Way back when I backed this game on Kickstarter. I like RPG's in all mediums and really find that most RPG's lack the gritty Bladerunner like atmosphere that I enjoy. Now I had only had a very brief introduction to the world of Shadowrun years and years ago but the universe was colourful enough that I was more than willing to fork over $15 to see what they would churn out. So here is my review of the game;
Lets get this out of the way first, my rating for this game "right now" is 4/10. HOWEVER don't be fooled by the rating, let me explain. The "main" campaign that comes preloaded is the reason for the low rating. I had thought/hoped that they would churn out a really engrossing story that would take me more than a day of playing to burn through. The Dead Man's Switch is fine as an introductory campaign but if this was all I was going to get then it would not have been worth the money.
That said, what I am hoping is that all the time and money went into really juicing up the editor so that people can write up a long and fulfilling story on their own with relative ease. They keep using the key words of "Community content" to make their point for this and once I have some time I will watch some YouTube vids to get the hang of it and try to make a practice "Shadowrun" to see how quick/easy it is to start building a campaign.
I hope that there is a lot of customization available. The gear was lacking, the sense of urgency missing, I want to be able to alter/add stats on weapons and armor. I want to be able to have multiple jobs available at any given time, but they are on timers. Just because you don't do the Renzaku job right away doesn't mean that another group of Runners won't step in and take that Nuyen. I want to make certain actions have long term effects;
oh you broke into a corp and stole some sensitive info?
well 5 missions later guess who has hired there own group of Runners to get it back or at least send a message? And they show up while you're in the middle of something else. Or maybe when you were hiring runners for this latest one you saw a Street Samurai with killer stats and he was on the cheap.
"This is too good, it must be a glitch" you say as you hire Janus to your team,
then at a critical point in the Run, Janus suddenly goes from under your control to NPC and starts blasting you and your boys. Turns out "Janus" has been hired by that Corp and he has been sitting there for several Runs trying to entice you to hire such a deal.
Decking was never really as explored as I was hoping for, I want to design a level where your meatbags and deckers are working in tandem. Your decker will hole-up in as secure a position as you can make, then your meatbags continue with the Run, the Decker has to divide his time between shutting down security systems and grabbing targets of opportunity as well as eventually delaying any security that eventually locates his Jack-in point. Maybe have some kind of HP for a barricaded door so now it becomes a question of low long do you risk your decker providing your team his assets vs how long do you risk him getting overrun and ice'd.
All in all this game's future depends on the consumers. To use some lingo, if they put the Nuyen into giving us the best Deck, then baby, just you hang on, 'cause there's enough Shadowrunners out there with the skills to give you Runs to remember.
The SNES game never got the love it really deserved, we will see what Returns looks like in a few months. Till then,
Shoot straight,
Conserve ammo,
and Never, ever, make a deal with a Dragon.
Sunday 28 July 2013
Thursday 4 July 2013
The Multiverse at your fingertips
So there have been a few happenings in Turkland. My Papa (maternal grandfather) passed followed closely by my uncle. There have been others but that is all well behind us now, moving forward, always forward.
A few weeks ago I was speaking with my RPG group post-game and 1 mentioned he had just seen the Red Wedding episode of HBO's Game of Thrones. Since he was so blown away I assumed he hadn't read the books beforehand and asked him if he would like to borrow my copies. His reply left me kind of stumped;
"No thanks, I don't like to read. I would rather just watch the show."
It literally took me a couple seconds to process and confirm that I did indeed hear right. "But the books are so much better, not only does HBO have to cut content for time but you don't get the POV aspect that the book provides which reveals so much more than character exposition can. If you like the TV show you would love the books, that's like saying no to sex because you got a handy and as far as you are concerned nothing could be better.
I took a quick peek into one of the boxes of books I have buried in my basement and picked out a few fantasy titles I saw. I figure that the odd person who stumbles across this place can read through perhaps find something that interests them. I will throw out my opinions based on what I have read ( which in some cases may be no more than a single chapter ) take it or leave it as you will.
A Song of Ice and Fire.
