On The Paper Trail: God of War

Welcome back folks, on this installment of the Paper Trail I am going to be talking about the God of War novel. I am in a sprinting mode with my pile to get to the meat of the Connecticon Panel so I used my 3 day weekend to finish this book. Now I should mention that if you have played the first God of War game for the PS2, this book is exactly the same to it.

No kidding, this is the entire first game, and that is it.

Now you may be wondering to yourself, "Hey I liked the first God of War game, does this book add any insite into character development or allow tangential things to be explained?" My answer to you is no, it is the first game and nothing more.

This book attempts to be filled with the greek gods and stuctures itself similiar to the game where Act 3 begins the story, then we go into Act 2, with Act 1 coming to us in painful flashbacks of Kratos. Now for a game this clearly works since the game wants to go right for the action and allow the player feel like they are doing something.

As for a novel it tends to leave you hanging in the first half and until you actually get to Pandora's Box does not really take hold to keep a passing reader interested.

The authors managed to do something in the book that I question, and that is explaining the fight scenes of God of War. Now have you ever tried to explain a quick time event to someone who never played the game before and only had words to describe the actions? If you have you might have realized it is next to impossible to paint the appropiate picture without a frame of reference to draw off of.

This book just feels like a cash in to a popular game that gives the reader nothing more then what was presented to them in the game. Sure the inner monolouge of Kratos as he goes from set piece to set piece is supposed to be entertaining but it comes off more as a bore that I willed myself to get to the end of the book.

Next stop on the Paper Trail I think we are going to go close to the end of time, see you then.

On the Paper Trail: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Official Casebook: Vol. 1

Ladies and Gentlemen here we are, back on the paper trail and at the last manga book for a while. I will explain why in a little bit but as a recap we took a look at Zelda, Mega Man, WoW, among other titles however I can clearly say that the Phoenix Wright was the fist manga that literally had me go WTF out loud to myself.

For those who do not know Phoenix Wright is a point and click adventure that has a twist where you are a lawyer who is defending you clients in trial there is no win/lose situation right away but the various evidence you collect plus the connections you make with them will allow you to either win or lose the trial. This Manga does not cover that aspect, it is more of a slice of life of things that occur outside the court room.

This collaborative piece has various authors going and portraying the characters from this series as they would go and interact with them in vignettes about things that could take place in every day life. These range for adopting a kitty cat, piecing together why they actually choose their profession, finding a lost ball, and explaining to a little girl that a professional relation doesn't have to be a loving one.

This book does not take itself seriously even having two stories referring to the fact they are in the manga and needing to go and spice it up, one has a makeover from phoenix wright as done by the side characters while another holds a trial in an arena like environment playing to the crowd for dramatic effect.

There are MANY authors in this story and none of them connect with one another, which leaves you sometimes confused and lost in the various narratives that take place at random intervals of the Phoenix Wright saga. Now if all these stories took place say between the first or second games that would help the reader ground themselves in the environment the authors are working in, however this book has it scatter shot throughout the series. This allows non gamers to get into the stories without an issue but as a narrative makes it really disjointed.

Final verdict, if you enjoy Phoenix Wright style humor and the slice of life stories this is a pick up, otherwise there is nothing here that stands out to get you into the series based on this game. Next time we are going to do a double feature!

On the Paper Trail: Mega Man ZX Volume 1

We are back to the trail with our Manga celebration, needless to say due to me thirsting for something different on this list we are going to turn the corner on this after one more title, but for right now we are back to Mega Man and Udon with their ZX title. For those who do not know the ZX games are good Mega Man games that were on both the GBA and DS and are known for their old school difficulty and frustrating level designs. As for the story line it was not known for that being top notch but its an effort to say the least.

So what is this story about? Well yes it is about Mega Man ZX, but its the origin story. Mega Man in this scenario is a delivery man who is running late for a job where a package that needs to be delivered. This universe has the mavericks causing chaos and attempting to destroy the rebels who are fighting against them. One thing leads to another and the delivery agents get attacked from the Mavericks, our hero falls down a cliff with the package only to find that it is a Bio-Metal which fuses with him in his attempt to save other people and turns him into Mega Man X. His coworker also get fused with this and turns herself into Mega Man Z.

After some explanation on how the alliance attempts to counter act the Mavericks civilians get attacked by the Mavericks to expose both Mega Men and destroy them. Sure enough Mega Man Z gets mortally wounded and at her last ditch effort gives her Bio-Metal to Mega Man X therefore making him Mega Man ZX, after defeating the area boss Mega Man vows to avenge his friends' death by going to join the alliance.

There are two more filler stories about Mega Man outwitting boss characters and leaning it on a cliff hanger for volume 2. The story itself is ok, it is clearly aiming for a younger audience as most of the key players are of teenage years. The art is alright with small touches brought to you by game graphics like the power meters and some explosions. Everything else reminds me of a slightly more detailed chibi style, it works for the age group that it is trying to attracted to this title however older readers won't get anything out of it.

