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Videogames: The Books
maximumzero
I...wait, what?New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
I...wait, what?New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
I was in Barnes & Noble today looking for Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6 (They didn't have it.) when I came across this on the new release table:
Sounds interesting, and I'll likely pick it up in the near future. It reminded me of Game Over:
A book I bought from EB Games back in 2001 for like 99 cents. It was the history of Nintendo, but it only went up to about '95/'96, so it didn't get into Nintendo getting their ass handed to them in the Playstation/N64 generation, but it was a still a good read.
Supposedly this is the spiritual sequel to that book.
Which I also plan on picking up soon.
So hey, any books about videogames that are worth checking out?
I also found these in Amazon's related books section but I know nothing about 'em.
Feel free to include art books, as I have the Megaman & Megaman X collections and I plan on picking up the MMZero & Okami collections soon as well.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Grand Theft Auto IV is both a waste of time and the most colossal creative achievement of the last 25 years, according to this scintillating meditation on the promise and discontents of video games. Journalist Bissell (Chasing the Sea) should know; the ultraviolent car-chase-and-hookers game was his constant pastime during a months-long intercontinental cocaine binge. He's ashamed of his video habit, but also ashamed of being ashamed of the dominant art form of our time; by turning the eye of a literary critic on the gory, seemingly puerile genre of ultraviolent, open-ended shooter games, he finds unexpected riches. Bissell bemoans the uncompromising stupidity of their story lines, wafer-thin characters, and the moronic dialogue, but celebrates the button-pushing, mesmeric qualities and the subtle, profound depths these conceal—the catharses of teamwork and heroism in the zombie-fest Left for Dead, the squirmy moral dilemmas of Mass Effect, the mood of wistful savagery suffusing the rifles-and-chainsaws-bedecked denizens of Gears of War. Bissell excels both at intellectual commentary and evocative reportage on the experience of playing games, while serving up engrossing mise-en-scène narratives of the mayhem. If anyone can bridge the aesthetic chasm between readers and gamers, he can. (June 8)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Sounds interesting, and I'll likely pick it up in the near future. It reminded me of Game Over:
A book I bought from EB Games back in 2001 for like 99 cents. It was the history of Nintendo, but it only went up to about '95/'96, so it didn't get into Nintendo getting their ass handed to them in the Playstation/N64 generation, but it was a still a good read.
Supposedly this is the spiritual sequel to that book.
Which I also plan on picking up soon.
So hey, any books about videogames that are worth checking out?
I also found these in Amazon's related books section but I know nothing about 'em.
Feel free to include art books, as I have the Megaman & Megaman X collections and I plan on picking up the MMZero & Okami collections soon as well.
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Game Over also doubles as a fairly in depth guide of Atari's rise and fall.
I've imported one video game artbook: Kaneko's Digital Devil Apocalypse.
I own a few of the bonus ones given out as preorders in the US: Tales of Symphonia, P3's, P4's, and the Magna Carta artbook(horrible game, beautiful art).
Also, let me point out that books are freaking expensive. So I find it hard to pick up books, when I could buy a video game or two for the price of one book. They both tell stories so when given the choice I'll usually choose the game.
I bought this a couple years back and it's a really good read
They do spend a lot of time on pinball machines though, but I actually found it pretty fascinating
Yet to pick it up yet though.
I picked up a Diablo book also, in my anticipation for D3. Haven't started it yet though. I love Diablo's mythology. I must have read the D1 game manual twenty times.
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I mean sure, it's amusing to mock Halotards about how deep the backstory is in the not fit for airplane reading halo books, or Wownerds and those awful books.
Man being a Fantasy book reviewer sure did suck during the previous decade. Glad I'm no longer doing that.
There's a super-heated area ahead? How will I get through? I know! I'll eat some rations so my body temperature increases while I'm digesting them, and then the heat won't affect me!
Even an eight-year-old knows bullshit when he sees it.
This book is fantastic. Game Over is also pretty good.
That's the one about the worldwide history of games, right? Because the dude originally wrote a book centered more on American game history, but then he wrote another one with a more international perspective
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http://www.amazon.com/Smartbomb-Quest-Entertainment-Videogame-Revolution/dp/1565125452/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280208339&sr=8-1
I enjoyed it a bit. There was a chapter on Wil Wright that was really interesting.
I actually just finished Extra Lives, and while I disagree with him on a lot of things, it is by far the best nonfiction book on video games I've read.
