BookBub

Last week I tripped over a link to BookBub. I'll tell you what it is in a minute.

Over the last few years I've read more and more books on my tablet. In the beginning it felt really weird, but once I got used to it, it was regular books that started to seem weird. I still really like paper books, and I do read them, but the practicality of the ebook has won me over.

What hasn't won me over is the price of most ebooks. As it stands, most ebooks are as expensive as their paperback cousins, and it's ridiculous. With paper books you have printing, materiel, transport, middlemen, labor, you name it. It all costs money. But with ebooks you have a server and a webmaster and that's pretty much it. You can store an entire library in a closet, so real estate isn't much of a problem. This should drive the price down, but this is rare.

Amazon, the biggest retailer of electronic books understands this, but unfortunately the publishers don't. Or rather they won't. When Amazon started selling ebooks they wanted the price to be low, after all you're only downloading a copy of a file but the major publishing houses balked. They demanded to get the same prices as paper books. Whether this was out of fear of the printed market falling or just plain old greed I couldn't tell you, but Amazon had no choice but to agree to their demands. This is why you're paying as much for a file as for a printed book.

Of course the writer deserves a fair share, and so does the editor, but the rest of the costs are minimal, so that's why I was really happy to find BookBub.

If you've ever been to Amazon you'll know how huge it is. Unless you're looking for a specific author it can be really difficult to find something for you. Especially if you're just looking for good bargains, and that's where BookBub comes in handy.

You simply log in to BookBub with your email and then specify which genres and authors you're interested in, and then they email you when those books are on sale. And the best sale in the world has to be a free book. Yupp, I have downloaded several books for free and it's completely legal. Because with the messed up prices most ebooks have it's hard for me to give new authors a chance, but with prices from free to 0.99 cents I'm more than happy to go for it.

There are other sites like BookBub, but since I haven't tried them I can't comment. But if you like to read on your electronic device of choice, give BookBub a chance, otherwise you are going to have to sift through Amazon's kindle store every day on your own.

Until next time, read a book you haven't read before and have a great week!

Darkest Dungeon

As a rule I do not buy games that are in early access. I find the risk doesn't outweigh the gain. But on Saturday evening, I couldn't wait anymore, and picked up Darkest Dungeon on Steam.

I've been drooling over this game for months, checking almost daily if it was out of early access and reading the developers site all the time.

The fact that Red Hook, the developers, have handled the whole early access so well made me take the leap. Their constant updates and the way they interact with fans in taking suggestions and their dedication to communicating in general made me confident that they will complete this game. Something many developers don't do. I have no fear that Red Hook is going to take the money and run. Besides, by now Darkest Dungeon is almost complete anyway.

So what's it all about? The clue is in the name, really. It's a dungeon crawler but with a twist. Although the combat is dangerous and challenging, the real threat is the stress the adventurers face. The style of the game is sort of Warhammer Fantasy meets Lovecraft, so that's right up my alley.

You take the role of a nobleman whose ancestor (father, uncle etc. it's not explained) got bored living in excess and decided to dabble in the occult, with predictable results. Now you have to hire adventurers to clear the monsters out of your holdings and restore your family name.

In a nutshell, you hire the adventurers, send them through the dungeons, collect the loot and improve the town. But, in doing so, the adventurers get really stressed out and if you want to keep them around so that they can level up, you need to de-stress them, and that also costs money. This is the management aspect of the game.

The dungeon aspect is where the game really shines. It is a sort of sidescroller with the heroes lined up on the left side of the screen and monsters in a line on the right. Different heroes need to stand in a specific order to be effective and this strategy plays a huge part. Some monsters can mix the line up and this really screws with you. Over all the combat isn't that hard, but it works on a number generator and sometimes nothing goes your way. My Leper (a hero class) got eaten in one round by giant maggots before the healer could save him. There was nothing I could do. But if you can accept this, it gets really fun.

Then there's the light. You have to bring torches and how bright you keep the party is a huge question. You hit harder in the dark and you get better treasure, but the stress levels skyrocket and the opposition gets worse. The whole game is a give and take and how you choose to do things is the key to success.

The final thing I want to talk about is the stress the heroes suffer. Many things stress them, from the dark to damage taken to having to retreat etc. Some things like causing critical hits reduces stress, but the positive influences are far fewer than the negative. When a hero finally has had enough and cracks he is “tested”. He may well get stronger, but usually bad stuff happens. Like in one of my forays into the Ruins:

The Crusader, St. Denis got so stressed he became abusive and started mocking the rest of the group, screaming things like “Good, you should die, it'll give me more room to swing my blade”. Naturally the rest of he heroes didn't like this, so it finally pushed the Plague Doctor Matzzeria into also becoming abusive. He in turn kept shouting nasty things that almost brought the whole group down before I managed to push them through the last few rooms and then back to town.

