A Massive Effect On Things

While I will be talking about the video game, that isn’t what the whole post is about. But if that is all you want to read about, skip to the last paragraph.

Since the transplant, it seems like every few months I do one of these posts where I’m all “Hey, here is what I’m doing now–my big plan for myself–and disregard that other one I wrote, or the ones before that.” It’s a crappy feeling, because I’m not one to stop on a goal. But things have been harder since the operation. And a lot of it is from a feeling of just drifting. Most of that is cause I’ve never been able to really start a new living pattern.

Doctors aren’t helping with the mysterious problems with my legs, because of that I don’t feel comfortable driving the car and know that I couldn’t even handle even a desk job. Simple things that everyone takes for granted, but are the crux of living, socializing, and figuring out how you will go about your day. I’ve been filling my time with Eldritch Thoughts and The Non-Horror Reader Survey. But I’m not getting much out of it. It is just a form of productive time wasting. I’ve tried to get back to my writing, but I think I can understand how any writer has something traumatic happen and then they can’t write afterwards.

The best way to think of it is that before the event, you are driving along a flat road, then the engine fails. After that you have to shift into neutral and push till you get to the nearest mechanic or leave it on the side of the road and walk to get a tow. I tried pushing for a while, but the past two years there have been so many things, mostly medically related, that have made that road harder to navigate. So I’ve decided to pull over to the shoulder and walk my way to the mechanic.

By mechanic, I’m talking about going back to Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction program and, as they most of us M.A. alums are calling it, get the “F.” What I’m hoping is that an imposed structure will kickstart my writing again. When I was in the program before, it did that for me. I never thought I would write a novel and I did. Granted, it is not a great one, but half the battle is getting to that end point in a rough draft, most people never make it that far. This time, since I already have the M.A., it will be only a short time in the program, so I’ll be working on either a collection of stories or a novella. I really want to use the time to work on Lucin City and build it up more before I finish Scavenger. If I go with the story collection, it will also be an experiment related to my “Project 10″ idea. If I do the novella, it will most likely be the story I started back at Simon’s Rock that is set before Scavenger. But I have a back up, if that doesn’t fly, of returning to Nostrildamus. I had wanted something ready to capitalize on 2012, but when you think about it, either the doomsayers are right and it would be pointless to publish it now or they are wrong and they will find some other obscure prophesy I can make fun of them for.

But I will have time on my walk to the mechanic–I’m going to beat this metaphor to death, just so you know–but Eldritch Thoughts and Non-Horror Reader Survey aren’t major parts of what I have planned. I’m not going to put them on hold, but at the end of the month they will be more things I do if the inspiration hits. I’m doing this now because I know by the time  I start back at Seton Hill, they just can’t get the same attention I would need to give them. Also, because I have another project that I was asked to participate in that will be less time consuming, but equally fun, coming up. If you have been watching my Twitter feed lately, there has been a lot more talk of TV there. I’m not going to give out too much now except that it will involve television. So keep an eye out here. Most of the details are set, a few things are still being discussed, but hopefully it will start in early March.

March is also the month that Mass Effect 3 is released. For those that either know me of have followed my site for a while know, I’m a huge Star Wars fan. Mass Effect is possible one of the best examples of multi-media storytelling that Star Wars really pioneered over they years. Mass Effect in not just the video games, but books and comics and who knows what the future will hold. But more importantly, it is an amazing story. And since it is a great story, I’ve decided that as soon as my Women In Horror Month posts over at NHRS are finished, I’m going to go through the whole story–books, comics, and games–before I start on Mass Effect 3 when it releases. I haven’t decided if there will be posts related to it on here. But I wanted to forewarn of a potential massive geek-plosion soon here.

Star Wars: Betrayal by Aaron Allston

Title: Star Wars: Betrayal
Author: Aaron Allston
Genre: Sci-Fi, Space Opera, Media Tie-in
Publisher: Del Rey
Pages: 387
ISBN: 0345477340

I have come back to my Star Wars books after a long hiatus. I never even got to finish the New Jedi Order series because things always go in the way. So, with the release of newest Star Wars book, Outcast, I thought I should read the series just before that book. Now, I am a Star Wars geek. I can tell which version of the movies I’m watching when other can’t. I have four lightsabers. But most importantly for this review, I always try to get the first edition first printing of every book that comes out, whether I read it or not the minute I get home. So, I already know what the outcome of the whole “Legacy of the Force” series will be.

But, in a way, Star Wars has always been like that, as soon as a trilogy or a series is over it enters the collective unconscious and everyone knows what it is about and the enjoyment is experiencing how the characters come to that end point. That’s what I was looking for when I started this book. In that regards, it was a good book. Nothing amazing and nothing like the older books of Bantam Spectra books when you had Kevin J. Anderson, Timothy Zahn, and Michael Stackpole creating a good portion of the universe and tales that introduce us to it. But it was easy to pick up and read from cover to cover.

