Game Review(s): Fable III & Fallout: New Vegas

I looked back over the "First Impressions" that I did for these two games, and I realized that I was mainly on point concerning what would end up being bad and good about both. Pretty much: I've said mostly what I wanted to say, but I've spent more time with both game and had a little to add here and there.

Just for the funnies, I'm gonna review these Kotaku-style:

****

Fable III

So, did P.M. do his over-hyping thing again?

Yes, he really did. Not so much that it feels like half the game is gone (i.e. Fable the First), but he promised quite a few things that, while actually in the game, are so ineffective and glitchy that they just don't work even remotely like they're supposed to.

Does this include the "touch expressions"?

It does. The premise, as it was explained by P.M., is that you will be able to hold hands with the ones you love and literally drag people to a less-than-satisfying fate...like slavery. His whole thing was to enable a connection with the world, and just a new way of interacting with it.

Unfortunately, this is impeded by the fact that ALL of the touch expressions are glitchy as hell. Holding hands with someone results in them following behind you, but your hands are never usually touching unless you're standing still. Plus, they forgot to mention that you will be holding hands with someone if you have to lead them anywhere. This means that escort missions involve taking a frightened and grown man by the hand and leading him through the forest. It's as odd as it sounds.

And I played the game for a little over 20 hours, and I was only asked to drag a few prisoners back to the guards. Even then, I didn't start dragging them until I was a few yards away. Until then, I was just walking hand-in-hand with a convicted criminal.

I can deal with that, I guess, but what about the other expressions? Are they still fun to use?

Not really. You don't have a menu from which to pick which expression you want to use and when. And you can no longer perform expressions for a group. You walk up to someone, click the "A" button, and you will transition into a "minigame" of sorts, where you have three expression options. Three, and they're usually always the same three, no matter how you're interacting with people.

That kinda sucks.

It does when you go to haggle over a price and have to do a very complicated dance to make him see things your way.

Okay, but what about all of this "It's A Revolution" business? Does that suck, too?

Actually, no, it doesn't. The expressions are a big flaw with the game, but they're only a small part of it. The story, the characters, the locations: all of them are improved over the last game. The revolution bit is fun and rewarding, and allows you to make more than a few tough decisions once you take back the throne. I will say from experience that every decision you make will have dire consequences. Dire.

I see. So, is this worth buying then?

I think any fan of the FABLE series will enjoy this game. It improves on most of its predecessor's shortcomings, but takes a few steps back in terms of things that didn't need improvement. The game is still absolutely funny, and the world is startlingly beautiful. It's FABLE II with a fresh coat of paint and a few surprises up its sleeve. I recommend it, with the caveat that there are still some bugs that need to be worked out, if bugs absolutely bother you.

****

Fallout: New Vegas

I hate your face.

Go fuck yourself.

So, is this pretty much FALLOUT 3 (2.0)?

If you want to look at it in terms of visuals and gameplay, NEW VEGAS is pretty much the same game that FALLOUT 3 was. But now that we have the actual creators of the FALLOUT series (Obsidian Entertainment) behind this one, the game feels much more entrenched into the lore of the series.

Stop being so cryptic.

Okay, it just really feels like Obsidian knew this property inside and out. There's so much more history in this game, so much more complexity to the way the world has been set up, and everything just makes much more sense. That, and the game actually involves the New California Republic, which made the game hit closer to home in my case. NCR Represent!

But what about the rest of the game? How has that improved?

The improvements are few, but they really make the game something special. There are a bunch of factions that you have the option of appeasing or destroying. You can now aim down the sights of your gun. The writing is better. The voice acting is better. With this game, its the little things that really add up.

I don't want to buy a game for the little things.

Then stop buying HALO.

But seriously, if you're looking for a game that's miles better than its predecessor, you won't necessarily find it here. You're getting more of the same, but this is a very good thing if you liked FALLOUT 3 as much as I did. You'll be getting a more refined world, one with a sense of humor laced throughout, and a few new gameplay quirks that really smooth out the experience. Add to that some very in-depth lore, and you've got a game that is to FALLOUT what OBLIVION was to ELDER SCROLLS.

So, final question: Is this worth the money?

If you were a fan of FALLOUT 3, then I cannot recommend this game enough. This is no expansion; this is a whole new world.

