Tonight will probably involve playing some video games. Here’s a list of possible time-wasters that I might play.
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Posts Tagged ‘descent’
Equinox by Peter Telep
Of the three Descent books, I actually liked this one the least. The story was even more rushed than the second one, and it didn’t even have any Descent 3 robots in it. It had some Vertigo bots instead.
It starts off where the game does and goes from there. Over the course of this book he visits approximately 15 facilities including Shiva Station where he finally gets to see Dravis… 
Anyways… this is a pretty good book. It leaves the alien storyline hanging like there was gonna be a fourth book, but doesn’t seem that there will be. It does close the rest of the story well.
It’s got a bit more graphic scenes in this one so I wouldn’t reccomend anyone under 13 or 14 read this, but they are breif.
Descent 3
Descent 3 is a fun game. With a lot of new features like in-game cinematics, ability to go out on the terrain, and lots of scripted events, it has to be good.
But something is missing in the gameplay between D2 and D3 that I can’t name. It just isn’t as fun as D2 ever was. Don’t get me wrong… I love D3. It’s just that if I want to feel the explosions of the bots, I play D2 instead.
Anyways, I still recommend this game and it’s expansion, Mercenary, to just about everyone I talk to. 
Gotta say that I absolutely love the Mass Driver, though…
Descent II
Descent was awesome. Descent 2 is even better! Though it uses the same engine (slightly enhanced), it has been given other upgrades to make the game more fun and challenging.
New Weapons – they’ve added 10 new weapons in, from the 50 cal-like Gauss Cannon to the uber-fast Mercury rocket to the deadly Smart Mine.
New Robots – you won’t be seeing any of the Descent bots in D2. They’ve got all new bots including the annoying Thief and [semi] helpful Guide-Bot.
Rendered Movies – from an awesome intro to the mine exit sequences, there’s a whole lot of nice rendered movies.
Overall this game is worth getting. I would also recommend the expansion, The Vertigo Series. It has more bots, and more single-player levels.
Stealing Thunder by Peter Telep
The first Descent book I’ve read is the second one. I like the fact that you can pick up the second book and read it without having to read the first one first and not miss out on most of the book.
I thought it was a good story and delves deeper into the Descent universe than the games do. Peter Telep is an awesome writer and really brings out the conflict between MD 1032 and Dravis and the Aliens who took over the robots in the first place.
The book doesn’t cover all the mines in the game (because the book would probably be 20X longer), but does a good job in the ones it does cover. My main complaint in the book was the lack of a Boss bot in Tycho Brahae. 
It does swear a little, but not too much. Over all I say it’s worth the time to find and read it and money to buy it.
Descent by Peter Telep
This is the first of the Descent trilogy of books. IT sets the story and pace for the next two and does it well.
It starts off with CED pilot Benjamin St. John watching as a hijacked ship blows his wingman away. He goes against orders and ends up saving the day but it almost costs him his life. He is then blackmailed into working for the PTMC to investigate a mine whose drones have gone beserk and at the same time recover something for the CED. He knows the mission will most likely cost him his life, but does it in hopes of getting back into the CED.
The book is definityely worth reading. It’s not the cleanest, but it’s not that bad either.
Descent
If you like FPSes or Flight sims (or both) you’ll love Descent. Okay… so it’s an old game and the graphics aren’t up to par with today’s graphics, but for 1995 it was good graphics.
Basically you fly a fighter called the Pyro-GX through 30 mines blasting robot hordes, rescuing hostages and blowing reactors. And unlike a simple FPS – which gives you 4 degrees of freedom (forward, backward, left, right), you have 6 degrees of freedom (up, down). Add to that some awesome weapons like the Fusion Cannon and the Smart missile and you’ve got Descent – one of the best games of all time (IMO of course)! 
Such sweet memories… 