St. Denis was also a kleptomaniac and stole treasure before I could order someone else to grab it. This element of free will really adds to the atmosphere and makes the game even better. Sometimes they just do things and you never really know what's going to happen next.

I should point out that you can rename your heroes, and I like to name them after my friends. It makes for a better story...

In conclusion, I would like to say that my initial impression of Darkest Dungeon is very positive, bordering on great. I have only played four hours and defeated one boss, so this is in no way a review. Just a first impression. But the art style is wonderful, the music is awesome and the narrator (Wayne June) is perfect.

That's all for now so until next time, have a great week!

Rumors and petitions

As I mentioned last week, the internet is buzzing with curiosity about Bethesdas announcement that they'll be hosting their first ever press conference at E3 this year. Next month in fact.

The money seems to be on Fallout 4, which would be great, but many are hoping for Dishonored 2, which I also wouldn't mind. There is an outside chance of Elder Scrolls 6, but I think that's really unlikely since it's only been four years since Skyrim, but you never know.

However, I read – or watched – I can't remember which, an interview with Todd Howard, the executive producer and game director at Bethesda, and in it he said that they're not really interested in making sequels just to make them (cough Ubisoft, cough). And he used Dishonored as an example of a game they're not going to sequel. Of course with established franchises like Fallout and Elder Scrolls, sequels are not only inevitable but really sought after.

If they do make Fallout 4, I hope it will take place in a city environment like Fallout 3, rather than a desert like New Vegas. I do like New Vegas, don't get me wrong, but ruined cityscapes really speak to me far more than mere wilderness. F3 had a good blend of wasteland and ruins, but it's old and done and I'm ready for something new.

In other interesting game related news, I have heard that EA have actually managed to turn their Origins store into something worthwhile. Good customer service combined with money back guarantees have gone a long way to make Origins a good place to get games. I haven't tried it yet, but the buzz sounds promising.

Likewise Good Old Games, or Gog.com have launched a beta for their store client, which should be familiar to anyone who uses Steam. Gog have gotten a lot of good press lately with an ever increasing catalog of games both old and new that they actually quality check. Again I have not yet used their services, but it seems that Steam is getting some healthy competition and not a minute to soon.

Finally for this week, I started watching a let's play for Bloodborne, a Dark Souls style Gothic game. Dripping with dark, gloom and blood, this game looks amazing, but it's PS4 only... I can really honestly state that I hate the practice of only releasing a game on one platform. The number of people who'd go out and buy a 380€ console just to play one game can't be that high, so it's like throwing away money.

And I'm not alone in wanting Bloodborne on the PC. There have been rumors since launch that it would come to PC, but I don't believe it. In fact a petition to bring this game to PC has been going around for a while and garnered quite a few signatures. But we'll see. I won't be holding my breath though.

Oh yeah, an anti Bloodborne to PC petition has also been going around if you can believe it. Some PS4 owners have actually signed this in order to try to keep Bloodborne PS4 only, and I quote:

PC gamers are bunch of elitist douche bags. They don't deserve this PS4 exclusive. If they want to play Bloodborne they should buy a PS4 like gentlemen.

How childish can you get?

Until next time, have a great week!

Paid Mods

Hello. It's Monday and that means a new issue of Eccentric Spheres.

The hottest controversy on the gaming scene at the moment has to be the paid mod scheme for Skyrim cooked up by Valve and Bethesda. As a disclaimer I should point put that I have never used mods for Skyrim, and I certainly have no knowledge of how to even begin making one.

That said, I found it hugely entertaining as well as interesting to follow the debate on this subject. I first became aware of the issue when I woke up, went on Reddit and saw the site on fire from this subject. But I'm not going to go into it in great detail for two reasons.

One, I couldn't do much more than parrot what others have said, and I'll link a couple of really interesting videos below if you want to learn more.

Two, I have a case of the Mondays, and I'm feeling lazy.

But in a nutshell, the idea that came out of nowhere to smack gamers in the face, was that Steam would be hosting mods that you had to pay to download. Valve would then take their share as the host, Bethesda would take a cut as the IP owners, and the modder who did all the work would get the pittance that's left over. A lot can and have been said about that alone.

The biggest fury though seems to have come from the very idea that you would have to pay for mods at all, since they have always been free. And they pretty much have to be. Otherwise the modder would be making money from a company's intellectual property without permission, and that's illegal.

