Sunshine – Cannonball Read #3

Sunshine by Robin McKinley. To quote Neil Gaiman “It’s not quite SF, and it’s not really horror, and only kind of a love story, and it’s all three while still being solidly Fantastique.”

Robin McKinley in my favorite author. There is no runner up, there is no debate. Since I first read The Hero and the Crown when I was about 14 I have devoured everything she has written. Sunshine not only did not disappoint, it blew my mind. Most of McKinley’s work is classified as Young Adult and this was her first book that was written for adult audiences. Not to say that adults can’t enjoy YA books, it’s my favorite genre, but this was her first book that was targeted directly at grown ups and featuring more material verging on an R-rating as well as being a more challenging read. I didn’t know that when I picked it up but I knew it before I was 20 pages in.

Continue reading Sunshine – Cannonball Read #3

Chat Box

SonicRob: are you hep to the demo/soldier war?
FyreHaar: the casualties are in the millions
FyreHaar: like 4 million, each
SonicRob: yup
SonicRob: apparently, this game is occasionally played by a few people
SonicRob: and it’s geeks
SonicRob: they love to increment numbers
FyreHaar: I hate fucking demomen
SonicRob: let’s argue over which class takes less skill!
SonicRob: the one that spews stickybombs willy nilly around your exit tunnel
SonicRob: or the rocket whore
FyreHaar: indeed!
FyreHaar: ooohh look who can jump super high!
FyreHaar: they let you do that in the olympics buddy?
FyreHaar: I know they both jump
SonicRob: soldier usually has much better cosplayers for some reason
FyreHaar: he’s white

Why I haven’t been reading…

…and how I’m going to change it in three easy steps!!

I am behind on the Cannonball Read. The challenge is something like two and a half months old and I am supposedly on book three of fifty two.

Frankly, the holidays sucked and I gave in to the anxiety and the stress. But I’m not letting you down!! I’ve got two more books under my belt, reviews pending, a third in progress and two more queued up and ready to roll.

Here’s my plan –

Step 1) Read book

Step 2) Review book

Step 3) GOTO Step 1

With your faith and support, I can complete the Cannonball read!! Especially once I get off my duff and get the pages in.

-fyre

Chat Box

SonicRob: I’ve always thought weapons are kinda cool
SonicRob: I like when they are functional and elegant
SonicRob: like Code Monkey’s login page
SonicRob: but you know, it is just never cool to share them
SonicRob: nobody looks cool on facebook with a picture of them holding a sword
SonicRob: or a gun
SonicRob: anyone holding a weapon who isn’t literally using it to defend their life looks like a fucking dork
FyreHaar: or to legitimately practice with it
FyreHaar: like a sport
FyreHaar: or fitness
SonicRob: I’m thinking on terms of posing
FyreHaar: don’t post a pic of you stroking your long sword
SonicRob: actually, all posing is dumb

Make Me Play Videogames #1: The Devil’s Sandbox

To kick things off you’ll be choosing between a pair of sandbox games with different perspectives but similar mission structures.

Far Cry 2 was released in late October of 2008 as a sort-of-not-really sequel to the original Far Cry, a tech demo created by CryTek for their Cryengine, which (disguised as a “game” called Crysis) was later used to incinerate video cards owned by arrogant would-be power gamers. Far Cry 2 was made by the good folks at Ubisoft Montreal who previously developed the Prince of Persia games, Assassin’s Creed, and most components of the Tom Clancy money-printing franchise. They do good work, in short. The game itself is a first-person shooter with a free-roaming mission structure. The player is a double-crossed mercenary set loose upon a fictional African country that’s been staffed by a small coterie of mission-granting NPC “buddies”, a large population of murderous militamen, and several innocent zebras.

