Fallen Idols

Those who have known me for a long time know that I've always enjoyed a good comic book. From reading Spider-Man comics when I was a kid to re-reading Batman: Arkham Asylum for the tenth time (at least) last year (and Watcmen), you can't keep me away from the way it made me feel when things were simpler and when I thought I could just draw for a living. Huh... Well, I am a graphic designer... but anyway...

Back in the days of the mid '90's, a "controversial" comic came out: Spawn. Spawn was one of the first independent comics that outsold Marvel and DC in a first run, and one of the most prolific adult comics out there. The comic was about an anti-hero named Spawn who made a deal with a demon to come back to Earth to reclaim his wife. Only, he's sent back five years later, his best friend is now married to his wife with a kid, and he's more cooked than a hamburger on the 4th of July. People raved how this was original, and a great adult concept, but we're appalled that this was in a "child's medium." Don't you love how often people forget the more adult comics they've read, i.e. Alan Moore's run of Miracleman, where Kid Miracleman's human form is sodomized, unleashing Kid Miracleman who destroys London in one of the most unsettling ways depicted in comics. Or Legends of the Dark Knight which deals with drugs, murder, serial killings, and, in the storyline "Flyer," an Aryan obsessed woman who wants to bear Batman's child. Or even the Watchmen, the comic that has a naked blue man walking around because he can, and even tries to have a threesome with his girlfriend. Oh, yeah, sure... kids medium. Right.

Well, anyway, the creator of this comic is Todd McFarland, and at the time, the man was my hero. This is when I was a naive child, and wanted to create a comic that I, at the time, refused to make scary despite the fact that it is. Now, I look at his works, and despair... just not in the King Ozymandias sort of way.

Anyone who has read the most recent issues of Spawn now realizes that Spawn's K7 Leetha suit is pretty much nothing but the symbiote suit that Venom wears in Spider-Man. Let's face it, it's possessed Al Simmons, Nyx (twice), Morana, Al Simmons' aborted daughter who is now a vrykolakas, and and now a guy that was introduced in the second storyline of the comic's run. A magical symbiote suit, how original. Then, we get Haunt, a character who is possessed by his dead brother's ghost, and can spin webs. Singlehandedly, McFarland ripped-off The Darkness and Spider-Man. Among comic fans I've talked to about this, I found that I am not the only one who thinks this, as several forums have been using this comic as a laughing stock.

Admittedly, despite this, I was a little hurt that an artist I looked up to could sink this low. I was told time and again that he created Venom, and even if Spawn was essentially the same character, that isn't too bad. Well, then I find this out: McFarland didn't create Venom. He only derived a version of the costume from a preset. David Michelinie created the concept of making a different character to wear the symbiote costume, and McFarland drew someone else's design, and character, and took credit for it. Not completely, mind you, but he is usually credited as co-creator along with Michelinie. Controversy has also been thrown over Michelinie's contribution as well, due to it just being an evil Spidey, but consider this: Venom is a different character completely.

We can say that McFarland drawing Venom put the character as a popular figure, but he didn't design Venom. He used someone else's design. That isn't a ripoff, due to him being hired to draw the comics, but why is he given credit for drawing a pre-existing design? Should I get credit for designing a menu for a restaurant that changes nothing but switching the drinks and entres? No, because I didn't design the template, I changed the arrangements. If I made a new template, then I should take credit.

I can say one good thing has happened from learning this: I'm more secure in myself that I have more original ideas than using the same few over and over. Yes, many characters in Goria are "Infected," but consider how vastly different they all are. It'd be boring if all of them made tendrils to swing from using their skin or muscle. People may not like it, but you can't deny this, I'm not a one trick pony based on this. Or else I'll have to change my name to Todd.

- Ben

Functional Vs Impractical: Why "Singularity" Falls On Its Face

For the past two days, I've been watching Ben beat himself up emotionally over something simple. Almost every five minutes, I'd hear him say, "You don't DO that!" as loud as he can without waking up any of the apartments around him as he dies on screen, and, from the sound of it, a little inside. Today, it came to a point that I swear I was going to see him, a short but fairly lean (maybe a bit of a gut, but who cares?) Army man, cry. Sure, we bot may have had some teary eyes during Toy Story 3, but this... this is different.

I'm fairly laid back, so when I get angry watching someone die from bad programming in a game, you know the guys behind to game really dropped the ball. What's more is that Ben and I agreed on this before it came out: Singularity may be the sleeper hit of the summer. Now, we both agree that it needs to get off the shelves, be fixed, then released.

The first problem is that on normal difficulty, enemies shouldn't be doing a third health damage. Three hits, you're dead in an FPS? On level two?! Gimme a break! Watching this game reminded me of watching a child try to play Demons' Souls, screaming "It's not fair! I know I killed that guy!" Let alone what a five year old was doing playing that game (then again, it could be worse), I can say this about Demons' Souls: It was hard as hell, but it was still fair. Enemies did realistic damage, and it didn't lead you on. The game was known for its difficulty. With Singularity, the game starts off extremely easy, and goes into "fight a room full of guys that take a whole magazine (thanks to Ben for letting me know the real term) to kill" territory in the second level. Without giving you enough ammo to kill all of them.

It gets worse. After 30 assault rifle shots, maybe (if you're really lucky) the guy's dead. Two stabs with a knife, he is dead. Your knife if more powerful than a gun? By the time you realize this, they take your knife away and give you a weaker melee attack. Oh! But this one can shift the time traveling enemies back to your time, and slow them down to keep the swarms at bey! Too bad the only tell this after you manage to defeat a swarm.

Let's talk character design for a second. These annoying blue guys, "Zeks," look like blue midget wrestlers. Some of them have a head growing out of their heads. The picture of the Boglin above is a vast improvement over the "Zeks" designs. Do you want to know why? Because, at least if I was fighting that I wouldn't be so busy laughing my butt off at the fact that I seem to been shooting a blue midget version of Sloth. Though this game does make me afraid of "Smurfs" again. ...never again.

As small as the enemies are, you can jump over them at times. Unless you're right above them, then an invisible wall keeps you from moving. But, lets talk about the even smaller guys: Ticks. I hated ticks before, but these little bugs have nothing on the diseased bloodsuckers. These explode and kill you in two hits at most. Even at full health. Keep in mind that you have to reload the device you have to change time more often than you do your gun. Also keep in mind that the developers decided to make most of the guns inaccurate (good luck getting a headshot while zoomed in with the sniper rifle), underpowered (read above about the assault rifle) or way too powerful (shotgun... need I say more?). The weapons that are supposed to be super powered and accurate rarely work properly, or the enemies seem to shrug off the damage like Marvin the Paranoid Android would a compliment.

Where Ben stopped last night was pretty much the breaking point for the game. A blurb popped up saying to slow the creature down to shoot it. Ben does. It slows him down, and the creature stays at the same speed. From an outsider's view, it seems like the programmer forgot to put that part of the programming code in. That, or the strategy is pure rubbish. Or, the more likely scenario, the game is pure rubbish.

I may end up seeing more of this crapfest, but I'm not getting my hopes up for it anymore. If you want a good example of how not to create a game, look this up. But, if you're a programmer, and you have a cool concept for a game, make sure to do it right. Seriously, we're all aloud to make mistakes (Mass Effect was fantastic, but it had some serious flaws), but when the game itself is a mistake, that is unacceptable.

- Alexis