Geek Read: Games Of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games

Title: Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Authors: Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter

Published:  08/12/2009

Page Count: 320 pages

 

Final Verdict: 8/10

I drew the header for this review almost as soon as I started reading it... a few months ago. I instantly thought a plain grey suit and a groomed look was perfect, and I immediately associated this book to an annual business meeting. So... ahem. *Straightens out jacket*

This book is a little bit of a tease. It's a little harmless-looking paperback book. It fits in my purse. I got through 2 books of that size in a DAY. Then why did it take me a couple MONTHS to get through it? A look at the publisher will give an important hint.. The University of Minnesota Press. The book just rings of doctoral essay.

The first hint of that is that it holds up an incredibly high standard in language language level. I blame many of my delays due to the fact that I couldn't read this book adequately without my laptop within inches of me to be able to Google these references and define these words that I've never even heard of every few moments. I appreciate this as I'm always looking to expand my vocabulary and as I wouldn't want to compromise the integrity of the book by having it dumbed down to my level but it's something that will play a certain role in selling this book to a more casual reader. 

I expected this book to talk about numbers and statistics and very hum-drum facts and points about the economic power of the video game industry. Boy, was I wrong. Global capitalism isn't just about income and moulah and recessions. The book goes into many sociological discussions as well as dealing with global history lessons and psychological questions. It explores a ton of different fields of interest and there's a great variety of facts that all finds way to relate with and stay pertinent with the subject of video games' impact on global capitalism. The entire book had me fascinated with the facts that were being presented and the unusual perspective it took on the video game industry. It's a refreshing outsider look, differing from the die-hard fan rants and the cynical critic, this is a fresh look at a fresh angle, which brings me to my next point.

I appreciated the unbiased positions the authors take up. This book is a wonderful reference as it doesn't preach. It presents the facts, both positive and negative, about all that there is to know about the role games play in the world's economy and dynamic. Your own opinions can be formed after you've taken in the massive amount of information presented or just have your curiosity peaked to search more in depth in one particular branch. Regardless, the information is really well presented, properly worded, and elegantly delivered. I can't guarantee I understood everything, I did have to re-read sections and educate myself a little bit with some research as I have no business or economics background which made some of the terminology used a little overwhelming and forced me to dig deeper, which in turn again helped me discover a whole new world of information.

ALTHOUGH. There's one small (really stupid!) issue that really drove me up the wall. I don't actually know if that's the proper essay format, or whatever you consider what this book is, but damnn. This essay quotes a LOT of references which makes it really feel formal and there's a certain strength about having facts and references backing up your writing, but the sheer amount of reference information in parentheses directly following the sentence it was used for GREATLY impairs the flow of the book. It gets hard to follow a trait of thought when it's constantly interrupted with potentially meaningless names or numbers (my brain, p.150-151, 26/04/2012) It might sound like a stupid complaint but it can really make it hard to grasp the meaning of a paragraph (myself, 1, 2, 3, 69) when it's all split sentence by sentence (according to my mind, p.11) or even every few words. (2012, just now) Know what I mean? It gets hard to understand with the mix of a higher grade of language and the constant interruptions by the resource's information. To make it all worse, there's about 20 pages of footnotes and definitions that are incredibly hard to directly link it's specific section in the book, even with all the little symbols and notes. I guess I need a university student or prof to tell me my feelings towards this format are simply misguided or immature, but I did not find it very user friendly.

Overall, really, it took me ages to read. It was hard. It was like studying, but I still pushed through it because of the sheer fascination I had with everything it presented me. It really covered all the bases it promised to cover. It was very thorough, professional and taught me more then one new lesson. It expanded my universe of gaming knowledge to a whole new level, and I'm really grateful for that. I give it 8 head shots out of 10 as it's complexity is at the same time it's greatest aspect and it's biggest downfall.

Geek Read: Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories

Title: Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories
Publisher:  Dark Horse Books

Authors:  Multiple

Published:  29/11/2011

Page Count: 205 pages

Final Verdict: 9/10

OKAY SO, it's been a little wild. I like pretending that work is what has gotten in the way and that I'm just so darn busy and important that I don't have time to keep up my blog for my whole 4 followers. But really...

