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[PA Comic] Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - Xenotriptych

GethGeth LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
edited February 2013 in The Penny Arcade Hub
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Posts

  • The Scottish UnicornThe Scottish Unicorn CaliforniaRegistered User regular
    It's so hit or miss with Gearbox, how do they manage to go from making a solid FPS like Borderlands 2?

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  • I needed anime to post.I needed anime to post. boom Registered User regular
    By not giving a shit.

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  • TheBaron87TheBaron87 Registered User regular
    Panel 3: "The way we* have it right now."

    Good job though, it's been years since I've seen a typo in the comic.

  • SmasherSmasher Starting to get dizzy Registered User regular
    I attempted to understand this comic as one narrative and was very confused.

  • AnzekayAnzekay Registered User regular
    I love how they have several different jokes within the one comic, for different topics. Very meta.

  • OnmitsuOnmitsu I'm just a birdie Ca-caw, ca-caw!Registered User regular
    I had to come here just to gasp and comment on the typo. Also, I had the same problem as Smasher. It being 4AM doesn't help.

    Man, even Dora the Explorer thinks you're slow.
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    I giggled for about five minutes at the middle panel

    might make that the new avatar

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    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • Fixer40000Fixer40000 Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    It's true, Colonial Marines is a horrible mess of a game which has made sales only because of the hype machine and marketing push before release...

    But we can use this as another golden opportunity. See which reviewers grade this game over 7 and consider their opinion to have no appreciable value from this point on!

    Fixer40000 on
    Have left PA forums.
    If this community believes that hating someone based soley upon their gender is acceptable and understandable, I have no interest in being a part of it.
  • Dark Raven XDark Raven X Laugh hard, run fast, be kindRegistered User regular
    edited February 2013
    Man, I feel so bad for a couple friends who preordered this. I was close to pulling the trigger on it; a few of the older trailers looked fantastic, but there was always that jerky Alien animation that was totally gonna get fixed for release, and Powerloaders littering the scenes, and insisting it's a canon continuation of Aliens despite being set in Hadley's Hope which we were assured as of Alien3 would be a "nebraska sized field of vapor" and that's before we even get into the gameplay...

    It has had the positive effect of destroying my lust for preorder tchotchkes. I still have one pending, for Metal Gear Rising, but that has a demo that was thoroughly fucking rad, so it feels somewhat justified.

    I preordered Tomb Raider on Steam last year on the strength of the action sequences in the trailers, and the misguided notion that Naughty Dogs were behind it. Now I know that's not the case, getting a little nervous about it.

    Dark Raven X on
    Oh brilliant
  • rubykavalierrubykavalier pink is the new bacon Registered User regular
    I feel like I'm playing a different game than everyone who gave it a bad review. I've done all but the last 3 missions in the co-op campaign and it's been solidly enjoyable. I don't regret preordering in the slightest.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    It's so hit or miss with Gearbox, how do they manage to go from making a solid FPS like Borderlands 2?

    The credits have three other developers listed above them (not counting their producer credit), and there was this guy the other day who said that Timegate did most of the work. Timegate is still hiring to work on the game, Gearbox isn't - so presumably however much Gearbox did on the game itself Timegate's taking over on the DLC.

    The games industry is a lot like the movie industry: The logos on the box don't always mean that's who actually made it.

  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    Anzekay wrote: »
    I love how they have several different jokes within the one comic, for different topics. Very meta.

    It's a literal triptych. Very nice.

  • EnlongEnlong Registered User regular
    I love the first panel.

    "The forbidden numbers"

    Like 1, 2, and 3.

  • cooljammer00cooljammer00 Hey Small Christmas-Man!Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    This comic is a bit incomprehensible. I'm not sure if the 2nd panel is the people the games reviewers have sent to retrieve numbers less than 7 or a mockery of the in-game dialogue. And then at the end it's different white dudes who I guess are the developers?

    Couldn't Gabe and Tycho have just used themselves in this comic like they do when other games are terrible?

    edit: Just read the title. Never mind.

    cooljammer00 on
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    3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
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  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    This comic is a bit incomprehensible. I'm not sure if the 2nd panel is the people the games reviewers have sent to retrieve numbers less than 7 or a mockery of the in-game dialogue. And then at the end it's different white dudes who I guess are the developers?

    Couldn't Gabe and Tycho have just used themselves in this comic like they do when other games are terrible?

    edit: Just read the title. Never mind.

    Yeah, on first read I thought the second panel was the assassins that game developers send after reviewers who give bad reviews, which made me try to connect the third panel and everything went to shit.

    Everything was butts.

    What is this I don't even.
  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    (panel 2)

    RAMIREZ!
    You ever been mistaken for a man?

  • TleilaxuTleilaxu Registered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Yeah, on first read I thought the second panel was the assassins that game developers send after reviewers who give bad reviews, which made me try to connect the third panel and everything went to shit.

    Everything was butts.

    Same, then I read the title and got it. But then I got angry that I know what a triptych is, because that humanities class was fucking awful.

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  • lionheart_mlionheart_m Registered User regular
    Heh, now I got it. Totally forgot what a triptych was. Also I think I'm going to hell. I practically sold a CE preorder to my best friend (who's a HUGE Aliens fan). I think I'll have to buy him something nice to make up for it.

