Mashing buttons since 1984
If the integrity of mainstream video game reviews was in a coffin and all but one nail had been driven home, the reviews for GTA IV was a big mash hammer that drove the last nail in, but bent it totally out of shape before smashing it home, making it all but impossible to pull it out.
Stick a fork in ’em.
Haha! Watching TV and playing video games makes you fat! Especially if you’re a… dog.
How to Decide Which Star Wars Character You Are Most Like. Basic Instructions nails it again.
Personally, I’ve always thought of myself as Boba Fett, minus the ignominious death.
In my never ending quest to find high quality web-comics, I present one I recently came upon: Wondermark. The video game references earns extra bonus points, but that’s just icing on the cake. You should be reading this one if you aren’t already.
Sally Forth is one of the few comics that “gets it.” I got a good chuckle out of this one. Good old Ted Forth, the hero of the Slacker Generation.
Not all comic watch posts will be snarky. There are times when a cartoonist “gets” gaming. And I’m not talking about the Penny Arcade guys or Scott Kurtz. Basic Instructions isn’t a web-comic about video games. It’s a comic about being awesome (among other things). I highlight these two particular strips because they are good (you can see bigger versions here) and show that poking fun at gamers can be very funny.
If you read Scott Adams‘ (The Dilbert Guy) blog, than you already know about Basic Instructions. If you don’t, give the comic a chance. It’s usually pretty hilarious. These two comics ring true to so many gamers. Whether you’re married or have a girlfriend, they are right on the money.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a comic watch, but I caught this one this past weekend and figured it was as good a place to start it up again as any. The comic in question is called Moderately Confused, but really should be called Moderately (but not really) Funny. Being that it’s a one-panel “strip” I always read it because it takes such little energy, but I am routinely disappointed. This one is no exception. Going for the easy “when I was a kid things were better” and the “all you kids do is play video games” is a pretty weak attempt. Besides, that kid is way to young to have a Playstation. A Nintendo, sure. He is a kid afterall. Color me unimpressed.
At least he got Playstation right. He probably could have pointed at a sandbox and said “when I was your age, that was my Xbox” but that would just be weird.
(This is a new (hopefully regular) feature here at buttonmashing.com, where I find comic strips in the dead-tree newspaper desperately trying be relevant by making pop culture references by referring to video games. I’m not trying to be a “Comics Curmudgeon” (one of my favorite sites) but I still have to point it out when I come across it.)
As the inaugural edition of the Comic Watch, it pains me that I have to single out Get Fuzzy, which is one of the comics I geniunely enjoy, but today’s comic wasn’t one of them:
Surprisingly, the “girls don’t play video games” or “guys who play video games don’t have girlfriends” and “video gamers are lazy” are topics usually ignored by most comics attempting to use video games as punch lines. It’s usually “look how violent little Jimmy is becoming since he started playing that Atari Video-Machine 9000!” So in that sense, GF is going off the beaten path, but it’s still unfunny. Haha! Rob hates girls AND exercise because he loves video games! What a nerd!
It also bothers me that Satchel is bagging on Rob like this. Usually they’re pals that support each other’s quirks, not point them out like the sore thumbs that they may or may not be. But that’s neither here nor there.
As you’ll see, most comics don’t “get it.” A few do (Bill Amend comes to mind) but I feel a responsibility to call them out when they don’t. Consider yourself warned!
(And seriously, if you love to hate (or hate yourself because you love) the daily comics found in your paper, you have to read Comics Curmudgeon)
I’ve been sent this one a few times today, so for the few of you who haven’t read today’s Dilbert, it hits home for us cube rats:
(Although, in my case, you should replace “Xbox” with “Nintendo DS”)