Sin City, baby.

YouTube and Hitler

I had to share this. I've just had the most extraordinary experience on YouTube. You know how YouTube has 'recommended videos for you' based on what you've watched and searched for in the past?

Well, apparently at some point (whilst trying to find British sitcoms online) I watched this clip from 'Bottom'.

Okay, fair enough. Quite funny, obviously I forgot about it. But YouTube didn't forget! YouTube carefully noted that I enjoyed a comedy sketch where a character named Eddie Hitler insults Jehovah's Witnesses and uses the phrase Nazi Germany. It thought carefully about this, and months later, provided me with the best possible video - thoughtfully selected based on my interests and personality...

A moving, musical tribute to Adolf Hitler, posted on his birthday, asking 'Will you remember me?'

....

Now I don't want to post a link, just because the person who uploaded it smugly states 'I just want youtube hits' and I've already given it three. But - it's a series of clips of Hitler's 'finest' moments, intercut with poor, poor Sarah McLachlan's 'I Will Remember You'.

Gee. Thanks.... YouTube.......... that's just what I wanted......

I guess this is some kind of dumb joke, but every single one of the 'Suggestions' videos on the right were along the same lines, only not joking so much.

It was the user comments that stopped me laughing at the ridiculousness of what I was looking at.
Some were mock-supportive of Hitler, some were genuinely sad about his being no longer with us, some were Neo-Nazis yelling slogans in bad German, and some were just people, offering horribly misinformed opinions either for or against. All of them were unbelievably depressing. Here are some from the first two pages!

'What genocide?'

'Hitler killed between 15 and 17 million people. Christianity has killed 21+ Million.'

'So answer me this, why are Jewish people so bad. I know a lot of Jewish people and they never hinted wanting to do something as evil nor does their historic or region also say.,\'

And...

'that was clever'

First Impressions: Fable III

The Fable series has had a rough go of things over the years. Thanks to numerous instances of over-hyping the games, the insanely high expectations people have going into it, and the fact that although Lionhead Studios deliver a good product every time, they're not game-changing, and I think for that anything carrying the Fable brand will have undue stigma upon it.

Now, I absolutely LOVED Fable II. I cannot begin to describe how much I loved that game (though, a while ago, I tried), it was just the perfect blend of the fantastical, British humor (humour), and a level of customization that really let you feel like you were a part of the world. Fable III had A LOT to live up to in my mind. Still does. I think I'm roughly about six hours into this newest story. So far, I'm getting those same warm feelings I got while playing F-II. But Lionhead have also made a few changes to the formula: some of them welcome, some of them rather frustrating.

One of the major changes is the story. It's so totally simple, you don't even have to think about it. Which, I think, is a good thing. A reviewer on Joystiq asked, "How many of you can actually remember the story of Fable II?" and at first, I was like, "Shit, I can remember that in like three seconds ago. Let's see, you had the sister getting shot by that one dude, then you, ah..."

Damn. Doesn't matter, I played more for the real estate, exploration, and sidequests, anyhow.

In Fable III, you play as "The Prince" or "The Princess," one of two children of the Old Hero King (or Queen, depending on who you played in F-II). The other child is your brother, Logan, who is now the King of Albion. He is King amidst Albion's industrial revolution, and he is perfectly a-okay with allowing child labor, political assassinations, and standing by while the lower class crumbles into absolute poverty.

Yeah, I guess you could say he's...*sunglasses*...a royal dick.

So, after King Logan handles a certain situation with just the right amount of plot-catalyzing evil, which is actually really messed up, the Prince(ss) must embark on a journey to start a revolution against the throne. This is where I'm still roaming around as I type this.

Thus far into the game, I'm really pleased with what I've seen. The environments are just as beautiful and absorbing as they were in Fable II, if not BETTER in some cases (Brightwall Village, for instance, is amazing), and Lionhead has taken things a step further by designing little cultural differences between each town. Mountain dwellers will mostly wear heavy fur clothing, and people down in Bowerstone will mostly wear fancy garments, depending on which part of the city you're in. I liked that.

The writing is better, the humor is more prevalent, and the voice actors are very top-notch. Bernard Hill (King Theodin from Lord of the Rings and Captain Smith from Titanic) is fantastic as your teacher/companion, Sir Walter. You'll also run into Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and Sir Ben Kingsley, who also gives a great and very, very funny performance as a ruler of a village of mountain dwellers.

