June Book : ( and RPGs
I just have not been in a reading mood lately. Now that I'm commuting again and listening to audio books maybe that will get me back into reading.
Moneyball [audio book]
by Michael Lewis
Kind of unbelievably, I had never read this book. And since I’m commuting again and back into audio books I thought this would be a perfect one to start with. I knew the basic story of course, but it was very interesting and one of the best sports books I’ve ever read. I even have a teeny tiny bit of respect for sabremetrics now!
Moneyball is the story of the early 2000s Oakland As and how they rose to baseball prominence via a batter understanding of statistics and what actually helps a baseball team win games and what doesn’t. It follows the general manager, Billy Beane, from his time as a high school superstar through his eventual pro bust and onto his time with the As. The book shows all the workings of one of their drafts, talks through some trades the team made, and really shows the inner workings of the club. Great book that I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in sports and especially baseball. 4.5/5
Kingdoms of Amalur
PS3
This was a pretty standard open-world Western-style RPG. The closest comparison would be Dragon Age, although here you only have one character instead of a whole party. The only slight innovation it added was a pretty cool combat feature where after you built up so much energy you could take out an opponent (very violently) and get a massive XP bonus depending on how many other foes you had already taken out in that combat. The story was actually pretty interesting too, especially at the beginning before it devolved into the standard “dark god is arising and must be stopped” stuff. It wasn’t a very innovative game, but it was extremely polished and well-made. The UI was perfect, and there were a ton of little details that just made the game more fun and easy (easy as in not a hassle, not easy as in gameplay), and it was just such a well-crafted game that it was really a joy to play. That was the first RPG I’d really gotten to sink my teeth into in a while, and I took full advantage, getting pretty firmly addicted. It’s right on that 3.5-4 border, but I’ll be generous and give it the higher score. 4/5
Crimson Shroud
3DS
My first 3DS RPG was a bit of a disappointment. Its big draw was supposed to be that it incorporated dice and die rolling like a tabletop RPG. You roll the dice to determine success or failure and you earn bonus dice that you can add to rolls whenever you want to. But the dice thing was kind of hokey; you didn’t roll at all when you attacked and there were only a few times you used the dice. The bonus dice were more of a nuisance than anything because you could only accumulate about 10, so you were constantly trying to use them, and they rarely made much of a difference in the roll. The rest of the game was just OK. Visuals were very nice, story was interesting, but there was very little in the way of customization, loot, skills, etc. And it was very short; I completed it in about 5 hours, and that was with probably an hour of forced grinding (there’s a drop you have to get to advance the game, and it took me an hour to get it to drop). It’s a game that has some neat ideas that weren’t quite executed well enough and could really benefit from a more polished, deeper sequel. 3/5
Fire Emblem: Awakening
3DS
Ah, Fire Emblem. One of my all-time favorite series, and one of two reasons (Etrian Odyssey 4, which I haven’t picked up yet, is the other) I bought a 3DS. FE has always been pretty niche, but for some reason this game kind of broke into the mainstream and was very popular, and I’d heard nothing but good things about it so I was very eager to play it. And it’s a good thing this game was popular: I read an article that said this was going to be the last game in the series due to poor sales but because Awakening did so well they’re going to make another.
And this one did not disappoint. The FE games are all pretty similar, just with some various tweaks here and there. Awakening has some very nice visual upgrades, really taking advantage of the 3DS platform. The support system, a staple of the series, is improved and easier to manage, and the characters and story are as good as any entry in the series. They made some concessions to the mainstream crowd, adding the ability to grind and also giving a non-permadeath option; normally if a character in FE dies they’re gone forever, no revival possible. Here you can either play in that “classic” mode or opt for “casual” mode where people come back at the end of a battle if they die. I can’t imagine playing FE without permadeath, so I opted for classic mode. I love every Fire Emblem game I’ve ever played, and this one was no exception. 5/5
Books for June: 1
Books for 2013: 17
RPGs for June: 3
Rpgs for 2013: 10
Moneyball [audio book]
by Michael Lewis
Kind of unbelievably, I had never read this book. And since I’m commuting again and back into audio books I thought this would be a perfect one to start with. I knew the basic story of course, but it was very interesting and one of the best sports books I’ve ever read. I even have a teeny tiny bit of respect for sabremetrics now!
