Two things: iPad children’s books and God of War. These things are not related.
First, check out this book trailer for Alice in Wonderland for the iPad. I think it’s brilliant. It’s like the evolution of pop-up books.
As a writer and illustrator, this really appeals to me. When I was working at the newspaper, I always had this uneasiness about my profession; I knew that its days were numbered. I was very interested in finding ways to move forward, to evolve, because, I wanted to have a job in five years. As you know, I left the newspaper biz–turns out that wasn’t a battle I really wanted to waste my time fighting–and now I do marketing for a web software developer.
I say all that to say that sometimes I get that uneasy feeling about being an author-illustrator. I think books will be around forever, but there are things like this that could significantly change the game. From a business stand point, I’m sure there’s a lot of money to be made here, and as a digital artist, I have the skills (or I can learn them) to eventually create something like this. I have far too many things on my plate right now to seriously pursue a digital interactive book, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make a pros and cons list about pursuing one.
Pros
-The book is interactive! Fun!
-Beautiful high res illustrations look as great as they should
-The possibilities that come from incorporating other features, like GPS, cameras, etc.
-They’re priced low (the Alice book is $9)
-Could be a great way for new authors and illustrators to get some recognition
Cons (only two, but they’re big ones)
-Kind of sucks the imagination out of reading
-Right now, you need an iPad to view it. That’s a $500 buy-in. What’s worse is that in 10 years, you’ll still need that iPad to view it. Who keeps a computer that long?
Not sure what the take away is here. Looking at that trailer makes me feel like I could do that, but it would require a lot of time and research. In that time, I could finish my novel, a couple more children’s books, and maybe get them published through traditional means. Still, I’ll be keeping my eye on this.
Now, God of War 3. I’m almost done with it I think. I have all the weapons and I just got through this weird maze place. I think I’ll sum up my feelings on this game with another pros and cons list.
Pros
-Duh, it looks freaking amazing
-There’s some great camera work going on here, love the sense of scale
-Satisfying button-mashing combat
-Magic is tied to your weapons this time, which forces you to use them
-The other weapons are actually worth using. I think they realized people stuck with the default weapon in the previous games because it looks so cool. Their solution? Make two out of three weapons behave and look like the default weapon.
-Ripping a skeleton warrior in half (which inexplicably showers Kratos in blood), is a cathartic experience.
-For an action game, there are some decent puzzles
Cons
-Kratos is still an unlikable douche full of teenage “you’ll never understand me dad!” angst. It’s annoying, but at least it’s consistent. I don’t care if they keep him an angry jerk, but at least give him some more depth.
-The fight with Cronos was stupid. Visually impressive, sure, but it was dumb. I mean, really? Kratos is going to pull out his fingernail? It was just too over the top.
-Kratos’ strength is wildly inconsistent. He can stop a titan that’s 700 times his size from smashing him like a bug by extending his arms, but he has to push with all his might to open doors and chests? What are those doors and chests made of?
-The story in general is cheesy, and the dialogue is usually poorly written. “That is not my concern!” growls Kratos. “I am concerned with only one thing: my revenge!”
-Quick time events are not fun, and I’m not a fan of them moving the buttons around the edges of the screen. Just keep them in one spot, or better yet, find a different way for us to interact with those super awesome moves.
It might seem like I don’t like the game, but I do. It’s a lot of fun and some of the action and violence is so outrageous it’s shocking, in a hilarious sort of way. In the end though, I think I have to side with the Zero Punctuation review: it’s a great game, but it didn’t really need to be made. They could have ended it with the last game. This one almost feels like it’s following some kind of template. The guys at GiantBomb said it was “soulless” in one of their podcasts. It’s not going to unseat Uncharted 2 as my favorite action game, but if you have a PS3, you should definitely check it out. It’s like a crazy, violent, throw-away R rated action flick.
Want some proof I actually like this game? I’m working on some God of War related art right now. I wanted to try some new techniques, and when I sat down with my sketchbook, I found myself doodling an angry Kratos. It’s still in the early stages–just laid down the flat colors last night–so it will be a little while before I post it. I can’t wait to share it though, it makes me smile every time I step back and look at it.
All right, enough with the lists. Work is really busy this week, so I’ll probably be out till the weekend. Have a good week friends!
