetch my "reward" he returns with four others, all intent on killing me. Needless to say I wasn't waiting were he thought I would be.
I fall upon them and one quickly falls to my blade. I look around for the others and am horrified to see them ganging up on my trusty steed. I wade into the melee but it is too late, my horse is dead. With fury in my heart I turn on the last standing bandit, the same one who lured me here, and drive both swords up into his ribcage.
I walk the rest of the journey.

So, everyone go play Skyrim now. It's stories like these that really excite me about the game. Everyone's story is going to be different and I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT.

One Dice Down

Does anyone else play the rule where unpainted figures roll a die less for attack and damage?

Apollo's Curse

The Many Faces Of Skyrim

People around here are starting to get excited about Skyrim. As in one-week-til-release excited.
I was thinking today about how the game trailers have set up this character, with his distinctive helmet, who isn't actually part of the game. Sure, you could go out of your way to recreate the warrior from these clips but the reality is that he won't exist in most people's games.
Today's comic covers one possible scenario which would cause the helmet to be prevalent in lots of games. You either make the player start with that helmet; make it the ultimate item, so everyone wants to get it eventually; or you just leave a shit-ton of them lying about in the game world.
It's also interesting how much of a symbol that helmet has become. It's more recognizable than the actual game logo itself, title omitted. I remember seeing people wandering around PAX Prime wearing those helmets and thinking, "Oh sweet, there's a Skyrim booth somewhere."

On another note, Victor and I have been planning our characters. He's got a fully-armoured battle mage in mind, who wields a strange pairing of tower shield and offensive magic. I'm thinking of something along the lines of a swordmage. Using defensive magicks to bolster my deadly melee skills. Anyone else starting to plan their character out?

Recurring Nightmanres

It's an Invader Zim quote

Mur-lokemon

In case you haven't been keeping up, Blizzcon took place this past weekend. Plenty of choice information to feast your mind on if you're into their shit.
But the addition of a pet battling system to WoW? Really? Couldn't wait for Nintendo to get around to theirs?
I imagine the meetings went one of two ways.

Meet way the first:
"Hey boss!"
"What is it Jenkins?"
"You know those pets we have in the game? They should be able to fight!"
"But they're too small to have any effect on the epic monsters in our game."
"Well I guess we could make them fight each other..."
"Excellent idea Jenkins, lock it down."

Or more like this:
"Hey boss!"
"What is it Jenkins?"
"We should do Pokemon in WoW!"
"Excellent idea Jenkins, lock it down."

Good Times

Almost at the end of the Rugby World Cup insanity.
Soon I'll get my carpark back at work, although I'm not sure I'll use it. The train kinda appeals to me.

It's getting close to gaming season and I'm rather excited. I got my monthly copy of Game Informer in the mail the other day which is always fun. Every month I forget I have a subscription, so every month I'm pleasantly surprised.
Anyway we've got Skyrim and Assassin's Creed: Revelations coming out within a week of each other so I foresee some sleepless nights on the horizon. More on that when they're released though.

Til nek time.

Re: Tardis

Sergei's Exterminate Service, Part Two

Sergei's Exterminate Service, Part One

I'm not sure if it's something I ate, but my blood must taste bad. Almost everyone who has slept in my flat over the last week has walked away with bites. Somehow I remain untouched by the night-visitors, these tiny vampires.

Fomodemic

Humanity, It Comes And Goes

The People of Southreach

First things first. The comic is a little snippet of what happened at our weekly DnD session on Thursday night. One of our party members is away in Australia, picking up swords, so we couldn't really continue the main quest. I decided I'd move the plot sideways and get the guys to play out some events that are occurring parallel to what they're doing.

Each remaining party member was given a new profession at random and they took on the role of a resident of Southreach, a frontier town that sits on the edge of the desert. Then the undead began to show up in the town, rising up from the sands to the south.
Their objective was to find out what was creating the undead and on the way they had to develop the layout of the town. For example, when one player looked out the window of the saloon he saw a familiar building across the road, and it was up to him to decide what that building was.

It was a lot of fun, with the guys trying to track down improvised weaponry and make their way around town as all the zombies swarmed in. I think the best thing about playing out this event is that now the previously blank town of Southreach has some interesting NPCs and an exciting history. If the party ever ventures down that way they will be able to meet these characters they've set up themselves.

On a sadder note, my car has once again been broken into. The same window was smashed and luckily for me there was nothing of value to steal. The real problem stems from the fact that the thief seems to have tried to start the car using a screwdriver, which has royally fucked up my ignition.

But hey, there's no point getting down about it. Life goes on.
Enjoy the comic.