Since it’s the season of fright (that would be Halloween, not the elections, although…) I picked up F.E.A.R. the other day in an effort to creepify my computer gaming experience. About the scariest thing about it is how much I’ll have to spend on a new video card to have the visuals all cranked up. Sure, they did a nice job in the audio department (and personally a creepy audio experience is often times better than a visual experience) but it’s really hard to take a horror game seriously when you’re a bad-ass super soldier armed to the teeth with automatic weapons. It’s a shame someone doesn’t make a first person survival-horror game where you’re just a regular ol’ joe who has to make it through the game with just your wits and a Mag-lite. One of the keys to inducing terror is to instill a feeling of helplessness, which is sorta impossible when you have a Tac-III vest on and can spew out 100 rounds per minute from your piece.

Just as in the movies far too often games that are supposed to be scary confuse gore with horror. Atmosphere goes a long, long way. The best examples would be the first two Thief games, or the System Shock games. Sure, Thief may not be the most visually arresting game, especially in today’s realm, but you’d be hard pressed to find a game that did horror better. Sneaking into the undead infested church, playing only at night in a dark room, that’s the stuff that sends shivers up and down your spine. Thief and its sequel both positively reeked of an atmosphere that hasn’t been touched in computer games. Call of Cthuluh: Dark Corners of the Earth actually does a decent job, but I don’t know, Thief still burns the brightest for me.

Maybe I’ll dig up Thief and step back into that fright-filled steampunk world again while waiting to dish out candy…

-Scott

PS: On the subject of horror I have to say the flick Slither was a pleasant surprise. I liked the fact that what happened at the end, with the item that was telegraphed early in the movie, actually didn’t solve the problem (trying to avoid spoiling it, those of you who’ve seen it know what I’m talking about). Although once again it seems like the propane industry is a huge backer of horror movies…

When I was growing up I very quickly took an interest in art, and being (a) a guy and (b) interested in all things WWII, my elementary school artwork tended to feature lots of tanks and planes being shot down in flames. Imagine my pleasure when I then discovered that there were comic books, full of tanks and planes being shot down in flames, that also happened to feature much better artwork than my seven-year old hand could produce. Weird War, Sgt. Rock, GI Combat, The Haunted Tank, Enemy Ace…I ate that stuff up. Never could stand superhero comics, but give me a good ol’ war comic any day of the week (I also liked the genre comics of course; fantasy, horror, and sci-fi, or any combination of the three).

Well, that was the late ’70s and by the mid ’80s I had drifted out of comics because the market was changing. War comics, and genre comics in general, were being phased out, replaced by tons of superhero comics. In the ’90s we got the big boob craze, as it seemed like thanks to Lady Death everyone was publishing books that featured gigantically endowed women, for no other reason than to publish gigantically endowed women. Even as late as the early 2000s comics seemed to be in a rut, at least from my perspective. Sure, ever so often I would stop by my local games/comic shop and run across something interesting (such as Milk and Cheese, the GREATEST COMIC EVER!!! Everyone booze up and riot!!), but overall it was a bad time.

Then in 2005 things started to change. War comics became vogue again, and I started having to stop in the local shops on a weekly basis. I’ve always loved sequential art, but it hasn’t always loved me it seems, but since everything is a circle it was only a matter of time before genre comics came back. Since I’m guessing there are others out there like me, but who may not be aware of what’s been offered recently, I wanted to perform a public service and give you a lowdown of what’s been happening…

Common Foe (Image/Desparado). Set during the Battle of the Bulge it’s a tale of some Americans, some Germans, and whole mess of really evil critters Hellbent on tearing everyone apart. The fourth issue finally came out last week after what seemed like an eternity (at least almost a year I think between three and four). From a plot perspective there’s really not much of one (I pretty much summed the whole thing up) and there’s not a whole lot of exposition, which is a good thing. The reader knows as much about the ghoulies as the soldiers in the story do, so it works out. It can be a little confusing, as there are a lot of characters but since they don’t focus on them individually you don’t feel much of a connection, but still, overall if you like The Keep (the book, not the movie) check out this comic.

Battler Britton (Wildstorm/DC) Tells the story of a RAF pilot flying in a mixed Allied air unit in North Africa. Apparently it was originally a British comic in the ’60s, though I have to admit I’m not familiar with the original. It’s a limited series (they’re up to 4 out of 5) and is a great read. Unlike Common Foe the characters are stronger, and the artwork is excellent, and accurately rendered. It’s nice to see a ME-109 with a tail swastika on the cover, though I’m sure there’s some German censor refusing to let DC put it into German shops because of that.

Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy (DC) The Rock is back! Well, he was, as it was a limited series that has already finished its run. And guess who did it? Joe Kubert! Yeah, it was a blast from the past. Of course, while Sgt. Rock does press the nostaligia button, it won’t touch the realism key. While not historically accurate in the least, Sgt. Rock is at least entertaining, though The Prophecy tends a little too much into PC territory.

Fury: Peacemaker (Marvel) Fury without his Howlin’ Commandos. Another limited run series that is now over, like Sgt. Rock it’s entertaining, but unfortunately not the least bit accurate in terms of portraying equipment, etc, which is strange since it comes from Ennis and Palmiotti. Good enough though in a “Dirty Dozen” kind of way though.

Lost Squad (Devil’s Due Publishing) Have you ever met a woman that literally left you speechless with her sheer beauty and magnetism? You just stood there, slack-jawed, thinking, “Ohmigawd, I’m in the presence of an actual goddess?” That’s Lost Squad for ya. The absolute best war comic on this list, even though it’s about as historical as a Michael Bay film. It’s FUN though. Great stylish art, snappy dialogue, superb characters, and just plain a good time. Without spoiling the plot too much it involves Nazi mages, demon soldiers, Nazis with jetpacks, a British spell-slinging commando, and spider tanks. Imagine “The Guns of Naverone” crossed with “Army of Darkness”. This is also a limited run series, with one more ish on the way. Get this series!! (Note: someone just snapped up the rights to turn this into a movie, which if done right will kick ass, if done wrong…)

War Stories Volumes 1 and 2 (Vertigo) Two graphic novels, each featuring four stories set in WWII and the Spanish Civil War. Well illustrated, the stories are entertaining with some nicely unusual plots (such as the Hurricanes that were cat-launched off of merchant vessels when running convoys from Britain to Russia, or the fact that someone has done a story set during the Spanish Civil War, which gets little notice outside of Spain it seems).

Though I haven’t picked any up yet it’s interesting to note that Osprey Publishing, a company wargamers should be quite familiar with, are now releasing historical graphic novels (http://www.ospreypublishing.com/list_by_series.php/ser=GHI). I was at a buddy’s house and he had a pre-release version of The Bloodiest Day and it seemed rather sharp.

Other recent comics of interest, though not war:

Jonah Hex (DC) Ex-Confederate bounty hunter Jonah Hex dishes out a whole lot of violence. Jeez, is this a violent comic. The very first issue features kidnapped kids being forced to fight rabid pit bulls in an arena for sport, and the latest issue has a Mormon being tortured by some crazy hired killers. If you want over-the-top, Hex definitely delivers. I’m not a huge Western fan, but the stories are highly entertaining, and definitely make you wonder what’s coming next.

Fear Agent (Image) ’50s style sci-fi. This is a sci-fi comic that’s meant to be pure fun, so if you’re the type who likes to debate the physics of warp nacelles, you’d better past this one up. Good clean fun, though.

American Splendor (Vertigo) I discovered Harvey Pekar when, hanging out with a friend at 3 in the morning, he popped in the film (highly recommended). Apparently DC wants to give him more exposure than his old publishing route, so good for him. Pekar writes about his everyday experiences, and if you’re like me–paranoid, constantly worrying, always going to the dark place–then you’ll appreciate his stories. Imagine if George Costanza wrote comics, and you have Harvey Pekar.

Wormwood: Gentleman Corpose (IDW) Oh man is this one screwed up comic. Wormwood is an intelligent maggot that walks around in a corpse solving weird crimes. Lots of bizarre things happen. Like what, you ask? Well, how about the patrons of a demonic strip joint vomiting forth terrible monsters because the bartender is masturbating the demon seed into their beer? This is a weird, weird comic, with weird, weird art. Great stuff, if for no other reason than wanting to see how it could get any grosser. It can…

Red Sonja (Dynamite Entertainment) Next to Lost Squad my favorite series on the list, and unlike most of the others who are limited series runs, this is an ongoing series. Half-naked chick with a sword battling monsters and bad guys…what more could you want? Great art, great stories, overall a great fantasy series.

Walking Dead (Image) and Deadworld (Image) Two post-apocylaptic zombie comics, both of which originally were not with Image. I have to give Walking Dead a slight edge, as the characters are better realized, and it feels more like a drama with zombies, rather than simply a gorefest. Deadworld tends to be a little more on the over-the-top side of things, with a talking, bike-riding zombie leader and multi-limbed demons running around. Both are good though, and are heaps better than the multitude of zombie comics that they seem to have spawned. Apparently zombies are the new big boobs of comics.

