Concerned in Oblivion
There are a great deal of very talented people out there on the 'net, and a great deal of them turn to popular computer games as a means to show us that talent, be it through web comics, machinima or just plain old blogging. Today I'll be pointing you towards one of my favourite talented people, Chris Livingston. A working knowledge of the Half-Life and Elder Scrolls games is desirable to fully enjoy his work, but I'd be interested in how outsiders view his work regardless, so do read on.
Concerned: The Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman
Concerned is a web comic (first issue here) telling the story of Gordon Frohman, a regular citizen whose arrival in Half-Life 2's City 17 comes a few months prior to the more well known and less dim-witted player character Gordon Freeman. Over the course of over 200 issues, usually with 6 panels each, Frohman's adventures take him to some very familiar places as he searches out a place to call home. Once it gets going, the comic is almost constantly hilarious, mining as it does that rich vein of good natured and love filled satire of the game and it's mechanics. Perhaps more surprisingly, by the end, you end up with an incredibly well thought through story, that fits really satisfyingly with the story of Gordon Freeman. On the occasion of a cross over, it's handled fantastically well, especially the issue ending with Freeman's arrival in the city. It's a long haul to get through it all, but I promise that any fan of the Half-Life series will get serious kicks out of it, and the last issue is very much worth the wait just for the punchline.
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Living in Oblivion
Living in Oblivion (first post here) is a still ongoing project by Chris, and takes the form of a blog chronicling the everyday non-adventures of his character, Nondrick. He's just an ordinary Nord trying to get by in the world of RPG game Oblivion:
Simply put, this is an attempt to see if I can survive inside the PC game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion if I run my character like any old random NPC (Non-Player Character). You know, those nondescript, friendly-enough but not terribly important characters you brush by on your way to sell the hundreds of pounds of loot from your latest fortress raid? That’ll be me.
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The end result is more interesting than you'd think, as you see the lengths he goes to avoid playing the game as an adventurer. Regular meals, a bed to sleep in every night (no cheeky sleeping for 12 hours just to get your health back up) and walking everywhere and, crucially NO re-loading once he dies. Obviously this would only be interesting for a couple of posts if you didn't have Chris' flare for making just about every detail funny. His ability to identify foibles in the game encountered by Nondrick mining them for maximum humour is what makes this blog brilliant. Leaving slaun corpses naked in the road and finding cutlery inside wild animals has never been so entertaining. Don't be put off this blog if you've never played any of the Elder Scrolls games, as Chris does a great job of describing the game world to you as you go and leaving the in-jokes to a minimum.
1fort
1fort is currently the home of Chris' well updated blog, which mainly focuses on the staggering wonderful Valve multiplayer game Team Fortress 2, but he's been known to talk about other games, too. The TF2 theme is down to a long held promise that he'll eventually be producing a web comic based around the game. It's worth reading on a daily basis just for his posts, but if we end up getting a comic out of this site as well then we'll, quite literally, be laughing.
Chris Livingston, there.
About this entry
- By Jonathan Capps
- Posted on Saturday, July 26 2008 @ 6:06 pm
- Categorised in Comics, Games, Net
- Tagged with half-life 2, oblivion, team fortess 2
- 12 comments
Morrowind and Oblivion - two of my favourite games of all time. I remember casually sticking Morrowind on thinking it would be just another annoying dungeon quest RPG…6 years later and I would genuinely give up my own life to live there! I have around 50 user-created mods patched in. I was so hyped up for Oblivion, and indeed it is a fantastic game, but it doesn’t come close to Morrowind for various reasons (none of those include what most people whine about - the fast travel, compass etc. JUST DON’T USE THEM!!!). It was made more user-friendly and I’m all for that. It was the game world that, dare I say it, sucked.
By wankmeofflikear...
