Welcome to another edition of the Comic Commish, bringing you the greatest hits from the previous generation of consoles. As always, my eternal thanks to Gold sponsor @omghisam and the Giant Bomb crew. The year 2010 meant a lot of things to a lot of people, but for me 2010 was when I finally took the plunge and became the prolific content creator for Giant Bomb that I am today. Well, I say I create content for Giant Bomb, but what I mean is that I upload words and scribbles onto their website and they just sort of tolerate it for the time being.

Anyway, when I'm not aggrandizing my meager role on this site, I'm creating equally underwhelming artwork to represent some of my favorite games of a specific release period. For the month of April, this is the first half of 2010 from January to June. (I always bold these things, like it's never apparent from the title.)

The Comic Commish, Possibly Sponsored by NewEgg (We'll Talk)

The original Mass Effect was a big deal when it came out. It effortlessly created an entire setting with aplomb, dropping players in the middle of an interstellar mystery plot that took the time to flesh out its rogue's gallery of oddball team members, allowing the player to tackle each of its scenarios in any order they wished and punctuating a few memorable scenes with Hollywood-esque explosions and tense decisions. It was one of those games, I'd imagine, that required a long hard look at the drawing board once it became time to create a sequel that could not only live up to its predecessor but potentially even eclipse it.

Beyond fixing the comically long elevator loading times and amending the affront to Isaac Newton's life's work that was the Mako Tank, I wouldn't have thought it possible to improve too much on Mass Effect. What Mass Effect 2 did to succeed in its mission, in spite of the huge odds against it, was to wisely double down on what it felt were the more important aspects and allow everything else to fade into the background like so much space radiation. Inventory management was heavily reduced, the focus on character development was heavily increased. The tactical combat was heavily increased, and the planetary exploration was heavily reduced. The whole game felt like it was directed by endless meetings on what was a priority and what was inessential.

Whether you personally felt Mass Effect 2 was actually more fun than the original is entirely dependent on your attachment to the various aspects that were either emphasized or de-emphasized, but there's no denying that Mass Effect 2 is a significantly more focused product with considerably more confidence than its forebear; in essence, it was the franchise maturing from an insouciant schoolkid with the whole galaxy as their oyster to that young adult planning for college, deciding on what stringent path makes the most sense going forward. I might argue that the characters are a lot better in ME2 - there's certainly a more impressive selection to choose from - or that the tactical squad-based combat is tighter or really that firing probes into Uranus isn't necessary better or worse than doing mad low-gravity flips in a stupid moon jeep, but there's something to be said for a sequel taking such a confident step forward. Especially one with so many expectations to live up to.

Final Fantasy XIII definitely has an unfortunate reputation. This is largely due to how it spends much of its running time spent in what is pejoratively dubbed "The Tube": an endless linear corridor with the occasional twist and turn and amazing looking wallpaper that the player sprints through for the first two thirds of the game. During their time in the Tube, the player (slowly) acclimatizes to the various new features that are introduced in FFXIII: its world of a suspended spherical modern utopia, its mythology of ancient machine-like deities and the unfortunate human thralls they gang press into serving them, its cast of characters, the fast-paced and largely automated combat, the Paradigm system, the Crystarium, hair-dwelling chocobos and Hope's endless whining about his dead mother.

Even if it is a little hard to see past its problems (and make no mistake: they are legion) the core game isn't actually all that bad. Battles are brisk yet strategic; they tend to conclude fairly quickly, though whether it's the enemies that got wiped out or your own team is often dependent on your reflexes and situational awareness. The Crystarium simplifies the Sphere Grid of FFX and the License Grid of FFXII in such a way that you're still able to customize your characters in a myriad number of directions, but the manner in which you can do so is far less abstruse. The game reserves all its open-world exploration and side-questing for the end-game, and there is a heck of a lot of it to get through even if you don't see neither hide nor hair of much of it for most of the playing time. The characters... well, I have more trouble defending the characters. They aren't a particularly memorable bunch overall, though Lightning's a far more preferable protagonist than the equally reticent Squall (I also like Oerba Yun Fang a lot; Final Fantasy has an appealing tendency for aloof spear-wielders).

It's next to impossible to sell Final Fantasy XIII with a tagline like "it starts to get good at the 30 hour mark, I swear" and is deservedly considered the weakest of the post-SNES, non-MMO Final Fantasy games. Even so, there's a considerable level of pedigree behind any given Final Fantasy game - visuals, music, atmosphere, unique combat/development systems and what have you - and XIII doesn't entirely squander it all with its numerous foibles.

