"...their poisonous stings held high prepared to sting as they set themselves in the sting position to sting their attacker, who no doubt, was prepared to sting back."
+Super Bunnyhop i think you'd like mgs4's novalision its done by a friend of kojimas so its pretty true to the source though the beauty and the beast core were removed but the dialoge for the most part isn't copy pasted (well to my knowledge it isnt since it was done in japanese first then translated)
Johan Malmgren I just can't helpt but imagine Agent 47 with his nice suit in a fast-food line with some smart ass behind him talking about the codebar on his head
This is the thing, isn't it? Agent 47 is a human being. He has to eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom. At some point, Agent 47 sits on a toilet and poops come out of his bottom.
They were trained killer robo-scorpions! Mobius used them to destroy his enemies. And now they were coming at him, electric stings held high in the sting position.
Man, I can't tell you how stoked I am to see a video like this. Video game books are such an incredible crapshoot and I've read such a stack of 'em that I laughed for minutes straight at the look of perplexed hurt on your face trying to grapple with the time you spent reading these suckers. I own some of the Doom books-- you've got the first one, did you end up reading it? It's the funnest of the bunch since it follows the game in a tenuous but still recognizable way-- and some passages are just gut-bustingly good. The writers had fun with it, and it comes through hugely. I read the first Mass Effect novel recently, and I was pretty pleased with it-- it's a nice background on 'em. The game books that've stuck with me my whole life as being genuinely, legitimately good are the Myst novels: Book of Atrus, Book of Ti'ana, and the Book of D'ni. Miller has this whole incredible, beautiful backstory that just gets rushed past and overlooked in the games, and really, who even bothered to play the later Mysts? Miller's got a real beautiful way of describing visual detail and mechanical cleverness, like in the games, but in the books, it's timeless. And the story and characters are genuinely heartfelt. When I played Riven, I never much cared about the story. After reading the first book, it added a whole new dimension to the experience. If you ever have the time, give the first few chapters a try. If you're not hooked, so be it. But I bet you will be.
I think the point of making a point about Hitman's breakfast was to say "this is all just part of his daily grind". In cinema that would have been done as a montage of breakfast,kill,dinner,sleep,breakfast,kill,dinner,sleep,repeat.
TrueFriends HelpMoveBodies But that doesn't work in a book. that's purely a visual way of conveying information. In a book it just comes off as strange and needlessly tedious.
As somebody who occasionally messes around with writing but doesn't really read any fiction, that's something I worry about a lot... writing scenes that would work in a video game or movie, but fail as literature.
"I will drink your blood like cherry pop!" Dracula; Castlevania 2 World of Power book I looked it up, got to that first sentence in the second paragraph and thanked myself for having parents that wouldn't buy books like that...seriously, thank your parents for not letting you read the Worlds of Power series. I'm sending mine a thank you card.
One video game novel I'd definitely recommend is Bioshock: Rapture. Its a prequel novel to Bioshock 1 and 2, and even includes collectibles into its plot. It gives context to the audio logs, and shows Rapture before and during the fall. It also focuses on Bill McDonagh, who I felt was a good point of view character whose moral conflict made for a good story arc. It was a solid read, and I was and still am royally pissed about Burial at Sea contradicting it in various ways.
Ooh, so I'm not the only one that hates Burial at Sea. Truth be told, I also hate with a passion Bioshock Infinite. It feels like it destroyed all of the things I liked about Bioshock in favor in being a boring typical FPS with a story that Ken Levine clearly thought he could write but couldn't, since there's a fucktrillion plot holes in it.
Aedan Clarke As a game, Burial at Sea was far superior to Infinite itself, I believe. Its gameplay was simply better, and the leveldesign more atmospheric, and the writing in part two was a lot tighter. But I absolutely HATE how they had to go back and shoehorn Infinite into Rapture, and being the driving course behind the first game. It didn't need to do this. Bioshock 1 and 2 delivered a solid, nicely rounded up story and setting, that needed no further stirring. I'll say to this day that Infinite was not a good game. It was painfully average with more holes in it than all the NPCs you shoot in the game combined. There were obviously a lot of interesting ideas in Infinite, from quantum physics to time travel and parallel universes to racism and cult-like worship of the US founding fathers, but none of them were adequately developed throughout the game. A lot of them were just justifications for the rest of the game to be chaotic and disjointed. Where Bioshock 1 & 2 dealt with Rapture in a big way, Infinite didn't even care about Columbia as a city. The game could've played anywhere else and it'd not have been much different.
Aedan Clarke I never played burial at sea because after playing infinite I threw the game into the pile of shit category. Yeah, I hate infinite too, it's especially annoying since it got such good reviews. Combine that with 1 and 2 which I enjoyed very much so. Infinite's gameplay was just so boring and the story only made things worse. 1 and 2 both either had great gameplay or great story to make for a great experience. Infinite Haters high five!
Freelancerk1bbles I'd buy us a round, except, one, we aren't near each other and, two, I don't drink. BUT CLOSE ENOUGH. :P Aha, seriously, the game bored the fuck out of my. That was its biggest sin. It's horrific story was its other big sin. And what bothers me isn't just that people seemed to love the gameplay for some reason (especially the sky-hook bits, which made me wonder why the fuck people were so excited for what were LITERALLY on-rails sections), it's that the claimed the story was, "One of the best ever told in gaming." Bullshit, it's premise is nice, but did it actually end up good? No, of course not. Ken Levine was too busy stroking his story-telling cock to actually write a good story, stupidly enough. AND it annoys me when people who want to undermine other people's opinions because they're faced with the realization that, uh, Infinite's gameplay wasn't even as good as the original Bioshock's (which wasn't exactly the best to begin with. But at least there were plenty of plasmids to fuck about with, which was nerfed in Infinite. And at least you could carry all the guns in the game, also nerfed in Infinite), and neither was its horrifically told, schizo, ADHD story... have the gall to claim that Bioshock and Bioshock 2 weren't good games. They were, with much more intricate worlds, surprisingly better mechanics, and better stories. Morons. Fuck Infinite. And fuck Burial at Sea for trying to destroy the quality of the two Rapture games' stories. And yes, that includes the second. Funnily enough, both Bioshock 2 and Infinite had similar themes in story, when you think about it. Very similar themes. Minus the quantum physics, multi-universe, time-traveling bullshit from Infinite, they have mindbogglingly close stories. And which did it better? Bioshock 2... How 'bout them apples? And it had better gameplay than the first and second. I still prefer the first because the first game's story is more engaging to me, but the second is still plenty enjoyable from both a gameplay and story standpoint. So I repeat. Fuck Infinite. And fuck Burial at Sea. In my head, I've rendered them both as fanfiction. Lord knows they're about fanfic quality anyway...
