A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away.....

A non-video game related topic today, I wanted to talk about Star Wars, well to be exact the Star Wars Extended Universe created by the books. I have become a fan of the Star Wars books recently and read quite a few of them, what I have enjoyed about these books is not just continuing adventures of Luke, Han, Leia and Chewie but also new stories in that same universe and how it all ties in with the movies. There are several books I want to recommend right off the bat, just for people who like Star Wars but are nervous about approaching the books because there are just so many out there.

First off, the three books that really made the Star Wars universe what it is today is the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. Set 5 years after the second Death Star was destroyed above Endor, you find the New Republic barely holding itself together, the Empire is still around but slowly losing its grip on its remaing systems and Luke Skywalker is trying to find his place and a place for the Jedi in the galaxy. Add into this mix a master tactician of Grand Admiral Thrawn who is pulling together the Empire and has a master plan to crush the New Republic, we also meet what appears to be a Jedi Master who escaped Vader and The Emperor but appears to have gone insane, also a woman called Mara Jade with a mysterious past that is linked in with the now dead Emperor. The three books interweave all these storylines with the drama, swashbuckling and fun of the original Star Wars trilogy to give us a gripping and thrilling adventure that is a joy to read.

Next Up The Jedi Academy trilogy by Kevin J Anderson because it is setting the stage for the New Republic's Jedi's to take centre stage and has a story that will engage you right to the end. Kevin J Anderson gets a lot of flak for the books he rights, his books based on the Dune Universe are met with derision and he has written lots of books based on other peoples IPs, but with this trilogy he is at his best, and it is very easy to get drawn into these stories.

And before I get to my favourite books in the Star Wars EU, the collections of Short Stories, such as Stories from the Empire, Stories from Mos Eisley Cantina, Stories From the Bounty Hunters and Stories From the New Republic are all worth picking up for some Star Wars Short story enjoyment. All of which have at least 2 or 3 stories that are worth reading.

But finally, the best books that I have ever read in the Star Wars Extended Universe and takes place 1000 years before the battle of Yavin and the destruction of the first Death Star. These are the Darth Bane books. These books are written by Drew Karpyshyn and chart the course of a lowly mine worker on a remote planet who through either fate or just bad luck finds himself on the run but soon realises he has the ability to manipulate the force. He is recruited by a Sith Training camp and realises his full potential, meanwhile the Jedi and the Sith forces are about to face off in a battle that will determine the fate of the rest of the galaxy for thousands of years to come. The story takes place over 2 books and ends up promising more to come, and Drew Karpyshyn is working on a third book in the series and I can't wait. Darth Bane is an excellent character who rivals Darth Vader in terms of bad-assery, and his tale is one that will capture you right up to the end.

On a side note Drew Karpyshyn is also the head writer of the Mass Effect games and wrote the two Mass Effect books that are out now, I have read the first one and it too is awesome.

So in summation, the Star Wars EU can be daunting and I have really been trying to keep with timelines, but in all honesty stories about Anakin Skywalker as a trainee Jedi are rather dull and I don't care what Obi Wan Kenobi did before the Episode 1, so those books don't interest me, so I have been picking and choosing. If you want to check out the timeline for the Star Wars books, check out Wookiepedia (no I am not making that up) and you'll be able to find it there. Check these books if, you wont be dissapointed.

IMO: 5 Reason Why Resident Evil 5 Will Suck Balls

IMO : 5 Reasons Why Resident Evil 5 will suck balls

So with Resident Evil 5 on the horizon people are getting excited, but with the
demo getting a lacklustre reception on the message boards its now becoming clear
that it may not be the saving grace the Resident Evil franchise wanted.

5) The controls are terrible

The controls are a step up from the original Resident Evil tank like controls,
and follow Resident Evil 4, but what was needed for this game was an evolution
or iteration on the existing controls. For example, the ability to move and
shoot at the same time. The game, as shown in the demo, feels unweildly and from
what I have heard about review code, that these are the controls for the
finished game, people are lamenting the terrible controls.

4) The 4th Game was an evolution of the series, Resident Evil 5 isn't.

When Resident Evil 4 came out, we were all amazed because it was an evolution of
the series and not just "another" Resident Evil game. We were treated to a new
adventure that gave us radically different controls, a more oppresive atmosphere
and an action packed game that blew us away. It was the next gen leap from PS1
to PS2 (I know it came out on GC first but stick with me) that we had been
craving since Code Veronica finished. Resident Evil 4 evolved the series and we
couldn't wait to see what they would do with part 5, well they did nothing
except make nicer graphics. The old addage goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Well it is broken, beyond repair. We needed a better style of controls, Gears of
War had perfect controls that would suit Resident Evil 5.

3) No one cares about the plot anymore

Does anyone really give a shit about the Resident Evil plot anymore? I doubt it,
because the movies have screwed this up royally and had the end of the world and
the games have had so many side stories and offshoots that Umbrella should have
been shut down years ago because zombie outbreaks happened every second week.
And Racoon City was literrally sitting on top of 5 million secret underground
bases. The writers of the series have given up, you can see that a mile away,
they threw the zombie premise out the window and thought "fuck it, lets have
them infected with parasites, we can have crazy shit coming out their necks."
Throw in a chainsaw weilding maniac for good measure and you have Resident Evil
4. And its the same story for 5. They will try to mix continuity into the 5th
part, but by this point no one cares, the dedicated RE fans will buy it for the
story but the majority will just want to shoot people.

2) The graphics hinder the game

When Resident Evil 4 came out we were impressed with the graphics, it helped the
game, however in this iteration, the graphics hinder the game. The reason? The
developers are so proud of their character models that one of them takes up too
much of the screen. Chris Redfield looks totally pumped up on a million
different types of steroids, a far cry from his Resident Evil and Code Veronica
days, he is completely jacked. And plonked down on the screen and now obscures
too much of the screen, at least Leon Kennedy was slim and didn't obscure the
screen.

1) Its a corridor shooter, plain and simple

The game is simply a corridor shooter, your funnelled down corridors shooting
anything or one that gets in your way until you get to an open space, shoot some
more people or things, back down some corridors. The days of Crest Keys and
puzzles to open doors, and back tracking down different floors to open trap
doors and unlock gates is all gone. What was fun about Resident Evil was that it
was a puzzle game on top of a horror game, you had to solve devious puzzles to
progress. Resident Evil 4 was a break from this and a welcome breath of fresh
air, and we did it for one full game because it was fun, but most people want
the puzzles back because that is what made the Resident Evil games matter.
Anyone could make a zombie game, plenty have, some good, some awful but what
Resident Evil did was put you in a puzzle box with zombies and you relied on
your own brains to keep your brains, so to speak. Shooting down zombies to face
some inevitable end boss is not as much fun without an element of puzzle solving
to get there.

I loved Resident Evil 4 and I believe it reached its peak on the Wii edition
because that suited the game. I have completed every Resident Evil game except
Code Veronica and 4, and loved the story but they couldn't bring the story to a
proper conclusion so they abandoned it and started again with part 4, making
sure no one would ever care about the Umbrella plotline or any of that Racoon
City nonsense. With the god awful demo of Resident Evil 5, I was seriously
dissapointed. I feel the series has taken 2 steps backwards rather than going
forwards and trying to innovate and that is probably due to the game being in
production for so long. Had the game come out sooner, possibly at the launch of
360 or possibly PS3 launch it may be viewed more favourably, but it is coming
out now, and we're just not as impressed with nice graphics as we once were.