Nier's a similar case as Final Fantasy XIII in that it's a divisive game of highs and lows, but with Nier those zeniths and nadirs are all the more pronounced. Nier's combat is mostly uninspired character action hack and slash, with the occasional incongruous bullet hell sequence during boss fights, and a few special magical attacks courtesy of a friendly sentient book that follows the protagonist at all times. Its side-quests are largely insipid time-wasters, especially where any fishing or gardening is concerned. It can be visually lacking in a lot of areas, though its stark minimalism can often work in its favor too. Nier also takes to perplexing flights of fancy, switching up its basic combat-focused gameplay to a Resident Evil-styled fixed-camera jaunt through a spooky mansion, or randomly shifting to a text adventure format, or bouncing to a side-scrolling platformer. Its plot becomes increasingly labyrinthine and convoluted, going far beyond the original goal of rescuing the hero's kidnapped daughter from an evil enigmatic being known only as the Shadowlord.

Despite all of its madness, Nier has some considerable power in its corner: It's endlessly inventive, it makes the most effective use of new game plus playthroughs I've seen in a video game, it has an incredible emotional soundtrack (from Keiichi Okabe, his studio Monaca and cavia's in-house composer Takafumi Nishimura) and the story is never afraid to hit you hard where it hurts whenever it feels like it. You can fault Nier's gameplay and you can fault Nier's insanity, but you cannot fault Nier's heart. It's the least "designed by committee" game you'll probably ever play, for better and for worse.

Revisited

(Fair warning, this month's "Revisited" is as quiet as this part of the Comic Commish's going to be for a long time. Because I started creating comics for every weekly blog around the start of 2011, and how I'm almost always around six months behind the curve, we're going to start seeing a lot more "previously seen" items here. I might have to be judicious with what I use.)

Before (well, alongside concurrently) From Software was trying to kill you over and over with their merciless Souls games, they revisited a few of the cultural touchstones they drew from when creating the worlds of Boletaria, Lordran and Drangleic in 3D Dot Game Heroes's loving blocky homage to ancient JRPGs. The chief influence is, of course, the Legend of Zelda: from its multi-chambered puzzle dungeons to its emphasis on exploration and item acquisition. In addition, however, there are innumerable other nods and in-jokes that refer to timeless RPG and adventure games. The game's a classic example of modern, on-point From Software: a core adherence to many old-school game design philosophies with many modern trappings and fresh ideas bolted on top. It also has a bananas sense of humor as well, an element of From's games generally not seen too often in the dour Souls trilogy: For instance, in order to log a monster in your journal's bestiary, you have to actually hit them several times with the book in question. This becomes comically ridiculous when you're having to log bosses by whacking them over and over with a hardback. (Editor Note, which is actually just me: Oh hey, this was the first "regular" comic I ever made for this site. It's also first alphabetically in my GB comic folder.)

Fragile Dreams is about as melancholy as it gets, and by "it" I specifically mean atmospheric post-apocalyptic horror survival anime RPGs. So what I'm saying is that of all the many atmospheric post-apocalyptic horror survival anime RPGs out there, this is possibly the most downbeat and lugubrious, just so we can all be perfectly clear on that going forward. Honestly, Fragile Dreams is one of those problematic games that succeeds through its sheer oddness and creativity, not unlike the above Nier. You'll recognize elements from Silent Hill, Dark Souls and Tri-Crescendo's earlier Eternal Sonata, and if the juxtaposition of bright and cheerful anime funtime adventures and starkly grim and lonely treks into the darkness that constantly prey on your nerves sounds like the sort of thing you want to be a part of, then by all means try Fragile Dreams out for yourself. Just beware of Chickenhead.

The Other Ones!

As always, here's a selection of games I didn't cover this time, but are absolutely worth a look-see. You could even consider these games too awesome to be belittled with a gently mocking comic strip, if that helps you sleep at night.

