PixlBit

I was looking into this recently and almost picked it up.

I looked up other things Koei did too and noticed a bunch of strategy games I've never played. Cool company.

There's some really awesome ones out there. Some of them are not so great though. Like, I found two the other day but they just weren't interesting enough for me to scan. I'm usually attracted to an interesting design and sometimes just because it's of a game I like.

Oh man. I want to see those.

I have to sometime find a flea market with old gaming magazines. I so miss them.

Not at all. I just had a friend who was into shooters way back to the Doom days, and so it was just natural to start playing Halo with him when it came out. On my own, I probably would've choosen more RPGs to play, but I'm not complaining.

It's been a great ride up until Halo 4, but I feel my interest is waning just a little bit since Bungie isn't involved any more.

Sometimes in the Greg Bear books, I wish he would just come out and reveal all from the very beginning. I think he tries to withhold important information just to keep you turning the pages, and that annoys me a little bit. The first two books in the series had me scratching my head quite a bit, but it gets all tied up neatly, finally, at the end of Silentium. It seems like a lot of novel, three of them, to wait for the denouement.

I've seen them in the library. The audio book versions as well.

The books are more thoughtful than the games. If the books followed the style of the games, they would be all action and pretty forgetable. As they are, they go into detail about the technologies, history, and personalities involved, making them much more interesting than just space marines mowing down hoards of Covenant.

The more I think about it, his use of telling a story through found documents is not too interesting a device. When he gets into a longer chapter, I think that's where he begins to shine and the book gains some momentum.

Those terminals are totally an afterthought. You have to stop playing to read them and think about the story when the game should be delivering the story as you play it. The Halo games were always action first, story, maybe if we have time. Also, the games were a lot about location and visual cues, rather than dialog or cut scenes, although there are some of those. The locations in Halo are always stunning and interesting, but you really need the books if you want your story fix. The games just give me a good sense of place and fun things to do in them.