July 26, 2008 @ 7:29 pm
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I’m almost entirely with you on that. I adore Morrowind almost as much as Deus Ex. I would much less kind to Oblivion, though — having all the hostile NPCs sync up with your level was complete BULL CRAP. I loved in Morrowind how I would stumble across a cave, get my arse roundly handed to me and then not be abele to return until 10 or levels later. That gives a sense of achievement. Also, I loved how when you were really advanced in the game you could walk into a smugglers hide out and just completely run them through. It felt realistic and therefore much more immersive. Morrowind also had an absolute wealth of unique items for you to find. Even if it was worthless, find thing the Silver Sword of St. Fuckface or whatever was so rewarding, yet Oblivion’s special items are so generic by comparison.
Morrowind is an utter masterpiece of game design and balance.
By Jonathan Capps
July 26, 2008 @ 10:20 pm
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When Phil Collins approved the use of his likeness in this game, he probably didn’t know what they were going to have him say.
By Phil Reed
July 27, 2008 @ 12:59 am
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> having all the hostile NPCs sync up with your level was complete BULL CRAP
Oh flippin heck I know!!!! It almost ruins the whole game. I think it was my first character and because I hadn’t levelled up in exactly the right way I got to a certain point where I couldn’t help but have my ass handed to me (I think it was the million Oblivion gates you have to close to get support (i.e. two crap blokes) from each city for the battle at the big Bruma gate) and there’s nothing you can do about it because everyone’s at your level! Luckily there are mods that change this. Not so lucky for PS3 players…
I can’t wait to see what we get for Elder Scrolls V. Hopefully more natural spoken dialogue for a start. Seriously, how many times can you hear ‘Any news from the other provinces?’ from a conversation about two miles away from you without you wanting to end it all?? Maybe a Summerset Isle setting, or they might go back to Hammerfell.
By wankmeofflikear...
July 27, 2008 @ 1:39 am
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I worry about Elder Scrolls V, as Oblivion marked a really sharp change in the wrong direction. We’ll see how Fallout 3 works out, anyway, but until then I’m going to play Morrowind and be happy with that.
By Jonathan Capps
July 28, 2008 @ 12:50 am
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I reckon people will still be playing and modding Morrowind in 10 years time, probably longer!
By wankmeofflikear...
July 28, 2008 @ 3:36 am
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A little late, but thanks for the Living in Oblivion link, Capps. I ended up reading all of it…never played the game, but I found it hilarious.
By Phil Reed
July 29, 2008 @ 6:13 pm
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Glad to be of service. It’s good to see proof that someone with no knowledge of the game could enjoy it so much.
By Jonathan Capps
July 30, 2008 @ 2:39 am
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Made it through Concerned now, too.
I’m at least somewhat qualified at this point to say that Living in Oblivion is a lot more entertaining than Concerned to someone who’s never picked up their respective games.
Maybe that’s also to do with the fact that I’m naturally more intrigued by projects/experiments than I am by webcomics…but, hey, they were both worth reading at least once.
By Phil Reed
August 07, 2008 @ 10:01 pm
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> I’m at least somewhat qualified at this point to say that Living in Oblivion is a lot more entertaining than Concerned to someone who’s never picked up their respective games.
Oh, absolutely. A great deal of the laughs in Concerned come from knowing H-L2 intimately, but I am pleased that it does still stand up to a certain degree with someone who’s never played it.
Chris Livingston wins, basically.
By Jonathan Capps
August 08, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
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Yeah. It had its laugh out loud moments without question, but there were times when I realized I must be missing the comedy because I’m not familiar with the source material. (Then, embarrassingly late, I discovered he had notes below each page of his comics…which pretty much confirmed this.)
If anything, it made me sad that I HADN’T played the game, because I was missing out on a lot of enjoyment from his comic. Which he should take as a compliment.
By Phil Reed
August 09, 2008 @ 4:25 am
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You know, I’m very tempted to encourage you to pick up a copy of Oblivion at some point. Of course, you’d need a 360 or a copy of Windows XP to boot to on your Mac to do so, but if you have either of those it really is a must buy.
I know I’ve said I prefer Morrowind, but Oblivion is a much more accessible and immediately rewarding game, which is something I’ve realised during my recent play through. The whole series has such a rich history and each game does a brilliant job of giving you a very good sense of that, especially if you read every book you can (there are hundreds if not thousands of 10 or so page books in the game.)
By Jonathan Capps
August 09, 2008 @ 9:26 am
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