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July 22, 2005
Kato's Half Blood Prince Review
I approached both Kato and Vader about giving their reviews of Half Blood Prince as we sat, reading magazines and sipping Butterbeer, at our local Borders. Both were rather enthusiastic about the whole affair and I was surprised when they announced they had finished the book not twenty-four hours later. Marth gave a brief, off the cuff and laden with spoilers review here but promised me a proper report fit for the frontpage here at RSCR:Respond.
Kate however, was the first to send a proper review and I was amazed at how well written it was; the first time I read it I thought I was an English teacher grading a book report. In that case I give Kate a resounding A+! Huzzah!!
If you have read the book then go ahead and check it out because it is, of course, bespeckled with spoilers. If you haven't read it yet well, all I can say is that I hope you get enough food, water and sunlight under that rock you live under. Now without further ado...
(REQUISITE DISCLAIMER: Major Spoilers Sit Behind The Link Below)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:
A rambling review by Kate Noyes
The anticipation for the sixth installment of our beloved Potter series was even more intense than in previous years. As I waited impatiently in line with Martha at our local Borders, chatting it up with other insane Potterites, I couldn’t help but mull over the events of the last book. I hoped that Rowling would live up to her promise and deliver her fan base a novel that answered all our questions: Who was the Half-Blood Prince? Who is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Why does Dumbledore trust Snape? Will Ron ever hook up with Hermione? What were Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s OWL grades? How will Hogwarts withstand all the turmoil present in the wizarding world? Is Fudge still the Minister of Magic? Will Percy ever stop being the “biggest git ever”? Whatever happened to that hag Umbridge?
Rowling delivers as per usual, but not in her usual irritatingly suspenseful fashion.
What sets of J.K. Rowling’s sixth evil lovechild apart from the other five is its layering. Instead of imbuing the Half Bloof Prince with excess suspense and intrigue, like The Chamber of Secrets or The Order of the Phoenix, she uses her 652 pages to let the characters she’s so carefully fostered to run amok and build the relationships that have been budding for the past five years. As readers we gain insight into the feelings and motivations of Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione, Snape, Ron, Ginny, and even Voldemort we begin to make the essential connections necessary for understanding of all the events in previous books. By the end of the novel you find yourself endowed with a complete comprehension of the newly fleshed-out characters, and even feel a twinge of sympathy for Draco Malfoy burgeoning within the depths of your heart. This is what Potter fans have been craving since day one. Finally, we get to witness the maturation of the characters who have managed to endear themselves to us. It almost feels like a reward for waiting.
I admit, I closed the Half-Blood Prince in a grief-induced rage. As you may have already guessed (just by reading the other five books and taking note of Rowling’s tendency to kill everything I love and cherish) another beloved character faces his untimely death. Though Sirius Black’s death was tragic, it was rushed and surreal. Compared to the passing of the newly fallen member of the HP Universe, Sirius’ demise was nothing. After I rationalized the tragedy and put it in perspective, I recognized that this was exactly what I knew had to happen at the end of OOtP. In this sense, Rowling did her series justice and deftly set the stage for an epic and emotional battle between He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and Harry in the seventh installment.
However, I do have a series of gripes and complaints about the manner in which this book unfurled. I spoke of a difference in tone earlier, and while this in some small way was a welcomed change, it didn’t always feel like an improvement. I initially feared that the tone of the Half-Blood Prince would be ridiculously dark and dismal, but I was surprised to find that (for the most part) it was quite the opposite. Rowling kept the book lighthearted a majority of the time, and occasionally threw in some dark and foreboding scenes to temper the evident whimsical atmosphere, but these aforementioned scenes are few and far in-between. Though some may rejoice in hearing that Harry Potter has once again returned to its more playful rules, I believe this to be a cause for mourning. Throughout most of the novel, nothing of significance happened. Usually, Rowling builds and builds and builds until the final cataclysmic climax. Such is not the case here.I immediately delved into the pages of THBP, but I didn’t feel as if the first half had the usual ‘I couldn’t put this book down, even if I wanted to’ vibe. Of course, I was immediately sucked in by the potions lessons and other daily facets of Hogwarts life.