Aaron Allston isn’t one of my favorite Star Wars writers, or just writers in general. He can get the job done, but it feels lacking when you read it. One of his problems is that he looses his rhythm when he writes. For most of the book, we are switching back and forth between parallel scenes and instead of increasing the tension, it diffuses it. There are two large engagements that just felt so drawn out because we were bobbing from scene to scene that there was no real build up to anything. Also, he doesn’t give his characters the credit they deserve, part of it is how he writes, the other parts I can’t say if they are his fault or that of the people who brainstormed the idea of the series. But the main character through the whole series is Jacen Solo, son of Han and Leia. Supposedly he is in his thirties now, and is a Jedi Knight, yet he seemed more like a teenager than he did in the “Young Jedi Knight” series.

I think the part that is hard, for me as a writer, is the ending. First there was no real rising action to a climax and then resolution, it just drifted to an end point that didn’t even seem like an end point. I could have seen it end a little before or go on to an other chapter, but i got a bit of the feeling i had when i read the end of the last harry potter and it didn’t quite end either. At least there wasn’t a warp jump to some point in the future in this book.

The best way I can think of this book was it was true to legacy lucas left when he did the prequel trilogy, interesting and fun story, just not executed well in a final form.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and LEGO Batman for the 360

I recently picked up these games and to date I have finished one play through of Star Wars: TFU and almost finished the story mode of LEGO Batman. And I thought that I would share my likes and dislikes

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Likes: Well, for the most part this is a good game, one of the more solid games for Star Wars to come out in a while. In it you can collect Jedi Holocrons, and some of them will be crystals that can change the color of your blade and others that will give you advantages. You gain different costumes with every level you complete and from holocrons, so that if you go through the game again you can do do a little customization. There is strategy needed to defeat bosses and some of the more powerful enemies. The graphics are great, especially during the cinematics featuring Vader or the Secret Apprentice. And it give an interesting plot line that bridges the two trilogies (and yes, this story is canon, or at least until George changes his mind yet again).

Dislikes: Unfortunately, there are a lot of things in this game that could make it much better. One of those is the camera, there is no good way to control it and more than a number of times I thrown, the camera didn’t change and I lost all my bearings on where I was (quite a few times I even wasn’t on the screen, nor the enemies around me). One would think that with as many adventure game made up until this point in time, camera issues would be so basic that they could avoid this. And it wasn’t even like they were trying something new and it is a bug in a new program, it was just poorly programmed.

Another thing is the difficulty. I’m the kind of guy that starts on easy, figures out the controls and the lay of the game and then builds up to the highest difficulty. I have to say that this is one of the hardest easy levels I’ve ever played. One thing that makes it so bad is that if you get knocked down, not only to you possibly slide for four seconds before stopping and then taking another three to stand up, but the enemies can walk the distance and attack you just before you finish standing up and you can even block. What kind of Sith can’t anticipate and attack and block even while getting up? Some of the enemies, like the giant Purge Stormtroopers are just too hard to kill and and can kill you too easily. Even with my Force Lightening, apparently the only thing that will do significant damage, can’t kill it. And that is after I use up all of my Force Energy with its stat maxed out. I think it may be a while before I get up to the high difficulty, if I even try.

My last grip is the level design. There is just too much darkness and shadow on these levels, it one thing when you want atmosphere, it another when you can even tell where you are going or need to go. Also, the textures are so few that there are times where you can’t even tell if you’ve moved or where you were before. Another thing, there are place in all levels that you need to use you force powers to continue, but there are problems with that. The first being that some time you don’t even know what force power you need to you where you get trained that to get through a door you just use your force push. Then you come up to a door and it doesn’t work, but you know you need to use a force power because there is blue aura around it. So you try them all and if it happens to be the force grip, then you may use it and not even that will help you. That’s because using force grip is flawed because it used the camera controls. So you could try all that you might, but it could take you a goo while to figure out how to bend that door open.

All and all, like I said it was a good game, if you want like Star Wars games or you don’t want to read the novel of graphic novel for the story, pick it up, but be prepared for possible frustration all dependent on what difficulty you choose. Otherwise, I would say rent or borrow.

LEGO Batman
Likes: This has all the great qualities of the LEGO games before it: Fairly simple, but fun and lots of things for you to go back and play through again and again. Plus, it Batman, but even more so, it seems to be based more on the animated series. The score is the same, the opening is almost a perfect LEGOization of the shows, and other than the comics, is the best resource for a video game. Also, You get to ply the story from both the heroes’ standpoint and the villians’ stand point.

Dislikes: While I haven’t played LEGO Indy, I have gone through LEGO Star Wars a few times, as you know, you usually can’t get all the secrets in the story mode and have to go back through free play where you can change your character to get through obstacles. In the Star Wars version, I remember that I didn’t have to get through nearly all the episodes before I could go back, this one you do. Also, the boss battles and progression through parts of the level are not intuitive and you get confused really quickly.

This one really does have everything going for it and if you enjoyed the other LEGO game, pick this up. If you haven’t tried them yet, pick this up too. It’s worth the cash and everyone will enjoy it.