Overall this story is made for teens but has enough for older readers to go and pique their interest, the emotional Mega Man may have you think he listens to Lincoln Park however once he isn't emotional is tolerable to relate to. The Mavericks pose a good threat and has an interesting back story that they only tell you in small doses that will encourage you wanting to more. The story gives you enough back story and lays the foundation enough to make you want to know more of the environment however I could easily see people turned off by this younger iteration of Mega Man.

Final verdict, check it out at the library/book store and if it interests you then continue with the series otherwise avoid it. For the last installment for the Manga celebration we will take a look at a title I got from Too Many Games, stay tuned.

On the Paper Trail: Halo Encyclopedia

Welcome back to the paper trail, and in this installment we are going to look at something a tad fanboyish. Halo Encyclopedia is a over sized book on everything in the Halo universe, if one would not assume otherwise. This is going to appeal to many people who are fans of the series, however in a unique twist I am not a big fan of Halo, this series had game play that simply didn't appeal to me and I can not consider myself a fan, therefore this review is going to come from an unbiased opinion as one could get.

So the book is going to talk about the Halo universe, and it will go into detail about it. However many books like this often cater towards what we call "Gandalf Girthers." Originating in the Lord of the Ring series and has collectively carried over to any other sorts of fan base, the process of justifying various details using logic and facts presented in the works that may or may not be vital to the plot.

For example if you ever attempted to figure out how fast a speeder bike was on Endor by attempting to calculate the speed it would take to crack the average stormtrooper's helmet; have postulated the terminal velocity of a "little pony" as Rarity falls towards the Earth to determine how high cloudsdale was above the surface; or have ever attempted to calculate who would win in a race around the world between Superman and the Flash, then you have practiced the art of Gandalf Girthing.

Now the good news is that this book does not cater itself solely to these fans, there is information that one would need to answer various questions in the Halo universe, however the bulk of this book is told in a sudo-narritive as a historical tome that would be used as a reference for the UNMC historians. It goes into great detail into the story line describing various quotes from the game, what each mission was in the campaign and how it relates to the overall war, and separates itself between the various games without outright telling which vehicle came from which game.

Now you might be asking yourself that this is all fine and dandy, a look on halopedia can get me any bit of information that I would need to have on the series so what is the real motivation on me getting this book to place on my coffee table? Well the answer to that is simple, the artwork displayed is absolutely amazing.

I am serious you would think they would go with the graphics of the various games for the majority of the book, however I can say you have a mix of sketch work, full color paintings, computer graphics, and original art. For the vast majority of the time with this title I kept being bewildered at the various art in the background looking for the attention to detail the artist took to recreate the graphics of the game with various moods they were trying to emulate.

This book has all the information fans would like and brings enough to the table that a non fans can grab towards. Not a must own in my book, but worth seeking out to at least look at the amazing artwork and get a solid history of the Halo campaign without have any of the 4th wall being broken as you go and read it. Until next time finish the fight or at least that chapter in the next book.

On The Paper Trail: Reality is Broken

Howdy partners welcome back to the Paper Trail and in this installment we are going to look at the popular book by Jane McGonigal called Reality is Broken. Jane has recently spoken at GDC, PAX East 2011, has had her TED Talk gain notoriety and been on the Colbert Report.

Jane has been a big proponent on getting more games into gamers hands. Yes she wants gaming to save the world, if you think about it we have been gaming for over 10,000 hours, thats about the same amount of time that we have been in school since the 5th grade (barring perfect attendance). We are master gamers and to think that it is a waste of time is nothing more of being closed minded to the world.

This book talks about games, even going as far as describing the gaming lexicon to people of non gamers. How do you go and explain the "epic win" to a non-gamer who does no understand gaming itself? Jane not only manages to do this, but also talk about various games she has created to go and fix reality.

Reality is boring, dull and has no real motivation to go and achieve something. Gaming allows us to go and achieve something great every single time we play something, why not make the games entertaining, fun, and be a cause of us trying to go and fix the problems with reality? By simply curtailing games to real world scenarios and leaving open ended answers we can collaborate with people all over the world to go and solve problems in our everyday lives.

I totally agree with this theory, however there is one big hurtle that she does not address, and that is the gamers willingness to go and participate in these ventures. Almost all of the examples she mention are ARGs (Alternative Reality Games) where by the game and reality have a common plane of existence to interact with one another. Now there have been ARGs in the past (see Perplex City) where it flopped due to the lack of participation from gamers as a whole. The fact is when something like Find the Future comes along and when I tell people about it I get an overwhelming "meh."

Gaming has many facets, some people like to stick to their FPS, RPGs, or even D&D campaigns. However to consider yourself a true gamer, you need to be willing to play ANY game of any capacity. Once you get to your gaming life as an elder game player then you can benefit from the things McGonigal talk about.

All in all this is a fascination book on where games need to go in order to change the lives of mankind. We have the technology and know the techniques to execute them, all we need to do now is remove the stereotype of games being nonproductive and actually a benefit to the society as a whole. Once we achieve this anything is possible to be solved in the context of the game.