I wrote this post awhile back, when the same kind of drama was going around the blogging world. It has been suggested that I re-post it again, not to point fingers or condemn or call anyone out, but just as a quiet reminder to anyone who has gotten negative reviews. What is the best way to deal with them? In my humble opinion, well, read on...
Authors and Negative Reviews
It seems there has been a lot of drama going around the blogging world lately.
Normally, I don't post about heated topics. I'm highly allergic to drama and angst (Except in stories, of course), and I learned long ago that you really can't change people's minds about anything, so why point that spotlight on yourself? But, in light of the recent author/blogger drama on twitter and facebook, I felt compelled to add my two cents to the mix. So, this is my own opinion, garnered from the years I've spent as a writing professional, on Authors and Negative Reviews. Future authors and writers, this is especially for you, not to scare or scold or threaten, but just as a gentle caution of what to expect.
NOT EVERYONE WILL LIKE YOUR BOOK. This is a certainty. No matter how compelling, no matter how innovative or brilliant or well-written, no book can please everyone one hundred percent. If you don't believe me, find your favorite book or author and check them out on Goodreads. They will have 1 and 2 star reviews, just like everyone else. Some people will adore your book, some people will just think its okay, and some people will loathe it and want to burn it and scour your name from the face of the earth for writing such garbage. And it's okay for them to think that. They are entitled to their opinion. Really, that's all a review IS: an opinion. Which brings us to the heart of this matter...
YOU ARE GOING TO GET NEGATIVE REVIEWS. If you are an author, and you put your book out there for the world to read, you are going to get bad reviews. Sometimes, the review will be thoughtful and well-done, with the reviewer citing what they liked and didn't like about the story. That's the best kind of negative review, but it doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes the review will be snide and hateful, as if the reader despises you personally and says all kinds of ugly, unkind things about the story you've put your heart and soul into. Its amazing the things people will say on the internet that they wouldn't dare say in real life, but it happens. This is why many authors I've spoken to stay far, far away from Goodreads. Because Goodreads is brutal on authors, and some of us would rather not know. So, now that you can expect at least one negative critique of your book, how does one respond to such a review? What should an author do in the face of such bad press?
NOTHING.
Let me say that again. NOTHING.
At the very, very least, you can email or post a comment thanking that reviewer for their time in reading and reviewing your book. Then you go and rant to your best friend, or your hubby, or your dog. You do not take out your hurt and frustration on the reviewer. You do not leave a comment on their blog, defending yourself and your book. You do not tell them how wrong they are, and that they must have misunderstood your writing, and that everyone before them has given your book steller reviews. Because it doesn't matter. You aren't going to change their opinion--again with that word OPINION--and you are only hurting yourself and your career by acting in such an unprofessional manner.
Yes, I know. Negative reviews hurt. They downright suck. Believe me, I've gotten more then my share, and its not fun reading "Julie Kagawa, you give fairies a bad name." (Actual review.) I know your book is your greatest achievement, and that you've come far and struggled so hard to get it published, and you should be very proud of that. I know its hard when you wrote the best story you could, went through all the heartache and uncertainty of getting it published, only to have a virtual stranger put it down like its nothing, like we don't have feelings and it doesn't tear us apart every time someone is cruel. I know its unfair that we can't defend ourselves.
But that's the world of authors and reviewers, and the only classy way to respond to bad reviews is graciously or not at all.
Thankfully, there are many out there who will love your book and your stories, and those reviews will be wonderful and glowing and make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But, if you are to swim these treacherous waters of authordom, you must also be prepared to lose a little blood, as well. This is just fair warning, take it from someone who knows, and start working on that thick skin. And a sense of humor can help tremendously.
So that's my two cents on authors and negative reviews. Comments and discussions are welcome. However, any mean, ugly, or hateful comments will be eaten by the gremlins.
Julie
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Friday, January 6, 2012
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Skyrim: In Faendal's memory
Okay, so I am fully aware that this post will reveal my complete and utter geekiness. But I'm okay with that. I've made peace with my inner nerd. Also, remember that, as a writer, I tend to see everything as an unfolding story. Which will make sense in just a moment...
So, as many of you know, I'm a gamer. When not writing, I can usually be found on any one of my three consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) or on the PC with my Sims. When I have a new game, everything except writing sort of goes out the window, and I vanish from twitter for as long as it takes me to beat the game.
This season's addiction of choice is Bethesda's Skyrim.
I've done video game reviews before. You can even find some of them on this blog. This is not a review, exactly. This is more....well, I don't really know what this is. A story. Yes, that's what it is; this is the story of the life and death of a fictional AI character in a video game.