 

Work has been busy and all, but I've had my share of lazy days. The other book I am reading for review is taking wayyyyyy too long to get through (doesn't help that I left it on an aircraft so I had to wait until someone turned it in) and eventually lost motivation. But today, during my most lazy of PJ days I picked up this gem that my dad got me as a going-away gift which I was saving for just this kind of day. So after breezing through it... I bring you, my opinion! Not that you care.

So I have to hand it to Dark Horse for their prints: The ones I own are all large, colorful prints on heavy stock paper and printed hardcovers. This is something I value in a book that will sit in my collections. I hate books that disintegrate in my hands during a normal read through, or that have bible-thin pages that take me 3 minutes to turn in fear of tearing it off. Okay: Maybe I'm a little obsessive, but all I really wanted to point out is that it's a sturdy bugger that looks great on a shelf, especially beside it's own kind. She's a beaut'.

Before going further I'd also like to point out that on sites such as Chapters.ca and Amazon.com, the book title is followed by Volume 1, which leads to believe they may create more of these, which would be great.

Onto the main subject!

Content! The book is split into 3 stories which revolve around 3 of Valve's best sellers: Left4Dead, Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2. I'm a little surprised they did not bring in Half Life or start with Portal 1 but that's not really important. I'll be quite frank and admit these aren't games I played heavily as they had a special spotlight on multiplayer play, which is not something that I'm very much into, yet I've played them all to some extent and am comfortable within their stories/worlds.

The main story, The Sacrifice, is the story behind Left4Dead's main cast and takes up about half of the book's 205 pages. It takes a glimpse into the backstories of the crew while showing their present situation. There's a huge emphasis on the relationships between the characters and how they came to develop a certain way. The story is well balanced in storytelling and action, as well as emotional yet exciting. There's plenty to look at on every page and the dialog can be long but stays simple as it's all it needs to be. It follows a somewhat typical zombie apocalypse story arc, there's nothing excessively original about it, but I don't think that was the point. You get to know the characters that you didn't expect could be so profound when you where shotgunning witches in Left4Dead, and it feels good.

The second story strums a completely different cord. The Team Fortress 2 story, War!, is as silly as the game itself. The artwork is simple and bright and reflects it's source material perfectly. It does the same sort of backstory-filling that The Sacrifice does, but in a total other direction. The story really just shows to what extremes the characters are caricatured, and the pointlessness of the endless Red team vs Blue team war (bringing to mind the satirical Halo machinima, Red vs Blue). It's sometimes interrupted by old-style comics of Saxton Hale and his manly adventures, wrestling sharks and setting bears on fire, which are guaranteed to make you laugh if the main story didn't (which if it didn't, guarantees you have no soul).

So while The Sacrifice will make you want to cry and War! will make you pee your pants, Lab Rat will leave you completely wtfed. Easily the most artsy of the three, Lab Rat (a Portal 2 comic) is much more abstract, diving back and forth into reality, madness, present and future, so it's not the easiest comic to follow. It does, however, also have an art style that reflects the madness in a very sketchy, contrasting way. The story is very short, and doesn't take me anywhere emotionally, though I did enjoy it because of it's frantic pace, and really I like anything about insanity.

Overall good purchase, though it is a pricey one, at least for Canadians ranging around 31.99$ for a book that takes about an hour to read, or two to enjoy slowly. My poor collector heart (and wallet) will unfortunately never let that stop me from bringing this gem into my collection. It's a really enjoyable graphic novel for those who enjoy graphic novels in general, but even better for fans of the game that like having a little more then the pew pews the games provide. I'll give this 9/10 crazy turrets for being a well rounded and well constructed book full of tears, laughs, and I don't know whats.

 

Music to my Ears: The Greatest Video Game Music

 Album Title: The Greatest Video Game Music
Composer/Band/Performers: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Released: 07/11/2011

Final Verdict: 9.3/10

This is like music to my earholes.

Internet points if you can figure out who I'm quoting.

But this. Really.

