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''[[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/7560-Critical-Miss-1 Critical Miss]]'', previously known as ''Out of Tens'', is a gaming webcomic by Cory Rydell and Grey Carter, hosted at [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/ The Escapist]]. The winner of a webcomic contest hosted on the site in 2010.

The story follows Erin Stout, a game reviewer who writes for the website "[[TitleDrop Little Miss Critical]]'', and her co-workers, which include Erin's partner, [[OnlySaneMan Elliot Clutch]], her boss, [[MeanBoss Sharon]], and a ton of minor characters. Although the comic focuses mainly on video games, a few have to do with movies and various other topics.

A spinoff, titled ''Webcomic/ErinDiesAlone'', has launched. It deals with an alternate Erin who spends her life trapped in her own apartment, with only hallucinations of her favorite video game characters for company. Unlike ''Critical Miss'', ''Erin Dies Alone'' has a '''much''' darker sense of humor and is more character-based.

Due to the creators leaving ''The Escapist'', the series entered an indefinite hiatus as the site owned the rights to the comic... Until The Escapist came under new management and hired Grey and Carter back on for a new run of strips. However the series underwent a reboot: now called ''Critical Mix'', the new timeline brings in characters from ''Erin Dies Alone'', revamping the entire premise of the series of a world where game characters are real and looking for work. Unfortunately, Grey and Carter were once again laid off from The Escapist in July 2019, leaving the future of the series in jeopardy once more.

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!!This webcomic contains examples of:

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Characters in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' get wounded and scarred, sometimes [[ScarsAreForever hideously so]]. Not so in the [[Series/GameOfThrones HBO adaptation]].
* AfterTheEnd: The Children of Steam story arc.
* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: Predicted with ICO HD. For those not familiar, have a look at the original [[http://firsthour.net/screenshots/ico/ico-cover.jpg European]] and [[http://www.gamertechtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ico-north-american-cover.jpg American]] covers.
* AndThatWouldBeWrong[=/=]ShuttingUpNow: Making a joke about a colleague who died in a landslide of shovelware, Erin immediately backpedals.
* ArtEvolution: Erin looks very different in the first strips than in the latest ones.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in this strip, showing Erin after and before (respectively) [[WhamEpisode her accident]]. Note how her hair has become much less angular since the early strips.
* AuthorAvatar:
** Seen in the Children of Steam arc. The blonde one is Cory Rydell (the artist) and the one with glasses is Grey Carter (the writer). Erin remarks that "They seem a bit... [[SelfDeprecation retarded]]."
** As of 2015, Cory and Grey's {{Author Avatar}}s have basically become the deuteragonists of the strip, appearing in a noticeable number of one-off strips, not unlike [[Webcomic/PennyArcade Tycho and Gabe]].
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: 3D Sonic games.
* BearsAreBadNews: Subverted with Charles, who works with Erin. He gets offended when she plays ''VideoGame/NaughtyBear'', saying that having a bear protagonist killing other bears is discriminatory garbage.
-->'''Charles:''' This isn't a game, Stout. You know what this is? This is ''bearsploitation''. And you're legitimizing it by playing it.\\
'''Erin:''' (Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Don't laugh.)
* BottomOfTheBarrelJoke: When all else fails, go back to mocking [[SeriousBusiness too-serious]] ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' fans.
* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: According to the pie chart, user-generated emblems in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' are all skulls, dicks, or skulls with dicks on them.
* BreakingTheFourthWall:
** "This is going to look terrible on my Website/TVTropes page".
** In one strip, Scary Penny [[MediumAwareness holds the edges of the panel]] and stares out at the audience.
* CameBackWrong: What happens when application files are undeleted in the ''Franchise/{{TRON}}'' '{{verse}}.
* CatFight: Between Mol and Erin ([[ItMakesSenseInContext when Erin goes to destroy Elliot's]] Platform/XBox360 - [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos]] [[HelpfulHallucination told her to]]) in their underwear. Elliot sits back and enjoys it for a while until it goes too far and Erin throws the [=XBox=] at Mol's head.
* CerebusSyndrome: Lampshaded on the "Chapter 2" title page, which pokes fun at strip's recent developments (sex drama, mental illness, et cetera) with band posters for ''[[TakeThat Miscarriage]] [[Webcomic/CtrlAltDel Arc]]'', who are opening for ''Cerberus Syndrome''.