Moneyball is the story of the early 2000s Oakland As and how they rose to baseball prominence via a batter understanding of statistics and what actually helps a baseball team win games and what doesn’t. It follows the general manager, Billy Beane, from his time as a high school superstar through his eventual pro bust and onto his time with the As. The book shows all the workings of one of their drafts, talks through some trades the team made, and really shows the inner workings of the club. Great book that I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in sports and especially baseball. 4.5/5
Kingdoms of Amalur
PS3
This was a pretty standard open-world Western-style RPG. The closest comparison would be Dragon Age, although here you only have one character instead of a whole party. The only slight innovation it added was a pretty cool combat feature where after you built up so much energy you could take out an opponent (very violently) and get a massive XP bonus depending on how many other foes you had already taken out in that combat. The story was actually pretty interesting too, especially at the beginning before it devolved into the standard “dark god is arising and must be stopped” stuff. It wasn’t a very innovative game, but it was extremely polished and well-made. The UI was perfect, and there were a ton of little details that just made the game more fun and easy (easy as in not a hassle, not easy as in gameplay), and it was just such a well-crafted game that it was really a joy to play. That was the first RPG I’d really gotten to sink my teeth into in a while, and I took full advantage, getting pretty firmly addicted. It’s right on that 3.5-4 border, but I’ll be generous and give it the higher score. 4/5
Crimson Shroud
3DS
My first 3DS RPG was a bit of a disappointment. Its big draw was supposed to be that it incorporated dice and die rolling like a tabletop RPG. You roll the dice to determine success or failure and you earn bonus dice that you can add to rolls whenever you want to. But the dice thing was kind of hokey; you didn’t roll at all when you attacked and there were only a few times you used the dice. The bonus dice were more of a nuisance than anything because you could only accumulate about 10, so you were constantly trying to use them, and they rarely made much of a difference in the roll. The rest of the game was just OK. Visuals were very nice, story was interesting, but there was very little in the way of customization, loot, skills, etc. And it was very short; I completed it in about 5 hours, and that was with probably an hour of forced grinding (there’s a drop you have to get to advance the game, and it took me an hour to get it to drop). It’s a game that has some neat ideas that weren’t quite executed well enough and could really benefit from a more polished, deeper sequel. 3/5
Fire Emblem: Awakening
3DS
Ah, Fire Emblem. One of my all-time favorite series, and one of two reasons (Etrian Odyssey 4, which I haven’t picked up yet, is the other) I bought a 3DS. FE has always been pretty niche, but for some reason this game kind of broke into the mainstream and was very popular, and I’d heard nothing but good things about it so I was very eager to play it. And it’s a good thing this game was popular: I read an article that said this was going to be the last game in the series due to poor sales but because Awakening did so well they’re going to make another.
And this one did not disappoint. The FE games are all pretty similar, just with some various tweaks here and there. Awakening has some very nice visual upgrades, really taking advantage of the 3DS platform. The support system, a staple of the series, is improved and easier to manage, and the characters and story are as good as any entry in the series. They made some concessions to the mainstream crowd, adding the ability to grind and also giving a non-permadeath option; normally if a character in FE dies they’re gone forever, no revival possible. Here you can either play in that “classic” mode or opt for “casual” mode where people come back at the end of a battle if they die. I can’t imagine playing FE without permadeath, so I opted for classic mode. I love every Fire Emblem game I’ve ever played, and this one was no exception. 5/5
Books for June: 1
Books for 2013: 17
RPGs for June: 3
Rpgs for 2013: 10