You've been warned.
Skyrim opens, as the Elder Scrolls always do, with you as a prisoner for some unknown, never-touched upon crime. In Morrowind you were a prisoner on a slave ship, in Oblivion you were stuck in the castle dungeon. In Skyrim, you have been captured with a group of rebels and taken to a fort, where you are to be executed with no trial. But, just as your head lands on the chopping block, a dragon swoops down and attacks. You escape, and after fighting your way through the fort's underground tunnels (filled with giant spiders, why are there always giant spiders?), you emerge into the huge, wide world of Skyrim.
Your first task, assuming you don't go tromping about the world and run smack first into wolves and bandits, is to head to the sleepy little village of Riverwood and meet your fellow ex-prisoner, or ex-captor, deciding which path you decided to take earlier in the game. Riverwood is more of a stopping point where you can sell all that stuff you looted from slain enemies before moving on to the larger city of Whiterun, up the road. You can get a few "starter quests" here as well, including one that has you fetching a stolen item from a group of bandits.
It's also where you meet an elf named Faendal.
Faendal is your first potential follower in the game (assuming you went to Riverwood first, like you were supposed to). He's a bit strange looking, and is in a messy love triangle with a handsome Nord named Sven and a woman named Camilla. Both Sven and Faendal like Camilla, and both try to get you to help them win her. As I was playing a fellow wood elf, and because Sven struck me as an ancient Nordic jock meathead, I decided to help out Faendal. Once he became my friend, he followed me to the bandit's hideout to help retrieve that stolen item, and fought bravely at my side against bandits, undead draugr, and giant spiders.
That was our first, and only, adventure together.
I'm a lone adventuring type. Even if I have the option to let someone join me, I usually opt out. Because Skyrim's followers will unerringly stand in doorways, push you over cliffs, step on a trap trigger the moment you're in the danger zone, and so on. I had to do one quest with a brute named Farkas, or as I like to call him "sir Clanks-a-lot," because he couldn't sneak to save his life. Once, he rushed past me to get to the big bad at the end of a dungeon, just as I was lining up for a sneak shot in the doorway, and blew our cover. I shut the door on them both and went and sat in a dark corner while they duked it out. Hey, Farkas was a quest NPC; he couldn't be killed.
But I digress...
Faendal was the one follower who could hold his own. His sneak skill was better then mine, he never triggered trap plates, and he would stand back and pop baddies with his arrows instead of rushing between me and my target and getting whacked in the back of the head (cough Lydia cough). I rather liked Faendal. But because it is possible, and very likely, for followers to die trailing you about the countryside, I left him in Riverwood with the knowledge that he was living out a peaceful life with Camilla.
(Faendal. He usually has a shirt on in game, but I like this image. :D)
Then, many many hours of game time later, I returned to Riverwood for the current quest, and was attacked by an Elder dragon.
My first Elder dragon, no less. I'd been attacked by several dragons before, or I would see them soaring overhead, looking for things to accost, because that's what dragons do. I would usually be in the middle of a quest when this happened, and would hide until the dragon continued on its merry way, and I continued on mine. Hey, I wasn't being cowardly; I'd killed several of them already, as its impossible to get through an hour of Skyrim without running into one. And knowing they would continue to pop up throughout the game, I knew I wasn't missing anything by killing yet another dragon.
But this Elder dragon landed right the center of Riverwood, looking for me obviously, and attacked. It was a tough fight. Riverwood's guards and several villagers joined in as well, and together we tried to defeat this monster that had come out of nowhere. After we finally killed the beast (which went to a rather cool cutscene of me leaping onto the dragon's head and stabbing it with my sword), it collapsed, turned into a skeleton as I devoured its soul (its a dragonborn thing), and I looked around for casualties. Not too bad, for a dragon attack, anyway. A couple no-name guards had perished, no one important...
...Oh. Oh, Faendal.
There he was, lying in the grass, his bow beside him. He had perished fighting the dragon, defending his home. And, looking down at his body, I actually felt sad. Sad that this fictional character, this NPC in a video game, had died.
I couldn't leave him there in the road. In Skyrim, bodies don't disappear; he would be there every time I came back to Riverwood, and I couldn't have that. So, I took the key to his home, dragged his body to the river flowing right outside the village, and let the currant take him away. I watched his body until it disappeared downstream, then went to his home. Inside his simple cottage, I placed one of the dragon's bones I'd collected from the beast on his bed, and left feeling quite melancholic over the turn of events.
This got me thinking.
