Breakdown

Breakdown
$9.99
A brisk and dark 3D action game: part shooter, part beat-em-up and all pretty enjoyable. Things to like: The T'lan enemies are downright intimidating early in the game (less so later on as your powers expand). It's big (it took me 20 hours just to get through it -- not counting all the replays) and not over when you think it is. And it's a solid story; I always understood what was going on -- in no small part because clipboards and vocieovers fill in details throughout. My one complaint is that the game's too linear -- just one path -- and, apart from the boss battles at the very end, pretty easy for a game with a checkpoint system.(If you fail in a sequence, it reloads with a healthier character.) But, that said, I bought into Breakdown's world and premise quickly an they stuck with me until the end.

Breakdown
$5.99
I found this book to be entertaining, but only because I was curious to see what was going to happen. The writing was passable, but the author seems to shy away from actually describing the action sequences- the action of skirmishes and fights is passed over quickly, without any detail as to the tactics used. There's plenty of action still, but I feel the author missed an opportunity to create some really exciting scenes.

As far as the political ranting involved in the book, it was very uneven. I feel like the author felt like he was advocating moderation and dissing both sides of the spectrum, but the political rants were all from the conservative side, repeating the same 'gripes' with 'big government' wasting everyone's money and liberals who are too nice to criminals and don't want anyone to have guns. The republican party is faulted as well, but it is faulted for being too liberal. It is true that the author describes many 'bad guys' on the conservative side- racists and religious fanatics, but it's always the liberals' fault for messing up the nation. There might be conservative 'nut-jobs' out there, but liberals are all nut-jobs and have no rational basis for their beliefs in the world view of this book. Though the main character is a 'liberal,' he is unable to articulate even the smallest argument against the constantly repeated and rather basic arguments against his political beliefs. If you lean conservative, you may find the ranting cathartic; just please, remember that there is another side to the arguments that no character in this book gives.

I hope nobody looks to this book for serious political discussion. I didn't, and even though I'm liberal myself I enjoyed reading it. There's no chance I'll ever pick it up again, though. The enjoyment from this book for me was just in getting to the conclusion and seeing what happened. The process of getting to the conclusion, the journey, was much less interesting than it could have been, given the premise.

Breakdown
$14.99
Totally sweet documentary! Funny, entertaining and well written. I highly recommend it! Buy it NOW!

BRADY BOOKS Breakdown Official Strategy Guide
$14.99