Or as you may know it A Game of Thrones. This series I can't reccomend enough. If you have the time ( and the intestinal fortitude for some brutal scenes, incest, murder, rape, etc ) then grab yourself a copy and say good bye to your spare time.
Wheel of Time
This started out as a great series. And to this day the first 4 books I think were great. Jordan was able to write very well, but he wrote too much. Tertiary characters became psuedo primary ones, I couldn't really give a run down of everyone that shows up to the party and the actual story takes a back seat for what I felt was 6 books. Plot points would drag on forever;
Rand must be like stone,
Rand must be like iron,
Rand must be like steel,
Rand must be like cuendillar
The whole Perrin/Faile crap.
Then there was the racecar speed that finished off the series. I can't really blame Brandon Sanderson for my dilike towards the last books. After all that time dithering around if he was going to resolve all those plt points he probably didn't have much choice in how he had to play it.
One of the things I really liked about this series was that the "good" guys don't all just fall in line with the "Hero". Yes almost every series has those stubborn people from X land that have to be shown "The Way" but they are almost always depicted as foolish and obstinate for not joining under the hero's flag. In this series there is a sizable army of some of the more respected nations that outright defies the "Hero" for several books. When he does finally get to them and they talk they don't just cave to his whims. He is called to task for what he has done. It was nice to see a main character called out for mistakes or just plain called out for being reckless.
Another thing that I did like was the development of Swordmanship. Jordan keeps Rand training for the entire length of the series. There are several points where Rand really shouldn't be holding his own given his time spent with a blade but while that is a problem in the earlier books it matters less and less as time goes on. If I remember correctly it isn't until about book 11 that an official Blademaster tells him that he might be ready to be tested.
Overall I would give this series a 6/10. It would be higher but with all the "filler" books and other issues this is the best I can do.
The Lord of the Rings
You can't talk fantasy without bringing up the genesis of modern genre. For this entry I am including The Hobbit and Similarion. While this series may not bring the action and intrigue I do like sprinkled into my books what it lacks in that it more then makes up in it's storytelling and the feelings it evokes. Nothing comes close to the feeling I had reading about Sam's battle with Shelob. I could feel the webs around, I couldn't see much because of the oppressive darkness all around, only barely lifted by the light of the phial of Galadriel. A small internal cheer rose with each small "sting" to the fell spider, and when Shelob finally gave herself the telling blow I still remember the small smirk I had. But for all that there does exist an unfortunate downside. Sometimes the descriptions run on endlessly. I can't remember the passage but he went on for several pages describing the foliage. There are plenty of "dull" parts where I can see where someone would get bored of the world building aspects of the books but if you are going to go fantasy you have to give the Great Grand-Daddy his turn at bat.
Overall a 9/10 great read but personally sometimes the "World Building" goes on a bit for my tastes.
The Inheritance Cycle (aka Eragon)
Full disclosure I have only managed to hammer through 2 books. I couldn't force anymore down. This book while well written for a teenager I suppose utterly failed when I read it. I have no problem giving the guy his dues, I can't say I could have churned out something like it at his age ( or even at my age now ) but if you're going to throw your hat in the ring with the big boys then I am going to come at you like I would one of them.
This story basically hits all my hot buttons the wrong way. The main character spends I think a month training with a sword and then his dragon tells him "ZOMG you is soooooo good, I don't think anyone could take you" had this been a joke and the kid gets his ass stomped by some mook just to underlay how out of their element these people are. Sure the dragon thought they were awesome, she had never seen anyone else fight. It's like when the tough kid on the block picks a fight with the new kid whose been taking martial arts for years, an amateur vs someone who does this for a living.
There was a moment where I thought this might be interesting. The main guy takes a bad hit and becomes crippled. He cant really fly anymore but he gets a vision, an old Dragon rider tells him something like
"I was broken once too, come to me and I will show you how you can ride again"
Oh cool, I thought. He's going to learn how to overcome his adversity. Fight one-handed so to speak.
Oh no. Not at all.