Look, music in a game is something that stays with you forever, sometimes subconsciously, sometimes not. Sometimes it'll come up while you're on the bus, and you'll start humming, and then your day feels a little more epic because you have a theme song going.

BUT THIS.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra really did an outstanding job with the creation of this album, The Greatest Video Game Music though maybe not so much on the title. Points for originality there guys, it really means a lot. (Though I GUESS it does convey what the album offers in a pretty straightforward way.)

The song list is as follows:

1. Advent Rising: Muse
2. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: Theme
3. Angry Birds: Main Theme
4. Final Fantasy VIII: Liberi Fatali
5. Super Mario Bros: Theme
6. Uncharted - Drake's Fortune: Nate's Theme
7. Grand Theft Auto IV: Soviet Connection
8. World of Warcraft: Seasons of War
9.  Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty Theme
10. Tetris Theme (Korobeiniki)
11. Battlefield 2: Theme
12. Call of Duty Modern Warfare: Main Menu Theme
13. Mass Effect: Suicide Mission
14. Splinter Cell: Conviction
15. Final Fantasy: Main Theme
16. Bioshock: The Ocean On His Shoulders
17. Halo 3: One Final Effort
18. Fallout 3: Theme
19. Super Mario Galaxy

I know what you're thinking. Or at least I hope I know what you're thinking, and it better be...

 

I know right? Actually, let me tackle a few of these points which aren't ALL as glorious as I've been putting them out to be. This album isn't flawless. Just nearly.  It titled itself The Greatest Video Game Music, but even that can be dissected. Is it supposed to mean the greatest video game music performance? Or the greatest music from games? Or the music from the greatest games? But really this is about a CD so I don't know why I'm so stuck on the title.

As for the playlist. I enjoyed that they didn't stick exclusively to the classics, but incorporated some underloved game music along with the classics, even giving odd and interesting swings to unexpected additions. Like Angry Birds.

All of you get this straight. I HATE Angry Birds. I get it, it's a nifty game, the physics are great, it's addictive and simple and fun. Why do I hate it? Because it's being crammed down my throat at every turn! I've seen Angry Bird shirts, plush, toys, board games, keychains, mouse pads.... It's just. A little. Meaningless. App! It's nothing compared to the modern works of art being released on our current generation of consoles, but for some reason it overshadows all of them! HOWEVER. I have to say how pleased I am with the orchestral production of the theme. It's fun, and simple and iconic enough to bring those frustrated fowls to mind. At the same time it helps lighten the mood from the often darker, more 'epic' themes making up the rest of the album.

Other then that I really don't have many complaints. I was neither surprised nor overly thrilled at seeing the Super Mario Bros, Tetris and Zelda Themes that seem to haunt EVERY SINGLE video game music compilation of any sort, but it's always a comforting sound to hear, and usually opens up for the flow of memories, especially with such beautiful interpretations.

There is also two Call of Duty Modern Warfare pieces (because it's clearly impossible to updo CoD in artistic performance, amirite?) and a Battlefield piece, which makes for an awful lot of war-type epic music. Same goes for Final Fantasy. The variety may have been upped a tiny bit by substituting some of the clones for very different titles. Like something from Street Fighter, or Metroid might have been welcomed. But I digress. We can't all share the same taste in games and there's always bound to be someone unhappy with the outcome.

One last little tick I have is the Bioshock song. For those who don't know Bioshock is my bible when it comes to games. I compare everything to it, I use it as an example of a wonderfully interpreted game, it's my beloved #1. Although my feelings for Bioshock are honest and pure, the song they picked just falls short. It's just not as impressive as the rest. It kind of just sneaks in there unnoticed. This could have been so grand, but it just... missed.

This album brings the cheerful bird slinging in with the soviet gangsters, it makes you want to run and gun as much as skulk around in the dark nooks, stalking your enemies. It makes you want to be a part of a grand adventure, it makes you want to go galloping in the breeze... It'll give you chills and take you away to wonderful and exciting lands. So you might not want to listen to it on the bus, because when I did people looked at me like I was crazy. I was just pretend sword-fighting. Only a little.

