Burnout 2: Point of Impact

Summary

The beginning of the game is a driver’s training, which shows players how to drive and play the game. Then, the game offers a large selection of fast-paced races, chases, and crash courses. Players learn how to boost, which is the turbo charge shown on the lower left side of the screen with a meter. Players also learn how to manage burnouts, which is when you lose all turbo power. This training prepares players to play the game. The purpose of the game is to drive as fast and as recklessly as possible. Players then play a series of courses before engaging in a head-to-head race against a car. Then, a chase session begins. Points are accumulated by how many things players collide with.

Critical Evaluation

The game’s special effects and graphics are excellent. The variety of scenes and courses is wide and interesting. However, players complain that while some races offer exciting episodes of drifts and close-car traffic jams, the game lacks opportunities for jump and crash sequences. Players are allowed to customize their car’s color, but the ability to custom tune and modify car parts is lacking, and as a result, many of the cars’ driving performance are alike. Sound effects, such as changing gears, hitting turbo, and crashing, are realistic. The background music parallels the intensity of the driving. There are many ways the game could be improved, but for players seeking the thrill of driving fast and crashing cars, Burnout 2 is an entertaining game to play.

 

Burnout 2 is available at many libraries for play or checkout.

 

Genre

Video Game

Action

Why did I include this title?

I found an article about the New York Public Library (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/books/22games.html), and how this game was being played in the lobby on Friday afternoons. What?! The NYPL? With the lions in the front? Yes. And it has received positive attention. It is a positive way to get young adult patrons into the library and to see the library making an attempt to reach them.

Super Smash Bros.

Summary

Super Smash Bros. is “a brawling, battling, action-packed video game that features a varied roster of characters for four-player simultaneous melee,” according to its official website. Players choose their characters; some choices are classic Nintendo characters such as Mario, Link, Zelda, and Peach. When players hit their opponents, their damage meter builds up and is represented by a number in the bottom corner. When more damage builds up, the opponent flies farther back each time he or she gets hit. Eventually, players are flying around the screen and can fly off in any direction. There are different modes of play, and in some modes, when you KO (knock out) an opponent, you earn points. The bouts are timed and the purpose of some modes is to see who can shoot their opponents off the screen the most times during a timed interval. There are different worlds or stages where players can choose their battle settings to be. For example, there is a desert, space, castle, and summit. Libraries with Wii systems can set up an event through a gysystem site (like http://aadl.gtsystem.org) so players in their library can play with others around the world.

Critical Evaluation

While setting up a gysystem site and creating an event is free of charge, the library must purchase a Nintento Wii system with controllers and have a screen available. A Super Smash Bros. Brawl Tournament most recently took place on November 12, 2011, which was designated as National Gaming Day @ your library by ALA. Information about this day can be found at http://ngd.ala.org/. While some people might argue the relevance of video games in libraries, this site explains, “what comes through loud and clear is that National Gaming Day @ your library continues to strengthen communities and bring diverse groups of people together. As the heart of the community, the library remains the most viable institution to bridge generational gaps, enable new social interactions, and reinforce positive connections in a truly inclusive environment.” According to this site, 27,767 players participated in NGD11, and 39 libraries participated in the 4^th National Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament. One benefit that excited players was playing with others across the country. A librarian at Commerce Township Community Library in Michigan commented, “The teens LOVED it when I could look at the Smash screen and tell them 'Your opponents are in (insert state name here).'  It opened up a whole new world for them. Also, there was one boy who attended with an older sibling and had special needs.  He was neither chronologically nor developmentally a teen, but the teens adopted him as one of their own, allowing him to have his turn and play alongside them.  I was so proud of my teens!!" Therefore, while Super Smash Bros. is not a book, it is serving as a way to bring people, especially teens, into the safe harbor of a library and letting them see their libraries in a new light.

 

Super Smash Bros. is also available to patrons for check-out.

 

Genre

Video Game

Action

Why did I include this title?