And let's not forget John Cleese, who plays the part of the royal butler, Jasper. He is a part of a new feature of the game which I adore: when you press the start button, you are instantly transported to a sanctuary where you can save the game, look at your various outfits, weapons, trophies, and gold stockpile. It is amazing to me how seamless this feature is. You'd think you'd have to fight some sort of loading screen, but there is almost no transition at all when you press that button.

Now, onto the things I'm taking issue with: the bugs, there are a lot of them. Surprisingly, they're a lot more noticeable than some of those I discovered in Fallout: New Vegas. Your dog will bark about a dig spot, you follow it, and suddenly it decides to forget where it was going. That golden breadcrumb trail that leads you from quest to quest will sometimes disappear and not return, or will appear as just a few sparkles that you try to keep track of. You will hear vendors talking as if they're standing right next to you, but they'll actually be across the town somewhere.

And there is lag at times (mostly during cutscenes). I'm not sure what causes it. The minigames (jobs) will stutter as you play them, making it very difficult to keep that multiplier going.

All of that is manageable. I could live with those bugs, because they don't, by any means, make the game unplayable. But the one thing that I'm just not liking are the expressions. In Fable II, you had a radial menu where you could choose what you wanted to do, and then do it. You could play a lute out in public and people would gather around to listen to you play, or dance, or fart, whatever you felt like doing at the time. This time around, there is no menu. There are no expressions you can perform for a group at large; you will have to interact with each person individually, which is made all the more worse by the fact that there is a slight transition/loading screen each time you want to interact with someone.

And if that wasn't bad enough, you can't actually select what you want to do with people. You are literally given two or options - good, bad and neutral interactions - and you have to choose between them. Then, after you've performed one, the options will refresh and two or three new options will appear. I'm hating this, mostly because I don't like not being able to actually choose what I want to do. It all makes interacting with people an actual inconvenience, which is a sharp contrast to a feature I adored in F-II.

Anyway, I'm dealing with it, and I can always hope for a patch in the future, can't I.

Meh.

That's the game so far. Gripes aside, this is a marvelous game. At this point, I wouldn't dare hesitate to say that if you liked Fable II, you'll like Fable III. It's got everything that made the last game great, a few new/welcome surprises, and only the slightest of road bumps...so far.

Movie Review: Paranormal Activity 2

Let's get this out of the way: Paranormal Activity scared me. It had me jumping in the theaters, but the real scares came when I got home and started looking at everything all sideways-like. Seemed like, at any moment, I too could get fucked up by a demon.

Well, it's been about a year since then, and the sequel's only been out for a couple days now. I wasn't quite sure what to expect going into this. Some of my first thoughts:

1) Is this going to be the beginning of something akin to the Saw "franchise?"

2) Are they going to use their bigger budget on CG?

3) And is going to be just a rehash of the first movie's premise?

I wasn't...super excited when I walked into the theater. I figured, at least, Paranormal Activity 2 would be a fun way to kill a couple hours on a rainy weekend. So, I sat myself down amid the college guys and gals, who were already annoying me before the movie even began, and let it all start.

All I can say is: Yes! This movie is awesome!

Now, let me justify why, because this is one-of-those-movies: where simply going to see it makes people think that you're an intellectual invalid. I cannot (CANNOT) say exactly how many times people have tried to make me feel bad for liking a movie, but it is a very large number. 2012 was one-of-those-movies, as evidenced by the shitstorm I somehow kicked up on Amazon when I gave it a good review.

I go to see movies to have fun. That is all that's going through my mind when I buy that ticket. I knew that even if this movie wasn't going to be intellectually stimulating, philosophical, or universe-rending amazing, that I would still have fun. That's it, and I really did have fun. Here's why:

There seem to be various brands of horror flying around these days, but, for the most part, almost every horror movie that I've noticed being released is all about the murderfication. Blood-and-guts horror has been reigning supreme lately. The reason I like the Paranormal Activity movies so much, is that they don't rely on the gruesome. They manipulate tension, and they play on paranoia. That's why certain people love these movies, and some don't. It just really hinges on whether or not you can buy into the premise in the first place and suspend your disbelief for as long as the movie runs.