Anyway, Both Valve and Bethesda braved the storm of discontent and defended the system, only to then promptly scrap the whole idea. This whole kerfuffle (I love that word) came and went so fast that you missed it if you blinked. But the idea is now out there, and had it been handled right, it could have been good, but for the moment it's pretty toxic.

Some have speculated that Bethesda is gearing up to release Fallout 4 this summer and that the Skyrim project would have been the test pilot.

Now keep in mind that there is no evidence of Fallout 4 so don't get all excited. It has always been Bethesdas policy to announce a game only when it is done. Not like so many other companies that announce as soon as they come up with the idea of a game, only to scrap the whole thing two years later. But they have stated that they have a big announcement at E3 this year, which is something they apparently never do. And keep in mind that The Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout series have been very closely linked game-engine wise so there is hope. But no evidence. Remember that.

In other “news” most game stores have sales on Star Wars games today, since it is May 4^th, so you might want to check that out.

Here are the links I mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGKOiQGeO-k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aavBAplp5A

That's it for me this week so until we meet again, May the Fourth be with you!

Nintendo Madness

Hello and welcome to another installment of Eccentric Spheres!

Today we're talking Nintendo. Personally I'm not a Nintendo fan, I haven't even played one of their games since the '90s. Just wanted to make that clear right away. I have no personal stake in this.

I watch a lot of Let's Plays (LP), something regular readers are well aware of. I find them informative and fun, really the best way to figure out if a game is for me or not. And I'm far from alone in this. Youtube is full of great channels featuring gamers that play and critique games. You just need to find a guy or gal that you like and start watching.

Now, all the big AAA studios from EA to Ubisoft, Activision to Sony and so on get their fair share of critique. They are all guilty one way or another of making bad decisions (at least from the point of view of gamers) and generally pissing people off. But they all got one thing right.

Namely that LP's and streams are a great way to advertise.

If a popular Youtuber like the famous PewDiePie likes a game, a lot of people will rush out and buy it for themselves, and everyone is happy. The publishers get more sales, the gamers get a game they know they'll like and the streamer get's paid ad revenue so that they can make a living. So what's the problem? We'll get to that in a bit.

Some publishers encourage streamers and Youtubers so much that they even pay them to play the game and publish the video. This can of course be a bit controversial, but as long as the streamer is upfront about being paid and remains objective, more power to them I say.

Of course, not all streamers accept payment up front for ethical reason, but that's up to each to decide on their own.

The problem comes when the Publisher wants to control the video and it's message. Like with the Shadow of Mordor controversy where reviewers had to sign up for a paid deal and only give out positive critique if they wanted a preview copy. That was the deal. Dirty business indeed. The dumbest part being that SoM apparently is a really good game, and didn't need any of this nonsense.

But what of Nintendo you ask? Well they seem to be the only major game company on Earth who doesn't understand the positive power of Youtube and streaming sites like Twitch.tv.

Instead they recently started what they call the Nintendo Creators Program.

Usually when a Youtuber makes a video, Google takes 40% of the ad revenue and the streamer gets 60%. But if you make a video of Nintendo's games, one of two things will happen. If the game is on their approved games list they take your 60% for themselves. You get nothing at all, and if the game is not on the list, they shut the video down hard. Worst case scenario, this can cripple your channel for weeks.

Instead, they insist that video makers join their creators program. And here come the insanity. If you join, you have to first submit your video to Nintendo for approval. If they don't like it, you can't publish it. If they do like it however, they take a part of your ad money. Google still get's their 40%, but Nintendo takes 18% leaving you with a measly 42%. To be fair these are estimates, since the exact numbers aren't public, but they're close enough. So your choice becomes: Submit to censorship and a heavily reduced paycheck or get shut down. Then to make it even worse, the contract says that Nintendo can change how much you get at will and at any time. Nice...

But hold on, because apparently Nintendo has hired not one but two PR firms to find and recruit Youtubers for them! Instead of letting people make the videos on their own like every other game company out there, they are paying people to find streamers in order to monetize and control their work. It's insane. There are tons of fans who want nothing more than to do just that, if only Nintendo would leave their integrity and income alone.

I'm going to stop ranting now and let you get on with your day. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Grand Theft Auto 5

As I mentioned in last weeks post, my Blood Bowl career has been slowed down a bit by the long awaited arrival of Grand Theft Auto V.

GTA V for PC was delayed at least three times, and every time I shrugged and said “Oh well, it's better that they push it back and get it right at launch”. So the question becomes; did they get it right? The answer is yes, yes they did!