The bit about GTA is one chapter (the last one, in fact); every section is devoted to one or two different games. As a whole he definitely gushes uncontrollably about emergent gameplay, but it is more of a celebration of the sheer potential of gaming as seen through a selection of very specific current examples, and how he feels they offer something that other media cannot.
It's generally very well-written, and he has a fair amount of insight into the philosophy of game design. My main problems with the book are that it is entirely console-focused (and I don't mean to be elitist, but he's definitely missing some context from the PC perspective), and that he is too fond of throwing around maxims and theories as fact (he solely blames the original Resident Evil for setting video game narratives back a decade, which I think is pretty short-sighted).
Nonetheless, it is actual, proper video game discourse, to which he dedicates an inordinate amount of respect and passion. I definitely recommend picking it up.
Of all the art books I own, the HL2 one is fantastic. There's real insight into the design in there.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Hey, gotta give credit where credit is due: UDON is the one who's localizing them.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
You can get a legal digital copy for free.
The Okami book is astonisingly beautiful - and huge, as well! If it was a normal novel, it'd be a decent thickness, but this is 300-ish pages of A4-sized glossy full-colour prints. All rendered in that lovely watercolour and ink style.
HL2: Raising the Bar is just a good book in it's own right - it's less about wowing you with concept art, and more of an insight into the amazing amount of work that goes into the design process. I can remember a longish email exchange over the types of glasses Dr. Breen could wear (complete with mockups), and what each style would convey about his personality.
At least in the UK, books are never as great an expense as games - an art book will never cost more than £20 (novels £5-15), whereas a PS3/X360 game will cost £40-50 at release.
Lastly, I can only applaud the recent surge in Eastern European and Russian literature being adapted into video games, as each tends to be fairly faithful and enhance the experience of the other - Roadside Picnic (sort of), Metro 2033 and The Witcher included.
I haven't seen anyone mention the pop culture and philosophy series. I know at least two: Final Fantasy and Philosophy and The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy. The first I've read and it's pretty good, though centered on the later FF games. Haven't picked up the Zelda book yet.
I work in an academic library for a major university, and we've been ordering a ton of books on Video Games. There are lots of scholarly collections of essays on games and game theory out there.
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
Also speaking of which, remember those Choose Your Own Adventure Mario books? Man, those things were dark for kids. One possible ending of one of the Mario ones was
man what
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
The Diablo manuals are indeed awesome. I really enjoyed the manual and materials that came with Deus Ex, and the Mechwarrior 2 manual was good times as well.
Woah, dude, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.
I've enjoyed a wide variety of terrible video game adaptations. I haven't read the Mass Effect ones, but I'll probably snag them eventually. I enjoyed the Halo novels I've read so far, though they do vary in quality, especially between authors. I liked most of the Resident Evil books when I read them, which was a good decade or more ago.
Actually looking over TMK's covers, I'm pretty sure it was this one that had that story
Is is indeed man what. I remember reading it again because I was all "the fuck was that?"
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
I also have a few of the art books for Tales of the Abyss, Final Fantasy IX, Persona 3 and 4 and a few others that I'm sure I'm forgetting.
It's a 400 page guide/artbook HC that came out 8 months after the game; Future Press makes some amazing guide books.
I'll likely never use 'em but they're just so goddamn cool looking.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
The hardcover guide for Twilight Princess is a thing of beauty
Leather bound, gold embossed on the cover and the edges of the pages, including a cloth map and nice quality paper with some fantastic artwork
I haven't even beaten that game but I had to own that book
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
I also read a few of the Halo books in high school without ever having played Halo. All I remember is one scene with Master Chief as a kid playing King of the Hill and knocking over the other children. I think he had a missing tooth or something, and brown hair and eyes? I dunno. They were largely incomprehensible.
Anyone read the Alan Wake novel yet?
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
A novel about one man's life changing quest to find the impossibly rare (and made up for the novel) arcade cabinet Lucky Wander Boy, while weaving in facts, myths, and and misconceptions about videogames of all kinds. Sort of like a Fight Club but for the videogame crowd (but nowhere near as well written, obviously). Starts off fairly straight forward and gets more and more postmodern and bizarre as it reaches the end. Not for everybody, but I really enjoyed it.
Here's an excerpt that both functions as an interesting short story and pretty much sums up the books mix of real videogames and odd sense of mysticism.
I don't know why anyone would want to read a book about game design by Raph Koster after what happened to Star Wars Galaxies
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
I used to buy them off Amazon Japan.
Even with shipping it's cheaper.