In a novel, this would be a turning point in the story. This would be the part where the reluctant hero would curse all dragonkind and vow to wipe them all out of existence. No more hiding from dragons, hoping they would pass him by. No more fighting them just for self-defense. With Faendal's death, the hero swears vengeance upon the monsters that killed his friend, and will now rush into battle wholeheartedly, in Faendal's memory.
Hey, that would make a pretty good book...
So, there was a point to this long, rambling post. And its one I've made on several occasions. Those who say video games do nothing but rot your brains are wrong. A video game is a story, just like any novel, one that is told a bit differently, but a story just the same. And if a video game can nearly move me to tears for the death of a fictional NPC, then I'd say its done a pretty good job.
And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Check out this post for another Skyrim character death story. It's hilarious, but it also gives me a bit of hope that I'm not the only crazy obsessed geek out there. :D
Until next time, I'll be fighting dragons.
So, as many of you know, I'm a gamer. When not writing, I can usually be found on any one of my three consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) or on the PC with my Sims. When I have a new game, everything except writing sort of goes out the window, and I vanish from twitter for as long as it takes me to beat the game.
This season's addiction of choice is Bethesda's Skyrim.
I've done video game reviews before. You can even find some of them on this blog. This is not a review, exactly. This is more....well, I don't really know what this is. A story. Yes, that's what it is; this is the story of the life and death of a fictional AI character in a video game.
You've been warned.
Skyrim opens, as the Elder Scrolls always do, with you as a prisoner for some unknown, never-touched upon crime. In Morrowind you were a prisoner on a slave ship, in Oblivion you were stuck in the castle dungeon. In Skyrim, you have been captured with a group of rebels and taken to a fort, where you are to be executed with no trial. But, just as your head lands on the chopping block, a dragon swoops down and attacks. You escape, and after fighting your way through the fort's underground tunnels (filled with giant spiders, why are there always giant spiders?), you emerge into the huge, wide world of Skyrim.
Your first task, assuming you don't go tromping about the world and run smack first into wolves and bandits, is to head to the sleepy little village of Riverwood and meet your fellow ex-prisoner, or ex-captor, deciding which path you decided to take earlier in the game. Riverwood is more of a stopping point where you can sell all that stuff you looted from slain enemies before moving on to the larger city of Whiterun, up the road. You can get a few "starter quests" here as well, including one that has you fetching a stolen item from a group of bandits.
It's also where you meet an elf named Faendal.
Faendal is your first potential follower in the game (assuming you went to Riverwood first, like you were supposed to). He's a bit strange looking, and is in a messy love triangle with a handsome Nord named Sven and a woman named Camilla. Both Sven and Faendal like Camilla, and both try to get you to help them win her. As I was playing a fellow wood elf, and because Sven struck me as an ancient Nordic jock meathead, I decided to help out Faendal. Once he became my friend, he followed me to the bandit's hideout to help retrieve that stolen item, and fought bravely at my side against bandits, undead draugr, and giant spiders.
That was our first, and only, adventure together.
I'm a lone adventuring type. Even if I have the option to let someone join me, I usually opt out. Because Skyrim's followers will unerringly stand in doorways, push you over cliffs, step on a trap trigger the moment you're in the danger zone, and so on. I had to do one quest with a brute named Farkas, or as I like to call him "sir Clanks-a-lot," because he couldn't sneak to save his life. Once, he rushed past me to get to the big bad at the end of a dungeon, just as I was lining up for a sneak shot in the doorway, and blew our cover. I shut the door on them both and went and sat in a dark corner while they duked it out. Hey, Farkas was a quest NPC; he couldn't be killed.
But I digress...
Faendal was the one follower who could hold his own. His sneak skill was better then mine, he never triggered trap plates, and he would stand back and pop baddies with his arrows instead of rushing between me and my target and getting whacked in the back of the head (cough Lydia cough). I rather liked Faendal. But because it is possible, and very likely, for followers to die trailing you about the countryside, I left him in Riverwood with the knowledge that he was living out a peaceful life with Camilla.
(Faendal. He usually has a shirt on in game, but I like this image. :D)
Then, many many hours of game time later, I returned to Riverwood for the current quest, and was attacked by an Elder dragon.
My first Elder dragon, no less. I'd been attacked by several dragons before, or I would see them soaring overhead, looking for things to accost, because that's what dragons do. I would usually be in the middle of a quest when this happened, and would hide until the dragon continued on its merry way, and I continued on mine. Hey, I wasn't being cowardly; I'd killed several of them already, as its impossible to get through an hour of Skyrim without running into one. And knowing they would continue to pop up throughout the game, I knew I wasn't missing anything by killing yet another dragon.