I am going to give this 9.3 gothic chants out of 10 because as much as I can bitch about Call of Duty getting a spotlight they really did a bang up job interpreting every single piece on that album and it really does make you feel all sorts of things. Except Bioshock, because it was bad.

Unboxing Day: Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V Collector's Edition

Contents of: Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V Special Edition

Final Verdict: 8.5/10

Keep it in your pants kids- I'm going to review the contents of the special edition version of the game, not your precious little baby itself. Not yet. That will come later. (You could at least notice I changed my hair color. Geeeeez.)


But it's been done, Aerie, Skyrim is practically old news.

Leave me alone and let's get on with this!

I came to own Skyrim's Collectors Edition pretty late because of 3 very good reasons. 1. I was broke. 2. I refused to get anything but the Collector's Edition and it's expensive and 3. A friend of mine had to go and buy it for me so I'd shut up about it.

If there is something I am more then a gamer, it's a collector, and I love when publishers make the little extra effort to supply their fans with something cool to come with their long-awaited games. Though; I understand the lot of you who see this as milking the franchise for as much cash as possible, but truth is, if you're not into it, don't buy it, it's as simple as that. The fun of collector's editions are that it's optional, so if you don't like it, then shut up and let me sink my own money into them.

This came as a going-away/Valentine's Day/etc gift from said friend, so it was unexpected and treasured beyond my own purchases of course, but that doesn't mean I can't put the gushy emotional crap aside and get into this nitty-gritty.

First of all, the box it came in is a little overwhelming. For your convenience, I even stole this picture from Google to help you understand:

The size is impressive, but the box itself isn't a "plus" to the loot. It's really just packaging, unlike the Bioshock 2 Collector's edition box which was meant for display, but I digress; this thing is far too big to fit on any of my damn shelves anyways.

Upon opening, the first thing you pull out is the art book. I have a LARGE collection of video game art books, from special edition exclusives or just store-bought. I really love seeing the evolution of concepts and the gallery of art work, and the creative integrity put into all these games. I have to admit, I am -really- impressed with Skyrim's included art book. The size of it, the included works, make it all a worthy candidate for my favorite art book to date, but what truly pushes it to the top is it's magnificent leather cover. My American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns art book is of comparable size/style/etc and retailed for about 40$ at Chapter's, which would probably price this book somewhere in the 50$ range, which we'll discuss more of at the end of this review.

Now comes the game. It comes in a cardboard style box with 2 discs and a sleeve which holds a DVD and a texture-paper printed map. The peak of my annoyance has to be the cardboard box. While it does fit aesthetically with the rest of the merch, it's cardboard. It's weak. For anyone with any intention of boxing/unboxing this game a gazillion times while going through a 100-hour playthroughs more then once KNOWS that thing doesn't stand a chance of remaining mint. Why not a steelbook or a neat leather-bound case to match the art book? It was certainly possible to come up with a better idea, and the final outcome feels cheap. However, I must move on. The DVD is something that any geek interested in the production or games would enjoy watching, but it was far from being what attracted me to the collector's edition. DVDs and movies and such always end up being ripped and thrown online for everyone to download for free, so it's not something I'd truly feel I'd missed out on.

But the dragon.
Oh baby.

It's big- a lot bigger then I had originally expected, even with the ridiculous box size. It makes a really great piece to display and I'm proud to have it sit in my collection. The dragon felt like the best choice for a sculpt, since your dovahkiin will always look different from your buddy's, it would have kind of made a "Well, that's really cool, but it's not really me." kind of reaction. The dragon is made of a hollow plastic material, which I know surprised a few collectors. From the advertisement images it looked solid, heavy, like a typical porcelain-type material that the dragon sculptures fantasy/medieval stores sell. Your first impression might be "cheap" but the fact is, it looks great, displays beautifully, and that's truly all you need out of a sculpt. Think of the original Big Daddy sculps that came with the original Bioshock's special edition. They were all heavy, porcelain-like sculptures, and they nearly all shattered at distribution. This dragon is sturdy, and could probably survive a fall (though I beg you not to try). The best comparison I can think of is of Halo: Reach Legendary Edition's Noble Team sculpture. The same material, the same style. Would actually make a great perch for this dragon!