Homeboy goes to train with the Elves but they are all just too fast for him, no matter what he does. All he can do is get close. So the super duper magics make him some kind of half-elf hybrid which incidentally heals his unhealable wound. Now the kid whoops the meany elf and can ride again, horray. Any chance for actual character development is lost and we have successfully removed any feelings of heroics from any of his actions, oh he managed to outfight someone who was super dangerous? Well of course he is super human now I expect nothing less. There is plenty more but no one needs to hear all the reasons I felt this series failed.
My verdict? 2/10 the only reason he gets the 2 is a nod to the authors age
Sword of Truth
Don't worry Chris Paolini, there is a series I hated more than yours. I tried with this series, I really really did. I went 6 books in before I contemplated putting a bullet through my brain to eradicate every memory of these books. Long and short of it is this;
The main character is a stand in for the author, his Mary-Sue-ness drips from the pages. Everyone is an idiot before this guy shows up and teaches them to wipe their own asses. He can't write emotions at all. At one point I think it went something like
"Kahlan grieved to undo her sins, she railed against herself, clawing at her spirit to make amends."
Sure this isnt a direct quote ( its been years) but I think it was pretty damned close.
One of my friends read all the way through and while he doesn't dispute my points he still enjoyed it. And hey it sold a bunch of books so other people did too. I won't even touch the stuff concerning the author, I'm talking about the product not the source.
My call? 0/10. There is nothing in here I would recommend, just write your own fan fiction about something at this point, you'd enjoy it more.
Dresden Files
This series is something of a guily pleasure for me. It's not particularly well written, and is sort of noir-fantasy so isn't quite what you may be looking for. But if you have time to kill, like Marlowe and don't mind some sub par writing you may enjoy this series too. I suppose my only real complaint besides the writing comes from what feels like the author inventing things on the fly to make the book work. Sometimes he does what may be foreshadowing but I am not entirely convinced. I would like to think that at some point around book 2 or 3 he sat down and spent a few weeks writing his world, and filling it with most of the plot points he later introduces but for some reason it just doesn't read that way to me. I can see him introducing plot points but they feel as if he is saying;
"Ok I will mention that there is a group of harpies living under a bridge, and I will come back to that later and figure out what to do with it next book"
But like I said, guilty pleasure.
My verdict? 6/10. It's not bad, but its not that good either.
The Belgariad
Its been so long since I read this that I cant get more than just a sense of my feelings for it. I remember I wasn't terribly impressed with it or with its sequel. I apologize for the lack of reasoning, but there you go.
What I remember? 4/10. Give it a read if you have nothing else in the chamber.
The KingKiller Chronicles
Last on this particular docket is the latest one I read. Loaned by a friend I had to tell him that I wasn't terribly impressed with it. It was chocked full of the usual tropes;
Kid comes to an establishment and rocks it to its knees with his genius. Outsmarts the smartest people, out fights the toughest people, does everything at such a young age, is able to bring a room to tears with his music. I can only take so much of that at once. The only thing I did enjoy about it was due to its narrative structure;
The main character is already famous and is recounting his tale to a scribe. So when the scribe starts mentioning his exploits and names, like The Bloodless etc you get to see the deconstructing of the myth into the man as the tale is told. You can see how Kevin the Wind Walker got his name when he leapt across a vast gap and a sudden gust of wind caught his clothes and propelled him across when no one should have made it. Now no one else would really get that and his legend would spread but you can get a sense of how the shadow cast by a mere man could be so big.
My verdict? 5/10. But hey after I read the second in the series maybe I will be eating crow.
Well thats a hell of a long post for now. My painting has fallen by the wayside, on the advice of a friend I will start looking into a "dip" that will help with shading. Hopefully I will have another post soon filled with pictures of minis that you would swear were photos the work is so good. But probably not.
A few weeks ago I was speaking with my RPG group post-game and 1 mentioned he had just seen the Red Wedding episode of HBO's Game of Thrones. Since he was so blown away I assumed he hadn't read the books beforehand and asked him if he would like to borrow my copies. His reply left me kind of stumped;
"No thanks, I don't like to read. I would rather just watch the show."
It literally took me a couple seconds to process and confirm that I did indeed hear right. "But the books are so much better, not only does HBO have to cut content for time but you don't get the POV aspect that the book provides which reveals so much more than character exposition can. If you like the TV show you would love the books, that's like saying no to sex because you got a handy and as far as you are concerned nothing could be better.
