Book Review: The New Death and others

I’ve been working on a book review for a little while now as a special post for my blog.  I was asked if I would review this book and, after reading the first few pages, I immediately said yes, as much because I wanted to read the rest of the book as wanting to write a review!  And so I have now completed it, and would like to tell you about it.

image courtesy of James Hutchings

The New Death and others is a collection of short stories and poems by the very talented James Hutchings.  They have a rather cynical theme to them, and you will find few uplifting tales that make you feel like the world is full of Good-aligned people.  Maybe at best Lawful Neutral.  Certainly there are some serious D&D vibes throughout, and at least one direct reference to it.  They are frequently referencing worlds of other authors, including a bit of Lovecraft, although I have to admit you will have to judge those stories for yourself, as I haven’t read any of those authors.  Throughout the book, the Isle of Telelee is frequently feature as a location, and the world around that is particularly fascinating.  I’m probably going to go back through and read just those stories again, because I’d like to see how it all fits together a little better.  It’s rather cool.

To give a few general opinions here, I love this book, and I am very glad to have read it.  The contents vary from the thought provoking to the wry and clever to the haunting.  The stories in particular are where his craftsmanship really shows.   Quite a few of them made me laugh out loud (and that’s better than a lol any day of the week.  Lol has become so frequently used that a genuine laugh out loud moment nowadays is closer to a LMAO).  I’m particularly impressed with his use of humour and wit.  ‘Everlasting Fire’ is one of the short stories I got to preview before agreeing to read the whole thing and it remains one of my favourites for its brilliant build-up and spot-on delivery.

His use of metaphor is also very well done.  I’m sure an English graduate (I’m looking at no one here) could pick it apart, but as merely an avid reader I think his writing is elegant, engaging and paints a vivid and imaginative mental picture for the reader every time, especially in the longer works.  Tone, imagery, metaphor, diction – all of those words I still remember from high school are here in full force, and used to the benefit of the reader, rather than to clutter up the page.  Often in books, I will skip boring passages.  I didn’t here.  This is a thrill to read.

To give some criticism, I think the poetry, whilst good, generally make up the weaker entries in the book.  Possibly this is because they are more frequently referencing other works I am not familiar with.  I still enjoyed them, but I definitely feel the short works, particularly the funny ones, are Hutchings’ triumphs here.  ‘The New Death’, the story that gives its name to the book, is an example of this.

Basically, this book is excellent.  I recommend it to anyone looking for a good varied read that is well-crafted and highly entertaining, this is it.  Oh.  Important thing.  EBook.  It’s an eBook.  You can purchase it for £0.99 on http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/92126.

So yes, this is great.  I enjoyed reading it, reviewing it and everything about it.  I hope you do too!

Command and Conquer 3: Lupus, Cylons and Cinematics

 It’s fair to say that I am not a huge fan of RTS games.  I’m simply not a skilled enough micro-manager to effectively control all those units well enough to do really well at them.  I do well enough, but I’m not amazing.  Starcraft remains one of my favourite games, and Starcraft II one of the games I most want to play, but that’s for two things: the story and the custom maps.  I like the Starcraft series for the maps you can play that aren’t RTS.

Anyway, I play them, but it’s not my preferred genre.  I recently picked up a cheap copy of Command and Conquer 3 though, and I have to say I’ve been loving the campaigns.  The story is interesting, with this whole thing about Tiberium which has apparently been going on for the whole series.  The infighting within both sides of the conflict is fascinating.  The gameplay is relatively solid.  It functions like other RTSs of its ilk.  I feel it isn’t as balanced a game as Starcraft, but Blizzard set a pretty high standard there, and I haven’t had any major problems, though anti-air options seem a little limited if you’re not GDI.

What I love about this game though, and what got me hooked from the moment I started the campaign, is the briefings – the cinematics in between the levels which really drive the story forward.  For a start, they’re filmed, not CGI (mostly).  So they have actual actors serving as your commanding officers and briefing officers.  This is where a lot of C&C 3’s entertainment value comes in, and I think it is largely down to Jennifer Morrison, better known as Cameron from House.  I can take Boomer from Battlestar Galactica being in it; she’s in Hawaii 5-O too.  You see her around, although it does suddenly become incredibly bizarre when Caprica 6 is a Nod commander, when Nod has a distinctly Cylon air about them.  I even appreciate Lando’s appearance.  Good to see him; fair enough.  Cameron though, she’s totally unexpected, and I just can’t take her seriously.  Having Cameron staring straight at you and telling you how tough the next mission will be, sharing her feelings about the situation or congratulating you on a job well done all seems slightly unnerving to me.  I keep on laughing during GDI briefings, and I keep feeling that somewhere, one of the designers was just a massive House fan and decided to do some serious fanboyism.  Yes that’s a word.  I really like the cutscenes overall.  They work well, they’re dramatic, and it gives a definite sense of realism to the game.  Plus, having the characters interacting directly with you makes you feel far more immersed in the situation.  One wish? To be able to make decisions on your own.  The characters try to give you the opportunity to make decisions, to pick sides and to otherwise impact the game, but if you can actually make other decisions, I haven’t found a way to do them.

 around 7:50 Cameron's in there.