"He had heard of CaTaffey's killer animals, but had never heard exactly what they were. Nobody before him had ever survived the pit. As he stood up and rubbed his head, groaning, he heard a nearly inaudible tapping noise. His senses came back to him almost immediately, and he was ready to defend himself. Dogs? Tigers? Bears? Justin's eyes widened as he saw what he was up against. CaTaffey had trained killer scorpions. The exit above had been sealed, and the scorpions approached slowly, their stingers held high above their body, bobbing back and forth, ready to lunge forward and doom him at the slightest provocation..." *HOW FUCKING HARD WAS THAT, T.K. NINE? I WROTE THAT IN TWO MINUTES AND IT'S BETTER THAN YOUR SHIT, AND I DON'T EVEN WRITE.*
Fun fact, the Mormon church HAS a giant bunker build into a mountain, and getting in there is almost impossible, AND it apparantly constantly gets stocked with...something. For what reason? I dont know. Maybe survivalism, maybe its like an archive similiar to the Vatican Archives. So the Doom Novel having one of mankinds last bation being a mormon HQ is oddly not that far off. Also, no mention about the TWO X-Com novels out there? One of which was written by a russian.
It's an archive. It also contains the most extensive genealogical records in the world. No joke; Mormonism is basically a religion about family, and they care a ton about researching family history. That said, the Church also does lots of survivalism. If member families can afford to, they're expected to keep a year's worth of supplies.
Diego Chamberlain the expectation is actually 72 hours of supplies. As that is how long it takes for emergency responders to get there. More is fine, though the church discourages prepping for extreme doomsday scenarios, as the odds of some of things people worry about actually happening are not good. Also the Morman church headquarters is its own building, not related to the Temple ( though most of downtown is connected by tunnels that link several landmarks )
Hahahaha goddamnit, Dietz. I remember hearing a review about the Mass Effect: Deception novel where he did the EXACT same thing: just wrote droves and droves of paragraphs about people eating. What a weird dude
The only thing I remember about the one Halo novel he wrote is pages and pages and pages that amounted to "Master Chief walked over there, and then fired his gun." Like if someone decided to do a straight transcript of Halo 1, but spent most of the time describing just the shooting. A big contrast to the other Halo novels which for the most part were pretty decent military sci-fi.
The halo book was pretty good. It was a retelling of the first game so he couldnt fit in any scenes of eating. But it actually expands upon the game instead of just retelling what you did. Onl 1/3 of the game is focused on master chief EDIT: it has been a while since i read it though
Based on what Super Bunnyhop was critical of from the novel Metal Gear Solid by Raymond Benson, perhaps he would enjoy the novelization of Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Patriots by Project Itoh, which actually makes a whole new perspective of the story from the eyes of Solid Snake's closest friend, Otacon, thus giving tons of new creative information about a story we may already know very well.
Oh man I read that Simon's Quest book by the same guy that did the Metal Gear novelization, what an awful collection of paper and ink. If you ever expand to more than one episode a week, I'd watch more of these. God knows there's enough of them to keep you going indefinitely.
***** I found four of them at a thrift store a few years ago. Like you said, they're okay, but they vacillate too much between being nothing like the games and being a clunky 1:1 transition. Of course, I'm no judge of taste; I actually enjoyed the Hitman novel, diners and all.
True, like you said it's either nothing or when there is some stealth action it's something out of place. Especially when you play the games and you play non-lethal. The last book, Blacklist: Aftermath, has more action like you see in the game. But I can't remember if it was better than the first book.
I had no idea that game novels were really that big of a thing, until recently. A couple months ago I went to a Barnes and Nobles that had a table FULL of various small Minecraft novelizations, by different authors. Of all the games to pick, they seriously go for Minecraft? I understand that Minecraft is huge and that their primary target is kids, but I just can't fathom how so many authors managed to crap out stories about a video game that has no story in it whatsoever.
I actually had a genuinely fun and engaging story play out on a Minecraft server with a friend I met there two or so years ago. There certainly is potential for some novelization in Minecraft at least. Just ditch the fucking Minecraft aesthetic, I never found it appealing in the slightest.
+GrandMarshallWade So basically these stories based on video games with no relevant story and only context are PUBLICIZED FANFICTION!? Holy shit, I gotta go make bank!
The 4 Doom novels I read in one summer back in the 90s? If you thought 2 got weird with the Mormons. Read 3 & 4. Wow, it then went off into The Forever War or Starship Troopers super sci-fi. Or tried.
I actually loved how the author added "That's really a stupid question, Otacon". Because if I was the one writting it, I wouldn't pass the oportunity to throw that in.
Some of the Starcraft and Halo novels are pretty good on my opinion, mostly because there is a lot of characters and ore to expand as well as lots of on interesting (if familiar) science fiction concepts. That doom one sounds awesome.
Surprised you didn't bring up S.D. Perry's novelizations of the Resident Evil games. They're a real roller-coaster of quality and the series just abruptly ends after Zero and Code: Veronica because RE4 went off in a radically different direction that Perry wasn't prepared for, but the novelizations of RE1 and RE2 are fun reads and the brilliant thing is they just play the puzzle design of the games entirely straight by painting Umbrella as a bunch of self-obsessed corporate prepubescent snobs playing spy games with each other, which surprisingly makes them seem pretty goddamn dangerous up until the novels start to lose focus and consistency. The books are still available on Kindle, so I recommend them if you're looking for something cheap and easy to read between video projects--at least "The Umbrella Conspiracy" and "City of the Dead," the RE1 and RE2 novelizations. - Lewis
I've read all of them and I think the weakest ones were the ones where Perry writes her own story. I would have loved to see how RE4 and RE5 would have been novelized.
Another novelization that'd be worth checking out is "Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Patriots" written by Project Itoh, especially since it addresses many of the issues that plagued the novels of MGS and MGS2, such as giving a new perspective of an already well-established universe and further developing characters rather than just taking it right off the script with some minor edits. I'm sure even Lewis Medeiros of the BSC would agree that the MGS4 novelization was a vastly superior novel that done justice to a game franchise highly-regarded for it's complex and intricate storytelling! :)
I've only read the FF XI novels, and they were pretty good. Since they created their own group, and just made them interact with the world, it was like seeing a fantasy novel, but in a familiar world.
I remember those Worlds of Power books. They would be perfect fodder for some kind of an audiobook version of MST3K. Although, for me, the Ninja Gaiden novelization is definitely a guilty pleasure. How could anyone resist a book dedicated to "the Ninja in every dad?"
I want a really good, well-written action novelization of Bloodborne. There is no real main character as you are just a guy with no name, personality, ideals, beliefs or even a voice. Just a guy called a "hunter" so there should be plenty of imaginative stuff the writer can work for themselves on their own to write a really good story. And there are plenty of stuff in Bloodborne that which can make a really good narrative.
I get what your trying to say, but H P Lovecraft writing is difficult to read with paragraphs being way longer then they should be and they contain way too much info that is cramped up in the paragraphs that should have been split apart. But no seriously I mean a battle-oriented version of a horror story that is influenced by Cthulhu Myths and European folklore like vampires and werewolves in a easy to comprehend. And that should be the Novelization of Bloodborne. THAT would be sweet.
Lordy, I have to pity your naivete in thinking literally anything Dietz writes could be anything other than terrible. Mass Effect: Deception and Halo: The Flood are legendary for how awful and untrue to the source material they are. I gotta say I loved hearing about the Metal Gear books though, that stuff was new to me.
+SparkyonPC I don't mean to start an argument or anything (I respect people's opinions) but I found The Flood to be enjoyable. I thought the added side stories regarding the ODSTs and the Covenant were a clever way of utilizing the creative liberties that Dietz was given. True story, it wasn't until I had read half of the book until I realized I had read over a hundred pages without getting bored yet. And strangely I thought it got more thrilling once the Flood showed up. But I'll admit, there were some parts where I thought Dietz could've spared describing the action for the sake of moving the plot along.