The collector's edition originally retailed for approximately 149.99$ upon release. Since I got it some time later, it was picked up at Toys R Us for about 109.99$. This is where the price breakdown happens and you can decide whether it was worth it in your books or not. At 149.99$ you paid 60$ for the game, which kicks it down to 90$. Out of 90$ I say you subtract anywhere from 40-50$ for the art book's value. So that would leave about 45$ for the dragon, the DVD and the map. At 110$ the break down remains the same, but that leaves 5$ for the dragon and co.

The less pricey the best in any and all cases, but the manner in which you price your collectables is left to your discretion. I love having something to sit on my bookshelf, but you might think it collects dust. Overall, I think Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V's Collector's Edition is of good value and good quality, even more so now then upon release, and I bestow upon it 8.5 arrows to the knees out of 10.

Game Buzz: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

Title: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary 
Studio: 343 Industries 
Released:  15/11/2011

Final Verdict: 5/10 

I do realize this is Halo post after Halo post, but I finally had the opportunity to play through Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (which will be called Halo Anniversary the rest of this article) and I thought I might as well get it over with before it becomes too outdated like most of my review material.

Halo: Combat Evolved was an instant cult classic the minute it was released for the original Xbox, which is fairly amazing considering Bungie's original rollercoaster ride of interest/disinterest from publishers during development. The original Halo did a lot for gaming; it brought the first-person shooter genre to light in console gaming, it popularized LAN parties, it... well, I've plenty of source material I could recommend if you wanted your share of Xbox/Halo history. Or you could just see the amount of novels, movies, and more being released to try to satisfy fans and understand that it's a pretty big deal. Point is, Halo was a big deal to a lot of people. It's a beloved classic.

Many fans had their concerns of what this new studio would do to their baby. Bungie had been the one forging the famous series since the beginning, and the only ones to ever try their hands in the Haloverse has been Microsoft Game Studios which somewhat butchered the series' almost flawless reputation with an atrocity called Halo Wars. This being said, fans were skeptical about another studio's ability to take over the immense job of giving their precious game a makeover.

I played the original Halo through and through probably more often then I have replayed any other game. It was easy to love and lose yourself in. It was simple, yet challenging. It was really quite something for it's time.

For it's time.

Not anymore.

I'm not denying that there is pleasure to be had in reminiscing. I'm not saying I don't feel like patting myself on the back when I get an achievement. I'm also not gonna argue that it's nice having pretty graphic instead of rough-cut polygons.

BUT.

That's all the rehash really is. Achievements and HD visuals. I'm not going to pretend I dug into every crack of the game to try to identify the differences, but that's the only thing that really jumped out at me. Sure, the new terminal animations are neat and all, but they aren't enough to make this worth it. I can appreciate that they lowered the price tag from the usual 60$ for a new game to 40$, but this isn't a significant enough drop for me. Why not just replay the original if you really wanted to reminisce? Or why not bring something more to the table then just new graphics? Why not bundle it with a rebooted Halo 2 while you're at it and make the entire trilogy on the Xbox 360?

It feels like 343 was put in a bad position. If they had modified too much, fans would be upset that it's not loyal to the original, don't change enough and fans are upset that you're milking them for money. Halo Anniversary is far from being a bad game, but it's not achieving anything new. The HD doesn't even feel that HD. It just... falls short.

Maybe I'm just a grouchy fan. Maybe I'm too old school. I don't know, but I can't really give Halo Anniversary a decent score considering it didn't really bring anything new to the table. It'll have to settle with 5 frags out of 10. I love Halo, but there's only so much you can squeeze out of a cash cow before it comes out sour.

