Click HERE for animated version (it’s back!)

So yeah, I did another animated page! I went kinda all out on this page, and I feel it’s one of the best pages so far, probably due to how colorful it is. You’ve probably figured out by now that I’ve been experementing with different ways to make the comic, and this week’s experiment is (kinda obviously) the fact that Kat covers a few of the panels, and I think it turned out pretty well. I’m proud of this page, if you couldn’t tell. Interesting note about the big Katrina – I had to give her short hair, or you wouldn’t be able to see her face. It works out though, as in canon her hair used to be shorter. Also take note she isn’t wearing her choker – as it’s her way of communicating with Akila, she wouldn’t have it yet. The whole mind – link necklaces is one of the oldest bits of TNF lore that’s made it into the final story, and I couldn’t get rid of it as it plays an important role in some events later on.

I’ve been fleshing out the nereid’s language, and I hope to have a better explanation on how it works soon. The short explanation is that you take a single root word and add modifiers to it to make new words, and then combine those new words to make more new words. It’s inspired somewhat by Newspeak from 1984, but works differently as newspeak uses english words while Nereidian uses just a few sounds assembled in different ways. It’s not really a language you can learn, as its hard for a human to wrap their head around, and all the nereids kind of know it by default without having to learn it. (Blame the psychic connection.) I’ve got a few other bits of nereid lore but I’m still making sure it’s all good and tidy.

Also, I’m doing another game review thingy. I was originally going to do the original 1994 Doom game, but as I haven’t played it in a while I thought I’d do one of a game I finished more recently.

Serious Sam, ironically, is not a very “serious” game. -Not that it’s not challenging or well made – quite the opposite, it gave me a bigger challenge than any game in a while, and for when it was made (2001) the graphics were top of the line. No, it’s not serious due to the story – you play as Sam “Serious” Stone, earth’s greatest soldier, who has been transported back to ancient Egypt to stop an alien invasion from occurring in around 4000 years which wipes out humanity. Armed (at least at the start) with just a combat knife and a infinite – ammo six shooter, you must carve a swathe through the aliens in the past to finally put a stop to it. The enemies in the game are like none in any other game – headless soldiers who carry their head in one hand and a gun in the other, scorpion – people armed with Gatling guns on their arms, the organic equivalents of walking tanks, and even headless soldiers (who don’t have a head at all), and carry two cartoony bombs and run at you and explode, all while screaming their nonexistant heads off. The weapons are almost as silly – a minigun as long as the player character is tall, a pneumatic bouncy bomb launcher, and even a cannon that shoots radioactive cannonballs. Yes, they also explode, thanks for asking. It also never lets up on the enemies – there’s almost always a fight going on, and given the game isn’t very merciful, you’ll be dying a lot as you learn how to dodge. I played on normal difficulty, and had a final count of ~1600 enemies killed – but the maximum (on the highest difficulty) is 6621. It’s mental. It’s still a fun game if you don’t mind getting killed over and over, so make sure to quicksave whenever possible. I’d reccomend it, but be prepared for a challenge. Word of warning: Almost every item you pick up triggers monster spawn-ins. Have fun!