The plot of "The Flood" was solid, the actual story was top notch but the writing style of Dietz was tedious, what he wrote was interesting but how he wrote it, didn't really appeal to me.
Vermon CaTaffy is actually from the manual for Metal Gear on NES. Whoever wrote the manuals for both Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge decided to have fun and make up their own story with their own characters. The manual for Snake's Revenge also made up another character named Higharolla Kockamamie.
I remember finding a Battlefield 3 book at a Barnes & Nobles once. I flipped to a random page that just turned out to be a description of soldiers loading a mortar, complete with "boom" sound effects.
The Mormon stuff in the Doom book makes some sense. I've studied Mormonism and their culture is devoted to survivalism... the Church itself maintains arsenals, and each member family is expected to have a year's worth of supplies (if possible).
fun fact, my primary school had the chose your own adventure novel from the original metal gear game. I loved the cover and it took about 5 years after I played MGS before I suddenly remembered it and everything connected together
If you didn't like The MGS Novelisation, you should try the MGS 4 one. Just telling it from Otacon's perspective adds such an weird edge to it I enjoyed more than the 6 1080p Blu-Ray Movies called Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
I think that version was really great in final part. But I think that this one is boring sometimes, tries to make same experience of MGS4. I know the author, Project itoh is a huge fan of MGS seriese, but I want more unique experience. And Project itoh is my favorite writer. Did you read the "Genocidal Organ"? It`s more darker and deeper version of MGS4. If you like the MGS4 novelizaiton, you have to read this, too.
I'm not sure whether this has already been mentioned, but the DOOM/Mormon connection (I hope that's not the subtitle for the next book) is that Sandy Petersen who worked on DOOM was a Mormon. He co-founded Ensemble Studios and gave us the Age of Empires franchise. Kudos to him for that.
Nice video George! It's clear you had a lot of fun writing and filming this video! Btw, I saw a novelization of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag in Whitcoulls. (The NZ equivilant of shops like Barnes and Noble)
As a kid being forced to read books I would've loved that mgs book precisely because it describes the game to a T hahaha. I would've looked like I was reading on the outside while totally just going back to playing mgs in my head.
Id love if you'd make a series out of this. It would be a good lighthearted show to balance with your heavy Critical Close ups and reviews. It seems to suit you really well. You like to have a sense of humour and your analytic skills helps show an even greater absurdity of the things you're looking at. Plus no one else is really looking at these books
Least you didn't read the blaster master book. Apparently the animal the kid is looking for switches to like four different animals during the course of the book. As for book's I've read; I tried the second resident evil book and second gears of war book. RE was pretty much the game in novel form but not AS literal as the MGS book. Gears was surprisingly good. Even brought a character that would be used in the third gears game.
The Resident Evil books were pretty good. I thought the author for those did a good job of adding additional story to what we didn't see with said characters, and events that we weren't aware of. And even did some side stories with other characters.
I took a film class taught by Raymond Benson a few years ago, hearing him brought up in this context freaked me out. For what it's worth he's a pretty nice dude
I just wanted to leave a comment here to inform you that I really do appreciate the videos that you upload. I have a hard time listening to many other video game youtube accounts, as they (for the most part) remain in the shallow-end of the pool. Not to mention the fact that so many of them remind me of elementary-grade children when it comes to humor, vocabulary, observations and so on. Thank you for making videos that whet the appetite of this (somewhat) adult gamer.
My first foray into reading video game novelizations was The Force Unleashed II, which I found during a Borders clearance sale. This book (and it’s prequel) toned down some of the crazy feats in the game, and I think this helped the story to fit in better with the Star Wars universe.
Oh my fucking God, dude. That Metal Gear book killed me. It's so hilarious seeing Snake act like such an asshole. I might have to purchase the book for a good laugh later on.
Suprisingly enough, the Runescape novelisations are pretty solid, at least the one that I read, Betrayal at Falador. Got it free from a membership deal, IIRC, but...Yeah, it's been a while since I read it, but it's pretty damn nice. To be fair, it may be because the story of the game is big enough to allow a story set in the universe to be slotted in like that, but yeah. Pretty nice.
Just to clarify (because I feel like I need to), the William Deitz Mass Effect novel IS NOT CANON!!! It takes a while to fully explain why, but basically Deitz wrote the book with little understanding of the Mass Effect universe & it's timelines. This lead to multiple mistakes and errors, upsetting both the fans, and more importantly, Bioware themselves. From what I understand, and I acknowledge that I might be misinformed, Bioware "requested" a rewrite from the author. However, Deitz's publishers chose to side with the author, and rejected the rewrite "request" (supposedly more of a demand at a certain point). Thus creating an impasse where this book exists, but is disliked at best by fans of the source material, decanonized by the proprietors of its universe, yet, unlike the ending(s) of Mass Effect 3, left unchangeable by it's creator and publisher. Basically, ignore it.
One of my favorite videos, a follow up on some more of these would be great! Theres a couple battlefield ones, a Brute Force novelization (?!), Driver, Perfect Dark, some weird selections!
I Loved the Doom books when I was a teenager. Read them twice I think. Used to think that there was something wrong with me for it, and so did my friends. Good to hear one of my favorite critics on my side of the fence. Thanks SBH.
I actually like the manga based off LoZ for how it kept to the source material while having a sense of humor. Link felt like he had an actual personality. He would acted goofy and help everyone he met, but when things got serious he would spring into action. I also really liked how they explained the origin of Volgaria, the fire temple boss.
Very unusual video, and I am grateful for you doing the eye-work in reading these for us. I wouldn't torture you by asking you to make this a series, but I would surely be interested in such a thing.
I'm a huge fan of the Halo books, but The Flood really isn't that great, it gave some interesting additions that added a layer of depth to the game for me (such as Master Chief being scared of the Flood, I love that idea). I'd much rather go read all the other books not based on the games, but if a book from a good author were to adapt the other games into novels, I might try them out (e.g. in Halo 4 I want to see how Jul 'Mdama met the Didact and got some control over the Prometheans)
I remember reading the Blaster Master novel and got maybe a quarter a way into the Bionic Commando book. They were just random books to pick up because all the interesting Choose Your Own Adventure books were checked out of the library.
Sandy Petersen is mormon. He worked for id software during the development of doom 1&2 and quake. He's considered to be one of the more influential game designers for id software back in the day. Presumably he was the inspiration for the mormon subplot.
My great grandmother (God bless her, she's still kicking) recently read a Warcraft book, without even realizing it was based off a video game. I have no clue where she even got it from.
Oh my god! I have had DOOM2 Hell on Earth the novel on my desk for YEARS! I found it at the bottom of a flee market bin for 50 cents and just had to pick it up for the pure novelty. And then you come along and randomly pull out the same book, also having only found number 2 as well. Its a total coincidence I am sure, but dame!
