The topic of today’s comic comes from the wild ideas of what would happen if Patrick Stewart weren’t just providing the narrative for the new Castlevania: Lords of Shadow game, but was actually cast in the lead role where he would so naturally fit.

Speaking of the new Castlevania game, I must say that it is nice to see a proper transition of the series into 3D. I remember so long ago seeing pictures of the ill-fated Dreamcast version and salivating profusely at the thought of its arrival. Instead we got served the sad piles of waste that arrived on the Nintendo 64 and since then our only good outlet for the series was in its 2D glory on the Nintendo portable systems.

The current incarnation of the series has given me renewed hope; though not without a side of trepidation. I like the feel of the game so far, no doubt the God of War style of gameplay has proven to be quite popular. However, I have been a little worried by certain quirks that have stood out. The most notable is the look of some of the graphics on monsters; specifically the werewolf in the rain in some of the trailer videos and in-game shots seem to be too shiny and fake – almost like a plastic skin. The rest of the game looks rather good, so I can only hope that this gets changed with something more like an animal and less like a plastic doll dipped in a solution of olive oil and water.

The other source of concern is the music composition. While the score that I have heard sounds good in its own right, I don’t think it FEELS like Castlevania. How is it that virtually all of the music on the handheld systems can give off this vibe but the big production on the PS3 cannot? I’ve heard that they will follow some queues from the series, but what has been shown so far has no hint of that good old Castlevania flavor.

If this PS3 thing doesn’t work out Konami, could you PLEASE for the love of god get Vanillaware to give us a proper Symphony of the Night sequel? You really do owe it to us and they have already proven that 2D works OH SO WELL on modern systems and DON’T need to be some shitty downloadable game.

In other news, with E3 here there has been quite a lot of exciting game reveals to come out of the LA Convention Center. To be honest there seems to be more interesting things this year that there has been in many previous years. I have to say that Nintendo has really stolen the show – not only do they have sequels to many of their top series’, the very same games actually look interesting! On top of all that, a new portable system that is sporting some 3D “holographic” images without the need to use special glasses, it makes me feel they are poised to dominate for the coming years.

In comparison, Sony and Microsoft look like limp biscuits with their add-ons developed in the “me too!” philosophy solely to capitalize on the Wii’s success. It seems only a matter of time before they rush out with similar portable clones with some gimmick similar to the 3DS; but that’s okay as the world can’t be full of innovators.

Sorry for the long delay on the recent comic; I hope you all get this one. I feel that Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) is an actor that almost EVERYONE knows because of Star Trek: The Next Generation, even for those who didn't watch it regularly. It's kinda like how so many people know Kirk and Spok from the original series without actually watching much or any of it. =o I'm also hoping that many gamers will catch the joke of Captain Picard being in the presented setting since it was revealed I think about half a year ago that Patrick Stewart was doing the narration for the new Castlevania game scheduled to come out later this year by Kojima Productions, news which has been refreshed with the come about of the recent E3.

I have some mixed feelings in the completion process of this comic.~ I was really happy because I think I finished this one in less time than I've spent on the other comics, but we're not actually posting until two days afterwards so it feels like I was time efficient, but it didn't matter. lol It's such a gratifying feeling after working a long number of hours and being able to rest, feeling that you deserve it. =)

Hope you guys enjoy the comic!