Critical Miss, previously known as Out of Tens, is a gaming webcomic by Cory Rydell and Grey Carter, hosted at 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 "Little Miss Critical'', and her co-workers, which include Erin's partner, Elliot Clutch, her boss, 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.
Cat Fight: Between Mol and Erin (when Erin goes to destroy Elliot's Xbox 360 - Kratos 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.
Cerebus Syndrome: 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 MiscarriageArc, who are opening for Cerberus Syndrome.
Everything's Worse with Bears: Subverted with Charles, who works with Erin. He gets offended when she plays Naughty Bear, 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.
Five Stages of Grief: Erin goes through them for Mass Effect 3, particularly the ending. Except there's no acceptance and more depression.
Good Angel, Bad Angel: When Erin asks how to make her console-playing friends see the error of their ways, Sora from Kingdom Hearts suggests friendship and that you can't force them to change their opinions. Erin takes that as Plan A and asks Kratos from God Of War for a Plan B. The next panel is her ripping Elliot's Xbox 360 from the TV.
Helpful Hallucination: 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.
Nightmare Fetishist: 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 Nathan Fillion having sex with it.
Stop Helping Me!: "You just got Mario sucked into 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."
Story Arc: "Children ofSteam", taking place in a post-apocalyptic-like scenario caused when Gabe Newell shuts down Steam because of all the fat jokes at his expense. Also, "God Emperor of Steam", its finale. After that is the "Stowaways" arc.
Take That: 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: Kane and Lynch 2 and Virtua Shit Eater 5. Both Erin and Elliot ask for Virtua Shit Eater.
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".
Wham Episode: The "Stowaways" storyline. Surprisingly sombre in comparison to the wackiness of previous strips, and resulted in a permanent change in the comic's dynamic.
, previously known as Out of Tens, is a gaming webcomic by Cory Rydell and Grey Carter, hosted at The Escapist
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