For those of you who haven’t read the 7th Harry Potter book, you probably won’t know what the hell’s going on in this picture. Don’t worry, it’s nothing really spoilerific, so I’m skipping putting it after a jump.

Hurray, Luna!

~Race

As a lot of you may know, the 7th and last book in the Harry Potter series came out last week on the 21st of July. Yes, I got in line at midnight like a nerd, yes I finished it by the end of that weekend, and no, I did not cry once. This week’s comic reveals an important spoiler, so please proceed with caution!

In addition to the whole waiting in line thing, it just so happened that my birthday fell upon mere hours before the release of the book, so I decided to have a small Harry Potter birthday party at my tiny apartment! There were HP-themed snacks, HP Win Lose or Draw, and the most awesomest cake ever! I also had Harry Potter Scene It ready, but it ended up that we didn’t get to have time to play it, as I kicked everyone out ’round 10:45 so the ones who cared can go pick up their books. Ultra Magnus’s Harry Potter Win Lose or Draw, however, was a huge success, in my humble opinion! It seemed like everyone had a lot of fun with it, and drawing stuff is always awesome anyway. We set up my laptop with a tablet and hooked it up to the big screen, so everyone was able to see properly. But anyway, I’ll shut up now….picture time after the jump!!!

These are the treats I made for the party! Clockwise from the top: cockroach clusters, butterbeer, treacle tarts, and cauldron cakes! I’m very surprised no one passed out from a sugar coma. There was also pizza for non-sugary sustenance.

Arlo and his ladyfriend, Ashley.

Me and Guy’s ladyfriend, Jennifer.

Ultra Magnus’s test drawing for our Win Lose or Draw setup!

The most magical cake ever!

And finally, here is everyone being goofy!

So yeah…my Potter Party was pretty damn cool, and it’s always nice to have friends around for pizza, sugar, and silly games. You can view these and the rest of the pictures from the party in the Photo Gallery.

How was your Potter Party?!

~Race

Race assures me that chicks dig yaoi.  Yeah. I’m not so sure.

I finally got my PSP all hooked up only to find that all of my LucasArts games are in French. And now my iPod is full of corrupted files for some reason. I’m avoiding my 360 and my TiVo just in case there is some sort of electronics curse on me. Whoever you are… Knock it off.

I’m watching Tony Rome as I write this. This has got to be the best movie ever. I’m not quite sure what’s going on as I was lettering the strip at the time as well, but Ol’ Blue Eyes is positively the shiznite. The movie starts with a butt shot and ends with one, too; the theme song is awesome; and it has lines like this one: “Somebody’ll squeeze somethin’ out of Tony the day Georgia elects a colored governor.” How can you resist?

Anyway, all this adds up to me being tired as hell. I have work tomorry, too, so I needs me some sleep.

-Arlo

P.S. Troll sent me here. Take the time to read it and you may have a whole new respect for the humor.

Goblet of Fire comes out tomorrow! YAY! *giggles uncontrollably* As I always have, and probably always will until the end of time, I vehemently deny any dorkiness that may portray me. With that said, let’s move on to my favorite subject of late–GUILD WARS!

After about a year of playing it on and off, I finally leveled one character up to 20 this evening. Without further ado, I re-introduce Rod Handsome:

That’s him, posing in triumph. Just look at him. Tell me you don’t jizz your pants when you look at him, and I will tell you that Arlo is really Shaquille O’neal. And yes, he can levitate. I finally managed to get him some decent armor, seeing as the last set I bought him was in the very first town it became availabe, when he was a mere level 6. I collected this set, however, instead of buying it, by trading various creature droppings with collectors dispersed all over the bloody map. It took some time, but it was well worth it, for the armor class ended up being higher than the armor that’s currently available for me to buy–plus, it’s unique and much more stylish the readily-available ones! It’s a big improvement from before. I dyed this set silver, because I’m not quite fond of the default Mesmer green, but I’m not sure if I like this either. Maybe I should dye it brown? Or maybe a burgundy? I don’t know. Nevertheless, he is damn sexy and much sexier than your character. *giggles uncontrollably* Seriously, I’m not a dork, I swear.

UnF.

~Race ]]> http://level99comic.com/2006/03/i-heart-violenc/feed/ 0 http://level99comic.com/2006/03/harry-potter-and-his-fist-full-of-money/ http://level99comic.com/2006/03/harry-potter-and-his-fist-full-of-money/#comments Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:39:53 +0000 Arlo http://level99comic.com/?p=63

We’re not making fun of Harry Potter. No, really. Race and I could talk about that with you for days. So, yes, we are dorks for Harry Potter. I feel like yelling at people talking about the book in lines at the store that just don’t get it. “Snape is a bastard!” they may cry. Oh, sweet, sweet, imbecile. Go ahead. Live in your fantasy world. I bet it’s nice. Are there unicorns?

Also, this strip is the first appearance of The Troll. He’ll be back. Oh, yes. He’ll be back. So far, all of the people characters in the strip have been real people, I think. When I typed that last sentence, I wrote “teh strip.” Troll would be proud; Race would kill me in my sleep with her pinkie toe. So I fixed it and decided to talk about it instead. I get to keep it in but avoid the wrath of the tiny toe. I’m clever like that. This characterization is spot on, by the way. Like, dead on. I laugh “extra much” everytime I look at this strip. Thank you, Race.