I read the novelization of ICO called ICO: Castle in the Mist. It made it clear that it is only "Sort of." a novelization. Split up into 4 chapters, half of it involves completely different settings and characters not from the original game. Both Ico and Yorda's backstory were not described in the game at all and takes up much of the book, and it works pretty well. I wasn't sure if a game like ICO, which was mostly up to one's interpretation of the story, would work well in a book that has to give details to everything, but it stands quite well as its own thing.
The assassin, knowing his stark baldness would dissuade any good service, donned a fedora before casually entering the Waffle House. The server greeted him in a friendly southern accent, "Hiya sir how ya doin'? Just you?" The food server's latter comment boiled in agent 47's mind, as he thought to himself, "Well of course I'm alone, I'm a cold blooded genetically modified killer clone". He said to the server, "That's ridiculous! Everyone knows the African Swallow couldn't make the trip to Sicily, I WAS THERE!" To which he immediately spun about-face, pushed the double doors open and stormed out with his arms swinging wildly. The cook asked the server, "Was there a barcode on that guys head? Weirdo".
Yami0to0hikari My copy of Firewarrior begs to differ. It was a direct adaptation of the FPS Warhammer game of the same name... and turned Kais into Tau DoomGuy. I'm not joking! He survived a Space Marine bolter to the face, for the first time ever, a bolter fired a dud. And the dud was a chekhov's gun that saved the day! And yes, it wasn't that great, though it does get credit for me actually liking an Ultra Smurf character, so kudos there. I also believe, but might be mistaken, that there also exists a series based on the Dawn of War series.
SolinOutlander Please don't read the DoW book. None of the books in this video were as bad as that garbage. It had some of the dumbest shit in the WH40k franchise ever, and it has a lot of dumb shit to begin with.
SolinOutlander Its just bad luck. That book was written by one of the worst 40k writers in history, and considering how many there are, that's quite an achievment. C.S. Goto is a fucking alien. Like the plot of that book takes place (or rather rewrites but fuck that noise) during the events of Winter Assault and features shit like the Ultramarines being actually Alpha Legion in disguise (fucking wat), Blood Ravens and Gabriel Angelos being there for no fucking reason, an Eldar Gateway being hidden under the titan and 20 FUCKING PAGES of Taldeer being tortured and killed by Necrons in a seriously fucking creepy manner. He also wrote shit like all Eldar worshipping Slaneesh, Land Raiders that transform into jets, multilasers and other shit that make 40k fans cry. Stephenie Meyer is a writing god compared to that piece of shit.
I read the Blaster Master book front to back in one day when I was in the 7th grade. I actually enjoyed it at that age. I have a profound appreciation for this video since this is a topic that isn't discussed much by gamers themselves.
Anyone read that Elder Scrolls book, The Infernal City? I thought it was pretty good, although I read it when I was in, middle school I think, like 5 or 6 years ago. It doesn't directly take from a game, it is just a story in the setting. In fact I kind of want to write some fiction set in Morrowind and Glorantha, because they're pretty neat settings.
tbf elder scrolls are open world games that already have a whole bunch of serialized books within the games to flesh out the lore and wider world. But I have read them (came with my skyrim preorder back in 2011) and Greogory Keyes is a pretty good fantasy writer.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoyed reading the original Doom novels; although, from what I can remember, the series went completely off the deep end by the fourth book.
Deus Ex: Icarus Effect is one of the best Game Novels I ever read. Like… I really, really loved it and read it like… 4 times. But it a story on it own, only based in the same world with similar places and organisations.
"...their poisonous stings held high prepared to sting as they set themselves in the sting position to sting their attacker, who no doubt, was prepared to sting back."
My favorite comment ever.
A literary masterpiece.
*****
Better than what I was doing when I was 7.
+Bernard Williams I probably have written better things past my bedtime at 7. This is just insane.
+Super Bunnyhop i think you'd like mgs4's novalision its done by a friend of kojimas so its pretty true to the source though the beauty and the beast core were removed but the dialoge for the most part isn't copy pasted (well to my knowledge it isnt since it was done in japanese first then translated)
Okay I can't take Agent 47 seriously now that I can imagine him at a Denny's
Anyone remember the Baldur's Gate 2 novelization?
There was also Planescape: Torment but that novel was based more on early version of game script (same with DMC4).
He would totally prefer to make himself a sandwich from a supermarket or deli.
Johan Malmgren
I just can't helpt but imagine Agent 47 with his nice suit in a fast-food line with some smart ass behind him talking about the codebar on his head
meticulously putting on his black rubber gloves before picking up the burger.
This is the thing, isn't it? Agent 47 is a human being. He has to eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom.
At some point, Agent 47 sits on a toilet and poops come out of his bottom.
They were trained killer robo-scorpions! Mobius used them to destroy his enemies. And now they were coming at him, electric stings held high in the sting position.
I give you a like for that reference.
Oh this is nice. This is really nice.
Cave Rave can you spell "detention?" I'll tell you how I spell it... DEATH-tention! Commie pinko traitors, ALL!
Oh! Hello there... you are there aren't you?
You think those are shit? I owned Super Mario Bros: The Movie: The Novelization
How much do you want for it?
I think the best video game novelizations are The Witcher books. It's almost as if the books were written before the games or something!
Kappa
+Bakatyler The games were based on the books...
nicolas 155 Irony.
Bakatyler The movies are based on the games...
@@nicolass155 r/wooosh
You mean games based on netflix show?
kappa
Man, I can't tell you how stoked I am to see a video like this. Video game books are such an incredible crapshoot and I've read such a stack of 'em that I laughed for minutes straight at the look of perplexed hurt on your face trying to grapple with the time you spent reading these suckers. I own some of the Doom books-- you've got the first one, did you end up reading it? It's the funnest of the bunch since it follows the game in a tenuous but still recognizable way-- and some passages are just gut-bustingly good. The writers had fun with it, and it comes through hugely. I read the first Mass Effect novel recently, and I was pretty pleased with it-- it's a nice background on 'em.
The game books that've stuck with me my whole life as being genuinely, legitimately good are the Myst novels: Book of Atrus, Book of Ti'ana, and the Book of D'ni. Miller has this whole incredible, beautiful backstory that just gets rushed past and overlooked in the games, and really, who even bothered to play the later Mysts? Miller's got a real beautiful way of describing visual detail and mechanical cleverness, like in the games, but in the books, it's timeless. And the story and characters are genuinely heartfelt. When I played Riven, I never much cared about the story. After reading the first book, it added a whole new dimension to the experience. If you ever have the time, give the first few chapters a try. If you're not hooked, so be it.
But I bet you will be.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais Very unexpected to see a youtuber one is suscribed commenting on a video of another youtuber one is suscribed.
Comics could be pretty good though... then again....
How did this feel exactly like your reviews lmao right down to the final line.
Great shit.
I think the point of making a point about Hitman's breakfast was to say "this is all just part of his daily grind".
In cinema that would have been done as a montage of breakfast,kill,dinner,sleep,breakfast,kill,dinner,sleep,repeat.
TrueFriends HelpMoveBodies But that doesn't work in a book. that's purely a visual way of conveying information. In a book it just comes off as strange and needlessly tedious.
Kira Reilly Oh I agree. I was just saying it wasn't *POINTLESS*. The intention was fairly clear it just was conveyed like shit.
Fair enough!