* CommieNazis: How do you make the Helghast of ''Videogame/{{Killzone}}'' even more [[ObviouslyEvil evil-looking]]? By adding [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Stalin]] '''and''' [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]]. No, wait, Stalin and '''two''' Hitlers! [[ButWaitTheresMore No, wait]], Stalin, two Hitlers, and [[RedEyesTakeWarning Flaming Eyes of Doom]] in a sea of {{Hellfire}}! That should look evil enough.
** Yeah, ''[[RuleOfThree three]]'' Hitlers would just have been silly.
* TheCorrupter: As of the "Up Up Down Down" arc, [[spoiler: Young Erin, who had [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast Link]] act as a WellIntentionedExtremist just so that she can get control over Erin's actions.]]
* CrushBlush: Erin sports one here, though that might just be the alcohol.
* CutAndPasteEnvironments: Erin comes across this in ''Franchise/DragonAge''.
* DeepImmersionGaming
* DescriptionCut: Journalistic integrity!
* DisappearedDad: Mini-Moll father ran out on Moll when he learned she was pregnant... And when Erin ran him over with a lawnmower. We're not sure which happened first.
* [[DistractedByTheSexy Distracted By The Graphics]]: ''Gran Turismo 5'''s graphics are so awesome that Erin can't stay on the road.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: Part reference to CriticalFailure; part (as made clear by the [[ShowWithinAShow blog-within-a-blog's]] title) that Erin is Little Miss Critical. And hell, why not, maybe it's a pun on "[[UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons critical mass]]" for some reason.
* DoubleStandard: Erin's reason for why a ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMO]] wouldn't work, because girl gamers would all want to be SpaceMarines, which are [[OneGenderRace male-only]] in that setting.
* DoYouWantToCopulate: Erin comes out and [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/9631-Erin-Stout-Seductress expresses her desire rather bluntly,]] after her previous flirting attempts fall flat.
* EatingTheEyeCandy: While watching the series of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Erin's complaints of there [[GarnishingTheStory not being enough dragons]] are overruled by Khal Drogo's arse.
* {{Facepalm}}: Sharon and Clutch share a double-facepalm at Erin's response to SensitivityTraining.
* FanService: During the series of strips where Mol and Erin are running around in their underwear, it is implied that the strip's creators received feedback complaining that both characters were clad in plain, white and conservative items. A strip towards the end of this mini-arc then had the underpants of both characters change pattern and color for each and every panel. Happy now?
* FeatheredFiend: Seagullus, scourge of the kitchen table!
* FillerStrips: Has the occasional "Lazy Grey Art Day", consisting of a single panel of art. Subverted in that the art is always high quality.
* FiveStagesOfGrief: Erin goes through them for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', particularly the ending. Except there's no acceptance and more depression.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The guy Erin meets at the bar refers to growing up in his uncle's house, which is small and with little money. [[spoiler:Remind you [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast of anything]]]]?
** Also when the character is introduced he is seen wearing a white undershirt with a green t-shirt over it and a long green hat.
* GagPenis: It represents [[CompensatingForSomething graphics cards]], ranked by power, [[BiggerIsBetterInBed getting bigger with each more powerful card]]. By the time you get to Quad-SLI, you have entered [[{{Hentai}} H-anime]] territory with [[AllAnimeIsNaughtyTentacles schoolgirls and many-tentacled horrors]].
* GamerChick: Erin, though [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] and [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]]. Being a gamer is a large part of Erin character, and she happens to be female. But she is not particularly {{fanservice}}y, she is as socially awkward as many gamers (regardless of gender), and she is not shown as anything particularly special because of this.
* GaussianGirl: Erin tries to pull this off in the third panel of "The Come On." Her drunken ineptitude at flirting spoils the effect immediately after though.
* GenderBlenderName: Erin speculates that resident cynical, chain-smoking, alcoholic, English misanthrope Ashley is that way mainly because of his name. And she may be right; he gets made fun of even by random monsters in [=WoW=].
* GoodAngelBadAngel: When Erin asks how to make her console-playing friends see the error of their ways, Sora from ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' suggests [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship]] and that you can't force them to change their opinions. Erin takes that as Plan A and asks Kratos from ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' for a Plan B. The next panel is her ripping Elliot's Platform/XBox360 from the TV.