But my goodness.  Cameron makes me laugh every time.  Totally worth playing a game I’m only moderately good at for that.

Orisinal: A Drop of Joy in Every Game

Tonight, let me tell you about one of my favourite game sites in the world.  It is the place I go to when I’m sad, or lonely, or just plain bored.  It never fails to cheer me up, no matter how many times I go back to it.  Orisinal: Morning Sunshine is a website full of small, simple flash games by Ferry Halim.  There are 58 games on there at the moment, and I will tell you about my 3 favourites to give you an idea of the delights that can be had here.  Every game is full of happiness, peacefulness and relaxation.  Even the most violent games are made in such a way that you can still feel like you aren’t covered in blood at the end.  Pastel colours and tranquil music abound.  From blowing a balloon tied to a message up to heaven using fans to burning blocks of ice as a dragon to get food, this site will delight and charm you.

 1)  Pocketful of Stars - http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g2/stars.htm

A little girl is standing on the side of a lake at night.  When she jumps, her reflection seems to soar into the sky and grab pocketfuls of stars as she passes them.  Give height and magnitude point values, add a multiplier for the number of stars collected and a bonus for grabbing shooting stars and suddenly this adorable scene is a game!  This is my very favourite out of all of the games on the site, and I feel no shame in saying so.  It is relatively challenging to time your jumps properly and aim them to collect the most and brightest stars.  You are timed, though lots of points extend that time, so there is a small bit of pressure just to make it more than mindless jumping, a system which most of the games use.  That girl and I have collected more stars than I can count, and I never grow tired of jumping for more by that little lake.

   2) Bugs - http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bugs.htm

Bugs features another little girl who is on a mission: to jump as hard as she can to scare away all the little bugs scuttling around the ground.  The playing field is rather small, and you have to navigate your way around the bugs, find a relatively safe location, and then stop to build up your jump.  As late as possible, jump and watch all the bugs fly away!  Avoiding the bugs is really difficult, and it has a faster pace than a Pocketful of Stars.  The music is my favourite part of this game; a little guitar and flute tune which sets such a pleasant ambient.  Most of the games on Orisinal have lovely music, but this is particularly special.

   3) These Little Pigs - http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/pig.htm

This is perhaps the simplest game, yet the most bizarre.  Pigs ride bubbles from side to side across the screen, and you have to pop the bubbles so that they land on top of each other to form a tower.  This tower becomes impossibly tall (they don’t fall as long as they’re touching... somehow), and your goal is to score points by both building the pig tower and by aligning the tower so that the pigs collect a series of cake slices suspended in other balloons.  Utterly strange, but the pigs are very cute.  Also, the music is Pachebel’s Canon in D, so you can’t help but enjoy yourself.

These are my 3 favourites of the site, but there are several others I enjoy too.  There are games on this site I don’t like, generally the older ones at the bottom of the list which don’t really fit the same style and themes as the rest of them.  This is a great site for anyone who is feeling sad, so keep it bookmarked for that rainy day, and maybe you too can come away with a pocketful of stars.

Modern Warfare 2: What I lack in skill, I make up for in dying lots

I’m mostly an RPG gamer.  I can’t pretend I’m not.  Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, Neverwinter Nights – that’s where the fun is at.  I love strategy games as well, like Civilization and Starcraft, but those are really the two main genres I play.  I love Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but that’s an exception to the general rule.  One genre I am definitely not overly skilled with is the First Person Shooter.  I do ok, and I’ve slowly learned to come to grips with the general controls, but it really isn’t my forte.  This is a shame, because Halo, Call of Duty, and others like it are some of the most popular party games out there for those who don’t want to be playing Mario Party or Wii Sports.  Today, I’d like to talk a little bit specifically about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – why I’m not great at it, what I enjoy about it, and what my favourite strategies are.

I’ve played Modern Warfare 2 quite a lot this year, and I’ve definitely improved.  At least now I know the layout of most of the maps, and understand the difference between some of the guns, and what semtex actually is.  My aiming has gotten better, but it remains one of my weakest areas, and a rather important area at that.  I use a lot of grenades to compensate for this, but I still have yet to learn the angles that they travel at, and a lot land far away.  I’ve had some really spectacular hits though, to be fair.  The minimap, when we have it on, is incredibly useful, but sometimes I find myself shooting at someone who is much further away than I thought.