As somebody who occasionally messes around with writing but doesn't really read any fiction, that's something I worry about a lot... writing scenes that would work in a video game or movie, but fail as literature.
Diego Chamberlain then read for gods sake???
"I will drink your blood like cherry pop!" Dracula; Castlevania 2 World of Power book
I looked it up, got to that first sentence in the second paragraph and thanked myself for having parents that wouldn't buy books like that...seriously, thank your parents for not letting you read the Worlds of Power series. I'm sending mine a thank you card.
Actually, I'm kinda sad I missed out on such comedic gems..
One video game novel I'd definitely recommend is Bioshock: Rapture. Its a prequel novel to Bioshock 1 and 2, and even includes collectibles into its plot. It gives context to the audio logs, and shows Rapture before and during the fall. It also focuses on Bill McDonagh, who I felt was a good point of view character whose moral conflict made for a good story arc.
It was a solid read, and I was and still am royally pissed about Burial at Sea contradicting it in various ways.
Ooh, so I'm not the only one that hates Burial at Sea. Truth be told, I also hate with a passion Bioshock Infinite. It feels like it destroyed all of the things I liked about Bioshock in favor in being a boring typical FPS with a story that Ken Levine clearly thought he could write but couldn't, since there's a fucktrillion plot holes in it.
Aedan Clarke As a game, Burial at Sea was far superior to Infinite itself, I believe. Its gameplay was simply better, and the leveldesign more atmospheric, and the writing in part two was a lot tighter.
But I absolutely HATE how they had to go back and shoehorn Infinite into Rapture, and being the driving course behind the first game. It didn't need to do this. Bioshock 1 and 2 delivered a solid, nicely rounded up story and setting, that needed no further stirring.
I'll say to this day that Infinite was not a good game. It was painfully average with more holes in it than all the NPCs you shoot in the game combined. There were obviously a lot of interesting ideas in Infinite, from quantum physics to time travel and parallel universes to racism and cult-like worship of the US founding fathers, but none of them were adequately developed throughout the game. A lot of them were just justifications for the rest of the game to be chaotic and disjointed.
Where Bioshock 1 & 2 dealt with Rapture in a big way, Infinite didn't even care about Columbia as a city. The game could've played anywhere else and it'd not have been much different.
Aedan Clarke
I never played burial at sea because after playing infinite I threw the game into the pile of shit category.
Yeah, I hate infinite too, it's especially annoying since it got such good reviews. Combine that with 1 and 2 which I enjoyed very much so. Infinite's gameplay was just so boring and the story only made things worse.
1 and 2 both either had great gameplay or great story to make for a great experience.
Infinite Haters high five!
Freelancerk1bbles I'd buy us a round, except, one, we aren't near each other and, two, I don't drink. BUT CLOSE ENOUGH. :P
Aha, seriously, the game bored the fuck out of my. That was its biggest sin. It's horrific story was its other big sin. And what bothers me isn't just that people seemed to love the gameplay for some reason (especially the sky-hook bits, which made me wonder why the fuck people were so excited for what were LITERALLY on-rails sections), it's that the claimed the story was, "One of the best ever told in gaming." Bullshit, it's premise is nice, but did it actually end up good? No, of course not. Ken Levine was too busy stroking his story-telling cock to actually write a good story, stupidly enough.
AND it annoys me when people who want to undermine other people's opinions because they're faced with the realization that, uh, Infinite's gameplay wasn't even as good as the original Bioshock's (which wasn't exactly the best to begin with. But at least there were plenty of plasmids to fuck about with, which was nerfed in Infinite. And at least you could carry all the guns in the game, also nerfed in Infinite), and neither was its horrifically told, schizo, ADHD story... have the gall to claim that Bioshock and Bioshock 2 weren't good games. They were, with much more intricate worlds, surprisingly better mechanics, and better stories. Morons.
Fuck Infinite. And fuck Burial at Sea for trying to destroy the quality of the two Rapture games' stories. And yes, that includes the second. Funnily enough, both Bioshock 2 and Infinite had similar themes in story, when you think about it. Very similar themes. Minus the quantum physics, multi-universe, time-traveling bullshit from Infinite, they have mindbogglingly close stories. And which did it better? Bioshock 2... How 'bout them apples? And it had better gameplay than the first and second. I still prefer the first because the first game's story is more engaging to me, but the second is still plenty enjoyable from both a gameplay and story standpoint.
So I repeat. Fuck Infinite. And fuck Burial at Sea. In my head, I've rendered them both as fanfiction. Lord knows they're about fanfic quality anyway...
"He had heard of CaTaffey's killer animals, but had never heard exactly what they were. Nobody before him had ever survived the pit. As he stood up and rubbed his head, groaning, he heard a nearly inaudible tapping noise. His senses came back to him almost immediately, and he was ready to defend himself. Dogs? Tigers? Bears? Justin's eyes widened as he saw what he was up against. CaTaffey had trained killer scorpions. The exit above had been sealed, and the scorpions approached slowly, their stingers held high above their body, bobbing back and forth, ready to lunge forward and doom him at the slightest provocation..."
*HOW FUCKING HARD WAS THAT, T.K. NINE? I WROTE THAT IN TWO MINUTES AND IT'S BETTER THAN YOUR SHIT, AND I DON'T EVEN WRITE.*
It's good, but it needs more stings held in the sting position.
Yeah it could use more exposition about what position the stingers are in.
Fun fact, the Mormon church HAS a giant bunker build into a mountain, and getting in there is almost impossible, AND it apparantly constantly gets stocked with...something.
For what reason? I dont know. Maybe survivalism, maybe its like an archive similiar to the Vatican Archives.
So the Doom Novel having one of mankinds last bation being a mormon HQ is oddly not that far off.
Also, no mention about the TWO X-Com novels out there? One of which was written by a russian.
It's an archive. It also contains the most extensive genealogical records in the world. No joke; Mormonism is basically a religion about family, and they care a ton about researching family history.
That said, the Church also does lots of survivalism. If member families can afford to, they're expected to keep a year's worth of supplies.
Diego Chamberlain the expectation is actually 72 hours of supplies. As that is how long it takes for emergency responders to get there. More is fine, though the church discourages prepping for extreme doomsday scenarios, as the odds of some of things people worry about actually happening are not good.
Also the Morman church headquarters is its own building, not related to the Temple ( though most of downtown is connected by tunnels that link several landmarks )
Hahahaha goddamnit, Dietz. I remember hearing a review about the Mass Effect: Deception novel where he did the EXACT same thing: just wrote droves and droves of paragraphs about people eating. What a weird dude
TheAudioInjection It's funny that his last name is 'Dietz' then. Yet another case of the 'Nominative Determinism' phenomenon.
+TheAudioInjection Kai-Leng and his cereal, classic shit
The only thing I remember about the one Halo novel he wrote is pages and pages and pages that amounted to "Master Chief walked over there, and then fired his gun." Like if someone decided to do a straight transcript of Halo 1, but spent most of the time describing just the shooting. A big contrast to the other Halo novels which for the most part were pretty decent military sci-fi.