Simply put: The first half of HBP is sort of like a four hundred page chronicle of Harry Potter’s day to day adventures, sprinkled with tidbits of importance and seasoned with a flood of background information. Despite said complaints, the ending more than compensates for the lackluster mid-section, and leaves the reader breathless.
Again, I realize that this book couldn’t have been drafted any other way. In order for the seventh book to be the ending we all hope for, an entire book needed to be written in order to construct an ideal setting. This novel was like Rowling’s clean up project: She tied her loose ends, developed her characters, and prepped her universe for the final confrontation between good and evil.
Though don’t let any complaints I aired here fool you: I loved this book. I ate the entire thing up and then was prepared for more Hogwarts-y goodness. I’d say the Half-Blood Prince was the most moving of all six books, but is merely second or third best (ending excluded, of course).
Stay Tuned, Vader assures me her proper review is on the way.
Posted by Jon at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2005
How Do You Say This in Egypto?
Master Shake: [Sounding Exasperated] Oh god! How much longer?! Egypt is so boring, it doesn't even exist! I mean, you don't hear DMX rap about it!
Meatwad: I find that this is highly affiligent in edgamacationus for my brain. Because...I am smart, boy.
Master Shake: [Becoming Increasingly Agitated] You tell me how this is gonna help you get a high powered, six-figure job?! You think they ask Tom Cruise this stuff before he signs on his movies?! No one has to know this! Ever!!
Frylock: Shake, just go back to the gift shop and let Meatwad and I enjoy the exhibit, ok?
Master Shake: [Resolved] You need me here; I am a strong counter-point to the headphones!
Harry Potter reviews are coming soon, stay tuned!
Posted by Jon at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2005
In Response
First off, thanks to everyone who responded (both in the forum and on my blog) in having to do with my last entry on cheaters/XBL/matchmaking. After reading through all of your comments I decided to further clarify my view with another post.
First off all, I think Halo 2's matchmaking is an incredible feat in terms of multiplayer gaming and probably the best designed system I have seen yet. After reading your comments I got the impression that most of you thought I hated it and I don't. The server browsers that were the staple of any PC based shooter were a horrendous waste of time and only served to match you up with other great gamers if you could devote those 'gobs of time' I was talking about to sift through the hundreds of available servers. I am no longer a PC gamer (I have been converted by the potent gospel of the Mac :) ) but was while in high school and could set aside that time to hop from server to server while purposefully neglecting my homework. Now that I am finished with college and a busy professional, Halo 2's approach of matching you by similar skill level and connection speed is marvelous and I have taken full advantage of being able to get myself into a playable (barely noticeable lag, similarly skilled opponents) experience.
The whole crux of my last essay, if you could even call it that; perhaps 'rant' is more appropriate, is failed expectations and I can hardly blame Bungie for that. Anyone who has been a member of a regularly meeting LAN can attest to the fact that we were all under the impression that we were going to have the same multiplayer experiences we had with Halo: Combat Evolved but without having to lug our televisions anywhere. I was regaled with their promises of a virtual couch with perfectly matched games with other anonymous players everywhere.
I imagined a world where one could enter thousands of separate games and in each one would be a myriad of civil, polite and skilled Master Chief from the HBO forums who, whether he or she won or lost, would have some kind words to say after the game was over. In retrospect I can see my expectations being both warranted and completely unrealistic. On one hand my introduction to the Halo community outside of my weekly LAN was HBO and from my first post everyone there was incredibly wonderful and supportive; I felt a shared camaraderie with these other folks who obsessed over a game and their passion for meeting in person to play it. (In my opinion I think the reason why the HBO community is so strong is because we had to meet in order to play with one another and couldn't rely on the internets to connect us.) On the other hand Halo's massive fan base assured me that not everyone would be so kind, especially when that whole anonymity variable is added to the mixture. (For more on what I think of expectations read this. More formal essays and my design work here.)
