wizardingwisteria's review against another edition
The writing style was pretty dry. Very informational but sometimes too brief and other times too long-winded. The formatting doesn't help. The text is pretty small and all squished at the top with either massive blank areas at the bottom or pictures. Informative but difficult to enjoy.
nataliesboooks's review against another edition
4.0
So I’m beginning this review with the usual disclaimer that I am not someone who reads a lot of nonfiction - but that being said, I found this really interesting and I learned a lot. I wish there had been more content about some of my favorite games (the King’s Quest series specifically) but overall this was a fun read.
telthor's review against another edition
3.0
Charming and insightful enough in the first half, the early history of creation, but as games stop being single person ventures or slappy Sega vs Nintendo fights and start being powerhouses of tech, it becomes more like a gleeful catalog describing the plots of his favorite games, and the steam is lost.
A whole chapter dedicated to Metal Gear is just kinda awkwardly placed and I skipped most of it. Not to mention the weird way things are organized in the last few chapters, skipping from topic to topic with no sense of flow among the chapters like the earlier ones.
Compelling enough in its own right and a decent bite sized look at a very rapidly changing global history that would frankly be impossible to examine in close detail in any book of holdable size. The range of things discussed seems pretty fair. Still, it does lose itself, and doesn’t explore some of the things I wanted, like some of the players like Activision and all that. I suppose if you want more precise details on specific things you’ve got to go read their wikis.
Also, yes, I know, computer games and video games are different topics, and the book purports to be about the latter...but I don’t think I saw a single mention of Monkey Island or such point and click topics? Or anything with Telltale? That seems super weird to me, especially as PC gaming is distinctly included throughout even into in the later chapters like with Steam.
Glossy screencaps of many of the games discussed are particularly welcome. It’s a joy to watch them go from the single pixel protagonist of Adventure to the splashy particle-effect-doused Bayonetta.
Well written, easy to read, and pretty fun—I might like to see what else Stanton has done, if anything. I rather enjoyed letting him lead me through this history.
A whole chapter dedicated to Metal Gear is just kinda awkwardly placed and I skipped most of it. Not to mention the weird way things are organized in the last few chapters, skipping from topic to topic with no sense of flow among the chapters like the earlier ones.
Compelling enough in its own right and a decent bite sized look at a very rapidly changing global history that would frankly be impossible to examine in close detail in any book of holdable size. The range of things discussed seems pretty fair. Still, it does lose itself, and doesn’t explore some of the things I wanted, like some of the players like Activision and all that. I suppose if you want more precise details on specific things you’ve got to go read their wikis.
Also, yes, I know, computer games and video games are different topics, and the book purports to be about the latter...but I don’t think I saw a single mention of Monkey Island or such point and click topics? Or anything with Telltale? That seems super weird to me, especially as PC gaming is distinctly included throughout even into in the later chapters like with Steam.
Glossy screencaps of many of the games discussed are particularly welcome. It’s a joy to watch them go from the single pixel protagonist of Adventure to the splashy particle-effect-doused Bayonetta.
Well written, easy to read, and pretty fun—I might like to see what else Stanton has done, if anything. I rather enjoyed letting him lead me through this history.
ethanoille's review against another edition
2.0
The first half was all right, but towards the end it starts to read like a laundry list of game titles with brief descriptions. The author's biases are increasingly evident in the latter portion as well. The timeline feels really jumbled and jumps around a bit too much for my liking. Reading this history doesn't feel brief, nor quite complete.
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