Grand Theft Auto IV is an April 2008 release from Rockstar Games, who were previously best known for making me murder prostitutes in cold blood and vote Democratic. The game is the latest in a long-running series that you know about perfectly well, and little ought to need saying about it given that improvements from game to game seem more incremental than revolutionary. Like Far Cry 2, GTAIV casts the player as a new arrival in an expansive foreign land, although the jungle in this case is concrete rather than literal. Also like Far Cry 2, GTA allows the player to roam from mission-giver to mission-giver at any preferred pace; it’s just as possible to spend your time wandering the city and seeing the sights as it is to progress the story, and completing a story mission simply leaves in the spot you finished it, free to pick up a new mission elsewhere or simply poke around your new surroundings.

Finally, both games require you to choose between stealing cars, taking inconvenient public transit, or spending a fucking week running from one place to another. Yeah, you take the bus in Far Cry. In the jungle.

Ok, fns nation (by whom I mean my sister and possibly my girlfriend), the choice is yours:

Far_Cry_2_cover_art vs. GTAIV_Logo
Jungle mercenary jogging simulator   Fake New York misogyny seminar

Cast your vote in the comments section.

Make Me Play Videogames: The Brand New Rack

OK kids, it’s time for this year’s experiment. Our 2010 project will be game-related, huzzah. The idea goes something like this: I, Sonic Rob, will present to you, the FireandSonic.com community, two (2) games that I posses, each of which probably ought to have been played by any well-rounded gamer by this point. You will spend a week voting on which one I will play; tie votes will be decided by The Baker, who has to live with the consequences. I will then play that game, becoming a better (in some nebulous way) gamer in the process.

The part that’s going to kill me, but that I swear I will stick to, is this: I will play the chosen game, and only that game, for as long as it takes to complete it. For our purposes, “complete” will be taken to mean “experience the entire single-player narrative arc at least once”. Games without stories will thus be disqualified, as will games that are strictly multiplayer.

Yes, you’ve noticed it: this is really just another test of my willpower disguised as something informative. I have a ton of games in my backlog, and you’re going to accompany me as I work my way through an unspecified quantity of them. My awful habit of playing a single game religiously for 2-3 weeks and then forgetting it is going by the wayside as I try out a brand new gaming paradigm: finishing the games I play, and then moving on forever. We’re going to get rid of the quota system that was central to Film Century 1.5, as I think the pace will be self-regulating in this case: my natural urge to move on to a new game will inspire me to finish the current one, and then I’ll get to try something else. In my mind I am secretly hoping to complete a game every month, but I promise you infidels nothing; if the game chosen is short it will be done sooner, if it is long I will be working on it for a while. I’m one of those grown-up gamers who have something to live for when they set the controller down, and I won’t be endangering that just so you lot can read a hatchet job full of low-blow one-liners that much faster.

For the sake of my sanity, the 1-week voting period between games will also constitute a free-play time where I can frantically gorge on as much game variety as possible before I lock myself back in the hyperbaric chamber with my next digital dance partner.

Oh, as I alluded to earlier I’ll be writing a review of each game. Not a single sentence, like last year’s lark. This time I’ll be spending a lot more time with each test subject, so we’re going to get more in-depth with them. Something tells me that, kind of like last year, the tacked-on writing excercise will become more important than the actual consumption of media that the experiment is an excuse for.

A couple of rules for the review portion of the project:

1) I will not be providing a review score. Trying to render an analog opinion as a digital number is both futile and ridiculous. If you want to know what I thought of the game, read the review. That said, I may or may not include a dollar amount I’d be willing to pay for the game in question.

2) The review will be at least 1,000 words long. That sounds like enough space to really get to grips with a game without being so much that I have to pad it out with bullshit or anything undignified like that.

3) I’ll be informing you of how I acquired the game for disclosure purposes, although you can rest assured that our pissant little operation has not garnered the sort of attention that gets review copies flowing in. These are all going to be retail copies that were purchased with my food money.