I do have a couple of suggestions for Halo 3 so I'll go right ahead and share my opinion. Keep matchmaking but split it in two, keeping the numbered ranking part for those people who really like having a number applied to their skill level. The other part of matchmaking would be unranked but a little more functional than the paltry 'training' playlists. This new half of matchmaking would have filters where you could specify what game you were looking to play. You could tell it whether you only wanted to play team games, or only CTF or only games in a particular map or only with a particular weapon. That way if I have an extra hour in my night I know that I could immediately be put in a game of CTF shotguns in Turf. Also it would be great to have keywords to apply to your gamertag such as HBO, HIH or other little meta-tags that could match you up with other members of your community in a matchmaking setting without having to schedule it on a forum. From a programming standpoint these are absolutely doable (though I do understand this would increase the time spent on the waiting screen since there are more variables the game would have to sort out) and could make the unranked part of XBL a little more robust.
Halo 2 is a masterpiece and matchmaking is incredible but with any game experience there are only things that can be discovered after a lot of playtesting and feedback. A lot of the features that were built in to the game seemed like a really good idea but didn't work out, in terms of my opinion, to be that successful. Part of what makes Bungie the best game developer on the planet is that they push themselves to make something great and not something mediocre. Hopefully in the next incarnation of Master Chief's adventure they can further refine the monumental steps they took in changing the way people experience multiplayer shooters.
On a side note I'd be fascinated to hear from you other community members whether or not Halo 2 is 'better' than Halo 1. There, of course, are no right or wrong answers; only subjective opinions but I think it would be fascinating to discuss nonetheless. In my humble opinion I like Halo better for no other reason than nostalgia over some favorite game types. Nothing is more sublime than CTF Damnation or CTF Single Flag Shotguns in Chill Out. There are some incredible new weapons and levels in Halo 2 but nothing can hold a candle to the simplicity of pistol duels or the raw up-close power of the original shotgun. In fact, I would have been happy if Halo 2 had the exact same graphics and same weapons with just some extra vehicles and a whole new single player campaign. What do you guys think?
Posted by Jon at 09:07 PM | Comments (22)
July 16, 2005
Misplaced Effort
This morning, like the many that came before and the (hopefully) many to come, I plunged my virtual consciousness into the interweb to check the myriad of websites that I consider myself a regular of. One that has been a staple since 2003 is HBO (which stands for halo.bungie.org, a Halo fansite), the finest fan-site of any movie/television series/comic book/video game ever. I could gush about their refreshing use of white space, lack of ads and constant updating with plenty of juicy content but that is for another time. For now I'll just offer a huge thank you to Louis Wu, Mnemesis, Wirehead, Crux, Ding, Count Zero, Jilly Bean, the Story Crew and everyone who is a regular to the forums; you guys define what a great online community can be. Which brings me to the crux of what I wanted to discuss...
One of this mornings news posts was a notification that the latest Weekly What's Update had been posted. For those of you not in the know the WWU is a periodic newsletter straight from the powers that be at Bungie informing the fan community about what they are working on and why. While waiting for Halo 2 these potent doses of Friday hypertext notified anyone interested on the progress Bungie was making with the game as well as the occasional screenshot and requisite drawing on what Mister Chief was up to at the time. Since November 9th the What's Update has been primarily concerned with one thing, cheaters/griefers, and how they are being dealt with.
I admire Bungie's effort, I really do, but they are fighting a battle that it impossible to win by force. When I say 'by force' I am referring to banning those who they catch in the act and by shaken fisted threats through the internet. Those people who are cheating/griefing in Halo 2 are only concerned with, you guessed it, cheating/griefing in Halo 2 and I can assure you that once they are kicked from Bungie's virtual community they will not 'learn their lesson' but rather find another forum for their antics.
