Geek S**T 3 Gen

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121

[quote]LUEshi wrote:
While we’re on the subject of entertaining fiction, I wanted to bring up one of my absolute favorite authors;

Dan Abnett.

He predominantly writes military science fiction set in the Warhammer 40K universe- and while much of the fiction that predominates that sub-genre is pulp at best, his stuff is pure dynamite. Whether he’s writing about Space Marines, the Tanith First-and-Only or Imperial inquisitors pretty much anything he does oozes cool and ass-kick in equal measure. [/quote]

And I’m a 40K girl. To be honest, I haven’t seriously played in 467,000 years, I mean I haven’t perused a Games Workshop store since I lived in Maryland and had access to the warehouse there (cheep shit, dood) but I played because of the awesome fluff text, and I’d be so down for reading whole novels of that stuff.

So. All this talk is about PS3 games- makes a girl happy, I must say. I bought my PS3 when the 60 gigs still had full backwards compatibility. I love my PS3. The new Uncharted looks insanely good, and if you liked DMC, Bayonetta was fun. I’m more of a Dungeon crawler/tactical strategy/RPG player, but I can dig a little action/adventure. The new one from the Ico team looks stunning as always- I have such fond memories of taking that delicate white doll princess through that mean ol’ castle in Ico; who knew a ward mission could be so- heart pounding?

I really hope Sony remembers that their bread and butter comes from innovative and quirky titles alongside the big budget blockbuster bad boys- the 360 and the Wii have learned to embrace small developers, and while PS3 has your echochrome, your everyday shooter and your tower defense downloadables, I think it could benefit from a bit of Plants vs. Zombies.

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[quote]So. All this talk is about PS3 games- makes a girl happy, I must say. I bought my PS3 when the 60 gigs still had full backwards compatibility. I love my PS3. The new Uncharted looks insanely good, and if you liked DMC, Bayonetta was fun. I’m more of a Dungeon crawler/tactical strategy/RPG player, but I can dig a little action/adventure. The new one from the Ico team looks stunning as always- I have such fond memories of taking that delicate white doll princess through that mean ol’ castle in Ico; who knew a ward mission could be so- heart pounding?

I really hope Sony remembers that their bread and butter comes from innovative and quirky titles alongside the big budget blockbuster bad boys- the 360 and the Wii have learned to embrace small developers, and while PS3 has your echochrome, your everyday shooter and your tower defense downloadables, I think it could benefit from a bit of Plants vs. Zombies.[/quote]

Only reason I’m buying a PS3 is-

Just Cause 2 (WICKED physics system)
InFamous
Protoype
Resistance 1 & 2

…and yeah, that’s about it. Picking up The Conduit today or tomorrow (might trade some stuff in for it). I just get such a gooey feel-good Goldeneye/Perfect Dark vibe from it (I remember playing that as a teen and going- “Did I just use my assault rifle as a landmine? SWEET!”) that I could really care less about the graphics.

Speaking of sweet graphics, Muramasa looks like a frigging watercolor come to life.

123

an interesting look at the CGI work of Transformers 2

:slight_smile:

124

[quote]SSC wrote:
hardgnr wrote:
Has anyone played FarCry 2? I’ve had on PC for about 6 months and never got into it. I heard it was good and gave it another shot last night but it just seems so fucking repetitive. I’m about 10% in. Does it get any better/different or do you just hunt diamonds/do missions or alternate missions/find safe houses/kill africans in cars the whole time?

I try to hype this game up as much as possible. It’s such a sleeper. But no, if you don’t like it now, you won’t like the rest of the game. How could you not enjoy wandering around Africa? It’s so realistic. I know a guy who went down there and played the game, and was quite impressed.

I’ve found that there’s no real neutrality about the game, though. People either love the pacing of the large-world explorative FPS, or hate it. I get so immersed into the game, I’m on my second playthrough.