Geek Read: Halo and Philosophy: Intellect Evolved

Title: Halo and Philosophy: Intellect Evolved
Publisher:  Popular Culture and Philosophy

Authors: There's a lot.
Published:  07/06/2011

Page Count: 210 pages

Final Verdict 6.5/10

Let me point out a few things first before I set out on my epic quest of knowledge. The publishers, Popular Culture and Philosophy, create these series of books (with all equally terrible puns for titles) finding philosophy in everything from sports to celebrities to god forsaken Twilight novels. I had gifted my dad the Seinfeld and Philosophy book for his birthday (him and I both being big Seinfeld fans) a few years ago, and completely forgot about it. When I came home toting my new Halo and Philosophy, he ran upstairs into his room and snatched his copy of Seinfeld and Philosophy, opens it about halfway where his bookmark was and tells me "Honey, it took me months to get to this point in a 200-page book until my mind was so blown I had to stop." My father being an incredibly intelligent man with a Masters degree in Mathematics and 30 years of teaching experience had difficulty grasping the subject matter in his book, and I, a n00b, was going to attempt to absorb the knowledge that it was offering?

Challenge Accepted.

 The book starts with a little briefing explaining how these books work and the fact that there are multiple authors involved and the chapters are going to be defined by difficulty level, quite literally, appropriately named Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. I see what you did there, you witty philosophers, you. This seems like an easy enough system to explain, I mean, any kind of gamer is used to the concept by now. Regardless, this seemed incredibly hard to grasp because of the level of language used and the expressions applied. I understood right then and there it was time to polish my ol' pens and get ready to jot notes down like back in high school. I can tell you now that it's all over that my notebook has 10 filled pages of words, people, events or expressions I had to research to get the full idea of the book. I did so thank the heavens for dictionary.com and wikipedia.org this past week.

But let's get on with it. The first words of warning I will give is that this is not a leisure read for anyone not currently studying philosophy. There are many highly complex concepts that are being thrown at you, and in most cases, in less then user-friendly wording. This book expects you to have a prior knowledge of philosophy and a good understanding of it at that, or research and a second read-through will most likely be necessary. Though philosophical discussions and theories have often intrigued me in the past and peeked my interest, I can't say I went in there with a good understanding of philosophy's history or standards.

This isn't where the brain punishment ends. You must have an open mind to accept the theories and ideas thrown at you. Sometimes it feels far-fetched, stretched, and sometimes you might not see the relation at all, but that's the beauty of it; you don't have to accept anything, it's made simply to make you think. Although this brings me to something I hadn't quite expected. I had never tackled a full blown book about philosophy and I was a little shocked at the sometimes abruptly-ending chapters, though it makes perfect sense as conclusions can't really be drawn. This forced me to pace myself; Read. Stop. Think. Read on. Rather then marathon read, as I would jump from subject to subject and go "wait, what?".

Though this book brought forth some truly interesting concepts in the world of deep-thought-meets-video-games, some authors did it better then others. Only a few chapters are truly balanced in speaking of the theory and the relation to the game. Some others feel like they are either just speaking of Halo, or just of philosophy rather then how they are involved with each other.

The last bit I'll discuss is the improper use of the "difficulty level" chapters. One of the first essays goes into hardcore philosophical history and theories that I felt weren't introduced properly enough for the average reader to follow along and required from me a fair bit of research to try and keep up, whereas towards the end, in the Heroic and Legendary chapters, the language level was much closer to a college student's and sometimes talked very little of the philosophical contents of their essay and more about how the guns go bang. It felt like a neat idea to be able to follow a learning curve throughout the book but the concept didn't really work out in the end.

Overall, some parts were mind-blowing, others lackluster, and some even managed to tug a little on my heartstrings with nostalgia while others where utterly frustrating and quite possibly made my brain bleed. The book had potential, but due to it's incredibly limited target audience, the inconsistent feel of the quality of the essays and language level, and the botched difficulty scale, this book will have to settle on 6.5 pew pews out of 10 for it's shortcomings.