I took a quick peek into one of the boxes of books I have buried in my basement and picked out a few fantasy titles I saw. I figure that the odd person who stumbles across this place can read through perhaps find something that interests them. I will throw out my opinions based on what I have read ( which in some cases may be no more than a single chapter ) take it or leave it as you will.
A Song of Ice and Fire.
Or as you may know it A Game of Thrones. This series I can't reccomend enough. If you have the time ( and the intestinal fortitude for some brutal scenes, incest, murder, rape, etc ) then grab yourself a copy and say good bye to your spare time.
Wheel of Time
This started out as a great series. And to this day the first 4 books I think were great. Jordan was able to write very well, but he wrote too much. Tertiary characters became psuedo primary ones, I couldn't really give a run down of everyone that shows up to the party and the actual story takes a back seat for what I felt was 6 books. Plot points would drag on forever;
Rand must be like stone,
Rand must be like iron,
Rand must be like steel,
Rand must be like cuendillar
The whole Perrin/Faile crap.
Then there was the racecar speed that finished off the series. I can't really blame Brandon Sanderson for my dilike towards the last books. After all that time dithering around if he was going to resolve all those plt points he probably didn't have much choice in how he had to play it.
One of the things I really liked about this series was that the "good" guys don't all just fall in line with the "Hero". Yes almost every series has those stubborn people from X land that have to be shown "The Way" but they are almost always depicted as foolish and obstinate for not joining under the hero's flag. In this series there is a sizable army of some of the more respected nations that outright defies the "Hero" for several books. When he does finally get to them and they talk they don't just cave to his whims. He is called to task for what he has done. It was nice to see a main character called out for mistakes or just plain called out for being reckless.
Another thing that I did like was the development of Swordmanship. Jordan keeps Rand training for the entire length of the series. There are several points where Rand really shouldn't be holding his own given his time spent with a blade but while that is a problem in the earlier books it matters less and less as time goes on. If I remember correctly it isn't until about book 11 that an official Blademaster tells him that he might be ready to be tested.
Overall I would give this series a 6/10. It would be higher but with all the "filler" books and other issues this is the best I can do.
The Lord of the Rings
You can't talk fantasy without bringing up the genesis of modern genre. For this entry I am including The Hobbit and Similarion. While this series may not bring the action and intrigue I do like sprinkled into my books what it lacks in that it more then makes up in it's storytelling and the feelings it evokes. Nothing comes close to the feeling I had reading about Sam's battle with Shelob. I could feel the webs around, I couldn't see much because of the oppressive darkness all around, only barely lifted by the light of the phial of Galadriel. A small internal cheer rose with each small "sting" to the fell spider, and when Shelob finally gave herself the telling blow I still remember the small smirk I had. But for all that there does exist an unfortunate downside. Sometimes the descriptions run on endlessly. I can't remember the passage but he went on for several pages describing the foliage. There are plenty of "dull" parts where I can see where someone would get bored of the world building aspects of the books but if you are going to go fantasy you have to give the Great Grand-Daddy his turn at bat.
Overall a 9/10 great read but personally sometimes the "World Building" goes on a bit for my tastes.
The Inheritance Cycle (aka Eragon)
Full disclosure I have only managed to hammer through 2 books. I couldn't force anymore down. This book while well written for a teenager I suppose utterly failed when I read it. I have no problem giving the guy his dues, I can't say I could have churned out something like it at his age ( or even at my age now ) but if you're going to throw your hat in the ring with the big boys then I am going to come at you like I would one of them.
This story basically hits all my hot buttons the wrong way. The main character spends I think a month training with a sword and then his dragon tells him "ZOMG you is soooooo good, I don't think anyone could take you" had this been a joke and the kid gets his ass stomped by some mook just to underlay how out of their element these people are. Sure the dragon thought they were awesome, she had never seen anyone else fight. It's like when the tough kid on the block picks a fight with the new kid whose been taking martial arts for years, an amateur vs someone who does this for a living.