BTW, you know where you are right now, the Northern Sector? You’ll have an entire other area to explore, just as large as the first one. Keep playing.[/quote]

It is realistic, and the scenery is nice, but I just can’t stand the gameplay. Crysis had pretty big areas and I really enjoyed that…but this, feels like I’m doing the same shit over and over.

125

New, real trailer is out for The Last Airbender!!

I must say, that fire nation attack at the end looked pretty damn cool.

126

Wow, I somehow missed all these replies about books.

Lets see:

I read some David Gemmel, not bad at all. I guess you got your name there Waylander :wink: Terry Goodkind could never hold my attention for more than 50 pages. It’s just like that sometimes, everything about it seems like something I would like, yet I can’t get into it.

As for The Wheel of Time, I’ve always said that I’ll read that when the whole series is out. Fuck me if I’m going to be short changed because some asshole writer gets hit by a car. haha

The Dark Tower. Maybe my favorite series up until book 5. 5, 6 and 7 were dog shit. I guess getting hit by that car made Stephen King realize his own mortality and made him force an ending to his epic.

Lueshi: I’ll be checking out The First Law trilogy. I am intrigued.

David Eddings’ The Belgariad, Mallorean, Belgarath and Polgara books was one of the first things I read in Fantasy. I loved them all and have read them several times.

The last book I read that I truly enjoyed was The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1) by Patrick Rothfuss. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

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[quote]Misterhamper wrote:

New, real trailer is out for The Last Airbender!!

I must say, that fire nation attack at the end looked pretty damn cool.[/quote]

OK…I liked that.

I really liked that whole series. I just really hope he does it justice. I can’t even think of another animated series with that much depth of character even though I know some of you have more anime experience than I do.

128

I picked up Overlord II today for those that are fans of the first one. I probably won’t have time to play it until tomorrow though, as I’m getting in line after work for the 10:30 PM IMAX showtime for Transformers 2. :slight_smile:

129

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Misterhamper wrote:

New, real trailer is out for The Last Airbender!!

I must say, that fire nation attack at the end looked pretty damn cool.

OK…I liked that.

I really liked that whole series. I just really hope he does it justice. I can’t even think of another animated series with that much depth of character even though I know some of you have more anime experience than I do.
[/quote]
meh… avatar isnt really anime. just anime themed nick stuff.
…but I did watch

130

[quote]LUEshi wrote:
Speaking of sweet graphics, Muramasa looks like a frigging watercolor come to life.[/quote]

I played it- it’s awesome. Have you played any of the other Vanillaware games, like Odin Sphere or Grimgrimoire? They lean towards a tactical strategy real time battle engine, but in Muramasa, you can choose to run and gun, or worry about strategy. It’s pretty sweet.

131

You played it? It’s not supposed to be released for ages, I thought.

I REALLY want to try the other two games before I hit up Muramasa. I’ll see if I can’t snag them for cheap someplace.

You know what I want? A remake of Guardian Heroes with that same art style. GOD I loved that game. I played it about 4 hours a day for months and still didn’t have everything unlocked when my brother sold the Saturn right out from under me. Bastard.

132

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Misterhamper wrote:

New, real trailer is out for The Last Airbender!!

I must say, that fire nation attack at the end looked pretty damn cool.

OK…I liked that.

I really liked that whole series. I just really hope he does it justice. I can’t even think of another animated series with that much depth of character even though I know some of you have more anime experience than I do.
[/quote]

Great series, I’m reserving judgement on the movie until we see more.

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[quote]LUEshi wrote:
You played it? It’s not supposed to be released for ages, I thought.

I REALLY want to try the other two games before I hit up Muramasa. I’ll see if I can’t snag them for cheap someplace.

You know what I want? A remake of Guardian Heroes with that same art style. GOD I loved that game. I played it about 4 hours a day for months and still didn’t have everything unlocked when my brother sold the Saturn right out from under me. Bastard.[/quote]

Ahhh, yes- hitting all the old great video game makers-Treasure is one of the best, in my humble opinion. Do you like SHMUPS at all? Treasure and Cave make some of the best arcade style shooters ever.