-Scott

PS: Don’t forget, read Knights of the Dinner Table! Getting ready to submit some more comics so hopefully you can enjoy some Scott R. Krol comics in the mag until the middle of next year!

As you’re probably already aware, Dominions 3 is now in the process of shipping. One really cool thing about the game is the fact that it comes with a nice, thick manual (written by Bruce Geryk, whose byline should be familiar to anyone who has ever picked up a magazine for computer games). A nice, thick manual is a good thing, and yet there are folks out there who don’t seem to care about the manual. Actually, they don’t seem to care about any manual, not just this one.

As a wordaholic who reads everything from the fine print on the Papa John’s ad that comes in the mail, to the contents of my red hot sausage links package (Wait, what’s this…hearts? Animal byproducts?), and especially manuals I find this shocking. To me, part of the experience of a game is the manual. Heck, in some cases, such as pen and paper role-playing, the manual is the game. So what is it with these folks?

Well, I would guess that some are the type that just like to jump into a game and figure it out for themselves. While this can work for some games (Okay, so let’s see, I’m this little yellow pie and if I move the joystick I eat the dots…) but for something as hardcore as Dominions, that’s just not going to work. And just as any wargamer will tell you, knowing the rules is halfway to winning. If you miss out on all the rules, say because you thought you’d just pick them up as you went along, you’re more than likely going to miss out on several aspects of the game itself. So in the end you end up not truly playing the game as it’s meant to be played.

Then there are the folks who think that if you don’t have a manual that will magically shrink the cost. By that logic does that mean you should be able to purchase games with less features for a cheaper price? For example, say you could buy game X for $10 cheaper if it didn’t include sound effects. Of course that’s illogical, because the sound is part of the game, just as a good manual should be part of the game as a whole. The reason Shrapnel offers printed manuals is as an added value. Perhaps you don’t play all our games but a great example are the ProSIM titles. Each one comes with a dense (100+ pages) manual that is chock full of information. Why force someone to scroll through a PDF or spend their own money printing it out themselves?

Ultimately though I think the reason some folks don’t care about the manual is because they’ve forgotten what it’s like. So for anyone who doesn’t recall the good ol’ days listen up…

Once upon a magical time computer games came with useful manuals. You could find out information on how to play the game, and you didn’t need to go out and spend another $20 on some strategy guide that was written even before the game was finished. Then publishers became lazy and greedy.

“Why should we make games for people who think?” the suits asked. “Let’s just keep churning out the same basic formulas, like shooters and RTS games. Forget strategy gaming. Forget flight simulators. Forget wargames. All those require documentation, but with a shooter all we have to tell people is ‘WASD’ and with a RTS all they need to know is left-click attack, right-click move.”

Some publishers even tried to portray themselves as helping the environment out. “Look, we’re not killing trees! Sure, the box is made out of cardboard, and the game itself is produced with oil, but at least we saved ourselves $5 a unit by not even including a one page hotkey summary. What, pass the savings along to you? Ha ha ha ha…” Oh, those wacky mainstream publishers!

Frankly, if you’re buying a computer game than you should expect to get a manual with it. One that is useful. It shouldn’t be an afterthought, it shouldn’t be considered extra cost, it’s part of the game! You wouldn’t buy a boardgame without a manual, why should computer games be different?

So when you get your copy of Dominions 3 crack that manual open and take a deep whiff of that new ink, and then dive right into it. Relish what you won’t be finding in 95% of the games available on a retail shelf.

Remember, manuals are your friend.

-Scott

Some personal notes…

Do you read Knights of the Dinner Table? The past several issues have featured cartoons from yours truly, and there are a couple more currently left on the last batch I’ve submitted that should be coming up soon. Unfortunately since Kenzer now owns the rights to my art I can’t reprint them here, but I can tell you if you like sea monkeys that drive you insane, half-naked elf-chicks, food that eats you, game destroying felines, and much more, you’ll like the ‘toons so check out the most recent issues. It’s a great magazine, and if you’ve ever played a pen and paper RPG you’ll definitely recognize some of the Knights from your past experiences.

My day experience consists of consulting as a DM/RM specialist for the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia in Kennesaw, a place that is sorta like the Bataan Death March, only not as fun. It appears that my time is drawing to a close so if anyone has any leads for something to occupy my time and keep me out of trouble in the North Atlanta area drop me a line (contact info can be found on the Shrapnel site). Never hurts to network I guess.