There was a moment where I thought this might be interesting. The main guy takes a bad hit and becomes crippled. He cant really fly anymore but he gets a vision, an old Dragon rider tells him something like
"I was broken once too, come to me and I will show you how you can ride again"
Oh cool, I thought. He's going to learn how to overcome his adversity. Fight one-handed so to speak.
Oh no. Not at all.
Homeboy goes to train with the Elves but they are all just too fast for him, no matter what he does. All he can do is get close. So the super duper magics make him some kind of half-elf hybrid which incidentally heals his unhealable wound. Now the kid whoops the meany elf and can ride again, horray. Any chance for actual character development is lost and we have successfully removed any feelings of heroics from any of his actions, oh he managed to outfight someone who was super dangerous? Well of course he is super human now I expect nothing less. There is plenty more but no one needs to hear all the reasons I felt this series failed.
My verdict? 2/10 the only reason he gets the 2 is a nod to the authors age
Sword of Truth
Don't worry Chris Paolini, there is a series I hated more than yours. I tried with this series, I really really did. I went 6 books in before I contemplated putting a bullet through my brain to eradicate every memory of these books. Long and short of it is this;
The main character is a stand in for the author, his Mary-Sue-ness drips from the pages. Everyone is an idiot before this guy shows up and teaches them to wipe their own asses. He can't write emotions at all. At one point I think it went something like
"Kahlan grieved to undo her sins, she railed against herself, clawing at her spirit to make amends."
Sure this isnt a direct quote ( its been years) but I think it was pretty damned close.
One of my friends read all the way through and while he doesn't dispute my points he still enjoyed it. And hey it sold a bunch of books so other people did too. I won't even touch the stuff concerning the author, I'm talking about the product not the source.
My call? 0/10. There is nothing in here I would recommend, just write your own fan fiction about something at this point, you'd enjoy it more.
Dresden Files
This series is something of a guily pleasure for me. It's not particularly well written, and is sort of noir-fantasy so isn't quite what you may be looking for. But if you have time to kill, like Marlowe and don't mind some sub par writing you may enjoy this series too. I suppose my only real complaint besides the writing comes from what feels like the author inventing things on the fly to make the book work. Sometimes he does what may be foreshadowing but I am not entirely convinced. I would like to think that at some point around book 2 or 3 he sat down and spent a few weeks writing his world, and filling it with most of the plot points he later introduces but for some reason it just doesn't read that way to me. I can see him introducing plot points but they feel as if he is saying;
"Ok I will mention that there is a group of harpies living under a bridge, and I will come back to that later and figure out what to do with it next book"
But like I said, guilty pleasure.
My verdict? 6/10. It's not bad, but its not that good either.
The Belgariad
Its been so long since I read this that I cant get more than just a sense of my feelings for it. I remember I wasn't terribly impressed with it or with its sequel. I apologize for the lack of reasoning, but there you go.
What I remember? 4/10. Give it a read if you have nothing else in the chamber.
The KingKiller Chronicles
Last on this particular docket is the latest one I read. Loaned by a friend I had to tell him that I wasn't terribly impressed with it. It was chocked full of the usual tropes;
Kid comes to an establishment and rocks it to its knees with his genius. Outsmarts the smartest people, out fights the toughest people, does everything at such a young age, is able to bring a room to tears with his music. I can only take so much of that at once. The only thing I did enjoy about it was due to its narrative structure;
The main character is already famous and is recounting his tale to a scribe. So when the scribe starts mentioning his exploits and names, like The Bloodless etc you get to see the deconstructing of the myth into the man as the tale is told. You can see how Kevin the Wind Walker got his name when he leapt across a vast gap and a sudden gust of wind caught his clothes and propelled him across when no one should have made it. Now no one else would really get that and his legend would spread but you can get a sense of how the shadow cast by a mere man could be so big.
My verdict? 5/10. But hey after I read the second in the series maybe I will be eating crow.
Well thats a hell of a long post for now. My painting has fallen by the wayside, on the advice of a friend I will start looking into a "dip" that will help with shading. Hopefully I will have another post soon filled with pictures of minis that you would swear were photos the work is so good. But probably not.
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