Category: review

Overheated Review, 2013 Summer Giveaway

You need to read this because these guys can’t

First, congratulations to Kayma for winning first pick of books in this year’s giveaway! Second, the giveaway continues this week, any comments on this post will be entered to win a book of their choice from the list. I thought it might be helpful to provide some context for a few of these books, below is a short review I wrote for the San Francisco and Sacramento Book Review.

Climate Change, once known as global warming, has been a hot political topic for almost two decades. Everyone seems to know what Climate Change is without being able to describe or convey their thoughts on the issue or what its effects might be. It remains ever present, yet mysterious, argued over vehemently without ever being elucidated. Overheated  is Andrew Guzman’s  attempt to describe what climate change is and what its most likely effects will be on humans in the next 100 years, while skirting the political obfuscations and arguments.

Guzman clearly outlines, without being alarmist or hyperbolic, what catastrophes humanity will likely face if we continue to ignore the threat. With complicated science explained through simple and effective metaphor and with a focus on mankind Overheated is a sobering look at what are future might hold: desertification, coastal flooding, the loss of vital cropland, water scarcity, mass immigration and emigration, and finally human lives. Once a disinterested academic, Guzman’s research has converted him into an advocate for change, research he shares in in this book. A great book for broaching the subject either for yourself or someone else in your life.

Don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to win a book from this list!

Not a Review: Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider 2013

Unlike others coming to the new Tomb Raider, I don’t have any previous experience with the franchise. I never played Lara Croft’s original adventures or saw her as played by Angelina Jolie on the big screen. I went into the game with mixed feelings. The marketing campaign was juvenile and disgusting, with the marketeers poorly positioning the game as “mature,” in the most shallow and offensive way: the threat of rape and violence to the game’s protagonist. I almost wrote the game off then. But, friends went out and purchased it and they loved it; reviewers also found the game laudable. People I trusted said the game was not about these things, that they were not important to the story, and that if one focused on that they’d be missing a great experience. They were right.

The game play in Tomb Raider is wonderful: responsive controls, engaging puzzles, satisfying combat, all set in a beautiful, haunting location and peppered with some fantastic set-pieces. This isn’t archaeology as practiced by real archaeologists but it is faithful to the action-romantic view we have of it thanks to the Indian Jones series of movies. It might be the first 3d metroidvania game I’ve ever really enjoyed. I wish the game had been more open ended, that instead of being shepherded from area to area I was given free roam of the island and its mysteries. This games almost captures the sense of raw discovery but the feeling is stunted every time you transition from one area to the next.

Most compelling though is the protagonist, Lara Croft. The designers and writers at Crystal Dynamics have done an excellent job realizing her as a character. I do feel like this young woman is not ready for the job she is given at the beginning of the game. She’s just out of school, she’s surrounded by her friends, mentors, and caretakers. She’s a nobody and everyone, even her sees it that way. And that’s okay these people are here to make sure everything works out, to help her.  Then it all gets taken away. As you play, as the story progresses, the naivete, the idealism, the innocence, the irresponsibility  is peeled away, sometimes violently. Lara might always have been strong willed and intelligent but she is untested and it shows. But she grows, you help her grow. It’s tragic, it’s sad, it’s scary and yet she comes through it. She enters adulthood midst tragedy and horror and like me, like most of us, finds it all somehow life affirming. It’s powerful stuff.

Not a Review: Syndicate (2012)

Syndicate developed by Starbreeze Studios
Syndicate developed by Starbreeze Studios

Syndicate is the story of Miles Kilo, a corporate agent in a dystopian future where nation-states have been replaced by super corporations. Citizens have been replaced with shareholders. Those who can’t afford to buy in to the future that these corporations are providing are left behind. Miles’ work consists of extracurricular activities – espionage, disruption, etc. The background in the game is not too different from the corporate dystopians you and I have read before. There are some spoilers here so if you haven’t played the game yet, you’ve been warned.

Half way through the game, Miles finds out that when he was a baby his parents were killed, liquidated, and he was kidnapped and brought into the company (Eurocorp) to be raised as an operative. His memories and personality have been “scrubbed” clean multiple times. His reaction in the game is to use his training to destroy the corporation that created him. The feelings of Kilo are understandable. People who have been lied to all of their lives usually do respond with anger and resentment. But, the immediate turning of those actions into extreme violence strikes me as juvenile. It is in the nature of young adults to lash out and destroy the things that have cared for them. I don’t know if that is the response of an adult. Were the actions of Eurocorp wrong? Without a doubt. But, giving into the same impulses that spawned their actions is not going to make the world better. This statement is raised by the creators of the game themselves in an earlier cut scene! The dichotomy between the words spoken at the player and the actions they’re encouraged to take is alarming.

I wonder if the creators were aware of this? Do we have writers and designers who are trying to create a more pathos rich narrative, attempting to construct a more mature and fulfilling narrative but find themselves limited and restrained by the structure of commercial video game design and the demands to be profitable? Are they, like me, hoping for something more from the medium? Something a little more nuanced, more mature? Grown-ups, in general, aren’t given the ability to eliminate the problems in their life by destroying it. Destruction is merely the furrowing of a field in which future destruction grows.

I wanted there to be the opportunity when Miles found out who he was and handed a gun to walk away. To be a non-participant in the awful violence that will soon ensue. I wanted him to be the adult that I am. The adult, if recent news about a nigh twenty year-old franchise being resuscitated is any indication, that most gamers are today.

Here’s to hoping.

Not a Review: Knights of the Old Republic II

I picked this game up when it first came out on PCs back in 2005. I remember playing it for about an hour or so before setting it down and forgetting about it. A few month’s back a good friend of mine mentioned on Talking Time that one of the restored content mods had just updated and that he was going to be picking the game up to play through it now that it’d been “fixed.” His comments not only reminded me I owned the game and had not yet played it, but also how much I enjoyed playing through the first game.

Anyway, that’s the boring story about how I got around to playing a game I bought eight years ago. KOTOR2 is a lot like its predecessor in that it puts the player in control of a force user in the Star Wars universe about 4000 or so years (I think?) before the events that take place in A New Hope. Except, because it is a sequel the creators felt everything had to be bigger and more of it.  I don’t usually have a problem when designers want to provide more content but in this case, and this is a consistent problem with Obsidian, their reach often exceeds their grasp. Big plans, great ideas and an inability to follow through.

The story is KOTOR2 is an attempt an an epic sweeping space opera with entangled, complex characters and there are times when you can see hints of this but and you can almost, almost, be swept up into it and be carried away. Almost, instead you’re left shaking your head and asking, “What did that character just say?”  and “Why do I care about this?” These questions are sadly left unanswered. 

In it’s defense as a follower of the Dark Side of the Force I get to shoot lightning out of my fingers at my enemies. And being Sith, everyone is my enemy. This goes a long way in my book.

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