New Testingstan

Uh I think you're referring to Deception, which is what Xon is referring to.

I think Retribution didn't have any continuity errors, but Deception was infamous for them. I never read it myself, its reputation preceded it.

Yep, it was Deception. I got the name wrong again.

Stofsk wrote:I think in retrospect as the ME series unfolded, I find I like the first game and the early tie-in stuff like Revelations more than the sequels. There was more of a sense of unrealised potential in the first game and the backstory, than there was with the second game or the backstory for that. There was a sense that the story could be going to interesting places, which makes a lot of the later story decisions way more painful in hindsight.

I never read any of the tie-in stuff, but the first game is definitely my favorite for story and scope, for several of those reasons.

The first game did a lot of things I really enjoyed with tone.

The first couple of Halo novels weren't terrible. I mean, they weren't spectacular and I probably wouldn't read them on their own merits, but they were pretty fun.

I dunno about the more recent ones. Greg Bear is doing a sequence about the Forerunners that sounds utterly crazy.

I recall the Doom novels being semi-decent... though by the third they'd left anything 'Doom' far behind.

Doom novels ? What was their plot ?

Manus Dei wrote:The first couple of Halo novels weren't terrible. I mean, they weren't spectacular and I probably wouldn't read them on their own merits, but they were pretty fun.

I dunno about the more recent ones. Greg Bear is doing a sequence about the Forerunners that sounds utterly crazy.

Greg Bear work was decent. It just had utterly nothing todo with the Halo series besides some vaguely shared names.

Darksi4190 wrote:Yep, it was Deception. I got the name wrong again.

This is also the book which is suposedly setting up Kai Leng as a "badass" rather than some writer's favoured pet.

I can remember reading tie-ins for Starcraft and Warcraft that weren't too bad, hell i've probably still got them in my basement.

Oxymoron wrote:Doom novels ? What was their plot ?

A space marine, awaiting court martial for punching his CO in the face after a shit order, is held under guard while his platoon investigates a distress call from the UAC mars moon base on phobos. All hell breaks loose. It follows the first person narration of the space marine in question as he attempts to find his BFF in the aftermath, and figure out why everyone's dead, coming back as zombies, and why the hell demons from hell appear to be invading. Hijinks ensue.

I enjoyed the books immensely as a young teen, but I haven't re-read them since then, so they could be awful.

I've just read wikipedia's plot synopses, and wow do those third and fourth books just go off the deep end

joviwan wrote:I've just read wikipedia's plot synopses, and wow do those third and fourth books just go off the deep end

What. The. Fuck.

Making the demons into genetically engineered aliens?

Now we know where the move got its ideas from.

More this part:

This war is fought between two opposing schools of literary thought (hyperrealists and deconstructionists) over eleven pieces of prose left behind by the long deceased alien race

that sounds awesome

I like the part where "having faith (in anything)" makes someone immune to the evil alien mind control

man you're sort of making want to read these books
I've never even played the Doom games, but these are sounding fairly interesting

The first two books kinda sorta follow the games, but actually add a little characterization in there. Marine guy joined out of daddy issues, the Mormons are Earth's last, best hope for peace, and a few other things. Then it devolves into space-ape twins, killer vegetables and Heinlein-themed philosophical wars.

Yeah, I read them as a teenager and reread the first one awhile back. They're surprisingly good, considering what they are.

I always remembered this one scene where the Marines were looking for the switch to open a door or Gate or something. And there was this statue of a demon with a several foot long erect penis. And the Marines look at it for a minute, then one of them goes. "...I don't want to say this, but I'm pretty sure that's the switch."

Turns out it didn't go exactly like that, but I'm going to chose to keep remembering it that way.

Finished Binary Domain tonight. I loved that game. That setting. The plot. The philosophical question.

By no means a technical or design masterpiece, but ambitious to roll conversation, character relationships etc into a third person shooter, especially as it never advertises these depths.

Also spent about 5 minute in Slave of God. That's another in the trend of "anti games", but it's 5-10mins, free and truly puts you in a space that may be familiar if you were ever in the club scene, while telling a simple story that you can engage with or ignore a much as you'd like.

I am playing Witcher 2 for the first time ever, despite having it for a long time. (Just never got around to playing it)

On almost-full settings, it is fucking gorgeous.

I'm playing Lego Batman 2, or whatever it's actually called.

This is way fun, but some of the in-level bonus stuff is hard to score. That said, I'm loving every minute of it.

After this, Mass Effect. It's like $20 now.

So who's following Rome 2 Total War news eh?

2? I've only just started playing 1 these last few months on my now oldish laptop.

And letting the computer resolve all my battles and getting my ass kicked at it lol.

Anyone given Dead Space 3 a go? Is the co-op any good?

Stofsk wrote:On almost-full settings, it is fucking gorgeous.

Crysis has nothing on the Witcher 2 for resource requirements. But damn if it isn't so much more immersive.