    3DS: 5069-4122-2826 / WiiU: Lionheart-m / PSN: lionheart_m / Steam: lionheart_jg
  • IncindiumIncindium Registered User regular
    So can someone explain the middle panel to me?

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    Nintendo ID: Incindium
    PSN: IncindiumX
  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    Incindium wrote: »
    So can someone explain the middle panel to me?

    It's all toilets down here, that's all you need to know.

  • Shakes999Shakes999 Registered User regular
    The drawing of the marine and his subsequent dialogue is easily the funniest thing I will most likely see today. I laugh more and more every time i look at it.

  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    Incindium wrote: »
    So can someone explain the middle panel to me?

    I'm pretty sure the guy is supposed to be one of the characters in the game, demonstrating how bad the dialogue is.

    What is this I don't even.
  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
  • Saint JusticeSaint Justice Mercenary Mah-vel Baybee!!!Registered User regular
    I'm pretty sure it's just an example of how stupid the dialogue is in the game.

    Some people play tennis, I erode the human soul. ~ Tycho
  • ZekZek Registered User regular
    I think the problem is that the "forbidden numbers" line sounds like a lead-in for a continuation of that joke. So when the strip goes off on a tangent instead it's very disorienting.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    Only after coming back to the thread twice did I realize that each time I was imagining the space marine in the second panel talking in Joe Swanson/Brock Samson's voice.

    Hevach on
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    They should have put little boxes in the corner to setup each scene as something different. Or maybe some transition dialog. Like, first box add something like "Look at how bad the dialog is..." -> transition to panel 2 - at the bottom of panel 2, "What were the developers thinking?" -> transition to panel 3.

    Otherwise once you figure out the flow, the comic is pretty hilarious :P Even if it has a Tychpo :P

    Warlock82 on
    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • GrisloGrislo Registered User regular
    Rolo wrote: »

    Nobody puts baby a vicious alien killing machine in the corner.

    This post was sponsored by Tom Cruise.
  • Houk the NamebringerHouk the Namebringer Nipples The EchidnaRegistered User regular
    Warlock82 wrote: »
    They should have put little boxes in the corner to setup each scene as something different. Or maybe some transition dialog. Like, first box add something like "Look at how bad the dialog is..." -> transition to panel 2 - at the bottom of panel 2, "What were the developers thinking?" -> transition to panel 3.

    So you want them to CAD it, is what you're saying

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    Zek wrote: »
    I think the problem is that the "forbidden numbers" line sounds like a lead-in for a continuation of that joke. So when the strip goes off on a tangent instead it's very disorienting.

    Or maybe every panel is its own contained beat and "disorienting" is a melodramatic way of describing your initial confusion.

    Panel 1 is an introduction to the idea that the game is bad, and rips on scoring systems for reviews.
    Panel 2 is an example of how bad the game is.
    Panel 3 is the development side being retarded.

  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    Houk wrote: »
    Warlock82 wrote: »
    They should have put little boxes in the corner to setup each scene as something different. Or maybe some transition dialog. Like, first box add something like "Look at how bad the dialog is..." -> transition to panel 2 - at the bottom of panel 2, "What were the developers thinking?" -> transition to panel 3.

    So you want them to CAD it, is what you're saying

    I have no idea, I don't read CAD

    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • MetalMagusMetalMagus Too Serious Registered User regular
    Warlock82 wrote: »
    Houk wrote: »
    Warlock82 wrote: »
    They should have put little boxes in the corner to setup each scene as something different. Or maybe some transition dialog. Like, first box add something like "Look at how bad the dialog is..." -> transition to panel 2 - at the bottom of panel 2, "What were the developers thinking?" -> transition to panel 3.

    So you want them to CAD it, is what you're saying

    I have no idea, I don't read CAD

    Exactly!
    You don't read CAD because it sucks, and it sucks because it spells out the jokes worse than an obsessive-compulsive political cartoonist

  • JarsJars Registered User regular
    at first glance I thought panel 2 was about forbidden numbers

  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    edited February 2013
    Jars wrote: »
    at first glance I thought panel 2 was about forbidden numbers

    I thought it was someone reporting that the reviewers wanted to use the forbidden numbers. Like he waits in the vents watching for scores below 7.

    So a joke on IGN more than the game.

    MichaelLC on
  • -Tal-Tal Registered User regular
    nah this strip is structured in a confusing way and a couple bars at the top wouldn't be "CADing" it

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  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    It is immediately clear if you read the title. Well, and I guess know what a triptych is. Are there people who don't?

  • JarsJars Registered User regular
    there are probably lots of people unfamiliar with an ancient greek art style

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Jars wrote: »
    there are probably lots of people unfamiliar with an ancient greek art style

    So they type it into Google and learn something. Not everything has to be spelled out. This isn't the funny papers. Even without knowing what a triptych is, it isn't difficult to intuit that the panels are unrelated.

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    How do people with such a limited vocabulary manage to comprehend any given newspost?

  • ShortyShorty touching the meat Intergalactic Cool CourtRegistered User regular
    edited February 2013
    this is easily my most favorite comic in months

    (if not years)

    I want to smooch it

    Shorty on
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