But this Elder dragon landed right the center of Riverwood, looking for me obviously, and attacked. It was a tough fight. Riverwood's guards and several villagers joined in as well, and together we tried to defeat this monster that had come out of nowhere. After we finally killed the beast (which went to a rather cool cutscene of me leaping onto the dragon's head and stabbing it with my sword), it collapsed, turned into a skeleton as I devoured its soul (its a dragonborn thing), and I looked around for casualties. Not too bad, for a dragon attack, anyway. A couple no-name guards had perished, no one important...
...Oh. Oh, Faendal.
There he was, lying in the grass, his bow beside him. He had perished fighting the dragon, defending his home. And, looking down at his body, I actually felt sad. Sad that this fictional character, this NPC in a video game, had died.
I couldn't leave him there in the road. In Skyrim, bodies don't disappear; he would be there every time I came back to Riverwood, and I couldn't have that. So, I took the key to his home, dragged his body to the river flowing right outside the village, and let the currant take him away. I watched his body until it disappeared downstream, then went to his home. Inside his simple cottage, I placed one of the dragon's bones I'd collected from the beast on his bed, and left feeling quite melancholic over the turn of events.
This got me thinking.
In a novel, this would be a turning point in the story. This would be the part where the reluctant hero would curse all dragonkind and vow to wipe them all out of existence. No more hiding from dragons, hoping they would pass him by. No more fighting them just for self-defense. With Faendal's death, the hero swears vengeance upon the monsters that killed his friend, and will now rush into battle wholeheartedly, in Faendal's memory.
Hey, that would make a pretty good book...
So, there was a point to this long, rambling post. And its one I've made on several occasions. Those who say video games do nothing but rot your brains are wrong. A video game is a story, just like any novel, one that is told a bit differently, but a story just the same. And if a video game can nearly move me to tears for the death of a fictional NPC, then I'd say its done a pretty good job.
And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Check out this post for another Skyrim character death story. It's hilarious, but it also gives me a bit of hope that I'm not the only crazy obsessed geek out there. :D
Until next time, I'll be fighting dragons.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Some early reviews
Hi all!
Halfway done with NaNo, and finally over the Week 2 Hump, where it seems your plot is floundering, your characters are completely lame, and you have so much better things to do then type another 1700 words--like laundry or dishes or scheduling a root canal.
But now Week 3 beckons, so onward we go!
Also,since The Iron Queen hit Netgalley earlier this week, I wanted to share some early reviews. Some of these may contain minor spoilers, so if you don't want to know anything about Iron Queen, I would refrain from reading. And a huge, huge THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to read and post. Seriously, you're the best. :)
Fire and Ice
Fangs, Wands, and Fairydust
25 Hour Books
P.S: If you're a blogger or a reviewer and want a copy of The Iron Queen, check out Netgalley to request an egalley.
Halfway done with NaNo, and finally over the Week 2 Hump, where it seems your plot is floundering, your characters are completely lame, and you have so much better things to do then type another 1700 words--like laundry or dishes or scheduling a root canal.
But now Week 3 beckons, so onward we go!
Also,since The Iron Queen hit Netgalley earlier this week, I wanted to share some early reviews. Some of these may contain minor spoilers, so if you don't want to know anything about Iron Queen, I would refrain from reading. And a huge, huge THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to read and post. Seriously, you're the best. :)
Fire and Ice
Fangs, Wands, and Fairydust
25 Hour Books
P.S: If you're a blogger or a reviewer and want a copy of The Iron Queen, check out Netgalley to request an egalley.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Game Review: Fable 3
Oh look, another rant.
Warning: SPOILERS below! Do not read if you haven't played Fable 3 yet and don't want to hear the ending.
As you all know, I'm a gamer. And the game I was most looking forward to this month was Fable 3. I really enjoyed the first two, and I thought that THIS Fable was going to surpass them all.
Boy was I wrong.
For those who have not played the game, Fable gives you the "moral choice" option of being a good, honorable hero, or an evil, selfish, power-hungry jerk. Your appearance will change depending on the choices you make, and I usually go for the "good" option the first time around. And for the first third of the game, everything was fine--barring a few annoying Fable idiosyncrasies (broken combat system, obnoxious identical NPCs, frustrating travel system). You were the younger brother of the king, who was a real tyrant, and eventually you had to flee the palace with your butler (voiced by John Cleese) and your mentor. You then traveled around Albion, gaining support, amassing followers, promising to clean up the land when you became king, and basically start a revolution.