* GoshDangItToHeck: The rating board at the ESRB seem to be stuck in this.
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Moll is Welsh, and occasionally peppers her speech with Welsh phrases.
** In this strip, Erin's player character in [=LotR:Online=] does this, in Elvish.
* GrenadeSpam: Parodied in "The Stoning of Saint Bluntninja".
* HeadPet: [[VideoGame/BioShock1 Suchong]], Erin's pet fancy rat.
* HeartbreakAndIceCream: One of the FiveStagesOfGrief for the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' ending involves this in a bathtub.
* HelpfulHallucination: After a car accident in "Stowaways", Erin is talking to hallucinations of videogame characters, with ''Zelda'''s Link appearing to be a kind of "spirit guide". Possibly. Though how "helpful" they are is debatable, especially to Erin herself.
* {{Hermaphrodite}}: Erin in the Graphics Cards Comparisons comic.
* HeroicMime: Erin's hallucination of Link uses a whiteboard instead of talking. She lampshades this, noting he spoke in the CDI games and the cartoon, to which Link replies that [[CanonDiscontinuity they sucked]]. [[spoiler:At one point, he pretends to be a random bystander worried about the crazy girl at the bar, and she doesn't realize he's a hallucination since he's perfectly willing to talk her ear off]].
* {{Hypocrite}}: When a game you like has been accused of racism or sexism, do not resort to refuting arguments against it with [[StayInTheKitchen actual racism or sexism]].
* HypocriticalHumor:
** "[''[[Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey Fifty Shades of]]'' ''[[TakeThat Dick]]''] is just pornography for people incapable of sustaining normal human relationships." Might want to check yourself there, Erin.
** "People just buy the same thing over and over, they just don't know any better. Yo, dawg. One copy of ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts'', please."
* IKnowMortalKombat: Erin wants to show people that, even though she reviews games for a living, she has "life skills". She does this by helping an old lady cross the street. By repeatedly suplexing her.
* INeedAFreakingDrink
-->'''Erin''': "I'm going to find a bar... then I'm going to drink until one of us dies."
* InsultToRocks: After comparing ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'' to a drawing from a five year-old, this is put in TheRant:
--> The comparison in today's strip isn't entirely fair. Children's drawings do tend to display a degree of imagination and enthusiasm. ''Aliens: Colonial Marines'' boasts neither.
* {{Irony}}: "Six different levels" of it, when playing ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'' with [[JesusWasWayCool Jesus.]]
* IWasYoungAndINeededTheMoney: ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'' apparently took a roll playing a Naughty Tentacle in an old HGame.
* TheJuggernaut: Minecraft and diamonds.
* JustHereForGodzilla: [[invoked]] Erin just watches ''Anime/{{Free}}'' for the [[EatingTheEyeCandy nearly-naked swimmers]].
* KnightInSourArmor: Erin regards the world with practiced cynicism, but it is only skin deep and easily punctured when she finds something to get genuinely excited about.
* KnockingOnHeathensDoor: Erin keeps the door-to-door missionaries away with ''Series/BreakingBad'' spoilers.
* LetsSplitUpGang: [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Marcus Fenix]] and his squad of [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo Scoobies]] know how to get it done.
* LightningGlare: Between Nintendo and Rovio.
* LoveIsInTheAir: Just make sure the [[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution pheromones you are releasing]] are tailored for the proper species.
* MagicSkirt: Erin's skirt is gravity defying, which is odd considering the creators haven't had a problem showing her underwear in previous strips. this is the strip. Three explanations exist for this: One, the skirt is spandex/similarly stretchy. Two, the artist forgot. Or three: [[spoiler:It's another indication that this is all happening inside Erin's head. The skirt is the least implausible of the unlikely physics of pushing someone out of a window and then catching her by the ankle the way it was shown. She also rotated 180 degrees in the air, and is supported by only one ankle for half that scene.]]
* MamaBear: She ran over Moll's boyfriend, with a lawnmower, when he ran out on her when he learned she was pregnant.
* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Called out [[ShoutOut by name]] in the strip [[SarcasmMode creatively]] entitled "Manic Pixie Dream Girl". Erin is ''not'' happy to [[UnknownRival have competition]] for the CastSpeciation.