The second movie is pretty much a prequel, but it follows a new family, new characters, new location, all that jazz. I think it's a less confusing experience if you know this, because it doesn't really make you privy to the fact that it's a prequel until a half-hour into it. Now, the whole premise seems like a rehash in the beginning, too, but then the film really starts to play off of the story of the first one, expands the backstory of this "demon" somewhat, and just links everything together in a way that was really, really satisfying.

I had to admit that the writers actually put a lot of thought into this; they connected these two movies in a way that made perfect sense, and will actually make you look at the first movie in a different way. I really liked that.

Now, as for everything else, I really liked the characters. They were by no means deep, but they were really enjoyable to watch. The chemistry was there, which made it easy to buy into their situation. And when things steadily get going...boy howdy. The scares in this movie are, by far, more effective than they were in the first. They have a bigger budget, and they throw stuff at you that you'll very likely not expect. The entire audience at the screening I attended was screaming repeatedly as the tension ramped up.

This was a very effective horror film. In fact, this is the definition of a horror film to me: the kind where you leave the theater and you just feel exhausted from all the fright that was being thrown around the room. I loved it. I hope there's a third movie, because this series has done everything it can do to convince me that there are just some movies that should only be seen in theaters.

I didn't scream...but I was very, very close. =S

First Impressions: Fallout: New Vegas (#1)

Fucking Fallout: How does it work?!

I had never heard of it before Bethesda was suddenly talking about how they'd bought the rights to make Fallout 3. I didn't even know there was a 1 and 2!

But, it comes out and I hear rave reviews for it, but I don't get it because: 1) I didn't have an Xbox 360 at the time, and 2) ???, 3) Profit.

Anyway! When I finally got an Xbox on Christmas of '08, the first game I bought was Mass Effect. I mean, literally, got home, jumped in the car, and bought it with a gift card I had gotten. It was the best Christmas ever. I messed around with that game for a good long time, but I soon needed something else. I held out on buying Fallout 3 until the summer of '09 (I think), which was longer than I should have waited.

I poured 80 hours into F3 and its expansions, all told. It still stands as one of the most immersive, compelling, and down right fun games I've ever played. It was a game that told you, pretty much, "Go do...you know...whatever. I don't care." So, I did. I walked out of Vault 101 and fucked around for 80 hours. When I could simply find nothing more to enjoy myself with, I was devastated. I couldn't wait for some kind of sequel. I just couldn't. I tried replaying with a new character, but it's never the same; it feels like you're reliving a good dream, but you already know how it ends.

Luckily, I only had to wait a year for a sequel, thanks to my procrastination in buying F3. But it's only a sequel in the sense that Obsidian were given all the tools Bethesda used to create F3, and nothing else. Everything else about it, though, is original. It's a stand-alone experience, and has almost no link between it and its predecessor.

This is Fallout: New Vegas.

The reason I labeled this as (#1) is because I'm only roughly 6-7 hours into the game, and as we all know, these games go on for a while. Because if you find that this game is your cup of tea, you will get distracted very easily. There are a plethora of sidequests, a MASSIVE map to explore and chart, and a whole lot of loot to sift through. This is in addition to a main quest that will probably take you the better part of 20-30 hours to complete.

Now that the introduction is out of the way (have to do it) here's what I think of the game so far:

Personally, I think this is Fallout 3 (2.0). There are very few things in this game that are a step above its predecessor, mostly on account of what I said before. They're using the same tools in different ways, and it shows. The graphics are in no way better or worse than those of F3, the gameplay has been tweaked, but not much, and you'll still be wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland. That last one's a given, but still.

But! Even though Obsidian didn't change up the formula very much, you still get that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" feeling as you play through it. Everything that was fun and absolutely game-changing about F3 is still here. It's still addicting, it's still beautiful at times, and you'll still be rummaging through soda machines.

At first, I wasn't getting into it. The "Mojave Wasteland" seemed a lot more barren than the "Capital Wasteland" as I was just leaving the tutorial. But then I was sent on a quest that had me walking for a while, and I started passing up a few old buildings and gas stations when, suddenly, that light in my head (that hadn't been on since Fallout 3) and told me, "Hey! You can go in there!" And so I did, which kicked off an hour long rummaging spree. The magic had returned.