Geek Read: All Your Base Are Belong To Us: How Fifty Years of Video Games Conquered Pop Culture

Title: All Your Base Are Belong To Us: How Fifty Years Of Video Games Conquered Pop Culture
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Author: Harold Goldberg
Published: 05/04/2011
Page Count: 352 pages

Final Verdict 9/10~

So I was hoping this book to be a winner, something I could enjoy so that I may save all the excessive swearing for at least my second post. My expectations for a book that names itself after one of gaming's most popular inside-jokes were pretty high, and yet I was facing a flimsy paperback novel unadorned with the beautiful, colorful screenshots and pictures I've grown accustomed to in the many gaming books that have already found their home on my shelf. Though I'm definitely not one who relies on pretty pictures to define the integrity of a book, I'm not going to deny that it usually helps when you're talking about a visual media to have visual aids throughout.

I have to start by saying the title is a smidge misleading. It does promise to inform you on the way video games have conquered pop culture, but not how that information was going to be delivered.

Harold Goldberg spent 3 years of his life dedicated to interviewing media giants such as the ever beloved, ever smiling Mr. Miyamoto, to put together this golden nugget of gaming history. Although, this book isn't really gaming's history, it isn't even that much about the games. It focuses more on the founders, creators and important people whom helped video games become a mainstream media and/or helped gaming take important steps forward in their evolution. This is an interesting point of view though, as most books concentrate either on a historical outline by concentrating on the games-of-the-day rather then the who behind it all which helped this book stand out from the growing pile of other gaming history books.

I know other reviewers critique this book on the inexactitude of the details. Gaming had such a rough start, that this isn't something that really bothers me in any respect because the odds of getting the honest facts are to me very slim. If the timeline isn't accurate enough, it's your prerogative to bitch and moan about it and spew out what you believe is right, but you sure as hell can't really argue with the author about it as it's not really the point he's making.

It was really interesting to find out the professional roots of gaming's pioneers and to discover their hopes and ambitions and what their personal goals were with video games. The personalities you get to "meet" throughout the book are so eccentric and their stories so intriguing that you can't help but feel for them, from the disappointment of repeated failures to the ecstasy of hitting it big. I was grateful to learn more about the faces behind my favorite creations all condensed into one handy book

Another interesting factor is that the writing is user-friendly enough to compel a non-gamer to read, and yet peppered with enough details and obscure tidbits for the more experienced gamer to indulge in, though the more hardcore gamers usually stick their chins in the air and claim they already know it all. I will add though, I have to admit my ever-slight annoyance at the seemingly never ending corny gaming metaphors. It feels as though authors can't help but splurge in bad gaming humor which is just face-palm worthy. This annoyance is like gum on my shoe though. It's annoying but I don't care enough to stop walking.

Another admirable point I enjoy is the objective standpoint Harold takes. Though this was obviously a labor of love from an experienced game critic, he doesn't try to cram any opinions down your throat. This is especially appreciated in chapters like the one concerning video game controversy in games such as Grand Theft Auto. The facts are played out and clearly defined, yet it permits you to take your own position on the matter, quickly switching to concentrate on the psychological toll the incident has taken on the game creators rather then ramble on about what is right or wrong and why, which clearly no one will agree on (ever) anyways. This is a breath of fresh air as most gamers are passionate people who feel the need to preach their love of games to you like door-to-door religious recruiters having a 'roid rage with a lot more bad language.

Truly, this book is wonderfully written and contains fascinating facts about more then the history of games, as it also explores the many turns games have taken, to movie and book deals, to technological advances games inspired and much more. There's a richness in this book that few others have, and I believe part of that is due to having an experienced writer behind the whole thing. A gaming book written by a passionate gamer that is also a professional writer that has experienced some important events of gaming's life firsthand is a major advantage on the lonely nerd with Microsoft Word and a lot to say  like myself.

Overall this book is everything it promises to be and delivers what it promises to deliver, purely and simply. How Fifty Years of Video Games Conquered Pop Culture is exactly what you'll learn in this quirky and enticing book though maybe not in the way you expected to at first. The title may not be entirely accurate, and sure it is far from a complete collection of the important people in the life of gaming, but it's really all you need for a general look. Not only is this book good, it takes what you knew about games and pushed it to the next level and explained the why and how and who. I have a hard time finding something wrong with it, other then I wanted more, and I really don't think that's a flaw at all. I'll have to give this 9 pixels out of 10.