Bingeworthy TV: Red vs. Blue

Red vs.Blue (or RvB) is a series created using voice-over enhanced game play videos from the video game Halo*. So it’s kind of like watching a first-person-shooter video game with dialogue added. This doesn't mean you need to have ever played Halo to enjoy the show!

The show was only supposed to run for one season of six to eight webisodes. RvB had an unexpected popularity and went on for sixteen seasons and five mini-series, becoming the longest running episodic web series of all time.

The show centers on two teams of soldiers (you guessed it): red team and blue team. These teams are fighting what is originally assumed to be a civil war. Each team has a base on the least desirable piece of real estate in the known universe: a box canyon in the middle of nowhere. It seems each team's only reason for having a base in this location is that the other team has a base in this location.

Mostly this show consists of the characters (identically armored people in varying shades of red and blue) arguing with each other. Each team has standing orders to defeat the other and capture the other's flag (because isn’t that what war is all about?), but neither team is much motivated to do anything and only does so grudgingly.

I would give this show an R rating for language. It is definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. The first time I watched it I had no idea what to think other than, "This show is crazy stupid but also crazy funny." I’m not sure I can think of a show in recent memory that has made me laugh as much or shake my head as often as the first five seasons of Red vs. Blue.

~Becca, Technical Services

*Librarian's note: You can also borrow official Halo novels or watch official Halo live-action TV series or the official Halo anime from Carnegie-Stout Public Library.

#ComicsWednesday: Tetris: The Games People Play by Box Brown

There is no shortage of acclaim for the perfection of Tetris*. Its cultural impact cannot be overstated. Tetris has wormed its way into the life of anyone who’s been in proximity to a computer, Gameboy, Nintendo, arcade, etc. Despite its influence, the Tetris story has not been properly canonized. Box Brown succeeds in doing so with Tetris: The Games People Play. He begins with Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov and his friend Vladimir Pokhitko musing on the origin of games and puzzles, their connection to art, and their capacity to enhance our humanity. He then goes through an in-depth history of the politics, business, and controversy of Tetris. The story is surprisingly deep and convoluted for a game so simple in design. The tale, warmly colored in yellows and blues, is constructed fluidly with mixed styles that fit together like squares. The book succeeds alongside other great graphic novels in that the arrangement of the story seems like it could not have existed in another medium.

Outside the historical narrative, Brown discusses the purpose and role games have. They exist not just to escape, entertain, or pass time. Brown poses that the experiences and strategies used extend to our higher-order thinking (namely the prefrontal cortex); we assess a task, accomplish it, and feel good from it. He further argues that games are about connection and the depiction of human drama, all in the pursuit of fun. Tetris: The Games People Play pushes in the much-needed direction of games as art and culture. As Box Brown says, games “define our human identity.”

~Garrett, Circulation

* see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnztj1UlkQs if you need convincing

#ComicsWednesday: Lucky Penny by Ananth Hirsh & Yuko Ota

Penny Brighton has made some poor choices in her life (see tattoo of a snake on her neck); add in a string of terrible luck (fired on the same day her roommate moves out and Penny can't afford the rent on her own). Lucky Penny, written by Ananth Hirsh and illustrated by Yuko Ota, has a blend of optimism and dark humor that will appeal to anyone familiar with the struggle that is your twenties. I'm especially fond of Ota's art, which has an appealing balance of realistic detail and cartoony movement. It works especially well in the sections illustrating Penny's active imagination. The team behind this graphic novel scores bonus points for respecting the romance novel genre, even as they poke gentle fun (see alternate cover design below).

~Sarah, Adult Services

Staff Review: Armada by Ernest Cline

I’ll admit it. I'm a fan girl. I was more than ecstatic that Ernie Cline’s long-awaited book Armada was finally released. His previous book, Ready Player One, was such a fun adventure – nostalgic about the past, but set in a dire and ugly future landscape that everyone escapes by going to a virtual reality called “OASIS” to live their lives. Cline has such an extensive vocabulary of 1980s popular culture, that it permeates the whole book. In Armada, Cline takes us through similar tropes – video games, nostalgia for the 1980s popular culture, adventure, and a very important quest.

Zach Lightman is 18 years old and he has spent his childhood angry at the death of his father when he was only a baby. He lives with his widowed mother (who sadly never found love again) and spends many hours going through boxes of his father’s old belongings. His father was killed during the 1980s and most of his belongings portray a life deeply immersed in video games, popular science fiction films and space-themed paraphernalia. Zach takes on these interests, becoming an expert in his own right. He gets a job at a local arcade and becomes one of the best ranked Armada video game players in the world. Armada is a flight simulation game – the plot of which imagines a war between the people on earth and alien invaders called Sobrukai. Armada players fly unmanned drones that shoot down the alien spaceships.

Life changes for Zach when he looks out of his classroom window and sees one of the alien spaceships hovering in the air above his town. A Sobrukai craft. The same spacecraft he knows so well from his video game Armada. Zach soon discovers that his talents as a gamer (indeed the talents of all Armada gamers the world over) are needed to help save the universe from alien invaders. What follows is a whirlwind of flight simulation, discoveries about the universe, and betrayals and secrets that challenge everything Zach knows about his life, his history and his father.

This book felt heavier than Ready Player One - it doesn't have the sense of lightness that RPO had, even though RPO was set in a much bleaker landscape. The 1980s references and knowledge the main character had in RPO helped him through the story. In Armada, having the knowledge of his father’s past feels like a burden to Zach and one that holds darker implications. Also, unfortunately, it seems that the references don't actually move the story forward, nor do they play much of a role in the plot. They seem to be there just as gratuitous elbow nudges.

This book is very similar to existing stories - like The Last Starfighter and Ender's Game. This is freely acknowledged in the book and I think this book was meant as a nod/tribute to these stories. The numerous acronyms, combined with flight simulator equipment, functions and warfare strategies, were a bit heavy handed for me and I felt a bit lost at times. It took me out of the story. I was spending too much time trying to imagine just exactly what flight maneuvers he was doing, rather than focusing on where the story was going.

Zach’s general smart-assery betrays his absolute terror of what is happening to the world around him. One feels for Zach as he tries to handle all that is heaped upon his plate, but we don't quite know if he realizes it or if he is just in shock. His sarcastic and witty remarks do tend to ring a little desperate and look like a defense mechanism against the chaos. We don't get into Zach's head enough and so he fell a bit flat for me.

My conclusion: I think expecting Armada to be RPO all over again, though, was going to be a letdown no matter what. And it is not exactly fair to compare them, but of course that is what readers do. But I would definitely give this author another chance. I do think he is an inspired writer and I love the blending of "popular culture as character" into his works. Plus, Cline owns and drives a DeLorean. Come on now. I’d give Armada a C+ for effort.

~ Angie, Adult Services