I'm disgusted at EA and Bioware

Ray Muzyka has the audacity to tell CUSTOMERS that 'they will not respond to *destructive* commentary.'

I'm studying management, and when I told my class that an executive said that negative comment on his product was unacceptable they all burst out laughing.

Chris Priestly, Bioware 'Community Coordinator' has the audacity to shut down a 400 page forum thread criticizing EA and Bioware's complete lack of respect for its user base (as shown by their constant PR nonsense), on the grounds that suggesting they buy reviews from media outlets is ABUSE.

Aside from the fact they have bought advertising space on most major websites (therefore paying for reviews, indirectly or not), it is not an unreasonable speculation considering the current video-game 'journalism' climate.

We, the consumer, are being told by this COMPANY that our negative reaction to their product is abuse, and that our negative reaction to the way they treat their customers is abuse.

EA AND BIOWARE ARE NOT THE VICTIM HERE, WE ARE. They used false advertisement to sucker in fans of a five year franchise into a 'finale' riddled with bugs, where no choices matter, and they taunt us with screen of text saying that they'll happily take more money off us. False advertisement is against the law, and speaking out on it is your right, protected by law.

I'm afraid now to post my legitimate concerns over this title on their website for fear I will be banned from their 'social network' for abuse, when all I want is what I deserve under the laws of business transactions in most countries.

The video-game industry, and the video-game media, are just as accountable as any other industry or media. They have the same responsibilities.

Instead, they take advantage of us. They take advantage of the fact that the video-game medium is seen as an immature joke by the popular media, and too immature in their attitudes to DEFEND THEMSELVES. They milk us for all we're worth, presenting us with false advertisement, trying to manipulate our opinions through their PR spin, bought reviews and reviewers, and selling us broken products, then telling us to shut up and deal when we complain (I'm sure they are also using other PR tricks like whisper marketing, but I guess saying that would be abuse too?).

I'm tired of it. I knew it was just a matter of time, when I heard about EA's acquisition of Bioware. It seems that time has come.

I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I bought into the hype and promise of an epic, golden age, science-fiction, space opera, RPG, trilogy where your choices mattered.
I'm sorry that what was delivered to me was an unfit for purpose, modern action sci-fi, reality tv show in space, 3rd person shooter, railroad to a nonsensical cookie cutter ending.

I'm certainly not sorry for all the 'abuse' you copped for it, or the revenue you lost.

'Art' is not a licence to violate the law, the contract between a customer and a business, or the faith that you built up with no intention of following through.

Mass Effect 3: Hold the Line

Please, make your voice heard about the many and varied issues with the release of Mass Effect 3. Many people have paid for a product that is buggy, unplayable, and with story and game mechanics contrary to the marketing and expectations for the series. Look how sad Captain Kirrahe looks about it...

Hold the line.

This Burning Life

The second novel based on the EVE Online massively-multiplayer cut-throat spaceship and economy simulator, This Burning Life by Hjalti Daníelsson takes the opposite approach to the universe from last years EVE novel, The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzales (Pb $14.95).

This Burning Life starts right at the bottom of the EVE universe’s food chain, with a man named Drem and a girl named Ralea.

Drem is an ordinary guy, living an ordinary life. Well, alright, he lives in a domed colony on a low-orbiting spaceport moon, and is a citizen of a religious fundamentalist faction obsessed with blood. Drem’s relatively ordinary life is cut short by a rampaging Capsuleer, a human who through cybernetic enhancement is able to directly interface his mind with a spaceship, and through cloning is effectively immortal, his consciousness being downloaded to a new clone in the event of his death. Drem survives the attack on his colony, but loses everything. Consumed by a desire for revenge, Drem seeks out the militant wing of his people, the Blood Raiders, and engages in an impossible quest for vengeance, only to be pulled from the claws of oblivion at the last second by the most unlikely of saviors, and given a fresh start. But will the benevolence and good-will of his new benefactors cure Drem of his lust for revenge? Or give him just the tools he needs to accomplish it?

On the other side of the New Eden star cluster, the hedonistic excess of two Gallente mission agents ends in murder. The power of the wealthy and prestigious profession of liaising with Capsuleers, and the guilt and depression of the responsibility for those dead at the ‘hands’ of her clients, drives Ralea to the darker side of society. When things spiral out of control, Ralea’s friend Heci drags her out of both her personal hell, and the entire Gallente Federation. Ralea and Heci travel the cluster, in an effort to both evade detection by Federation forces and to find new meaning in their lives, but it seems everywhere they go they run in to more corruption and hypocrisy, and that they can never quite escape the reach of their home nation. Is there a true purpose out there for Ralea and Heci, or are they chasing ghosts in a universe riddled with conflict and prejudice?