The halo book was pretty good. It was a retelling of the first game so he couldnt fit in any scenes of eating. But it actually expands upon the game instead of just retelling what you did. Onl 1/3 of the game is focused on master chief
EDIT: it has been a while since i read it though
Based on what Super Bunnyhop was critical of from the novel Metal Gear Solid by Raymond Benson, perhaps he would enjoy the novelization of Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Patriots by Project Itoh, which actually makes a whole new perspective of the story from the eyes of Solid Snake's closest friend, Otacon, thus giving tons of new creative information about a story we may already know very well.
Oh man I read that Simon's Quest book by the same guy that did the Metal Gear novelization, what an awful collection of paper and ink. If you ever expand to more than one episode a week, I'd watch more of these. God knows there's enough of them to keep you going indefinitely.
I would also love to see more of this.
The Rick and Morty bit was simply divine.
Metal Gear Rick.
To be fair, you have to have a very high iq to catch that joke
So, how about those Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell novels not written by Clancy? Those were... books, yeah.
I read the first and the last one of the series. They're okay books but not best reads out there...
***** I found four of them at a thrift store a few years ago. Like you said, they're okay, but they vacillate too much between being nothing like the games and being a clunky 1:1 transition. Of course, I'm no judge of taste; I actually enjoyed the Hitman novel, diners and all.
True, like you said it's either nothing or when there is some stealth action it's something out of place. Especially when you play the games and you play non-lethal. The last book, Blacklist: Aftermath, has more action like you see in the game. But I can't remember if it was better than the first book.
Did he and his daughter ever develop a stable relationship? I never got to finish the series.
Yes, after Conviction all goes wel. In Blacklist Sam calls his daughter a couple of times and it sounds like everything is going well.
I once saw a novel based on Postal 2. I shit you not. Spoiler: it's not Shakespeare.
*MIND BLOWN*
I had no idea that game novels were really that big of a thing, until recently. A couple months ago I went to a Barnes and Nobles that had a table FULL of various small Minecraft novelizations, by different authors.
Of all the games to pick, they seriously go for Minecraft? I understand that Minecraft is huge and that their primary target is kids, but I just can't fathom how so many authors managed to crap out stories about a video game that has no story in it whatsoever.
Surely that's what makes it easy to write about?
"No context? Invent your own!"-some Minecraft guy
I actually had a genuinely fun and engaging story play out on a Minecraft server with a friend I met there two or so years ago. There certainly is potential for some novelization in Minecraft at least.
Just ditch the fucking Minecraft aesthetic, I never found it appealing in the slightest.
musicalrevo Why read someone elses when you can create your own in game.
+GrandMarshallWade So basically these stories based on video games with no relevant story and only context are PUBLICIZED FANFICTION!? Holy shit, I gotta go make bank!
😂😂😂
Trained killer scorpions? Those are nothing compared to the horrors of
DEADLY
POISONOUS
ZANZIBAR
HAMSTERS!!!!!
The 4 Doom novels I read in one summer back in the 90s? If you thought 2 got weird with the Mormons. Read 3 & 4. Wow, it then went off into The Forever War or Starship Troopers super sci-fi. Or tried.
The new Super Bunnyhop logo scares the crap out of me. I don't know why but basing it off the FOXHOUND logo just makes me jump.
I actually loved how the author added "That's really a stupid question, Otacon".
Because if I was the one writting it, I wouldn't pass the oportunity to throw that in.
In the Darkness of Shadow Moses is apparently a much better novelization of MGS. Hell, it was even canonically mentioned in MGS2.
Some of the Starcraft and Halo novels are pretty good on my opinion, mostly because there is a lot of characters and ore to expand as well as lots of on interesting (if familiar) science fiction concepts.
That doom one sounds awesome.
The Bioshock novel is really, really good. I've recommended it to non-gamer friends & read it twice myself. Solid story.
Someone should tell him about the Final Fantasy X 2.5 novel that literally melts brains. Seriously, look up a description on it.
Shits hella canon
Isn't that the one where Tidus and Yuna have sex, then Tidus kicks a ball that was a bomb, and gets decapitated?
Finalblue1234 Why yes I believe that is the one he is talking about.
Seriously read it though. Shits hilarious.
Finalblue1234 That sounds like awful fan fiction. Good thing I've never heard of it until you mentioned it.
Finalblue1234 dafuq??...
As a seven year old in the 90s, the Blaster Master Worlds of Power book was awesome.
Surprised you didn't bring up S.D. Perry's novelizations of the Resident Evil games. They're a real roller-coaster of quality and the series just abruptly ends after Zero and Code: Veronica because RE4 went off in a radically different direction that Perry wasn't prepared for, but the novelizations of RE1 and RE2 are fun reads and the brilliant thing is they just play the puzzle design of the games entirely straight by painting Umbrella as a bunch of self-obsessed corporate prepubescent snobs playing spy games with each other, which surprisingly makes them seem pretty goddamn dangerous up until the novels start to lose focus and consistency. The books are still available on Kindle, so I recommend them if you're looking for something cheap and easy to read between video projects--at least "The Umbrella Conspiracy" and "City of the Dead," the RE1 and RE2 novelizations.
- Lewis
Thanks! I take notes
I've read all of them and I think the weakest ones were the ones where Perry writes her own story. I would have loved to see how RE4 and RE5 would have been novelized.
The books are still available from me if someone wants to buy the complete collection.
"They're a real roller-coaster of quality "
If the roller-coaster was missing a section of track, maybe. They were terrible, terrible books.
Another novelization that'd be worth checking out is "Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Patriots" written by Project Itoh, especially since it addresses many of the issues that plagued the novels of MGS and MGS2, such as giving a new perspective of an already well-established universe and further developing characters rather than just taking it right off the script with some minor edits. I'm sure even Lewis Medeiros of the BSC would agree that the MGS4 novelization was a vastly superior novel that done justice to a game franchise highly-regarded for it's complex and intricate storytelling! :)
I grew up on those World's of Power novels.
Aw, nostalgia, back when I was too dumb to know what cynicism was.
Now I just want a Rick and Morthy novelisation.
I've only read the FF XI novels, and they were pretty good. Since they created their own group, and just made them interact with the world, it was like seeing a fantasy novel, but in a familiar world.
This is my favorite video you've produced. Some really funny edits and the transitions are clever.
I remember those Worlds of Power books. They would be perfect fodder for some kind of an audiobook version of MST3K. Although, for me, the Ninja Gaiden novelization is definitely a guilty pleasure. How could anyone resist a book dedicated to "the Ninja in every dad?"
I want a really good, well-written action novelization of Bloodborne. There is no real main character as you are just a guy with no name, personality, ideals, beliefs or even a voice. Just a guy called a "hunter" so there should be plenty of imaginative stuff the writer can work for themselves on their own to write a really good story. And there are plenty of stuff in Bloodborne that which can make a really good narrative.
It already exists. It's called the collected works of HP Lovecraft.
I get what your trying to say, but H P Lovecraft writing is difficult to read with paragraphs being way longer then they should be and they contain way too much info that is cramped up in the paragraphs that should have been split apart.
But no seriously I mean a battle-oriented version of a horror story that is influenced by Cthulhu Myths and European folklore like vampires and werewolves in a easy to comprehend. And that should be the Novelization of Bloodborne. THAT would be sweet.
Agent 47 eating at Denny's had me rolling.