* MeanBoss: Played with. It seems Sharon may actually be quite a nice boss... to anyone who isn't Erin. Though if this is true, it may be a bit of a case of CharacterizationMarchesOn, given that some of Sharon's earlier Mean Boss tendencies seemed quite general rather than targeted at Erin.
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Often recommended to Erin by some of her more SociopathicHero {{Helpful Hallucination}}s.
* MushroomSamba: Tripping balls in "[[Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas Fear and Loathing]] in [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]".
* {{Nerdgasm}}: Erin gets one of these when she goes to buy new computer hardware, asking the sales person to "[[GeekyTurnOn talk dirty]]" to her. Complete with an expression of blissful {{Squee}} at the end.
* NoJustNoReaction: In response to the question if masturbating to Rule34 of your own comic book character is incest. Followed by more extreme measures.
* {{Nosebleed}} / DeadlyNosebleed: Best not to confuse one for the other.
-->"Well how the fuck was I supposed to know he was actually having a brain hemorrhage!?"
* NightmareFetishist: Scary Penny, Erin's graphic artist. If you tell her a character from a cartoon show from your childhood, she'll draw a picture of Creator/NathanFillion having sex with it.
* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: Seen here while trying (and failing) to satirize a quote by the executive producer of The War Z.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Seems to be what the gagged victim in this ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' comic is trying to say when a guard catches Garret robbing him.
* OrWasItADream: It's not clear how real Erin's hallucinations are. Not only can they plan and act independently of her, but at one point she throws one out the window of a moving car, and a truck seems to run over something invisible. It is possible she may have some dissociative disorder contributing to this.
* PaperThinDisguise: ''Very'' effectively done, since not only did Erin not see through the disguise, neither did the audience. [[spoiler:All Link had to do was change into civilian clothes and start talking and no one could recognize him]].
* PassThePopcorn: Elliot pops the cork in a bottle of wine while texting Ash as Erin and Moll CatFight.
-->'''Ashley''': ... Nice.
* [[RecapEpisode Recap Strip]]: The GuestStrip "Previously on Critical Miss" by Henry Huang serves as one.
* SaveScumming: How Erin plays HarderThanHard games on the PC.
* ScrabbleBabble: Erin accuses [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim The Dragonborn]] of it. Unfortunately [[WordsCanBreakMyBones FUS RO DAH]] is another trope.
* UsefulNotes/SchrodingersCat: When SlutShaming and YouNeedToGetLaid exist in superposition.
* SelfDeprecation: The life of a videogames journalist.
--> My name is Erin Stout and I review videogames on the internet. Yes, the ''internet''. I can feel your awe.
** As a background detail here: "Critical Moss: The worst webcomic in the entire fucking world."
** The last statistic in this strip.
** Lands '''hard''' in their 300 Strip MilestoneCelebration.
* SeriousBusiness: ''VideoGame/FarmVille'' will destroy gaming! Casual gamers will rise up against "hardcore" gamers! No.
* ShoutOut: The little sentences under each comic is a shout out, usually (if not always) to a song lyric.
** "Cory Rydell and Grey Carter [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiY-SgAFUUY have got guns in their hands but the guns won't cock."]]
** Erin's therapist has some...familiar terminology.
* SpeechBubblesInterruption: Erin gets distracted from her moping.
** Revisited in "Miss 001", with a SteamPunk bent.
--->'''Erin:''' Gracious! Pastries!
** Erin decides to ignore her hallucination of [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], so he brings out the big guns:
--> '''Erin:''' Oh, go [[CurseCutShort fu--]]\\
'''Navi:''' [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper HEY! LISTEN!]]
* StoryArc: "Children of Platform/{{Steam}}", taking place in a post-apocalyptic-like scenario caused when [[Creator/ValveSoftware Gabe Newell]] shuts down Platform/{{Steam}} because of all the fat jokes at his expense. Also, "Emperor of Steam", its finale. After that is the "Stowaways" arc, which segues into "Chapter 2: Up, up, down, down".
* SuddenlySpeaking: The reason [[spoiler:[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]]'s]] PaperThinDisguise works as well as it does; he never spoke prior to dressing casually and that throws people off.