I was glad. Obsidian didn't do anything to shoot itself in the foot. The game is fun, the quests are well-written and they're slowly getting darker as I progress, and the voice-acting is top notch (Mr. New Vegas is a fine replacement for Three Dog). One quest line in particular sent me through this town where an organization called Caesar's Legion (pronounced "kae-sar") had indulged in a little carnage at the town's expense: forcing them to participate in a macabre sort of lottery. I'm pretty sure you can fill in the blanks a little there. I was stunned by what I found. It was a little reminiscent of the end of the Dark Brotherhood quest. A little.

One moment in particular really hooked me even more, though. I live for those moments in games where they just allow you to achieve ultimate immersion. I was on my way to another town (forgot its name. The one with the dinosaur) when I took a slight detour through this farm. There were some crops that were ready to be harvested and a small shack at one end, which I took to be the farmhouse. I looked inside and no one was there. There was no one on the entire property. It was completely abandoned, as far as I could tell, and I reflexively thought, "Ah, must have been the work of the local bandits. Damn scum."

After a few seconds, I was like, "Wait a minute...I'm role-playing here!" It gave me so much hope for this game, and it's shaping up to be one of the finest games Obsidian has produced in a very long time. Look forward to more updates as I continue on through the Mojave Wasteland.

Seven hours in, and I haven't even gotten to New Vegas yet. I like.

First Impressions: Stargate Universe

Stargate was an interesting movie. I remember it being something of a crazy-awesome action flick when I was younger, and only recently re-watched it and found it to be...good! It was actually pretty good! I mean, the concept was fascinating, well thought out, and the execution was sufficient. Watching it today, dated visual effects and all, wasn't as amazing as it might have been back in the day I imagine. Long story short: it was original, and I would dare say it's a sci-fi classic.

Now, on to something I wasn't really aware of until somewhat recently: That Roland Emmerich's film spawned a series that's been compared to Star Trek in the best of ways. My friend was a rabid fan of Stargate SG-1. Still is, to the best of my knowledge. He would sing its praises all day long, but I never really bought into it. Don't know why.

But here we are, several years and a couple spin-offs later, and I've been watching a new show called Stargate Universe on Netflix. I sort of added it to my queue at random. Sort of. I am a very big fan of Roland Emmerich's movies, and I felt that I wouldn't be fulfilling my role as said fan if I didn't watch at least one of the spin-offs of his movie. Oh, man, I am so glad I did.

I don't pretend to know what the Stargate lore has turned itself into these days. Actually, I can honestly say that I have no rutting clue what happened beyond the events of the movie. So, starting this series, I was a little thrown off by a few things. The pilot was NOT made for newcomers like myself, as I could easily pick out references to the other shows. It was also kind of odd that the show just expects you to accept that, yes, there is an offworld colony somewhere out in space, we also have spaceships, and the power to teleport humans, but no one on Earth knows about it.

Needless to say, there was A LOT to take in, but once it got going, and the show's overall premise began to present itself, I was almost instantly hooked.

We begin with the activation of a stargate somewhere on a very, very...very large alien spaceship. Just as the portal opens, dozens of people begin flying out, crashing into each other, flying into walls. It was very cool. There was that frantic "What the hell's going on!" feeling that I haven't gotten since the first episode of Lost, and I was loving every second of it. Eventually, the layers begin to get peeled back, and you're brought up to speed as to how the people got there, why they're there, and where they are.

And where they are is on a ship that has been traveling extra-galactic for thousands and thousands of years, putting them well outside the Milky Way and into some other mystery galaxy. Very nice. Not to mention the ship's resources have all but vanished in that time, so the crew has to figure out how to survive, just where the ship is taking them, and how to deal with each other.

If you mashed Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek: Voyager together, it would've looked exactly like this. These guys are lost, their alien ship, Destiny, is on autopilot, and it only drops out of FTL when it thinks there's a problem. Sometimes those problems are a mystery even to its crew.

Also, this series is beautiful, and I mean beautiful. The visuals are astounding and in line with some of the best that BSG had to offer, sometimes better! They didn't skimp on the CGI budget. At all. There were times when I was awestruck by visuals. It's part of the reason why I'm still watching.

