OT: A Song Of Fire And Ice PC Game

S.R. Krol · #1 May 12th, 2009, 06:46 PM

Just announced so no real information but we'll be seeing an official game on the Greatest Fantasy Series Ever(tm). If they do it as a TBS game it could be cool, but knowing that this will be a mainstream title we'll probably end up with an action game (or worse, a MMORPG!!).

dirtywick · #2 May 12th, 2009, 07:30 PM

I never heard of Cyanide Studios, so I took a look at their site. It appears they've made mostly sports management games, though they also have a few H&S titles. Could go either way in those genres, though a blend like Total War or something would be cool too.

Either way, wouldn't get your hopes up too high on this.

Adept · #3 May 13th, 2009, 01:48 AM

"A Song of Ice and Fire" by the way

The boardgame is great. It's the closes one can get to Dominions in boardame form. It's called "A Game of Thrones" and is totally worth a look if you want a Dominions style strategy game you can play in a few hours with your friends.

trentzero · #4 May 13th, 2009, 03:31 AM

Eh, frankly I thought the author was a dumbass for killing off so many good characters. He even admitted as much after the third or so book when he realized that he had no likeable protagonists left. Poor story planning...

DonCorazon · #5 May 13th, 2009, 10:35 AM

The opposite: killing supposedly central characters makes reading the books exciting because once you know anyone is up for grabs, reading through a sword fight, assassination plot or whatever is actually interesting b/c the outcome is not a foregone conclusion. And I think there are a large number of fascinating characters in his books so it ends up not being a problem.

The issue with most so-called action series is exactly this immortal protagonist syndrome. I mean 3/4 of the movie/book are usually battles but if you know Bond, Conan, Drizzt or whoever is going to win then what is so exciting? Especially in book format - at least in a movie you can argue the special effects/action sequences are worth watching for their own sake. I say let the heroes die once in a while to keep things interesting!

Baalz · #6 May 13th, 2009, 12:07 PM

Killing off the "unkillable" characters is exactly what made this series so great. Unfortunately, Martin seems to be pulling a Jordan, he seems to have lost his inspiration/genius for the series. The last book was nowhere near as good, and the next one has been in progress for like 5 years...

thejeff · #7 May 13th, 2009, 12:19 PM

Like all good things, it can be taken too far. If characters you gets attached to start dropping like flies, you stop getting attached to them.

It seemed like Martin was trying to avoid the stereotypical "do the right thing and it'll all work out" (Which isn't really all that typical of fantasy, anyway) but wound up just inverting it into "no good deed goes unpunished."

At least that's my vague memory. I last looked at the series quite awhile ago. Gave up after the second (or maybe the third?) book.

MaxWilson · #8 May 13th, 2009, 03:27 PM

I liked it initially, but the world was so grindingly unpleasant and perverted that I eventually said the Eight Deadly Words[1] and walked away. It's not that killing off characters is bad, it's just that you have to stop writing once all the likeable characters are dead, and label the series a "tragedy." Right now it's like some horrible Left Behind variant.

-Max

[1] "I Don't Care What Happens To These People."

DonCorazon · #9 May 13th, 2009, 04:02 PM

Tyrion, Jamie, Sandor Clegane, Dany, Varys, Petyr...there are a ton of cool characters left. I think the last book was weak mainly b/c the editors made Martin hack it in two. But I am starting to get impatient with the next volume. They need to chain him to the desk instead of letting him run around signing books and licensing content.

In the mean time read the Malazan books...

WraithLord · #10 May 13th, 2009, 04:19 PM

Oh boy. I was also very excited with the first books of Ice&Fire. I agree that the latter were on the decline.
And then, I discovered the Malazan series (there was this thread here about good fantasy books that domnions players liked, I got tons of useful info from there as well).
W/O exaggaration this is the best I have read so far. It is both witty and deep and has good action sequences and great battles and deep interesting characters and what not. I'm in the midnight tides now - Its somewhat slower in pace but still interesting since it closes lots of gaps.