This Burning Life explores the lives and motivations of the little people in EVE Online’s society, detailing the lives of the everyman in both the high security space of the four empires, as well as the lives of those living under the pirate factions that stalk the low security regions of New Eden. The book is an intriguing open window on the realm of the secondary characters, not just in EVE, but in media in general. This is a book about the extras, the stand-ins and the background characters. This is a book about the characters that work hard behind the scenes to give us the worlds in which the ‘main’ characters operate.

To quote Eldon Tyrell “The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly”

Halo: Evolutions

I really enjoyed Halo: Evolutions... but having said that...

The whole book is a huge downer. Everyone gets wasted, betrayed, condemned, or made redundant. This book and the Halo Encyclopedia both paint a picture of the post-Halo 3 universe being just as volatile and conflict ridden in what seems to be a blatant set up for future titles, going so far as to even hint at certain characters involvement and possible plot points.

Don't go reading this looking for happy endings. This isn't 'saving the world by the skin of your teeth' stuff, this is 'sacrificing yourself for little or no gain' stuff.

This isn't to say that it isn't enjoyable, or well written.

But it is an emotional slog the the trenches. In particular the first story, Pariah, about a SPARTAN II recruit called Soren, was very powerful.

The book is held back from greatness, I feel, by neglecting the humour and the tales of victory against the odds that make Halo great.

If I want grim dark I'll read Warhammer 40,000.

Elder Scrolls: The Infernal City

In my preview of this title I talked about my experience playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. As I read The Infernal City, I was stunned by how Greg Keyes managed to capture the feel of the game, and constructed characters based on classic role playing game archetypes, without the book feeling cliche or formulaic. The Infernal City has made me want to go back and give Oblivion another go, if only to get a better picture of the background against which this book is set.

When the infernal city of the title, known to its occupants as Umbriel, threatens the lands of Tamriel and Morrowind with unprecedented levels of death and suffering, and as the major political powers sit on their hands rather than deal with the potential threat, its left to the self-obsessed heir to the imperial throne to find a way to stop the city from consuming the souls of the innocent. Cut off from Imperial aid, the prince must make do with the help of a mage with a chip on his shoulder, an amateur alchemist, and a tribe of the cat like Khajiit, in his quest halt Umbriels advance.

Umbriel is a city of secrets, with a darkly beating heart, and a trail of destruction in its wake. Will the prince overcome his fears and find a way to stop its path of destruction?

Halo: Box Set

Halo: The Fall of Reach / The Flood / First Strike
by Nylund, Eric S. / Dietz, William C.

When Halo launched with the Xbox way back in 2001, it changed the way that gamers thought about FPS (first person shooters). Halo brought to the fore the notion that an action game could have a deeply involving story, instead of being just a series of enemy encounters. In a market oversaturated with no-brainer shoot-em-ups, Halo's epic tale of an alien Covenant, sworn to wipe out humanity, and the discovery of a massive object in space, the eponymous Halo, an object that may just be the path to salvation, staggered players with its scope, and had them demanding more. Thankfully Eric Nylund had already spotted the potential of Halo's story and, with the careful collaboration of the studio behind the game, soon the first of many novels based on the franchise was published.

The Fall of Reach, by Eric S. Nylund, tells the tale of the Spartan II program, a combined physical training, biological, chemical and cybernetic enhancement regime designed to create the ultimate soldiers. The group of recruits, taken at the age of 6 and put through the rigorous and sometimes fatal program are gradually honed into the most elite unit in the United Nations Space Command. But the surviving Spartan IIs are faced by a previously unimaginable threat, an advanced alien race on a religious crusade: to scourge mankind from the face of the galaxy. Nylund really nails the highs and lows of what mankind will do in the face of adversity, not to his enemies, but to himself.

