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Lately I have been on a video game novel reading kick, so I have read a few and recently just bought a few more. So far I have read Deus Ex: Icarus Effect, Bioshock: Rapture, and Halo: Fall of Reach. Most of them have been surprisingly pretty good and engaging. One of them even got a direct video game sequel made out of it, even it was lovely. The best of the bunch is easily Bioshock: Rapture. Takes place shortly before the first game and kind of talks about life in Rapture before it fell apart. Some very good characterizations that covers both Bioshock 1 and 2, although Bioshock 1 takes the forefront. If I were to say that any of them were worth reading it is this one. The worst for me was Halo: Fall of Reach. It's odd because it is the one that I see a lot of people recommending. But then again, I also think it was one of the first out there that were decently written. But for me, it feels like fanfiction about how awesome Master Chief is. Adding to that, I was kind of disappointed that the actual Fall of Reach was covered so quickly. By the time I felt that it started, it was already over. I will admit that I am kind of biased because after playing Halo: Reach, that is closer to what I expected the book to be. In the middle was Deus Ex: Icarus Effect which introduces the villains of Human Revolution and talks about them in more detail. Pretty straightforward book, but it did actually get a direct sequel in Deus Ex: The Fall which apparently is a lovely mobile game that was for some reason released on PC as well. I don't know what else to say about this book other than its solid Books I have on the backburner to read: Killzone: Ascendency Deus Ex: Black Light Some of the Splinter Cell novels Any other recommendations from goons? Edit: Also, how could I forget! I also read Metro: 2033 but that is a case of a video game based off of a book and not the other way around. Definitely worth a read if you like the video game. Although it is miles different in tone since in the book, Artyom is basically a wimp. blackguy32 fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Aug 27, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 08:53
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R Southern Comfort holds up decently well in the terrifying world of video game novels, only because it doesn't try anything too ambitious or out of line. It's a good coffee-break read if you enjoy the game universe. Don't expect narrative mastery, forgive popular in-game NPC quotes the novel sometimes shoves in, and its a fun distraction.
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Aug 27, 2016 09:53
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I love the resident evil novels they're so god damned awful
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Aug 27, 2016 09:54
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tithin posted:I love the resident evil novels Even City of the Dead? I heard that one was actually pretty decent.
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Aug 27, 2016 09:58
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The Metal Gear Solid and Doom novels have yet to be topped for awful for me.
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Aug 27, 2016 10:04
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blackguy32 posted:Even City of the Dead? I heard that one was actually pretty decent. Insofar as the author stuck somewhat to the script of the game, yeah, but it still had a lot of his own wishlist in there, a few of his own characters, and his own scenario in it - the later ones disconnected from the games almost entirely I mean don't get me wrong, they're trash, but at least they were entertaining trash
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Aug 27, 2016 10:14
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Plan Z posted:The Metal Gear Solid and Doom novels have yet to be topped for awful for me.
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Aug 27, 2016 10:31
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I think I still have copy of Baldur's gate novelization somewhere, I bought it out of curiosity from stand in some random airport or train station. It is really really really bad.
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Aug 27, 2016 10:32
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Endorph posted:i love the doom novel where it turns out the real power to resist demons resided in the mormon church I mean yeah, I'll throw away family photos before I throw away my Doom novels but still
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Aug 27, 2016 10:47
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Endorph posted:i love the doom novel where it turns out the real power to resist demons resided in the mormon church Wait, what?
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Aug 27, 2016 10:47
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Blank Construct posted:Wait, what? doom guy gets back to earth and finds it's overrun by demons and the last remaining bastion of human resistance is holed up in a mormon church, and doom guy starts reading the book of mormon and is like 'you know... this makes a lot of sense!"
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Aug 27, 2016 10:59
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I read the first Dragon Age novel because I wanted to read some generic fantasy, and that's exactly what it is. I wouldn't recommend it, but it wasn't terrible. And if you've played the game it has the advantage of not needing to explain the backstory or do any tedious world-building.Plan Z posted:The Metal Gear Solid and Doom novels have yet to be topped for awful for me.
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Aug 27, 2016 11:06
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Endorph posted:doom guy gets back to earth and finds it's overrun by demons and the last remaining bastion of human resistance is holed up in a mormon church, and doom guy starts reading the book of mormon and is like 'you know... this makes a lot of sense!" lol. Thanks for the info.
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Aug 27, 2016 11:28
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I remember reading the novel for Rise of The Robots at one time. Yes, THAT Rise of the Robots. Wouldn't say I'd 'recommend' it. I remember it went a lot into the mental state of the main character, the Cyborg. I remember it as weird, but readable. Then again, this is over a 15+ year gap, so maybe I don't remember clearly.