* TakeThat: Pretty much the entire point of the comic, as Erin is extremely critical. A few examples:
** In one strip, Sharon reviewed most of the preview copies of games that were delivered. Only two were left for Erin and Elliot to review: ''VideoGame/KaneAndLynch 2'' and ''[[VideoGame/VirtuaFighter Virtua Shit Eater 5]]''. Both Erin and Elliot ask for ''Virtua Shit Eater''.
** "Since its release, over one hundred million [[ManChild man-child]]-hours have been spent on ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps''."
** In a slap-fight between Nintendo and Rovio, Erin says her money's on "the company that's made a fortune shilling casual nonsense to idiots who don't know any better".
** One more for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'''s infamous ending.
** A big one to Creator/{{Activision}}, with a side of InterspeciesRomance.
** There have been numerous shots fired at ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and Shinji in particular.
*** To the extent where they [[SelfDeprecation actually lampshade it]].
** More than a few at Music/{{Nickelback}}, like here and here.
** ''VideoGame/{{Titanfall}}'' is just ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' with giant robots!
* TeenPregnancy: Per WordOfGod in TheRant, Moll was a teenager when she gave birth to Mini-Moll.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Beneath this comic, Grey writes "A couple of weeks back we ran five strips on consecutive days. Contrary to our expectations, that brave experiment did not end with one of us dead and another in police custody."
* TheGadfly:
** Moll and a lot of others "Game of Thrones" book readers according to this strip.
** [[spoiler: Or just full trolls considering that SlasherSmile.]]
* TheThemeParkVersion: Time [[DracoInLeatherPants sanitizes everything]], be it UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi or (eventually) the holocaust.
-->'''TheRant:''' The funny thing about history is that the two measures of a great civilization are how many people you killed and how cool you looked while doing so. The Nazis, with their penchant for gas chambers and [[PuttingOnTheReich the sharp, frame-flattering lines of Hugo Boss]], score pretty much perfect tens in both fields. There's already [[EvilIsCool a strange idolization of the Nazi aesthetic]], and it's especially noticeable in anime culture, and that's just going to get more acceptable to the general public as time passes. [[http://travel.cnn.com/bangkok/life/hitler-chic-trend-138530 And that's weird, yo.]]
* TooManyBelts: Princess Evelyn from ''Factor Saga'', who even has them around her ''thighs''.
* TooMuchInformation: Some people manage to keep their tales of bowel movements to themselves. Not here.
* TooSmartForStrangers: Erin apparently pays attention to those after-school specials. [[PlayedForLaughs Who knew?]]
* {{Troll}}: Justice Scalia. Interestingly enough, [[Series/TheRachelMaddowShow Rachel Maddow]] has the same view of him.
* Administrivia/TropesAreTools: When discussing reactions to various tropes in the abstract, and then in''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine'', the authors argue that a lot of people argue against tropes like RegeneratingHealth, cover, RealIsBrown and so on, without looking at how they actually work in a particular game.
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: ''Erin.''
* UnwantedAssistance: "You just got [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] sucked into [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy a black hole]], a gateway to the dark void between realities, where he will be tortured ''forever''. That is not helping. That is the '''''opposite of helping'''''."
* TheVoiceless: Scary Penny.
* WhamEpisode: The "Stowaways" storyline. Surprisingly sombre in comparison to the wackiness of previous strips, and resulted in a permanent change in the comic's dynamic.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Erin seems to believe she's the resident ManicPixieDreamGirl. She is [[CuteAndPsycho not.]]
* XtremeKoolLetterz: These [[EldritchAbomination upset]] Erin. "It's just my English gland."
* YoureNotMyFather: [[Franchise/MortalKombat Kitana]] to Shao Khan, after he tells her that he doesn't want her fighting in anything more than "[[{{Stripperiffic}} two strips of leather]] [[LampshadeHanging held tenuously together by wishful thinking]]".
* YouAreFat:
** "Call Me Ishmael"
** Revisited in "Ishmael Returns"
* YouNeedToGetLaid: Erin has this opinion about [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Shinji]].
* YourMom:
** "According to ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' players, your mom has apparently slept with an average of 23 different men in the last 48 hours."
** She also shouts this at [[VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} Bastion]] when she doesn't get Play of the Game.