But yeah. Comics and movies and novels all seem totally apt for conveying rulesets.

Nigel Kitching writing, Richard Elson drawing, Nigel Dobbyn colouring. What a team!

Mick McMahon of Judge Dredd fame also worked on the comic, although most of its readers (including me) didn’t really appreciate his art at the time. He was great on the hilarous strip based on Decap Attack, but his style really didn’t suit Sonic at all…

Apparently Mark Millar (of unbearable tryhard comics fame) wrote a Streets of Rage comic as a backup feature in the Sonic comics once. As a slight Streets of Rage tragic, I’d be disappointed that I can’t find it, but… it’s Millar, so what would I miss, really?

That strip can be read here.

There were also a couple of series of Ecco the Dolphin, which are available here.

Eternal Champions, Shining Force and Shinobi were the other major Sega games to get their own strips.

Apparently Mark Millar (of unbearable tryhard comics fame) wrote a Streets of Rage comic as a backup feature in the Sonic comics once. As a slight Streets of Rage tragic, I’d be disappointed that I can’t find it, but… it’s Millar, so what would I miss, really?

“I’m a totally badass anal rapist! Isn’t that badass? I could really go for some rape right about now! Anal rape!”
“Axel, you can’t go raping right now, we just got a message from the commissioner! Mr X is threatening to ejaculate his spunk on the mayor’s face!”
“No-one ejaculates their spunk in this stinking, little town but ME! Let’s go and rape his ass! Come on, Adam!”
[Adam walks in, adorned with nipple clamps and a ball-gag] “Mff-ff-mff!”
“This is so edgy! I’m going to decapitate a transsexual prostitute!”

…Actually, the transsexual bit’s more ‘latter-day Garth Ennis’…

KG

Come to think of it, Quitely did do precisely this. Not with the thumbnail-storm splashes but with blur, perspective, and even in-action objects (weather conditions providing natural “speed lines”). Which, I suspect, is why some people had been describing We3 using the phrase “Western manga,” much to the annoyance of more than a few who take that as an insult.

A means to depict motion in stillness should be like the word “said,” in the sense that it slips into the text without drawing too much attention to itself.

But We3-ism is great for visceral effect. Like the VATS system. Though that gets old with overuse, too. That said, creating a mosaic of action using a splattering of miniature images each with one piece of the action puzzle makes for a compelling mental image. Something about both incomplete information and too-much-information colliding, I think explains it.

Granted, I wouldn’t envy her or her artist either, but a bit of blur would’ve been useful. There’s blur in the game, too. Mostly in the periphery of the POV, but it’s enough to help give a real sense of speed and body to the play.

I wish I could think of a good game universe with latitude for stories now… um…. Laser Squad!? Not much of a universe to it, but there is some intriguing stuff here

KG

Other than that, I enjoyed the words. Please keep extruding them.

valiumaddict: Problem with buying a licence and then throwing it all away – especially if you mean the whole thing in the case of Deus Ex… well, why by the licence anyway?

KG

“Soren: No-one lives forever is a brilliant example of something that could work. I’d read that even if I wasn’t a fan of the game. Sadly, it’s not a game that has a fanbase that would support a licenced comic.”

It’s possible that it could work in the broader scope of the Austin Powers universe, which has more public awareness. It’s basically the same idea, so merging the two wouldn’t be incongruous.

I do think lumping No On Lives Forever in with Austin Power is selling it short. Yeah, they’re both sixties spy-spoofs, but there’s a sense that the characters take themselves seriously in NOLF that’s completely missing in Austin Powers. NOLF2 bordered on being a straight spy thriller, albeit with a 60s ethos, for large stretches.

Also, what about Bioshock. Any chance of a redeeming comic story there?

Ultimately I’d say that Bioshock is too definite a statement on the world and events of Rapture for there to be much room for new stories there. You could probably get some milieage out of viewing the rise and fall from other citizen’s point of view, but that’s about it.