It's a real joy to play a game that's actually finished, unlike so many games these days that ship half done and get patched later, if at all.

GTA V on PC is an absolutely amazing game. The graphics are gorgeous, the voice work is great and the gameplay is the best in the series so far. The level of detail is insane. From the garbage on the streets to the characters actually using body language while carrying on a conversation in a moving car, the amount of things going on is astounding. Everything feels so incredibly alive, it's a joy to merely move around.

In a big departure from the previous games in the franchise, you control three main characters instead of just one. You have smooth career criminal Michael with his crazy family, streetwise Franklin working his way out of the 'hood and Trevor the lunatic. Trevor is not my favorite by a long shot, but I think he is the most entertaining of the three, he's just so outrageously insane.

Initially I was skeptical about this three character system, but it works really well, and makes the story considerably better and less linear. The only downside is when you want to keep playing say Michael, but he's out of things to do and you have to move on to one of the others. But overall I'm very pleased.

Being a game with such a focus on cars, I'm pleased to say that the vehicles handle better than ever. The streets are wide, and driving is a lot of fun.

The other major part, fighting, is also really smooth. From gun play to fisticuffs, I have no complaints at all. Well OK, one small complaint. You tend to get stuck on corners a bit. This can delay you at a critical moment, but once you're aware of this, it's no biggie.

The one “bad” thing I've found so far is the radio. Compared to previous GTA titles, this iteration has the weakest soundtrack of the bunch. But as always, you can put music in a designated folder and you have your own radio station. And this is the cool part: they have both a DJ and commercials on this station, which makes it feel more legit and less than a playlist.

For some odd reason, all versions, even the Steam version uses the Rockstar Social Club as a kind of DRM. 99.9% of the time this is a non-issue but I understand that it went down at one point which made it impossible to play even the single player story mode. I had hoped we would have moved past this by now. As with all DRM it punishes the genuine customers and ignores the pirates, since the DRM is cracked anyway. Especially on Steam this is so unnecessary since you can't have a pirated game on Steam. At least as far as I know. I myself haven't seen the Social Club problem, but I've run into similar issues with Uplay, Ubisofts “launch platform”.

To sum up: if you've ever played a GTA game and liked it, this is a game for you. Simple as that. I can see no reason for any fan of the franchise to skip GTA V. Now, there is an online mode that I have yet to try, so I won't comment on it. More on that when I have some experience.

That's it ladies and gentlemen, so until next time, have a great week!

Blood Bowl

Back in the early 90's I bought the 2^nd edition of Blood Bowl the board-game, and although I liked it I never played it much.

But now I've become completely hooked on the computer version, specifically Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition.

Simply explained, Blood Bowl is an alternate version of the WarhammerFantasy world, where the different races play a kind of American Football instead of fighting wars. It's ultra violent, complex and tons of fun.

With 23 playable races in the chaos edition you get so many choices since every team plays differently, and thus demands their own strategies. For example, the orcs are a very bashy team, that is they are more interested in hitting the opponents than making skillful touchdowns, but they are clumsy and slow. In complete opposition are the elven teams that really have to be careful about who they hit and when. The elven strength is their speed and agility which allows them to jump around and make plays other teams can only dream about.

I really like the way you start by choosing your race and then build up your team. You get a set amount of money and you have to have at least eleven players on your team for it to be legal. Since different teams have wildly different costs, this becomes a very strategic decision indeed. Add to this the ability (need) to buy re-rolls, cheerleaders, assistant coaches etc, and the process can become pretty hard. But that's all part of the fun.

Then as you progress in the campaigns and championships you earn money to buy more benefits, new players, or indeed replace players that were injured or even killed.

All in all this is a wonderful, complex and very exciting game. I don't know if I can recommend to it people who regularly play other sport games, but for those who don't (like me) this works wonders.

I rediscovered this game by watching The Game Stations league on Youtube, and if you are at all interested in what you just read, do check it out. It not only serves as a tremendously entertaining demonstration of the game, it also teaches you to play it. To be honest the tutorial is pretty lousy, and this taught me the game so much better.

That reminds me, you don't have to confine yourself to playing against the AI. The game is fully set up to play online, either against friends or strangers. As a bonus, you don't have to get the more expensive Chaos Edition, since at least the Legendary edition is compatible with the Chaos Edition. You simply can't play as the Khorne, Underworld or Chaos Dwarf teams.

So, if this has tickled your fancy, go forth and play Blood Bowl! Personally I know that my teams are going to be progressing slower in the coming days since I'm downloading Grand Theft Auto V as I write this, and I know how immersed I get in those games.

That's it, so until next time, have a great week!