The main reason, thankfully, is that the characters are very likeable - most of them, at least. Robert Carlyle (28 Weeks Later) is brilliant as the...brilliant scientist, Doctor Nicholas Rush. He's very much the Gaius Baltar of the series, with ulterior motives that serve to either get everyone in trouble, or save the lives of everyone aboard Destiny. He brings a lot of passion and intensity to his role, which is a breath of fresh air in a show where I thought cheesiness would dominate.

Another favorite of mine is the young, awkward geek-cum-genius, Eli Wallace. He's the show's comic relief and the resident lawful good character. He may not be hysterical or anything like that, but you can always expect him to do the right thing in any situation, even if doing good gets people in trouble. I'm also digging the Star Wars references and a time when he introduces himself as Philip Fry. Nice.

Anyway, I'm only about halfway through the first season, and it's still holding my attention. The writers seem to be having trouble thinking up where to go, since sometimes a lot of time is taken up in each episode by bullshit sequences of random drama (BSoRD, I don't know). For instance, on a mission to harvest ice for water, a crewman randomly falls into a crevasse and gets stuck. The rest of the episode revolves around getting him unstuck. Yeah, there's some stuff happening back on the ship, but still. Come on.

This show is sort of what I wanted Battlestar Galactica to become, before it started getting up its own ass with religious overtones. Which was fine, but it made it hard to enjoy it for long periods of time. It tried to turn itself into art, when I just wanted to watch good characters stick it out for as long as they could and get back to Earth. In the end, there was no happy ending...for anyone. Which sucked.

Stargate Universe is off to a good start with a not-terribly-original premise, but it does have some great characters, some great drama mixed in the middle of it, and visuals that are simply beautiful. What's more, it doesn't take itself too seriously, which can make for a little give and take sometimes, but it's still a rewarding experience if you grin and bear it. I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

In memory: Norman Wisdom (1915-2010)

I only just heard that the comic actor Norman Wisdom has died. I thought it would be nice to put up a very brief tribute here.

Everyone knows I love comedy, espescially comedy from my home land. But as it happens I'm not an aficionado of Wisdom's. I do, however, always laugh within a few minutes whenever I stumble across any footage of him, or see him on telly. He was an amazing slapstick performer, a rather good actor and writer, and he made very, very funny faces.

He had been suffering from deteriorating health for some time before his death on the 4th of October. His funeral is scheduled for the 22nd. He will be missed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Mp4HC09S0

Serenity will rise again

Knight made me feel pretty good the other day when he put up a link here to my new fanfiction. Luckily, the situation is right to return the favour.

Knight's Firefly new fic, 'Take the Sky' is, I think, the best fanfic he's written so far (well maybe except for The End is Neigh), and also the one he's working on now!

If you like Firefly and weren't happy with letting Mal's story end the way it did in the movie... as Knight was not... then..... here is a Frefly fanfic that's better than some episodes, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet. Read it.

Take the Sky

Vibroblades and Mirrors

Since Buch isn't gonna do it, I WILL!

Mister Buch recently finished a piece of fanfiction based on the haphazard ending of Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. It's a great piece that pretty much gives the characters an ending that I can actually agree with. One that I actually teared up at. *sniff*

Instead of the real ending, where I was so distraught I could have flipped a fucking table!

(ﾉ ಠ益ಠ)ﾉ ┻━┻

Anyway, this was a great story, so I'm going to throw up the link here:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6383123/1/Vibroblades_and_Mirrors

Give it a read! Seriously!

100 Words

On October 1st, Mister Buch, myself, and several other members of the Mass Effect Fanfic Forum began contributing to the very interesting website/encouragement tool: 100words.com

It's a pretty interesting website. The rule is essentially this: Write 100 words a day, no matter what the subject, without fail. That means if you slack off for a couple days, you're out. You have to keep it up and write those 100 words. Every. Single. Day. It sounds remarkably easy, but thinking of something new to write every day isn't so easy, and limiting that thought to 100 words is even less easy.

So far, for me, it's been a lot of fun thinking up random things to post, and watching what the other members of the forum decided to write.

You can find the thread HERE! And I'll throw up some examples, the stories that Buch and I made on the first day.

By Mister Buch:

The experiment was over, for now.