Before researching this topic, I had no idea that the ALA had an initiative to celebrate and promote gaming in libraries. Obviously, libraries are much more about books. I found this information at http://ilovelibraries.org/gaming/ and http://ngd.ala.org/. There is a library press kit with downloadable posters and other information to promote the event, and libraries of all types are invited to participate. I wish I had known about this event this year so my library could join in the fun.

The Devil's Breath by David Gilman

Gilman, D. (2007). The Devil’s Breath. New York: Delacorte Press.

ISBN-13: 978-0-385-73560-5

Plot Summary

Fifteen-year-old Max Gordon attends a private all-boys boarding school near a military training zone in England. Something is amiss when he narrowly escapes an assassin’s shot. When he gets back to his room, items are misplaced. Furthermore, his brilliant ecological adventurer father, Tom Gordon, is missing and presumed dead. Max then sets out to find his father and his adventure leads him from Europe to Africa. Along the way, Max makes new friends who help: !Koga is a bushman boy who understands the language in Africa and Kallie is an aviator. Together with the help of his computer genius friend Sayid back in boarding school, Max and his new friends encounter numerous complications such as extreme weather, car chases, hand-to-hand combat, poisonous arrows, and evil monkeys. When Max learns that his father is caught up in Shaka Chang’s monstrous plot of water pollution that could kill thousands of people, he must find his father and stop Chang in time.

Critical Evaluation

The story opens with the attempted assassination of Max Gordon, and the plot does not let up from there. The twists and turns of this adventure story lead the reader to multiple locations; some readers might be easily confused by such quick setting changes. However, it is these unrelenting twists and turns that create the fast-paced plot. In fact, The Devil’s Breath is very much like Horowitz’s Alex Rider books. Readers will be intrigued by the Bushmen people’s language as it is translated by !Koga for Max. The African setting is significant because it is as foreign to Max as it probably is to the reader, and the detailed descriptions of this unfamiliar place add to its intensity. However, sometimes the descriptions can be quite lengthy and the reader might feel lost. The reader will recognize clear references to the ecological dangers of water pollution.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Max Gordon’s adventurer father is missing and Max, with the help of his friends, faces dangers in the African wilderness to try to find him. When he realizes the evil plan that will kill thousands, Max must find his father before it’s too late.

 

Author Information

 

David Gilman is a successful television screenwriter in the UK and was a writer for a show called A Touch of Frost from 2000-2009. Before that, the sometimes tragic turns of events in his own life provided him with experiences that took him all over the world. He grew up in Liverpool, England and because his father’s job required him to move every six months, Gilman attended many different schools. He was always looking for new experiences and frequently went missing from the time he was four. When he eventually found a love of books at a public library, he continued to get lost in the worlds he found in the pages. Of reading, he says, “I’m convinced that reading helps to socialize even the most disadvantaged or disruptive child and makes an enormous difference to communication skills. Reading lights up synapses other activities can’t reach!”

Gilman held a variety of jobs while living in South Africa before going to school to learn how a screenwriter. His many jobs working in a dairy and in a clothing emporium where he learned how to tailor clothes. He lied about his age to become a traffic cop and then as part of a Fire and Rescue Service. His jobs took him from South Africa to England to Canada to Australia and back to England again. There, he became a screenwriter for a television show and novelist.

More information about David Gilman can be found on his website:

http://www.davidgilman.com/

Genre

Young adult

Action Adventure

Survival

Curriculum Ties

Geography, environment

Book Talking Ideas

What would you do to help someone you loved? What kinds of adventures would you expect to have in South Africa?

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Main character is in high school; appropriate for ages 15 and up

Challenge Issues

N/A

Challenge Defense

N/A

Why did I include this title?

Evil monkeys. Enough said. Seriously, though, this novel does feel an awful lot like an Alex Rider novel for an older crowd. It is fun to read. Fans of Alex Rider novels will enjoy this ride.