4) I’ll be hewing to Quinn’s Rules for Writing About Games when it suits my mood and purposes. Given that the entire spirit of this project violates rule #16 off the bat, we can gather just how serious I am about this point.

That ought to do for now, rules-wise. I reserve the right to completely upend the bylaws of this little project anytime I wish given that a) nobody is particularly paying attention and b) it’s my freaking idea. Dissidents may disembark now. All others please prepare to vote via the comments section provided at the bottom of the inaugural experiment, which will appear hot on the heels of this post.

May God have mercy on us all. Here we go.

-ssr

Not Quite a Review: Avatar

I’m a bit giddy with the prospect of using more than one sentence to talk about a film, so excuse me if things are slightly fragmented.

It took an hour or so for me to get into the right frame of mind to enjoy Avatar. Once I stopped worrying about the narrative in any way, things really clicked for me. The cliché-a-minute plot and ham-handed politics receded into the background and I just let the pictures and noise wash over me. The best analogy to the experience that I can think of on short notice is The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. The story gets you from room to room, spectacle to spectacle and is otherwise disposable. There is no event in the plot that is not foreshadowed at least 30 minutes in advance; no matter how violent events may become they are never confusing and rarely even remotely surprising. I enjoyed Avatar much more as an amusement park ride than as a piece of cinema.

To that end, seeing it in 3D IMAX was certainly the way to go, as I imagine it upped the “constantly exploding in your face” factor a great deal. Like some folks, I had a bit of a headache after the show; maybe I’m not made for that brand of 3D, which had me seeing double every now and then. Maybe I’m not made to watch 3D for two and a half hours. Who knows?

Spoilery thoughts after the break.

Continue reading Not Quite a Review: Avatar

Sonic Monty

Starting off with a reference none of the audience could possibly get is probably not the best way to lead into a post, but I do not care.

Like my sister I am a total sucker for a ridiculous deal, especially one that offers instant gratification from the comfort of my computer chair. The Goddamned Steam holiday sale ate me alive; I am completely ashamed at how easily and utterly they manipulated my will. Full editions of 2 year old games for under $2? Damn you people to Hell. The absolute worst part was buying S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for a piddling $2, and then realizing that for the type of experience the game offers I would much rather play Far Cry 2, and buying that game as well for only $10 more. It was like wandering into a discount humiliation emporium and being unable to resist the prices.

My shame is only tempered by my secret glee at not biting on Torchlight til it was $5. All you $10 Torchlight players are bustas.

The new pile, which joins the old pile, follows:

Far Cry 2

Torchlight

Zombie Driver

Defense Grid: The Awakening

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Sins of a Solar Empire

Samurai Warriors Empires 2

I’m excited at the idea of Fyre and I putting up collaborative reviews of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Torchlight, but that’s actually kind of unlikely for reasons that will become clear next week. For the time being, these games will have to be consigned to the status of mere trophies, a gallery of pouting and untouched beauties gathered together under the roof of a negligent master. For me, it is enough to have them.

I hate myself.

-ssr

The Haul

Now that the Holiday gifting season (and the massive Steam sale) are over, here is the list of what you can expect me to be reviewing over the next couple of months. Be aware, many of these titles are ancient and are here because

a) They are still good games regardless of their age

b)They were less than $5 on Steam.

Assassin’s Creed II

Bioshock (I know, I haven’t played it!!)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Rome – Total War Gold

Braid

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl

Torchlight

I figure that’s an assload of content to disembowel and regurgitate for your pleasure.  I have about a month and a half until DOWII: Chaos Rising and two and half months until God of War III.

Also, the Leatherworker has stated that we should get a new video card for the gaming PC. The one we have is super crashy. I mean, it crashes during TF2 for crying out loud. He hates that and even more, he hates seeing me do the angry penguin walk to the kitchen after yet another failed attempt to play Dawn of War multiplayer.

So any suggestions for a new video card? We are an Nvidia house, so none of that ATI crap.

-fyre