Book and Game Foo
Apr. 10th, 2010 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6We'll start with the games. As a belated Birthday present, I got GTA4 last night. I haven't played it very much at all yet, but I have it.
It's a bit weird going from Dead Rising to GTA4... I keep wanting to pick up mailboxes and trash cans and use them as weapons, and I seem to target civilians a lot more than I did in Vice City. Otherwise it looks good, I've kind of ignored the story mode so I could get used to the control scheme (also taking getting used to after Dead Rising, since the punch and jump buttons are different) and just screwing around in the city. So far it's a little less on the "random fun" quotient... and I think the design of the city itself is a factor. It took driving around for almost 30 minutes before I found some crazy place I could run my car off of (and, wouldn't you know it, I was in a motorcycle at the time and it was one of the 49 "stunt jumps" in the game), whereas in Vice City I could, if I wanted to, find a couple places easily where I could get a little air. The radio's liable to be a bit more annoying, since most of the stations are ones that'd actively annoy me rather than the 80s hits which could either amuse me or I could easily ignore in VC. I have multiplayer capability (free one month X-Box live access) but I'm not yet confident enough to play with strangers (wish I could have activated the membership a bit later, so I could develop some skills with the control first, but I made the mistake of setting up the profile right away). But if you know me and want to kick the ass of a newbie in it, let me know. I'm StarPilotSix there if you want me, though my X-Box isn't always hooked up to the net so making appointments is probably best.
Dead Rising is still the funnest game I've got so far. Even rescuing survivors is kind of fun. It's pretty hard though, lots of times I nearly complete my objective only to get killed, so I haven't gotten too far into the story yet. I actually like the photography aspect, even if it's a bit tricky, and it's kind of a shame it wont' be in the sequel.
Couple major/minor bugs/annoyances:
One that got me pretty annoyed at one point... the sliding automatic doors only work for Frank, not other human characters or zombies. While it's cool to not let them easily into a 'safe zone' (in particularly, a save spot), it really breaks my belief, and on one occasion, where I did manage to get them in, I couldn't get them out, because when I left (through a window, mind you), and told them "follow me", they went calmly to the sliding door where it wouldn't open for them.
Another 'suspension of disbelief' factor involves the missions and cut scenes. There've been so many times where I'm with a character, a cut scene happens, and the character completely disappears to a place where I have to trudge back across fields full of zombies to get to the only way in. There's no "I gotta go do this, you do this, and we'll meet back there", it's just "hey, we may be going to the exact same place, we'll meet back there" and he's suddenly completely gone from the area as though he had a teleporter. Hell, even have him race at a ridiculous speed, ignored by all the zombies, would be better.
The biggest annoyance though has to be the inventory system. You use the same button to attack with an item that you do to use an item. And if your item breaks, you instantly get the next item in your inventory. Now that's great in most cases. But there are lots of times where I've got one weapon and loads of food, and full health. I'm in a battle with zombies, my weapon breaks in the middle of a pitched battle, and suddenly I'm chowing down uselessly on food to increase my full health, wasting it, when I just want to keep punching. Hopefully the buttons used for photography will be press ganged into a better inventory management system (so food items require a separate button push, and you can still use them as weapons if you want).
But overall, the game's very good, enjoyable.
And on to books... I've been a bit lax in this. Luckily, the ones I want to talk about are mostly rereads, so I can get through it quick.
Finished: Queen of Candesce, by Karl Schroeder (reread)
Started: Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross
Queen of Candesce rereads okay, although I like Sun of Suns more from a story perspective. I really want to see what happens next, though.
Finished: Challenger's Hope, by David Feintuch (reread)
This is the one where all the tragedy's heaped on the main character really starts to get almost silly, but it's still an enjoyable yarn, and I like I said in my review of Midshipman's... this series is like some strange kind of crack for me.
Started and Finished: Prisoner's Hope, by David Feintuch (reread)
Started: Fisherman's Hope, by David Feintuch (reread)
Prisoner's Hope includes more random, senseless, tragedy for the main character and those he loves, less caning for discipline, and a bit of a wider story with a lot more plot threads. But it's still crack.
Computer was done much of the day, and one of them is still having trouble. Unfortunately that's the one I watch downloaded stuff from, so hopefully it'll get resolved and I can watch Who soon.