I created a character for Fight Night Round 3 a couple of days ago and have been really enjoying myself. I don’t like boxing games. Sports games in general I tend to regard in a “I wonder what that’s like – oh, that’s what it’s like – okay, I’m done” kind of manner, but this game really draws you in. I KOed Oscar DeLaHoya in the first round without it being on easy mode. Occasionally in a genre that is completely foreign to you, some accomplishments reverberate even still. The icing on the cake was when the career mode pitted me against myself. Totally true. Why they would dig into the created boxer stable for career mode and not do a check for that sort of thing is beyond me. Needless to say, I kicked my ass. I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing.

Oh, yeah. I thought I’d point out that it took us one month and four days from our offical launch to hit 1,000 visits. One week later and we topped 3,000. We’re just good like that. Let’s see if we can hit 1,000 in a day. The challenge begins. Go tell your friends that we called them a bitch by name on our site.

And their mother, too.

-Arlo

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Summary

In this third edition of the Harry Potter games, you play as the three main characters: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasly. (Duh.) Together you undertake the game’s various adventures: collecting potions ingredients, learning new spells, eluding prefects in the night, and of course, out-wizarding that pesky little Draco Malfoy and his band of Slytherin goons. Each character has a special ability that help progress throughout the course of the game. Harry Potter has the gift of athleticism, being able to jump across large gaps, Ron is able to find hidden items and secret passages, and Hermione, being the obligatory “brain” and “girl” of the crew, is able to learn the most spells and can squeeze herself through tight crevaces. The game ignores the fact that at 13, the sexual dimorphism amongst humans is not quite as pronounced…but I digress! To switch between characters, you hit the circle button…

Gameplay = 8.5

It all sounds very exciting doesn’t it?! (Shut up, Blaine!) Well, it is, for it’s basically a third-person adventure game where you shoot enemies with your mighty jinxing powers while you encounter puzzle obstacles along the way! It’s like Hogwarts meets Prince of Persia:Sands of Time, so gameplay is very enjoyable. You use the spells you learn throughout the game to counter those of magical creatures trying to kill you, and to solve the puzzles to open doors. There are no cool, high-flying action like in Prince of Persia, but they do speak with British accents!

Graphics and Aesthetics = 9.5

Most of your adventure is conducted within Hogwarts premises, and the environments, especially for a PS2 game, are spectacular. The entire castle is modeled rather marvelously and the map is huge. It’s really very nice to look at, and running around the game makes you feel as if you’re there (well, almost), and gives you a better, more vibrant view of the overall Harry Potter vision. What can I say? It’s superly-fuckin’ magical is what it is.

Sound = 9

Not too much to write here. The music is expectedly excellent and the voice acting is worthy of applause from even the most fastidious of fangirls. British accents–HELLO?!

Controls = 6

While the game was probably made for children, I confess, it can be a little confusing. I would like to think that 5-year-olds would have a fairly difficult time navigating their wee little brains through the controls. On one hand, the analog and camera controls are quite good, on the other, the main drawback for me with this game is that you have to assign the various spells you learn to a limited two buttons, and when you want to switch spells, you have bring up the menu by hitting select, which takes FREAKING FOREEEEEVER! I wish the developers came up with an easier way to cycle through spells that doesn’t take up a good part of dinnertime…I know they can do it because 3 of the buttons weren’t even assigned to anything! And they assigned the circle button, a fundamental control which is used in many games to ATTACK things, to switch characters when they could have left that to the task of the less-important L and R buttons. There’s nothing more annoying than accidentally switching to a fleeing pussy of a Ron Weasley while trying to bust an Expelliarmus on someone’s ass.

Difficulty and AI = 6

Overall, this game was pretty easy, which can be expected from a game with a demographic that extends to small children. The puzzles are effortlessly solvable, and the enemies and your allies are not too smart, which brings me to the problem concerning friendly fire. Now, I know they’re British and all, but it’s really annoying when Hermione gibs you non-stop while you’re trying to take care of some business, all the while yelling, “Sorry!” in an annoying, shrieking voice.

Re-playability = 7

While the adventure itself doesn’t have much replay value, there are mini-games that you can unlock and play as much as you want. You can even hook up that Eye-toy collecting dust in the corner for hot mini-game action!

Boooooooo’s

• The rendition of the story was a little bumpy and it ended on a mediocre note. (-.10)
• I didn’t even get to use my beans!!!! (-.05)
• Too short. (-.10)
• Loading time is ass. (-.15)

Yaaaaaaaay’s

• The Patronus effect! +.10
• Buckbeak +.05
• British accents +.15
• DUH IT’S HARRY POTTER! +.50!

RACE SAYS THIS GAME DESERVES AN = 8.07 = Better than orange marmalade and worth a download off Bit-torrent

While the story was a little lacking, even compared to the movie, and the controls were a bit iffy, those don’t supercede the overall magic that is Harry Potter! Just because a game is easy and made for children does not mean that it isn’t fun. You just have to open up your mind and let go of your biases about Harry Potter being gay or lame for once. General gamers can enjoy this game, and so can those crazy Harry Potter NUTJOBS just looking for their Harry Potter fix before the next movie comes out. Next up: Goblet of Fire for Xbox!