I do enjoy playing though.  Even if everyone else is at least level 50 and I’m a measly level 16, it doesn’t matter.  It just means that the kills I do get are much more satisfying.  As a game it is quite well put together, especially in multiplayer mode.  The graphics are smooth, the maps are well designed, and the controls respond well.  There is a wide variety of customization available, which is cool, and though I never bother with camo paint, I feel that perhaps that would help.  The game is quite well balanced, in that if you have enough skill the worst gun can beat the best, though there is a definite advantage in being a higher level and having more things unlocked.  That is to be expected though, and while the level gap between my friends and I can be frustrating, I think that it just encourages me to use more skill and tactics.  I can’t really fault it as a game, though even with the tense atmosphere of the battlefield I would have appreciated some decent music.

As for how I play, like I said, I need tactics to compensate for low actual ability.  I'm getting quite handy at putting myself in the right position to surprise people, and learning how to use all of my equipment well.  As for my classes, theunder-mounted grenade launcher is, of course, a must.  It’s surprising, not to mention effective, and it can launch a very long way.  Who needs a better sight?  Not me.  So I have a Famas with grenade launcher, secondary rocket launcher, with flashbangs and a tactical insertion as my primary class.  It’s pretty standard, but flashbangs are so close to being a lifesaver for me.  If I could just stop looking at them when they explode I would be much more effective.... yes, again, I’m not that great.  I’m pretty tactical with my tactical insertion, and I’ve gotten a few nice surprise attacks with it, but all in all, it’s a fairly underwhelming class.  My new and most recent favourite is my sniper class.  My philosophy with sniping has always been quantity over quality, so naturally I use the RPD with a grip.  As you do.  Forget one perfect bullet for each kill.  I can use 100!  Its standard iron sight is good enough for most maps, and it’s surprisingly accurate over a long range.  Of course, at short range it’s even deadlier, which helps.  On Highrise I’m pretty vicious.  Throw in a Thumper for the extra power, some flashbangs and semtex and against anything other than an actual sniper rifle I do pretty well.  I’m going to keep playing with that for a while now and see how I do.  My accuracy is improving as a result, but I maintain that volume over precision works 9 times out of 10.

Modern Warfare 2 is a great game to play with your friends if you enjoy FPSs.  Some people don’t.  But while I am not a general fan of the genre, it’s certainly not a game I would turn down playing.  It’s good fun, and well put together.  Black Ops has its charms as well, and tactical insertion in Nuke Town can be deadly, but I like the slightly simpler and more realistic MW2.  I don’t know who I can recommend this to who wouldn’t already own it, but if you’re considering it and are not sure, it is definitely worth the investment. Of course, Modern Warfare 3 is coming soon, but maybe you would just like to get the practice in.

Webcomic Triple Feature: Guilded Age, Finders Keepers, and Crimson Dark

A trio of webcomics to foist on you all today, all of which are great ways to spend all that time you spend bored.

Guilded Age – Updates Monday, Wednesday, Friday

This is a comic that mixes fantasy with science fiction, though the sci-fi is not so obvious.  It is the story of a group of adventurers in a world full of political turmoil and war.  At first it may confuse you, but that it part of its interest: the story is not told linearly. Several storylines in different points in the adventurer’s travels together intermingle constantly.  A few pages might be them on a pirate ship, the next they’re in a dungeon.  It gives the tale a constant air of mystery, as you are always trying to catch up with exactly what is going on.  If nothing else, this webcomic keeps you on your toes.  The science fiction in this epic fantasy is on the rise at the moment, and I cannot wait to see where he takes it.  Storytelling is definitely the strength of this comic.  For the Postmodernists out there.

Finders Keepers – Updates every once in a while

A project stemming from Comedity, another comic, this is the tale of Cardinal and Cailyn, a demi-god and a human bound together by an ill-worded promise and on the run from a mysterious organization of shadows.  Excellently drawn and with strong wit throughout, this is a tale for the mythology fans on the internet.  Mythological creatures exist just beyond our sight (yes, we’ve heard that much many times before), and Cailyn has just been exposed to this world.  More interesting is that concepts also exist.  Cardinal is an aspect of finding, and has the ability to find anything, anywhere.  Cailyn is a fantastic character, as she actually adapts well to this new world full of werewolves and fey, unlike so many other characters in this situation.  Her interactions with these creatures are some of the highlights of the comic.  If you’re into mythology at all, then this is the adventure you have been dying to read.  (Also, check out Happle Tea while you’re at it!)

Crimson Dark – Updates once every week or two

A little different, wouldn't you say?

This comic is produced in computer graphics instead of drawn, so it takes quite a while to produce.  However, it gives it a unique style that looks very impressive.  Crimson Dark is unmistakeably a comic for Firefly fans, as it is quite openly imitating the premise and elements of the show.  Begun as a college project, it is the tale of a crew on a small spaceship trying to make ends meet.  The crew are strangely reminiscent of the Firefly crew in different ways, including Whisper, the incredibly talented young girl with many problems.  While you may be put off by something which is just ‘like Firefly,’ don’t be.  This is a brilliant story with well thought out characters.  The plot is clever and the dialogue equally so.  Graphically, it is nice to see 3D environments rendered so well.  This is not just a Firefly-inspired comic; this is a brilliant tribute to it which can stand firmly on its own.