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Aug 27, 2016 13:35
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Bloodly posted:I remember reading the novel for Rise of The Robots at one time. I never realized Rise of the Robots was popular enough to even warrant a novel. What a lovely fighting game. That being said, fighting games seem perfect to write stuff about considering what little backstory most of them have.
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Aug 27, 2016 14:24
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With Legion on the horizon I'm on a Warcraft bent and have been tempted to read some of the novella it's generated, but talk about a minefield. Anyone able to suggest any that are halfway decent for what they are, or are they all trashy Mary-Sue shartybooks?
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Aug 27, 2016 14:28
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Songbearer posted:With Legion on the horizon I'm on a Warcraft bent and have been tempted to read some of the novella it's generated, but talk about a minefield. Anyone able to suggest any that are halfway decent for what they are, or are they all trashy Mary-Sue shartybooks?
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Aug 27, 2016 14:40
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The Myst books were good at outlining details for why the weird poo poo in Myst etc. actually existed. My favorite scene is the one where a kid and his dad are exploring the ancient civilization, and come across a door you have to open by lining up gems that represent the planets in the sky at a certain time, and the kid wants to solve the puzzle but the dad just picks up a big rock and smashes it open, and pulls the little wires inside to open the door. 
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Aug 27, 2016 19:22
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I had this in 4th grade and read the fuuuuck out of it. Pretty sure I got it from one of those mail order kids book newsletter things we got every month at school.
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Aug 27, 2016 19:51
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blackguy32 posted:I never realized Rise of the Robots was popular enough to even warrant a novel. What a lovely fighting game. That being said, fighting games seem perfect to write stuff about considering what little backstory most of them have. Rise of the Robots was a massive piece of poo poo and one of the games I got with the second hand snes I got for a birthday like 17 years ago or something. However I'm pretty sure the people making it thought it was going to a massive franchise and there was a hell of a lot of dumb story in the game that a novel doesn't surprise me. I sort of want to read it.
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Aug 27, 2016 19:59
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tithin posted:Insofar as the author stuck somewhat to the script of the game, yeah, but it still had a lot of his own wishlist in there, a few of his own characters, and his own scenario in it - the later ones disconnected from the games almost entirely Is it worth noting that S.D. Perry is a woman? The Resident Evil novels are the only game books I've read, and really the only decent ones were the ones based on the games. Her side stories, or really any moment involving Trent, are awful. As far as I remember, he was just a mysterious info dump for STARS members and the reader.
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Aug 27, 2016 20:05
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I always liked game manuals that had long story entries in them because it gave me something to read on the bus ride back or on the terlit.
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Aug 27, 2016 20:30
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borf posted:I had this in 4th grade and read the fuuuuck out of it. Pretty sure I got it from one of those mail order kids book newsletter things we got every month at school. 
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Aug 27, 2016 20:31
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I've started reading Deus Ex: Black Light, and it's good so far. If you liked Deus Ex 1, you'll really enjoy it, since now we're being introduced to the Illuminati from DX1.
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Aug 28, 2016 00:32
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Plan Z posted:The Metal Gear Solid and Doom novels have yet to be topped for awful for me. the metal gear novel is loving hilarious. its basicaly the game transcribed into book form but with way more death and lovely lovely punchlines. https://www.amazon.com/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472341168&sr=1-1&keywords=bioshock i honestly sorta recomend this one. its basicaly follows one of my favorite ancillary character, Bill McDonagh (the dude who is basically Andrew Ryan's Davos Seaworth) and his whole time in rapture. it all takes place in the time leading up to bioshock 1. it came out after 2 so it weaves bioshock 2 characters in well enough. overall its ok, it adds some decent fluff as well as some dumbshit. overall if you love 1 and 2, read it sometime. CowboyAndy posted:I've started reading Deus Ex: Black Light, and it's good so far. If you liked Deus Ex 1, you'll really enjoy it, since now we're being introduced to the Illuminati from DX1. nice, i may have to read this now.
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Aug 28, 2016 00:47
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It has been a while but with Cyan just releasing a new game, I think now is a good time to remind everyone that the Myst series of games had a series of great books to go along with them
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Aug 28, 2016 01:04
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Does anyone have any thoughts on the Witcher novels? I've been debating whether to pick one up.
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Aug 28, 2016 01:20
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Since those started out as books and then became games later, they're generally regarded as pretty good rather than just being cash-grab tie-ins. I have not read them, but the people I know who have say they're pretty good.