• Bayonetta (Platinum, 360/PS3, Jan): Kamiya's usual mix of skill-based, balls-hard character action and hyperstylized badassery isn't generally my cup of tea, but Bayonetta was an enjoyable enough entry level gateway for the Devil May Crys and Viewtiful Joes the outspoken Japanese designer is known for. The enemy designs are truly bizarre and Bayonetta's array of foot-pistol-assisted combos and over-the-top summons add flair to a game certainly not lacking in it. If your patience for character action games hasn't dissipated after a hundred lackluster God of War clones, Bayonetta's probably the best the genre has to offer you. And, unlike Devil May Cry, no-one seems to mind that the newest sequel's given her a new shorter hairstyle.
• Darksiders (Vigil, 360/PS3, Jan): Though its third game remains sadly lost in the ether as of writing, the Darksiders series started strong with a McFarlane (that would be Todd, not Seth) take on the apocalypse and its four pale riders that melds with an oddly familiar set-up of passing through dungeons looking for maps and compasses and a special piece of equipment that would allow you to reach additional parts of said dungeon currently inaccessible. Darksiders wore its various influences on its sleeve, but made for a compelling whole all the same.
• Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Capcom, NDS, Feb): The Ace Attorney series' first spin-off featured the permanently standoffish Miles Edgeworth in cases that were significantly more interested in the investigation parts of the original games, rather than the chaotic courtroom scenes that punctuated every case. The game introduced its own deduction mechanic in the Logic system, allowing Miles to figure out aspects of the case by linking two matching clues together. It's an odd departure for an already odd series, but still managed to retain much of what makes the Ace Attorney series such compelling fun. It's a shame the sequel was never officially localized.
• Deadly Premonition (Access, 360, Feb): I should probably just post the whistling theme and call it a day. Here you go. Let's move on. (For serious, there's two whole Endurance Runs to sell you on this game if you need them.)
• Just Cause 2 (Avalanche, 360/PS3/PC, Mar): Just Cause 2 is an exercise in function over form. Its function is to be fun (to put the fun in function, you might even say. If you're an asshole). The finer details about Agent Rico Rodriguez's sojourn into the fictional unstable Southeast Asian island nation of Panau and his cooperation with various rebel forces to bring down the residing despotic leader is largely incidental to blowing shit up and having a riot with the grappling hook mechanic.
• Alan Wake (Remedy, 360/PC, Apr): Alan Wake's feckless eponymous protagonist is thrust into a nightmarish landscape shortly after entering a small town in this extended video game homage to Stephen King novels and the Twilight Zone, which also borrows a few elements from Japanese horror games in setting up a disquieting environment where nothing's quite as it seems. Though running through endless amounts of forests illuminating possessed hicks got old after a while, the obvious affection this game has for its inspiration sources becomes contagious after a while.
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo, Wii, May): Super Mario Galaxy's sequel had one hell of a hill to climb to match its original, and unlike Mass Effect 2 took the simpler if less impressive route of simply providing more of the same, excepting the occasional addition of a dinosaur or faceship. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is an easy recommend, but it definitely wasn't interested in trying to replicate the giant leap forward its antecedent made. "Resting on their laurels" is perhaps a more apt description of what went on here.
• Picross 3D (HAL, NDS, May): Picross 3D, or Picross Rittai, attempts to do something which traditionally never works as well as intended; that is to say, taking an incredibly popular puzzle game format and disturbing its carefully considered balance of elements by introducing a major new feature, in this case an entire third dimension. Just think how every variant of Tetris pales in comparison to the original. Fortunately, adding a third dimension doesn't diminish Picross's core appeal whatsoever. You do need some pinpoint stylus accuracy though, I'll tell you that much.
• Singularity (Raven, 360/PS3/PC, Jun): Singularity begins as a tense survival horror with guns, but it quickly becomes apparent that the game has designs on BioShock's throne with its alternate reality sci-fi storyline, its mix of first-person supernatural and technological gunplay and a deep attention to detail in building its world of a Soviet experimental facility that switches between a timeline where it remains a dangerous dilapidated relic of a war long since lost, and one where it (and its charismatic leader) became the savior of a victorious Soviet Empire. It's a little rough but, overall, I think I probably prefer it over where BioShock would eventually end up.
• Transformers: War for Cybertron (High Moon Studios, 360/PS3/PC, Jun): Transformers nostalgia is a hard sell these days. Most of the kids who watched the original 1984 series (and the 1986 motion picture) were well into their 30s by 2010, and subsequent generations of the Transformers franchise saw fewer and fewer audience figures. On top of that, the Michael Bay movies made a proper mess of the original series' chronology and characters, and War for Cybertron - which stayed true to the Takara franchise's roots - would seem almost incomprehensible to those familiar with the movies. It's definitely commendable that High Moon Studios took great measures to stay faithful to the source material, and managed to create a moderately enjoyable third-person shooter around it. The cultural impact of what is essentially an extended toy commercial might not seem like much to many, but for the generation of kids who watched Optimus Prime pass away in front of their eyes it meant a whole lot.

Farewell until next time, good duders, and thanks for stopping by. More of 2010 to come in May, should I manage to take a breather between all the Steam games (uh oh, did I just give something away?).