Here's A Health

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Well, kids, this is it.

At midnight on tomorrow, (the 21st of June), Archive Crawl will cease to exist in its current form. The content will be stored away in my hard drive, but the site as you know it will cease to be. I’ve just been putting off things again and again and it’s just not worth keeping the hosting up anymore.

This will mark the two-year anniversary of the site’s creation, so it’s as good a day as any to let things go. I’ll admit, I’m a bit broken up about things. Archive Crawl was a major part of my life at one time or another, it helped me get through some bad times, it put me in contact with some amazing people (Some of whom I still talk to today through Twitter and sometimes games) , and it was just a lot of fun overall. But all things must go to dust eventually, and it’s time. I’m in a new chapter of my life, this one should end. I’m not going away though! You can still hear from me on Twitter and such.

Blogging is a curious art. At first you don’t give half a damn about who reads it because it’s just a little blog. But you get a taste of fame and things go crazy. Of course, “fame” is a relative term, I got 100 views one day and about pissed myself. But it never was about the ad revenue or whatever, it was that my ideas were actually reaching someone in ways that I never thought possible. My writing went up and down as did my moods and methods, but people still read. It was a great feeling, I will tell you that.

I want to give a shoutout to a few people.

Talthos, of Complex Actions, was one guy that really kept me going in the early days just by chatting every once in a while. It’s hard to start, it’s lovely to know that a great, normal person was reading. We still occasionally chat on Twitter and play games together. He’s a great guy.

Jack Cayless. English bloke that does Chimneyspeak. Great comic-er, inspired me to put pictured in the papers for the first time. Still chat on occasion, another sweet guy.

The various people that relinked my posts on your sites. I know that it was mostly a masturbatory act, but a kind one nonetheless. The special ones in my hearts were the new comic people that never had a review before. It warmed my cockles (and my heart, heyooo!) to see people get so excited about their work, and deservedly so. Brad and Leslie from Blaster Nation were one of these swell folks.

Of course, my friends IRL deserve mention. For all the shit they had to listen to about this site, if anything.

And, of course, my dear readers. I always figured that most people just glanced at the wall of text and tabbed away, but I know some people kept on going, and I love you for it.

Some site stats:

  • Running: Two years
  • Total pageviews: 24,965
  • Busiest day: Jan 18, 2011 (Motokool review), 703 views
  • Top pages: Chimneyspeak (2,307) “School’s In” (1,616), Motokool (1,448)
  • Total posts: 171
  • Times this blog has gotten me laid: 0.

And… well… that’s about it, folks. I love you all, I do. And in a way, I’m really going to miss this site. I haven’t visited it in months, but just knowing it was there, helping some sad bastard waste a day was comforting. But all things must end eventually, eh? It’s not like I won’t still be in the internet, somewhere.

So a health to the company. For we may or might never all meet here again.

With love,

Kyle /”Catalyst”

Between Failures

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Between Failures

I’m back with a real review this time! I know, crazy.

As a side note, I’ve decided to implement a ten point number scale, something I’ve avoided in the past for various reasons. It’s making an appearance because I’ve noticed that all my reviews have had to end the same way, with a bland recommendation. No scale there, just “read it if you want”. So hopefully this will allow some more freedom.

A note about the numbers, though. I will not be using a Four Point Scale. 5/10 is an average comic. 6/10 is a bit above average. 10/10 would have to utterly blow my mind beyond any real boundaries, which means you will probably never see it.

To give scale, here’s some retroactive scores:

Dresden Codak 8.5/10 (Still my favorite comic of all time, but it’s not without its flaws)

Hark! A Vagrant 7/10

Questionable Content 7/10

Nerf NOW!! 6.5/10

NPC 5/10

Menage a 3 6/10

Nicky510 2/10

New Comic: Gaia

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Gaia

BREAKING NEWS: The creators of Sandra and Woo are making a swords-and-high-magic fantasy webcomic, updating in parallel to S&W. It’s called Gaia, and it looks promising.

I still catch up with S&W from time to time, it is still wonderfully written, witty, and some other nice words that begin with W. The art and the dialogue seem to have carried over well, which is excellent. My only concern is that the writing will lose some power when moving from a primarily comedic world to a relatively serious plot. However, we’re only eighteen pages in, which is barely the first page when it comes to fantasy stories, let alone the first act. There are some gems in the available pages that give me hope, still, and I certainly recommend keeping your eye on this comic.

Deus Ex Let's Play

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So… hi.

It’s been a while.

You look good! How’s the dog? Dead, huh? That sucks. I haven’t seen you since June, I didn’t know.

Well, I’ve been busy with this and that, and I’ve not really been in the blogging frame of mind for a while. But, people keep coming to the site, so I suppose I should put something up. It might not be webcomics, but that’s the big life.

I’m planning on doing a Deus Ex: Human Revolution Let’s Play on Youtube. The first few videos are going to be kind of trashy while I work out my setup for them, but I hope that I can put on a decent show. So here’s the first video, it’s mostly cutscenes so I just threw in some stuttering, random commentary to try to get the mic setup properly. Unfortuantely, I’m not really used to this so I recorded in my normal speech, which is the complete package of bizarre turns of half-phrases. I’m sorry if it’s horrid, it will get better. Promise.

That is, better in different videos of different games. I’ve decided to only do a couple of videos to show off the game, it was pointed out to me that doing a runthrough of a brand new game is a pretty crappy thing to do, spoilers and whatnot. So I won’t be having much of it.

I hope you like it. And nice seeing you again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOey-9ihovw

P.S. I don’t think that I’m going to be posting every video up here, so subscribing or whatever one does to follow videos is recommended

(Note: At the time of writing the video isn’t in HD, despite being recorded as such. I’m told that it takes a while for Youtube to mark it for HD, so please excuse the dust until then. Thanks)

Memorial Day

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Happy Memorial Day, Americans. I hope that you’ll enjoy your day off. Perhaps have a nice barbecue? Throw a football around in the warm air?

And while you’re at it, remember why we have this day, to remember those who fell in battle fighting for what they believed was right.

To the men that faced certain death in WWI and WWII, those who charged up beaches and dropped from airplanes in the middle of a sea of enemy fire. Those soldiers who fought to keep North Korea from overtaking its southern cousin, facing the might of an insane force without flinching. Those that crawl though a sea of stinging sand, facing down invisible enemies and disguised explosives.

All of you. You’re all absolutely out of your damn minds, and we could not be more grateful that you are. Thank you.

Folks, it’s easy to get caught up in the bloodlust. They kill some of our citizens, we rejoice when we kill some of their terrorists. And the world is a dangerous place, and there are people out there that would burn our nation to the ground given the slightest chance.

However, please take this Memorial Day to reflect again on why we send our brave sons and daughters off to fight. For the end of the equation is peace, not domination, something that so many people have lost sight of.

I’ve heard that only a soldier can truly understand the value of peace, and it seems to be true.

So take this day to spread a little more peace. It doesn’t have to be much, but even a little bit helps.

As for the soldiers among us, again, I thank you for your service. And for those that gave more than they should have had to, your sacrifice has not gone unnoticed.

Happy Memorial Day,

Cat