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Aug 28, 2016 01:24
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Bad News Panda posted:Does anyone have any thoughts on the Witcher novels? I've been debating whether to pick one up.
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Aug 28, 2016 01:27
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Brian Evenson wrote two Dead Space prequels, Dead Space: Martyr and Dead Space: Catalyst. He's gotta be one of the authors with the most literary cred to write tie-in novels. I haven't read Catalyst yet but Martyr was a good horror novel that doesn't require any sort of knowledge about the games.
ShutteredIn fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Aug 28, 2016 |
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Aug 28, 2016 01:39
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tithin posted:I love the resident evil novels I will always remember the one where the character facing a typical "do this, do that, twist this" puzzle to get at an item simply thinks "gently caress this noise" and smashes the cabinet with her gun.
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Aug 28, 2016 02:13
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StoneOfShame posted:Rise of the Robots was a massive piece of poo poo and one of the games I got with the second hand snes I got for a birthday like 17 years ago or something. However I'm pretty sure the people making it thought it was going to a massive franchise and there was a hell of a lot of dumb story in the game that a novel doesn't surprise me. I sort of want to read it. Yeah, it's less that the game was popular in any sense, and more that they dumped a poo poo-ton of money into marketing the game; the novel was likely a result of that. 504 posted:I will always remember the one where the character facing a typical "do this, do that, twist this" puzzle to get at an item simply thinks "gently caress this noise" and smashes the cabinet with her gun. That actually owns, maybe I should read those books.
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Aug 28, 2016 02:23
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Mr. Glum posted:Is it worth noting that S.D. Perry is a woman? The Resident Evil novels are the only game books I've read, and really the only decent ones were the ones based on the games. Her side stories, or really any moment involving Trent, are awful. As far as I remember, he was just a mysterious info dump for STARS members and the reader. Not hugely? It certainly wouldn't change my opinion on them (see; awful, but pretty entertaining) Though it does make me wonder why she was obsessed with Rebecca Chambers, I put it down to the author having a crush on the character. Which may still be the case, I dunno. 504 posted:I will always remember the one where the character facing a typical "do this, do that, twist this" puzzle to get at an item simply thinks "gently caress this noise" and smashes the cabinet with her gun. See; awful, but entertaining 
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Aug 28, 2016 02:30
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Lucky Wander Boy is fun. Must emphasize the importance of hammer.
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Aug 28, 2016 02:34
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borf posted:I had this in 4th grade and read the fuuuuck out of it. Pretty sure I got it from one of those mail order kids book newsletter things we got every month at school. Came to talk about this series of books. That one in particular is interesting because the super obscure PSX Blaster Master game that came out at the very end of the system's lifecycle and went straight to bargain bins is an active sequel to the book's story, with the main characters being the children of the ones in the book. The Books of Power volume for Castlevania 2 was crazy as hell, being about a kid who gets sucked into the game Captain N style and he and Simon go around fighting manifestations of the seven deadly sins. The kid also has a weakness for Godiva Chocolate. The Ninja Gaiden book might have been the dopest thing I read that whole school year. It pretty much follows the game's story accurately.
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Aug 28, 2016 02:41
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Peter Watts did a Crysis tie in novel. I've never read it but the idea fascinates me.
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Aug 28, 2016 02:59
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Atrocious Joe posted:Peter Watts did a Crysis tie in novel. I've never read it but the idea fascinates me. Now I want to find a digital copy of this just to do a word count on the word "maximum".
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Aug 28, 2016 04:17
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Atrocious Joe posted:Peter Watts did a Crysis tie in novel. I've never read it but the idea fascinates me. I'm a big fan of the Crysis series, so it might be a biased opinion, but I think it's really good. Watts has some neat extra tidbits on the suit and on the Ceph, fleshing out the uhh, mythology pretty well.
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Aug 28, 2016 08:36
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Peter Telep wrote a trilogy based on the Descent games. They were fun if also trashy as gently caress. Decidedly a lot like Descent 3's attempt at plot and characters forced into the first two games. Posting mobile at the moment, but I can say I remember the main character being pretty awful as a person. His idea of introductions to women usually involves asking them if they want to have sex. Which of course almost always works, ends up getting at least one secretary fired, and I think another brainwashed by her evil boss, who is also a rapist.
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Aug 28, 2016 08:57
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Jim DiGriz posted:I'm a big fan of the Crysis series, so it might be a biased opinion, but I think it's really good. Watts has some neat extra tidbits on the suit and on the Ceph, fleshing out the uhh, mythology pretty well. This. It's actually a pretty good book and explains stuff the game may have skimmed over or skipped. Like stuff about the ceph and that CELl.
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Aug 28, 2016 15:27
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