Review: The Sworn

When it comes to authors and writing a series of books if I like the first book I usually end up liking the second and third book (Lord of the Rings) and the books after those if the series is more then a trilogy (The Dresden Files, quite a few files). There are exceptions to the rule of course and there are some books that should have a follow up that don't.

The Sworn is a book that takes a whole new approach to the book series idea. I read a series known as The Chronicles of the Necromancer written by Gail Z. Martin. It was four books long, it followed the story of a prince who watched his older brother murder his father and take the throne by force in his kingdom. He escapes being killed himself and flees with a few allies. After a long journey of gathering allies he returns and retakes the throne. Turns out he is also a summoner and can summon spirits to help him fight. Don't ask me where necromancer shows up because I didn't find one. The series was great and the story lines were wrapped up in book four and I though that was all.

It was all, kind of. The Sworn is the first book in The Fallen Kings Cycle. One slight difference, it builds on the Chronicles of the Necromancer. And it is not like what Lord of the Rings did. The Fellowship of the ring took place 60-70 years after the events of The Hobbit. The Sworn takes place less then a year later after the last book in the Chronicles of the Necromancer.

Now I have no problem with it, Gail Z. Martin is a great writer and I enjoyed the Chronicles of the Necromancer immensely. When I saw The Sworn on the shelf I was very excited to see that she had written another book. I was looking forward to the new land and new characters. I opened it to find out that the characters and land had not changed at all. I ask myself, why did you call it book one and start a new series? The cast hasn't changed from book four of the other series and it's less then a year! One would think you should just call it book five and keep going.

Other then the complete lack of reason for going with a new series the book is good. The characters are solid and the story is well done. A few new characters are brought in and a one new location from the previous series. The problems I find though really do break the book. I found that unless you read the Chronicles of the Necromancer, you will probably be very very lost. The book refers to characters from that series and also builds on events. If you didn't read Chronicles of the Necromancer then chances are you will be so lost you'll shut the book.

For readers of the previous series, you will also have some trouble. Some of the characters used in this book will force you into opening the first book to remember who that person is. I found some characters introduced had not shown up since book one of the previous series and thus remembering them was hard. I found myself opening the first book to try and remember who they were.

I like the book but unfortunately it doesn't draw new readers and it does not offer a lot to those who have read her previous books. I certainly hope the second book of this series somehow redeems it.

Review
Grade-It Could Grow
Highs-Strong story and great characters, does a good job of bringing new aspects in
Lows-Builds on a different series that will leave new readers lost and introduces characters that previous readers will not remember
Genre-Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Kid Friendly?It is good, but I would suggest reading it to your child due to some of the themes in it, unless your child is 14, then allow them to read it
Overview-It is good, but read her other books first

-Rezler

Review: Magicka

I like games that incorporate humor with game play. There plenty of funny one liners inserted in games that make me chuckle. Who can forget Morrigan in Dragon Age suggesting the release of someone and after another group member commenting on her show of mercy as surprising she responds by saying, "I also suggest that Alistair take his place in the cage." Priceless Unfortunately many games either can't incorporate it or they do a poor job of it. Games that center around only jokes and humor often don't work.

I was happy to find this gem of a game called Magicka. Unlike other games it knows its ridiculous and it embraces the role. The result is a game that is enjoyable to play and will have you laughing most of the time. The very opening itself suggests humor when a NPC yells down at you, "Remember, the safe word is Banana!" That is the last thing you hear before the tutorial starts.

Magicka is a game where you combine certain magical elements together to cast powerful spells and use certain abilities to help yourself. The mechanics also are very well done. After running through a puddle I noticed a big monster coming through the door ahead. So, I decided to cast lighting and kill the monster. The only problem is that I was still wet and found myself being electrocuted. Not only did I laugh at that but I also busted up laughing after I accidentally set myself on fire during a battle.

One shining part of the game is your character creation, there isn't any! Your character is someone in a cloak (which you choose the color of) and the face is just a black void. You run around with a staff and a sword which you get at the beginning. Forget about upgrading your staff or sword, there is no inventory or money system. Many would bast the game for that missing piece but it without the game takes away the sometimes tedious job of going through your inventory making sure you have the best weapons and armor equipped. Another funny part is the game knows that it has no system and it makes fun of itself for it. An prime example of this would be near the beginning. After helping a woman clear out goblins near her house I went to her for a reward. She responded thus, "Thanks for your help, I would give you some coins or a staff but this game has no inventory system! Tough luck!" I responded by setting her on fire and simply headed down the road. T

That's another thing, you can attack almost anything. I ran into a farmer's field and set his livestock and entire crop ablaze. When he seemed to be angry I simply showed him the what happens when rocks fall out of the sky. The boss battles are all very well done and force you to use strategy rather then button mashing or pressing the cast key as quick as you can. One boss had scales that I could not penetrate with any spell. I had to incorporate hit and run tactics combined with rock and fire elements to bring it down.

