“Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins - Gather.com” plus 1 more

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins - Gather.com

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 04:25 PM PDT

Mockingjay is the third and final book in the dystopian Hunger Games trilogy, and again, author Suzanne Collins, leads expertly straight into the story, weaving just enough reminders into her character's thoughts to bring readers up to speed without needing to slow the action to explain. The author has an amazing talent for clarity in a complex tale, for balancing showing and telling, and for describing action and introspection each with fearful intensity. She keeps the reader glued to the page, and keeps Katniss Everdeen vitally, powerfully real.

In a story where the teenaged protagonist has been blessed with many possible futures, it's fascinating to follow Katniss's path as it narrows down to one. Reader and character switch favor between the two love interests, Gale and Peeta; the one ever-faithful, ever-sure, somehow undemandingly demanding; the other so deep and true and then so wounded and frighteningly false. Meanwhile the world is faced with its own different futures, staying safe under Capitol rule, or following the rebellion. But no choices are ever as simple as they seem, no truths as powerful as the fictions the media creates, and no futures as sure as hope would have us dream.

Katniss may be free, but she's still bound and still playing in the games. The big question now is who's pulling the strings, and what future do they plan. I love the way Katniss alternates between playing and choosing her part. I love the flawed characters that offer her hidden nuggets of wise advice. And I love the breadth and depth of the author's world, its parallels with ours, its questions, its certainties.

Like each of the other books, the game's the thing, drawing reader and Katniss inexorably in, then twisting and turning while she looks for a hidden exit all her own. When she finds one, it startles and delights and is, as always, disturbingly right.

This trilogy is good. This book is good. "Real or not real?" Definitely real.

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Derivative in format, hackneyed in dialogue, 'Mafia II' leaves gamers cold - Kansas City Star

Posted: 31 Aug 2010 08:15 PM PDT

By DOUG ELFMAN

The Game Dork

The cops just slow down the action in "Mafia II."

"Mafia II" is a hacky ode to mobsters, but with redeeming values.

The reason I've never been enraptured by "The Sopranos," "Goodfellas" or other mob fictions is the characters always seem too dumb and cruel to care about, and they say boring things that are supposed to "feel real" simply because they're insulting.

The new video game "Mafia II" contributes to such verbal inanity. It's a "Grand Theft Auto" copycat that follows Italian-American mobsters of the 1940s and 1950s who utter ethnic insults of the period.

Now, look. I realize such indelicacies of the tongue are quaint to the ears of we of the 21st century.

But quaint or not, "Mafia II's" dialogue of heritage is hacky — done a million times already.

In addition to its often-weak dialogue, "Mafia II" is chockablock with cinematic film scenes, but low on action.

You portray a guy named (naturally) Vito who comes back from World War II as a minor hero, then joins his best friend's Mafia circle.

For much of the game, you are not playing, but you are watching cut scenes of Vito dealing with friends, family, higher-ups and street punks.

Then comes the action, which is low on the totem pole of "Grand Theft Auto" copycats. For hours and hours, all you get to do is drive around in old cars, learn how to pick locks, punch a few dudes and shoot a few enemies.

In short, this is an adequate rental if you're into "GTA."

But it's fairly valuable to anyone who longs to see a game presenting the New York of the 1940s and 1950s. Those who designed "Mafia II's" city, cars and music arrangements did fantastic jobs.

In one bar, I found a woman in winter gloves writing notes at a table. I walked up to deal with her, but she wasn't interactive. That's how well-designed the setting is in spots: Background figures seem like foreground characters.

And when I first heard my favorite of the game's great 135 tunes, Peggy Lee's "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe," I had to pull my car over to the side of the road and just listen. Man, that song blows you away.

Then I revved up the engine, killed some cops and delved into "Mafia II's" artistic nostalgia of brain-dead killers. Sounds like every Mafia thing you've ever seen, doesn't it?

'MAFIA II'
★★

•Rated: M

•Platform: 360, PS3, PC

•Cost: $50-$60

Fiction

Rabu, 01 September 2010