T w e n t y S i d e d

And the After After Curfew series comes to an end.

This is a double-sized comic, and I had more material still that I cut. Could’ve run this for a couple more strips at least. But I didn’t want to run this Halloween story halfway to Thanksgiving.

Good Halloween. My oldest daughter went as a princess. The second daughter went as a kitty. My son went as Batman. Again. This wa either the second or third year in a row he’s gone as Batman. He’s never even seen the movies. He just really likes Batman. I went as a guy who sat at home and played Starcraft II.

What was your costume?

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

It respond to some of the gripes with last week’s litany against Obsidian.

I’ve set New Vegas aside now so that I can binge on Minecraft they can patch the game a bit more. I don’t want the game to be spoiled by glitches.

I will say that the writing feels a little different this time around. One of my other gripes with Obsidian is their antagonistic companions. G0-T0, Handmaiden, Quarra, Neeshka, and several others managed to drive me up a wall. Not in a “oh! interesting conflict!” sort of way but, “Gah. This person is less fun than tooth cancer. Why can’t I kill them or dump them?” This is stylistic grip. I don’t think they’ve been doing it wrong, and lots of people really prefer the KOTOR II characters to KOTOR Classic, but it didn’t always work for me. Alpha Protocol seemed to get it right, though. There were antagonistic characters, but they fell closer to interesting than irritating. (The whole game was shades of gray, both morally and personality-wise. I’m still miffed at how things turned out for that game. It was their most polished game and the one where they were finally able to cut loose and tell their own story instead of making a sequel to a BioWare game. That should have been their moment, right there.) Now we have New Vegas, and everyone in the game is so friendly it almost feels like a BioWare title. I’m not saying this as a bad or good thing. Just observing. Even Benny is sort of a lovable rascal. A bit. At times.

Of course, it’s entirely possible I’ve just missed out on the jerks. But still, I’m having fun with it, and the game has even squeezed a couple of laughs out of my blackened heart.

Alas for the bugs.

Good news: Bethesda bought id software. Imagine what things will be like when Gamebryo gets stashed on a backup drive and these companies get their hands on some well-engineered technology. I have high hopes.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

And now I present… my most terrifying comic to date!

Which actually isn’t all that terrifying, really.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

My new let’s play has begun over at the Escapist.

This should be interesting. Lord of the Rings Online is something like 1/40th the size of World of Warcraft. A far larger portion of the audience has likely played the area of the game I’m describing. I wonder how that will impact reader’s perceptions of the story.

Ah well. This was a long time in the making. Hope you like it.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.