Yes, I played a demo of Muramasa at E3- it was just the first level, but it was fabulous. The lines were long, but not as long as God of War 3- I didn’t go anywhere near that crap. I did, however, play the new Capcom fighting game on the Wii- Capcom vs. Tatsunoko, and it was freaking amazing with the stick. Speaking of the Wii, the new Super Mario Wii is 4 player, and seems like it’ll be a fun party game. It’s no Super Smash Brothers, but it’ll do.

134

Oh god.

Who knows how many hours of my life I spent playing 1941, Parodius, Bangai-O, UN Squadron, EDF and of course, Ikaruga. Let alone how much money spent. I really, really miss arcades sometimes.

I also really enjoyed some of the old-school Midway offerings like Smash TV & Total Carnage. And there was a kick ass GI Joe game that I wanted to steal from an old dollar theater near my house.

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[quote]nerd_princess wrote:
Sorry I’m a little late to this discussion, but with all the touting of Robert Jordan’s books, I just had to post. I think Jordan wrote a good 7 books. Then, the 8th came, then the 9th, I mean nothing happened in those books, guys. The characters all just stared at each other while planning attacks, it was excruciating. He was clearly dragging it out to keep that money rolling in since everything he put out was an instant best seller.

The Sword of Truth series is equally annoying- starts out great, works for 5 books, then takes a nosedive into weird preachy territory. No good.

I’d love to tell these authors to just write 3 or 5 books and call it a day, is any story you have to tell in the familiar setting of fantasy novels SO AWESOME you need 10 books of increasing size to tell it?

Sorry, I know since I usually post in the figure athlete forums, I’m going to get screamed at for this, but it’s cool, had to be said.
[/quote]

I have to disagree about Robert Jordan. First off, let me say that I started reading the series right around the time Crossroads of Twilight came out and then New Spring came out shortly after and then Knife of Dreams so for me it wasn’t that long of a wait. Having said that, I am glad that his books are that long. Truthfully, I don’t want to read a book that is set in a comfortable fantasy setting and I know all the rules so nothing comes as a surprise. Jordan’s books started out that way (mainly just Eye of the World) and then built upon themselves to such an extent that one could almost write histories about the nations, peoples, customs, etc. I’m quite sure Jordan could have cut out all of the intracicies and customs that made it a unique world that rises above mere comfortable fantasy, stripped it down to the bare bones plot/action and wrapped it up in 6 or 7 books. It would have felt rushed, sucked, and he wouldn’t have become the huge name in fantasy that he is today.

I don’t think he was doing it for money because the man was a nuclear engineer before writing, he’s owned and lived in the same house in Charleston for decades, and the only frivolities he seems to have purchased were swords and a porsche. Hardly the deeds of a man clamoring for money. To say nothing of the fact that he already had an entirely new series in mind, but he had promised to finish up WOT first.

I do however completely agree with you on Goodkind’s series. First few books were good and then all the rest ended the same: characters have dilemna, solve problem, happy ending? beginning of next book, the way the characters solved the problem created another problem…characters have dilemna, solve problem, happy ending? repeat. And the last few books were half filled with him summarizing the previous books as if someone picks up the eighth book in a series without reading the previous ones. So hands down agree there.

I will say that I’m beginning to suspect GRRM’s A Song of Fire and Ice series to be for money though. The man puts out a few books, claims that the next one is half written and should be out shortly. Then people start ranting because it hasn’t come out so he says Jan 07 it will be done, then it’s Jan 08, now he’s saying it will be done when it’s done…and he still has several books planned after that.

To me, when an author is only writing as thier living, marketing their books through calendars, special editions, an HBO series, etc. and they can’t put out the rest of the series in a timely manner, that is ridiculous. All Martin has to do is write. Even a paltry 1000 words a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year would be 250k. He’s had enough time to write 500k+ words on a book that was already half written.

