The Way of the Game – Episode 13
After our brief break with the Assassin’s Creed 2 review, we’ve got a news show filled to the brim with goodness for you!
Alex is going to E3! Jonathan is going to GenCon! Alex has finished Bioshock 2! Jonathan met Mario! Alex has an almost disturbing amount of fun rolling digital dice! I’m going to stop writing in exclamatives! :-)
Now, the list:
Hope you enjoy! Be sure to check out our forums, email questions or comments to feedback (at) thewayofthegame (dot) net, and feel free to follow Alex and Jonathan on Twitter.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Stock Characters: Kyse (Mouse Guard)
KYSE
The oldest son of Finn and Lilly, Port Sumac’s most experienced harvesters, Kyse grew up part of a family well liked and much needed by its neighbors. His parents taught him the importance of the community and the success of the mice because they stuck together. For this reason, he was more than willing to apprentice himself to Maggie the Wheelwright. She was an oldfur and the settlement needed someone with her skills. He stepped into that role.
It was his free time that Kyse looked most forward to. Then he would go to the shore and visit the boat captains. Kyse had an unusually adept sense for the weather, smelling the salt in the air and feeling the subtle changes in wind and temperature. Boat captains learned quickly to trust his predictions. One captain in particular, Brand, took a strong liking to him and tried to lure him away from Maggie. But Kyse had made a commitment and stuck with it. He spent his free time with Brand, getting a sense for the weather over water and how the tides worked.
When Brand’s son Willem challenged him for stealing his father away from him and insinuating himself into a boating role Willem felt was his, Kyse chose instead to leave Port Sumac and join the guard, where his efforts would not just benefit his settlement, but all of mousedom.
Age: 20
Home: Port Sumac
Fur Color: Auburn
Rank: Guardmouse
Cloak: Blue
Parents: Finn and Lilly the Harvesters
Senior: Maggie the Wheelwright
Mentor: Lieam
Friend: Captain Brand
Enemy: Willem (Captain Brand’s son)
Belief: The good of the many outweighs the good of the one.
Goal:
Instinct: Press on until you know for sure
Skills: Fighter (3), Haggler (2), Harvester (2), Pathfinder (3), Persuader (2), Scout (2), Weather Watcher (5)
Traits: Nimble, Weather Sense (2)
Wises: Thunderstorm-wise, Tide-wise
Gear: Hook and line, sling
Nature (Mouse – Climbing, Escaping, Foraging, Hiding): 5 (saves for winter, afraid of owls, weasels, and wolves)
Will: 3
Health: 5
Resources: 5 (works in the winter, parents work, frugal)
Circles: 3 (easily liked)
Book Review: SHADOWRISE
SHADOWRISE by Tad Williams – The rural kingdom of Southmarch has the distinction of being the last stronghold before the Shadowline, the demarcation between human civilization and the alien fairies known as the Qar. The Shadowline was raised by the retreating Qar at the end of their last war with the humans. But it has moved forward, and with it an invading Qar army, to lay seige to a Southmarch in upheaval.
SHADOWRISE is the third book in best-selling author Tad Williams’ “Shadowmarch” series. Originally billed as the end of a trilogy, the manuscript grew too large to be published as a single volume. (Readers of Williams’ TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER will not be surprised. That book was so large that the mass market paperback had to be published in two volumes.)
The king of Southmarch is held hostage in the south by the god-king of the Xixian Empire. His elder son is assassinated, his younger son lost behind the shadowline, and his daughter fled a usurpation by their cousins who covet the throne. All this and a large cast of supporting characters move through the pages of SHADOWRISE, tying together the various plot threads that were established in SHADOWMARCH and then frayed in SHADOWPLAY, the first and second books of the series.
Much like the other masters of the epic fantasy genre, Williams has a large ensemble of characters to explore his massive and richly detailed world. At times it may seem frustrating, focusing on otherwise inconsequential characters (we’re talking about you, Matt Tinwright) until their personal stories criss-cross with other characters and the overall story becomes a little clearer. The true majesty of the book is in its setting. The world is incredibly detailed with evolved social structures that appear more like the result of a twenty-year D&D campaign rather than the imagination of an author over the course of the past decade. Take a single creation story and evolve it through four different cultures over centuries of history and ritual and then see how those cultures abut one another because of their changed beliefs. This is the thesis of the Shadowmarch series and SHADOWRISE brings into focus the origins of those cultures. Just in time for the world to end.
The book is large, and its level of detail slows the pace at times. Some characters, like the aforementioned Matt Tinwright, delay the chapters of more appealing characters, but in the end, contribute to the world and its majesty. The slow pace was more evident in SHADOWPLAY where some chapters felt intentionally repetitious in an effort to match chronology of character actions so they could arrive simultaneously at the climactic event. Not so in SHADOWRISE. Everything moves along steadily without treading water. With so many characters, though, that pace can feel slow. Regardless, SHADOWRISE is a wonderfully crafted offering by one of fantasy’s luminary authors and should not be missed (more so because Tad has claimed that this will be his last epic fantasy–we certainly hope that’s just exhaustion talking).
The book offers a summary of the previous too books in its forward, but even that cannot prepare a new reader to the level of detail and number of characters offered. It is recommended that new readers begin with SHADOWMARCH and proceed through the entire series. It is certainly worth the reading.
SHADOWRISE by Tad Williams is on sale at your local booksellers today.