Oh, and along the way, you discover an ancient evil is approaching Albion, and that the kingdom is in danger of being swallowed by darkness.
Well, then the big day comes. You storm the castle with your loyal followers, dethrone your brother, and become the king, as was your destiny. Turns out, your brother was being a jerkface tyrant because that was the only way to "get ready" for the army of evil that was approaching from across the sea. So, once you become king, you have one year to raise enough gold to combat the darkness, otherwise your people will all die.
And from there, everything went to crap.
After you become king, the game gives you 5 days or "sessions" before the darkness arrives, forcing you to start each day in court, deciding the status of the country. You have to choose whether to keep your promises (i.e rebuilding the orphanage) or be a tyrannical jerk (i.e force all the children into child labor). Remember, up until this point, I was playing the good, just character. But all those good choices resulted in a massive loss of gold, sending your treasury into the negative and bumping the "projected civilian casualties" even higher. The game wouldn't give you a break, and the "choices" you had to make were all so black-and-white. Build a school or open a brothel. Construct a sanitation factory or dump all the waste into an eco community. Protect the lake and surrounding woodlands or destroy it for mining.
Each time, I would go with the "moral" choice. At the end of the "year," I was nearly 2 million gold in the hole, and you needed 6.5 million to protect your people from the darkness. Then the evil army came, and though you beat the final boss and drove it back yourself, your kingdom was empty of people because everyone was dead.
So, moral of Fable 3? Its better to be evil than good and just. Its better to break promises and send children into slave labor and be a selfish tyrant, because only by being evil can you save your kingdom. Yeah, that's nice. Great moral lesson there, Peter Molynuex. Try again.
Warning: SPOILERS below! Do not read if you haven't played Fable 3 yet and don't want to hear the ending.
As you all know, I'm a gamer. And the game I was most looking forward to this month was Fable 3. I really enjoyed the first two, and I thought that THIS Fable was going to surpass them all.
Boy was I wrong.
For those who have not played the game, Fable gives you the "moral choice" option of being a good, honorable hero, or an evil, selfish, power-hungry jerk. Your appearance will change depending on the choices you make, and I usually go for the "good" option the first time around. And for the first third of the game, everything was fine--barring a few annoying Fable idiosyncrasies (broken combat system, obnoxious identical NPCs, frustrating travel system). You were the younger brother of the king, who was a real tyrant, and eventually you had to flee the palace with your butler (voiced by John Cleese) and your mentor. You then traveled around Albion, gaining support, amassing followers, promising to clean up the land when you became king, and basically start a revolution.
Oh, and along the way, you discover an ancient evil is approaching Albion, and that the kingdom is in danger of being swallowed by darkness.
Well, then the big day comes. You storm the castle with your loyal followers, dethrone your brother, and become the king, as was your destiny. Turns out, your brother was being a jerkface tyrant because that was the only way to "get ready" for the army of evil that was approaching from across the sea. So, once you become king, you have one year to raise enough gold to combat the darkness, otherwise your people will all die.
And from there, everything went to crap.
After you become king, the game gives you 5 days or "sessions" before the darkness arrives, forcing you to start each day in court, deciding the status of the country. You have to choose whether to keep your promises (i.e rebuilding the orphanage) or be a tyrannical jerk (i.e force all the children into child labor). Remember, up until this point, I was playing the good, just character. But all those good choices resulted in a massive loss of gold, sending your treasury into the negative and bumping the "projected civilian casualties" even higher. The game wouldn't give you a break, and the "choices" you had to make were all so black-and-white. Build a school or open a brothel. Construct a sanitation factory or dump all the waste into an eco community. Protect the lake and surrounding woodlands or destroy it for mining.
Each time, I would go with the "moral" choice. At the end of the "year," I was nearly 2 million gold in the hole, and you needed 6.5 million to protect your people from the darkness. Then the evil army came, and though you beat the final boss and drove it back yourself, your kingdom was empty of people because everyone was dead.
So, moral of Fable 3? Its better to be evil than good and just. Its better to break promises and send children into slave labor and be a selfish tyrant, because only by being evil can you save your kingdom. Yeah, that's nice. Great moral lesson there, Peter Molynuex. Try again.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Game Review: Enslaved
Is it REALLY too much to ask a video game to have an actual ENDING that doesn't make you want to strangle the designers with the controller wires?
Sorry, had to get that out.
Moving on. Actually, let's backtrack to 3 days ago, where I was leaving Game Stop with a shiny new copy of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a PS3 game based (very) loosely on a very old Chinese story called, ironically, Journey to the West. The book tells the tale of a Buddhist monk and his journey to the west (hence the title) with his three companions, one of them being the ancient and very powerful Monkey King. Also, a demon pig, but we'll get around to that in a second.