So yeah, in that light your argument of more money has some validity IMO.

/end rant

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[quote]fireflyz wrote:

I will say that I’m beginning to suspect GRRM’s A Song of Fire and Ice series to be for money though. The man puts out a few books, claims that the next one is half written and should be out shortly. Then people start ranting because it hasn’t come out so he says Jan 07 it will be done, then it’s Jan 08, now he’s saying it will be done when it’s done…and he still has several books planned after that.

To me, when an author is only writing as thier living, marketing their books through calendars, special editions, an HBO series, etc. and they can’t put out the rest of the series in a timely manner, that is ridiculous. All Martin has to do is write. Even a paltry 1000 words a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year would be 250k. He’s had enough time to write 500k+ words on a book that was already half written.

So yeah, in that light your argument of more money has some validity IMO.

/end rant
[/quote]

One would think that Martin would say to hell with it and start publishing faster if he was only in it for the money. How is he making any money on postponing the release?

It’s not like most authors have the luxury of writing an entire series of 5-10 books before they ever publish the first one. Furthermore, Martin is not writing instruction manuals for IKEA furniture, now is he. It’s not like you can just say: “I’m going to write a great fantasy epic, I’ll do 1000 words a day until it’s done.”

I suggest you pick up Stephen King’s “On Writing” for a little insight into how a book is written. It was a good read, even if you never aspire to write something yourself.

137

[quote]Mr.Purple wrote:
One would think that Martin would say to hell with it and start publishing faster if he was only in it for the money. How is he making any money on postponing the release?

It’s not like most authors have the luxury of writing an entire series of 5-10 books before they ever publish the first one. Furthermore, Martin is not writing instruction manuals for IKEA furniture, now is he. It’s not like you can just say: “I’m going to write a great fantasy epic, I’ll do 1000 words a day until it’s done.”

I suggest you pick up Stephen King’s “On Writing” for a little insight into how a book is written. It was a good read, even if you never aspire to write something yourself.[/quote]

The point I’m making is that he made a lot of money off the first few books and suddenly his motivation seems to have dried up. I certainly don’t expect an author to produce 5-10 books right away…that would give me instant gratification but then screw me for the next few years, not something I want.

That is indeed Martin’s excuse that it is a complex process (which it is). My comments were based upon Stephen King’s “On Writing” which I have read several times. I suggest you reread the portion where he discusses how one should aim for 2000 words a day, everyday and how he does so himself. I believe he says he likes to start in the morning and when things are going well he gets his 2000 by midmorning, but if he is having a hard time of it then it isn’t unusual for him to be writing past lunch. I gave Martin much more leeway, half the words, two days off a week, two weeks off, etc. King also gives a jab towards authors that have talent and somehow only produce one or two works thier entire careers (Martin has produced many more obviously, just saying).

To be fair to Martin, posts on his blog seem to indicate he ran into a big problem with where the plot was going that left him stymied. I doubt that he was working at it in a determined fashion though as that was several years ago and still no book.

I actually have written one novel of 140k words which I shopped around to several agents. I got some nibbles and had one solid bite, however as it was my first novel and I hadn’t gone to Afghanistan yet I decided it was by no means my best work and if it was generating some interest then another novel with superior writing and experience would generate that much more. To that end I’ve been writing a new novel that I started the last two weeks in April. Admittedly, I haven’t gone as quickly as I want to due to finals in May and now finals for my summer courses, but I’m still at 85k words with another 40k to go I expect.

My point isn’t to say wow I write too, because until I sell books it’s meaningless, it’s to say that I understand how hard it can be to create and the drive it takes, and even King would agree with me that four years in between books when it was already halfwritten is a bit much.