Levels are beautiful and graphics are well done. They are nothing to get excited about but they do the job and the game is so fun and enjoyable that you won't be worrying about the fact that the houses look like something from 2005. Perhaps Paradox entertainment is doing something right.


Review
Grade-Let it Ripen
Highs-Funny humor and good game play, destructible environments, ability to attack anything
Lows-Humor can be very dark sometimes, story is confusing sometimes and element combos take time to master
ESRB Rating-T, for Teens, 13 and up
Kid Friendly? The humor is dark and your character has bone hands, the game has a T Rating, I would follow that rating
Overview-A good game, at $9.99 on Steam, it is a steal!

Review: Sid Meier's Civilization V

I have been a fan of the Civilization Series since Civilization II. Ever since my dad brought me the deluxe edition back when I was a young pup. I have always enjoyed building cities and choosing the way to run my nation. There is something about building a nation from nothing to superpower that makes one smile with glee. Civilization has had a great run and the fifth installment continues that along with fixing the problems its predecessors had.

Civilization II was enjoyable but the main problem it had was that for some reason every nation was very powerful except for you. Even when your military advisor told you that you were a superpower. I can't count how many times he would proclaim: "We stand astride the world like a Colossus Noble Leader, send forth our armies so that we will smash every nation that stands against us!" So I would do such and proceed to get crushed myself. Then two hours later I would be defending my last two cities with everything I had. My allies would suddenly forget about me and I would die. The other extreme was that I was powerful and would crush everyone with ease. Once I was done with enemies I would back stab my allies and kill them all and conquest the entire world. Made the game too easy and not challenging, which made it no fun at all.

Civilization III fixed some of the problems that the second one had. Warfare was easier but far too frequent. Not to mention that the government controls were a joke. You used to be able to switch governments at will and as long as you didn't choose a bad one or went from dictatorship to freedom it would work. In the third one it was a guessing game. Only one form of it worked for your nation and it took a few revolutions to find out which one. Why it was fun to execute dissenters, it was hard to run a nation when you kill over half the population and whoever is left works slowly in order to indirectly piss you off, knowing that you won't raise a finger against them because they are the only person left who knows how to run your nuclear program (you killed the others).

Civilization IV fixed most of the problems, the government controls were almost taken away. The CPU managed most of it thus making it less tedious. However while that was fixed new problems arose. One of them being the warfare. It was made more challenging but it was as if they took the difficulty and shoved it as high as possible. At one point I rolled into a nation with five tanks and attacked one city. The long bowman in the city took out all my tanks, all five of them. It bothered me that a long bowman, a soldier from the 1500s could take out a large heavily armored machine with a giant gun from the 1900s. The diplomatic controls were bad too. Nations would randomly declare war on you for no reason. And when they did, their soldiers would always kill yours no matter how much more advanced you were. The only way I could defend my cites was to garrison them with at least ten units and sometimes that wasn't enough. Not to mention that win or loose I still would have no idea why they had declared war on me in the first place. Averting war also was not possible because you had no idea when or why it was declared, apparently things would deteriorate rapidly without you knowing.

Civilization V has remedied these problems. First off, the warfare is more balanced, winning wars is very doable but challenging at the same time. Diplomacy has improved much more. Nations will warn you that you did something to anger them. It is possible to avert war and repair problems. One problem in Civilization IV with diplomacy was that your allies would demand help right away in a war. In the fifth one you can tell them to wait 10 turns for you to prepare and they will honor that. Your government is also easier and rather then picking one type you can adopt policies and practices that will tailor your government to what you like.

Overall, the game has done well to fix the issues. It's a joy to play and to wage war. Once again back to coming from nothing to ruling the world! A Thank You to Fraxis, they got another winner, 2K knows how to publish!


Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-New graphics and much more game play offered. Warfare and diplomacy is fixed and the issues that weren't broken were kept good and even improved
Lows-Big maps sometimes make relations and wars very taxing
ESRB Rating-E+10, for Everyone 10 and over
Kid Friendly?Yes, the warfare is not violent. However with how complex the system is, I would suggest an older child.
Overview-It was on sale and it cost me 24.99 but its well worth the full $59.99 price tag, it is an amazing game!