Enslaved tells the story of Monkey, a gruff, very strong guy who looks like a caveman crossed with a blond gorilla. The game is set in post-apocalyptic America, which is one of my favorite settings, complete with the overrun, skeletal cities and wastelands of junk. At the beginning, you've been captured by slavers but you escape and must get off the crashing slaveship before it goes down. From the very start, the game was intense and exciting, but as it went on, I found myself torn.
Things I liked about Enslaved:
-Beautiful visuals. The graphics and settings were gorgeous, no question.
-Good voice acting. I hate it when I have to put the game on mute because the characters all sound like they're reading from a script with hot pokers shoved up their butts. Enslaved actually had decent voice acting, even though Monkey sounded like every other gruff-yet-caring hero I've heard of.
-Good story. Up until the end. Which I'll get to in a moment. Beware of ranting.
-Fun. Yes, okay, Enslaved was fun. Bouncing around giant skyscrapers, fighting mechs, and surfing around on Monkey's "cloud" (think hoverboard, only circular) was a lot of fun. But it was skewed by the frustrating bits, which I'll discuss...now.
1. WHY CAN MONKEY ONLY GRAB THE SHINY GLOWING HANDHOLDS?!? This was the most frustrating bit for me. Here's this guy who can leap 30 feet in the air, grab a teeny tiny bit of pipe, and swing onto another bit of pipe like a freaking trapeze artist, yet he can't hop onto a 10 foot roof because "that's not the way you're supposed to go." I couldn't count the time I was under a ledge that held money or health or upgrade balls, and I couldn't climb a nearby pipe to collect them, because it wasn't the right one. Or I'd be stuck and spend 15 minutes running around trying to find the right bit of pipe the game wanted me to take to continue on, when there were literally dozens of other pipes and ledges scattered about. So the game felt very linear and restrictive, with only one path to take to the end despite the huge open world that they tried to set up. It's like the game was rapping you on the knuckles when you attempted to find another way, saying: "no, no, that's not the way we've outlined for you. Look at the shiny glowy pipe over there."
2. Game controls were rather sticky. Going back to the climbing/jumping/swinging bit; if you press the X button and the D-stick in a certain direction, Monkey is supposed to leap onto the next ledge/pipe/handhold/whatever. But every so often he wouldn't move because I wasn't pressing the D-stick the EXACT direction I needed to go, or he would leap back the other way. And in a game where climbing speed is very important, this got annoying when Monkey would just sit there picking his nose as the bit of pipe he clung to gave way with him on it, or when an enemy was blasting him with machine gun rounds and he'd leap blithely into their path. All the while I'm shouting: "jump, you idiot, jump! No, not THAT way!"
3. The game was also very unforgiving if you didn't grab every last glowey upgrade ball before you moved on to the next problem. Again, I couldn't count the times I'd be forced to leave a tasty cluster of upgrade balls behind while I dealt with the half-dozen enemies shooting at me. But when I tried to go back for them, the game wouldn't let me. And for an OCD gamer like myself who HATES leaving stuff behind, especially when its right across a gulf or a rooftop, taunting me, this makes me foaming at the mouth crazy. Again, going back to the Our-way-or-the-Highway rant, upgrade balls would often be in seeming impossible to reach places, only they shouldn't have been impossible for someone who can leap 30 feet in the air like a ninja. But, because the game had very strict ideas about the route you could take, this meant for a lot of annoying running around, trying to figure out the path to the prize that was right above your head.
4. Camera angles sucked monkey balls. Most times you'd have full control of the camera, able to rotate it and point it where you wanted. And other times, usually when you were climbing, the game would wrench it from you and fix it in a certain direction so you couldn't move it. You would try to rotate it to look around, and the game would say: "no, no, this is the best angle for this part of the story. We know best, trust us." This was especially obnoxious if you were trying to get a better angle on that cluster of upgrade orbs you left behind, and the game passive-aggressively refused to show them. "Well, you didn't grab them when you first saw them, so obviously you didn't want them very badly, did you?"