Contained white bolts of electricity still reflected off the glass bottles, lighting the room in flashes. From below, dark shadows crawled up the walls and around the silent corpse at the laboratory’s centre.

Peter, his fingers still on the lever, smiled.

“No matter,” he said to the darkness. “We’ll try again, after some strudel.”

“Yesss Mah-ster,” Laurie replied, his twisted backbone making it sound to Peter as if he were only four feet tall. Even the wretch's voice seemed beneath his station. Quite fitting.

The lightning failed, the shadows died down.

By me:

On the brink—here at the end of all things: they stand in rank with the fires at their backs and their goal in sight. Days beyond the wandering fools who had led them here, years beyond that fateful instant when morality had died behind their eyes, their spears rest burning in their hands.

Another portrait before the carnage, another breeze before smoke fills the air, one last moment to disregard all caution. Their march signals the end of another world as everything suddenly cuts to black. They will add them to their number. They will number them amongst the dead.

Book Review: Test of Metal: A Planeswalker Novel by Matthew Stover

Note: Originally posted on Amazon.com (10/10/10)

This is the kind of book that I had been warned about: one where you'd read a page and have to meditate on what it was you'd just read. TEST OF METAL is that book, and I couldn't be happier for it.

I don't know much about the MTG universe; in fact, I only know what this book taught me. I was going into this blind, interested to see what the lore behind the game was all about. Well, color me interested, because I have nothing but praise to throw at this property. D&D spread across several planes of existence, with "planeswalkers" being the only people capable of traveling between them. It provides so many story possibilities, and it was a joy to experience.

But on to the story. It's all about the story here, because what you get is (not to delve too far into hyperbole) a masterpiece of fantasy fiction. To me, that is. There were just so many twists and turns through dimensions you didn't even know existed to bring this story together at a climax that made my jaw hit the floor. To even allude to it might spoil the surprise, so I'll just say that my brains were thoroughly scrambled.

TEST OF METAL picks up not too long after a planeswalker named Tezzeret was left brain-dead by his rival, Jace Beleren. He is brought back from the dead by a 25,000-year-old dragon, Nicol Bolas, for the sole purpose of finding a sphinx, Crucius the Mad: the creator of a very, very valuable mana-channeling metal called "ethereum." Tezzeret is left in the dark about many things, but the dragon gives him little choice in the matter. So, he reluctantly sets off into the town of his upbringing to look for the first clues that will eventually lead him on a mind-blowing journey through time and space.

If I had to compare this book to anything, the frame narrative is similar to THE NAME OF THE WIND initially. Most of the story is told in the first person by Tezzeret himself as a series of "flashbacks" due to someone probing around his mind. We follow him through his early years as a lowly scrapper of etherium and then on to the life-altering moment when he constructed his metal arm. There are very brief recaps of events that occurred in previous books, and then we're back on to the story proper.

The thing is, unlike THE NAME OF THE WIND, stuff actually happens here. A lot of it. The pacing is steady, the action is intense and gut-wrenching at times, and the raw concept for the entire structure of this book just floors me whenever I think about it. Because the story delves into the mechanics of a "time-traveling" ability called "clockworking," which kicks everything up to, and beyond, eleven.

Imagine, if you will, a fight that takes place across time, and not just in one direction. Because there isn't one direction; there are many. Every decision you make, and don't make, creates an alternate timeline: one that a clockworker of substantial power might be able to take advantage of. So now, you're not just witnessing a fight where one of the combatants might go back in time and change something, you're witnessing a fight where one combatant can jump around and hijack a timeline where his opponent made a bad decision, and use that to his advantage.

How do you even...?

Anyway, the logistics do my head in just recounting them. Suffice to say, I was in awe for most of the book. And not just because this is a Stover novel, but because this is a Stover novel that had more work put into it than is probably justified.

This book will deceive you (or some alteration of you) over and over, well into the fifth dimension. The characters are great to follow around, the universe is detailed and astounding to visualize, and my head still hurts from the story. Stover has knocked it out of the park with this one, just as he did with TRAITOR (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 13). He immersed himself into the universe to write this book, and I think it will owe him a debt of gratitude if he decides to continue Tezzeret's adventures (which I sincerely hope he does).

Because, to me, this is still the midpoint.

Knight's Favs: Mega Man Legends

I feel terrible for interrupting our Thrawnspotting, but I have to talk about this game! I gots to!