138

[quote]AngryVader wrote:
I picked up Overlord II today for those that are fans of the first one. I probably won’t have time to play it until tomorrow though, as I’m getting in line after work for the 10:30 PM IMAX showtime for Transformers 2. :)[/quote]

Hah I completely forgot I even bought overlord like 2 years ago, just started playing it again. Decent game, although I get annoyed with the puzzle nature of the game at times.

I had no idea there was a 2nd one, let me know how it is.

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[quote]fireflyz wrote:
Mr.Purple wrote:
One would think that Martin would say to hell with it and start publishing faster if he was only in it for the money. How is he making any money on postponing the release?

It’s not like most authors have the luxury of writing an entire series of 5-10 books before they ever publish the first one. Furthermore, Martin is not writing instruction manuals for IKEA furniture, now is he. It’s not like you can just say: “I’m going to write a great fantasy epic, I’ll do 1000 words a day until it’s done.”

I suggest you pick up Stephen King’s “On Writing” for a little insight into how a book is written. It was a good read, even if you never aspire to write something yourself.

The point I’m making is that he made a lot of money off the first few books and suddenly his motivation seems to have dried up. I certainly don’t expect an author to produce 5-10 books right away…that would give me instant gratification but then screw me for the next few years, not something I want.

That is indeed Martin’s excuse that it is a complex process (which it is). My comments were based upon Stephen King’s “On Writing” which I have read several times. I suggest you reread the portion where he discusses how one should aim for 2000 words a day, everyday and how he does so himself. I believe he says he likes to start in the morning and when things are going well he gets his 2000 by midmorning, but if he is having a hard time of it then it isn’t unusual for him to be writing past lunch. I gave Martin much more leeway, half the words, two days off a week, two weeks off, etc. King also gives a jab towards authors that have talent and somehow only produce one or two works thier entire careers (Martin has produced many more obviously, just saying).

To be fair to Martin, posts on his blog seem to indicate he ran into a big problem with where the plot was going that left him stymied. I doubt that he was working at it in a determined fashion though as that was several years ago and still no book.

I actually have written one novel of 140k words which I shopped around to several agents. I got some nibbles and had one solid bite, however as it was my first novel and I hadn’t gone to Afghanistan yet I decided it was by no means my best work and if it was generating some interest then another novel with superior writing and experience would generate that much more. To that end I’ve been writing a new novel that I started the last two weeks in April. Admittedly, I haven’t gone as quickly as I want to due to finals in May and now finals for my summer courses, but I’m still at 85k words with another 40k to go I expect.

My point isn’t to say wow I write too, because until I sell books it’s meaningless, it’s to say that I understand how hard it can be to create and the drive it takes, and even King would agree with me that four years in between books when it was already halfwritten is a bit much.[/quote]

King went 20 years between writing the first line of The Gunslinger and writing the second line, as I recall. I’m sure he can sympathize with Martin. :slight_smile:

My point was simply that it’s better to take the time that is needed, rather than force it. Just look at the 3 last books of The Dark Tower, which sucked hairy monkey balls. I’d rather have waited 5 more years and gotten something better.

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[quote]Mr.Purple wrote:
King went 20 years between writing the first line of The Gunslinger and writing the second line, as I recall. I’m sure he can sympathize with Martin. :slight_smile:

My point was simply that it’s better to take the time that is needed, rather than force it. Just look at the 3 last books of The Dark Tower, which sucked hairy monkey balls. I’d rather have waited 5 more years and gotten something better.[/quote]

Haha, yes but I think that was due to being 19 and putting out a bazillion other books in between. You are quite right though that it is better to wait if the end product is better. And the last few books of the Dark Tower did feel rushed…that accident really scared the shit out of him I guess, lol.

If I’m being honest I don’t think money is the true reason that Martin is procrastinating. I just think it’s making it easier on him. The man is overweight and he says on his own blog that he tends to be lazy. I’m not saying that all people that are overweight are lazy and that all skinny people are not, but there is something about a regimen of exercise that permeates every other aspect of our lives. I’m sure we can all agree with that.