Lordy, I have to pity your naivete in thinking literally anything Dietz writes could be anything other than terrible. Mass Effect: Deception and Halo: The Flood are legendary for how awful and untrue to the source material they are. I gotta say I loved hearing about the Metal Gear books though, that stuff was new to me.
+Blitz8083 Dietz is a goddamn hack.
+Blitz8083 Reading Dietz after reading Eric Nylund, it was a nightmare I tell you.
+Blitz8083 Yeah, the moment I saw his name and Bunnyhop say, "he should be pretty good for this stuff", I knew we were in for a good annoyed rant.
+SparkyonPC I don't mean to start an argument or anything (I respect people's opinions) but I found The Flood to be enjoyable. I thought the added side stories regarding the ODSTs and the Covenant were a clever way of utilizing the creative liberties that Dietz was given. True story, it wasn't until I had read half of the book until I realized I had read over a hundred pages without getting bored yet. And strangely I thought it got more thrilling once the Flood showed up. But I'll admit, there were some parts where I thought Dietz could've spared describing the action for the sake of moving the plot along.
The plot of "The Flood" was solid, the actual story was top notch but the writing style of Dietz was tedious, what he wrote was interesting but how he wrote it, didn't really appeal to me.
"in the sting position"
masterful
Thanks TB for showing me this video and this channel.
I would love to see another episode talking about game novels. This was just too fun.
Vermon CaTaffy is actually from the manual for Metal Gear on NES. Whoever wrote the manuals for both Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge decided to have fun and make up their own story with their own characters. The manual for Snake's Revenge also made up another character named Higharolla Kockamamie.
I remember finding a Battlefield 3 book at a Barnes & Nobles once. I flipped to a random page that just turned out to be a description of soldiers loading a mortar, complete with "boom" sound effects.
George finding game clips for this video, "Hitman: Absolution? What's that?"
This is why I love your work.
The Mormon stuff in the Doom book makes some sense. I've studied Mormonism and their culture is devoted to survivalism... the Church itself maintains arsenals, and each member family is expected to have a year's worth of supplies (if possible).
I now want to see a series on you reviewing books on video games on the side. Also, awesome for you using a Rick and Morty clip.
fun fact, my primary school had the chose your own adventure novel from the original metal gear game. I loved the cover and it took about 5 years after I played MGS before I suddenly remembered it and everything connected together
If you didn't like The MGS Novelisation, you should try the MGS 4 one. Just telling it from Otacon's perspective adds such an weird edge to it I enjoyed more than the 6 1080p Blu-Ray Movies called Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
Good to see that I'm not the only MGS fan that didn't like part four.
Abon666 Do people still like part 4? Even Kojima sounded like he thought the book was better than what he did.
I think that version was really great in final part. But I think that this one is boring sometimes, tries to make same experience of MGS4. I know the author, Project itoh is a huge fan of MGS seriese, but I want more unique experience.
And Project itoh is my favorite writer. Did you read the "Genocidal Organ"? It`s more darker and deeper version of MGS4. If you like the MGS4 novelizaiton, you have to read this, too.
Just for clarification: I DID enjoy MGS4, but if I had to either replay(watch) the game(movies) or reread the book, I'd go with the latter.
Thanatos388 Yea actually, I being one of them. It is also my favorite game.
Honestly, "That's a really stupid question, Otacon" Is basically what went through my head when I first heard that line.
What caught my eye is the Mega Man 2 novelization. How did that even happen? I want to read it out of morbid curiosity.
I'm not sure whether this has already been mentioned, but the DOOM/Mormon connection (I hope that's not the subtitle for the next book) is that Sandy Petersen who worked on DOOM was a Mormon. He co-founded Ensemble Studios and gave us the Age of Empires franchise. Kudos to him for that.
Nice video George! It's clear you had a lot of fun writing and filming this video! Btw, I saw a novelization of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag in Whitcoulls. (The NZ equivilant of shops like Barnes and Noble)
Also, wtf is up with that Doom book and mormonism?
I love that you covered the Worlds of Power novels. I had some of those growing up but can't say I remember much of the actual stories.
As a kid being forced to read books I would've loved that mgs book precisely because it describes the game to a T hahaha. I would've looked like I was reading on the outside while totally just going back to playing mgs in my head.
Id love if you'd make a series out of this. It would be a good lighthearted show to balance with your heavy Critical Close ups and reviews. It seems to suit you really well. You like to have a sense of humour and your analytic skills helps show an even greater absurdity of the things you're looking at. Plus no one else is really looking at these books
I would love to hear you talk about more game novelizations. I had no idea most of these even existed.
Least you didn't read the blaster master book. Apparently the animal the kid is looking for switches to like four different animals during the course of the book.
As for book's I've read; I tried the second resident evil book and second gears of war book. RE was pretty much the game in novel form but not AS literal as the MGS book. Gears was surprisingly good. Even brought a character that would be used in the third gears game.
The Resident Evil books were pretty good. I thought the author for those did a good job of adding additional story to what we didn't see with said characters, and events that we weren't aware of.
And even did some side stories with other characters.
This was cool. These books are in the sci-fi section of every bookstore I look through, but I just ignore them. Thanks, George!
I took a film class taught by Raymond Benson a few years ago, hearing him brought up in this context freaked me out. For what it's worth he's a pretty nice dude
I look forward to these every thursday
I'm a grown ass man and this was made for 7 year olds in 1990. has that ever stopped any of us before
Was just having a conversation about several of these books last night and then this popped up on my YT suggestions today.
The first Doom novel was a pretty fun read, and it mirrors the first game really well while taking enough liberties to be a new experience.
I just wanted to leave a comment here to inform you that I really do appreciate the videos that you upload. I have a hard time listening to many other video game youtube accounts, as they (for the most part) remain in the shallow-end of the pool. Not to mention the fact that so many of them remind me of elementary-grade children when it comes to humor, vocabulary, observations and so on.
Thank you for making videos that whet the appetite of this (somewhat) adult gamer.
My first foray into reading video game novelizations was The Force Unleashed II, which I found during a Borders clearance sale. This book (and it’s prequel) toned down some of the crazy feats in the game, and I think this helped the story to fit in better with the Star Wars universe.
Excellent video! Thank You!
Oh my fucking God, dude. That Metal Gear book killed me. It's so hilarious seeing Snake act like such an asshole. I might have to purchase the book for a good laugh later on.
Suprisingly enough, the Runescape novelisations are pretty solid, at least the one that I read, Betrayal at Falador. Got it free from a membership deal, IIRC, but...Yeah, it's been a while since I read it, but it's pretty damn nice. To be fair, it may be because the story of the game is big enough to allow a story set in the universe to be slotted in like that, but yeah. Pretty nice.
I want to hear the bards of Lumbridge recount the great tale of "buying gf."
Just to clarify (because I feel like I need to), the William Deitz Mass Effect novel IS NOT CANON!!!
It takes a while to fully explain why, but basically Deitz wrote the book with little understanding of the Mass Effect universe & it's timelines. This lead to multiple mistakes and errors, upsetting both the fans, and more importantly, Bioware themselves.
From what I understand, and I acknowledge that I might be misinformed, Bioware "requested" a rewrite from the author. However, Deitz's publishers chose to side with the author, and rejected the rewrite "request" (supposedly more of a demand at a certain point).