I really honestly and truly believe that Bungie is doing all they can to stop this epidemic but it is plain to see that they aren't doing a good enough job to noticeably quell the uprising. In fact, the reason why all this started is because they made such a great game at a low cost, putting a fantastic multiplayer experience into the hands of anyone who had an XBOX, and $80 (fifty for the game and thirty for the Live Starter Kit). Bungie/Microsoft had finally bridged the gap to those who would love to share in a top-notch multiplayer shooter without having to drop the hundreds of dollars necessary for the hardware to play it. This caused droves of people unschooled in the canonized community dynamics of most multiplayer experiences to immediately plug in to this massive online community with a headset which instantly spawned legions upon legions of, well, total f&%#wads.
As anyone who, like me, has spent gobs of time playing PC based internet shooters, knows one connects to games through specific servers which often have message boards and a robust fan community. Generally after shopping around and playing on a few servers you are bound to find a favorite after a having string of positive experiences. This congregation of like-minded players who have shared camaraderie based on positive, rule-following, multiplayer gaming develops into a self-sustaining community. When it happens the experience is intoxicating. You feel as though you are a part of something great as you count down the hours until you know the 'regulars' will be on and you can plunge into a delicious game of capture the flag. Whenever a cheater/griefer would join the server and start raising havok the members of the community would descend like T-Cells on bacteria, barraging him with kick requests and making it clear that 'we don't serve your kind here.' After the player has been expunged the message boards are abuzz calling for the culprits IP to be permanently banned.
The self-sustaining dynamic I just described is impossible with Halo 2. Why? Because all of Halo 2 matchmaking is essentially one big server and there are simply not enough admins to dispense the proper boot-age. Yes, yes I know you can 'report' cheaters but the whole experience feels distant; gone are the days when you could establish the proper rapport with the admins and know that your request would be acted upon immediately. Having one central server to connect to also excludes modders, hackers and cheaters which are, to me, quite welcome in the proper setting. Quake 3 had servers where you could take part in modded games and it was wildly fun. Whenever I was done playing around and wanted to play a regular game of CTF I simply logged off and connected to another server. I think Bungie is squelching creativity by banning them rather than providing a place on Live where they could congregate and share what great hacks they had constructed or glitches they had discovered to anyone interested in seeing what they are all about. Imagine how fun it would be to connect to a game with reduced gravity or skulls interspersed throughout lockout that corresponded to the skulls you could get in the game or being able to play a match of CTF were glitches were welcomed? It may not be for everyone but I'm not crazy about 'the powers that be' removing these creative thinkers from the mix just because they aren't inline with what Bungie deems acceptable play.
I myself haven't logged into to play since May 8th and not even because of the cheating, instead I've lost interest in the game because it doesn't deliver the halcyon experiences offered by its predecessor.
The virtual couch we were promised in the matchmaking system doesn't deliver the same experiences I was accustomed to with my weekly LAN and I would rather haul my TV and XBOX to a friends basement for a guaranteed three-plus hours of consecutive multiplayer bliss than wade through game after game of swearing 10-year olds just to find an anonymous congregation of like minded players for a few games in the comforts of my own home.
Maybe I would be coerced into re-joining Halo 2's virtual collective if those bastards in Washington would have actually taken the poll Louis set up seriously. We voted for Hang Em' High and you gave us Longest. Gee, thanks for caring what we asked for, you could have at least done one of the top 5. Longest? Longest?!
Posted by Jon at 01:24 PM | Comments (22)
Back to Hogwarts!
Sorry for my extended leave of absence as of late but I've been rather entwined with my new job. The penultimate entry of the Potter epic has just been secured and I wanted to share my joy with all of you before plunging myself headfirst into the six-hundred and fifty-two pages of bliss that await me.
I am pleased to annouce that a deal has been struck with fellow members of the 'Harry-Harem': both Kato and Ms.Vader will be posting their exclusive reviews here first. Now if you'll excuse me as I head [refer to subject]!
Posted by Jon at 01:03 AM | Comments (3)