The Flood, by William C. Dietz, closely follows the events of the game Halo, with both Halo and the Flood following on directly from Fall of Reach. Rather than being merely a direct novelisation of Halo, The Flood covers many of the events of the game from the point of view of secondary characters and events. While the game portrays the hero, John 117, a graduate of the Spartan II program, as a one man army singlehandedly saving humanity from ruthless alien aggression, Dietz uses his real military experience to bring to life the struggles of the other survivors who have crashed on the alien construct known as Halo. Dietz brings real pathos to the men and women fighting an impossible battle against terrible odds in a situation most of us couldn't truly comprehend: trying to save our entire species from extinction. With the true purpose of the Halo revealed, and an ancient horror unleashed, the clock is ticking for humankind.

First Strike, by Eric S. Nylund, follows the two preceding books with two concurrent plot arcs. One following the survivors of the Battle of Reach, as they descend deep into a classified stronghold to escape the scouring plasma of the victorious alien fleet. The other arc follows the few survivors of the Pillar of Autumn, the ship that escaped Reach only to crash land on the Halo. When its discovered that the Covenant have discovered the location of Earth, its up to the few survivors to band together to buy humanity time to prepare for one last stand, by warning Earth, and by taking the fight to the enemy. An engaging story that bridges the gap between Halo and Halo 2, First Strike was also the first book in the series to make it onto the New York Times bestsellers list.

These three books are available as a box set of three, or individually. They are a must have for any fan of the Halo series, and I think that anyone who marches to the snare drum of military sci-fi should have a look too.

Horus Heresy

For more than 30,000 years, the Emperor has protected us. As humankind spread its way across the galaxy, always did the Emperor watch over us.

But now the Emperor has sequestered himself away in the depths of his vast fortress capital on Terra, and the Primarchs are left to their own devices. So when the most charismatic of all the Primarchs, and the Emperors chosen, the great Warmaster Horus succumbs to the temptation of the vile creatures of the warp lines must be drawn.

Horus Heresy: Collected Visions is both a synopsis of the overall course of the Heresy, as well as a fantastic artbook, featuring the collected Heresy artwork of both the Games Workshop studio artists and the Horus Heresy CCG. It also includes a short story that ties into the Horus Heresy novel Mechanicum, explaining the origins of some of the characters.

The Horus Heresy series of novels chronicles the fall of a civilisation on the doorstep of ruling the galaxy from its pinnacle of achievement to a new dark age of constant war. The series covers the great fall of the Imperium of Man through the eyes of the good and the bad, everyone from the mightiest space marine primarchs to the lowliest servitors. The depiction of all that the modern era of the 41st Millennium has lost really gives one an insight into the violence now plaguing the galaxy.

The tales told in this series are many and varied, ranging from tales of heroic sacrifice to the depths of hedonistic depravity. Characters and sub-plots weave their way in and around the main story arc, and despite the major outcomes being known, it is the fates of the hundreds of minor characters that make this a compelling series.

I happily give this series my seal of approval, and I would (and do) recommend it to anyone, not just Warhammer 40000 players.

Be on the look out for the next two novels, A Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns, which detail the sacking of the Thousand Sons homeworld of Prospero by the Space Wolves from both sides of the conflict. These books are due March/April next year.

As a special treat, I plan to have my own Thousand Sons miniatures painted up by then, and will be posting pictures of them for my review!

EVE: The Empyrean Age

I was in my ship when it happened. Reading the news feeds, I set my autopilot for the Malkalen System. I saw the damage wrought by the Gallente Nyx class mothership after it rammed the Caldari Ishukone Corporation station. Plumes of flame projected out into space from its rent decks. Hundreds of fellow pilots were also in the system, bearing witness to the devastation caused by just one capsuleer.

This event, a turning point in the history of EVE online, was but a minor part of the massive upheaval that swept the galaxy of New Eden. Seemingly unrelated events rocked the known universe, as old rivalries reignited, and old wounds reopened.

EVE: The Empyrean Age, chronicles the chain of events that shook the galaxy to its foundations, and created a new environment of capsuleer led warfare between New Eden's major power blocs.

The sweeping narrative is guided by the tales of individuals, who for varying reasons find themselves caught in the storm of events, and the decisions they must make when faced by the shadowy forces driving the galaxy to war, and finally questioning everything that is known about mankinds place in New Eden.

Empyrean Age is a fantastic novel, throwing you deep into the lore of an incredible universe, continuing the EVE Online tradition of fantastic worldbuilding see here for EVE's online fiction. A great read, whether for an EVE Online pro-capsuleer, or anyone who needs a new galaxy to explore.