Stray Bullet has a Groo Christmas

[Evil Avatar]

Stray Bullet Games sends along word that their Holiday Christmas Card (http://www.straybulletgames.com/news/20061222.shtml) was drawn by none other than the famous Sergio Aragonés, uncle of their own in-house artist Manny Carrasco.

http://www.evilavatar.com/images/thumbs/MerryChristmas._small.jpg (http://www.straybulletgames.com/news/20061222.shtml)

The developers at Stray Bullet Games were involved in the development of UbiSoft's Shadowbane (http://www.shadowbane.com/) MMORPG and are hard at work on several unannounced projects.

[Draft]

Sergio Aragones is the shit. Love this guys stuff.

[Orosco]

I've been wanting a Groo hack'n'slash game since I had a Snes. I always thought the comic would have been a perfect fit for a Golden Axe type of game.

[Kelegacy]

Didn't he used to draw for Mad? I loved his stuff, too. I even have some collections of his at home somewhere. I used to be a huge humor nut in my youth, and that's the bookstore section where most of my allowance money was spent.

[Draft]

Yes he would draw like dozens of cartoons in each issue of Mad.

[snubber]

Did I err?

[Smoof]

EA are obvious shills for Microsoft. Look at Santa, he's playing a 360!!!

[Evil Avatar]

EA are obvious shills for Microsoft. Look at Santa, he's playing a 360!!!

Santa Wanted a Wii, but Nintendo only shipped 600,000 of them to North America and they were all sold out.

[Smoof]

Well that's really weird. I mean, he's used to cold, right? My poor little girlfriend waited out in the cold for six hours in front of a Gamestop to get me a Wii as an early Christmas gift and she seemed to be fine...

He could have waited too...

:D

[Ravana]

Goddamn, I remember Sergio Aragones from 15 or more years ago. He used to draw those stupid little cartoons in the margins of MAD magazine. Classic.

[Kamalot]

Groo does what Groo does best.

I'll have to dig out my old comics someday and enjoy me some Groo.

[GunnyMo]

Sergio Aragones is the shit. Love this guys stuff.

Wow, Groo had to have been my favorite comic back in the day. I was always fascinated by the video cassette he wore around his neck. :D

That is an awesome card.

[Stormwatcher]

I would give a kidney for a good cellshaded action/adventure/RPG Groo game.

or maybe a Groo MMORPG.
That would be glorious.

[Lodin]

Pretty sad that this drawing is the best thing Stray Bullet has ever produced.

[Draft]

Pretty sad that this drawing is the best thing Stray Bullet has ever produced.
Haha, wicked burn.

[Maskatron]

I met Aragonés at the San Diego convention ages ago. Great guy. I had a stack of Groo comics with me, and not only did he sign each one, he did his little Mad margin doodles next to his sig.

[gojira]

Groo == good
Shadowbane == wtf?!

I like the Groo pic and all, but why would anyone want to admit that they were even tangentially involved with Charlie-Foxtrot that was Shadowbane?

EDIT: "Stray Bullet Games is an independent developer of massively multiplayer online entertainment founded by key developers from Wolfpack Studios, the creators of Shadowbane®."

Oh, well, that explains a lot.

[randir14]

Did any of you actually play Shadowbane or are you just bashing it based on what you've read? The game had its problems but it was a lot of fun if you enjoyed hardcore PvP. I just can't believe after all this time they've hardly improved on it, I tried going back when it became free but I couldn't get into it again. It felt like the exact same game I stopped playing years earlier.

[gojira]

Did any of you actually play Shadowbane Yes. I was in late beta and also bought the game and played when it released. And I'm still bitter.
The game had its problems but it was a lot of fun if you enjoyed hardcore PvP.I disagree. It wasn't that fun. If it was a free game like Runescape, it would have been fine. But the graphics and the play balance weren't good enough for a full price game (including monthly fee). There were serious issues with changes they made at release to city building.

There were really only a few viable class options, with a couple being seriously overbalanced. In PVP, that's an issue.

Constant SB.EXE errors made the game miserable. There were too many exploits that were never addressed or addressed in a lackadaisical manner.

And I disagree that the game was "hardcore," instead it was merely slow and boring gank fests.
I just can't believe after all this time they've hardly improved on it, I tried going back when it became free but I couldn't get into it again. It felt like the exact same game I stopped playing years earlier.
Agree here. I couldn't believe that, in the time I was in beta and then played, that the game changed so little. It was in obvious need of fixes, but fixes never game. Content was never added, or added too slowly. It was like then didn't know what to do, didn't care, or were far to short of resources (money) to execute correctly.

Again, that's fine if you're running a free MUD on your own server in your dorm. It doesn't work when you want me to pay a fee. Gotta step up to the plate and hit home runs, or you get sent back to the little leagues. That's what happened to Wolfpack.