Thus creating an impasse where this book exists, but is disliked at best by fans of the source material, decanonized by the proprietors of its universe, yet, unlike the ending(s) of Mass Effect 3, left unchangeable by it's creator and publisher.
Basically, ignore it.
This, good sir, was hilarious. 5 out of 5 poisonous stings in sting position.
One of my favorite videos, a follow up on some more of these would be great! Theres a couple battlefield ones, a Brute Force novelization (?!), Driver, Perfect Dark, some weird selections!
the sting is set in sting position, ready to sting the unstung with the full stinging justice of a sting!
I Loved the Doom books when I was a teenager. Read them twice I think. Used to think that there was something wrong with me for it, and so did my friends. Good to hear one of my favorite critics on my side of the fence. Thanks SBH.
I actually like the manga based off LoZ for how it kept to the source material while having a sense of humor. Link felt like he had an actual personality. He would acted goofy and help everyone he met, but when things got serious he would spring into action. I also really liked how they explained the origin of Volgaria, the fire temple boss.
Very unusual video, and I am grateful for you doing the eye-work in reading these for us. I wouldn't torture you by asking you to make this a series, but I would surely be interested in such a thing.
That metal gear stuff was hilarious. Funny and interesting video.
Raymond Benson was also the lead writer on the classic 1992 roleplaying game Ultima VII.
I would love to see more content from you. You are very talented!
The Hellgate: London books kept me entertained over a weekend. Just throwing it out there.
I'm a huge fan of the Halo books, but The Flood really isn't that great, it gave some interesting additions that added a layer of depth to the game for me (such as Master Chief being scared of the Flood, I love that idea). I'd much rather go read all the other books not based on the games, but if a book from a good author were to adapt the other games into novels, I might try them out (e.g. in Halo 4 I want to see how Jul 'Mdama met the Didact and got some control over the Prometheans)
I remember reading the Blaster Master novel and got maybe a quarter a way into the Bionic Commando book. They were just random books to pick up because all the interesting Choose Your Own Adventure books were checked out of the library.
This was hilarious. Thanks for reviewing the books. You should do more.
I was considering to buy the DooM novels, and you justconvinced me. Thanks man
Sandy Petersen is mormon. He worked for id software during the development of doom 1&2 and quake. He's considered to be one of the more influential game designers for id software back in the day. Presumably he was the inspiration for the mormon subplot.
In The Darkness of Shadow Moses was better and it was written in-universe, too
My great grandmother (God bless her, she's still kicking) recently read a Warcraft book, without even realizing it was based off a video game. I have no clue where she even got it from.
Oh my god! I have had DOOM2 Hell on Earth the novel on my desk for YEARS! I found it at the bottom of a flee market bin for 50 cents and just had to pick it up for the pure novelty. And then you come along and randomly pull out the same book, also having only found number 2 as well. Its a total coincidence I am sure, but dame!
you should go over more of these someday. there's plenty more out there!
13:13 F.X. Nine recommends "All Quiet on the Western Front" to kids... The most depressing and distressing war novel around... Oh my God.
I read the novelization of ICO called ICO: Castle in the Mist. It made it clear that it is only "Sort of." a novelization. Split up into 4 chapters, half of it involves completely different settings and characters not from the original game. Both Ico and Yorda's backstory were not described in the game at all and takes up much of the book, and it works pretty well. I wasn't sure if a game like ICO, which was mostly up to one's interpretation of the story, would work well in a book that has to give details to everything, but it stands quite well as its own thing.
this made my day
The assassin, knowing his stark baldness would dissuade any good service, donned a fedora before casually entering the Waffle House.
The server greeted him in a friendly southern accent, "Hiya sir how ya doin'? Just you?"
The food server's latter comment boiled in agent 47's mind, as he thought to himself, "Well of course I'm alone, I'm a cold blooded genetically modified killer clone".
He said to the server, "That's ridiculous! Everyone knows the African Swallow couldn't make the trip to Sicily, I WAS THERE!" To which he immediately spun about-face, pushed the double doors open and stormed out with his arms swinging wildly.
The cook asked the server, "Was there a barcode on that guys head? Weirdo".
Surprisingly good: the Warhammer 40k books, specifically the Dan Abnett ones.
And yes, they are literally 75% combat.
While they r based in the same universe, they r not based off any warhammer 40k video games.
Yami0to0hikari My copy of Firewarrior begs to differ. It was a direct adaptation of the FPS Warhammer game of the same name... and turned Kais into Tau DoomGuy. I'm not joking! He survived a Space Marine bolter to the face, for the first time ever, a bolter fired a dud. And the dud was a chekhov's gun that saved the day!
And yes, it wasn't that great, though it does get credit for me actually liking an Ultra Smurf character, so kudos there.
I also believe, but might be mistaken, that there also exists a series based on the Dawn of War series.
SolinOutlander Please don't read the DoW book. None of the books in this video were as bad as that garbage. It had some of the dumbest shit in the WH40k franchise ever, and it has a lot of dumb shit to begin with.
SolinOutlander Its just bad luck. That book was written by one of the worst 40k writers in history, and considering how many there are, that's quite an achievment. C.S. Goto is a fucking alien.
Like the plot of that book takes place (or rather rewrites but fuck that noise) during the events of Winter Assault and features shit like the Ultramarines being actually Alpha Legion in disguise (fucking wat), Blood Ravens and Gabriel Angelos being there for no fucking reason, an Eldar Gateway being hidden under the titan and 20 FUCKING PAGES of Taldeer being tortured and killed by Necrons in a seriously fucking creepy manner.
He also wrote shit like all Eldar worshipping Slaneesh, Land Raiders that transform into jets, multilasers and other shit that make 40k fans cry. Stephenie Meyer is a writing god compared to that piece of shit.
Oh my god, I have the first book of that DOOM tetralogy sitting on my desk right now. You're not joking, what a trip.
Snake, use the STING missile! Hold it in the sting position and push the weapon button!
HELD HIGH IN THE STING POSITION
My god. This video was brilliant
I read the Blaster Master book front to back in one day when I was in the 7th grade. I actually enjoyed it at that age. I have a profound appreciation for this video since this is a topic that isn't discussed much by gamers themselves.
Shit damn, those scorpions are coming at us with the stings in their sting position!
+markhodges12
What a horrifying sight!
Anyone read that Elder Scrolls book, The Infernal City? I thought it was pretty good, although I read it when I was in, middle school I think, like 5 or 6 years ago. It doesn't directly take from a game, it is just a story in the setting.
In fact I kind of want to write some fiction set in Morrowind and Glorantha, because they're pretty neat settings.
tbf elder scrolls are open world games that already have a whole bunch of serialized books within the games to flesh out the lore and wider world. But I have read them (came with my skyrim preorder back in 2011) and Greogory Keyes is a pretty good fantasy writer.
*****
Yo, Serial Experiments Lain pic?
Jason Fenton Yes
I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoyed reading the original Doom novels; although, from what I can remember, the series went completely off the deep end by the fourth book.
Deus Ex: Icarus Effect is one of the best Game Novels I ever read. Like… I really, really loved it and read it like… 4 times. But it a story on it own, only based in the same world with similar places and organisations.