We have this local game shop in town that was around before anyone had ever heard of a GameStop or Game Crazy. In fact, the only real places to buy video games were either at department stores or really obscure places a few towns over. Video Game Swappers was one, FuncoLand was another. But the one here in town always had the look that you could conceivably by drugs there if you happened to say the right passphrase.

It's the place where I bought my first modchip for my Playstation One, so I could play a Japanese version of Dragonball GT: Final Bout and Dragonball Z: Ultimate Battle 22. It was a fun place to check out, if only because you didn't know what stolen goods would be hanging around the shop that day.

I bought a game there one time, but I can't remember what it was. All I remember is that it was scratched all to hell and I hadn't checked it before I bought it. So I took it back, and the guy was kind enough to let me trade it for something else. I looked through case after case of random Playstation games until I stopped at something familiar. "Mega Man."

I fucking love Mega Man. It was one of the first games I played on the Nintendo, and I even had a copy of the MS DOS version with the realistic-looking Mega Man on the cover. You know the one.

So, I see a copy of Mega Man Legends just sitting there at a very good price. It's probably definitely most likely stolen, but what the heck. I get that game and take it home, because I had been wanting to try it since I had first heard about it. Mega Man in 3D? GTFO.

The game, in short, is/was amazing. I was so hooked that I can barely remember how I got to the end boss. There was just so much detail poured into every little thing. The characters were great. The game had an awesome sense of humor. The action was intense, and it was, dare I say, the first game I had ever played where your decisions actually mattered. Which might be why I've sort of slanted in that direction with RPGs ever since.

Basically, you were a treasure hunter, a "Digger," and your quest was to find the fabled Mother Lode. Every machine in that universe is run by crystals called "refractors," and you've made it your mission to find them. It's not quite what people have in mind when they think of Mega Man, and it took a while to grow on me, but grow it did. Running around, upgrading Mega Man, interacting with the citizens of Kattelox Island, and thwarting the Bonne Family's evil plans was all in a day's work, and it was good.

Now, the decisions: when you fought a boss, sometimes it took place in the city. This meant that if you weren't quick with the rescuing, buildings were destroyed. Foreverz. But you had the option of making donations to the city, which would allow them to rebuild everything that was destroyed in your battles. The buildings would eventually (you had to wait) come back, looking bigger and better than ever, and everyone would treat you a whole lot better, too.

I spent a greater portion of the time I'd played that game just...exploring. Running around, looking for items, going on digs like a mechanical Indiana Jones just for the heck of it. And I was just floored by the amount of things that would change around the city based on your actions. There were little quests that were just so clever, too. In the beginning of the game, I noticed this old car just sitting off in the grass. At first, I thought it was just part of the scenery, but way later on in the game, you have the chance to fix it up! Woah!

Yeah, not that impressive by today's standards, but it was back then...Wait, scratch that. That's still impressive by Japanese gaming standards! Keiji Inafune is still one of my idols in the entire gaming industry. Just saying.

Basically, I had a ton of fun with that game. It was a true RPG, because it had so much auxiliary gameplay that you would never see if you didn't look for it. Stuff like making donations to the local museum or helping out the Kattelox Police in solving crimes and stopping terrorists. Exploring was rewarded, as was doing the right thing. It was a game that patted you on the back if you helped people out, and ignored you if you just didn't care.

My most favorite quest in the game is where you help out this group of kids who had built a clubhouse out in the forest. They ask you to bring back some supplies, and every time you come back their house has gotten bigger and better. This was no short quest, but when it was done you got this amazing item. It was one of the most rewarding quests ever, short of the Biggorron Sword quest in OoT.

My one regret is that I never got to play Mega Man Legends 2. The first one flew so far under the radar that I'm surprised I had even heard of it. Still not sure why I didn't pursue the sequel, even after I did hear about it in the form of a demo disc that was given to me, but it's one of my great gaming shames!

That's why I just about cheered myself into a stupor when I heard that Mega Man Legends 3 is finally getting made, ten years after I had played the original. It may be for the 3DS, but I could not care less. I'm just excited to see how Inafune will pull this one off, and if he'll be able to bring back what was so special about the first game. Even if he doesn't, I'm completely willing to take that chance and give it a try.