11 replies to this topic

[Mendon]

Halo was a "must buy" for me when I purchased my first Xbox. And I bought the Halo 2 LE on launch day. I thought the Collectors Edition of Halo 3 was cool with the replica helmet so that was a launch day purchase. Plus I have the Halo War's CE and the Halo Reach LE, along with the Halo Anniversary game. I have the Halo 3 LE console and really wished that I had also purchased the Reach LE console (if I ever find one at a reasonable price, its mine!). So I guess you could say I really like Halo.

But I've gone beyond just playing the Halo games.... I have three soundtrack CD's, 7 paperback novels, and the Halo Legends DVD. I also read a lot of the articles/stories on Halo Waypoint.

I really, really enjoy the Halo "universe". The novels I've read have fleshed out the characters and added to the storyline of the games. The DVD really did a nice job, IMO, of explaining how the wars began and the Flood came into being. The music of Halo is incredible. The entire Halo concept has been a totally enjoyable experience for me.


I just finished reading Halo Grasslands and while thinking about it, I got to wondering: does anyone else here also go beyond just playing a game?

There are novels for Resistance, Borderlands, Home Front, Uncharted, and many, many other games. There is an abundant supply of graphic novels for many games. There are collectable figures, anime, soundtracks, and other items based on gaming franchises.

Are you content with just playing a game or do you ever go "beyond the game"?


Mendon

[xenomorpher]

For Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill I've read the comics, read the motion comics, bought and listened to the many soundtrack CDs, and watched the Silent Hill movie and enjoyed it for what it was. Dead Space I've watched the two direct to DVD/BluRay movies and about to read the graphic novel Dead Space: Salvage. Besides watching all the awful movies, After Life was enjoyable though, I read a Resident Evil comic and thought the Leon character wasn't right. That's unfortunately common with comic books and movies in general, the dumb writers. Before, Metal Gear Solid took the most of my wallet. I'm pretty sure I have all US release games, minus the regular editions and the HD collection, but currently I've gotten back to my roots as a Aliens and Predator fan. Even though they started off as movies, there are quite a few really good games which sucked me into the series more when I was younger. Some of the games are arguably better than the movie it was based off of, Alien Resurrection for the Playstation mostly comes to mind and AvP:R for the PSP was more enjoyable than the movie.

[moycon]

I know BioShock had a book based on the game. I have it on my Amazon wishlist and have for awhile.

http://www.amazon.co...29931798&sr=1-1

I do have the Halo ODST soundtrack on CD, I also have some of the Halo toys. Mostly of the Mega Bloks variety.

[onlysublime]

the closest I ever came was with the Gears of War series.

but I do have a nearly complete Halo universe (all the games, the novels in PDF, and the Halo Legends in HD which is just pure awesome).

[FujiSkunk]

Sonic the Hedgehog had a pretty healthy life outside of the games.  I enjoyed the comic books and the original Saturday morning cartoon.  However, Sonic has had so many reincarnations and different origins, even in just the games by themselves, that it's pretty much impossible to say what is canon anymore.

The Portal series doesn't have much to offer outside of the games, but there was a really good comic book that not only bridged Portal to Portal 2, but also filled in some gaps left by Portal 2 about how GlaDOS came to control Aperture Science.

Of course, back in the days of Atari, going beyond the game was simply a matter of picking up the instruction manual. Would you have known you were representing the Zardonians in their interplanetary fight against Krytol in Missile Command?  Or that you were helping Oliver in his battle against the evil Centipede (or maybe the centipede is just a hypnotized friend, if you chose to believe the comic book instead)?  Or that Defender, Berzerk, Star Raiders, Phoenix and Galaxian all shared a common backstory... somehow... maybe?

Edited by FujiSkunk, Wed Feb 22, 2012 1:42 PM.

[godslabrat]

I've done my share of "Beyond the Game" adventuring. Mario was what brought me into gaming in the first place, and I loved incorporating elements of the DIC TV shows and various comics into the game as a whole. Mario actually had a fairly solid, if unimportant, chronology behind it. I also love most James Bond games, but that's more because I love the movies and books that inspired them... same with superheroes.

OTOH, I love Zelda, but have never been able to get into any of the non-game adventures. Some are pretty well-done, but they never captured the game the way I see it when I play. I did enjoy reading the original Sonic comics, but as someone else said, Sonic's expanded universe pretty much destroyed itself... I'd say around the time that Robotnik was officially redubbed "Eggman".

Also, FWIW, I do not acknowledge the retconning of "Princess Toadstool" into "Princess Peach".

[FujiSkunk]

godslabrat, on Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:06 PM, said:

Also, FWIW, I do not acknowledge the retconning of "Princess Toadstool" into "Princess Peach".

You know the name "Mario" was something of a retcon as well, right?

[godslabrat]

FujiSkunk, on Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:06 PM, said:

godslabrat, on Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:06 PM, said:

Also, FWIW, I do not acknowledge the retconning of "Princess Toadstool" into "Princess Peach".

You know the name "Mario" was something of a retcon as well, right?

Indeed.  However, that doesn't bother me so much, since it was from a time when he was a goofy little one-off character from the Donkey Kong games, and not the star of a franchise that defined an entire company.

[Rex Dart]

Retcon? I'm pretty sure she was Peach before she was Toadstool.  Don't forget it's a japanese game that was translated for US release.

Edited by Rex Dart, Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:26 PM.

[godslabrat]

Rex Dart, on Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:23 PM, said:

Retcon? I'm pretty sure she was Peach before she was Toadstool.  Don't forget it's a japanese game that was translated for US release.

Sure, but within the localized US version, she was Toadstool first.  The Japanese had their own version, and I respect that.  I see it similar to how Transformers often had their origins tweaked once they crossed the Pacific.

[VW]

I wish I had time to go more into a couple of games' interesting universe like Bioshock or Mass Effect but there are just too many games these days to play to have time for it all.  Plus Mass Effect is now dead to me thanks to my EA boycott.

[cimerians]

I do a ton:

Metal Gear Solid:  comics
Devil May Cry:  anime and manga
Tower of Druaga: anime
Street Fighter: anime
Resident Evil: Paperbacks (1990's)
Resistance:  Paperback
God of War: Paperback
Halo:  (first) Paperback
Final Fantay VII: anime

There may be more but thats all I can think of now.