5. The ending. I think it was the ending that finally pushed me over the edge. All throughout the game, yes, I was annoyed with the controls and the restrictive nature of the game itself, but I kept going and was able to enjoy it because the story was so intriguing. The characters were great, and there were hints of a romance between Monkey and Trip, the tech-savvy girl he's helping. Their relationship was complex and sweet, and I even enjoyed the banter between Monkey and Pigsy, another character they pick up on the way. (Yup, there's that demon pig.) I wanted to know who was behind the mechs attacking humans. I wanted to know how the mechs came to be. I wanted to know why they destroyed and killed Trip's colony. I wanted Monkey and Trip to just kiss each other already. But then the ending came, and NOTHING was answered. The very last line of the game (spoilers; look away if you don't want to know) is Trip saying: "Did I do the right thing?" and then the screen goes black. What!?! You don't end a game like that, with more questions then you have answers to! Also, the game was very short; like 15 hours short. Which isn't a bad thing if there's re-playability, but that isn't the case with Enslaved. You play it through once, and there's no reason to play it again.
Overall, was it a good game? For all my ranting, yeah, I guess as a game it was okay. I had fun flinging Monkey around pipes and ledges, and there were enough original ideas to keep it new and fresh. If you can get past the linear and restrictive nature, and the game holding your hand through the whole story, you might enjoy Enslaved. Just don't expect to have any questions answered at the end. I suppose this means there's going to be an Enslaved 2, but I don't think I'll be buying it.
Not when Fable 3 is waiting for me to pick it up.
Sorry, had to get that out.
Moving on. Actually, let's backtrack to 3 days ago, where I was leaving Game Stop with a shiny new copy of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a PS3 game based (very) loosely on a very old Chinese story called, ironically, Journey to the West. The book tells the tale of a Buddhist monk and his journey to the west (hence the title) with his three companions, one of them being the ancient and very powerful Monkey King. Also, a demon pig, but we'll get around to that in a second.
Enslaved tells the story of Monkey, a gruff, very strong guy who looks like a caveman crossed with a blond gorilla. The game is set in post-apocalyptic America, which is one of my favorite settings, complete with the overrun, skeletal cities and wastelands of junk. At the beginning, you've been captured by slavers but you escape and must get off the crashing slaveship before it goes down. From the very start, the game was intense and exciting, but as it went on, I found myself torn.
Things I liked about Enslaved:
-Beautiful visuals. The graphics and settings were gorgeous, no question.
-Good voice acting. I hate it when I have to put the game on mute because the characters all sound like they're reading from a script with hot pokers shoved up their butts. Enslaved actually had decent voice acting, even though Monkey sounded like every other gruff-yet-caring hero I've heard of.
-Good story. Up until the end. Which I'll get to in a moment. Beware of ranting.
-Fun. Yes, okay, Enslaved was fun. Bouncing around giant skyscrapers, fighting mechs, and surfing around on Monkey's "cloud" (think hoverboard, only circular) was a lot of fun. But it was skewed by the frustrating bits, which I'll discuss...now.
1. WHY CAN MONKEY ONLY GRAB THE SHINY GLOWING HANDHOLDS?!? This was the most frustrating bit for me. Here's this guy who can leap 30 feet in the air, grab a teeny tiny bit of pipe, and swing onto another bit of pipe like a freaking trapeze artist, yet he can't hop onto a 10 foot roof because "that's not the way you're supposed to go." I couldn't count the time I was under a ledge that held money or health or upgrade balls, and I couldn't climb a nearby pipe to collect them, because it wasn't the right one. Or I'd be stuck and spend 15 minutes running around trying to find the right bit of pipe the game wanted me to take to continue on, when there were literally dozens of other pipes and ledges scattered about. So the game felt very linear and restrictive, with only one path to take to the end despite the huge open world that they tried to set up. It's like the game was rapping you on the knuckles when you attempted to find another way, saying: "no, no, that's not the way we've outlined for you. Look at the shiny glowy pipe over there."
2. Game controls were rather sticky. Going back to the climbing/jumping/swinging bit; if you press the X button and the D-stick in a certain direction, Monkey is supposed to leap onto the next ledge/pipe/handhold/whatever. But every so often he wouldn't move because I wasn't pressing the D-stick the EXACT direction I needed to go, or he would leap back the other way. And in a game where climbing speed is very important, this got annoying when Monkey would just sit there picking his nose as the bit of pipe he clung to gave way with him on it, or when an enemy was blasting him with machine gun rounds and he'd leap blithely into their path. All the while I'm shouting: "jump, you idiot, jump! No, not THAT way!"