Edit: And, of course, immediately after I post, it gets fixed.
It's a bit weird going from Dead Rising to GTA4... I keep wanting to pick up mailboxes and trash cans and use them as weapons, and I seem to target civilians a lot more than I did in Vice City. Otherwise it looks good, I've kind of ignored the story mode so I could get used to the control scheme (also taking getting used to after Dead Rising, since the punch and jump buttons are different) and just screwing around in the city. So far it's a little less on the "random fun" quotient... and I think the design of the city itself is a factor. It took driving around for almost 30 minutes before I found some crazy place I could run my car off of (and, wouldn't you know it, I was in a motorcycle at the time and it was one of the 49 "stunt jumps" in the game), whereas in Vice City I could, if I wanted to, find a couple places easily where I could get a little air. The radio's liable to be a bit more annoying, since most of the stations are ones that'd actively annoy me rather than the 80s hits which could either amuse me or I could easily ignore in VC. I have multiplayer capability (free one month X-Box live access) but I'm not yet confident enough to play with strangers (wish I could have activated the membership a bit later, so I could develop some skills with the control first, but I made the mistake of setting up the profile right away). But if you know me and want to kick the ass of a newbie in it, let me know. I'm StarPilotSix there if you want me, though my X-Box isn't always hooked up to the net so making appointments is probably best.
Dead Rising is still the funnest game I've got so far. Even rescuing survivors is kind of fun. It's pretty hard though, lots of times I nearly complete my objective only to get killed, so I haven't gotten too far into the story yet. I actually like the photography aspect, even if it's a bit tricky, and it's kind of a shame it wont' be in the sequel.
Couple major/minor bugs/annoyances:
One that got me pretty annoyed at one point... the sliding automatic doors only work for Frank, not other human characters or zombies. While it's cool to not let them easily into a 'safe zone' (in particularly, a save spot), it really breaks my belief, and on one occasion, where I did manage to get them in, I couldn't get them out, because when I left (through a window, mind you), and told them "follow me", they went calmly to the sliding door where it wouldn't open for them.
Another 'suspension of disbelief' factor involves the missions and cut scenes. There've been so many times where I'm with a character, a cut scene happens, and the character completely disappears to a place where I have to trudge back across fields full of zombies to get to the only way in. There's no "I gotta go do this, you do this, and we'll meet back there", it's just "hey, we may be going to the exact same place, we'll meet back there" and he's suddenly completely gone from the area as though he had a teleporter. Hell, even have him race at a ridiculous speed, ignored by all the zombies, would be better.
The biggest annoyance though has to be the inventory system. You use the same button to attack with an item that you do to use an item. And if your item breaks, you instantly get the next item in your inventory. Now that's great in most cases. But there are lots of times where I've got one weapon and loads of food, and full health. I'm in a battle with zombies, my weapon breaks in the middle of a pitched battle, and suddenly I'm chowing down uselessly on food to increase my full health, wasting it, when I just want to keep punching. Hopefully the buttons used for photography will be press ganged into a better inventory management system (so food items require a separate button push, and you can still use them as weapons if you want).
But overall, the game's very good, enjoyable.
And on to books... I've been a bit lax in this. Luckily, the ones I want to talk about are mostly rereads, so I can get through it quick.
Finished: Queen of Candesce, by Karl Schroeder (reread)
Started: Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross
Queen of Candesce rereads okay, although I like Sun of Suns more from a story perspective. I really want to see what happens next, though.
Finished: Challenger's Hope, by David Feintuch (reread)
This is the one where all the tragedy's heaped on the main character really starts to get almost silly, but it's still an enjoyable yarn, and I like I said in my review of Midshipman's... this series is like some strange kind of crack for me.
Started and Finished: Prisoner's Hope, by David Feintuch (reread)
Started: Fisherman's Hope, by David Feintuch (reread)
Prisoner's Hope includes more random, senseless, tragedy for the main character and those he loves, less caning for discipline, and a bit of a wider story with a lot more plot threads. But it's still crack.
Computer was done much of the day, and one of them is still having trouble. Unfortunately that's the one I watch downloaded stuff from, so hopefully it'll get resolved and I can watch Who soon.
Edit: And, of course, immediately after I post, it gets fixed.
