#notdarksouls

Welcome to my comic page!!

(it was really that alligator shot that stood out)

Resident Evil 2 was the first game I ever rented. I was still new to gaming, and the method of play in classic RE was just above my head at the time, so for the entire rental duration I just watched poor Leon and Claire awkwardly stumble around the burning semi truck crash and get devoured horrifically by zombies. I’d never seen any depiction of violence or gore like that in my life.

In spite of my inability to make any progress (or even figure out how to fire the gun in my character’s hand), RE2 stuck with me, and I’d revisit it and RE1 occasionally over the next couple of years until I’d grasped the mechanics well enough to finally play it on my own and beat it. Though RE2 didn’t stick with me or engage me as a fear-dripped horror title like it did for others, it was the first truly important video game I ever played. The sense of pacing, action, style and character came together in a specific sort of vibe and tone that is wholly unique and something I’ll never be able to shake. While I wouldn’t crown RE2 as one of my favorites in the franchise, it’s still an absolutely excellent game to this day, and Resident Evil has maintained itself as perhaps my absolute favorite video game series.

Seeing Capcom return to the classic in such a bold and intense way leaves me speechless.To me, it looks like modern Capcom wants to recreate RE2 in a style that’s as scary and brutal as Hideki Kamiya’s team imagined when those folks were building the original.

Well folks, Jay Pinkerton has left Valve, making him the final writer of major notoriety to depart the studio (for reference, he was one of the lead writers on Portal 2, as well as the Team Fortress 2 comics). The folks who wrote Half-Life, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal, along with all of the accompanying trailers, comics, and extra material over the past two decades? All out the door.

I know this has nothing to do with Souls stuff in any form, but it’s integral I express this matter here, because this blog and this web comic would definitely not exist without Valve.

The first time I saw this, it had an immense effect on me. I’d never seen video game trailers or marketing like this. It was a prerendered video running entirely on gussied up in-engine assets, but animated and energized to look like Pixar had shipped it. Valve as a studio, primarily through Team Fortress 2, have been so enormously inspiring to me that it’s damn near beyond words. The passion expressed in Valve’s titles is positively infectious, and are probably the single biggest reason I’ve worked as hard as I have to try and make writing my day job. Games? Animated shorts? Comics? These guys did it all and did it beautifully. Team Fortress 2 will always remain not just one of my all time favorite video games, but a huge milestone of significance in my life. The impact this game had on me made me look at games and characters in all new ways, from the way they looked (especially in a broader sense of overall art direction) to the way they talked (mainly because of the unmatched voice direction and performances). It introduced me into fandom, got me socializing with more like-minded folks, and motivated me to create more than ever.

It’s important for me to emphasize that I’m not bitter that so many designers and creatively skilled folks, who put Valve on the map for their landmark titles, are no longer with the company. They’ve all put in their pound of flesh and given me (and many, many others) some things that are downright irreplaceable, and I’ll always be grateful for that. We’ll never get any sequels that are numbered 3, but that doesn’t discount all of the brilliance that paved the way.