Games and Books

dammitjanet

Just interested to see how many people here read books written to accompany games? Like the Gears/Halo books. Seems like there's a lot more being written now- Rage and Dead Island both have books out

My favourite one is Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund, it a must read for any Halo fan. You find out so much from it.
I'm reading the Gears series right now (so I've held off on Gears 3 til I finish them) by Karen Traviss- who has just agreed to write a new series of books for Halo.

As long as your not reading a book that is just the storyline of a game I love them, new addicition completly.

Retr0gamer

All the ones I've read have been utter trash, including the Halo ones, that I only really read a bit off to have a laugh at how bad they are. I think I'm better off reading some good books about games like masters of doom or racing the beam.

dammitjanet

Retr0gamer wrote: »

All the ones I've read have been utter trash, including the Halo ones, that I only really read a bit off to have a laugh at how bad they are. I think I'm better off reading some good books about games like masters of doom or racing the beam.

I'd disagree, I think a lot are really well written and add a lot to a game. The homefront book was actually a hell of a lot better than the story mode in the game IMO.
And while books about gaming in general are great, I still like a bit of fiction.

Bonesy.

dammitjanet wrote: »

I'd disagree, I think a lot are really well written and add a lot to a game. The homefront book was actually a hell of a lot better than the story mode in the game IMO.
And while books about gaming in general are great, I still like a bit of fiction.

Any other titles you could name? Might get a few..

dammitjanet

Bonesy. wrote: »

Any other titles you could name? Might get a few..

As I said Fall of Reach by Eric Nyland is in my opinion the best of the Halo books. I love the Halo universe and think all the books are worth reading. The only one I wouldn't suggest from the series is The Flood, it's just the story line of Halo 1 and I found there was nothing new or different in it.

Metro 2033 is a beast of a book but brilliant (granted it's the book the game is based on)- its annoying they haven't translated the squel yet from Russian though!

Homefront is brilliant book. Written by John Milius and Raymond Benson. Not for the faint hearted though.

I liked the Dead Island book, finished it before the game was released. But it seems to be just the story of the game. Still a good book though, lot of detail

I've only started the Gears series but loving it so far- there's Aspho Fields, Anvil Game, Coalition's End.


These are just one's I know, he's a list of what games have books and who wrote them. A lot of them are written by established sci fi or film writers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_based_on_computer_and_video_games

RolandIRL

Retr0gamer wrote: »

All the ones I've read have been utter trash, including the Halo ones, that I only really read a bit off to have a laugh at how bad they are. I think I'm better off reading some good books about games like masters of doom or racing the beam.

The Flood was the only bad book of the Halo series imo. The others were good to read, even if they did shoot canon in the head with Halo:Reach.

Bonesy.

Might start the GoW series so be abit of a tease seeing as I don't have a 360 though.. :P Played it at mates several times very good multiplayer, mediocore storylines though, so is it really worth the buy for someone who's a not a very frequent reader what so ever..?

Spunge

I read baldurs gate, torment and some resident evil books when i was younger. All garbage. I'd be wary of doing it again.

I was considering reading the witcher books as the game was based on them not vice versa.

johnny_ultimate

There is absolutely no game I can think of that I'd be anywhere near interested in reading a novel of.

There's too much great literature out there and too many great games to waste time on the bastard hybrid of the two.

Maybe one day there'll be a game whose backstory I'll be sufficiently interested in to explore the expanded universe of. That day is not today. Resi novels? The game stories are bad enough. I'll stick with my Murakami, cheers.

Odaise Gaelach

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Resi novels? The game stories are bad enough. I'll stick with my Murakami, cheers.

It's been a few years, but I quite enjoyed the Resident Evil ones by S.D. Perry. The ones where she wrote the stories were not so good, but City of the Dead (Resident Evil 2) was pretty good from what I remember.

Retr0gamer

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

There is absolutely no game I can think of that I'd be anywhere near interested in reading a novel of.

*cough*



Although I have to admit it's one of the few that really uses the medium of games to do something very interesting.

johnny_ultimate

That's the thing though - most great games are great as games. Trying to translate them to other mediums is fundamentally missing the point. I'll admit the Persona 4 anime is the first thing in a long time that has given me any faith in adaptations of games in any form, but that's fundamentally the same story with fancy bells and whistles. But that was a good story in the first place, and can survive the transition. Would I read a novel of it? Hell no. A manga? Maybe. But not a book. It would lose so much in translation. It's the same with book > film the vast majority of the time.

Most game worlds and stories are an excuse to propel you from one gameplay situation to the next. There are few that have the ability to transcend that. Dark Souls world is glorious, but it's because we explore and experience it visually. Uncharted 3 just about scrapes by being called 'interactive', but a novel of it would lose the distinctly Saturday matinee charm of the situations and characters.