3. The game was also very unforgiving if you didn't grab every last glowey upgrade ball before you moved on to the next problem. Again, I couldn't count the times I'd be forced to leave a tasty cluster of upgrade balls behind while I dealt with the half-dozen enemies shooting at me. But when I tried to go back for them, the game wouldn't let me. And for an OCD gamer like myself who HATES leaving stuff behind, especially when its right across a gulf or a rooftop, taunting me, this makes me foaming at the mouth crazy. Again, going back to the Our-way-or-the-Highway rant, upgrade balls would often be in seeming impossible to reach places, only they shouldn't have been impossible for someone who can leap 30 feet in the air like a ninja. But, because the game had very strict ideas about the route you could take, this meant for a lot of annoying running around, trying to figure out the path to the prize that was right above your head.
4. Camera angles sucked monkey balls. Most times you'd have full control of the camera, able to rotate it and point it where you wanted. And other times, usually when you were climbing, the game would wrench it from you and fix it in a certain direction so you couldn't move it. You would try to rotate it to look around, and the game would say: "no, no, this is the best angle for this part of the story. We know best, trust us." This was especially obnoxious if you were trying to get a better angle on that cluster of upgrade orbs you left behind, and the game passive-aggressively refused to show them. "Well, you didn't grab them when you first saw them, so obviously you didn't want them very badly, did you?"
5. The ending. I think it was the ending that finally pushed me over the edge. All throughout the game, yes, I was annoyed with the controls and the restrictive nature of the game itself, but I kept going and was able to enjoy it because the story was so intriguing. The characters were great, and there were hints of a romance between Monkey and Trip, the tech-savvy girl he's helping. Their relationship was complex and sweet, and I even enjoyed the banter between Monkey and Pigsy, another character they pick up on the way. (Yup, there's that demon pig.) I wanted to know who was behind the mechs attacking humans. I wanted to know how the mechs came to be. I wanted to know why they destroyed and killed Trip's colony. I wanted Monkey and Trip to just kiss each other already. But then the ending came, and NOTHING was answered. The very last line of the game (spoilers; look away if you don't want to know) is Trip saying: "Did I do the right thing?" and then the screen goes black. What!?! You don't end a game like that, with more questions then you have answers to! Also, the game was very short; like 15 hours short. Which isn't a bad thing if there's re-playability, but that isn't the case with Enslaved. You play it through once, and there's no reason to play it again.
Overall, was it a good game? For all my ranting, yeah, I guess as a game it was okay. I had fun flinging Monkey around pipes and ledges, and there were enough original ideas to keep it new and fresh. If you can get past the linear and restrictive nature, and the game holding your hand through the whole story, you might enjoy Enslaved. Just don't expect to have any questions answered at the end. I suppose this means there's going to be an Enslaved 2, but I don't think I'll be buying it.
Not when Fable 3 is waiting for me to pick it up.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Aliens and the Red Ring of Death
Anyone who has owned an Xbox or and Xbox 360 for awhile knows what the above picture means. The dreaded Red Ring of Death, which tells you your Xbox has gone to the big game store in the sky. I'd heard about the Red Ring, of course, but our Xbox 360, one out of the very first line, no less, had miraculously avoided the Red Ring of Death for years and years.
Until yesterday.
Well, it had to happen eventually. But of course, the Red Ring decided to strike when I had a new game I was looking forward to playing. :(
Fortunately, my husband is the greatest man in the world. We went to Wal-Mart that very night and got a new Xbox 360. So, RIP old Xbox. You did good, lasting all this time, but its time to move on to a new box.
Anyway, this is the game I've been playing ever since.
Its called Mass Effect 2, and its a sci-fi/shooter/rpg. As you can tell from the title, this is the second in a series, and I absolutely LOVED the first one. The story, the characters, the voice acting, the game play, all fabulous in my book. Mass Effect 2 continues its near perfect legacy, introducing new characters to fall in love with, while meeting up with a few old ones as well. You're Commander Shepherd once again, commander of the Normandy, with a crew of extremely colorful aliens and humans at your side. The world is vast, complex, and gritty, and your actions once again have the potential for dire consequences depending on what path you choose.
As in the first Mass Effect, the different races are what make this game really stand out from any other sci-fi shooter. Each race is fully fleshed out, with their own legends, religion, history, and character.
From the brutal, war-like Krogans to the brilliant, fast talking Salarians, to the militaristic Turians. But unlike many aliens, the races of Mass Effect don't always fall into stereotype. Yes, most Krogan are violent and mercenary, but the one aboard your ship is surprisingly intelligent and self-aware, even as he acknowledges his bloodthirsty side. The bad-ass Turian warrior--who you'd expect to be noble and honorable--IS very noble and honorable, but he also has a dry sense of humor doesn't take himself too seriously at all. They don't act like aliens, they act like real people with real personalities. And perhaps, that is Mass Effect's greatest achievement.
Definitely worth the Red Ring of Death.
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