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: Atomic Robo
Atomic Robo: Vol. 1 Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne written by Brian Clevenger, art by Scott Wegener, colors by Ronda Pattison and letters by Jeff Powell
In 1923 Niola Tesla unveiled the world’s first artificial intelligence, in the form of a Atomic Robo. In 1938 Robo goes on a top secret mission for the U.S. government in exchange for full citizenship rights (the mission involves a secret Himalayan Nazi base). After that Robo goes on to form Tesladyne, where he and his selected action scientists engage the strange and bizarre. Like giant ants in Nevada or “walking” pyramids in Egypt. Or maybe secret, once lost Nazi science bases…
Clevenger’s sense of humor (familiar to those who know him from his webcomic 8-bit Theater) is what makes this book shine. Its not just watching a robot smash a giant ant with a car. Its clever and well-crafted jokes WHILE hitting a giant ant with a Buick…
HBO Green Lights “A Game of Thrones”
HBO has been developing a pilot adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s best-selling novel, A GAME OF THRONES. The event was hyped over the months as Martin created guessing games and trivia clues in his journal to figure out what famous actors had been cast in the lead role.
The cast includes Sean Bean, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, and Mark Addy. But a pilot does not a series make. Numerous pilots are filmed every year and never get picked up for full production. A GAME OF THRONES in particular promises to be an expensive production in a genre that has cooled from its fervor seven years ago following the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy thanks to follow-up fantasy offerings from Ewe Boll and others.
With the strength of cast, strength of source material, and strength of buzz by fans who anxiously await the next installment in the series, HBO has picked up the pilot for a full 10-episode first season. Production for the season begins this June in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Two-Way Review: Assassin’s Creed 2
Hi, Way of the Game fans!
It’s the Alex the Producer here. We got a TINY bit backlogged this week, so we’re shoving the normally scheduled weekly podcast back a week.
Not to fret, though, since the reason we’re backlogged is right here: an epic 2-way review of Assassin’s Creed 2 between myself and Joe the Writer.
We go in depth into what makes this game one of the best of 2009, along with the improvements over the first Assassin’s Creed and the things that made us throw our controllers in frustration.
And for those spoiler-intolerant types out there, we got your back. Not like Ezio, though, because he’d just put a dagger in it. No, we have carefully extracted the spoilers from the podcast and put them at the end. The section with the spoilers will be nice and obvious, so if you want to know everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, stay tuned until after the end of the regular review.
Also, unlike our previous one-way reviews, this is no ten-minute show. Spoilers included, it runs just short of an hour. We just wanted to do it justice.
Leave a message on the forums and let us know what you think!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: SuperGirl
SuperGirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade written by Landry Q. Walker, drawn by Eric Jones, colored by Joey Manson and lettered by Pat Brosseau, Travis Lanham & Sal Cipriano
I’ll be honest I’ve never been all that interested in SuperGirl. Not the classic pre-Crisis one or the other dimensional shapeshifter/hybrid angel one or the moody, annoying current one. I’m sure they all had some decent stories but I had no drive to hunt them down then I do any of dozens of other DC properties. But Walker manages to do something that is all too often lacking from the super-hero books of the Big Two. Present a story thats fun…
Here Kara arrives on Earth after accidentally getting into space aboard a Kyrptonian rocket. From the the colony of Kandor thats located in a pocket dimension, where it ended up after Krypton’s destruction. So Superman, after letting her know he can’t just send her home, gets her a secret identity as Linda Lee and puts her in school so she can get used to her new powers and Earth culture. Where everyone hates her of course. Or at least laughs at her all the time…
Soon enough though SuperGirl is dealing with a kind-of-evil twin, a strange new best friend, a super-powered cat, lots of glowing meteorites and of course, continuing to be crushingly un-popular. With only six-issues you get killer anti-Superman vehicles, time travel, magic imps, mind control, Kryptonite, clones, flying pets, heroism, teen angst and a dude who turns into an ice cream cone. So yeah. Fun…
The Way of the Game Presents: Dragon Age: Origins
The Writer reviews…
Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Studio: Bioware
Owned by EA? Yes
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Way of the Game – Episode 12
It’s not quite podcasting’s ritually required “Drunk Episode,” but Jonathan is a bit lit up for this episode. As such, he may talk a little bit more than usual. Alex tolerates it in Producer-like style.
It’s our game-discussion episode, so without further ado, The List!
Game’s Mentioned
- Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
- Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce
- Aliens vs. Predator
- Heavy Rain (and the talked-about-and-NSFW shower video)
- Torchlight
- The Saboteur
- Bioshock 2
Episodic Correction: Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce apparently has four-player cooperative multiplayer. I don’t know if that changes anything.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: Beta Ray Bill
Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter written by Kieron Gillen, pencils by Kano, Inks by Kano & Alvara Lopez, Colors by Javier Rodriguez, Letters by Blambot’s Nate Piekos
Its been a while since the last regular Marvel super-hero comic. And what better way to return then with the magic hammer wielding cyborg space man-horse, Beta Ray Bill. Keron Gillen has the Asgardian ally go forth on a quest to put a stop to Galactus. Seems the World-Devourer is responsible for the destruction of BRB’s people. But even when you’re a mighty cyborg alien with a hammer twin to Mjolinor Galactus is a bit out of your weight class. So he comes up with a fairly unique plan to stop the cosmic menace. One that might just work, but at a great cost to Beta Ray Bill…
Gillen’s story is exactly the type of thing that cosmic super-hero comics should be. It embraces the odd and the silly and treats it as normal. Then cranks the action up to 11. Kano isn’t my favorite artist, but he gets the job done, especially given the scope of what he’s drawing…
The volume also includes “The Green of Eden”, by Gillen and artist Dan Brereton, about a small group of Skrulls. Survivors from the most recent Skrull/Earth conflict they’re pilgrims seeking a new God and hoping they’ve found one in Beta Ray Bill…