As for Halo? There seems to be some sort of mass misconception that it's actually a compelling fiction Bungie have crafted I've completed four out of five of the major Halo releases, and I still couldn't tell you what was going on in the poorly delivered, confusing and uninteresting cutscenes that take bland sci-fi to a whole new extreme!

Retr0gamer

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

As for Halo? There seems to be some sort of mass misconception that it's actually a compelling fiction Bungie have crafted I've completed four out of five of the major Halo releases, and I still couldn't tell you what was going on in the poorly delivered, confusing and uninteresting cutscenes that take bland sci-fi to a whole new extreme!

They did however manage to create a fantastic and original sci-fi universe.... oh



I think anyone that thinks the Halo novels are worth reading should read some genuinely good sci-fi novels such as ringworld, dune, neuromancer, etc.

johnny_ultimate

Ignoring the repetitive, endless purple corridors, Halo does tend to be rather nice to look at in the outdoor sections. Derivative, yes, but pretty none the less.

I couldn't care less what happens in it, but it's nice to look at. I'm sure the descriptions in the novels aren't poetic enough to justify re-evaluating it.

Mr Bloat

I haven't read them myself but a friend of mine loves some of the Warhammer 40K books. The Dawn of War and 40K: Space Marine games are based on the same series, which is how he got into them.

Spunge

Retr0gamer wrote: »

They did however manage to create a fantastic and original sci-fi universe.... oh



I think anyone that thinks the Halo novels are worth reading should read some genuinely good sci-fi novels such as ringworld, dune, neuromancer, etc.

Yeah ringworld is hella cool, just reading about the sheer size of the ring is great.

cloud493

I've read all the Halo books, all the gears books, the uncharted books, the mass effect books, the pokemon manga. Pokemon manga is the best, but the game based novels aren't bad either. Halo ones especially, top notch I though.

Dyr

I once tried to read a novel based on hellgate...jesus wept. I didnt think you could publish such crap

Spunge

Bambi wrote: »

I once tried to read a novel based on hellgate...jesus wept. I didnt think you could publish such crap

sh1t based on sh1t

o1s1n

Films based on games are bad enough. And although they completely leave out the 'game' part, at least they still have some of the visual.

Books though? As Johnny Ultimate said, talk about completely missing the point.

Unless it was one of those old adventure type dice rolling books...

'You have slain the Cyberdemon with your chainsaw, turn to page 17!'

ProjectColossus

Mr Bloat wrote: »

I haven't read them myself but a friend of mine loves some of the Warhammer 40K books. The Dawn of War and 40K: Space Marine games are based on the same series, which is how he got into them.

I'm reading (and enjoying) these myself actually. They, as with the Space Marine and DOW games, are based on the tabletop game which has been around since the 80s, rather than a more modern videogame series, so feels to me that they don't really count in this discussion? Maybe they do.

I'm really enjoying them as I said, but they aren't exactly highbrow.

penev10

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

It's been a few years, but I quite enjoyed the Resident Evil ones by S.D. Perry. The ones where she wrote the stories were not so good, but City of the Dead (Resident Evil 2) was pretty good from what I remember.

I thought they were alright too. The ellaborations, trying to flesh out the plot were mildly amusing.

Orson Scott Card's Ender Series is probably the best Sci-Fi I've come across as long as you're not into endless laser battles and the like.

ShadowHearth

Spunge wrote: »

I read baldurs gate, torment and some resident evil books when i was younger. All garbage. I'd be wary of doing it again.

I was considering reading the witcher books as the game was based on them not vice versa.

This.

Books written after games look like trash for me.

I wanted to read witcher books myself after such a briliant game. Unfortunatly only 2 books are translated in English and one of them is prety shot.

I can't read in polish. I am ver slow reader in Russian and I don't want to read it in Lithuanian. No more English translation too .

I was wondering if the warhammer 40k books very any good? If what, those books came way earlyer then the actuol games. Plus warhammer 40k universe is awesome!

humanji

The novelisation of "Pong" was pretty amazing. Well, volumes 1 through 6 were great, but it started losing a bit of steam when it got to the part where Player 2 moved the paddle upwards. You could see that twist coming a mile off.

Healium

Halo: Ghosts Of Onyx was a savage book.

Branoic

The Deus Ex book released as a prequel to the last game is pretty decent, I'm reading it at the moment. Those terrible boss characters are fleshed out pretty well and you get lots more info on the Deus Ex world like the background to the Australian civil war and stuff.

Gandalph

Wouldn't have much interest in books based on any game, but saying that I would most likely be all over something decent based on the Elder Scrolls series. So many good stories in the in-game books, that if a novel, or even better, an epistolary novel, based on an interesting character(s) were to spring, I'd probably pick it up.

Retr0gamer

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